Last time...
She smiled fondly down at me for a minute before she finally answered, "I'm just worried about this trial. It looks like it's going to be really rough for you. And I'm also worried that Karen might get away with this."

I laughed a little before the pain stopped me. Then I had to take a moment to get my breath back before I could answer, "Don't worry about that Mom. Mr. Darvin has a great plan! It's a secret for now, though. He doesn't want anyone but the two of us to know what he's got up his sleeve so nobody can let it slip on accident or through their reactions or something."

"Are you sure John?" she asked.

I nodded emphatically, "Oh yeah, I'm sure! Trust me, Mom, we've got aunt Karen right where we want her. But yeah, the trial itself is probably going to suck. At least until we get to the good part." I knew I'd probably end up crying again when I testified, but I was willing to put up with the embarrassment. Especially knowing we had an ace up our sleeve!

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Mom sighed, "Okay, if you're certain. I just don't like to think about how that defense lawyer is likely to treat you"

"That won't be fun, I know. But I can handle it. Being in that basement was way worse than anything that lawyer can do to me!" I said.

Mom nodded with tears in her eyes, "I'm so sorry you had to go through that John."

She looked like she was going to say more but got choked up. I could guess where she was headed, though. I hugged her as best I could with my sore ribs, "It's okay Mom. You couldn't have known. I mean, I knew she hated me and I never dreamed she'd pull something like that!"

Mom smiled, "What did I ever do to deserve a son like you?"

I tried to look like I was seriously thinking about it for a minute and said, "Hmm, let me think. Lots? But I won't bore you with the whole list."

Mom laughed and hugged me back. But then I got to thinking about something else and she must have noticed, "John, is something wrong?"

"Well, I know you said you were okay with it before, but we kind of dropped it on you out of the blue. I was just wondering how you'd feel about me hanging out with Marcie? 'Cause she's still my best friend and she's going to need me when school starts." I said.

Mom ruffled my hair, "Looking out for her already, huh? I'll admit it caught me off guard. But I've known Mark for a while now and Marcie seems much happier and more outgoing than Mark ever was. I've never encountered anyone like her before, but it's clear she's a lot happier now. And she obviously cares about you. So I don't have a problem with you two hanging out. Still..."

"What?!" I asked worriedly at the look on her face.

Mom smiled again, "I was just thinking that we might need some new rules where it comes to you two. I don't want you two together in your bedroom with the door closed, for instance."

"Mom!" I whined, "It's not like that! We're best friends, that's all!"

Mom smirked, "Maybe. Nevertheless I want your door open when the two of you are in there. I'll talk to her parents and ask them to do the same when you're at her house."

I just rolled my eyes at her and turned back to the TV. She hugged me again and we sat in silence for a while.

The silence was broken by the door bell ringing. Mom went to answer it and came back with Marcie. "Hey John, how are you?" she said.

"Okay. What's up?" I said.

"Just thought you might like some company. Maybe play a game or something?" Marcie said. She looked a little nervous for some reason, looking down at the floor a lot and stuff.

"Sure. Is my Wii here or is it still at aunt Karen's?" I said.

"It's here. The police brought it and the other things you brought with you to Karen's back yesterday." Mom said. "I already set your Wii back up in your room. Just remember to keep the door open!"

I groaned and rolled my eyes again, then groaned again when Marcie insisted on helping me up and Mom helped, too. I'm not helpless! Anyway, we got up to my room and I remembered to leave the door open. We got a game going and I noticed Marcie looking at me weird. "What?" I asked.

"What was that about keeping your door open?" she said.

I'm pretty sure I blushed, "She's just got some weird ideas. You know, because you're a girl and I'm a guy?"

She looked kind of sad for a moment, but shook it off, "Oh, I see."

We didn't talk much during the game, both thinking about things I guess. I was sure she had plenty to think about. Her parents were pretty cool, but still having a little trouble adjusting, I think. And then there's school, of course!

After a while she said she had to be home for dinner and left. Mom and I had dinner and watched a couple of movies before I went to bed.

The next few days were more of the same. Marcie was there everyday, sometimes with one or both of her parents. We had a lot of fun, but there was always this tension, too. I figured it was because of the trial, which was coming up fast!

I had a couple more meetings with Mr. Darvin to get me ready. It was always real emotional but it got easier.

We didn't see Charlie the whole time, which I could see Mom wasn't happy about. I couldn't figure out why he was staying away, unless he was worried about publicity or something? Mom assured me there wouldn't be a bunch of reporters coming to the house or anything because I'm a minor. She had gotten calls, but she refused to talk to anybody. I was glad for that, I didn't want everybody in the world to know what happened!

I'd been out of the hospital for ten days or so when the day of the trial finally came. I was real nervous, but kind of excited, too. I could tell Mom, Marcie and everybody were really worried. I felt a little guilty about not telling them why we didn't need to worry, but I did try to reassure them as much as I could without telling them. Not sure how much good it did, though.

I'm gonna skip over all the courtroom protocol stuff, it's kinda boring. Anyway, we were all there waiting for stuff to happen. Mr. Darvin went first, saying what aunt Karen did and everything. Then he talked to some policemen and forensic people and stuff. Then he put me on the stand. Everything had been real boring up to that point, but not anymore!

He had me go through everything that happened from when aunt Karen picked me up to when I got to the hospital. I got a little wet in the eyes going over some of the more unpleasant parts, which was embarrassing, but did okay I guess. Anyway, that's when aunt Karen's lawyer, Mr. Parkins, got going.

I knew I didn't like him right away. He started out by calling me Joan! Mr. Darvin objected, so that didn't last long, at least. Then he started asking me stuff like, "So when did you start wearing girl's clothes?" and stuff like I'd been doing it for years before aunt Karen forced me to! Mr. Darvin had anticipated something like that, but it was different coming from Mr. Parkins. I tried really hard not to lose my temper since Mr. Darvin said that would look bad.

Despite all the preparation I was still kind of a mess when Mr. Parkins was done. Mr. Darvin objected a lot, and the judge seemed to agree with him most of the time, so I figured Mr. Parkins was pushing his luck. It made me feel better, the way the judge handled it and everything, like he was on my side.

When I sat back down Marcie hugged me and asked if I was alright. "I'll be fine." is all I could say, though, because Mr. Parkins called some psychiatrist to the stand. He had a bunch of them, all talking about Gender Identity Disorder and stuff. He was kind of making transgender people out to be, like, really messed up in the head or something. Marcie was getting really angry about it. So was I, for that matter.

Then he finally called aunt Karen to the stand. Mr. Darvin had purposely left her for last by not questioning her himself. We knew aunt Karen would want to have her say, what with the defense she was using and everything.

She gave a totally different account of what happened, saying that I'd come to her before the summer asking her to help me be a girl. How she'd been giving me, 'girl lessons', which was true up to a point. Then she started talking about how I'd become unstable and she'd had to lock me up for my own protection. It was really hard to keep quiet when she was telling all these lies, but I just remembered that she was going to get hers real soon and that helped.

Mr. Parkins finished by requesting to show a video aunt Karen had recorded while I was at her house. Mom, Marcie and her parents all looked worried when they heard that part, because they didn't know what was on the video. I'd mention aunt Karen forcing me to say a bunch of lies in front of a camera, though, so I guess there was reason to be worried. And I have to admit it looked really bad!

The video started with me sitting in a rocking chair in this really girly dress with lots of lace and stuff. I was rocking slowly while holding this doll. It had taken a lot of whacks with that stick of hers to get me to do that!

"So, Joan, what did you want to tell your mother?" aunt Karen said on the recording.

"Um, hi Mom. I wanted to tell you that, well," there was a pause and you could see me looking off to the side. Aunt Karen wasn't visible on the screen but she was threatening to beat me to a pulp so I continued on the video, "I'm a girl. I've always felt like a girl, and aunt Karen has helped me become one. I hope you can love me like this?"

There was a little more, but that was the gist of it. The jury was looking at me like I was some kind of freak after that, but I ignored them. I knew I needed to not show how unconcerned I was for Mr. Darvin's plan to work the way we wanted it to.

Mr. Parkins paused it where aunt Karen had left to answer the door and said he had no more questions. There was a buzz going around and people were looking at me weird all over, even the judge. It was a little worrying, even knowing what I did, but I did my best not to be intimidated by it like Mr. Darvin said.

That's when Mr. Darvin started tearing into aunt Karen. He kept saying stuff like, "So how many times did you have to hit John to get him to do this?" He wasn't just talking about the video, either, but all of it. I wasn't exactly... cooperative, after all.

Mr. Parkins objected a lot, but he was overruled a lot, too. The judge wasn't looking so sympathetic anymore, but he was obviously trying to keep an open mind. That's what judges do after all, right? Anyway, once Mr. Darvin was done with his questions he picked up the remote for the video. It was still paused with me in the picture looking all girly and everything. I still couldn't believe aunt Karen and her lawyer never watched the whole thing!

"Your honor, I believe there is a bit more to this recording that might help to clear things up for everyone." Mr. Darvin said. The judge gave him the go ahead to play the rest of the recording. Aunt Karen looked smug, probably figuring she'd won. She even glared at me with a smile, which was a weird combination if you ask me. But the smile went away fast!

On the recording I was watching aunt Karen leave the room. I waited for a few seconds and then dropped the doll and ran up to the camera, "If anybody sees this, please help me! She made me say all that stuff, and wear these clothes. I don't want to be a girl, I like being a guy! Look what she did!" In the recording I pulled my dress up so you could see all the bruises on my stomach and chest. They were pretty ugly looking, worse than I realized, really. I pulled it down real quick and look to make sure aunt Karen wasn't there before continuing.

"My aunt is crazy! Please, if anybody sees this, GET ME OUT OF HERE!" I said in the recording.

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To Be Continued…