Synopsis: Alex is a young boy who wants to be a girl, but has hidden this from everyone around him. That is, until he is saved from a bully by an older girl, Jen, who makes him an amazing offer: Work with her as a waitress at her sister’s themed café!

Authors note: Sorry for the delay! I hope this chapter is just as good as the previous ones ^_^ I've been getting sick lately so I hope this chapter hasn't suffered. It just started getting cold over here and my body despises weather changes. I've been sniffling for days and my fingers are all cold and miserable. Luckily I have a purring kitten to warm them up with :D
Hopefully the next chapter will come out sooner than this one. I struggled a bit with getting this one right, I hope it doesn't show.
As always, comments and kudos and the like are very much appreciated <3 <3

Rise Grammar was surrounded by a large red-brick wall that ensured the students privacy, and the front entrance was signified by a silver gate. Rows of ancient oaks and small bushes were set between the wall and the front plaza, and as we passed through them Jen looked up at me and grinned.

‘So!’ she squeezed my legs and bounced forward a bit, scaring off a flock of sparrows sitting in a berry bush. ‘There’s not enough time for me to run you through everything about the café right now, so I’ll just go over the main things. Have you ever seen a maid café before?’

I dragged my attention away from the fleeing sparrows and looked at her in surprise. ‘I have! When I was younger mum took me to one in Melbourne.’

‘What did you think?’

I thought back and then gasped. ‘It was amazing! All of waitresses were super friendly and really pretty too! They were dressed in these special maid outfits that were so cute and frilly, and one of the women even let me feel the ribbon on her back. It was so silky and smooth! And she sat with us while we had our cake too and showed us pictures of her new kittens! They were all so fluffy and snuggly and cute!’

I beamed at the memory and wriggled happily on Jen’s back, accidentally stretching my leg out. Pain immediately ran through it and I yelped, quickly curling it back under me. Agh! What the hell was I doing?

‘Careful!’ Jen laughed and adjusted my position on my back as I turned bright red. ‘I take it you really enjoyed yourself at the café then, huh?’
‘I-I did.’ I rubbed my cheeks and looked at her. ‘Is your café is going to be like that one?’

‘Hopefully!’ She smiled widely. ‘Your reaction is pretty much exactly how we want our customers to feel. Happy, comfortable and full of nice memories. You’re in the age group we’re aiming for, actually, so it’s really good that you had that experience. We want the café to be for schoolgirls and women, so-’

‘Shouldn’t you get actual waitresses to work there then?’ I blurted out, remembering how confident and friendly the women who’d sat with mum and I was. ‘I don’t know how to serve people or make them happy and comfortable. I’m really bad with stuff like that…’

‘Aww, don’t say that sweetie. I’d love to be served by you.’ Her eyes sparkled and she squeezed my legs again. ‘Especially if you were wearing a cute maid’s outfit.’

My heart skipped a beat and I turned bright red as a delighted feeling ran through my stomach. She really wanted to see me wearing a cute maid’s outfit? Nobody had ever wanted to see me wearing girl’s clothes before!

I looked up at the sky and imagined myself dressed up in a maid’s uniform, one similar to the outfits the waitresses at the maid café I’d gone to had worn. Their uniform had been comprised of a black dress with white stockings and lace, complete with a beautiful pink bow, a pretty apron and black slightly-heeled Mary-Jane shoes. I blushed happily at the image that appeared in my head and almost wriggled about happily again before remembering what had happened last time.

Augh! It would be so amazing to actually wear a uniform like that! Especially since I’d never been able to dress as a girl before, at least not properly anyway. I’d tried on some of mum and Ashley’s clothes a few times but they were always so big that I felt stupid in them. Wearing them didn’t feel like wearing girls clothes; it felt like I was a little kid playing dress-up. Not an actual girl wearing girl’s clothes. Not…normal. It made me feel even more like a boy and I’d stopped trying to wear them years ago.

If Jen’s café actually had a maid’s uniform that would fit me…and it was really cute…then I needed to try it on! I might never get the opportunity to do something like this again, especially at this time in my life when my body mostly female. I couldn’t waste this opportunity!

‘Uhm…’ I clenched at Jen’s shoulders and swallowed. ‘Can…can I see the uniform?’

Her face immediately lit up. ‘Yes! I don’t have any pictures on me, but I was thinking, why don’t you come down and see the café tomorrow after school? It’s really close to here, just across from the mall. Sis will be there too so you can meet here and she’ll explain everything for you.’
I thought about that for a moment. Seeing the café couldn’t hurt, could it? It’d make it harder to tell Jen that I couldn’t do it, but that’d be a small price to pay for being able to dress as a girl.

‘Okay! If my leg’s better then I’d love to see the café.’

‘Great!’ Jen’s eyes burned with excitement and her movements became bouncier, forcing me hold on tighter. ‘You’re going to love it when you see it, trust me. Sis bought the place six months ago and has been working non-stop to make it perfect, and she’s done such an amazing job. It’s so warm and inviting inside, while still being fancy and elegant. I can’t wait to see what it looks like with customers inside!’

I smiled at her and then looked up as we left the rows of oak trees and entered the school’s gigantic plaza. It was always full of people and today was no exception, with students and a few teachers sitting on the various benches around the area and talking to each other. The school’s admin building was to the left of the plaza, a gigantic three-story tall black building that currently had a group of constructions workers out front. They were listening to a short female teacher as she gestured about unhappily, and a few students were looking at her in amusement and mimicking her arm movements. On the other side of the plaza was one of the schools ovals, a smallish one that had a year seven class on it preparing to play a game of field hockey. The school’s wall could be seen just beyond it, shrouded in neatly-trimmed hedges, and I could just see the groundskeeper heading towards them.

The rest of the school rose up in the distance, a massive cluster of similar black and silver classrooms with the IT building and library rearing up above everything else. Just behind them I could see the arm of some piece of construction equipment, and the distant roar of machinery could be faintly heard. I wondered briefly if they were destroying something or building a new classroom.

The nurses offices were just behind the admin building and Jen headed that way, following a path leading off from the plaza surrounded by neatly tended garden beds. The offices themselves were nestled between a small music studio and the councillor’s office, and as we approached we could hear the sounds of someone very talented playing “Moonlight Sonata” on a piano. Jen slowed down for a moment and I saw her smile somewhat sadly as she listened to the song, but before I could comment on it she shook herself and continued on to the offices.

‘Alright,’ she stopped in front of the wooden door that had “Nurses Offices” proudly engraved on a metal place set into it. ‘We’re not going to fit with you up there. Are you right to get down?’

I nodded and she gently lowered me down on the ground, and put her arm under my shoulder so I wouldn’t have to put any weight on my injured leg. The effort of keeping it held up off the ground made it ache even more but I didn’t want to complain so just smiled when she asked if I was okay. She nodded and went to open the door, but before she could it swung open and a dark-haired girl stormed out, nearly knocked us over in her anger. She stopped just in time and when she saw Jen her face broke into a surprised smile.

‘Oh my god! Jen!’ she brushed her sprawling back hair behind her ears and I saw that she had a rather attractive face, but her blue eyes and small nose were a dark red from crying. ‘Did you come to see me? Did Jess tell you what happened?’

Jen’s eyebrows rose and she looked at the girl in concern. ‘No, I didn’t know you were here. Are you okay?’

‘No! That bitch Andrea told everyone that Jess and I slept together at th-huh?’ she suddenly noticed me and her face immediately darkened. ‘Who the hell’s this?’

‘Umm…’ I swallowed and clutched just a little bit tighter to Jen’s waist. ‘I’m Alex. Who are you?’

She stared at me for a moment and then looked at Jen. ‘Why are you with her?’

‘She hurt her leg so I’m taking her to see the nurse.’ Jen frowned slightly and looked at me. ‘And Alex, this is Anya. She’s a…friend of mine.’

‘What? Just a friend?’ Anya smirked. ‘Really?’

‘Yes. Just a friend.’ Jen said each word slowly and Anya’s expression darkened even more.

‘Seriously? But y-ugh! Whatever!’ she angrily ran her hands through her hair and grabbed Jen’s free hand. ‘Can we go somewhere private and talk? I really need to talk to you!’

Jen pulled her hand out of Anya’s and grimaced. ‘I need to take Alex to the nurses.’

‘So what? You’re already at the nurses!’ She put her hands on her hips and looked down at me. ‘You can go in by yourself, can’t you little girl?’

‘I…yeah, I can.’ If it meant getting away from this awful girl then I’d crawl on one leg the nurses if I had to.

Jen, however, increased her hold on my arm and shook her head. ‘She’s not going in by herself. I need to talk her about something.’

‘About what?’ Anya sounded disgusted and I scowled at her. What the hell was her problem?

Jen sighed heavily and looked at Anya with hard eyes. ‘Nothing that concerns you. Look…we’ll talk at recess, okay? I nee-’

‘We’ve got basketball practice at recess though, and there’s no way that bitch Ashley will let us talk during it.’ Anya grabbed Jen’s hand again and looked desperately up at her. ‘Please! I need to talk to you now. It’s important.’

‘Ashley?’ I looked at her in surprise. Did she mean my sister Ashley? She and Jen were definitely old enough to be in the senior basketball team, and that was what Ashley captained.

‘Just-stop grabbing me!’ Jen snapped just as I spoke, and she once again tore her hand out of Anya’s grip. ‘Jesus Anya, calm down. What’s going on?’

‘I can’t say here! It’s personal!’ she shot me a hateful look and then looked pleadingly at Jen. ‘Jen, please…’

‘At recess,’ Jen’s eyes hardened and she took a step forward. ‘Now please get out of the way. I need to take Alex so see a nurse now.’

Anya’s eyes widened in shock and she looked like she was about to start crying again, but then pure hatred covered her face and she shoved her way past Jen.

‘You know what? Fuck you!’ she snarled, her voice starting to break. ‘You’re just as bad as everyone else! I wish I’d died instead of meeting you! Fuck you! I hate you!’

‘Anya! Don’t be-’

‘FUCK YOU!’ she screamed and ran off down the path, giving us one last hate-filled look before disappearing around the corner.

Jen looked after her with a look of pained surprise and swore under her breath. I gazed uncertainly at her and then tugged on her arm, not liking how upset she appeared to be.

‘Um…are you okay?’ I asked and she blinked, then look at me in surprise.

‘Sorry. I’m okay, don’t worry,’ she lifted a shoulder and let it drop back down slowly. ‘I’ll talk to her at recess and try to smooth things over. It’ll be fine.’

‘Why was she so angry?’

Jen’s lips tightened for a moment. ‘We used to date and it…it didn’t end well.’

‘Oh!’ I was surprised that Jen would so casually tell me that she was a lesbian, but even more surprised that she’d actually dated someone as seemingly unpleasant as Anya. ‘What happened?’

She rubbed her forehead tiredly and looked down at the ground for a moment. ‘I made a mistake and uh…and…well-’

‘Ah! Sorry! You don’t have to tell me!’ I said quickly, realising that I might have overstepped my bounds. I’d only known Jen for like twenty minutes; I really shouldn’t be asking her such personal questions.

She smiled and gently pushed me forward. ‘I don’t mind talking about it, but we should really get you looked at by a nurse before anything else.’

‘Mm! Okay.’ I was more than fine with not talking about Anya ever again.

I hopped forward and let her guide me through the door, trusting her strength more than my own. The sounds of Moonlight Sonata were cut off as soon as the door shut and a slight droning took its place, mixed in with the soft beeping coming from the computer behind reception. A line of comfortable grey chairs sat along the back of the room, behind a coffee table covered in health pamphlets, and the small reception desk was at the front. Two hallways were on either side of the reception, with the left one leading to the rooms containing beds for students to rest, and the right one containing the examination rooms and storage areas.

A nurse came down from reception just as we entered, and after I lied about having fallen over she quickly took me into an examination room and looked me over. To my relief she assumed that I was a girl, which meant that I didn’t have to answer any awkward questions or make up lies about why my body was so feminine. If a nurse did know that I was a boy then I usually just pretended that I was seeing a doctor about my body and was in the process of getting blood tests, but with some of them I’d been saying that for months now and one day they were going to figure out that I was lying. It wasn’t going to be to today though.

The nurse cleaned and bandaged my arm before carefully checked over my leg, which thankfully wasn’t seriously injured. It did require an icepack and some binding though, and I was overjoyed when she said that I was in no shape to attended classes. I eagerly gave her mum’s phone number and she went out into the reception to call her, leaving Jen and I alone. I was scared that she was going to bring up the fact that I’d lied to the nurse about how I’d been injured but she instead just smiled and patted my knee.

‘How are you feeling?’

‘Much better!’ I slowly stretched out my leg and beamed. ‘See? It doesn’t hurt as much anymore!’

‘That’s great sweetie,’ she sat down next to me and looked down at my injured leg. ‘I dislocated my kneecap last year and I was scared yours might have been injured that badly too.’

‘Oww!’ I hugged myself and shivered. ‘That sounds awful!’

‘It was.’ She looked down at her own knee and slowly ran her fingers over it. ‘It took months before it healed, and I missed out on most of the basketball season because of it. Then I broke my leg in the first match back and missed out on the entire season.’

‘Oh no!’ I almost went to hug her but stopped myself, not really sure if that was appropriate or not. She’d hugged me in the alley but that was because I’d been crying. Would it be weird if I hugged her just because she looked sad? I…didn’t have any friends so had no idea what was acceptable or not. I decided to err on the side of caution and kept my hands to myself, instead just smiling sadly at her. ‘Is your leg okay now?’
‘Yep! All of that happened last year.’ She patted her knee and easily stretched it out with a satisfied grin. ‘This year’s been great! My team’s on top of the interschool ladder at the moment and if things keep going this well then there’s no chance of us not being in the finals. There’s no way I’m going to let my leg get injured again now. N-’

‘Oh!’ I gasped, her talk of basketball reminding me of what Anya had said before. ‘Umm…Anya said that you had basketball practice at recess, and said that you wouldn’t be able to talk because of a girl named Ashley? Was she talking about Ashley Hayes? A tall girl with brown hair cut into a bob and freckles?’

‘Yeah! She’s our captain,’ Jen beamed as my heart sunk. ‘Do you know her?’

‘I do,’ I looked nervously down at my lap. ‘She’s my sister.’

‘What? No way!’ she laughed and leant down to look at me closer. ‘I’d have never guessed that. You two-’

‘Umm! So…uh…’ I rubbed my legs together and shifted about on the bed before looking desperately up at her. ‘She doesn’t know that I’m trans! S-so please don’t tell her!’

Jen blinked, and then frowned. ‘What? She doesn’t know? Why not?’

‘Because I haven’t told her. She’d be so angry if she knew!’ I swallowed and shifted about on the bed even more. ‘And she’d definitely tell my parents too and my dad would kill me if he found out! Especially if he learned about the hormones!’

‘Your parents don’t know?’ Jen stared at me in surprise and ran her hands through her hair. ‘Wait, so…so you’re…you’re a boy? At school? Like, you wear the boys uniform and everything? And at home your parents see you as a boy?’

‘Y-yeah.’ My voice shook as I said that and I grabbed the bottom of my shirt. ‘Nobody but you knows, that I’m trans or that I’m on hormones.’
She looked sharply down at me. ‘How are you on hormones then? Don’t you need your parents’ permission to take them?’

‘Uh…,’ I swallowed and avoided her eyes. ‘W-well, umm…Ashley’s hormones give her bad side-effects and her doctor won’t give her a new prescription, so she’s been throwing them out without taking them and I’ve-’

‘You’ve been stealing them.’ Jen stared at me and put a hand on my shoulder. ‘And I only I know? Alex…that’s…’

‘I know it’s dangerous!’ I tugged at my shirt and stared miserably at her as my throat tightened. ‘But I have to take them! My dad will never let me transition and this is the only chance I’ll ever have to being a girl, even just for a few months, so I have to take then! And I know it’s not going to last for-forever! I know! I know! But-but…’ Tears fell down my cheeks and I bit my bottom lip as sobs welled in my throat. ‘But please, don’t tell anyone! This is all I have! I just want to be happy! I want to be a girl, just for a little while longer! Just until…just…I…please…’

I blinked away tears as Jen put her hands on the sides of my face and leant down so that I was looking directly up at her. Her silky brown hair rained down on my face and I felt her breath on my face as she spoke.

‘Oh Alex…sweetie…,’ she breathed and brushed away some tears with her fingers. ‘You really are perfect, you know that? I’ve been looking for someone like you for such a long time. I can’t believe you're Ashley's little brother. You were right under my nose this whole time and I didn't even...ah...ah fuck...'

‘Huh?’ I stared at her blankly. ‘Wha-’

And then she leant down closer to my face, and…

To be continued

Thankyou for reading!