Chapter 1

My name is Jensen and I'm 12, well, almost 13. I’ll just have to wait a few more months.

My hair is dark blonde, long and silky, almost shoulder length, and I have lovely green eyes. It’s true, I’m not just bragging. Honestly. Everybody says that they're lovely. I’m also on the smaller part of the size spectrum for kids my age. Apart of that, there’s nothing about me that makes me too noticeable, apart from the fact that I'm shy. Too shy.

I'm usually very quiet, and I don’t talk too much, especially when there are strangers around. When I'm just among close friends I'm just not like that, I'm far more open, but when there is someone present that I'm not very confident with, I keep to myself and I don't usually speak too much.

I have a sister, Erika, and two loving parents. Erika is a bit older than I, she's already 14, but we do study the same grade at school. Yeah, I know, that it is weird, but it might make a bit more sense when I explain it to you: I was born in November. She was born in April. So we're only supposed to be one school year apart. In addition, I've always been a smart kid, so my teachers decided to allow me to skip first grade. The result is that I'm definitely the smallest in class, but that doesn't really bother me, and I get along with the other kids quite well, despite of that.

My sister is quite athletic: she plays soccer, field hockey and tennis, and she is still a good student. And even though we don’t have a close intimate relationship, we get along quite well, I guess.

I'm more into arts. I like painting, writing, and I play drums in a music group. Well, It's really just me and some friends playing some music, but we have fun, and we like to call ourselves a group. I also know how to play the guitar, not just the drums, but my friend Joey plays it much better than me, so I'm stuck to the drums, which is okay for me anyway.

Our school has the tradition of doing a trip somewhere when students finish 8th grade, and this year we settled for nature and adventure. By the end of the school term, at end of June, we spent three weeks visiting different cities, doing some outdoor activities and even camping, along the course of Silver River, travelling upstream.

I was quite nervous, but also quite eager, if you know what I mean. I was really looking forward to the trip, it was going to be great!

The plan was the following: 2 days at the town of Berryside. From there, we would be going north-west along the river course, spend some days camping at Crystal Lake, from where we would be going on several excursions to different places and then continue visiting some other cities in our way.

We were initially 15 girls and 16 boys, along with 4 teachers, but a last-minute addition to the group made it 17 boys. 32 kids in total, on our way to have some really great holidays.

As I said, I was by far the youngest of the whole group, with me being just 12, and most of them being already 14. But, honestly, that wasn't a problem for anyone. In fact, just the opposite. If it wasn’t for me being that shy, some of my peers might have spoiled me to death, because of my age and my size.

So we started our trip. We hugged our parents goodbye, we put our luggage on the trunk of the bus, and we got onto it. There were plenty of empty seats, so I didn't have any problem for having a spare place by my side. I put my headphones on, started my music and enjoyed the ride. You might think that travelling like that might be quite boring, instead of being socializing and speaking to the others, but it's not. At least not for me. I had already downloaded a lot of new songs that I wanted to hear, and it was nice to be calmly watching the scenery while traveling.

It was almost 9 pm when we arrived to our first destination: Berryside. It is a small town near the river mouth. Even though it is neither a big city nor an old one, it has some really cute houses all throughout the hillside, and amazing green fields full of flowers and gardens all around. It is a lovely place with really friendly people that kept smiling at us whenever they saw us. I like seeing people smile.

We had a quick tour around the city, and later went to the hotels we had previously reserved, to have diner and some rest. As there weren't enough rooms in one single hotel to accommodate all of us, the teachers had decided to split us in two groups, and send each of the groups to one hotel. The two hotels they had chosen were sadly not really very close to each other.

To simplify things, they decided to put all the boys into one of the hotels, with the two male teachers taking care of them, and all the girls in another one, along with the two female teachers. To spare some money, it was decided that two kids would share each room.

As soon as the teachers entered the boys' hotel and started discussing with the hotel manager, we noticed that something was wrong. Even though we couldn't hear what they were talking about, we felt that something was just not right.

About some 10 or 15 minutes later, our teachers came back and explained to us that there was a problem. It seemed that the hotel staff was counting with 16 boys, so they had just reserved 8 rooms for us, with two beds in each. As we were already at the beginning of the tourist season, they didn't have any other spare room that they could offer. Someone suggested the possibility of adding an extra bed to some room, but it seemed that it was just not possible for some reason.

So, we were lacking one bed in the boys' hotel.

In the end, they arrived to the most obvious plan B: one of the boys would have to stay at the girl's hotel. And, of course, I -being the smaller one, and being able to share a room with my sister- was the most obvious choice.

I didn't really mind, it wasn't as if I was particularly interested in staying in one hotel or in the other. In fact, my plans were essentially to stay on my own and read a bit. And, as I said, I generally got on quite well with my sister and her friends, so it wasn't really a big deal.

So I said goodbye to my friends, we left the boys at their hotel, and we headed towards ours.

The building was lovely, and the rooms cute and comfortable. At least I liked it even more than the boys' one, even though it was a good one too. There were lots of flowers in the hall, the restaurant was very spacious and comfortable, and the rooms were absolutely beautiful.

We had diner, and we went to our rooms. I was already on my own, as usual, not paying too much attention the girls, who were chatting. I'm not sure I would have not understood anything, anyway. So I put my pajamas on, I got my book and went to bed.

My peace only lasted for a while, though, as my sister and her friends were soon in the room, talking and chatting. I didn't really mind but, as I couldn't concentrate on the book, I put it aside, while I just stayed on my bed watching them talk.

My sister, Erika, was a bit taller than I, and had also dark blonde hair and bright brown eyes. She used to smile a lot, and was often happy. And I was generally happy because of that, I’m that emphatic. Sarah was more adventurous than me, and the one that often had the craziest ideas, but always in a good spirit.

Sarah and Ashley were Erika's best friends, and still are. I used to see them many times at home, where they have had many sleepovers, they had essentially seen me grow up, and they had always been nice to me, so I kind of liked them. Sometimes I even felt kind of their little brother too.

They had just finished painting their nails, when they looked my way and and kindly offered me to paint mine, if I wanted.

"Nah, thanks. I don't really care much for those things", I replied.
"Come on, it will be funny!", begged Sarah.
"Yeah, come on Blondie! Dare yourself!", added Ash, winking an eye.

But I usually felt very comfortable around them, so I just shrug my shoulders and extended my hands towards them. If they were happy to paint my nails, that was okay for me.

"So, what do you need me to do?"
"Just pick a colour", offered Erika. "Which one do you prefer?"
"Please, let me pick it for you!", interrupted Ash.
"OK, you choose", I finally agreed.

My sister and her friends don't usually go for discreet colours, so I didn't expect to make an exception for me, but I honestly didn't mind.

"Close your eyes, sweetheart", requested Erika

Ash, meanwhile, was going through the colours they had available, trying to choose one for my nails. The winner turned up to be lavender.

So I ended up sitting with them. Not really talking too much, as I didn't really felt that I had too much to say, but relaxing, listening to them, enjoying their company and generally having a good time. At some point Ash started caressing my hair and my neck in a little-brotherly way, and I almost started to purr like a cat.

Chapter 2

I woke up with the first sun rays. I couldn’t even remember when I had fallen asleep exactly, but I felt absolutely fresh and well rested. My sister was still sleeping on her bed, so I woke up quietly and tried not to make too much noise when I went outside to have a shower. The hotel was calm and silent. I guess that all the girls were still sleeping. I only started to see some of them when I was already dressed, going back to my room.

My sister was still waking up, and she seemed quite tired. I wondered how late they had stayed up last night, after I fell asleep. I smiled at her.

"Morning, Jenny", she greeted me yawning

She sometimes called me Jen or Jens, and sometimes Jenny, depending on the day and on her mood. I was used to both nicknames since I was very little, and kind of liked them. Erika used to say that Jensen was much longer. It wasn’t as if Erika was a shorter name, but in any case I didn’t really mind.

"Wake up, sleepyhead", I jumped onto her bed to help waking her up. "It's time to get up and enjoy the day!"

She just shook her head and yawned again, but finally got up.

"Wanna know something, Jenny? You should wear some T-shirt that matched your nails"

I had totally forgotten about my nails. But now that she mentioned them, I realized that my green T-shirt was totally wrong for my nail colours.

"I don't think I have any matching T-shirt, Erika"
"Don't worry, bro, I'll lend you one"

She went through her things to finally take out some hoody t-shirt in lavender that matched the colour of my nails quite nicely.

"There you are", she finally said, giving it to me.

Breakfast was almost a repetition of last night's dinner, the girls kept talking about their things while I was mostly thinking about mine. I don't think that anyone noticed my painted nails. If but anyone did, in any case, no one mentioned it.

It was almost 10, when we came out of the hotel, and went on to meet the boys. One of the two teachers accompanying us, Miss Cooper, took a brief look at my nails and just smiled at me. I simply smiled back. She was a good friend of my mother, and she was always nice to me. I like her.

She was a young lady, in her early thirties, and was generally friendly with most of the kids. I was glad that she was with us, she was probably my favourite teacher in the whole school.

I got a couple of weird looks from the boys when they saw my nails, and saw some of the kids started murmuring about them afterwards, but no one confronted me about them or said anything to my face. I ignored the stares, joined my friends and went along with them.

They seemed quite tired, as if they had been most of the night up, maybe talking. But they were otherwise okay.

My best friends were Joey, Kevin and Matt. They had been friends of mine for some years, almost since kindergarten. None of us really liked sports, so it was kind of natural that we ended up sharing hobbies and getting along.

We shared a passion for music, too. So at some point we had decided to make our own music group.

Joey was really awesome playing the guitar. He was teaching me, but I doubt that I will ever be as good as him. He was older than me anyway, being 15. He wasn't really good in his studies, but he was trying. Music was the only thing that really interested him, so he didn’t put much effort into anything else. He used to say that he didn’t have any other talent. Even though he was wrong in that, the fact was that most of the time he didn’t even try.

He not only played the guitar amazingly. He also composed his own songs. I absolutely admired him for it.

Kevin was 14, and he was the third member of our music group. He used to play the bass. He wasn't really such a good player, but he was really charming. So much, that all our fans were really his fans. Not that we had really that many, only half a dozen or so. But whenever we played, they used to be around.

The fourth and last member, our singer, Matt, couldn't make it to the trip, because he was going with his parents elsewhere. It was okay with all of us, though. We would see him again in a couple of months, at most.

Kevin was an incorrigible flirt. He was good with girls. Really really. Maybe too much for his own good. But even though he wasn't capable of being a lot of time with the same girl, he somehow managed to keep most of his ex-girlfriends as friends, which speaks quite well of him.

Even though you could only talk with Joey about music -which was okay for me-, the best thing about him was that he always took me absolutely seriously and, despite me being younger, always treated me as an equal.
Kevin, on the other side, was more protective about me, as if I was his little brother or something. He was funny sometimes too, like calling me pretty or lovely, or having fun at my expense by sending me air kisses or something equally embarrassing, as if I was one of his girlfriends. I generally laughed it off and sent him kisses back. He was really charming.

"Jens! Nice nails kiddo!", Kevin greeted me with his huge smile.
"Nah, I was just having fun with my sister and her friends last night"
"Well, they suit you", he replied back, winking an eye.

I stuck out my tongue at him and he grinned. He could be so silly sometimes.

We didn't have too much spare time until after lunch. They took us the whole morning to visit the town, walking around and generally behaving like the tourists we, in fact, were. After lunch Joey and I took our guitars and went to the park to play a bit. We really wanted to play at the hotel instead, but they wouldn't allow me to enter in the boys' one, so we had to find somewhere else.

None of us sang really as good as Matt, but we would have to do without him. We couldn't count on Kevin either, he hadn't brought any instrument, and he seemed to be quite busy flirting with some of the local girls.

Joey was quite into protest songs, very much into social justice and all that stuff. I'm more into love songs, or any kind of sweet songs anyway. He sometimes even composes sweet songs just for me to sing. He is really good at it.

I was just singing one of them. One that talked about a nymph princess that keeps calling his bright-armoured knight to come and save her, when some of the girls from the school joined us and started to sing along. It was funny. I didn't really knew any of them too much, they were not really close to my sister or anything, but they seemed nice. I didn't speak a single word, though, just sang. One of them eventually put a flower in my hair, smiling, while I sang. I kind of liked them.

Chapter 3

The next morning was absolutely chaotic. There was a lot of movement in the hotel during breakfast. The teachers just kept talking through their mobile phones, and all the girls were whispering. And when you thought that everything was getting calmer, some mobile phone would ring again and the teachers would exit the lounge again.

I knew something was wrong. It was pretty obvious. But I just didn't have enough interest to investigate it, so I concentrated my efforts in getting a proper breakfast. Later, we were gathered in one of the meeting rooms at the hotel.

"Good morning, girls!", Mrs Morgan, the other teacher staying at our hotel, greeted us. She was a bit older than Miss Cooper, but she was also quite nice.

"I don't know exactly how to say this gently", she added. After a small pause she continued. "It seems that some of the boys have screwed it and they are in a big trouble now."

We gasped and looked at each other, wondering how serious would that be.

"From what I know", Mrs Morgan kept talking, "someone from the staff, at the boys’ hotel, discovered that some of your peers smoking joints in one of the rooms"

Even I gasped when we heard that. Our school was definitely open-minded and tolerant about many things, but drugs were just not one of them.

"The police is already involved", she added. "We haven't been able to talk to any of the boys yet, but we have already spoken with Mr. Scott and Mr. Murdock", the other teachers in the trip, "and no one will move from there until the situation is resolved."

It seemed quite serious. I got my mobile phone and started texting Joey and Kevin, asking what had happened and if they were all right. I was pretty sure they wouldn't have been involved in such a mess, in any way.

They totally hated drugs, as much as I did. But I wanted to make sure that they were not in a serious trouble. The only one time that I had even tried to smoke a cigarette, Kevin reprimanded me so hard that I ended up crying. As I said, he seriously overprotected me.

I sure didn't expect an answer soon, anyway. The police had probably taken away all of their mobile phones for the moment, quite likely.

"So, for the moment all the boys will have to stay here, in Berryside, at their hotel. You girls will continue with the trip as we planned, but the boys will have to stay with Mr. Scott and Mr. Murdock. I'm truly sorry about the boys, I know it’s not fair, most of them are as innocent of this as you, girls, and I’m sure that most of them would want to have nothing to do with drugs, but that’s all that we can do anything else until everything is clear. It just wouldn't be fair for you girls to have to stay here too, as you have nothing to do with what happened."

My mind kind of disconnected at that point from what she was saying. I knew that she was still talking, but my mind was somewhere else. They were going to drop me at the other hotel and continue the trip. Just because I was a boy. It wasn't fair. I didn't do anything at all. It wasn't fair, it really wasn’t!

I had been looking forward to this trip for so long, and now I'd just have to stay here because some stupid boy decided to fuck it up, while the girls were gonna be still on their way. It was definitely not fair.

I went towards Miss Cooper, nearly with tears in my eyes, while Mrs Morgan kept explaining what they were doing next, and answering to the girls' questions. I wasn't brave enough to ask out loud about me, but I definitely needed to know.

"Miss Cooper, please...", I tried to get her attention, even with a whispery voice.
"What’s wrong, honey? What happens?", she asked me worriedly as she saw my sad face.
"Do I... really have to stay here? It's just not fair!", I exploded.
"Why on earth would you have to stay here, Jen?", she replied, perplexed.
"Well, Mrs. Morgan said that all the boys would have to stay here, in Berryside, for a while. I don’t want to stay here, I don’t want to be dropped at the other hotel while you keep travelling". I finally lost my voice and hugged her, crying.
"Oh, sweetheart! but that doesn't go for you!”, she exclaimed, while she hugged and comforted me.

”Of course you will be coming with us!".

My face lit up almost instantly when hearing that.

"There, there, baby, it's OK!", she kept hugging me, as I finally calmed down. My sister cleaned my face from my tears and hugged me too.

"Let’s go and get ready, girls”, finished Mrs. Morgan.”We'll have to leave soon."

Although Miss Cooper and my mum weren't the most intimate friends on Earth, they were pretty close. They had been friends since when I was around 3rd or 4th grade. My sister Erika had been unfortunately involved in an unfortunate accident. It was nothing really serious in the end, but she had to stay in the hospital for a while.

Miss Cooper was very concerned about Erika, and she ended up visiting her almost every day. Miss Cooper had been "Aunt Sue" for Erika since then, when we were not at school. I kept calling her Miss Cooper, though.

I was very worried too at the time. I almost couldn't even sleep some of the nights. I remember that I got lots of hugs and cuddling from her and from mom the whole time back then, and constant comforting, and them telling me that everything was going to be all right.

Miss Cooper used to call me baby then, in a nice way. I kind of liked it. And then, the name kind of stuck. Whenever I needed a hug for any reason, which was more often than any other boy, I could count on her. As I said, she was definitely my most favourite teacher in the world.

So I went back to our room, and started gathering my things. Erika was already there, and she was as happy as I was that I could continue the journey with them.

Our next stop was Crystal Lake. It was a really lovely place, a lake with really clear waters with a small island in the middle. There were row boats, some small forests around, and all of it was encircled by some low mountains. There were small log cabins on one the sides of the lake in which we were going to stay for the next 4 days. 4 girls per cabin.

Hopefully the boys would be able to join us soon, too.

The trip there wasn't particularly exciting, I kept mostly to myself and my music. One of the girls that were in the park yesterday, listening to Joey and me and singing along, tried to engage me into some conversation, but finally gave up after being unable to extract more than monosyllables from me. She seemed nice, though.

My sister and her friends were fixing each other's hair. They had just braid Ash's hair and were starting to get bored when my sister waved me to go with them. I didn't exactly know what they were up to, but could easily imagine.

"Jen, please, let us do your hair!", asked Erika.
"Yes, please!", added Ash in support.

I looked at them with suspicious eyes.

"Oh! come on Jenny! don't be that hard!", she pouted. "Don't make us beg!"
"Hmph... OK", I finally nodded, sighing. The spell of Erika’s puppy eyes was too strong to resist.

And that’s how I ended up with cute pigtails. They felt somehow funny, but they were okay. Miss Cooper said they suited me. I just found them funny, but I kinda liked them.

Chapter 4

We finally got to Crystal Lake. We got out of the bus and waited for Mrs. Morgan to arrange whatever that was needed for us to get to our cabins. For obvious reasons, Sarah, Ash, sis and I were going to share one.

I had to seriously go to the little boys' room. Even though the bus had toilets, as long as it is not an emergency I usually prefer to go to a proper bathroom. I guess some of the girls were also like that, because as soon as we got out of the bus, half of the girls went there. I was glad I didn't have to wait a queue. I went directly for a stall, as I always do. I don't like urinals, and I definitely don't like people around when I go. I cleaned my hands, smiled at the mirror when I saw my pigtails again, and went out, not without receiving some weird looks from the men in the room.

I got out of the toilets, and started walking towards our group again, when saw a girl that was staring at me. She seemed a bit younger than me, I guessed that probably about 10 or so. Anyway, to be honest, with me having still my hair in pigtails, I probably seemed a bit younger than myself, too.

"Are you a boy?", she asked me, with a funny look on her face. I just nodded.
"You don't look like a boy, you know?", she stated.

I just shrug my shoulders.

"You can talk, can't you?", she asked me, with a worrying look. I nodded again.
"Are you sure?", she added, with that funny look on her eyes again.
"Yes", I finally answered with a monosyllable, which brought a smile to her face.
"Yay! I made you talk! You don't talk too much, do you? My name is Emily", she offered her hand.
"Jen", I answered, making an effort to shake it slightly.
"Yeah, I can see that you’re quite shy, aren’t you? Don't worry", she grinned, "I don't bite." I just nodded.

"Jenny! Come!", shouted my sister from where the bus was, shaking her hands in my direction. "Come on! Hurry up!"

That earned me another funny look from Emily's eyes, and another shrug from me as a reply. "Jenny? Really?” I nodded. “Are you sure that you're a boy?". I nodded again and shrugged. She laughed.

I had to go back anyway, so I tried to say goodbye to her.

"I... I have to go", I finally said, pointing at my sister and her friends.
"Yeah, I guess. I hope we'll see each other later? You seem nice, you know?", she asked me, and I just nodded back. I liked her.

I went back with my sister, got my luggage, and followed them towards our cabin. Mrs. Morgan had already told them the way and given them the key. They were just waiting for me.

"Making friends, huh?", she asked me softly.
"Yeah, she's Emily, I like her", I answered.

Ash hugged me silently, acknowledging my shyness, which finally turned into a group hug.

"You'll get over your shyness, Blondie, don't worry", added Ash, comforting me.
"I hope so, Ash", I finally said, giving her another big hug.

Chapter 5

Nothing attracts more the boys in a holidays' place that a bunch of girls, and Crystal Lake was definitely no exception. As soon as the bus arrived and after the rumor has spread, lots of young male eyes were all over us. Luckily for me, my somehow childish appearance made me less noticeable than the girls, so I wasn't really on the spotlight.

We didn't really have anything planned for the afternoon, apart from knowing the place and having fun, so we were essentially free to do as we wanted, while the teachers had their mind in Berryside and their ears on their phones, working on how to bring the boys to us as soon as possible. I surely wasn't in the mood of meeting many new people and having to socialize with them, so I decided to go somewhere quiet to play the guitar and sing a bit.

I had probably been singing for about an hour or something when I saw Ashley and Emily looking at me. I don't know how long they had been there, but they had obviously not just arrived. I stopped playing and waved at them.

"Hi, Jen. Em was looking for you, and, well, I kind of guessed what you might be up to", greeted Ash.
"Hi, Jenny. nice singing. You play great!", said Emily, trying to open a conversation.
"Uhm... Hi Ash, Emily. Thanks!", I managed to say.
"Oh, stop with that shyness, blondie!", Ash looked at me sternly, trying to suppress a giggle. "You'd better start talking right now, or else!"

I looked at them with suspicious eyes, amazed by the situation.

"Jenny, Jenny... I happen to know how ticklish you are, so don't you dare challenge me"

Emily couldn't even suppress a giggle.

"Come on, Em, time to tickle!"

I barely had the time to put the guitar aside when they were all over me, tickling me merciless until I couldn't take it more. I was already on the floor, laughing happily when Ash hugged me tightly.

"See cutie? No need to be so shy! Is it OK if I leave you both here and I go back, or you prefer me to stay?", she asked seriously, looking at both of us.
"It's OK, Ash, you can go back if you want, we'll be OK", I told her.
"Ash?", I asked.
"Yeah?", she wondered.
"Thanks!", I hugged her.
"Any time!", she answered, standing up and going back towards the cabins. "Bye, girls, have fun!"

"She's nice, isn't she?", Asked Emily.
"Sure she is! And you should meet my sister and Sarah too, they're pure dynamite!"

You might find it strange that a 12 y.o. boy could get on that well with a 10 y.o girl, but you know, as soon as we started talking, something clicked on as if there was some kind of connection between us. After the first ackward moments were over, I started feeling comfortable enough with her to let my shyness apart. She also sings quite well. I mean, I still wanted to play the guitar, and she seemed to enjoy it too. Singing along with someone seems to help a lot for breaking the ice.

Emily was spending some days with her parents and her little brother in the lake. They had just arrived the day before and she was essentially waiting for her cousin Lisa and her parents to arrive too. Emily and her family were living in the town of Castle Rock, which in fact we were planning to visit later in the trip, while Lisa lived a little further. The best thing about Crystal Lake is that there were lots of things to do: from different kind of water sports, to riding horses. They usually came here a couple of times a year, so she was totally familiar with the place.

I'm still not a great talker, even when I'm comfortable with the people. I tend to be more on the listening side, but Emily seemed to like talking a lot, which kind of compensated it. She kept asking me stuff though, and before long we kinda knew each other quite well. I was right, she was definitely a nice girl. Even though Ash really loved to reduce people's name to the minimum, I really preferred "Emily" to "Em". She kind of preferred "Jenny" for me, too, it seemed.

It wasn't evening yet when I got some messages from Joey and Kevin. Apparently Mr. Scott had just given them their mobile phones back, so they could finally answer my message from this morning. It seems that there were 4 boys involved, and their parents were already there. Luckily, none of them was even close to my inner group of friends. Mr. Scott and Mr. Murdock had questioned all of them about what they knew of the joints matter and, as Mrs. Morgan had predicted, the rest of them had nothing to do with it. As it was already quite late, they were going to stay the night there and come to Lake Crystal on the next day. Well, all of them except those 4 boys involved, who were going to return home with their parents.

Mr. Scott was our Phys. Ed. teacher, and sports coach. Although friendly, he was very strict with the boys, and managed to get the best out of them. But you wouldn't dare be on his bad side, or you'd regret it. I didn't envy any of the kids involved at all. As I said, he was very strict, but he was quite understanding with me. I mean, I was almost 2 years younger than the rest of the boys, so he couldn't expect me to be as proficient in sports as them, could he?

You know how annoying little boys can be sometimes, right? Well, you might not know well enough. Emily and I were walking back to the cabins' area when we were surrounded by some of them, ranging apparently from some 9 y.o. to 11 y.o. They were holding balloons full of water in their hands, looking at us with threatening looks.

"Hi Emily!", one of them greeted, with a shameless smile on his face and naughty eyes.
"Keith!", replied her with an amused grin. "Don't you even dare thinking about that!", she added, pointing at him with her finger, and acknowledging the ballons.
"Heh! Why not? We owe you!", Replied Keith.
"Yeah, right... But at least give Jenny some time to put the guitar aside so that it doesn't get wet!"
"I'll be benevolent... Jenny, you have ten seconds! nine! eight!..."

Chapter 6

As Keith finished his countdown, a shower of balloons filled with water fell over Emily and me, leaving us dripping wet. We tried to stop them with our hands, but our efforts were absolutely pointless. Fortunately I have had just the time to put my guitar and mobile phone aside, so they weren't harmed. Keith grinned and motioned other 3 boys to come to us. As they were getting close, I confirmed my suspicions: Keith was probably 10, maybe 11, but none of the others seemed older than 9.

"Well, now we are even!", he stated firmly, never losing the grin on his face.
"We are even!? What the hell have I ever done to you!?", I exclaimed angrily.
"It's OK, Jenny, they owed me one", interrupted Emily, smiling and calming me down. "But we will get revenge!", she added firmly.
"But I didn't do anything!", I complained. It was true, I didn't even know them! it wasn't fair!

The best thing about me getting angry is that I totally forgot any kind of shyness. I was totally soaked and pissed off, and that was where my mind was.

"Let me introduce you", added Emily, ignoring my complains, "Keith is my neightbour, he also lives in Castle Rock. That tadpole over there is his brother Mike", she continued, pointing at them one by one.
"The one that looks like a monkey is his cousin Roy", she said, grinning. Roy responded by mimicking a polite bow.
"That one is their friend Nick, and", she added, shouting to the air, "the one that is hiding behind that tree is my squirt little brother, Jay".

Having been discovered, Jay poked his head from behind the tree, smiling as innocently as he could. He seemed to be the youngest of the group, probably about 7.

I said "hi" to them, even though I knew I would be incapable of remember all those names at the moment. I still wanted to be angry with them, but they had such a infectious smile, that I ended up smiling too.

"Emily", I sighed, "if we stay here for too long, we're going to catch a cold or something".
"True. Lets go back to our cabins and change. See you later, guys?", she asked.
"Why, of course!", exclaimed Keith, while I was picking up my guitar and mobile phone.

It was still quite early in the afternoon, and most of the people was still in the lake. Emily and I decided to get some dry clothes from our cabins, and have a shower. I got into our cabin, which was empty, got some denim shorts and a black unisex T-shirt, one of my favourite, and went with Emily to her cabin to get some clothes for her. The T-shirt, that I had inherited from Erika, had a front picture of a really cute white unicorn.

The showers were also empty, it was too early. I started to move toward the men's showers, but Emily didn't let go of my hand. There was nobody there, and there were individual shower rooms, so Emily kind of convinced me to go with her. I mean, she was right, why should it matter?

Keith and Roy were waiting for us when we came out of the showers, and joined us. We had tried to dry our hair a bit, but it was still a bit damp. Mike and Jay were playing with some other kids their age, I think. Erika, Sarah and Ash saw us a bit later and came to us.

"Hi Jen! Nice to see you're already making friends!", exclaimed Ash, happily.
"Hi Ash! Hi Sarah! Hi Sis", I greeted back.
"Jenny is your sister?", asked Keith.
"Almost... he's my brother!", she replied smiling, hugging me.

Keith looked at me with inquisitive eyes, Emily giggled and Roy's eyes widened. Ash laughed.

"Your brother? No way! I thought she was a girl!", replied Keith, looking back at me. I just shrug.
"Well, how does it matter?", asked Emily.
"Hmm... I guess it doesn't", replied Keith. Roy nodded. "Wanna come to play to the woods?", he immediately asked, brushing the gender topic off. "We thought you might want to come", he looked at Emily, then at me. "you and Jenny".

Emily grabbed my hand. I looked at my sister.

"You go and have fun", said Erika. "We'll meet you later for dinner!". With that, they went on towards the cabin, leaving us alone.

"Come on", urged Keith, "hurry up or it will get dark!"

Chapter 7

It had been a while since I last played with someone my age. Well, not really my age, but a couple of years younger. As I have skipped first grade, and having being born lately in the year, in November, I kind of used to hang out with kids much older than me. Joey was already 15. Matt and Kevin were 14. My sister and her friends were 14. I was still 12.

It was almost eight in the afternoon. We would probably have something less than an hour of sun to play before going back to have dinner, so we went towards a bunch of trees, not far away from the cabin area.

If Emily was definitely a talkative person, Keith wasn't left behind in the least. Roy didn't seem to talk as much as his cousin Keith did, but I guess that would have been quite a hard thing to do. I don't think anyone would be able to overcome those talking machines, Emily and Keith! In any case, Roy was still the youngest of us, he was only 9.

It was quite funny seeing Emily and Keith constantly throwing verbal punches at each other, but they were never ill-spirited and you could see they were just joking. I couldn't stop laughing.

"Jenny, do you know how to climb a tree?", asked Roy suddenly. "We should teach her!", he exclaimed, looking eagerly at the others.
"Him", corrected Emily. Roy just shrug and kept on. "Can you?"

I just nodded.

"Cool!", he exclaimed happily. "Come on guys, the last one is a rotten egg!", he added, pointing to a tree.

We spent some time running, pursuing each other, climbing and generally fooling around. It was so nice, I felt happy.

"Jenny", asked me Keith, out of the sudden. "I'm just curious. Have you ever tried a dress on?"
I simply shaked my head.
"I think you should. It would suit you", He added, with a frienfly wink.
I didn't say anything, but couldn't stop noticing an akward smile in Emily's face.

The day was almost over. Emily and I had already had a shower, but the boys still have to get ready or dinner, and the sun was already setting, so it wouldn't make so much sense to try to stretch the time.We went back to the cabins.

After talking to mum and dad by phone, as I used to do every day (even though they were kept fully informed of everything that happened by our school staff), we had a quick dinner together. I mean my schoolmates, our teachers and I, and we were dismissed. We were supposed to try to go to bed early, as the next day we'll be going on a horseback ride during the morning, and we shouldn't be too tired to have fun.

Sarah and Ash suggested I should invite Emily to our cabin, as we could have some fun together. Erika fully agreed, so I went with her to Emily's cabin, to ask her and her parents. Our cabins were reasonably close, in any case.

Emily's parents were very open and friendly. Erika explained to them how we were on a school trip and Emily and I have become friends, and I was quite shy. Older people, as friendly as they might be, tended to intimidate me more than younger kids, so I guess I didn't even say a single word, apart from some nods, head shakes and a couple of monosyllables. Jay, Emily's little brother, was looking at me from behind a door with mischievous eyes, but he finally dared to join us. I guess he was quite afraid that I might still be angry for what happened earlier with the water balloons. I wasn't.

I don't know how old Emily's parents thought I was, probably her same age, but I guess they were happy that we would be taken care by 3 older girls, who seemed very responsible, by the way. Jay let sleep that he would like to come with us, but he was refused because he was still too young, and also because it was a girl's sleepover, and he didn't belong. Probably they thought that I was a girl, too.

I wasn't really girly or anything like that. I didn't have such a cute face that I shouldn't have been a boy, or anything like that. My sister was quite androgynous in her features, too. I obviously wasn't butch either. I mean, I'd have never gone all macho or anything like that. That wasn't me. And I didn't want that it was me, either. I wasn't even called miss so often, just when I was hanging around with just my sister and her friends, I guess. It didn't bother me in the slightest.

Emily was so happy to come with us that she could just not stop talking. It was funny. I mean, she had just been invited to an sleepover by some older girls! I loved seeing her that happy!

So, back to our cabin it was. We put on our pajamas, told stories, talked a lot, even me, and generally knew each other better. We painted our nails, we did our hair, and had a lot of fun. Erika and her friends did this kind of sleepovers once in a while, and I was always welcome to them.

Emily and I finished up with matching hairstyles, two braids each. Sarah said we looked like sisters, but I knew she was kidding, we weren't that similar. She was a brunette, I was dark blonde. She had brown eyes, mine were green. She had a really cute button nose, mine was slightly bigger.

Emily brought up Keith's earlier question. About me trying a dress on. They found it funny, but didn't seem surprised.

"You haven't, have you?", asked Sarah, jokingly. "Maybe you should. What about if we all dressed up?"
"Even better", replied Ash. "What about if we dolled up these two?", she said, pointing to Emily and me.
"Yeah, why not?", added Emily. My sister nodded in agreement.
"Well, I'm game!", I agreed, with a smile. "It will be funny!".

And so it was. None of us had carried too many clothes, but there were some cute dresses among the stuff the girls have brought. Of course, the dresses were quite big for Emily and I, but we didn't really care, we were just playing, it wasn't as if we were going to go anywhere, or something.

I already knew a lot about makeup, I mean, I was already in eighth grade, and many of my friends were girls, wasn't it? I didn't really mind Emily and I going through a makeup class for her benefit, though, and she seemed to be loving every minute of it. My sister and Sarah were already experts, so we really did learn a lot! Emily lamented that her cousin Lisa wasn't here yet, because she would have also loved it, but it was no biggie, we could repeat it agan any of these nights.

It was past midnight, almost 1, when we finally went to bed. I hadn't realized how tired I was until then, and tomorrow was going to be a long day. As soon as I laid in my bed, I was off.

Chapter 8

We got up the next morning quite early. We had to get ready for our horseback ride, so it was simply not possible for us to sleep late in the morning. Emily could, if she'd wanted, though. We got ready, went to have breakfast and gathered with the other girls and the teachers where we had agreed the previous day. I was still wearing my braids, as was Emily. Well, Emily wasn't coming with us to the horse ride, though. It was just a school thing. They boys weren't going to make it on time for it, but they were going to be here before lunch, which was nice. I somehow missed my friends and wanted to see them.

The ride went OK. Some of the girls were giving me wierd looks, but I sticked to my sister and friends. I knew not everyone in my class liked me, but I also knew that they wouldn't bully a small kid, which was was what they considered me. I also don't think they would want to deal with my overprotective sister, her friends, and Miss Cooper.

We were given a crash course on how to ride, and were told to keep our horses in line, which we did. The horses mostly behaved themselves. The weather was nice, the sceneries were amazing and we really had fun. A couple of the girls fell off the horses when their horses reared, but nothing serious happened. Miss Cooper had also noticed my braids and kept giving me funny glances, but she didn't say anything. I knew that at some point she would want to talk with me, but preferrably when we were alone.

The boys were already there when we came back. Finally they had arrived!

There were only 12 of them left. 4 of them were sent back home with their parents after the joints episode. I also got some weird looks from the boys, but just ignored them. Joey and Kevin, along with a couple of their own friends, came to greet us.

"Hey squirt! You look good!", exclaimed Kevin.
"Hey!", I exclaimed back, smiling, happy to see them.
"Hi Jens! Cool place!", Joey greeted me.
"You're a girl now?", asked Raoul, one of our schoolmates. Joey looked at him with severe eyes. I just shrug.
"Hey, I was just asking!", he replied. "It's OK for me, I have no problem with that!", he excused himself.

Emily came, as she saw me from the distance, then hugged me, and greeted my friends.

"Hi! I'm Emily, a friend of Jenny!", she introduced herself. She was still wearing her two braids, which matched mine.

Joey chuckled, Kevin stared at us with an amazed gaze and the other two guys just grinned. I simply rolled my eyes.

"Hi, Emily! Nice to meet you!", said Kevin politely, amused by 10 y.o. girl's nerve.

The 14 y.o. boy gave her a charming smile and offered her a handshake.

After a brief conversation, the boys parted from us, as they wanted to explore the surroundings. Joey and I agreed to meet after lunch to play some music, to what Emily quickly signed up too. The other boys politely declined to take part. I had the feeling that Kevin was in a hurry to meet as many girls as possible in the place. Girls his age, I mean, no smaller kids like Emily and I. Did I ever say that he was an incorrigible flirt?

Emily and I had lunch with Keith, his brother Mike, Roy and Nick. I have always felt the age gap between my friends at school and I, but sharing table with the 9 y.o. made this gap feel even bigger. Well, not all of them were 9, Emily was already 10 and Keith was almost 11! Even my sister and her friends were looking at us as if we were little brats. We were behaving a bit childish, I have to confess, but it didn't worry me in the least, brats or not I liked them and we were having a good time. I even talked a bit during lunch. Besides Keith's naughtiness, there was something in him that screamed trust.

Emily is a great girl, and I was starting to love her to bits. But she was definitely a loudmouth. Yet a funny one. There was no way she could keep anything secret, I guess. And I probably wouldn't have liked her as much if she did. She started talking about yesterday's night, our sleepover and how we ended up being all dolled up. Roy surprised me with something he said, then.

"You should be a girl, you know?", he said, suddenly. Keith nodded.
"Yeah!", exclaimed Mike, "Keith would like you a lot if you were a girl!"

I never thought I would ever see a boy as shameless as Keith turning red, but he did! We all fell laughing.

Chapter 9

As we had planned, Joey and I gathered together to play some music and sing in the same place we had been the day before. Emily and Keith decided to come along with us. Emily's cousin, Lisa, had to arrive somewhere in the afternoon, so Emily told her parents so send her our way as soon as she was here.

"Please, tell her we're in the woods, by those trees", she said, pointing her finger towards the place. "Will you, mom?"

I was really looking forward to meet Lisa. I already knew a lot about her, and as far as I knew Emily had also told her a lot of things about me.

We spent half of the afternoon playing our guitars, singing and making jokes. When Lisa arrived we were already singing, so she just sat with us and started to sing along. Joey had to leave us earlier, but we decided to stay a bit more, getting to know each other. Well, Emily, Lisa and Keith already knew each other quite well, but you know what I mean.

I was starting to get more comfortable in Keith's presence, I even started talking a bit, but I went back to my usual shyness when Lisa came. She greeted us and hugged her cousin, then turned to me and introduced herself.

"Hi! I'm Lisa!", she said. I just smiled and nodded. Lisa was a 9 y.o. girl with dark hair and deep green eyes. She seemed to be as extroverted as Emily.

Emily started making mockery of my shyness. I guess she already knew me enough to know what would work with me.

"Hi, Lisa. I'm Jenny. Nice to meet you! I know you can say it!", she ordered me to say, with a naughty bright on her eyes.
"Come on, it's not that difficult!", she added with a grin.

"Hi, Lisa. I'm Jenny. Nice to meet you!", I finally said. We all laughed.

Lisa turned out to be as nice and friendly as Emily. She had kind of the same smile, you could tell they were cousins.

We went back a bit later towards the cabins. I had to leave my guitar there, at least. We were surprised by an uproar, it seemed that some of the boys were fighting. When we got closer, we were suprised to find out that one of it was Joey. The other one was another of our schoolmates, called Lucas.

"Don't you ever say anything about her in my presence again!", said Joey angrily when Lucas was on the floor. "And if you even dare to get near her, I swear you'll regret it"

We tried to get closer, but Raoul and Kevin blocked our way.

"Don't go there, kids", said Raoul. "Get back to the cabins"
"You really don't want to go there, Jen. Trust me", added Kevin, looking at me with a concerned look. It was very unusual to see Kevin so serious.

We just nodded and got back. I had the feeling that whatever happened there had to do with me, but I didn't know why. Luckily there didn't seem to be any teacher around, so I hoped Joey wouldn't have any problems.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing around with the other kids. Mike, Roy, Nick and Jay were running and playing, and we just joined them. When the afternoon was coming to an end, Emily, Lisa, Jay and I went back to Emily's cabin.

"Hi kids", greeted us Emily's mother. "Did you have fun?"

We just nodded.

"We were planning on going to the eating area to have something to drink", said Emily's mom. "Fancy an ice-cream? My treat!"

We quickly agreed, and went to the eating area with Emily's and Lisa's parents.

"So, how are finding Crystal Lake so far?", asked Emily's mom, looking at me. "Are you having fun?"
"Yeah!", I nodded.
"You're a nice kid", she added. "I'm glad that Emily and you are becoming good friends"
"Mom", interrupted Emily. "Can Jenny sleep with us in our cabin tonight, with Lisa and me?"
"I don't see why not", she answered, smiling.
"I'd have to tell my sister", I replied.
"Don't worry, we'll tell her later", said Emily's mother.
"I'd have to get a pajama from our cabin, I guess", I added.
"You can borrow one of mine if you want, I don't mind", offered Emily.
"Can I join them too, mum?", interrupted Jay, Emily's 7 y.o. brother.
"You want to be with the girls, Jay?", she questioned him, smiling. "You want to be a girl too?"
"Dunno. Can I?", he asked again.
"Of course, honey. If the girls don't mind"

My sister of course didn't have any problem with me sleeping in Emily's cabin. In fact, I guess that now that the boys were here in the camp, they preferred not to have to take care of the little kid for a night. I didn't really considered me a little kid, I mean I'm already 12, but I knew they did. I also found out that my sister, Miss Cooper and Emily's mother had been talking other during the afternoon, so Emily's parents probably knew a lot of things about me already. Not that I minded, really.

In any case, just to play safe, I decided to ask Emily to tell her parents that I was really a boy. She replied that they already knew.

"I told them the first day I met you", she said. "I usually tell mom everything"

Emily and Lisa's mothers stayed with us, while their parents went out for a while. As they had brought a TV and a DVD player, we got to see some film, and also played some board games. Emily lent me a cute white and pink pajamas, she said it suited me. Jay became jealous and said he also wanted a girl's pajama for the night, so Lisa gave him one of her smaller ones. I also found out that I didn't find it that difficult to talk with Emily and Lisa's mothers, even if they were grownups. It felt good.

We didn't go to bed too late, anyway, because we had to get up quite early in the morning and we were already a bit tired from the day. I had to get up quite early, as we were going to go on an excursion in the morning to visit some place or another.

Chapter 10

I woke up early again, and got ready to join our school group. I hadn't been able to get to my cabin to get a change of clothes, so I was afraid I would have to dress with the same shorts and T-shirt.

"You can borrow some of mine if you want", offered Emily. "You already know that, don't you?"

As I agreed, she showed me some of her clothes that might be suitable for the excursion. I finally chose a cute coral pink T-shirt with a lovely big red heart printed on the front that I liked, and some denim shorts with pretty flowers embroidered over the pockets. Emily's mother helped me with my hair, combing it until she was satisfied. Lisa and Emily loved it, and so did I.

The faces of some of my schoolmates when they saw me were priceless. Erika, Ash and Sarah hugged me cheerfully and told me that I was lovely, and Kevin told me I was cute. Joey's face was inscrutable, but I had the feeling that he liked it too.

For some reason Erika told me to stand by her side or one of their friends at any time, and to avoid being alone. All of them seemed especially overprotective. Miss Cooper smiled at me and nodded slightly. Surpringly I also got a smile and a wink from Mr. Scott. On the other side, all I got from Mr. Murdock was a grimace with some akward scorn and disdain in his eyes.

Mr. Murdock was our science teacher. A very intelligent person but with some weird misogynistic attitude sometimes. It probably had to do with the fact that he was divorced and he didn't have very good luck with women. That wasn't very surprising, though, having that nasty attitude towards them.

The excursion went OK, I didn't really found anything extremelly interesting, but it was nice. The girls never left me alone, not a single minute, and I found Erika and Joey whispering mysteriously at each other quite often. Miss Cooper also seemed to keep an eye on me all the time. I got some wierd looks from some of my schoolmates constantly, but most of them just behaved as usual. It was not that I was really too close to any of them, anyway.

Before lunch, Joey told me that he wanted to meet me in the afternoon. He seemed concerned about something, so I just nodded in agreement. We would probably be back to Crystal Lake by middle afternoon, so we would have some spare time.

Just after lunch, I saw Ash and Sarah discussing fiercely with some of the other girls. That was quite unusual for them, in fact. Everything seemed very wierd that day, and I didn't know exactly why. Of course it could be because of the fact that I was wearing female clothes, but it was not the first time that my sister had let me borrow some of her clothes, or that I'd had some hand-me-downs from her. Probably not so obviously feminine, that's true. But feminine nevertheless.

I met Joey shortly after our arrival. Emily and Lisa came along with me, and Joey was already there with Raoul. Erika, Ashley and Sarah joined us slightly afterwards. They started to explain some things about bullying and how we had to learn to defend us, but they were having it difficult to keep a coherent storyline.

"Wait, wait!", finally interrupted Emily. "We're not understanding anything!"
"OK, lets go back to the beginning", restarted Joey, going more slowly. "You know what bullying is, right?"
"Yeah, of course", answered Lisa. "It's when your mates keep insulting you all the time. Or hitting you, too"
"Right", continued Joey. "Well, do any of you know what to do in that case?"
"Hmmm... not really", went on Lisa, Joey's eyes fixed on her. "I suppose to ignore them until they get bored?"
"Wrong!", corrected Joey. "That does never work. You have to face them, and make them know that you're not an easy target"
"What if they don't like it and it gets worse?", inquired Emily. "You could even get hurt!"
"Yeah, you can get hurt. And there might even be a fight, and you might lose it, but you have to keep facing up to them, until they know that they shall not mess with you", continued Joey. "They might hurt you a bit in the moment, but it will spare you a lot of hurt in the future. If the bullying sets in, then it would be very hard to remove. Just don't let it ever set in on the first time. Not even allow bullying through insults, they are as much an attack as physical ones"
"That's too easy to say, but what if they want to hit us or something?", whined Lisa
"That's exactly why we're here. We're gonna teach you how to defend yourself just in case", finally said Joey.
"Try not to get alone with someone if you think you're gonna be bullied, though", added Sarah. "There is always strength in numbers. And don't hesitate if you have to ask someone for help, a teacher or a grownup"
"Just try not to rely on Mr. Scott or Mr. Murdock for help. Mr. Scott does not respect anyone that can't defend themselves, but he won't punish you if you defend yourself. Mr. Murdock is quite likely to support the bullies, so try to avoid him. I'm not sure what Mrs. Morgan might do, just try to go to Miss Cooper if you need help at any time", continued Sarah, staring at me. "Understand?"

I just nodded, a bit overwhelmed. I wasn't exactly sure whether I needed all this.
"You're scaring her", interrupted Ash. "Don't worry honey, we won't leave you alone. We want you to learn it, just in case"

I looked at Erika, my sister.

"Sis... am I a girl now?", I finally asked.
"You're whatever you want to be, Jen. You can be a girl if you want. Or a boy. Or just be yourself. Whatever you choose to be is going to be OK"

I just hugged her.

Raoul and Joey explained to us lots of easy tricks about how to defend ourselves in case of a fight, how to foresee a punch, where to target and how to hit, how to escape, and so on. Too much to remember, to be honest. But as but as he explained it in a practical way, at least it was enjoyable. He told me not to worry, as he would keep explaining me things at other times. I must confess that I was getting a bit scared about all this, and it took my sister a bit of hugging and cuddling to calm me.

What an afternoon. Emily, Lisa and I kept commenting it later, and how I should try to learn about it just in case. I think that, most than anything, those lessons just served to scare me a bit.

We spent the night together again at Emily's cabin, Emily, Lisa and I. It was going to be our last night in Cristal Lake together, because we had to continue our trip up the river the next day, right after lunch. Thus, we had to to make the most of this, our last sleepover. In the last week of our trip we were going to be some days at Castle Rock, where Emily and Keith lived, though, and they would be back there by then. I was definitely going to miss them a lot, even if it was for just a few days.

Chapter 11

I managed to avoid the morning excursion by saying that I felt sick, which I really wasn't, but surprisingly no one questioned it. I just wanted to spend this last morning playing with my friends. We run a lot, talked, and even went sailing on one of the boats in the lake, which we hadn't done until then. We really had lots of fun.

Before we left, Emily and Lisa managed to leave Keith and me alone for a while. I liked Keith, but being alone with him I somehow started to get very nervous. We just kept on talking for a while, until at some point he took my hand. I looked at his eyes and saw some kind of sparkling in them. I don't exactly know why, but I then gave him a peck on his cheek, and his smile lit up the room. It's funny to feel those strange butterflies in your tummy, when you are so at ease with someone. We exchanged our mobile phone numbers and agreed to meet up again in a few days, when we went to Castle Rock.

But, as everything, our stay at the lake had reached its end, and we had to keep on with the trip. During the first days we went on visiting different towns, monuments and even some caves, on our way up the river.
My group of friends and Erika's seemed to have almost merged together, and I mostly hanged all the time with them. I had the feeling that something was emerging between Joey and Sarah, and I knew for sure that Ash had some interest in Kevin. That was a problem, in fact, because Kevin seemed incapable to set his attention on just one girl. Raoul and Joey kept teaching the girls and me how to defend ourselves, in case that we needed, and Erika seemed to like the guys too.

I wasn't trying to dress like a girl or anything, but I was definitely acquiring a taste for female tops and cute hairstyles. Sis was right, I didn't have to be a boy nor a girl, I could just be whatever I wanted, even if it was something in the middle, or something totally different from both. I could just be myself.

The first days were pretty uneventful, but at some point I found myself going to have breakfast at the hotel earlier than my sister and her friends, and Joey and the boys weren't already there. There were some of our schoolmates, but I didn't have a good feeling from them. One of them was Lucas, the boy I have seen fighting with Joey that day at the lake. There were also Brit and Samantha, the girls that Ash and Sarah were fiercely discussing with, and a couple of guys more.

"Well, if it isn't the sissy, and it's alone!", I heard them comment between themselves, as Lucas was pointing discreetly towards me.

It was then when I started having the feeling that there would be problems. I had a look around and saw no teachers present. I considered fleeing and going back to my sister, and come back with them later, but suddenly I remembered all that Joey had taught me, and how I shouldn't just ignore them and hope they would somehow leave me alone, because I knew that wouldn't happen. I then knew that I was proud of who I was, and that I would never tolerate such bullying, even if I got slightly hurt.

"Yeah, you can get hurt. There might be a fight, and you might lose it, but you have to keep facing up to them, until they know that they shall not mess with you", Joey had told me. "They might hurt you a bit in the moment, but it will spare you a lot of hurt in the future"

That settled it. I went towards Lucas, I looked him straight in the eye, and asked him firmly.

"Who are you calling sissy?"

He looked at me with surprise, not expecting that reaction from me.

"Well, you", he replied jockingly. "Ain't you a fruitcake?"

I slapped him in the face. Yes, me. I wasn't going to tolerate that, even if he punched me or anything. He got angry as expected, and tried to hit me. I guess I was lucky, because I easily avoided him, and he just fell over one of the tables, throwing everything to the floor with a great noise. That got him even angrier. I managed to get out of the fight with just a bleeding nose, but not before hitting him hardly on the crotch, as Joey had suggested me to do.

I know, I shouldn't have started the fight, but I still think it was the best I could do. None of their group bothered me again for a while. Of course, Erika scolded me harshly, especially for having gone alone, but I really think she was somewhat proud of how I had managed the situation. No one got punished because no one told the teachers about the fight, or who was involved, but seeing Mr. Scott smiling at me and nodding proudly later in the day made me suspect that they really did know.

We had one afternoon off in Milldale Ridge for shopping. We went on looking for souvenirs for our parents, friends, and things like that, but at some point we were watching clothes for ourselves. There was a really cute purple and lavender sundress that Erika simply fell in love with, but sadly it wasn't available in her size. It was available in mine, though.

"Jenny, why don't you try it on and see how it fits?", she suggested.

As I went out of the fitting room, the theee girls went on how well it suited me, and that I was adorable with that dress. It was indeed a very lovely dress, and I finally bought it. We also bought a couple of things more, like some shoes and socks that were suitable for it. I was sure that Emily was going to love it too!

I got to wear my dress for the first time the next day. My sister helped me fix my hair properly, and I must confess I sincerely loved how I looked in it. You know, since the beginning of the trip, I had always shared a room with my sister, and sometimes with her friends depending on the number of beds in each room, but no one had suggested that I should share a room with the boys or anything like that, and that was OK for me.

I got many compliments from some of the girls and the boys, and even though some of our schoolmates gave me really wierd looks, no one dare say anything. I would probably have slapped any of them if they did, even if that got me another bleeding nose, but it wasn't needed. I wasn't going to tolerate the slightest bullying, and all my friends and my sister supported my decision.

The funny thing about the dress is that everybody that didn't know me already seemed to think that I was a girl, which really made sense, I think. It's not that most of the boys go prancing around in a cute dress. I wasn't sure if I felt like a girl, anyway. I just wasn't sure how girls felt. But then, along the same lines of thought, I didn't know either how boys felt, so, until I could sort out my feelings, I'd have to limit myself to just feel like myself.

Chapter 12

A couple of days later, we went on an excursion to a trail marked out by the river canyon. As we had been going upstream the river during all these days, the river had turned from a wide calmed mass of water to a faster stream of troubled waters that had conformed lovely rocky environments.

I've decided to dress myself in some comfortable blue jeans and a black hoody. Yeah, not too girly, I know, but it's not that I have to be a girly princess all the time, is it? We were going to walk for quite some time, it was a little on the chilly side, and I really wanted to be comfortable. Erika and her friends had also chosen comfortable clothes, but I guess theirs were a bit more feminine than mine.

I guess everyone was getting so used to seeing me so girly these days that I saw more surprised faces than I had when I had put on the dress. One of the girls, a schoolmate, even asked me "but, you're still a girl, aren't you?". I just shrugged.

Miss Cooper was finally able to get to talk to me alone. I had the feeling that she had been quietly trying to do that for a few days, but as was almost always with someone, I guess I made it hard on her.

"So, how are you doing, baby?", she asked me. "Everything OK?"

Miss Cooper often called me baby when we were talking alone. My mother used to do that too. She and my mother had some kind of friendship, and Miss Cooper tended to care a lot for me, look after me, and be there when I needed some support or help for whatever reason.

"Yes, Miss Cooper", I answered. "The trip is being great! I'm so glad I came!"
"And everything's OK, right?"

I was wondering what as she as getting at.

"You mean about the girly stuff and so?", I asked her. She just nodded.
"Well, it's no big deal", I added. "I mean, it's not like I'm hurting anyone or breaking anything or something like that, is it?"
"Oh, sweetheart, of course not!", she hugged me. "It's just that we've been a bit worried about you."
"Ah! Don't be! I'm able to defend myself, don't worry!", I replied.

She frowned a bit. I thought she was going to say something about fights and needing to defend oneself or something like that, but apparently she thought best.

"Jen", she looked at me seriously.

She kept staring for some seconds.

"Do you feel like a girl?", she finally asked. "Do you want to be a girl?"
"Dunno", I replied. "I don't know what it's like to be a girl. How does a girl feel?"

"Well,", she answered, after thinking about it for an instant. "I guess every girl is different, not every girl feels the same."

"Maybe I'm neither a boy nor a girl", I suggested. "Maybe I'm just Jen?"

She just nodded approvingly.

"Jen, you have to promise to tell me", she added. "Whatever problem you have, as small as it might be, I want you to tell me. Deal?"

I nodded in agreement.

"Baby, do you want us to keep you in the girl's rooms, or do you prefer to go back to the boy's?"
"I prefer the girl's, if you don't mind", I suggested.
"Of course, honey. I just wanted to know."

After the incident with Lucas no one dared give a hard time. There were a couple of times when I had the feeling that someone was about to say something about me, but a firm look of warning seemed to discourage them. I wouldn't have really minded another bleeding nose if it was needed, but it didn't seem to be the case.

That night, in our room, I was thinking about home. Erika and Ash were there too, but Sarah was somewhere out, with Joey.
"Sis?", I called Erika. "Do you think mum and dad would mind if I was a girl?", I asked.
"Of course not, Jenny. They don't have any problem at all with that, don't worry"
"They don't?", I asked back, surprised by her answer. "They know?"
"Of course they know, honey", she replied. "Aunt Sue and I have talked to them about you, and they are cool about it". Aunt Sue was Miss Cooper.

I just stared at her, astounded. She came to me and hugged me tightly. Ashley came too.

"Jenny, it's OK. It's not as if you were a different person or anything like that, is it?", asked Ash rhetorically. "They loved you to bits when you were a boy, and they love you to bits exactly the same now that you're a girl"
"I'm not a girl, Ash", I replied
"Are you not?", she asked, amused
"Well, to be honest, I just don't know"
"Don't worry too much about it, blondie", said Ash finally. "Just be the best you that you can be and there would be no problems". She kissed me on the forehead and ruffled my hair playfully. I felt happy.

Chapter 13

I finally managed to talk to our parents again through the phone the next day. I was a bit nervous about them knowing that I liked to be a girl sometimes. Or maybe most of the time, I just didn't know. But as I knew that both Erika and Miss Cooper had also been talking to them about it, and they were okay with it, it didn't make any sense to keep avoiding the topic.

"Dad", I said, after been talking to him for some minutes, "you know that sometimes I'm a girl, don't you?", I probed him to see his reaction.
"Yeah, champ, I know. I'm sure you're a cute girl, aren't you?", he answered smiling. "I'm really looking forward to see you. How are your sister and you behaving? I heard that you were involved in a fight some days ago?"
"Well, yes, dad. There were those kids teasing and insulting me all the time and, well, I just couldn't let them bully me all the time", I replied, a bit ashamed.
"I understand, sport. Just don't let it become a habit", he said. "Your mom is a bit worried about her little one being hurt you know?"
"Dad! Tell mom I'm not a baby anymore!", I replied with mock anger.
"Are you sure? Well, tell her yourself if you dare!", he replied laughingly, giving the phone to my mother.

"Hi, baby" Are you okay?", asked mom as she picked up the phone. "Are you having fun?". I could hear some concern in mom's voice, but I just didn't felt like getting too deep into that. I wondered what she might be thinking.

"Yes mom, I'm having lots of fun!". Dad was right, I wasn't going to say anything to mom about not being called a baby. I kind of liked it coming from her. Am I weird or what?

I wasn't bothered by anyone those days, and Lucas, Brit, Samantha and the rest just seemed to be leaving me alone. Of course, there was no way they could have done nothing, because Erika took care that I was never left alone.

The end of the second week of our trip was coming, and we would soon be visiting Castle Rock. I was really looking forward to see Emily and Keith again. I liked being with Erika and her friends, and with my friends too, but I missed Emily a lot.

The day before traveling there, Miss Cooper called Erika and me. She said we needed to talk.

"We have been talking to Emily's parents and they would be delighted to have you with them in their home for the days we're going to stay there. How does that sound?", asked Miss Cooper.
"Really?", I replied, amazed. "Can I?"
"Yes, baby, you can", she added. "Do you want to?", she asked again.
"Of course I want!", I exclaimed happily.

"Sis", said Erika afterwards, "we need to go and get you some more clothes if you're going to stay with Emily's family. Just a couple of skirts and tops, some underwear and a new pajamas. It won't take long, may I tell Ash to come with us? She said she really wanted to!"
"Ash already knows that we are going to go shopping?", I replied, surprised.
"Well, not yet, really. But she's been telling me for some days that we really need to go shopping with you, and I think she's right. You need some more clothes if you're going to be a girl, mine are too big for you, and you can't just keep borrowing Emily's all the time"
"Yeah, I guess you're right", I agreed. "Lets go then!", I added, bouncing happily.

Erika was right, it didn't take us too long, and we didn't really spent a whole lot of money. Just the essentials that she mentioned in the conversation. Enough for being able to survive some days at Emily's. I didn't wait too much to try my new girl clothes on, though. As soon as I was back in our room, I was back in skirts for the afternoon. Ash had insisted in me getting a couple of padded bras too, and Erika was delighted by the idea. I kind of liked it too, so it was said and done.

I had decided to go all girl when I met Erika. I put on a pleaded skirt, a tank top, and one of my padded bras, and had asked Erika to braid my hair. Ash and Sarah said I was so adorable that they could eat me. I wasn't so sure about that, but it was nice to hear.

Lucas and friends were murmuring and sometimes pointing at me discreetly. They didn't dare to say or do anything, but I could tell that they were not happy. I was glad to get away from them for some days. I hoped to be able to avoid meeting them in Castle Rock, as it wasn't really such a big town.

Emily and her parents were there to pick me up when we arrived to Castle Rock. I couldn't believe how happy I was to be with her again. I mean we hadn't been friends for that long and it was only some days that we had been apart, but I was so happy to see her, and I could tell that she was delighted too. Jay wasn't there, nor was Keith, but I was sure that I would see them quite soon.

"Wow, honey", said Emily's mom, looking at me. "You have really blossomed! Wow, look at you! You're lovely". I could only smile at that.

As soon as we left my stuff in Emily's house, we were off to the park. Emily was in such a hurry to introduce me to her friends that all I could do was trying to match her pace.

When we finally got to the park, there were three other girls there. They were about Emily's age, 10 years old, but despite me being two years older than them, I didn't really appeared it.

"So you're Emily's boyfriend?", said one of them after the introductions, while smiling at me. "She hasn't stopped talking about you since she came back from that lake!". Dawn, that was her name, was a tall sporty shameless girl with a darker skin and very expressive black eyes. I liked her from the first sight. I just went quite red with embarrassment and shrugged.

"He's not my boyfriend!", replied Emily, chuckling. "He's just one of my best girlfriends, like you three!"

"Are you really a boy?", asked Angie, another of the girls, unsure. I just nodded.

"Yes, he is!", answered Emily, hugging me. "He's a bit too shy, but he'll probably start talking some more when he knows you better". Looking at me, she added, "You'd better!"

The third of the girls seemed to be quite shy too. She just kept looking cautiously at me from behind her glasses, as if I was some strange alien from the space. She managed to talk, though.

"Shouldn't we be saying her, if she's going to be a girl? This is quite confusing for me, sorry", she said, as if she was apologizing for something. I just smiled at her. From her eyes and the way she spoke, you could tell that she was definitely a very smart girl. Probably smarter than I, despite me being a bit older.

Emily definitely had a good taste in friends.