Andrew’s Dilemma

Part 18

By, Cain129

Special Thanks to Wren Phoenix for the editing.

Synopsis: I’ve had a very strange and confusing life, and it’s never easy putting together the puzzle that had been made from it. Today, things are becoming much better, thanks to the people around me, but there’s still a void, though. It somehow continues to eat away at me. See, I’ve always had to pretend to be someone I really wasn’t, and I’ve never had a chance to really care about someone else. No one has ever really been close to me, especially when it came to my real ‘opposite sex”-you know, Boys!

I’m really no different from any other girl, and I have the same hopes, desires and feelings. I’ve just never really able to express them. Things are different now; there is no reason for me to be alone. Should I follow my heart? A part of me says yes, but there’s still that other little voice that says I’m really a fake, and not good enough. If I try to be the real me and share my heart, I’ll only get hurt. I’ve decided to take the risk; I choose to follow my heart.

Chapter 41

After leaving the Mall, Rocco decided to call a friend of his. He needed someone that could access the school’s computer, and he knew that it wasn’t him. He made a quick call to his friend Wayne, and they had agreed to meet outside the school. Being that it was a weekend, there would be no one there and the two of them could take their time.  

Rocco took an experienced look at the school’s security system, and he had no trouble figuring out that all he had to do was cut the phone line. Even if the alarm went off, it wouldn’t be able to dial out and notify the security company that had the school’s contract. So after he cut the phone line, it was pretty much smooth sailing.   Once the two of them were inside, Rocco finished disabling the alarm.

The two of them only had so much time before the security company would figure out that the connection to the school had been cut. They had to make the most of their time, and they headed to the school office. Wayne went to work, quickly breaking through the computer’s security. The first thing he tried was all the simple passwords that people tend to put on their systems. When that didn’t work he restarted the computer and put it in safe mode, which pretty much by bypassed the password but still didn’t give him access to the files. It did give him the ability to access the control panel, and from there he chose users and created a new account, then set himself up as an administrator. Once it was restarted, all he had to do was log into the new account that he’d just created. He then turned to Rocco. “Whoever locked down this computer was a complete moron.”

Wayne pulled a jump drive out of his bag and plugged it into the computers USB port. He copied the contents of the computers hard drive, which took about 15 minutes and while Wayne worked, Rocco kept an eye open for any trouble that might arise. It seemed to take forever but soon the computer made a beeping noise and a box popped up which said that the transfer was completed. Wayne unplugged it from the computer and placed the jump drive into his bag.

“Do we have everything?” asked Rocco.

“Yeah, all I have to do is plug the drive into my computer at home and we can access everything that was on the computer. C’mon, Rocco, let’s get out of here.” Wayne said, looking nervous as he closed his knapsack.

It only took them 20 minutes to drive to Wayne’s home. The first thing Wayne did was to start up the computer and while it was loading, he went into the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee.  

“How long will it take for you to get the information off the drive?” Rocco asked, impatiently.

“Not very long. All I need to do is plug in the drive and do a search for the person that you are looking for. I have access to everything that was on the school computer.” Wayne said with a smile.

“I’m glad you’re working for me, Wayne.” Rocco said with a smile.

After the coffee was brewed and Wayne poured a cup for Rocco and himself, he took a seat in front of his computer and plugged in the jump drive. Soon another drive appeared on his computer which he clicked on and then turned to Rocco. “Alright we’re ready, who am I looking for ?” asked Wayne

“See what you can find on Andrew Roberts,” Rocco said as he took a seat next to Wayne and watched what his friend was doing.

It only took a few minutes before Wayne pulled up Andrew’s file. He turned to Rocco. “Okay, I found him. What do you want me to look for?”   Wayne said.

“Check the last time he attended school.” Rocco said

“It’s been a little over a month since he was last in school. There is a note attached, lets see what is says.” Wayne read the note. “It says return date unknown, under a doctor’s care for attempted suicide. Shit man, what does Vincent want with this kid?” Wayne said looking worried.

The kid is the son of a dirt bag that he has working for him.” Rocco said,

Wayne looked at Rocco. “Please tell me you’re not going after this child?”

“That’s what Vincent wants me to do.” Rocco said

Wayne looked at Rocco.” C’mon, tell me you’re not going to do this!”

“Don’t worry, I have my own plans, Wayne.   At the moment, I need to find out everything that I can about Andrew Roberts, including his whereabouts.” Rocco said frowning.

“Listen Rocco, whatever you’re planning, if you need me, I am there. Like you, I’ve had enough of Vincent, he’s done some stupid things before but this takes the cake, putting a hit on a child.” Wayne said in anger.

“The first step is to find out everything that we can, I have another name that I want you to check Wayne, see what you can find out about a Jessica Tanner.” Rocco said.

Wayne typed in the name and found nothing. He tried just the last name, and found Megan Tanner, but there was no Jessica. He turned to Rocco.

“There is no record of a Jessica Tanner on the computer.” He then went online and checked under birth records for a Jessica Tanner and came up with a huge list, he then turned to Rocco, “How old is she and what are her parents names?”

“I would guess she is around sixteen and her parents are Anthony and Janice Tanner.” Rocco told him.

Wayne put the new search parameters into the computer and the only birth record that came up was Megan Tanner. He then turned to Rocco.

“There is no Jessica Tanner at least until recently.” Rocco started putting the pieces together. Andrew Roberts and Jessica Tanner were probably the same person. He turned to Wayne.

“They’re the same person. Jessica is Andrew Roberts!” Rocco said in shock.

Rocco couldn’t believe it. The child he saw at the mall was definitely a girl. The way she walked, talked and expressed herself was perfect. There had to be more to this.   He’d find out soon enough, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before Vincent figured out the truth. Especially considering how quickly it had been for Rocco to put the pieces together. He had to do something fast, if he was going to protect the child. Rocco really didn’t care how Andrew dressed. Whether male or female, that child was still in danger.   If Jake found out that his son was dressed as a girl, he would likely loose it and really hurt the child, or worse. Rocco was determined not to let that happen.

Chapter 42

Sarah Roberts had been in the hospital now for a several days. The first few days had been the hardest for her, but she had continued to open up to Dr. Robbins. Each day the two of them spoke together, and he was able to draw more out of her. For the first time in her life, she felt comfortable talking about her past. Dr. Robbins mostly just listened and asked question every now and then, but didn’t pass judgment on her. She had spent the last couple of days reflecting over her life, just like she had been asked to by Dr. Robbins. She was starting to see things clearly.

She used to say that she would never be like her mother, and would always love and protect her children. Somewhere along the way, she had become just as bad as her mother was, if not worse. She had hurt her child, and there was no excuse for what she’d done. She had been so caught up in her own pain that she couldn’t see that her own child was in danger. Because of her inability to protect her child, she had lost him forever.

She knew that Andrew would never forgive her, how could he? She couldn’t forgive her own parents for the hell that they had put her though. All she could do now was take responsibility for her own actions, and maybe someday she would have a relationship with her child. That would be up to Andrew. She knew that there was nothing she could do that would make up for what had happened. Only time could possibly fix things.

Andrew may never want anything to do with her again, but she’d made up her mind that she could at least protect Andrew from Jake. She would keep what she suspected to herself. If Andrew was living as a girl, then Jake wouldn’t be hearing about it from her. There was nothing else that she could offer her son, other than her silence.

Dr. Robbins had visited her today and told her that she was free to go home if she wanted to. If she did, though, he told her that she would be leaving with many of the same problems that she had come into the hospital with. He gave her the choice to stay or leave. Sarah thought about what he said. She was depressed, but tired of being the victim. It was time for her to stop hiding and take responsibility for her own life.   She chose to stay and continued with her treatment. After all, she felt that there was nothing and nobody waiting for her outside of the hospital.

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It was around 6 pm when Jessica and Megan got to Jennifer’s home, carrying their sleeping bags and knapsacks. They were met at the door by Caroline, and once inside the girls set up their sleeping bags on the living room floor in front of the television.

“Alright girls, I have to make a trip, make yourselves at home and I’ll be back in about an hour with the pizza.” Caroline said with a smile.

After Caroline left and it was just the three of us, Jennifer said she wanted to bake some cookies. The three of us soon found ourselves in the kitchen making cookie dough, and between the three of us, we couldn’t make up our minds on what kind to make. I wanted peanut butter cookies Megan and Jennifer wanted chocolate chip, we eventually decided on peanut butter chocolate chip.

So after mixing the dough, we put it on two cookie sheets and placed it in the oven. While it cooked we headed into the living room and Jennifer put on some music and Megan and her started dancing. As for myself, well, I really didn’t know how to dance. It wasn’t long before the two of them dragged me into the middle of the room. They decided to teach me the moves, and soon all three of us were dancing and singing along to the songs together.

The three of us were dancing for awhile, when I heard my phone start ringing. I walked over to where I had left my purse and pulled out my phone and hit the answer button.

“Hello?” I answered, pleasantly.

“Hi, Jessica, it’s Scotty. What are you up too?”

“Hi Scotty, not much. We’re just over at Jennifer’s, having a sleep over. How are you doing?” I asked as I headed into the kitchen.

“I’m doing alright Jessica, I’d be better though if I could see you.”

“I guess that you’re going to have to wait.” I said smiling to myself.

“How long?” Scotty asked.

“Well, I have am free tomorrow.” I said, hoping he would be free.

“Cool! How about I pick you up after school, and we can grab a bite to eat?” Scotty suggested.

“Sure, that would be nice Scotty!   I better let you go before Megan and Jennifer start making those annoying smooching noises again. I’ll see you tomorrow Scotty.” I said with a smile.

“Alright, have a good time tonight!” Scotty said

“You too, Scotty, bye!” I said, ending the call.

I was really happy as I walked over to the oven and checked the cookies. They were pretty much done, so I put on the oven mitts and took the cookie sheets out of the oven. Placing them on top of the stove to cool, I then turned the oven off. The cookies turned out pretty much perfect and I couldn’t wait to sample them, but I waited and joined Megan and Jennifer in the living room. Once I took a seat on the couch, Megan and Jennifer plopped down on the couch beside me.

“Alright, we want details, little sister.” Megan said with a smile.

“Scotty misses me!” I said, ecstatically.

“That’s fast, Jennifer.” said smiling

“Yeah, really fast!” Megan said, and then turned to me. “So when are you two going out?”

“He’s picking me up after school Monday, and taking me out to supper.” I said with smiling.

“It’s a shame, that you couldn’t wait until I got home Jessica, I would have given you a hand with your makeup.” Megan said

“You should give him a call tomorrow and put off meeting him for about an hour Jessica, that way Megan and I can help you get ready.” Jennifer said smiling

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to make him wait another hour.” I said

“Cool, Jessica. It’s your first real date and Jennifer and I want it to be perfect” Megan said giving me a hug.

I thought about what they said. It was true, it was my first real date and it was with a guy that I was crazy about. Ever since he saved me from those nasty bullies, he had always been nice to me. Even when he found out that he was protecting another boy, but god bless him he wasn’t like the other kids at school that needed to pick on someone smaller then themselves just to feel good about himself.

The only thing that I wondered was if he would still want to date me if he knew the truth about who I used to be. There really was no reason to tell him right away. As far as I am concerned, I have always been a girl and no, I was no different then Megan or Jennifer. You never really know how people will take news like this and I am sure when I go back to school, there will be kids that won’t believe the truth. I would be honest with Scotty though, if the two of us really hit it off I will tell him everything.

Caroline arrived a few minutes later carrying the two pizzas in one hand and a bag in the other. I ran over to give her a hand, and took the pizzas into the kitchen. Megan and Jennifer went outside and helped Caroline bring in the rest of her bags. As I watched I couldn’t believe that she had done so much within an hour. After she was inside, we gave her a hand putting away the groceries and I turned to her.

“How did you manage to do all this within an hour?”

Caroline smiled. “It really isn’t that hard honey. I made a list ahead of time, and have been shopping at the same place for years.   It’s pretty rare that I can’t find what I am looking for there. As far as ordering the pizza goes, I called it in at the super market and picked it up on the way home.

“Guess that I will give you an A+ for time management.” I said smiling

“I saw something while I was out, and picked it up for your mother. I thought she would get a kick out of it.” Caroline reached into her purse and handed me an envelope.

“Would you mind if I take a look?” I asked, being nosey.

“Sure go ahead Jessica.” Caroline said, smiling.

I opened the envelope and pulled out a card.   It said “Congratulations, It’s a girl!”   Below that was a picture of a baby girl, throwing a tantrum. The baby was evil and hitting the mother over the head with the baby bottle. I started giggling, and couldn’t stop. I handed it to Megan, and it wasn’t long before all of us were laughing.

After recovering, I looked over at Caroline. “Does this mean you think I’m a bad girl?”

Caroline laughed., “No honey, I just though your mom would get a kick out of it. When I saw it, just like you, I got a good laugh out of it.”

I giggled. “Yeah, it’s pretty funny, and she’ll love it.”

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The rest of the night turned out to be lots of fun. We took turns doing each other’s makeup and hair, and even Caroline joined in. I learned quite a bit that night. We spent the rest of the night watching movies. It was around 2:30 in the morning before we actually fell asleep. Between the pizza, chips, soda and cookies, the three of us were on a sugar high.

It turned out to be a pretty good day and definitely a busy one for me.   I had a great time, and it was so nice to just be a teenager and hang out with my friends again. Running into Scotty was also nice, and I was looking forward to our date. There was something that was really bothering me though. Have you even had that eerie feeling that something bad was about to happen? I had been having that feeling all day, and something just didn’t feel right. I hoped it was just paranoia and nothing else, but   I just couldn’t seem to shake the feeling. Maybe all I needed was a good night’s sleep; at least, that’s what I hoped.

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End of part 18

To be continued part 19