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.

---

 
 
Ninja Girl - Part 1
 
Night was falling, and it was time for dinner at Willow Springs Orphanage. Riley was sitting alone in the attic, eating some bread, cheese and cold meat stolen from the kitchen. Riley didn't like eating with the other boys, and he didn't want to watch TV or play video games with them afterwards either. In fact, he didn't like being with the other boys at all.

The other boys seemed to have the same kind of feelings towards him, too, so they generally just ignored each other happily. Thus, most of the time he spent at the orphanage he was there, in the attic, or in the fields surrounding it. Sometimes, even on the top of a tree.

He sometimes went to the nearest town and spent some time with some of the kids down there, or just sitting in the town's square or the local market, watching the people. Some of the grownups sometimes talked with him, or they gave him some small toy or something to eat, but they were so used to seeing him there that no one really gave him a second thought.

Riley was nine, slender and a bit short, lithe and flexible, but also strong and tough enough to be able to make the other boys at the orphanage leave him alone. He had long dark hair, but so unkempt and tangled that it didn't have any appeal at all. He himself was usually so dirty and ragged that sometimes he seemed more a beggar than one of the boys of the orphanage.

The orphanage was nice, and the carers were mostly okay, but Riley just didn't want to be there, he didn't feel like he belonged there, and he did all he could to make that clear. There had been a time when the carers forced him to behave, to be with the other boys, to follow the orphanage's timetable and its rules. Every time the kid had been forced to behave, he had retaliated angrily, always causing as many problems as he could. He had been punished in every possible way, but that didn't seem to discourage him at all. At last, they had almost given up on him. He was usually left on his own, and he didn't cause any problems to anyone anymore. It was a fair agreement.

Riley was used to moving freely, both inside and outside the building. He knew every hole and hideout, and could move extremely quietly, even climbing or crawling. The other boys said that he could get in and out of anywhere, without making a noise, he agreed with them.

He never had any parents, siblings or any kind of family. The police found him abandoned in a local waste dump, with no clues about his origins, and he had lived all his life in the orphanage. He would really have liked to meet his parents sometime, just to tell them to their face, how much he hated them. But that was probably never going to happen.

He was given the name Riley by the orphanage staff, and the judge had assigned the orphanage's name as his last name. He was, thus, Riley Willow.

He had never liked the clothes provided by the orphanage, they constantly reminded him that he didn't really belong anywhere. He hated everything related to the orphanage, to his parents and even to himself. He used to go to the town and get his own clothes, usually from charity, or hand-me-downs from some other children in town. He liked getting clothes for girls, they usually felt softer and nicer, but, on the other hand, the boy's clothes could usually withstand better the effects of rough play.
 
 
He finished his dinner, and then put on his hiking boots, a pair of old ragged jeans, a comfy t-shirt and a black and pink hoodie and decided to get out of the building. He didn't want to face anyone there. Even though there was no good reason for him to loathe all of them, he just did. He finally went out through a window in the attic, and then down using a drainpipe.

The sky was clear, and a nice crescent moon lit up the fields. He decided to go to the woods, then maybe to the town. He was used to improvising his route, not planning beforehand too much and usually just deciding on the fly where to go. He arrived at a clearing that he knew well and threw himself on the grass. The clearing was, in fact, an almost unused country road. It was a bit cold, but he didn't mind at all. He felt free.

He had almost fallen asleep, when he was woken up by the noise of some motor vehicle. He slid behind a tree and saw a big black van coming along the road. Its motor was unusually quiet, and it had no lights. It was obvious that whoever it was, didn't want to be seen. It wasn't moving very fast, probably to keep the noise low. He decided to follow the van; he could probably match its pace if he walked fast, as long as he used some shortcuts where the road had to take a longer path.

The van stopped near Redwood Manor, one of the most important buildings around, standing majestically on the top of a hill. They were probably closer than a mile from the building, still hidden by the trees.

The doors of the van opened, and several people came out of it. They were dressed in black, with their heads totally covered. He couldn't see them properly in the dark, but from the way they moved they seemed to be women. In no time, they took three motorbikes out of the van, climbed on them, started their engines, which were also unusually quiet, and off they went, without lights, same as the van.

Another woman stayed outside the van, as if waiting for something, or just looking around, while one more person stayed inside it, probably in case they had to get away quickly.

Riley would really have liked to get closer to the van, his curiosity was killing him, but there was no way to do it without being noticed. Unexpectedly, after some quarter of an hour, maybe twenty minutes, what seemed to be the driver started talking into a walkie-talkie, or something like that.

Riley couldn't hear anything from where he was, but he could sense that something seemed not to be going right. He still didn't know if the driver was a man or a woman, but as the rest of them were women, he expected her to be one too. She came out of the van, talked to the other woman outside, and then they took another motorbike and a small 4-wheeled vehicle out of the van, kind of a quad. They got on their vehicles and left, following the path the other women had taken.

It was Riley's chance. He ran towards the van, opened its back doors, and entered. There were quite a lot of tools all around, as well as electronic devices and what seemed to be different kinds of weapons. He definitely couldn't make out what most of the things were.

He was about to get out of the van to inspect the driving compartment, when he suddenly heard the noise of the engines coming back. He had to run or hide, no time for thinking.

He decided to hide.
 
 
There were some blankets in the deeper part of the van, behind the tools, and Riley was quite small. He was also used to being able to hide almost anywhere without being found. He ran there, hid himself in an impossibly small space, and got covered with the oldest and dirtiest blankets, as it was less likely that they would use them. In a moment, they were already back. They put the quad and the motorbikes inside the van, got inside themselves and closed the door, then the van started moving.

Even though they didn't turn on any lights, they didn't seem to have a problem managing there. They were probably wearing some device that allowed them to see in the dark or something. As Riley couldn't even risk leaving his hiding place to have a look, he just couldn't see anything at all.

They didn't talk very much, they seemed to be concerned about something, but never said exactly what. One of them had been apparently hurt, but it didn't seem to be too serious. Probably by a bullet, but Riley really wasn't sure about it, with all those monosyllables, whispers and unfinished sentences.

The trip was quite long, longer than he would have expected, probably over an hour. Of course, the van wasn't exactly moving at full speed, and they were going through country roads, so it might not have been too far away, after all.

At some point, the van stopped, the doors were open and the women got out. Riley waited. He didn't want to risk being discovered.

Before he even dared to start moving, he heard a voice, and his heart sank.
 
 
"Come on, kiddo, I know you're there. You can get out now."

Riley poked his head out from under the blanket, and looked through a little slit, he was still hidden behind some stuff.

"We don't have all day. Come on, get out. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen."

He finally got out from under the blanket and stood up. One of the women was there, at the door, looking at him. She was still totally covered in black. He tried a little smile, and noticed that she seemed to be smiling back. He got out of the van.

"How did you know I was here?", he dared to ask. "I didn't do anything that could be noticed."

"We're not beginners, you know?", she answered. "We knew you were there from the first moment."

"Come here, let me see you", she added.

Riley got closer to her. She took off her night vision glasses, and looked at him with bright green eyes.

"You don't take very much care of yourself, do you girl?", she asked. He just shook his head and shrugged. The woman seemed to have confused him for a girl. He didn't really mind.

"So, what do we do with you now? Where do you come from?", she asked again.

She seemed a nice woman, but he also knew she could be a dangerous one. He started to explain to her who he was and where he came from. Except that he was a boy. She seemed to think that Riley was a girl, and he thought it might be better not to correct her. As Riley was telling his story to her, she was just listening and nodding. She put a hand on his shoulder and took him away to keep talking. The rest of the women were taking care of the stuff that was still inside the van.

"What do you think we can do with you now, Riley?", she asked.

"Dunno", replied Riley. He really didn't know what options he had. Were they going to return him to the orphanage? Were they leaving him here? Were they taking him with them? Would they kill him? All those thoughts were inside his head, when she asked that question.

"Come on, sweetheart. Let's get inside the trailer."

He looked in front of him and saw an enormous truck. The other women were putting the motorbikes, the quad and all the rest inside it. The van was apparently going to be kept hidden inside a fake cabin in the woods. Riley got into the trailer, followed by the woman who had been questioning him. She led him to a small living area and sat him on a couch. He was so tired he almost fell asleep, straight away.

"You want to bring her with us?", asked another of the women. "Are you crazy?"

"At least until we know what to do with her. She's not going to be a problem", answered the first one. "She seems to be a nice girl", she added. "I don't expect her to give us problems. She might even be able to help us at some point."

"Well, she's your pet, you take care of her", replied the other woman, a bit annoyed. "I don't want to spend my time changing diapers."

"Yeah. I'll take care of her, don't worry."

At some point, Riley fell asleep.
 

---

 
 
End of Part 1
 
Thanks to Amrad, Sephrena and everyone that helped me fix most of the grammar and ortographic mistakes in the text, as well as improve its layout. The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.
 

---

"Well, she's your pet, you take care of her", replied the other woman, a bit annoyed. "I don't want to spend my time changing diapers."

"Yeah. I'll take care of her, don't worry."

At some point, Riley fell asleep.

---

 
 
Ninja Girl - Part 2
 
Riley woke up as someone was gently shaking him.

“Come on, sweetie. Time to get out of here”, said the woman softly. She still had her face hidden behind her ski mask, or maybe she had put it on to wake him up, but he was only able to see her green eyes again. There seemed to be some tenderness in them, but also some forceful determination.

There were no windows looking out onto the exterior, so there was no way to even guess the time of the day. No more than a few hours could have passed since they entered the trailer, because Riley was still feeling tired.

Getting out of there didn’t really help much, as the trailer seemed to be parked in what apparently was a big garage. There were many other interesting vehicles and things around, probably about a dozen of them, including what looked like a helicopter in one of the corners. The garage was quite dark, though, and the woman, who was holding his hand, got them out of there so quickly that he could only give it a glance.

“Lets have something for breakfast and then you can sleep a bit more if you like”, said the woman while they were walking up some stairs. “I bet you’re starving”.

Riley simply nodded and kept following her.

“After that”, she continued, “I’ll get you a shower and some clothes. Sorry baby, you really stink, and those clothes are almost rags. When was the last time you washed your hair? Will that be okay for you, hun?”

“Yes ma’am”, replied Riley. “What will happen after that?”, he dared to ask.

“We don't know yet. You’ll probably have to stay some days with us, and later we’ll take you back to where you lived. Just behave, be a good girl, and do everything I tell you. Will you, sweetie?”

Riley nodded again.
 
 
The woman prepared some cereals with milk and a glass of orange juice for both of them, in a small kitchenette, but she just pulled her ski mask up to her mouth, instead of removing it completely. It was obvious that she was being careful that Riley wasn’t able to recognize her once they took him back.

Afterwards, she led him to a bathroom attached to a big bedroom, where she started to prepare a bath for the kid.

“Lets get you clean and pretty, okay, hun?”

The woman inspected his hair carefully. It was very long, it almost reached his waist, but as it was so dirty, tangled and full of knots, it really didn’t have much appeal.

“How did you manage to make this mess out of your hair, love? Did you ever clean or comb it?”, she asked rhetorically after carefully inspecting it. “I’m seriously considering cutting off part of it, I don’t think anyone would be able to untangle it all, and I believe it would be more manageable and pretty. What do you think, hun?”, she asked Riley.

He just shrugged.

“Now, take your bath, and clean yourself thoroughly”, she finished.

She lifted his chin with her hand, looked into his eyes, and asked again, “I really mean what I said about cleaning and cutting your hair, I bet you’d really look beautiful then. What do you think?”

“I’d like that”, he agreed.

“Ma’am?”, he managed to ask.

“Yes, sweetie?”

“What does “thorly” mean?”, he asked, coyly.

The woman chuckled and could hardly contain a smile. “It means that you have to clean yourself very carefully, rub yourself with the sponge and make sure that every single inch of your body is clean and neat. And don’t forget to clean behind your ears!”

He simply nodded.

“Now, off to your bath. I’ll try to find some clothes for you meanwhile, I don’t think we can save those", she said. “Stay in the bath until I come back, just don’t go running around, okay?”

Riley managed to clean himself very thoroughly, just as the woman had ordered. He was quite worried about her coming and finding out that he wasn’t really a girl, but there wasn’t much that he could do about it for the moment. He filled the bath with as many soap bubbles as he could, just in case.

The woman came back a bit later, offered to rub his back and washed his hair meticulously, until all traces of dirt were gone. She didn’t seem to notice anything strange with the girl, and Riley just played shy to avoid her seeing him totally in the nude.

She put some clothes onto a stool, and told Riley to get dressed and go to the bedroom, then she went out of the bathroom and closed the door. As he had expected, it was a whole set of girls’ clothes she had left for him. He dressed as quickly as he could and went out to the bedroom in his tights, denim skirt and hooded top.
 
 
There were two women there. Both of them were wearing their ski masks.

“I’m totally useless with the hair, honey, so I asked a friend of mine to help us make you pretty. Do you mind?”, said one of the women, the one that been looking after him the whole time.

“I’d be glad to help, sweetheart”, added the other woman. “Will you let me cut a bit of your hair and style it? I promise to make you really pretty!”, she added, cheerfully.

Riley simply nodded, but couldn’t help smile at them.

The other woman started working on his hair, cutting and untangling it carefully, and giving him some bangs in the process. Both women nodded in agreement and seemed to smile behind their masks.

“Come on, love, lets see how you like it”, said the other woman, bringing him in front of a mirror. It was indeed a lovely style. Riley smiled happily and thanked them. That earned him a pair of hugs.

“Now, we have some important stuff to do, baby”, said the first of the women. “Can I trust you to be a good girl and stay here until I can get back? It’ll only be a few hours”. “Listen baby”, she added, “you can sleep a bit if you want, you can watch TV, you can use my little gym here”, she added, pointing to an adjacent room with a few workout tools, gym mats and wooden wall bars.

“I know that you’re a very curious girl. I bet you’re dying to get out of here and have a look around. I expect you not to do it. I trust you to behave and not go out of here. I’m sure that you won’t disappoint me, am I right? I’m sure you know we’ll find out if you do”, she asked, looking at Riley with a serious look on her face, until he nodded in agreement. Once he did, the tenderness went back to her face; she lifted her ski mask a bit and kissed him in his forehead. “That’s my girl”, she added, smiling proudly.

Riley had a look around the room and the small gym. There was a window from where he could see the countryside. The sun was already in the sky. He didn’t dare to open the window, or to check if he could open the door. He didn’t hear the lock when the women left, but he didn’t even feel like checking. After almost an hour, he was bored enough to go to the bed and sleep a bit. It had been a long night.
 
 
It was already afternoon when the sound of the door being opened woke him up. He got up and looked at the woman who had just entered. He felt rested and relaxed.

”Whoever could think that there was such a cute girl hidden under all that dirt and rags? How did you sleep, baby?”, she said after entering the room.

He smiled at her. She smiled back, or so it seemed, behind her ski mask.

The following days happened in the same kind of fashion. The woman would make him breakfast, leave him alone in the room for most of the day, watching TV or playing in the small gym, she would bring him something for lunch and dinner and she would sleep for a few hours on a couch in the room. She managed to bring him more girls’ clothes, including some dresses, and had been very insistent on him having a daily bath, combing his hair, cleaning his teeth and generally taking care of his hygiene. The kid was starting to resemble a lovely girl, instead of the hobo they found in the van some days ago.
 

---

 
 
End of Part 2
 
Lots of thanks to Amrad for helping me fix most of the grammar and ortographic mistakes in the text! The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.
 

---

The following days happened in the same kind of fashion. The woman would make him breakfast, leave him alone in the room for most of the day, watching TV or playing in the small gym, she would bring him something for lunch and dinner and she would sleep for a few hours on a couch in the room. She managed to bring him more girls’ clothes, including some dresses, and had been very insistent on him having a bath each day, combing his hair, cleaning his teeth and generally taking care of his hygiene. The kid was starting to resemble a lovely girl, instead of the hobo they found in the van some days ago.

---

 
 
Ninja Girl - Part 3
 
After some days living wherever they were, it was time to move out of there. One evening, after dinner, the woman told him that they’d have to pack his things and get ready for the departure.

“We’re leaving in a couple of hours, sweetie. Take your bath and get dressed while I prepare our baggage”, she said. “Put on your pajamas”, she clarified.

Soon they were down in the large garage, getting into the big trailer again. The woman led Riley through the small living area inside the trailer, into a room with bunk beds.

“I need you to go to sleep for a while, hun”, she told him in a soft sweet voice. “I’ll give you a little pill that’ll help you sleep while we’re on the road. Will that be all right, baby?”

“Will you still be there when I wake up?”, he asked with a concerned voice. “You’re not getting rid of me, are you?”

“No, babe. I’m not doing that. I promise you that I’ll still be here when you wake up”, she answered, then gave him a warm hug. He just nodded, took the pill and went to sleep.
 
 
It was already morning when Riley woke up. He was in a strange bed in an unknown room, probably a motel. The woman was sitting on the other bed in the room, and another woman was standing by a small kitchenette that was there, a mask also covered her head, looking silently at him.

“Morning, sleepyhead”, the woman said to him as he was getting up. “Did you sleep okay?”, she asked sweetly. Riley just nodded.

“Listen baby, I’m sorry but we can’t take you back home yet. You’re being such a good girl. It’ll be only a few more days and you’ll be home again. How does that sound?”, she asked, excited that he would be happy about it.

“I... I don’t want to go back there. That’s not my home. The orphanage is not my home. I don’t have no home”, answered Riley ashamed, his eyes fixed on the floor.

The woman nodded, then approached him and hugged him in silence for almost a minute, stroking his hair sweetly.

“Go to the bathroom, and we’ll prepare something for breakfast meanwhile, okay love?”, she finally asked him.

He got up, went into the bathroom, and took care of his needs. Both women turned to him as he came back into the room. They were both still wearing their boring black ski masks. Riley hoped that sometime they would trust him enough to let him see their faces, but he didn’t think he could do anything about it at the moment.

The woman seemed to be thinking deeply about something, then she started to talk to him again.

“Honey, listen", she said, looking Riley in the eyes. "We'll have to stay here for today, and we just can’t go out, okay? I know it’s probably going to be boring; we’ll just have to try to make the most of it. In the evening, we will have something to do, but, as we’re not coming back here again later, you’ll have to come with us”.

The woman paused for a moment, then continued.

“I need you to be the best girl you can be, behave as well as you have been doing, and do exactly what we tell you. Can you do that?”

Riley answered nodding. “Yes. Please take me with you. I will behave, I will do whatever you tell me, I will be the best girl in the world!”.

“That’s my girl!”, replied the woman again, hugging him again.
 
 
When the evening came, the two women picked up everything that they had brought in, and cleaned the room exhaustively. Riley was given some black leggings and a top, hiking boots, and one of those ski masks.

“Put these clothes on, baby. I’ll help you with the mask later”, said the woman.

When he had finished dressing in those dark clothes, the woman helped him put his hair in a ponytail, and hid it under his top. She then put some headphones onto his head, with a microphone attached over his mouth.

“Listen honey, I’m going to connect the intercoms. Once it is on, you can listen to whatever we say, and we will be able to listen to you. Don’t talk, don’t say anything until we tell you otherwise, okay?”, she asked, explaining things as clearly as she could.

“All of us have birds’ names. I’m Falcon, and she is Cassie", she added, signaling to the other woman, who nodded. “Cassie is short for cassowary, one of the most dangerous birds on earth.”

“You’re going to be Robin, so whenever we say Robin, we mean you. Are you following me, dear?”, she asked for confirmation.

“Yes, ma’am. You’re Falcon, she’s Cassie, and I am Robin, I won’t talk until you tell me to”, explained Riley back.

Falcon nodded in agreement, turned on the intercom, and put a mask onto his face carefully.

“One last thing, baby, whenever you say something, finish it with the word 'over', to let us all know that you have finished talking”, she added.

They put all their stuff in a SUV parked by the hotel, got into it and started driving. Riley didn’t dare say a word. He was so glad they let him stay with them, that he didn’t want to spoil it in any way.

They parked near a building complex that announced itself as a military hospital. “Now, listen Robin”, said Falcon, looking directly at his eyes and using his new nickname, “You stay here, in the car, and don’t move, whatever happens. We have to do something around here, and we’ll be back as soon as we can”, she explained as easily as she could. “if anything strange happens, if somebody comes or something like that, you tell us through the intercom. If things get weird, you run away and get the hell out of here, okay?”

Riley nodded, then said, “Yes, Falcon, I will do that”.

Everything was calm for a while, Riley was looking carefully everywhere from the car, while listening to incomprehensible cryptic messages being spoken by 5 or 6 different voices through the intercom. Apparently Falcon and Cassie had to get something before Rhea, Jay and some others, triggered something or another.

After a while, Rhea ordered her companions to start the fireworks, whatever that meant. Then, after about twenty minutes or so, Riley saw some shadows in the nearby streets, which he thought were probably cars.

“Falcon, I’m seeing some cars around here”, he said through the intercom for the first time. “I don’t know if it’s important but you asked me to tell you everything”. “Over”, he added, remembering Falcon’s instructions.

“Thanks Robin. Cassie, we’ll get the fuck out of here right now! Over!”, said Falcon via the intercom while Riley kept seeing cars being positioned in the nearby streets.

Falcon and Cassie came in just a few minutes with two big boxes filled with folders, papers and piles of documents. They put them in the SUV, and drove out of the area as soon as they could. Meanwhile, all hell was starting to break out around them, police cars and fire engines with their sirens wailing, were passing by towards somewhere unknown to Riley in a very big hurry, as well as some helicopters.

They drove away for a while, then moved on to a secondary road, passing through some smaller villages. After a time, they took a rural road, drove to an isolated house, and hid the car inside the garage, locking the door afterwards. There was another car already parked there, as well as two motorbikes.

The two women came out of the car; Falcon hugged Riley and took him out of it, removed his mask, then removed hers. Cassie also removed hers.

They both were younger than Riley had at first expected. Falcon was probably in her late twenties, had medium-length reddish brown hair and a lovely smile. Cassie was probably just a bit older, and had cute, spiky, blonde hair. She had an odd smirk on her face, as if she found the whole situation funny.

“Come on, baby. Let’s go upstairs and get changed”, said Falcon, picking up their clothes with one hand and holding his hand with the other. “We’ll make something for dinner while Cassie finishes some stuff here”.

“Get out of those clothes and put on something nice. At least we will be able to have a proper meal. We’ll probably be stuck here for some days”, she explained.

Riley looked through his clothes and finally decided on a green and white, embroidered dress.
“Will this be okay?”, he asked, holding it against his body.

“That will be perfect, princess”, answered the woman, with a smile.

He went into the bathroom, took care of his needs and dressed in the lovely dress. He was starting to like that. It made him feel pretty. He went back to the room where he found Falcon, who had already changed clothes, waiting for him. He just walked up to her and hugged her very tightly. She kissed his forehead.

“Come on, baby, we still have to make dinner”, and they went towards the kitchen holding hands.
 

---

 
 
End of Part 3
 
Lots of thanks to Amrad for helping me fix most of the grammar and ortographic mistakes in the text! The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.
 

---

He went into the bathroom, took care of his needs and dressed in the lovely dress. He was starting to like that. It made him feel pretty. He went back to the room where he found Falcon, who had already changed clothes, waiting for him. He just walked up to her and hugged her very tightly. She kissed his forehead.

“Come on, baby, we still have to make dinner”, and they went towards the kitchen holding hands.

---

 
 
Ninja Girl - Part 4
 
Dinner was nice. Falcon and Riley had been working on it in the kitchen; while Cassie was going through the documents they acquired on their recent sortie. Falcon took the opportunity to teach him some basic stuff about cooking. She was initially surprised that he knew absolutely nothing about it, but considering what he had already told her about his previous life, it made complete sense.

They didn’t say anything about what had happened out there, or in the military hospital, or in Redwood Manor. Riley was just happy to be there, and whatever was happening between Falcon and himself, was far more important to him than any of that stuff.

“You know, honey”, started Falcon, “I was wondering why you didn’t get along with anyone at the orphanage, when you were living there. You are a lovely girl, well behaved, friendly, and you don’t seem to have problems being with people, at least, not with us”, she wondered.

“Well, I didn’t like them. They didn’t like me either, they were not family, they were not friends, it was just their job”, replied Riley.

“Oh, yes, it probably was, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t care for you and that they couldn't be friends, does it? And what about the other kids there?”, asked Falcon.

“Once, one of the carers told me, when I was very little - dunno, about 4 maybe? That it did not matter to him whatever happened to me, that I was just a job to him”, he answered.

“How could someone say something like that?”, replied Falcon, outraged.

“Well, I had done some bad things and he was very angry with me”, said Riley, a bit ashamed, “I thought about what he said, and, well, I guess he was right”.

“Is that why you didn’t want anything to do with any of them? Because of what he said to you?”, she asked again, still a bit upset with that carer.

“Uh huh”, nodded Riley. “I just needed to get away from them, I couldn’t stand them at all. I hate them. I kinda made friends with some kids in the town."

“At first the carers tried to force me to obey their rules and be one of their kids”, he continued, “but I made them leave me alone.”

Falcon simply nodded, and hugged him.
 
 
The three of them had dinner together: Falcon, Cassie and Riley. Cassie wasn’t a big talker, but you could tell that she was a great listener, and that she cared about things. Falcon and Riley, on the other hand, seemed to like chatting. All in all, they had a nice conversation about all and nothing, and about those very important things in life that you usually talk about when having dinner.

After dinner, Falcon said that she needed to have a very important conversation with Riley; it would have far reaching consequences for his future.

“Listen, honey, and listen carefully, because this is important”, started Falcon. “I like you, and after all we’ve discussed, I don’t think that you’d like to go back to the orphanage, am I right?”, she asked very seriously, looking him in the eyes. Riley just nodded, acknowledging the importance of the conversation.

“I’ve been thinking about it”, she continued, “and I thought that you might want to stay with me. It’s not gonna be easy for any of us. As you’ve seen, I’m involved in quite delicate matters, and it’s quite likely that sometime you will be too. You’ll have to be very obedient with whatever I ask of you, and at some point you’ll just have to trust me”. Riley’s face lit up when he heard that he could stay with her, and he started to smile happily.

“I need you to think about it”, she finished, signaling with her hand for him not to say a word. “I really mean it. Think about it tonight, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow, all right, baby?”

He just nodded again, then hugged her very tightly and let a couple of happy tears flow from his eyes. She kissed him on the forehead and finally sent him to bed.

When Riley woke the next morning, he washed, dressed and went down to the kitchen. Falcon was there, making breakfast, she smiled at him as soon as he entered.

“Good morning, sweetie”, she greeted him.

There was a small TV in a corner of the kitchen. The news was showing some accident that had happened the previous evening, involving a train, which ended up in flames. Apparently, the police suspected it hadn't really been an accident. Falcon turned it off, and served some breakfast for Riley and herself, and sat with him at the table.

“I want to stay with you”, said Riley, not even waiting for her to raise the issue.

“I thought you would”, she replied, smiling. “You’re my baby now, then?”, she asked, with a smile on her face. He just nodded in agreement.
 
 
After lunch, Falcon told Riley to go with Cassie and her to the woods. Falcon produced a gun, took all the bullets out of it, and gave it to Riley.

“This is a nine millimetre gun, honey. Play a bit with it to get familiar with its weight and shape”, explained Falcon. “Now, we’re going to teach you how to use it. We want you to learn, in case you eventually need it, but listen to me carefully”, Falcon looked Riley directly in the eye when she said this, “you’ll never ever take any gun unless I tell you to. Never. I’m very serious about it”. She continued, “Remember what I told you about a condition to stay with me, it is to behave?”, he nodded. “Well, I trust you to behave, so don’t disappoint me. Okay, love?”

“Yes”, answered Riley seriously. “I’ll never ever touch it unless you tell me to. “I promise”.

“Good girl!”, Falcon praised Riley. “Now, pay attention to what Lisa says”, she continued, pointing at Cassie.

“Her real name is Lisa and I’m Allie”, added Falcon, clarifying the names, “but whenever we’re talking through the intercoms you have to remember to use our bird names, not our real ones. You can do that, can't you, honey?” Riley replied with a nod.

“Lisa is the best with firearms”, continued Allie, alias Falcon, pointing to the gun. “She’s all yours, Lisa”, she added.

Lisa, or Cassie, briefly explained to him how the gun worked, then had Riley handle it without bullets, to get used to its weight and shape. She showed him how to shoot, aiming at different things in the woods, finally giving it to him so he could try it himself.

His first shot was awful, due to the gun's huge recoil, even though Lisa had alerted him to it, but he didn't lose his balance. He got better at it, even though he never came even close to any of the selected targets, after a while, he was able to fire it almost properly. Lisa and Allie seemed happy with his progress.

“Go up to your room and pretty yourself up, will you, honey?”, said Allie, after getting back to the house. “We’re having visitors for dinner”, she added. “Your room”, thought Riley. It sounded so nice. He smiled happily.

“Yes, mummy!”, he replied. Falcon looked with tender eyes at her new baby, as he was scooting up to his room. They seemed to be bonding faster than she had expected. It felt nice.

There weren’t many clothes from which to choose, but some were really cute, so he went through them, trying to decide what he fancied most. He initially went for a dress, but finally decided on a pleated skirt and a lovely printed top.

“Can you help me with my hair, please?”, he begged Allie, after coming back down.

“Of course, cutie. Let me brush it a bit. What about braids?”, she asked him.

“Yes! That would be great!”. She sat him down and started brushing his hair until it was fully untangled, then proceeded to make two braids and finally brushed his bangs.

“There you are! The cutest girl I’ve ever seen”, proclaimed Allie.

Riley just went to her and hugged her. “Thank you, mummy, for everything”.

“You’re so welcome, baby. Come on, we have a lot of things to do in the kitchen before our guests come!”, said Allie, taking Riley by the hand and bringing him along.

The dinner was almost ready when their guests arrived. Riley was getting more comfortable in the kitchen, and Allie had started to teach him some essentials of cooking. Lisa opened the door and let in a woman and a girl.

The woman was very athletic, with middle length blond hair. It was quite obvious that she was related to Lisa, maybe her sister or something. The girl, probably her daughter, was maybe about thirteen or fourteen years old and had her long blond hair in a high ponytail. She had a lovely smile.

“So this is the famous Robin”, said the woman when she first saw Riley. “She’s as lovely as you said, Allie”, complimenting him. Riley blushed with embarrassment.

“Honey”, said Allie, making the introductions. “This is Melanie, and her daughter Ariana. Mel, Ari, this is Riley. Just so you know, Mel is Piper on the intercom, and Ari is Hawk. They’re staying with us tonight; Ariana will sleep with you in your room, in the other bed. Will that be okay, baby?”

Riley just nodded, and greeted the guests with a “Hi!”

“Hi, Rye”, said Ariana, with a friendly smile and shortening his name.

End of Part 4
 
 
Lots of thanks to Amrad for helping me fix most of the mistakes in the text! Also thanks to and Cat Lochley. The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.
 

---

“Honey”, said Allie, making the introductions. “This is Melanie, and her daughter Ariana. Mel, Ari, this is Riley. Just so you know, Mel is Piper on the intercom, and Ari is Hawk. They’re staying with us tonight; Ariana will sleep with you in your room, in the other bed. Will that be okay, baby?”

Riley just nodded, and greeted the guests with a “Hi!”

“Hi, Rye”, said Ariana, with a friendly smile and shortening his name.

---

 
 
Ninja Girl - Part 5
 
Ariana turned out to be a lovely girl, and, despite the age difference, she seemed to be getting on quite well with Riley.

Right after diner, the grownups were having such a serious conversation about something, that was boring Riley and Ariana to death.

“It’s gonna be nice to have another girl around, for a change”, commented Ari to Riley. “it will be like having a little sister”.

“You don’t have any sisters?”, asked Riley, wondering about Ari’s family.

“Nope. I have a brother, but he is with dad”, she answered.

“Oh”, replied Riley, “Where is your dad?”

“Well, they are in the men’s team, logically. You know, most of the people are usually transferred to the reserve when they have kids, but mum and dad wanted to keep active”, explained Ariana, “they wanted to continue serving their country. I bet your mum will also do that, even though she has adopted you”.

“Mummy adopted me?”, exclaimed Riley, happily surprised

“Well, of course, Rye!”, Answered Ari, “That’s why she’s your mummy now!”

Riley kept chatting with Ari, but his mind was somewhere else. At some point, without any particular reason, he got up and hugged Allie tightly. Surprised, she hugged him back.

“Wow!”, she exclaimed, seconds later, “One can get used to this! Are you okay, love?”

“I love you, mummy!”, was Riley’s only answer.

“I love you too, baby”, replied Allie, hugging him again.
 
 
Later in the night, when they both were in their beds, Riley asked Ariana, “Why is there a men’s team and a women’s team?”

“Well, it seems that having mixed teams was causing some trouble, so they decided to have separate teams. They work so well now, that no one’s really willing to make any change”, Answered Ari, shortly before they both fell asleep.
 
 
Next day was a really intensive one, Ariana woke up Riley very early to make him do their morning exercises with her.

“Come on, don’t be lazy, Rye. You have to stay in good shape and become a strong and agile girl to be able to help your mum when she needs you”, Ari encouraged him. Seeing that she had a point, Riley decided that she wanted to do that, and stay fit for Allie.

“Remember that maybe at some point, your mum’s life, and all of our lives, might depend on you being able to do whatever you’re told. And you will have to be ready to do it", she told him with an unusual seriousness on her face. Riley just nodded in agreement. He was realizing that this was indeed something important and didn’t want to disappoint either his mummy or Ariana.

“Good girl!”, said Ari, giving him a hug.

The small gym in the house was enough for them to start doing some exercises, after a light breakfast. A bit later, the others also came down to the gym. Allie was proud of how her new baby was making his best efforts to keep up with them.

Allie also wanted to find out if Riley was able to ride behind her on the motorbike, so they all went for a short ride after lunch.

Afterwards, in the afternoon, Lisa kept teaching him about guns, and later Ariana enjoyed herself styling Riley’s hair.

Riley was starting to get worried about not being a girl. He surely felt at home there, and had never before felt happier. He had a lovely mummy that loved him without reservation, and was doing the best he could to make her proud of him. But, when all was said and done, he was still a boy, and nothing he could do would change that. What would happen when they found out? Would they send him to the men’s team? He really didn’t want to go there, he wanted to be in this women’s team, with his mum and his new friends.

It was difficult for him to fall asleep that night.
 
 
A couple of days later, they gathered together all their belongings again. The five of them dressed in black leggings, tops, masks and boots, and went into a dark SUV. Later, they switched to a black van, quite similar to the first that Riley had seen. There were also some motorbikes stored inside. Two other women joined them, but no one talked very much.

The night had already fallen when they finally stopped.

“Baby, I need you to do whatever I ask of you. No questions, no doubts. Whatever you want to ask, I’ll tell you afterwards. Right now I need you to blindly obey me, no matter what. Will you be able to do that?”, asked Allie. He nodded, then added, “Yes mummy, I will do whatever you tell me, no questions. I love you”. She couldn’t help smiling at her baby and hugging him tightly.

“Remember to use the bird names on the radio, baby”, Allie reminded him, as she put the intercom on his head. “You’re Robin and I’m Falcon", she said, then continued, “they are Cassie”, she pointed to Lisa, “Piper and Hawk”, indicating Mel and Ari, “and Harrier and Kite”, she finished, pointing to the new women. “Kite, you already know, she cut and styled your hair the first day, do you remember her?”

Riley nodded and smiled at Kite. She smiled back.

Allie made Riley repeat all the code names twice, to make sure he got them, and then, they all finished getting ready. All of them, including Riley, put on some strange glasses that allowed them to see in the dark, even though everything seemed to be green. After checking that all their devices and tools worked perfectly, they brought four motorbikes down and got on them.

Harrier and Hawk (that is, one of the new women and Ariana), stayed in the van, while the rest got on the motorbikes. On one of the motorbikes, Riley sat behind Allie, hugging her.
 
 
Riley wasn’t exactly sure what was happening. Two of the motorbikes went one way, two another. They stopped near a big house that seemed to be very heavily guarded. Allie told him in no uncertain terms, using hand signals, that he had to stay there, hidden, until she told him otherwise. The sounds in the intercom were very few and no longer than a word or two.

Suddenly, all of the lights in the big house went off, including the area surrounding it. Some seconds later, some dim emergency lighting came on, but didn’t provide enough light to see clearly without the night vision glasses.

Riley saw how the half dozen guards in the area surrounding the building were deactivated by different means, and how the four women moved almost freely in the yard. Finally, two of them entered the building, another one stayed outside, watching out, and the other one told him to in with her, which he did.

Once inside the building, they kept moving fast, until they reached a big office where two of the women were holding a man. Riley was sure that they were Cassie and Piper: his new mum and her sister.

“Okay, big man”, said Piper to the captive, with a really cold bitchy tone, “we want the safe open in ten minutes, with or without your help. If you give us the key, we’ll finish earlier and you’ll be happily alive. Otherwise we’ll be delayed a bit, and then someone will have to pray for your soul”

The man seemed scared. It didn’t take much to get the key and the numbers to open the safe from him. Falcon gave Robin her gun.

“Take this, and make sure this man doesn’t make any strange moves. If he does, don’t hesitate, just shoot. To the body, if you want to kill him, to the legs if you don’t, it’s up to you”, said Falcon, his mummy.

“You wouldn’t do it”, said the man, looking Robin in the eye. Robin looked at Falcon and asked, “Does he deserve it?”

“He certainly does”, said Falcon, with a harsh tone.

“Then I’ll do it”, finished Robin, pointing the gun directly at him. His pale face showed that he knew that Robin would certainly do it if necessary. Cassie was looking at them, amused, from the other part of the room.

A little later, they got back to the van with a box they had obtained from the safe. It seemed to be very important to the women, and, apparently, it was very fragile, as they were treating it with the greatest care.

They got into the van and, after driving for a while, switched to the trailer that Riley knew so well. That was the last he remembered before falling asleep. He woke up some time later, when the trailer was entering the garage and Allie led him to their room, to change into his pajamas and go to sleep.
 
 
“Morning, honey”, Allie greeted him when he awoke. He smiled happily and hugged her. “Wow, my baby is happy today, isn’t she?”, she added. “Lets join the others for breakfast!”

Allie led him through the big house. It was in fact the first time that he was able to see it, because he had not been allowed to leave the room when he had been here before. Now it seemed that they trusted him enough, so those limits were apparently off.

The building was furnished and decorated in a simple but comfortable way, and there were lots of rooms and corridors, but they didn’t really stray too far from where they had slept. He could hear more people around in the building, so this might be some kind of headquarters. He didn’t mind whatever other people might be around, though, as he was with his mummy.

End of Part 5
 
 
Lots of thanks to Amrad for helping me fix most of the mistakes in the text! The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.
 

---

Allie led him through the big house. It was in fact the first time that he was able to see it, because he had not been allowed to leave the room when he had been here before. Now it seemed that they trusted him enough, so those limits were apparently off.

The building was furnished and decorated in a simple but comfortable way, and there were lots of rooms and corridors, but they didn’t really stray too far from where they had slept. He could hear more people around in the building, so this might be some kind of headquarters. He didn’t mind whatever other people might be around, though, as he was with his mummy.

---

 
 
Ninja Girl - Part 6
 
As they approached the core of the building, they were finding more and more people around. Most of them didn't seem especially sporty, or fit, or anything. They probably were more like bureaucrats or administrative staff or something like that. There were males and females, and many were carrying papers, or folders.

Allie, his mum, was still holding his hand while leading him through the corridors. They eventually met Ari, Mel and Lisa, who were were already waiting for them.

"Ari, please, can you take Riley to the kid's lounge for a while?", asked Allie, "we're going to have quite a busy morning".

"You might even meet Kyle and Richie", added Lisa, "They will probably be there by now. We'll go and pick you all up later".

"Really?", exclaimed Ariana excited. "They are here?"

Lisa nodded. Riley looked at Ariana wondering who they might be.

"Kyle is my brother, and Richie is my cousin. You're gonna love them!", she answered, smiling at Riley. "Richie and Kyle are sometimes more like brothers though", she added, explaining to him in a soft voice that their parents had effectively somehow adopted him as their own after their parents died.

"Come on, lets go!". She hold Riley's hand and took him along.
 
 
It wasn't really that far: going along the main corridor for a while, a door to the right, another corridor, stairs down to the lower floor and a couple of turns.

"Here we are", exclaimed Ariana, as she opened the door. "The lounge!".

They entered a big room that held some couches and chairs, a big plasma TV on a wall, a couple of billiard tables and some game consoles on the other end. On one side there was also a bunch of shelves with many books, some tables and chairs, making some kind of library.

There were a dozen teenagers in the room, all of them older than Riley, who was still dumbfounded.

"They are there!", exclaimed Ariana. "Come on!", she commanded, taking his hand again, and leading him towards three boys who were playing some car racing game.

Two of the boys were playing with the machine, while the other one was just looking. One of the players was blond, slightly shorter and younger than Ariana, and had her same nose and eyes. He paused the game as soon as he heard her, went almost running and hugged her tightly.

"Sis!", he exclaimed, "Gosh! I'm so happy to see you!"

The boy who was watching the game seemed a bit older, maybe sixteen or seventeen, and was almost 6 feet tall. He came walking towards them, amused.

"Richie!", called Ariana, after greeting her brother happily, "Wow! You have grown up a lot!"

"So have you, cousin!"

Kyle, the younger of the boys, suddenly noticed Riley, he turned towards him and smiled.

"Is this Riley, sis?", he asked Ariana.

"Yup, she is", she nodded. "Rye, this scatterbrain is Kyle, my charming and lovely brother!"

He laughed. "Hey! Nice to meet you!", he told Riley.

Riley looked at Kyle timidly. He definitely was a younger male version of Ariana.

"She is shy", explained Ariana, shrugging.

"Hey! Come on! You're almost our cousin now! You can't be shy with me!", complained Kyle, grinning.

Riley giggled softly despite her intents to keep a serious face.

"Is she ticklish?", Kyle asked his sister.

"Probably", she answered. "Only one way to find out".

"Don't you dare!", was Riley's reply, not very effective.

Kyle was nice and funny, Riley had the feeling that he might eventually end up liking him as much as he did Ariana.
 
 
"Daddy!", exclaimed Ariana a while later, when she saw the grownups coming, accompanied by a man.

She run towards him and hugged him tightly. He embraced her.

Riley went to Allie and hugged her too.

"So, this is little Riley?", asked the man.

"Yes, Jake, this is her. Honey, this is Ariana and Kyle's dad, Jake"

"Cute as a button. Nice to meet you, honey!"

Even though Ariana has Allie and Lisa's eyes, her smile was definitely her father's.
 
 

"Baby, wait a second”, called Allie in a quiet voice while the others were a bit ahead. She hugged him, then looked into his eyes and then spoke to him in a soft, gentle and quiet voice. "I love you, you're my baby no matter what. You know that, right honey?”.

Riley just nodded, still looking at her in the eye, not really knowing what to say or what all that was that about.

She tenderly pulled a strand of hair out of Riley's face and added softly: "If you ever need to tell me anything, no matter what, I won't love you any less, and I will still be here for you. Okay, honey?”.

She kissed him on the forehead and hugged him again, then took his hand and added: "Come on, princess! Lets join the others!”
 
 
"How would you like to go away for some days, like on holidays?", asked Lisa while they were having lunch.

"On holidays, mum?", asked Ariana, happily surprised. Lisa nodded.

"We're waiting for final confirmation, and for some documents", clarified Allie, "but the business we've been involved in lately has moved onto others' hands for some time, and we thought that it might be a good idea to get out of the way for a while, and to and have a few weeks for ourselves. How does that sound?”

The kids shouted and exclaimed happily. As expected, they all loved the idea. Kyle and Richie high-fived each other. Ariana grabbed Riley's hand and squeezed it gently. Then the suggestions started, and the conversation quickly turned into a heated debate about where would be the best place to go, though they finally weren't able to reach a agreement.

Being almost on holidays didn't mean the grownups were finished for the day, and was certainly not excuse for the kids to neglect their duties. Kyle, Richie and Ariana were being homeschooled, and they had tasks to do. Riley was still kind of free of studies, but predictably not for too long.

Riley had never really been a good student, or even a student of any kind. While in the orphanage, the carers were happy enough with him not causing trouble and they generally left him alone, and the teachers hadn't expected much from him on the first place. That was meant to change, though. Neither Allie, his new mum, nor his cousin Ariana would allow him to be kept illiterate.
 
 
That night, after Lisa, Jake and their kids left, Riley found himself alone with Allie again.

Riley was worried. He had been thinking about Ally's words before lunch. He was sure that she knew. He didn't want to be a boy anymore, maybe he had never really been one.

He was curled up on the bed, hugging his legs, already in his nightie, when Allie came in. She came to him and kissed him on the forehead.

"Mummy", he started, avoiding looking her in the eye. "Would you still love me if I was a boy?". There it was. He had managed to say it openly at last.

Allie sat on the bed with him and hugged him tenderly.

"I'd love you just the same, baby", she said. "Are you a boy?"

Riley shook his head. "I don't think so".

"Do you want to talk about it, hun?".

He nodded, and opened his whole heart to his mum.
 
 
"Sweetie, now that's in the open, do you want to go back to being a boy?"

"No!", he exclaimed, impulsively. Regaining his composture, he softened his voice and added, "May I continue being a girl, mummy?"

"Of course you can, honey. You are my little girl!"
 
 
"Hmmm... did you already know about me?", he finally managed to ask. "I mean today, when you talked to me in the lounge".

"Yes honey. I knew this morning. I should have known earlier, our information department is very proficient, but I was too busy. It doesn't matter to me anyway, you are who you are, and I love you."

"Are you disappointed in me?"

"Not in the least. Don't ever think that. Okay, baby?". She kissed him in the forehead.

"Not even for lying?"

"Not even for that. I understand that you were afraid and that it was hard for you. You now know that you can trust me for everything, no need to lie anymore, about anything, ever. All right, honey?"

Riley nodded. "No lies anymore. Ever". He smiled happily and snuggled in Allies' arms.
 
 
"Mummy, do we have to tell everyone?"

"About what, hun?"

"About me being a boy?"

"Of course not, sweetie. You don't need to tell anyone you don't want to. It is no one's business but yours."

"You might eventually find out anyway", she added, "that keeping it secret might create a barrier of trust with those you dearly love. I'm sure that you'll eventually want at least to talk to Ariana about it. Whenever you feel that you're ready for that, just tell me, okay love?"

"I will, Mummy!"

End of Part 6

---

 
 
A New Kid in Town - Part 1
 
It’s not very common for someone to be transferred in the middle of the year, at least, not in our school. That’s one of the reasons why Mark Coleman stood out among the students.

There was something else about him, though. He was quite short, he had a lovely face, and his gestures were sometimes a bit girlish. He obviously wasn’t a hunk, but he was kind of cute nonetheless.

Of course, that didn’t make him very popular among the other students. There are often some bullies who want to claim the disputable honour of being the first to harass whomever wasn’t an alpha male, and also the scavengers who wanted to scale up in the food chain by pushing others down.

In any case, Mark wasn’t a wimp either; he certainly knew how to defend himself. The first time he was bumped into a locker, he broke a couple of noses, and the second time he was ambushed, he did far more damage than he received, even though there were three against him. The teachers decided to look the other way, and no one bothered him again, the other students decided it would be better if they just left him alone.

My name is Paul Trey, and I’m 13 years old. Some of my geek friends sometimes call me Atreides or some other weird name from the book Dune, just for the name similarity, to annoy me, but I don’t really like it, so please don’t do it.

Mark was a year older than me, so we didn’t share any classes. That didn’t stop me from knowing everything about him, of course. He was the main topic everyone in school was talking about.

I think I was attracted to him since the first time I saw him. It wasn’t the first time I have had those kinds of feelings for another boy, though. I already knew that that probably made me gay, but it didn’t bother me in the slightest. I kept it to myself, though, as I didn’t want to purposely become the new target of all the bullies in the school.

My closest friends were a mixed group of two other boys and two girls: Jake, Terry, Sue and Becca. All of us were quite geeky, and fans of fantasy and science fiction in any format in which it could be delivered.

Jake was a nerdy, slender and tall guy with glasses and very short hair. He had a great passion for anything that had to do with the stars, other planets and civilizations, space operas and science fiction in general.

Terry, short for Terrence, was a slightly chubby boy whose main purpose in life was apparently to collect comics and books - we often joked that some day his mother would have to throw him out of their house to make space for his stuff!

Sue was also nerdy, and loved physics and was, since kindergarten, absolutely determined to become an astrophysicist when she grew up.

Becca was a very smart girl, who was extremely suited to maths and science, played chess and was an avid reader, but being a bit underdeveloped for her age, it was usually hard work for her to be taken seriously. She was very optimistic, and often smiled.

I’m a skinny boy, and a passionate reader, my main hobby was to design and make and paint scale models of things, and sometimes used them in role-playing games. I had already made several vehicles, different kinds of buildings and even a couple of whole fighting fields. Luckily, our garage was big enough so that I could store all my stuff there.

Mark usually had lunch alone at the edges of the school canteen. None of his mates seemed to want to have anything to do with him, and he also didn’t seem too keen to interact with the rest of the students. I kind of felt bad for him, he seemed to be a nice guy and I was sure that he didn’t deserve it. I liked him. There were just five of us at our table, so there was an empty seat. I was sure that he would be thankful for a friendly face.

“Hey, dude!” I called, as he passed us by, “You can sit with us if you want”. That earned me some weird looks from my friends, who didn’t really expect anything like that, and who honestly couldn’t really care less about the new kid.

“You mean, me?” he asked, with a surprised expression on his face.

“Yeah, you”, I answered, “You’re welcome at our table, if you want to join us”. I smiled at him.

He doubted for a second and I nodded to him again. He finally sat down and joined us.

“I’m Paul, and these are my friends Jake, Terry, Sue and Becca”, I made the introductions.

“Nice to meet you all, I’m Mark”, he said. All of us already knew who he was, everybody at school did.

“So, how do you find this place? Do you like it?” asked Sue, trying to make some casual conversation.

“It’s okay, I guess”, he answered, noncommittally.

“I bet you miss your friends in your old school?” she asked.

“Not really”, he replied. “In fact, I don’t miss them at all”, he added, mysteriously.

He turned out to be a nice guy, not the stuck up idiot as which some of his own peers had pictured him. He didn’t seem to want to talk much, though, as he was still not comfortable enough with us, but I had the feeling that sometime he might be. My friends might be idiots sometimes, but they’re good guys.

“I’d like to be your friend, if you don’t mind”, I told him after lunch, offering him my hand, which he shook friendlily.
 
 
As the days went by, we became used to having him with us for our lunchtime, and sometimes he met us at the end of school. He was slowly becoming a part of our group, and started to join us in some of our games. Even though his peers kept avoiding him like the plague, the students in our year seemed to also be becoming friends with him.

Of course, the bullies in his year didn’t much like that, and we started to get some harassment from them, especially me.

Once, I was bumped hard against my locker, and found myself surrounded by three big boys, a year older than me.

“So you’re hanging out with the faggot now?” started Josh, apparently the leader of the bullies. “Maybe he’s a queer too?” he added, looking at one of his friends.

“Yeah!” the other one replied. “Maybe he’s his boyfriend", he exclaimed. "Mwah, mwah”, he mimicked some kisses with his mouth.

“Stop it! Leave us alone!” I confronted them. “Listen", I added trying to keep calm, “We don’t want any problems, okay?”

A teacher was coming towards us, so they stepped away to avoid any problems for the moment.

“We’ll see about that, fairy boy”, said Josh finally, with a grimace on his face, before turning away and leaving. I just picked up my things and went to class.

Of course, I was not going to be intimidated by those bullies. I had already seen Mark stand up to them, and so would I. I decided to try to keep myself away from them as much as I could. I wasn’t eager to be looking for problems if I could avoid them.
 
 
The first time I went to Mark's house, it was weird. As we entered, his mother called to him from the kitchen.

“Laurie, that you? Back from school?” she asked.

“Mum, I told you not to call me that!” he exclaimed, upset. “There’s one of my friends from school with me”, he added.

His mom came out of the kitchen, to greet me.

“Oh, it’s a boy.” she seemed surprised.

“Of course he is a boy, mum!” he exclaimed, raising his voice. “It wasn’t going to be a dog!”

“Okay, hun, don’t get upset. I didn’t mean it in a bad way”, she replied. “Do you want some lemonade or something?" she offered. “You can play here or in the yard. I'd prefer if you don't get into your room together, but if you do, please leave the door open.” she warned.
 
 
“Your mum is weird”, I told him, when she was gone. “Why did she call you Laurie?”

“Ehm... It’s.... It’s my middle name, Laurence”, he explained. “I hate it when she calls me that. Let me change clothes and lets go out. Wait for me here, please, I’ll be right back!” he added, running up the stairs.

I took the opportunity to glance around the living room. There was a big plasma TV, many books, lots of decorative stuff, paintings, and also many photos around. There were photos of Mark and his mum, also someone who seemed to be his dad, older people who seemed to be his grandparents and photos of what appeared to be other members of the family and friends. There were also many photos of a girl with Mark’s parents and grandparents, and I wondered if he maybe had a sister. There was enough similarity between them to make me sure that she was. I would have to ask him sometime.
 
 
“Hey! Treides! Mark! We’re here!” called Jake when we were approaching the park.

“You dork, shut up! Don’t call me that!” I crumpled a sheet of paper into a ball and threw it at him. He just made a face at me and dodged it. I stuck out my tongue at him.

Many of our classmates usually met in the park when we were not at school. There were usually some 20 of us there during the day. Us nerdy ones, used to sit on the grass and talk about things. Others were playing sports or games, some roller-skating or skateboarding, and there were also some other groups around, chatting. Unlike those in the school year above us, we generally got on well with each other, and we had somehow adopted Mark as one of us.

Jake, Terry, Sue and I, were discussing sci-fi, Becca was talking with some of her girlfriends and Mark was playing ball with a few of our mates, when we saw Josh and his two minions in the distance. I had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be a very promising situation.

“Oh! Look at this!”, they exclaimed, walking towards Mark. “If it isn’t the faggot trying to play with the guys!” The three of them become confrontational as they approached the guys playing sports.

“Oh, fuck!”, I exclaimed unwillingly. “Well, what the heck, there’s no way to avoid this”.

I got up and went towards the bullies.

“Leave us alone, we are not bothering you!” I told them.

“You shut up, weirdo”, exclaimed Josh, annoyed. “This has nothing to do with you. You stay out of our way”, he added. His friends grinned at me scornfully.

I stepped forward. “He’s my friend, this has to do with me. I’m not gonna stay out of it!” I said, angrily. Our friends were amazed at my behaviour. I have always kept a low profile and had never done anything like this before.”

“Okay you girly, wanna stay in, I’ll grant your wish”. I never saw his fist coming. When I regained consciousness, I was laying in the grass, my nose bleeding, surrounded by many concerned faces. I sat up slowly. The bullies were gone.

“Now, that was really brave, Paul!”, exclaimed Becca, hugging me. “Are you okay?” I nodded.

“Come here, bro”, Mark offered his hand. “I’ll take you home”. He helped me up and held me. My head was still spinning a bit so I hung onto it.

“Where are they? Have they gone?” I asked.

“Yeah! We threw them out! If they know what’s good for them, hopefully, they won’t dare to come back!” said Sean, one of the guys in my class. I smiled, I liked how our class always stuck together when it was important.

Mark helped me going home. As I hung onto him, I perceived something I had not found out before. Under his loose clothing, he seemed to have a noticeable bandage around his chest. I looked at him, concerned that he might have been hurt or something, and he noticed what was bothering me. He put his finger to my mouth and whispered “It’s okay, Paul. We’ll talk later”.

End of Part 1
 
 
Lots of thanks to Amrad for helping me fix most of the mistakes in the text! The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.
 
 

From previous part…

I stepped forward. “He’s my friend, this has to do with me. I’m not gonna stay out of it!” I said, angrily. Our friends were amazed at my behaviour. I have always kept a low profile and had never done anything like this before.”

“Okay you girly, wanna stay in, I’ll grant your wish”. I never saw his fist coming. When I regained consciousness, I was laying in the grass, my nose bleeding, surrounded by many concerned faces. I sat up slowly. The bullies were gone.

“Now, that was really brave, Paul!”, exclaimed Becca, hugging me. “Are you okay?” I nodded.

“Come here, bro”, Mark offered his hand. “I’ll take you home”. He helped me up and held me. My head was still spinning a bit so I hung onto it.

“Where are they? Have they gone?” I asked.

“Yeah! We threw them out! If they know what’s good for them, hopefully, they won’t dare to come back!” said Sean, one of the guys in my class. I smiled, I liked how our class always stuck together when it was important.

Mark helped me going home. As I hung onto him, I perceived something I had not found out before. Under his loose clothing, he seemed to have a noticeable bandage around his chest. I looked at him, concerned that he might have been hurt or something, and he noticed what was bothering me. He put his finger to my mouth and whispered “It’s okay, Paul. We’ll talk later”.

---

A New Kid in Town - Part 2

The‭ ‬worst part of being hit hard in‭ ‬the face,‭ ‬is the next day,‭ ‬when your eye is so swollen that you can‭’‬t even open it‭ ‬completely.‭ ‬It didn‭’‬t hurt too badly,‭ ‬though.‭ ‬There was no way I could hide it from‭ ‬my mother today,‭ ‬so I just resigned myself to it.

‏“‎My‭ ‬God‭!”‬ she exclaimed,‭ ‬as soon as she saw me.‭ “‬What happened to your eye,‭ ‬Paul‭?”

I simply shrugged.‭ ‬There was no way to deny that I had been involved‭ ‬in a fight.

She just nodded.‭ “‬Let me see it,‭ ‬honey‭”‬,‭ ‬she added,‭ ‬getting closer.‭ ‬There was,‭ ‬of course,‭ ‬nothing magic she could do to improve it,‭ ‬but at least she was able to help the swelling go down with some ointment and a pill.

At school,‭ ‬everything was more or less normal.‭ ‬No one teased me‭ ‬very much about my bruises.‭ ‬There was also a bit of‭ ‬over-protectiveness in the air.‭ ‬None of the students in Mark‭’‬s course bothered us in the slightest,‭ ‬and they didn‭’‬t even get near us,‭ ‬with the exception of Mark himself.‭ ‬I kept an eye on him just in case,‭ ‬and noticed that he also kept watching me from time to time,‭ ‬but nothing bad happened at all.

Becca seemed to be the most preoccupied of all about my eye.‭ ‬I kept telling her that I was okay,‭ ‬that it would get better soon.‭ ‬It was a bit disheartening seeing the always-laughing girl with such a concerned expression.‭ ‬Thankfully,‭ ‬we were able to explain to her that there was no reason to worry that much,‭ ‬that my eye would be okay again soon.

I was still a bit concerned about the bandages I felt around Mark‭’‬s chest the day before.‭ ‬I didn‭’‬t know how bad the bullying might have been for him,‭ ‬and I was wondering if he might have some broken ribs or something.‭ ‬I‭’‬d keep watching out for him,‭ ‬as‭ ‬there was no way I‭’‬d allow them to hurt him anymore.‭

That afternoon,‭ ‬I accompanied Mark on his way home,‭ ‬after spending a big part of the afternoon‭ ‬with our peers,‭ ‬in the park again.‭ ‬I loved being with him,‭ ‬and also wanted to make sure that he wouldn‭’‬t have problems on his way‭ ‬home.‭ ‬When had I become so‭ ‬protective of him‭?

“You should‏ ‎try to play ball with us sometime,‭ ‬Paul‭”‬,‭ ‬he suggested,‭ ‬making‭ ‬casual conversation while we were walking across the city.

I had spent most of the time playing cards with Jake,‭ ‬Terry,‭ ‬Becca and another guy called Victor,‭ ‬while Sue was avidly reading‭ ‬a book about real science in science fiction movies and books,‭ ‬that one of her uncles had bought for her.

‏“‎You already know that I‭’‬m not that‭ ‬good at all that stuff‭”‬,‭ ‬I replied.‭ “‬I guess I could try sometime,‭ ‬though.‭ ‬I‭’‬m awful at sports,‭ ‬you know‭?”

“Don‏’‎t worry,‭ ‬we just play to have fun‭”‬,‭ ‬he tried to convince me.‭ “‬Heck‭”‬,‭ ‬he added,‭ “‬I love your peers,‭ ‬I wish mine were half as good.‭”

I simply nodded and smiled.‭ ‬I knew he appreciated them a lot,‭ ‬and I also knew that the feeling was reciprocal.

During‭ ‬the conversation,‭ ‬something weird happened and,‭ ‬for some unknown reason‭ ‬-‭ ‬even for me‭ ‬-‭ ‬I‭ ‬casually held his hand.‭ ‬He didn‭’‬t say anything,‭ ‬and he didn‭’‬t even try to loosen it.‭ ‬It‭’‬s‭ ‬unusual for two boys to be holding hands,‭ ‬but,‭ ‬fortunately,‭ ‬the streets were empty,‭ ‬so no one would say anything.

‏“‎Wanna see something‭?”‬ I suddenly asked him,‭ ‬remembering something important.‭ “‬There is a place where I used to hide when‭ ‬I was a small kid,‭ ‬would you like to see it‭? ‬I still go there sometimes,‭ ‬when I don‭’‬t want to be found‭”‬.

‏“‎Yay,‭ ‬of course‭! ‬I‭’‬d love to see it,‭ ‬I didn‭’‬t know you had a secret place‭!”‬ he exclaimed,‭ ‬delightedly surprised.

‏“‎Come with me‭!”‬ I said as I started to run,‭ ‬still holding his hand.‭ ‬He came running just behind me.‭ ‬For some strange reason I wanted him to see my secret place.

It was in the‭ ‬outskirts of the town,‭ ‬but not far away from where we were.‭ ‬There was an‭ ‬old,‭ ‬run down building that used to be a hotel,‭ ‬that had been abandoned for years,‭ ‬at least as far as I could remember.‭ ‬It was‭ ‬in a really bad state,‭ ‬but if you went through a side passage and climbed a bit,‭ ‬you found yourself in an open space that most probably had been a nice garden in‭ ‬good times,‭ ‬and that a couple of friends and I had transformed into our own secret playground when we were younger.

‏“‎Wow‭!”‬,‭ ‬he exclaimed amazed.‭ “‬I didn‭’‬t know such a place existed here‭!”

“Yeah‏!”‎ I replied proudly,‏ “‎and it‭’‬s all ours‭!”

I wanted this to be our own secret place,‭ ‬with no one else around‭ ‬-‭ ‬our little world,‭ ‬in which we were free to do whatever we wanted.‭ ‬I looked‭ ‬him in the eyes,‭ ‬suddenly‭ ‬feeling a‭ ‬strong urge to kiss him.‭ ‬He looked back at me,‭ ‬with‭ ‬an unreadable‭ ‬expression.‭ ‬This was going to need a leap of faith‭;‬ it could take our friendship to the next stage,‭ ‬or ruin it totally.

I took a deep breath,‭ ‬closed my eyes for a bit,‭ ‬and opened them again.‭ ‬He was still there,‭ ‬looking at me with those wonderful‭ ‬deep green eyes.‭ ‬Gosh,‭ ‬this was going to be terribly difficult.

Finally,‭ ‬I couldn‭’‬t do it.‭ ‬I‭’‬d like to say that I was brave enough to kiss this lovely boy,‭ ‬with whom I was now totally in love,‭ ‬right there,‭ ‬but I just wasn‭’‬t.‭ ‬Why are these‭ ‬things so difficult‭?

"Lets go‏ ‎back,‭ ‬they’re gonna miss us‭"‬,‭ ‬I said,‭ ‬eventually, taking his hand again.‭ "I‭’‬ll have to be‭ ‬home soon or my mum will be worried,‭ ‬especially after this‭",‭ ‬I added,‭ ‬pointing at my still swollen eye.

The next day at school,‭ ‬I found it hard to‭ ‬keep my attention in class.‭ ‬My mind kept thinking about Matt.‭ ‬One of the teachers even had to reprimand me when he asked me about whatever he was talking about,‭ ‬and I had no clue even of what‭ ‬the question was.

After lunch,‭ ‬Sue approached me discreetly.

‏“‎Can you wait for me after class,‭ ‬Paul‭?”‬ she said.‭ “‬We need to talk‭”‬.

Just as she had said,‭ ‬she waited for me at the end of the class.

“‎So what‭’‬s wrong with you‭? ‬You have been the whole day with your head in the clouds‭”‬,‭ ‬she asked, as we got out of sight of anyone who might be able to overhear us.‭ ‬I just shrugged.

‏“‎You like him,‭ ‬don‭’‬t you‭”‬,‭ ‬she asked directly.‭ Sue had never been one to beat around the bush.‭ ‬I could play dumb,‭ ‬but there was really no point in doing that.‭ I stared at her for a few seconds.

‏“‎Is it that obvious‭?”‬ I asked her.‭ ‬She nodded.

‏“‎You were absent the whole morning,‭ ‬and drooling whenever you saw him.‭ ‬Yeah,‭ ‬I‭’‬d say it was pretty obvious‭”‬,‭ ‬she said,‭ ‬giggling.

‏“‎Yeah,‭ ‬I like him a lot‭! ‬He‭’‬s so gorgeous‭!”‬ I exclaimed.‭ ‬She smiled at me.‭ “‬He doesn‭’‬t know it,‭ ‬does he‭?”‬ I asked,‭ ‬panicking a bit.

‏“‎Maybe.‭ ‬Dunno‭”‬,‭ ‬she replied,‭ “‬you boys are always so blind to these things‭”‬,‭ ‬she giggled.‭ “‬Becca asked me about it too,‭ ‬just so you know‭”

“Great,‏ ‎now half of the school will know that I‭’‬m gay‭!”‬ I exclaimed,‭ ‬annoyed with myself.

‏“‎Don‭’‬t worry,‭ ‬luv‭”‬,‭ ‬she comforted me while smiling.‭ “‬We already knew‭!”

Could it be that obvious‭? ‬I hadn‭’‬t ever told anyone about my‭ ‬preference for boys,‭ ‬yet‭ ‬they already knew‭!

“Have you already kissed him‏?”‎ she asked,‏ ‎as if casually.

‏“‎No‭! ‬I mean,‭ ‬no‭ ‬-‭ ‬I wanted to,‭ ‬you know,‭ ‬but then,‭ ‬dunno,‭ ‬I kind of panicked‭”‬,‭ ‬I confessed.‭ “‬Do you know‭ ‬if I‭ ‬might have a chance with him‭? ‬I mean,‭ ‬what if he‭ ‬doesn‭’‬t like boys‭?”

“You‏’‎ll never know until you try,‭ ‬my dear Paul‭”‬,‭ ‬she replied.‭ “‬I don‭’‬t know if it works the same with a boy‭ ‬as with a girl,‭ ‬but if it does,‭ ‬being brave and knowing what you want will‭ ‬earn‭ ‬you points.‭ ‬Shy away and you‭’‬ll lose them‭”‬.‭ ‬So easy to say,‭ ‬so hard to do.

I didn‭’‬t feel like facing anybody,‭ ‬I didn‭’‬t go to the park,‭ ‬but went to my secret playground instead.‭ ‬I put on my earphones‭ ‬and my music player,‭ ‬sat on the floor and started throwing little stones‭ ‬at a tree.

When probably an hour had passed,‭ ‬maybe two,‭ ‬I felt someone taking the earphones off my head.‭ ‬I turned around and saw him standing‭ ‬right in front of me.

‏“‎I thought I‭ ‬would find you here‭”‬,‭ ‬said Mark.‭ “‬Mind‭ ‬if I sit down with you‭?”‬ he asked.‭ ‬I nodded,‭ ‬and turned the music player off.‭ ‬He sat by my side.

‏“‎I went to the park and you were not there,‭ ‬so I thought that I might find you here‭”‬,‭ ‬he said.

‏“‎Yeah,‭ ‬I didn‭’‬t feel like going today‭”‬,‭ ‬I replied.

‏“‎I guessed so.‭ ‬That‭’‬s‭ ‬why I thought I‭’‬d find you here.‭ ‬The guys asked about you,‭ ‬you know‭?”‬ he said.

‏“‎Sure‭? ‬Did they‭?”‬ I asked surprised.

‏“‎Yeah of course‭”‬,‭ ‬he exclaimed.‭ “‬They were a bit worried about you,‭ ‬for what happened the other day,‭ ‬you know‭?”

I looked‭ ‬him in the eyes and put my face close to his.‭ ‬He didn‭’‬t‭ ‬pull away.‭ ‬Neither of us said a word.‭ ‬I moved forward and just kissed him,‭ ‬straight on his lips,‭ ‬his lovely sensual lips.‭ ‬He kissed back.‭ ‬I had never felt that rush of electricity flowing through my body.‭ ‬Gosh,‭ ‬I loved this boy‭!

“No,‏ ‎I can‭’‬t,‭ ‬not now‭!‬ This just isn‭’‬t right‭”‬,‭ ‬he said sadly,‭ ‬a moment after our kiss ended.‭ ‬He stood up,‭ ‬sighed and started to walk away.‭ ‬I felt the tears coming out of my eyes.‭ ‬He came back and kissed me again with passion.‭ ‬Then he moved a step back.

‏“‎I have to think about all this‭”‬,‭ ‬he‭ ‬said.‭”‬I like you,‭ ‬a lot,‭ ‬but I just can‭’‬t‭! ‬Everything was going so well,‭ ‬and now this‭! ‬It‭’‬s not easy for me,‭ ‬you know‭? ‬I need to know where my head is,‭ ‬and where my heart is.‭ ‬Gosh,‭ ‬I‭’‬m so confused‭!”‬ he exclaimed‭ ‬.

He came back to where I was,‭ ‬and kissed me‭ ‬on the forehead.‭ ‬Then he turned to go.

‏“‎I think I‭ ‬‘big L‭’‬ you,‭ ‬you know‭?”‬ that was all I was able to say,‭ ‬as he was going away.

End of Part 2
 
 
Lots of thanks to Amrad for helping me fix most of the mistakes in the text! The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.
 
 

---

 
 
Nikki Meets the Kendalls - Part 1
 
Nicky's favourite place in the world was Bandit Island, a small islet in the furthest part of the lake. Bandit Island didn't take its name from any criminal or robber, but from the name of some captain, Jack Bandit, that long ago had decided to set his home there. No one lived there anymore, but the mansion and the other buildings, including a small unused chapel, were still there, in perfect state. The island had a small quay, big enough to dock a couple of small ships, and had enough trees and vegetation so that no one could really see from the shore of the lake that anyone would be there.

The island was private property, Nicky knew it, everyone knew it. That's why no one was ever there, and that was the reason that Nicky found it so attractive. Sometime, a few times a year, someone came to take care of the facilities, cleaned up the place a bit, and eventually made some reparations, and were gone again. As long as no one knew he was there, the island was all his.

Nicky had left his bike hidden near some of the banks of the lake that were further away from both the town and the road, had taken a small boat that he kept there, half concealed, and had paddled towards the island. It was already early afternoon, but he used to do that often, and he was quite confident that he wouldn't be found.

After concealing the boat again, enough that it wouldn't be seen from the shore, he went quietly into the tiny island, towards the small shed in which he kept his things.

Nicky was 15, almost 16, and he was usually left alone by his parents. The area was usually calm and troubleless, he knew it by heart, he was carrying his mobile phone and his parents trusted him, even when they didn't have a clue where he went, when he was out. They considered that, being outside, was one of the healthiest things for a growing boy.

Nicky took out one of the travel bags he kept hidden there, opened it and took out of it a colourful sundress, a cami and some panties, along with a couple of lovely sandals, took his own clothes of and stared dressing up. The first times he had dressed up in the island he had been so scared that had entered the small shed to do so. No one was ever around, no one could see him from anywhere, and he had learnt to love to dress up right there, in the open.

He was so happy to be able to be himself again. He smiled. The day was warm and bright, and he was free to be a girl. He went towards the playground, in the garden, sat on one of the swings and started pushing herself happily.

~o~

He heard some noise from the lake, but he dismissed it quickly. There were often noises coming from the lake, and it was certainly expected that people might want to get to the lake on such a lovely saturday afternoon. You could often see boats around when it was that good, but no one ever came to the island. In days like this, Nicky usually got to the island early, while people were eating and no one would be riding across the lake on a boat.

It was too late when he discovered his mistake. A young girl, maybe about 13 years old, came running from the path that lead to the quay, and suddenly stopped surprised when she noticed him.

"Alice, how many times I told you not to run!", shouted some lady from afar.

Nicky stood still as the young girl came towards him. Another even younger girl came from the path, followed by a young woman pushing a baby stroller, and a teenage boy. A woman and an older man came appeared too.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?", asked the first girl.

Nicky wasn't even able to articulate a single word.

"It's okay, don't be scared. My name is Alice. Who are you?"

"I'm... Nicky..."

"Glad to meet you, Nikki", said Alice, offering her hand.

The meeting was suddenly interrupted by the woman coming towards them, followed by the youngest girl, while the other kids stayed aside, watching curious. You could clearly see the resemblance between them. They seemed to be all close family, probably siblings, their mother, and maybe the grandfather.

"What are you doing here, young lady? Who are you?", asked the woman, "What's your name?"

"Nicky, Ma'am"

"Nikki? Short for Nicole?", she added in a stern tone, Nicky just nodded. "Nicole what?"

"Faulkner, Ma'am", he added, staring at the floor.

"Mom, leave her alone!", interrupted Alice, "She wasn't breaking anything or doing anything wrong! You're going to make her cry!"

"Faulkner? Nicole Faulkner? Are you Jane and Mike's daughter?"

"Mom!"

Nicky nodded again, almost in the verge of tears.

"This is private property, you know? This house is ours"

Nicky bit her lip and nodded.

"I know. I shouldn't be here. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do anything bad. I'll go home now, I didn't mean..."

The woman's face softened. "Sorry, Nicole, I didn't mean to scare you. We just weren't expecting anyone here, you know? You can stay here for a while with us if you want. You can help us bring things from the boat if you want, and I'll invite you to some lemonade later, how does that sound?"

"I'd like that, Ma'am"

"I'm Amy Kendall. You can call me Ms. Kendall, if you want. You already met Alice, didn't you?". She nodded again.

"This young lady here is Emily", she introduced the younger girl, who should be about 7 or 8 years old, "that is my daughter Elizabeth with baby Kevin, that handsome young man is Thomas, and this is my father, William"

"Nice to meet you", offered his hand the older man.

~o~

After helping them to bring many boxes from the boat and put them inside the house, Amy made some lemonade for all of them, as promised. Nicky was starting to feel more comfortable among them, but was still afraid and didn't talk much. Alice seemed to be taken by her, and little Emily was also around them most of the time.

Amy was already taking care of the baby, while their grandfather had gone into the house to open the window covers, open the water and essentially making the house inhabitable.

~o~

"You're not really a girl, are you?", asked the older sister, who seemed to be in her early twenties.

"Beth!", exclaimed Alice annoyed, "Don't be rude!"

"Well, it's obvious that he isn't. What's your story, young man? Why are you wearing a girl's dress?"

She stared at him tenderly but firmly. Nicky was unable to even open her mouth. He couldn't handle it anymore and started to cry softly.

"Oh, I didn't mean to make you cry, sweetie", said Beth, hugging him. "It's gonna be okay, don't worry. There, there."

Beth dried his tears while Alice and little Emily observed them.

"Do you want to be a girl, honey?", asked the older girl softly, in an encoraging tone. He just nodded.

"It's okay, love. You can be as much a girl as you want to be while with us. Friends?"

Nicky nodded silently.

~o~

"Nicole, will you want to have dinner with us?", asked Ms. Kendall. "How did you manage to get to the island, by the way?"

"Well, I kind of, have a boat, but I hid it a bit. I didn't want people to know I was here. I know it's your home and stuff, I just didn't think anyone lived here and..."

Ms. Kendall put a finger over his lips. "It's okay, dear, I know. You can come whenever you want, now that we know each other, I've already seen that you have made friends with the girls. If you want, I can call your mom and tell her that you'll be having dinner with us."

"That's okay, Ms. Kendall. I can text her."

Amy shook her head, smiling. "That should be okay".

~o~

The day was slowly coming to an end, and Nicky had to eventually get back home. He certainly couldn't get back into his boys clothes, not with the Kendalls around. Fortunately all his clothes were carefully hidden, so they wouldn't find them. He would have to eventually come for them. His most immediate problem would be to get back home in his cute dress, without either his parents nor his siblings find out.

Nicky had a brother and a sister, James and Samantha, but he didn't have a deep relation with them. Not that they treated him badly or anything like that, but he usually kept to himself and didn't usually interact too much with them most of the time.

It had been different when he was a little kid, he used to play a lot with his sister, who was slightly younger than him, and were both spoiled to the bone by their older brother.

Fortunately, Nicky entered their house through the back entry and changed into male clothes without anyone noticing.

~o~

Nicky wasn't really looking forward to Sunday morning. He would have to go to Church with his family, and it could happen that he might meet the Kendalls there. The previous day seemed almost like a dream, they had been so nice to him. He certainly didn't want them to see him wearing male clothes.

He managed to get just in time, and escaped quickly just after the service was over. His family was already used to his behaviour, so they just let him go. They would have to be around for a while, though, as his parents and his siblings liked to meet their friends and get up to date with them. He didn't like that.

He sat on one of the benches that were covered from the view by some trees. He had seen Amy Kendall talking with his mother, and didn't expect anything good coming from that. He would cross that bridge when he came to it, he didn't have to be suffering watching them.

He was surprised by Alice, who appeared suddenly from nowhere.

"Hi Nikki! I was wondering where you were!". She hugged him.

He blushed. There he was, unmistakebly dressed up as a boy in his Sunday best, and she didn't even make a comment.

"Will you come to visit us later? Mom thought you might want to."

"Maybe", he answered. "I'd like to go. I'd have to change, though", he added, signaling at his clothes.

"Yeah, true!", laughed Alice. "I was wondering why you were wearing those male clothes. I thought you were going to come in a dress, like the rest of us."

"I wish! I can't. My parents don't know about me. Please, don't tell them anything about yesterday!"

"I think it might be too late for that, girlfriend. They were talking about that with my mom before I went to search for you."

End of Part 1
 
 

---

 
"Yeah, true!", laughed Alice. "I was wondering why you were wearing those male clothes. I thought you were going to come in a dress, like the rest of us."

"I wish! I can't. My parents don't know about me. Please, don't tell them anything about yesterday!"

"I think it might be too late for that, girlfriend. They were talking about that with my mom before I went to search for you."
 
 
Nikki Meets the Kendalls - Part 2
 
"He is a nice kid, but he's going through some rough times. Teen years can be hard on some", Jane Faulkner was explaining to Amy Kendall about his son, Nicholas. Amy nodded. Jane kept talking.

"He used to hang out with his sister and her friends all the time when they were younger. He was so charming, he used to smile a lot, he was always ready to help in any way he could. He used to adore his sister, they were really close. James, their older brother, always said that they could be twins."

"So, what happened?", asked Amy with curiosity.

"That they became teenagers. That's what happened. It's cute when a little boy hangs out with the girls. It's good too. It will help him understand women much better when he grows up. But you know young girls, they also need their space. He was always with them, that's not normal. The poor girls didn't need to have a boy always with them. I told them to talk to him about it, and he understood it. In any case, they weren't so similarafter all. They are so different now. Sam is very social, and Nicholas has become kind of a loner. I don't even know if he has any close friends now, he doesn't share too much with us, or with any of his siblings anymore. Boys can change a lot when they grow up."

~o~

Nicky was nervous about what Ms. Kendall could have told his mom. Everything was falling to pieces. Alice was talking to him, but he could only have half of his mind on her conversation. At least being outside kept him away from the potential parental earthquake.

"You're not even paying attention, girl!", exclaimed Alice, noticing that Nicky seemed to be daydreaming.

"Sorry, I'm worried about what your mom might be telling mine"

"Don't worry, they'll be cool."

"I don't know, Alice. My mom doesn't even know that I'm a girl."

"How can she not know? Gosh, it's pretty obvious!"

Nicky smiled and hugged her. He really liked that girl.

"Lets go and find out. I'll take care of you."

It was funny watching the 13 year old girl encouraging Nicky. He was almost 16 after all. But, despite the age difference, it somehow seemed natural. Alice took his hand and pulled him.

~o~

"He wasn't hurting anyone. He wasn't really doing any damage. He didn't even try to enter the house, he kept to the gardens. It'll be okay to give him some space to make up his mind about his life, his future and all that stuff that gets overwhelming for teenagers", was trying to explain Amy.

"Oh, there they are!" she exclaimed with a smile when she saw the kid with her daughter.

"Come here immediately, young man!", ordered Jane to her son with an angry look on her eyes. "Amy has been explaining to me what you have been up to lately, and I'm very disappointed on you. I thought I brought you better than that!"

She continued, "You would deserve a serious punishment. Amy has talked me out of it, so you should really be thankful to her."

Amy grabbed Jane's arm to calm her down. "It's okay, He's invited to come to the island whenever he wants. He seems to get on pretty well with my kids already, and I'm sure he will be careful and helpful too."

"You'd better be, young man! Whatever Amy tells you. you do. I don't want to hear that you weren't on your best behaviour."

"Yes, mom", he nodded, ashamed. Alice tightened her grip on his hand to show him that she was there for him, and pulled him again towards the other kids.

Alice's sister Beth seemed to be getting along quite well with Nicky's brother James and with his friends. Tom, Alice's brother, had baby Kevin on his arms and was making him laugh.

Samantha, Nicky's sister, was slightly older than Alice. She was talking with some of her friends. As soon as Nicky noticed that Alice was targeting them, he pulled back, to show his friend that he didn't want to go there. ALice looked at him. He seemed afraid to go with them.

"Come on, it's just your sister and her friends. I want to meet them."

"Go with them, I'll be with your brothers."

"What's wrong, girlfriend?", asked Alice. Something didn't seem totally right.

"Nothing, I just don't feel like going with them, that's all."

~o~

Thoughout the days, Nicky became close friends with the Kendall kids. Amy had made it very clear that he was welcome there whenever he wanted, as well as his brother and sister. She had also told him in a quick conversation that she hadn't said a word to his mom about him wearing girly clothes, but that she felt that he should eventually had to tell her.

Alice had offered to store Nikki's clothes in one of her wardrobes. They had become really close friends in a very short time, and it was obvious that they were almost a sister for each other. Jane had been right, once out of his inner self-imposed emotional imprisonment, he was a very charming and expressive kid. He was very girly too, but it didn't really matter at all, as he was already a girl for all of them.

That didn't happen always. Whenever his siblings were around, specially Samantha and her closest friend, Rose, Nicky closed in on himself and almost didn't speak a word.

"What's the problem with your sisters?" asked Beth to James once. They seem to avoid each other as much as they can.

"My sisters?", he replied surprised, "Oh! Nicky?"

Beth nodded.

"They used to get along famously.Nicky has always been quite girly, you know? They were almost twins! Sometimes Nicky even let Sam dress him up as a girl. You should have seen him, he was very pretty."

"Trust me, I can imagine that", she grinned, knowingly. "What happened?"

"Well, they kind of expelled him from their group. They said that having a boy with them all the time scared the other boys. They were starting to become young ladies, you know? He took it quite badly."

"What did he do, then?"

"He stopped going out with them totally. He started to ride his bike more, going on his own, stay in his room. At the beginning he still talked with me and with our parents, and as he kept growing up, that seemed to stop too. He rarely speaks at all at home. You should have seen him three years ago, he was a totally different kid. I wish he was back."

"I think I might be able to show you a little miracle, then, if you're up to it", she offered, mysteriously.

~o~

Beth had been totally right. They had hidden themselves in the island, without any of the kids knowing. Nicky was dressed in a cute lavender dress, smiling, laughing, playing around and essentially being happy. James was amazed.

"That's my Nicky. He was like that all the time. What is he doing with a dress? Does he often dress up like that here?"

"James," started Beth. "Have you considered that your little brother might be really your little sister inside?"

His jaw dropped. "Really?"

She nodded, and proceeded to tell him many things about Nikki that he didn't know at all.

"It kinds of make sense now. He.. She was rejected as a girl by her own sister... she could have said something too, you know? Like telling Samantha how she really felt. That could have changed it all."

~o~

"Nikki, come here please", said Ms. Kendall an afternoon. "I need to talk with you about something."

The young girl came.

"I think it might be a good idea to tell your mother about you liking to dress up as a girl. I'm sure she will be understanding. She is worried about you, you know?"

"We can explain it to her, to your dad too. I'll help them understand. It is okay, you're not hurting anyone. There's nothing wrong with pretending to be a girl if it makes you happy."

Pretending?

"Please, tell me that you will consider it. I'm sure it will work. Even if it doesn't, if they need some time to process it, you can stay here with us. My kids adore you, you know?"

"I love them to bits too. I'm so happy to have met all of you!", she said with a big smile and bright eyes. Amy hugged her.

"Then think about it. Your parent's won't love you any less because of your little perversion. They'll understand it."

Perversion? Nikki's face became livid all of a sudden.

She didn't consider him a girl, she thought he was a pervert!

"I... I have to go... Sorry ma'am... I have to go".

She went towards the quay and started running, his anxiety as high as never before. She threw up. She couldn't think. She got the boat and started rowing towards the shore, away from the island."

End of Part 2
 

---

 
"Then think about it. Your parent's won't love you any less because of your little perversion. They'll understand it."

Perversion? Nikki's face became livid all of a sudden.

She didn't consider him a girl, she thought he was a pervert!

"I... I have to go... Sorry ma'am... I have to go".

She went towards the quay and started running, his anxiety as high as never before. She threw up. She couldn't think. She got the boat and started rowing towards the shore, away from the island."
 
 
Nikki Meets the Kendalls - Part 3
 
"You told her what??", exclaimed Beth when her mother was telling what has happened. "Are you stupid or something?".

"Don't talk to me like that, young lady. I'm your mother!".

Beth threw up her hands in indignation.

"I wasn't trying to be mean or to hurt him!", exclaimed her mother, "I was just trying to tell him that his parents would be okay with it, that they wouldn't throw him away or disown him or anything! That I understood how he felt! I like that kid, honest!"

"Her! Not him! And it seems that you don't have a clue about how she feels after all!"

She stared at the floor.

"I guess you're right, Beth. I'm so sorry, I really didn't want to hurt him... her"

Beth sighed. "I'll try to find her."

~o~

"Where's Nikki?", asked Alice to her sister, "Why did she go away like that?"

Nikki's escape had been watched by all of the Kendall kids, but it was so sudden that none of them could really understand what was happening until she was already gone.

"Did something happen between mom and her? What happened?". They had all seen Amy talking to her right before her face turned suddenly pale and she fled away. They knew that something had happened.

"She's not picking up her phone calls.", interrupted Tom. "Should we go after her?"

"She might need some space", added Beth. "I'm worried about her though. I wish I could talk to her."

"I want her to come back!", stated little Emily. "Can you tell her to come back, please?". She wasn't exactly sure of what was going on, but she could sense that something was wrong.

"We'll bring her back, kitten", said Beth, hugging her. "It will be okay, don't worry".

~o~

Beth phoned Nikki's brother, James, to tell him about what had happened. They were becoming quite good friends. They had talked a lot about Nikki's situation, how to help her open up about her feelings, and how they would support her no matter what. Beth had been absolutely right in her first impression about James: he was a caring brother that adored his two younger sisters.

"Keep an eye on her, please. You should have seen her face when she run away, she seemed so heartbroken. She deserves something better.How can my mom be so stupid?"

"I'll try to talk to her when she comes home. I hope so, at least. It's not easy to talk to her anymore, she is not easy to engage in a conversation. I loved to see her opening up so much to your siblings. I hope that what has happened hasn't ruined it."

As much as it hurt, James knew her sister well enough to know that she would avoid talking about whatever she felt to anyone in the family, and he feared that she would eventually extend that to the Kendalls too.

As expected, Nikki didn't go to the island the following days. He kept going out of his home every afternoon with her bike, as she always did, and got lost without giving any explanation about where she went and what she did. James knew that she wasn't hanging out with the Kendalls anymore, as Beth and him were keeping each other informed.

Samantha didn't know much about who she still considered her brother Nicky.

She was 14 going on 15, a year younger than Nicky, and though they had been really close when younger, they didn't even talk too much to each other nowadays. It had been nice that they were so close when little kids, and Sam missed him lots, but she also knew that things change between boys and girls when they become older, and she was a girl, and he was a boy.

She had managed to build an emotional wall between Nicky and him, and she worked hard to refuse having any interest in anything related to him. This wall was somehow cracking since they shared Alice Kendall as a common friend.

Alice asked lots of things about him, and about when they were younger, and she seemed to have a deep interest in him, but not as dating material. She knew for sure, she had already asked her explicitly. She was much younger than him, in any case, though.

Alice had told her that Nicky was not going to the island anymore,but didn't tell her why. She didn't even tell her that her brother was in fact her sister. It was so wierd that Sam or their parents hadn't ever noticed how girlish he was. There is probably no one more blind than those who don't want to see.

The funniest thing was that neither Samantha nor their parents had noticed anything unusual, and weren't even aware that something was going on. He was grumpy as always, he stuck to himself in his room all the time he was at home, he went alone with his bike every afternoon. Only James knew better.

~o~

The Kendalls didn't get to see Nicky again until Sunday, at Church. Nikki escaped again as soon as the ceremony finished, staying out of the way of the kids, teens and adults that were trying to socialize afterwards.

"I need some time with her, alone", asked Alice to Beth and James. "Please, can you make sure that no one comes to bother us?"

"We will. Go ahead, Alice."

Nikki was sitting on top of a stone, within some trees, and out of sight. She had some earphones on and was listening to music at a somehow high volume, while she was reading a book. She did that often, it helped her not to think about stuff.

"Hi, girlfriend", said Alice, pressing the button to stop the music.

Nikki removed her earphones and looked at her. She wanted to say some nasty things to throw her away. Didn't she know he was a freak? A pervert? Her own mother had told him so. Alice was a nice girl, she didn't deserve nasty, but she wanted everyone to leave her alone.

Alice hugged her suddenly. "I missed you, Nikki".

Nikki's facade suddenly fell, she hugged back her friend and started to cry.

End of Part 3
 

---

 
Nikki was sitting on top of a stone, within some trees, and out of sight. She had some earphones on and was listening to music at a somehow high volume, while she was reading a book. She did that often, it helped her not to think about stuff.

"Hi, girlfriend", said Alice, pressing the button to stop the music.

Nikki removed her earphones and looked at her. She wanted to say some nasty things to throw her away. Didn't she know he was a freak? A pervert? Her own mother had told him so. Alice was a nice girl, she didn't deserve nasty, but she wanted everyone to leave her alone.

Alice hugged her suddenly. "I missed you, Nikki".

Nikki's facade suddenly fell, she hugged back her friend and started to cry.
 
 
Nikki Meets the Kendalls - Part 4
 
"Where's Nikki?", asked little Emily to her sister Beth, who was still with James. "I wanted to say hi but she got out too fast"

"Shh,,,", said her sister, putting her finger over Emily's tiny mouth. "Alice is cheering her up. Do you want to go with them?"

"Yes!", exclaimed the little one enthusiastically.

"That way", she added, grinning, pointing towards where the other girls were, while winking an eye to James.

"Nikki! Nikki!", she run towards here the girls were. "Where have you been? I missed you!"

Beth didn't join them until later, and she was delighted watching them talking and laughing all together again.

Amy Kendall came a bit later.

"Honey, can we talk?", she said as she approached Nikki. She looked at her, and nodded with aprehension.

"I'm so sorry about what I said the other day. I wasn't thinking.I didn't know anything at all. Will you be able to forgive me?"

Nikki stared at her, still doubtful.

"I talked with Beth. I was stupid. I didn't want to hurt you and that's just what I did. I'm really ashamed. I know noe that you're a girl. I wish I was able to regain your trust somehow."

Nikki jumped into Amy's arms and she hugged her tenderly.

As soon as Beth told him that Nikki was in a better mood, Tom went to talk to her too. He found this girl, or boy, quite intriguing. She was sweet, one of the sweetest girls he new once you coud get through her thick protective armour. He still didn't know what to make of her, but she was funny and nice to be with. He had become a bit protective of her lately and had been worried during the last days.

~o~

Nikki had started to go back to the island after they hade made up with her and, although the trust had not been fuly restored yet, she had started to go back to the island with the Kendalls quite often. All of that ended suddenly the first time Alice brought Nikki's sister Samantha and her friends. As soon as Nikki heard them coming from the quay, she rushed out of his dress and into his own clothes before any of them could see her.

Alice and Samantha had started to become friends too. Samantha, Nikki's sister, was 14, just a bit older than Alice, and had a nice group of friends. They were pretty, very social and quite popular among their peers. It was quite a contrast with the self isolation that Nikki forced onto himself. It was quite obvious that Nikki wasn't comfortable among her sister and specially among her friends.

Amber, a tall brunette, smiled and waved hi to Nikki from afar as she saw her. Millie, a cute blonde, just gave Nikki a quick glance. Rose, a stunning redhead who was a bit ahead of the others in her development, didn't even look her way, and moved towards Tom. Sam followed suit.

Beth didn't have good vibes from this girl. The other ones seemed quite nice, but Rose just somehow didn't seem too nice. She couldn't say exactly what, but she didn't trust that girl. Unfortunately, she somehow seemed to lead the group. She would have to wait until some conflict might appear before having an opinion, though. Beth was certain thay you can learn more of a person when there's trouble than when things are going okay. Everybody seems to be nice when things are good, but it's in the bad times when they show their real face. And she had the feeling that they might not count on Rose unconditionally when she might get a better benefit from doing something else. Alice and Samantha were too young to realize that, but she knew better.

As soon as Samantha and her friends started to come to the island to spend some afternoons with Alice and Tom, Nikki stopped going. Tom didn't specially dislike the girls, but more often than not he used to get away with other friends. It was obvious that Rose liked Tom, and it was also equally obvious that Tom didn't want anything with her.

After some days, and when they were alone, Alice approached Samantha about her brother.

"Have you seen Nikki? We haven't seen him for days", she asked.

Sam shook her head. "No. I don't know much about his whereabouts. He usually keeps to himself, I don't really see him much."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you got along. At least you used to, as far as I've been told."

"Yes, but that was when we were kids. He has changed a lot since then. And me too."

"Why did you stopped doing things with each other? May I ask?"

"Well, he's a boy.. At our age is not cool to be carrying a boy with us. It was nice to have him around when I was a little girl, but now we need some space."

"Because he is a boy?"

"Well, yes. When we were little, it was always Julia, Amber, Nicky and me together. Then Julia's family moved like two years ago, and we started to hang out with Millie and Rose. Rose is a blast, and she knows how to handle boys. It has been great since she is with us. Nicky just doesn't fit in with us anymore."

"Oh, I see."

"And it's not just us. Mom says the same. He should make some friends of his own and, you know, play some sports with them, learn to be a bit more rough and stuff, like other boys do. He has to learn to be a man, otherwise he will become a sissy. Imagine having a sissy brother, it would be terrible. So it's much better for him too."

"Did your mom tell you that?"

"Not only her, Rose thinks that too!"

"And Millie and Amber?"

"No, they think he was happier when he was with us. In any case, it's he who doesn't even talk to us anymore. He didn't take it too well when we told him to leave us alone and that we didn't want a boy with us all the time, and then he stopped talking to us and started to avoid us, which was okay for us so we can ignore him too."

"And you don't miss him?"

Sam stopped, thoughtfully.

"Yes, I kind of miss him. I wish we didn't have to grow up and he wasn't so grumpy and quiet all the time. He was the loveliest bro when we were kids. We were inseparable, like twins. I kind of miss that. But as mom says, neither he nor I are little kids anymore."

Alice simply nodded, thinking whether Samantha's point of view would change or would still be the same if she knew that Nikki was a girl. She didn't say anything, though.

End of Part 4
 

---

 
"And you don't miss him?"

Sam stopped, thoughtfully.

"Yes, I kind of miss him. I wish we didn't have to grow up and he wasn't so grumpy and quiet all the time. He was the loveliest bro when we were kids. We were inseparable, like twins. I kind of miss that. But as mom says, neither he nor I are little kids anymore."

Alice simply nodded, thinking whether Samantha's point of view would change or would still be the same if she knew that Nikki was a girl. She didn't say anything, though.
 
 
Nikki Meets the Kendalls - Part 5
 
Things had started to settle on some kind of routine again. Beth was becoming quite a close friend to Nikki's brother James, while Alice had started going out quite often with Samantha and her friends. As none of them really liked to stay confined to the island, they often went out in town. That suited Nikki perfectly, while she had started to get on famously well with Amy after the issues they have had, and both little Emily and baby Kevin were totally taken by her.

Tom didn't have a social life as intense as his two sisters Beth and Alice. He had started to hang about with some of the kids in town too, but he was also quite homely and liked to spend some of the afternoons at home, in the island. Nikki liked him, he was smart, funny and cheerful. The island wasn't really that big, but there was enough space to wander around through the trees, talking about all and nothing and watching the lake together.

He was very fond of his baby brother Kevin. He often carried him around, played with him, talked to him and even took care of him whenever he needed, which was certainly quite unusual for a teenage boy. He often excused himself by saying that the boys in the family had to stick together. He really loved taking careof his baby brother, and it showed.

The only problem was that whenever Tom stayed the afternoon in the island, Nikki knew that sooner or later her sister Sam, Alice and their friends would end up coming around too. It was quite obvious that Rose had her eyes fixed on Tom. Nikki avoided dressing girly those days, and she tried to be ready to leave whenever they were about to come. As close as she might have felt to those girls when she was younger, she didn't feel comfortable among any of them anymore.

Despite all that, Nikki was just openly happy and joyful. And it was quite obvious that she was, as she was often laughing and smiling. Despite the difference in age, she liked to spend time with little Emily and whomever of her friends might come around. Amy usually let them play, or came out with different activities and games to keep them busy and they had fun all together.

~o~

"Hey, gorgeous!", called James from the path to the quay. Nikki jumped up from where she was sit, smoothed her dressed and run to hug her big brother. James hugged her back sweetly and kissed her on the forehead.

"How is my lovely little sister doing today?"

"Great! I was teaching the girls how to make friendship bracelets using string! Aren't they lovely?", explained Nikki to her older brother while she showed him some of the results of their activities.

James laughed. "Wow! They are certainly lovely! I didn't know you knew how to make them, poppet! When did you learn?"

Nikki went back towards the younger girls, picked up a book and carried it back to where James was. Beth was looking amused from slightly behind, as well as two other friends with them, who smiled too.

James and Beth were very careful with whom they brought to the island whenever they knew that Nikki was around, and she knew it, so there had never been any issues with any of their friends.

"She doesn't even look like a teenager when she is playing with the girls, does she?", asked James to Amy. "I hope she's behaving herself and not being a pest."

"Don't worry, she's an angel. She's adorable, and she keeps the girls entertained the whole afternoon."

~o~

Nikki didn't really have much interaction with her own family, with the exception of James; and even that, only lately. her parents practically ignored her, and she couldn't care less about them. It was thus a surprise when, one afternoon after coming home, they told her that they needed to talk to her.

"Nicholas", started his father, Michael. "Do you have something to tell us, son?"

"About what?", asked Nikki back, surprised.

"Well, a couple of people have been wondering about you, you know?"

Nikki shrugged.

"There's no easy way to ask this, sport", interjected her mother, Jane. "I hope to not upset you with this question, but I really need to ask: are you gay, Nicky?"

Nikki gasped, surprised. "Sorry, what?"

"It is okay if you are, there's nothing wrong with it. We love you no matter what, you already know that, don't you, honey?", added her mother again. "You know that we will be on your side you no matter what. Just try to be careful that it doesn't show too much, we don't want everyone to know, do we?"

"Son, it is perfectly okay if you like boys, there's nothing wrong with that. If that's the case, I mean. Everyone is born just as they are, and it wouldn't be right to force anyone into someone they're not. Maybe if you just joined the boys more in sports or hanging out with them it would be less obvious and you could seem more normal."

"Mum, dad, like, what's wrong with you two? I'm not gay, okay?"

"You're not?", asked her mother again. "Oh, I thought you..."

Nikki could not longer endure the conversation, turned around and rushed towards his room. Why couldn't they leave her alone?

~o~

The next couple of Sundays Nikki started to notice some weirdness towards him from the kids around. They had been ignoring each other for ages, but suddenly she noted that some were furtively watching her, some were murmuring and there were some snickers. She was wondering whether it might be her imagination when Beth came to her, took her hand gently and led her away.

"Lets go out of here. You don't need to tolerate this, sweetie:"

"Tolerate what?", asked Nikki. "What's happening?"

"The rumors and gossips, Nikki. Come on, lets go."

After that, Nikki simply stopped going to church on Sundays. She had expected more opposition from her parents, but they simply kept silent about that. "Better for all of us", thought Nikki.

~o~

"Is it true that you fancy Tom, Nikki?", asked Emily once they were playing together with some other girls.

"Why would you ask that, poppet?", she asked back.

Emily shrugged. "Well, you're a girl, and you talk to him a lot, and you both go around walking together alone whenever he's here And he fancies you too!"

"And you're jealous when Rose talks to him", added Annelle, one of Emily's friends.

"I'm not jealous!"

"Yes you are, Nikki", confirmed Emily. "Maybe just a bit. Just a tiny bit. But you are. Don't deny it!"

Nikki looked down and nodded. "Yeah, I may be a tiny bit sometimes."

She became reflective for a brief moment. Then suddenly asked:

"Wait, Emily! ... You said that he fancies me too?"

"Uh huh. Yes he does", she nodded and then grinned mischievously. "Would you become my sister if you were his girlfriend?"

End of Part 5