After the Dare - A Jaci and Dottie Story

Author’s note: this is a sequel to “Dottie’s Dare”, so you should read that one first ....

Drea DiMaggio sat at her kitchen table, and tried to massage a headache away.

Raising two wounded transgender girls was a huge challenge, and sometimes, like now, she wondered if she was really the best person for the job.

The latest incident was a tough one - Her two charges, Dorothy (Dottie) and Jaci, had dressed as boys, and tried to enter the boys washroom at the local mall, and Drea was trying to figure out how best to put the girls back on the right track.

She understood a lot of what happened, especially for Dottie. The girl had been dealt a series of hard psychological blows lately - finding out her breasts were growing on their own, finding out she had an ovary, finding out that said ovary might have to be removed before it became a cancer, and then finding out that her mother was in the hospital with cancer, and not doing well.

The cumaltive effect of these blows had eroded Dottie’s confidence badly enough that she was starting to retreat to being a boy, despite the fact that she simply didn’t pass as one. Every word she spoke, every move she made just screamed “girl”, but somehow, she simply couldnt see that and was convinced people like Drea and her friends at school were humoring a crazy boy.

This fed into the problems her sister Jaci had with her gender. Jaci was convinced if she could be a boy her parents would love her again, and kept trying to be one, despite the fact she was actually even more girly than Dottie in her voice and movements. Not only that, she had been so lavishly tortured by her parents for not being a boy that she still suffered PTSD attacks every time she tried to put on boy clothes, and had only recently gotten well enough that she coulld wear pants of any type, and even then only the most girly ones available.

Because of this history, Drea hesitated to simply punish the girls for their little stunt, but instead was trying to find a way to boost the confidence of the girls enough that they could accept themselves as they were, seeing what happened as more of a cry for help rather than anything else.

Drea began flipping through the paper, and then she saw a possible answer - Ballet classes. She knew that Dottie had been watching a movie called “Barbie in the Pink Shoes” and had been trying to do some of the ballet moves when she thought no one was watching her, so she suspected it wouldnt take much to get Dottie to buy into going to a class, and the class would no doubt help her regain some of her lost confidence.

Jaci, however would be a tougher nut to crack, and it was possible that without Jaci there Dottie would get overwhelmed and would retreat even further away from her natural self, so somehow Jaci would have to be persuaded to participate.

Drea thought for a while, and then went to Jaci’s room. She sat down beside the girl on her bed, and took a deep breath before beginning.

“Jaci what the two of you did was very bad, you understand that right?”

“But .....I should be using the boy’s washroom. I have to be a boy!”

“I know that’s how you feel right now, but frankly I’m worried what’s been happening to your sister, and I need you to put aside your feelings to help me help her.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Jaci, havent you noticed how much Dottie tries to be like you? She imitates you all the time. And I’m worried she’s trying to be a boy to be like you now. And that’s not all. The more she tries to be a boy, the less confidence she has in being a girl, and the more she’ll hide from the world. That would be really bad for her, do you understand?”

“I ... I guess. But what can I do?”

“I’m going to sign Dottie up for Ballet. But I suspect she wont go unless you go too. Can you put aside your feelings and go with her? At least until she gets some confidence back?”

“You mean, take ballet? Wear a tutu, that kind of thing? Ballerinas are so pretty .... But I’m too manly for that!”

“Be that as may. will you try your best, for Dottie?”

“Dottie really needs this?”

“I believe so. Honestly, I cant think of anything that might help her more. So, will you try?”

“I .... I guess I can. For my sister’s sake.”

Drea smiled, and kissed the girl on the forehead and then said, “Good. We’ll tell Dottie tomorrow, and get started as soon as school is out. Thank you, Jaci.”

“Sure. I mean, what’s a little time in a tutu for my sister?”

Drea smiled again, and then said, “Good night, Jaci.” And got up, turned out the light, watched the child settle, and then stepped out of the room.

With some luck, Ballet could help Jaci too, Jaci hadn’t fooled her, she could see the idea excited the girl, but she was fighting it, thinking she should act more “manly” than that. But maybe if she can justify doing it as for her sister, she can forget to fight how feminine she is, and maybe heal a little at the same time.

Drea went to her own room to say a prayer to that effect before falling asleep.

Tomorrow could be a very interesting day .....