.
The mission had failed, completely and catastrophically. We had lost. And we would go on losing.

Forever.

When you come across a bear in the wild, there is a very handy rhyme that tells you what to do. “If it’s brown, lay down. If it’s black fight back. If it’s white goodnight”. And even though I was staring straight into a set dark brown eyes framed by a big bush of curly brown hair, laying down definitely was not the right course of action. For these eyes did not belong to a ferocious mammal with razor sharp claws, but instead a 16 year old girl who was very excited to meet her online friend for the first time. The latter feeling a lot more dangerous than the former to me right now.

I wrote this in response to a comment about nasty dads. I've included quite a few of them in recent writings - Seven Dresses, Candy Crush etc - and I'm not sure I can justify it, apart from a mentioning the general impression I have that rigid attitudes and unbending beliefs are more of a masculine trait than a feminine one. I realise this isn't true in all cases, so I wrote a story with a father who's more supportive than the mother, although she doesn't do too badly. Of course that dad's a bit trans, so not a typical male.

Please visit my Amazon store. The UK author page is here
and the Amazon US author page is here
Or just search for Maeryn Lamonte on Amazon

Chapter 15

Richard came to the wings and escorted me to the center of the stage. I could see an audience of more than the dozen or so I had expected.

He went to the microphone, “Tonight we welcome Edweena as our pianist for the piano concerto, but now you will see the violinist in her.”

“But I can’t wear that! My father would be scandalized.” I heard a snigger from behind me and shot Selene, our ‘other’ make-up person, a sneer.

“Oh, good. This feels weird. Not as bad as I feared, though. I know you said I wouldn’t feel paralyzed or claustrophobic, but hearing it is one thing and experiencing it is another. It just feels... sort of normal to not have any arms or legs?”

“Zoe, bring up some pictures of me from about ten to fourteen years ago,” Daddy says to the household AI. Zoe complies, projecting an array of four pictures on the opposite wall. Three of the four show Daddy holding a baby, either Sebastian or his big sister Stella, who lives with Mommy now. In one of them, he’s nursing the baby. “Sebastian, do you see what’s different about me back then?”

I’d originally been going to title it “Venn-Splitting for Long-Distance Relationships,” but Sophia had come up with a snappier title, “Splitting for Togetherness.”

Chapter 14

It had certainly been one busy day. I was ready to drop. After we had changed, though, we had a message that there was a private party that we were required to join. It turned out to be in one of the larger staterooms which Kelly had taken for the night.

One day in mid-December, a few days after Meredith came home from UNC Chapel Hill for Christmas, I was taking a break at work and hanging out with Genevieve and Terri for a few minutes. Genevieve was a kind of beetle-bee hybrid, with a bee’s striped fuzzy underbelly and a beetle’s elytra over her wings, and a slightly human-ish face. Terri was a big mushroom with a face and arms and four small feet, apparently based on a fantasy creature from a story she liked, “though the ones in the book are a lot smaller,” she said. I was in one of my more outre dragon-like bodies, slender with silver scales and four smaller wings more like a butterfly or moth than a bat.

I knew very early on that I wasnt like the other boys, I just felt different, I acted different then them. They wanted to wrestle, or play in the mud and I wanted to color pictures of princesses. I would spend hours coloring all the pretty dresses, and long hair, outlining there make up. I would feel jelious of the princesses in my coloring books. They were so soft and pretty, they had curves. I really wanted that. I wanted to be like them.

Smoke was rising from Ivy's mouth and hands as Reginald's silver gauntlet burned her flesh. A very deep growl rose from her throat, and her eyes were getting a wild look. She'd probably have already attacked the wannabe paladin, but it was taking all of her strength just to hold his arm in place.

Not everyone will approve of you as you go along your own gender journey. You'll change and grow in many ways they may disapprove of. But it's not your job to please them.

Captions:

Panel 1:
Idiot: "This is why I don't like being your friend anymore. You've changed."
Lari: "Do you mean the tits, or the complete shift of my beliefs and worldview?"

Panel 2:
Lari: "It's called growing. I've done both."

“Hey now, it’s all right buddy.” Riley said as I was smudging my face into her chest. As I pulled back from the embrace I looked up into Riley’s comforting blue eyes and steady myself once again.

“I’m starting to feel that this might be a little more than a poorly planned ruse to participate in a dota tournament. Just know that I will always be there for you, my little friend. Jason or Emily, whatever floats your boat”

She ended her uplifting words with a little wink. But honestly, I had no idea how to respond.

“Have fun at college.”

 

“Wooo! Girls and partying!” I exclaimed as I waved back. Jada and my big self both giggled.

.
“We can’t beat thinking machines by calculating odds, Noelle. That’s their strength. Intuition is ours.”