I was sitting on a park bench, late at night, with no phone, no cash, and no wallet and without a clear plan in my head. Could I go home? Not really, unless I wanted to meet the famous chicken that had crossed the road.

What had happened? Well, I had been victim of a prank and sadly the mischievous trick had really put me into a dire situation. See, due to the practical joke, I couldn't really go back where I lived. Why? Well, because it could have tempted my father to finally forget that he was partly responsible for my existence and he would have gotten a use for his hunting shotgun and my grandfather's pig farm. The thing was that the man hated me and he made sure that I never had the thought of not reciprocating the way he felt. My mother had died in childbirth, so imagine the way he felt when the person he loved the most was unexpectedly replaced by little old me. Emphasis on the word little because it was partly the reason he wanted to see if his plan for the perfect murder was realistic. I was a failure in his eyes: nearsighted to the point where it would probably be useful to carry a telescope around, clumsier than a highly intoxicated one winged penguin with mobility problems, and like I said way too small for a boy my age. You get the point? I wasn't the poster boy for what a man, according to my father, should be like.

The only thing that I had going for me, was that despite being highly effective bully-bait, I wasn't that bad at defending myself. Sadly, each passing day my relative strength towards the others kept getting atrophied. In a few months, I will probably get beaten so hard they will have to pick me with a spatula. Why? Well, the others only become stronger and stronger being fed by puberty. If the hormonal bomb that resided in me ever came to explode, maybe I would have a minor chance at keeping myself alive for a while longer but honestly I doubted it would really help me in the long run.

Do you want a proof of my weakening strength? Just a few hours ago my uniform had been swapped from the male one to the female one while I was in the shower. Before this summer, that would have never happened as they would have been afraid of the nuclear tantrum I would have thrown, but now ...Ouch. I don't even want to know what crap they will put me throughout the school year, I will probably end up hating my life by the end of it.

Anyway, because of the practical joke that was put on me I had to stay at school until it closed at 8pm. Being seen in girl clothes wasn't the kind of humiliation I wanted to go through. Most of the students already put me in the same rank as rats and honestly as cool it would be to be as free as some insects I didn't want to be put in the same rank as them.

Going back to my situation, it wasn't the switch directly that had brought me to my sad state, no, it was what came afterwards. While I was thinking of a clever way of coming home unnoticed I made my first mistake of the night, I fell at sleep and had the get out of the bus in a part of town I didn't know. My second mistake came shortly afterwards, despite of my instincts, I decided to ask for directions to a group of suspicious looking girls. Was there a third mistake? Yes, of course there was, I followed them into a dark alley and then literally, strike! I was knocked out cold for a few hours.

Which bring us to about now. I have just made my way to this bench and while I should probably call for help or at least move somewhere safer. I am just going to nap for a while … Ah... I feel so tired..

I woke up to a brush vandalizing my face, at first I thought it was just my imagination. But as I opened my eyes. Standing right next to me was a tall girl with the looks of a model, she had a round face with freckles and long auburn hair. I looked at her for a moment and then pinched myself. Why? Well, because I thought I was becoming crazy she had, exception of her height, the same features as poor old me but unlike me, she was striking! Perhaps, if I had been born a girl I wouldn't have had such a hard life.

“I at least wanted to finish applying it before you woke up.” Said the young lady standing next to me, in the most serene voice.

“What?”

“Make up, I was applying it. It looks like you took quite a beating last night and I didn't want you to look too bad in case you wanted to make a statement to the police.”

She pulled a mirror and made me look at my face. I had a black eye, but it she had partially concealed it with foundation. I was about to comment on the lip gloss when she restarted talking.

“Look, I didn’t call the police because I didn’t want to meddle into things that weren’t my business but if your boyfriend did that. You should probably denounce him.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Well, I just assumed it was domestic abuse...wait, don't tell me it was rape! If it is, I'm taking you to the hospital. No concessions. I wouldn't want your aggressor to get free...” I interrupted her sentence.

“I was mugged.”

She looked quite appalled by the phrase I had just uttered and stated fuming. “Wait! You are seriously telling me that some people would mug a cute young lady such as you? Man, the world is way crueller that I ever thought.”

I gave her a look, me cute, no way! And what was with calling me a young girl. I barely looked like one I was sure of that. I mean I was a bespectacled manlet no way the C word or the G world applied to me. At that moment, I just then realized that I had lost my glasses and that my long hair usually kept in a quite low ponytail was down. Did I look feminine? I didn’t want to know the answer to that question.

“Well, I am hardly a lady.” Or a man for that matter, I thought while looking down.

She frowned. “What’s that about not being a lady? I don't know who put those ideas into your head but you have everything of a lady. You are just a late bloomer, I am sure your assets will grow in time. Just love yourself while waiting for it to happen, girl!” She said while she took me closer and hugged me. “Can you give me your number, your parents must be worried sick about you if you didn't come home last night. I know I would if I had daughter such as you.”

Although, what she said was wrong in so many levels and she had pretty much murdered the little of virility I had left, I couldn't help but smile at such kind words. She was just so sweet.

“I don't really think my dad, is that worried about me right, he hates me. He probably is happy I didn't come back home.” Why did I start talking private matters? I don't know, maybe it was the hits to my head who had me put down my defences or something.

She gave me a puzzled look. “Look, I don't know about your situation, but aren't you exaggerating things like all preteens. If you had a dispute with your father I'm pretty sure that what happened will make him forget it.”

“Ugh, I am not a preteen, I'm fifteen and I am absolutely sure he hates seeing the way he treats me.”

“Fifteen?” She didn't believe me, for sure, it was obvious. It was as easy to see as to see as a clown in a funeral.

“Yes.”

“Really?”

I said with an unwavering stare. “Yes.”

“Wow... I would have given you 13 tops. You are surprisingly as old as me. Umm...” She looked at me for a while and then restarted talking: “Look, I have never done this before but, do you want to go home with me, change, take a shower, perhaps go shopping and maybe have a sleepover tonight? You could probably solve your parental problem tomorrow and it really looks like you could have some fun! My aunt is out of town for a few weeks and she has given me a few thousand bucks. But, honestly until I met you, I didn't know what to do. I had planned to do some volunteer work in the park but honestly I don't really feel like it if, there is a chance I might get mugged.”

I was going to say something, but before I did she restarted speaking. “Oh, by the way my name is Alexis Tremblay. Happy to meet you.”

I looked at her confused for a minute.

“What?”

“Well, there is another Alexis Tremblay, here too.”

She looked at me confused for a second or two and then smiled at me with probably the biggest grin in the world.

“Well, Lady Alex, lady Lexi, here present, would like answer to her sleepover proposal?” She said smiling.

I wanted to say no, because it wouldn’t be appropriate. Little old me, having a sleepover with a girl, crazy and if it was the kind of sleepover I was thinking of I might just as well take my virility behind the barn and shoot it. I should say no, common sense is telling me to say no but, I really didn’t want to disappoint someone so nice. I had just really met for less than twenty minutes but she had already be kinder to me than most people I had met in the last ten years of my life. Why had things to be so hard?

I started crying and she held me closer to her, crap, I am supposed to be a man darn it! This isn't supposed to happen. She held me for nearly five minutes and then I just started muttering.

“Yes, I would love to have a sleepover, but *sob* but there is something I need to tell you first.”

“What?”

“I am a...” Before I could finish my sentence colour drained out of my life.

I woke up on an unfamiliar bed, in a room I had never been in before. The room was posh and richly decorated, looking like an aristocrat's room decorated with the help of antiques catalogue. Perhaps, Lexi was rich? If it ever were to be case I should probably run away from here as fast possible, because there was no way I could ever be suitable company for her. I was already like a cockroach to most people, how I could interact with her who was like a well groomed poodle. Things had really taken a weird turn.

As I was standing up to leave I realized that the uniform was on dresser right in front of the bed, I pinched myself, double checked and then looked down and saw that I wearing some pink pyjamas ...I pinched myself again and when I realized that I wasn't dreaming my heart skipped so many beats that I probably went on cardiac arrest. Crap! She knows, the young lady now knows that I not what I (accidentally) pretended to be. Upon that realization, I cried again probably a virility cop somewhere to arrest me and take away my man card forever.

“Alex, are you OK.”

Lexi entered the room wearing a cooking apron over a sundress. “I heard, you cry and it worries me a little. Are you fine? The doctor said that you passed out due to fatigue and that I should probably not worry that much. But honestly I am not that sure about that."

I was too worked up to say anything and I just pointed to my uniform.

“Oh, sweetie don't worry about that. I don't care about some extra bits you are still a girl to me.” Lexi hugged me for a second time today and just cried harder. I wanted to punch myself for letting a girl my age mother me. God, I felt weak. The beating, the uniform and her kindness to me had obliterated the fortress that had kept me safe and grounded all this years and now that I was naked and vulnerable I just couldn't stop crying due to years of parental abuse and bullying,

“Alex, look I know I just met you and that you are the same age as me and I should probably mother you as much as I did today, but I would like you to stay the night if it were to be possible. You told me your dad won't take care of you and I suspect your condition may had have some to with it. So look, tomorrow we are going to see him and if he really doesn't want you back I am going ask my aunt to let you stay here for as long as you want. I don't want you to end up on the streets if you are just going to end up mugged or killed. The streets of Montreal don't need more homeless LGBT youth.”

I was going to say that I wasn't trans, just a bullied effeminate boy but as I thought about it I questioned the veracity of that statement. I mean sometimes I did wish that I had been born a girl but that wasn't enough wasn't it? Until yesterday I had never wore girl clothes before and I was actually quite proud of the little bit of manliness I had exhibited the years before. I was confused. Hella confused in fact. But my confusion didn't last very long, because as soon as I calmed down the smoke detectors went off.

“Crap, the food!” Lexi started running to the kitchen but she slid up and fell on her on face. She stood up immediately and she acted like nothing had happened.

I couldn't help but laugh.

Due to my identity crisis, Lexi's had burnt the French fries and burgers shed had been preparing, Due to a lack of ingredients and due our limited cooking skills we decided to eat out. I had wanted to go while wearing my uniform but Lexi made me take a bath. While I was soaking and relaxing in the bath, Lexi had gone to measure my clothes and find myself something decent to wear out.

When I finished relaxing, I stumbled back to the room where I was temporally staying in to found a cardigan, a blouse, a floral long skirt and , surprise, my good old round glasses. It looked like Lexi had gone back to the park to found them. The most surprising thing about them was that the lenses had been replaced. Lexi had done so much in so little time, I could hardly believe that someone such as her existed.

Ten minutes afterwards, I was ready, having found an undershirt and some panties under my new clothes. I was about to open the door to get outside the apartment when Lexi, who was wearing a suit with a pencil skirt, stopped me and made me put some make up while she arranged my long hair in a French braid. Before we got out, I looked at my reflection in the mirror and I was stunned by my appearance. I am normally a very humble person misery oblige, but damn if I didn't look like a cute librarian. I couldn't help but blush at my reflection. Was I really a boy? I couldn't stop doubting it.

Lexi had brought me to a classy French restaurant and quite honestly I was intimidated. I never ate out and when I say never I meant it. My father used to tell me that even fast food was wasted on a person such as me so I never thought of having a go at it.

Lexi could probably see me tense up, because she ordered for me with me approving my choices.

I felt bad, here was someone who had helped me all day and I couldn't do anything but cause her trouble. Girl me had until now only been a useless pack of hormones and honestly I hated that. It made me feel like I just had euthanized thousands of puppies.

“I am sorry.” I muttered

“For what?”

“Everything, I force myself into your house, I burn your food, I occupy your bed, I make you pay for clothes and I can't even order by myself. I should probably just go after this meal and give back everything you have given me. I am useless and you barely know me,” I said putting emphasis on every service she had given me.

“Don't you dare do that!” She said raising her tone a little. “Look, I chose to help you and I will continue to help you even if you have some annoying compartments. I still want you to have to stay with me if possible because it would hurt me to know that someone I could have helped is in trouble,” She sipped her glass of water and restarted “I know what it is to struggle to stay afloat. Four months ago, I lived in the streets and had to get all my meals from homeless centres.”
I gave her a puzzled look “How? I thought you were rich.”

“I' m not my aunt is. Before my aunt Éleonora came into my life I had been in foster care. The house was terrible so around a year ago I ran away and I had to live in the streets until my rich aunt who had I never met before found me and adopted me.”

“What about your parents?” I asked hoping not to strike anything delicate.

“I don't know anything about my biological parents, but my adopted parents are both dead...” She said with sorrow in her eyes.

“Sorry, I didn't want to upset you.”

“Don't worry, it's been a long time and I have gotten used to them being missing. What about your parents? You told me about your dad, but how is your mom? ”

“Dead at childbirth.”

“Sorry...”

I looked at her and I told her not to worry. Shortly afterwards our meal arrived and we discussed of everything and nothing.

We went back home knowing way more about each other. As soon as she opened the door to her aunt's mansion we both took turn in her room changing on our pyjamas. We hooked up her laptop to the TV and just started watching some movies.

Half an hour in her cell phone rang and she answered it, it was her aunt asking about the credit card activity at the restaurant. After consulting me, Lexi decided to disclose me and my situation. Her aunt didn't really like the idea of a possibly homeless trans youth staying at her house. So she ordered me to stay there until the morning when she would take her jet back here to assess who her precious niece was staying with. Lexi got a few words with her but she wouldn't budge.So we just decided to have fun until the early morning.

We woke up at one pm to the sound of the main door opening. Éleonora entered and the first thing she did was call Lexi. “Alexis, I know how you feel about street kids but you can't take one in. Not with the news I have for you anyways. You know how you always wanted a sibling? Well, I just discovered were my idiot brother-in-law has been hiding all this years and I happen to know that he as a son as old as you.”

“I have a twin?”

“Yes, a twin with a name that is going to amaze you. He is also going to come to live here with us as soon as I can make your idiot father sit down and talk to me.Sadly tho, your street kid will have to find somewhere else because there's no way I'm going to have three kids in this house.”

“Auntie!”

“Sorry, it's true, me and Robin don't want to have to take care of more than two kids, life is unfair deal with it, anyway were is your new trans friend so I can search her in case she took something.”

I stood up and went to see the aunt who would seal my fate by separating from a girl who had almost become like me sister.

I walked in her line of sight and the moment she saw me she stood, there, paralyzed.

“Are you...No way! … What are YOU doing here?”

Éleonora calmed down and after a while she started speaking more clearly.

“Is your birth name Alexis Tremblay like my niece over there?” She said pointing at Lexi and looking at me with very hopeful eyes.

The hamster in my brain started spinning. Lexi was my sister, my twin sister! How lucky of an encounter that had been! I looked at her with tears in my eyes and I answered her question. “Yes, auntie.”

She hugged me. “Good, this mean that I won’t have to worry about you being with your father anymore. A few days after you were born, he ran away with the two of you. My parents called the police but they told us that he looked sane enough to take care of you, he ended up putting your sister for adoption and keeping you. But since I had found him questionable since the day I met him so I couldn’t help but worry about you all those years you were gone from my life. Sorry, about those comments from before I have been stressing hard since I found out that after all these years you were still with him and not with a more suitable family.”

“It's alright, I get it.”

“No, it's not alright I could have scared you to the point of running away and then I might have lost you to the streets. I have been way too stressed out these past few days, I'm sorry.”

“It's alright auntie.”

“No, it's not alright Alexis. I have been searching for you and your sister for the last five years and I could have lost you last night for a very stupid reason. ”

“Not as stupid as calling both of your twins Alexis!” Said my sister trying to lighten up the mood.

“Your father did that because after the death of your mother he wasn’t very lucid. You both ended up with the same name because he forgot that he had already dealt with one of your birth certificates and ended writing the same exact thing in the other certificate. Mom and dad should have probably questioned his state of mind and had him checked but by the time they realized that he had lost is mind Alexis the biological girl had been adopted and the Alexis the biological boy was gone with his dad. He probably thought he could cope better if he only raised a son and not a son and a daughter. Mom and dad, your maternal grandparents, lost contact with him and they spent the last years of their lives searching for the both of you and hoping you were both OK. Anyway, it’s really awkward to call you both by the same name so how do you want to be called Alexis number 2?”

“Lexi, here present,” I said pointing at my new twin sister “has been calling me Alex.”

“OK, Alex do you want to talk about your father over brunch? Your sister didn’t tell me everything when I called her last night. She told me that you were abused so I need to know all the facts if I want you to be retired from his care.”

“Sure, auntie.”

Both I and Lexi went to change in our room.

“Who is Robin?” I asked Lexi as we started changing.

“Auntie’s wife, she’s spends most of her time in France. Why do you ask?”

“Auntie said that she and Robin didn’t want to have to care for more than two kids and I got curious about who that Robin person was. Have you met her? Is she nice?”

“She is and I love her very much, but she and aunt Éleonora spend most of their time between here, France, Japan and New York City so I haven’t seen her very often.”

“Why?” I asked finishing changing and applying some lip gloss afterwards.

“She and auntie are antiques dealers, they buy things in Europe and Asia and then sell them to collectors in the Americas. The only reasons they come here is to take care of me, and pretty soon they will be coming to take of you too.”

“Wouldn’t it have been more convenient for them to just move you to France or NYC?”

“I asked aunt Éleonora about it once but she told me she was searching for something in Montreal and that she couldn't quit this city before finding it. Now that I know that she was searching for you I am quite happy we didn’t move out,” She said pulling me out in a hug that made me blushed. “If we had moved I couldn’t have met you. Aunt Robin always says that if you have faith fate might give you a hand and while I didn’t believe her before, now I do.”

Aunt Éleonora opened the door right then and made a fuss at us for not finishing dressing up quicker.

We went to a quite small restaurant for brunch and not even seconds after starting to eat my aunt started her interrogation.

“Alex, can you please tell me how did your father abuse you?”

I was a little hesitant about this, but I started talking.

“Most of what he has done for the last three years or so has been verbal abuse and privation of food. He didn’t like my appearance or my attitude because he thought I looked and acted too much like a girl so one day he just told me that until I was ready to man up I would only eat at lunch and that even then I would only eat enough to avoid undernourishment. I wasn’t allowed any snacks or pocket money and if he ever found out that I had eaten, the weekend he would force me to stay in the basement where he would cut the water and force me to stay there without any source of entertainment or food.”

Éleonora got angry. “What, a pathetic excuse for a man! Really! Not allowing you to eat food because you didn’t look tough what kind of moron doesn’t realize the stupidity in those actions. Did he had a bad reaction when he learned you were trans is that why you were outside late at night?”

“No, he doesn’t know about my gender issues, I mean he knows that I’m not a man’s man but he doesn’t know that (for now at least) I identify as a girl. Friday, my male clothes were swapped for females ones so I couldn’t go back home that is why I was out late.”

“Wait, you don’t attend school as a girl?” Asked both my sister and my aunt at the same time.

“No, not for now (and I never had the thought of doing it).”

“Alex, when did you first started dressing up as a girl?”

I blushed. “Since my clothes were swapped on Friday.”

They both looked at each other and then Auntie started talking. “You are kidding us, right? You look so natural as a girl, we thought you had to have been doing this for a while. In fact, I thought I would have to have a discussion with you about any pills that might have been taking because I thought you were taking clandestine puberty blockers. Alex, did you ever have your body checked out for any anomalies? ”

“Dad, made me go to see a doctor two months ago, in July, to see if I wasn’t secretly intersex and they didn’t find anything. I’m just a late bloomer.”

“Well, as soon as we have dealt with your father I’m going to find you a psychiatrist to start your transition I wouldn’t want you to wake up one day and realize that you had turned into a giant lumberjack like your scandalous father.”

We were home at 3 pm and Auntie Éleonora decided that tomorrow both I and Lexi would be skipping school to go meet our father. I would be doing it dressed up as a girl because Auntie thought that my father wouldn’t try to keep me if he realized that my gender wasn’t the one he wanted to implant in me.

At one point, Aunt Robin, Éleonora’s wife, called enquiring about auntie’s day. When Éleonora told her about me she was very surprised, she hadn’t expected her wife’s five year long search to finish so abruptly. We talked for a while and I thought she sounded very nice I couldn’t wait to meet her l next Sunday.

After the call, the three of us watched some movies and played some cards until midnight came and then both Lexi and I went to sleep on the couches in the lounge room.

At 7 am, auntie called dad to make sure he would be home. She told him that I had spent the weekend with her and that we thought about perhaps making this a permanent thing. He seemed to disagree for a second, but then said that we could come right now to discuss about it as he had the day off.

30 minutes later, we were standing of the very poorly maintained lawn of my old house. My twin and I had decided together that we would be wearing matching floral dresses so we did.

Auntie walked to the porch and we followed her a few centimetres behind. Due to my attire I was getting a little bit anxious, but I wasn’t the only one, Lexi was stressing because she was going to face the had gave her away 15 years ago for being a girl.

Éleonora knocked on the door and we waited for a while hearing signs of movement behind the door. After five minutes, dad opened the door and seemed to be shocked at the sight of two girls who were identical on all points but their height. He took a good look at me and closed the door.

“What do we do now? Auntie,” Said Lexi with tears in her eyes it was clear that her being rejected by dad had bothered her a lot.

Our aunt held her closer. “You, nothing sweetie, I on the other side will be making a call to my attorney. We might have a legal battle for your new sister.”

We turned away and then the door opened again, we were about to turn again when we heard a loud noise and our aunt collapsed to the ground bleeding. I looked at the door and I saw my father aiming his shotgun at me.

“Alexis, is this how you repay me? I take care of you for fifteen years, fifteen, I send you to private school, keep a roof over you and try to make a man out of you for your own sake and then you repay me by dressing up as a girl and saying you want to live with your fucking aunt. You are such a fucking disappointment kid! I shouldn’t have kept you, I should have just put you on adoption like your sister. I should have known that you kids were only trouble, after all, YOU killed your mother! ”

Tears started running down his face.

“I should kill you, I should fucking kill you, just like I’m about to kill that bitch Éleonora right now. You overstepped your bounds, girl, you corrupted my son and then you brought back the torturous memory that is his sister. God, I fucking hate you, if I had known you would do this to me I would have killed when your sister first introduced us 20 years ago.”

Éleonora stated talking with difficulty “You would have killed me when I was six? What kind of sick freak are you!” After saying those words she coughed blood and restarted “I should have told Jeanne that you looked suspicious. I should have sabotaged your relationship. God, I have been foolish, really foolish, I should have known the moment Alex talked about abuse that it wouldn’t have be a good idea to meet you with the kids present,” She started gasping for air and then passed out.

Lexi unfroze and started doing CPR on our aunt while panicking. “Auntie! Stay with us please don’t give up! ” She stated crying “Please, not now! Not after only four months of being with you. Not now that we had everything to make a functional family.” Lexi eyes were a like a broken dam and my dam broke shortly afterwards. I opened my mouth and went at it.

“Why did you do this, dad, why? She just wanted us to be happy! I would have been out of your life after this. Why do you have to ruin everything for me? You said we killed mom but, fuck, dad, we were only babies. Auntie is right you are sick freak! I should have known better than to let you abuse me. Why? Why do you hate me so much? Why do you hate us so much? ”

He didn’t have time to respond because moments later we could hear the police arrive. He kicked me, ran to his pickup truck and sped away.

Auntie was in critical condition for hours. The doctors said that there was significant damage to her spine and lungs and that although she might heal, she would probably never walk again.

Lexi and I were totally out of it having just experienced one of the most traumatic experiences in our young lives so we didn’t comment on the dire future of my newly discovered aunt. I barely knew anything about her, but she had been ready to fight my dad with me, an act that made her a heroine in my eyes, but that had as a cost her ability to walk. I felt guilty, really guilty because none of this would have happened if she hadn't met me.

Lexi could perhaps see my guilt because she held me close to her and just told me that it wasn’t my fault, auntie would have gone to see him as soon as she would have found me. I wanted to argue but she stopped me.

“Alex, it isn’t your fault, alright! It's our father’s fault! He is the one who pulled the trigger not you can’t spend blame yourself for everything it’s annoying.”

“Not as annoying as you fucking treating me like a kid all the time!” I said raising my tone.

“I treat you like a kid because you act like kid. You are so egocentric thinking that everything happens because of your actions,” She said in angry voice.

“Girls, calm down!” Said a young dark haired woman with runny makeup and a Parisian accent. I recognized the voice but I couldn’t tell where from. Before I could figure it out the woman restarted talking “I know that Nora being in the hospital is stressing you but don’t you dare start fighting right now. You have just met each other, don’t sabotage your relationship so soon.”

I was going to ask who she was but Lexi answered for me.

“Sorry Aunt Robin, sorry Alex. I just didn’t want you to do something foolish because of your guilt. Even if we have just met each other, I care about you a lot. I have done so since I saw you, a girl with similar features as me, lying on a bench.”

“I am sorry too, Lexi, I just have been taught that when something goes wrong it's my fault. It's hard to forget one's education”

Lexi and I hugged

“Good,” Tearfully said Aunt Robin “At least I will have something less to worry about tonight. Your stupid aunt should have consulted me before doing something so impulsive.” Her tears started streaming. “Such a fool, I leave her alone a minute and then she gets shot.” She sobbed for a minute and we took her to see auntie who was peacefully sleeping. “Girls, promise me that if anything like this ever happens you will tell me. Nora might be 26 but she still acts like a teenager sometimes, she thinks she is mighty, invincible. Yet clearly, *sob* she is not.”

We slept in the waiting room while Aunt Robin made some call and enquiries. I don’t know if she slept that night because when she took us eat at a restaurant the next morning, she was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

We sat, we started eating and she started talking “Girls, they still haven’t found him. He is still at large and the police haven’t got a clue to where he could have gone. ”

“Isn’t that dangerous for us?” Asked Lexi, worried.

“Yes, which is why I got my father to pull a few political strings. You will be able to stay in France for an unlimited amount of time. Nora and I had planned to sell the house here and buy a house over there anyway so it’s not a bother to us. We can’t move your aunt yet, so until we buy the house and your aunt is ready to travel we will send you to a boarding school near the Alps. ”

“Boarding school?” We both enquired.

“Yes a boarding school, a girl’s school actually. Sorry, Alex. I know it’s not been that long since you have taken the role of a girl and I also know that you are slightly confused about your gender but they were the only ones that could take the both of you at such a short notice. ”

“I will have to go to school as girl?” I asked.

“Yes, at least until Christmas, afterwards if you feel like going back to being a boy we will transfer you to the boy's school just in front of it.”

“Do they know about my status?”

“Yes and because they already have some transgender students. The only thing is that you will have to share a room with your sister and another trans girl. Which I hope is not going to make uncomfortable Lexi.”

“Why would being with another girl and my sister bother me?” Said Lexi while grinning.

“Good, some girls get uncomfortable sharing with trans girls so I wanted to be sure you were OK with it. Oh and Alex for all your stay at the school you will be on blockers, is that fine by you? ”

“Yes.”

“Good, because you are flying as soon as we go back at the house and pick your stuff up. I know it's quick but there’s no way I’m letting you stay one more night in this city with your psycho father running around.” She paused and then restarted “Oh and I almost forgot, if its fine by you, I would like to start the process of adopting the both of you. Éleonora and I discussed doing this before she got shot but because the both of you barely know us I want to know if it’s OK with you. ”

“OK by me, I love the both of you very much.” Said Lexi hugging her.

I said: “I just want a functional family,” and joined the hug.

I got a passport made last summer when the school took us on a biking trip south to Vermont. Now I had use for it again.

I never flew before and neither did my newly discovered sister. We were flying in first class and we were right beside each other. She slept most of the flight but I didn’t catch any sleep, I was worried. Two weeks ago I was a lonely boy who had never wore any girl clothes and who did his best to try to be a boy and now I was forced to be a girl for what 2 months? I am pretty sure the girls there will smell the rat and start bullying me. Lexi also worried me. She had been lovely until now but what if she took a dislike at me, we barely knew each other. What if we discovered things about each other that we would totally hate and that would break our fragile relationship? Could I cope with a sister who didn’t like me? Not only that, there was also the case of my aunts, who would eventually be our moms, would they be safe with my dad running around the city with a loaded weapon? There was so much stuff to worry about, my life had become very complicated in the space of four days and I didn't know how I would cope with it.

We arrived in France, at the Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport, early on Wednesday morning, there, we were to meet a school representative that would take us to our final destination. I said we were because the representative came late, we probably had been waiting for 2 hours when she finally came. Her name was Marie-Lune Pissard and she told us she had been late due to a strike that had prevented her from taking the train.

After loading our things in her expensive looking car we were on our way.

“We don’t often get transfers at our school and even then it’s unheard of anyone transferring so soon after the start of the school year did, something happen?” Asked us Ms. Pissard.

Lexi answered for us. “Our parents thought it would be best if we changed school, our old one being inadequate.”

“And they sent you across the pond?” She said not really believing us.

“Well, they thought a change might be welcomed,” I answered this time.

“Look, I can tell when people are lying to me so there is no point in it. If you don’t want to talk about it, say so. Honesty is a primordial value.”

“Sorry, Madame,” We said at the same time.

A few awkward minutes passed.

“So, have you heard of your school before?”

I wanted to go for the polite answer but remembering what she had said minutes before I decided to go for the honest answer. “Not really.”

“Oh, were you invited then? Is that why you didn’t want to talk about the transfer. Did you get your invitation late? ”

“Invited?”

While we couldn’t see her face, we clearly knew that that what we had just said bothered her, like if what we had just said had been completely unbelievable.

“You are Alex Tremblay and Lexi Tremblay right, nieces of Robin Valois and Éleonora Lafronde. I haven’t mistaken your identity, right? ”

“Yes, why?” we both said at the same time.

“Why, well what you just said sounds hard to believe, normally students either hear about the school and their parents are rich enough to pay their way into it or either you get your tuition paid by the school and are invited join . What you just said doesn’t fit.”

A rich girl’s school, great, I am going to be the odd one out in more ways than one. Not only that, the only people that could come from the same socioeconomic background as me probably all great athletes our geniuses. My school year is going to be great.

“Well our aunts are quite opulent,” Said Lexi.

“And you aren’t?”

“We pretty much are orphans and they are adopting us.”

“And they are sending you to the dorms?”

“Only until Christmas, our aunt Éleonora isn’t feeling well enough to travel.”

“Oh, booger, I hope then you find your stay at our little village agreeable.”

“Village?” My twin and I inquired both at the same time.

Madame Pissard laughed. “It’s what we call the space occupied by the Louise Larivière School for girls, the St Simmons School for boys, our coed sister institution La Nova Academia and the University were all our students go: The university of Château Perdu. Together we form a community of about 100 000 souls’, parents and staff included. Most of our students come from rich families and/or powerful families who can't go to other institutions due to security problems or fear of not being able to live a normal life. Our school only being know by few we don’t have to deal with the Paparazzi or noisy journalists. We also of course have greatly talented individuals invited on scholarships . A particularity of schools thought, is that a third of our students are randomly invited individuals from different backgrounds and all of them have greatly variant degrees of academic skill, we invite them for them to form a network, to avoid elitism in our school and for them to obtain quite valuable diplomas. ”

“How can your diplomas be valuable if nobody ever hears about your schools?” Asked Lexi.

“People in academia tend to know about us and so do the people at most enterprises our alumni end up at.”

“You sound like the kind of institutions that would secretly serve as training ground for spies or that would be in cahoots with some kind of secret organization,” I said with hopeful eyes.

“You read too much fiction sweetie, this isn’t that kind of story,” She said while laughing.

“Well, you can never be too hopeful.”

“No, you can’t,” She said while laughing again.

Lexi and I started talking about everything and nothing and eventually just started sleeping.

We woke up to a quite large lake surrounded by trees and overlooked by a building on a hill who seemed to be the university. All around the lake you could see houses who looked like they belonged on the other side of the border in Switzerland. On the waterfront stood a quite majestic building who looked like quite Parisian.

“Welcome to the community of Sainte Marine des Lacs, as you can see having rich benefactors has helped up us maintain quite lavish looking facilities. Your school, which is the building you just saw has a community pool, a theatre and multiple multimedia rooms. Physical activity is done in the communal centre which is just out of view. There you can practice any sport you want. At the back of our school there is a farm where all our meals are prepared. If you want to get out there are special cabs that can take you to Annecy or Geneva. As minors you can only take them on weekends, mind you. ”

We didn’t hear most of what she said afterwards because we were dazzled by the amazing sights that composed our school and the community.

Madam Pissard drove us to the dorms a three story old Swiss home and she showed our rooms.

“Welcome to my dorm, sweeties. It’s 3pm now and while school is finished most students are doing club activities which for your school, is mandatory. ”

“You said our school, aren’t you associated with them?” I asked.

“No, the dorms are only separated by gender not by institution. We have girls from Louise Larivière and La Nova Academia. The girls outnumber to boys 2 to 1 in this community so we unlike the boys have to share. ”

“What were the buildings on the lakefront? They didn’t seem to be big enough to be dorms,” I asked.

“Staff, parents and alumni houses, some people really love it around here.”

“I can understand why,” Said Lexi.

“Your room is the 207, you can take your time to organize your things as your roommates will take quite some time before coming back here. Your uniforms will be on your beds.”

“What do you think?” Asked Lexi while we were going up the stairs.

“Of what?”

“What do you think of the dorms, the school, the community, everything we have seen until now, what do you think of it?”
I answered honestly: “Until I’ve met the people I don’t want to say anything. The people make or break an institution for me.”

We opened the door to our room. There were four beds on each side of the room and a bike window at the end of it. I was a little bit worried didn’t Aunt Robin say that we were only be three in our room? On the left side beds there were a few red blazers, some blouses, a few black bow-ties and some plaited red skirts.

We put our things in the closet that was on our side and then started charging our new cellphones, given to us by Aunt Robin before boarding our plane. It was 4pm, so I decided to call her.

“Hi, Aunt Robin?”

“Alex, how is it going?”

“For now, well. Did you know about the true nature of the institution you sent us to?”

“Well, seeing as my wifie and I are both graduates from the university of Château Perdu I have to say that yes.”

“And you didn’t say anything?”

“We aren’t legally allowed to speak about the community in public places.”

“Isn’t that what you doing right now?”

“No, I’m at home right now. I couldn’t stay much longer without taking a shower.”

“Are we all going to live near here, when you adopt us?”

“We were planning to live in Annecy, but now that you mention it wouldn’t be that of an idea. There is a hospital and a heliport in the community so it would be quite safe for your auntie to be moved here when the time comes. I will discuss it with your auntie when she feels better, Bye sweetie. ”

“Bye, Auntie Robin,” Said Lexi joining in on our call at the last minute.

We both decided to take a nap, as we were still tired from our trip across the Atlantic.

Our door opened and there stood two girls, one was wearing the red uniform of our new school and the other was wearing a blue variation of it with a blue tartan skirt. The girl with the red uniform seemed quite frightened at my sight and for some reason she seemed to remind me of someone. Blue uniform girl had her hair strawberry blond hair braided in a bun and red uniform girl had her black long hair in a high ponytail. She had some very intense blue eyes, they reminded me of a bully I had two years prior, a Russian lad who was quite overweight, not like the fit girl who stood in front of me. Misha, the Russian bully disappeared two summers ago and no one ever heard from him again. Maybe the girl standing in front of me was his sister? I mean, it’s a small world it wouldn’t be that unlikely.

The girl with the blue uniform, who I could already tell was quite bubbly, started talking. “Hi! The tall one must be Lexi and the short one Alex. Happy to meet you I am Aishling McFlann, from Ireland, one of your new roommates. I have never heard of anyone transferring in early October so I might ask you some questions about it later. The girl beside me, is my Russian-Canadian stepsister. ”

The black-haired girl couldn’t stop looking at me like she wanted to say something. Could she be?
Aishling restarted talking before I had time to clarify my thoughts.

“What’s up Misha, you aren’t that shy usually. Are you intimidated by the number of redheads in the room?” She said while laughing.

Misha started talking: “I’m sorry, so, so sorry, for everything I have done to you Alexis,” She was on the verge of tears.

To be honest, I didn’t know how to react. In front of me stood one of many bullies that I had in my lifetime. A person who used to beat me for being feminine, was standing, there, in front of me crying while wearing a skirt. Was she projecting on me the frustrations that she accumulated throughout the years? Was she in a bad period of her life when she met me? I didn’t have much time to think about that because her Irish stepsister started talking.

“You know Alex, Misha?”

“I used to bully her.”

“What! You, bully someone, that’s kind of weird. I mean you are so kind, I could hardly see you do that. ”

“It was the old me. A version of me you never met because it was before your father met my mother. Sit please, there is quite a long time before supper and I’m going to tell you what happened even if I know that it will not justify my actions. ”

We all sat on our beds and Misha started talking

“I had always known I was different. I wasn’t like the boys I had befriended throughout the years. For one, I liked boys and two, I felt like a girl on the inside. I can imagine, Alexis or Alex like they call you these days that you understand what I felt inside? ”

I wanted to say, that no, that I had just started questioning my gender identity and that I wasn’t sure about my sexual orientation but I thought it would break the mood so I just nodded.

“Well those thoughts, weren’t welcome in my house. My father, an old-school Russian man who had come to Canada to escape communism hated those ideas and would have killed me if I had ever thought of uttering them in my house.”

Same situation as me then. Apology instantly accepted. Even if I am still mad about the time Misha pushed me in a soiled toilet. I didn’t want to interrupt her story so I just said a few words.

“I get that, Misha, our father trying to kill me is how me and my newly discovered sister got here.”

Misha looked horrified at my comment and so did her sister. “Your father tried to kill you?”
Commented Aishling.

“Yes, and he almost managed to do it but we were saved by the police just in time,” I answered.

“Our aunt, who is adopting us, isn’t that lucky though, she will never walk again,” Added Lexi.

“Damn, your life has been hard since I last met you Alex. Anyway, like I was saying my father would have killed me if he had known that since I was about six I had known that I was girl inside, so I decided to hide it and by hiding it I meant trying to act as manly possible. I would cause trouble, get into fights and bully other kids, in particular Alex, here present, who was an easy target due to her small size. ”

“What allowed you to become to person you are right now?” I asked her.

“My father died from a heart attack and I was set free. A few days after he died, I started buying girl clothes and stashing them in my room. I didn’t have to eat my emotions anymore so I started losing some weight too. Every day of that spring, I would run home to my room, change into my comfortable new clothes and practice makeup. One day while trying them on, my mother discovered me and pretty much kick-started my transition and my weight loss, a few months afterwards my mom got hired at the Louise Larivière School for girls and months later she met the father of Ash while hiking around the community. Pretty much a lucky streak. ”

So my bully was getting happier and happier as my life got sadder and sadder, fun stuff. If I didn’t genuinely believe that she was a changed person I might have been mad but I am not a vengeful person, so I just decided to let it go.

“Quite the happy tale,” I said.

“Yes, quite the happy tale,” Repeated Misha.

Misha looked at the clock and realizing that it was almost time for supper she entered our en-suite bathroom and changed out of her uniform her sister on the other side, just changed in front us, or more like my sister as I was looking at the wall, one week ago I still was a guy and some girl things made me quite uncomfortable.

A few minutes afterwards, we went to the dining room with Misha and her sister. There were about 40 girls in there. We sat with Misha and Aishling in a table who could sit 6 people. We asked the pair of girls if they had other friends that were coming. Our question was quickly answered when an Afro-Asian girl and a blonde girl walked towards us and sat at our table.

“Hello, Misha. Hello, Ash. Who are those new faces?” Asked the tall blonde.

“I am Alex and my twin is Lexi, happy to meet you.”

“Your names sound like the name Alexis, any relative with that name? “Asked the other girl.

Lexi and I each gave the other a look. We pointed at each other and said: “Yes, her!”

All the other people at our table were confused, including Misha.

“I know your full name Alex, but your sister as the same name as you? “Asked Misha.

“Yep, which is why our aunt Robin enrolled us with our nicknames,” I said

“You were enrolled? Don't you mean invited? No offence but last time I saw you, you were starving daily even if you were going to private school. I could hardly see your family being able to pay this school.”

“Our aunts are rich, they are adopting us after the incident with our father.”

“Incident?” Said both girls whose names I still didn’t know.

Before we could answer Aishling started talking: “It’s a long story, if the twins are alright with it I might talk you about it later.”

I wanted to ask the girls for their name but Lexi cut me short. The blonde one was Brynhildr Baash and her mixed friend was Esmeralda Mori Villanueva. Esme’s dad was an Afro-Colombian rapper and her mother a Japanese Idol both met on an American concert in which they were scheduled to perform one after the other. Bryn’s father was an incredibly rich banker who didn’t have time for her. We talked about a lot of things during dinner. Esme had noticed that Misha and I knew each other and they wanted to know more about our relationship. Misha didn’t want to say to her best friends the kinds of torture she had put me through and I didn’t want to relieve them so Ash who could read her stepsister like an open book closed the subject by saying that we went to the same school and that was that. Esme and Bryn got curious but sensing the distress in Misha, their best friend, they decided to shut up.

I changed the subject. “So Bryn, Esme do you go to the girl’s school or academy whatever…”

Esme answered. “We go to the girl’s school. Alex and Lexi, where do you go? ”

“The girl’s school too,” I said.

“You should both join the cheer-leading club then, clubs being mandatory it would be better if you were in one with people you at least know.”

I had a thought in my mind, something about cheer-leading usually being were trans-girls ended up at in the few transgender fiction stories I read on the plane to France. It reminded me of what Mme Pissard said earlier about this not being that kind of story. I had a chuckle. My life these past few days hinted to what kind of story?

This week has been weird, really weird in fact. Aunt Éleonora has been shot and she might never walk again, I met the despicable man that is my father, I crossed the ocean and of course I met the catalyst for all of this: my sister Alex. It was strange meeting her the way I did. Walking in the park in the early morning, thinking about perhaps going to help at the homeless centre where I spent a few months before meeting my aunties and then stumbling upon someone who looked like me in miniature! I couldn’t help but wanting to protect her since the moment I met her, she reminded me of Rose my adopted little sister who died with my adopted parents last year.

Rose was two years younger than me and she was so full of life, always active, always talking and always trying to make me do new things. She was lovely but back then I used to think she was annoying. *sob* I didn’t really appreciate her. She was the best little sister in the world and I didn’t give her the love she deserved. I also didn’t give enough love to my papa and my maman, I guess than knowing that you are adopted can stop you from giving love to others… I miss them... Auntie Nora and Auntie Robin are great but I don’t have with them the 14 years of love I shared with my old family… I can’t help but hate the man who decided to just ram into their car while I was away in summer camp. That man ruined the happiness that I had, the happiness that I had started being comfortable with since being told that I was adopted.

The six months in foster care that followed their deaths really shook me up and really changed me. I was beaten every day by the girls there, they were so jealous of me that they couldn’t help but wanting to ruin me. My foster parents didn’t care about my physical abuse, so I just ran out one day and I didn’t come back. I lived in homeless centres all winter and all spring, in summer I was saved by Auntie Nora but I had already changed. I lost about 15 pounds and I didn’t want to trust people anymore. Nora and Robin got to me, but it was hard, really hard, for them, not for me I was numb back then, numb to everything, numb to everyone.

The summer of therapy that I had this year, helped, but this past week has put such a toll on me... I would have probably fallen back into my depression if there wasn’t someone that I wanted to protect. Alex needs me, or at least I want her to need me. Even though Nora told me that she’s technically my older twin sister ,being born a few minutes before me, I can’t help but wanting to protect her. I don’t want to lose her, I don’t want to lose Auntie Nora, I don’t want to lose my family again, not after just having met them.

Alex his fragile, very fragile, she has been acting cynical these last two days and she has not been crying like the days before, but she’s upset, really upset the nightmares she has been having each time she has gone to sleep have been proof of that. I don’t want to upset her by being too close to her, but I might want to try to do the same activities as her, I will act as a bodyguard if any bullies show up.

I checked my cellphone 2 am. God it’s late, I have to wake up in four hours and I haven’t been able to stop thinking since our meeting with the cheerleaders at dinner. I hope its jet lag and not insomnia again. I will need sleep to deal with whatever life decides to throw at me.

Yesterday was something else entirely, I didn’t expect to find out that Misha was a girl. Nor did I expect to have so much fun with her at our welcoming party after dinner. She might have been a terrible person as a boy, but damn if she wasn’t a nice girl. Girl, am I one of those? I mean I have spent the last 5 days living as one and honestly I think I am quite comfortable as one. That’s a good thing, because I wouldn’t want to move to another accommodation, without my sister, in December, if Auntie Nora and Auntie Robin aren’t able to move here before the end of the year.

I really appreciate the attention given by Lexi even if she really mothers me. I guess than being as small as I am, I remind her of her lost little sister. She talked about her old family in the hospital but she didn’t want to give me much details. A year isn’t that long, so she must still be suffering … I guess I’m not the only broken person in my new family…

Morning was brutal to say the least. At seven everyone was to be out of the dorms and in direction to school but Lexi and I really had problems with jet lag so we arrived quite late at school. Now we are waiting for the principal in his office and I really hope he isn’t going to be upset, because I wouldn’t want the first impression he as of us to be negative.

The door opened and a man in his early fifty’s came in, he looked similar to aunt robin but he had blond hair unlike her dark black hair.

The man looked at us and smiling started talking at us. “Hi, soon to be granddaughters, is everything well? Have you had trouble sleeping? ”

Well that explained how Aunt Robin got us in such a prestigious school at such a fast speed, her father was the principal of our school! Talk about a surprise!

Lexi talked for me. “Granddaughters?”

“Yes, granddaughters. Didn’t Robbie tell you, you were going to my school? ”

I answered. “She just told us that you were the only one that could take us at such short notice. I didn’t expect the reason to be that we are becoming family. ”

“Girls, we already are family. Your existence has allowed me talk to Robin for the first time in years! That is enough for me to consider you family. I upset her a few years ago when I said that she was an egoist for not wanting to marry a man to continue our family. Dumb comment I know, but I was dumb back then and I hadn’t really accepted her liking girls. What I said upset her so much that she ran away with your aunt as soon as they both got their doctorates. I didn’t see her for three years… and time made me realize that my daughter could still continue our family line even if she married a woman and that her liking girls really wasn't something I should meddle in. I wanted to talk to her but she never answered my calls. When Robbie called me to tell about your situation, I was upset about what happened to you and yet relieved that she wasn’t going to ignore me all her life. ”

Well, that was an interesting story. I wasn’t the only one who had a bad coming out story in my new family. Aunt Nora being shot at least had positive impacts for someone…

I started talking “ Mr. the principal…” I was interrupted.

“Grandpa, call me like that, we are family after all. I have been lacking a family for the last three years so I don’t really give a damn if anyone says that the way you address me or the way I address you is too informal. ”

“Well, grandpa we have talked with Aunt Robin about moving here… ” I was interrupted again.

“You have? How wonderful! What did she say? ”

Our grandpa didn’t really act his age or like his post required to…

I restarted talking before I lost myself into my thoughts “We might move here if Aunt Nora wants to… but we will have to wait until Aunt Nora is ready to be moved.”

“Have they found a house?”

“Not yet, we just started talking about this yesterday… ”

“Well next time Robbie calls, convince her to talk to me I might have an idea about where she might want to live… Oh and dear granddaughters have you thought about which club you might want to join? Due to your late arrival we had to impose you a schedule but you have the chance to join any club in our community, our clubs being communal you might make friends in other schools.”

I talked. “Is there a writing club or a literature club?”

Grandpa was surprised by my question and his expression changed from his goofy one to a more serious one. “Yes, there is a club that corresponds to what you search, but I wouldn’t recommend it…There's been some very serious rumours about them.”

I looked at him curiously “What kind of rumours?”

“The kind of rumours that would make me extremely worried if you were to join that club.”

“Grandpa, can you stop talking in riddles, please? What really happens in that club?” Asked Lexi.

“They are innocent until proven guilty so I shouldn’t spread any rumours about them until their investigation is over.”

I gave him a look. Investigation, innocent… something messed up is happening there … I will have to make an investigation of my own. Maybe Misha and the rest of the girls will know something about the rumours.

Grandpa expression changed from the serious one of his latest interventions to what seemed to be his usual one. He then restarted talking. “Anyway, are you girls ready for the dance on Saturday?”

“Dance?” Lexi and I said at the same time.

“Every first Monday of the month, all the schools in our community organize together to make a dance were everybody dresses up like if we were in a high society party at the start of 20th century. Didn’t Robbie told you that? It’s in one of those parties she met Éleonora. ”

Aunt Robin kept a lot of details out of our conversations, a lot of them…
“She didn’t tell us a lot of things …”

“Ah … so she is as forgetful as always.... Do you have any friends to go shopping around for the dance?”

I thought about Misha, Ash, Brynhildr and Esmeralda. Would they be up for going shopping Friday afternoon? I answered grandpa: “Perhaps…”

“Well if you don’t find anyone, I am sure that Juliette, your grandma, would love to take you out shopping. By the way here’s your schedules.” Grandpa handed Lexi and I some papers and restarted talking “We have given you math, French, English, Spanish, physics, chemistry and history of the western civilization. You share all those classes, so I hope you like each other. The only class you don’t share is tennis. Because of Alex condition she is going to use that period to see our school therapist.”

So he did know about my status, weird, I would have thought he would have made it more obvious that he knew about my status, I mean hearing about what he did to Aunt Robin.

“Go to class now girls, your teacher might be annoyed if I keep you around any longer.”

We headed in direction to French class.

Lexi and I started talking.

“Alex, do you still want to check the literary club after school?”

Honestly, yes but if I only said that mama bear Lexi wouldn’t let me. I had to include her that was for sure. “Only, if you come with me.”

“We will check it out then, I am also curious about it... Do you think the girls in our dorm will be down to go shopping with us for ball gowns?”

“I don’t know, but I hope that yes.”

We made it to French class and knocked on the door.

A tall black man opened the door. “Oh, you must be the cannadienes. I am monsieur Jean Maka, Professeur de Français .Entrez, entrez, we were waiting for you.”

French class was nice we didn’t have time to make new friends, but Mr.Maka was nice and had a very nice smile. We were to read “Le Dernier jour d’un condamné” by Victor Hugo by next Thursday but the book was only 80 pages long and multiple copies of it were available at the library of our neighboring University.

We had English next and we were in the same class as Misha. We didn’t really have much time to so we just decided to wait until lunch.

Lunch came and Lexi and I had the first look at where Lunch happened in this school. Misha, Bryn and Esme appeared and led us to a restaurant at the top of the school, it had a view on the lake and the surrounding places of learning. We all sat in a table and ordered our food.

Lexi started the discussion. “I have been wondering… How much does it cost to go to this school normally? All of this is lavish, way too lavish for it to be a few thousand bucks.”

Esmeralda answered “You don’t know? It’s about 150k a year.”

“In what, American Dollars?”

“No, In euros!”

I choked on my drink. “That much! Well I will have to thank grandpa and aunt robin then, because we would have never been able to go in this institution if it wasn't for them.”

“Grandpa?” Commented Misha.

Lexi answered “Our soon-to-be grandpa is the principal.”

It was the other girls turn to suffocate on their drinks. Brynhildr talked this time. “Monsieur Alphonse Lafronde is going to be your grandpa? Lucky you! He is so goofy and kind-hearted.”

Not towards his daughter… I thought.

I changed subjects “Grandpa told us that suspicious thing happened in the literary club, do you know anything about that?”

All girls looked confused “The literature club? “Said Misha.

“Yes.” Lexi answered

“I haven’t heard anything about them… they are mostly comprised of people who aren’t in our school, so we don’t really hear about them. I mean, I have had glances at them in the community center where all the club activities are done but they didn’t look that bad. I will even say they look quite good, really good even…”

“Misha! Stop dreaming about Magnus!” Said Esme.

“Magnus? Who is Magnus?” My sister and I said at the same time.

Brynhildr answered. “He is the most handsome guy at the boys school the other side of the Lake. He has a twin sister named Kristina who goes to La Nova Academia and they both live with their parents on the lakefront. His dad owns a bank or something. ”

“He is so dreamy…” Misha said.

“Yes and so mysterious… ”Said Esmeralda “He has been going to this academy since he was six yet nobody knows that much about him… If the both of you ever befriend him while going to his school could you present us to him?”

“Yes, of course” Said my twin.

“By the way,” She added “We have just learned about the dance Saturday. Tomorrow, being Friday do you want to go shopping with us?”

The other girls gave each other a Look and answered at the same time “Yes, of course!”

“Is Ash invited too?” Asked Misha.

Lexi and I gave each other a look similar to the one the girls gave each other and we answered at the same time. “Yes, of course!”

We all started laughing at the same time. We laughed so much in fact it was as if a troop of hyenas had been dropped off in the middle of the restaurant.

“How was your first morning at school? “Asked me Misha as our laughter quieted down.

“Fine, but there was this blond girl who didn’t stop giving me nasty looks in English.”

“Did she have green eyes and long bangs?”

“Yes, why?”

“That was Simone don’t worry about her, she simply doesn’t like it when people take the attention out of her.”

“Has she ever you know…Bullied anyone?”

“Simone, mmm … I wouldn’t call it bullying but her gang likes to gossip and badmouth people. Don’t worry about her though, she is not going to say anything about you, she is in my cheerleading club and my eldest step-sister, Siobhan, is the coach.So if she tries anything with you and she is going to be out immediately. Her little brain wouldn’t be able to stand not been in the cheerleading squad so she is just going to let you go. ”

We finished our meals and went back to our classes.

The afternoon was really a pain in the butt, we had one hour and a half of physics and another of math. I hated those subjects even though I could handle both of them quite well. Maybe I was so annoyed because I was excited about discovering what the hell was wrong with the literary club.

Today was kind of nice. All the classes were really interesting and the fact that there were only fifteen students for each teacher would probably mean that I would get more attention from the teachers. Although I hadn’t really spoken to anyone I hadn’t met yesterday, I had quite a good impression of most of my new classmates.

Now, I had to deal with my reckless sister and her probably dangerous quest for the truth. As soon as the bell rang the end of the day we entered the communal centre were club activities were held. We asked the receptionist for the room we were searching and a few minutes afterwards we were standing in front of the club’s door.

We knocked on the door and it opened.

I was awe struck. Both twins were like the girls had just said, as the door opened it was as if I had caught sight of two angels.We were greeted at the door by 2 blond twins, a boy and girl, both slightly taller than Lexi at approximately 1,9 meters. They were both extremely attractive to the point were my knees were weakening just from their sight. The guy who I assumed was Magnus looked like a rugged lumberjack with a 5’o clock shadow and his short curly hair. The girl had everything of a Nordic beauty with her beautiful long braided her. Damn… These people had done something wrong? I could hardly believe it and so did my sister who had stupid smile on her face.

Two pairs of blue eyes stared at me, the girl started talking. “Well, hello ladies. May I ask what are you doing here?”

She had a voice that went with her appearance, it was soothing, really soothing I could hardly pronounce the words that came next. “W…w…we are new at our school and clubs being obligatory we thought about joining y…y…yours.”

“New? At this time of the year?” Said the boy with a voice that oozed testosterone.

Damn, last week I would have thought of him as a threat but right now I couldn’t help but be under his charm and his sister’s too.

Lexi answered for the both of us. “Our Grandpa is the principal of Louise Larivière and our aunt not feeling very well we were moved here.”

At the mention of our grandpa being a principal they both crisped a little but I didn’t think a lot it. I mean everyone would have had the same reaction, right? I hoped that yes, because honestly right now unless what they had done was murder or rape I couldn’t care less about whatever the investigation was about.

I don’t curse often but, damn, Magnus was attractive! I think that our investigation might have been postponed to oblivion because Alex seemed to be thinking the same thing as I and I was thinking that if he had a skeleton in closet I didn’t want to find it.

Kristina made us sit in a couch near a coffee table while Magnus slammed shut the door to a cupboard and locked it with a key.

I started talking with female twin. “Is it only you in this club?”

“No, we have other members, but they are all boys and they are probably down the hall watching a TV show or something… They always do on Tuesday afternoon.”

Magnus sat right beside of me. I was flustered and I could see myself become as red as Alex who by now looked like she was about to pass out any minute now. My little (secretly older) sister seemed thrilled to be near Kristina.

“So if I heard well, you want to join our club?”

“Yes!” We both said nervously.

“I’m going to need you to do something then…hum…”

“I am Lexi and she is Alex.” I said while pointing to my sister who really looked like she was about to pass out.

“Well then, Lexi, I would like you to go to the dance with me while my sister goes with your sister. Would that be fine? ”

Was that even a question?

“Yes, of course!” I said with Alex joining me mid-sentence.

We continued chitchatting with the twins until supper time came. Not only were they good looking but they were also very interesting and very smart. Our infatuation, or at least my infatuation had calmed a little and I started realising that if they had something to hide they wouldn’t have any problem doing it, because not only people wouldn’t doubt anything they said, they might also be able to charm their way out of most situations. They were also rich, which didn’t mean much in this school, but that might have helped them in other situations. Magnus and Kristina were scary, very scary actually. I talked about them with Lexi as we were walking back to the dorms.

“Stupid hormones! I couldn’t interrogate any of them because they were so… just so… ” I said.

“Attractive.” Offered Lexi.

“Yes, attractive, way too attractive, it shouldn’t be legal to be as dreamy as them.”

Lexi and I started laughing.

“Seriously tough, they are scary, I think that they might get away with a ton of things. Did you see how they didn’t essentially distracted us from investigation? If they did that to other students they might be able to reduce to silence witnesses of their possible crimes. That or bribe them with money of their parents,” I said in a very serious tone.

“The day after tomorrow we will be able to investigate them, we just have to be less hormonal on Saturday.”

“Talking about hormones, tomorrow I have to see the school nurse about blockers.”

”Oh, I completely forgot about that.”

“So did I. (Or at least I could hope to truly forget about it one day) ”

We entered the dorm and I promptly went straight to the bathroom were I decided to take the longest and comfiest bubble bath in my life. I had never really had any kind of comfort so being in a rich kids school was kind of the perfect moment to enjoy life. Now, because I don’t like being a bother I Okayed it with Ash, Misha and Lexi first of course.

After my bath, the other girls took some quick showers and we proceeded downstairs for supper.

As we all sat Lexi and I started telling my friends about what had happened with the twins.

“We have dates for the dance!” Screamed Lexi.
“Really, who?” Asked Esmeralda.

“The twins,” I answered. “I’m going with Kristina and Lexi is going with Magnus”

The girls’ eyes popped so much it looked like they were going to go out of their orbits.

Aishling was the first to get out of the stupor and ask us about it. “You scored the Af Eldur twins! Girls you are incredible. No one has managed to have date with any of them and then you newcomers come and snatch both of them. Can you show me your tricks mistresses?” Aishling faked going on one knee on the last sentence and we all laughed.

“What! The Alexis are incredible, you have to admit,” Aishling responded to our collective answer.

“Yes, they are.” Said Misha probably happy that I had forgiven her.

“Can we stop praising the twins and talk about the shopping we are going to do tomorrow instead,” Said Bryn in a serious tone.

All of our expressions dropped.

“They are not going to have more dates with the Af Eldur’s if we don’t find appropriate dresses and accessories for them,” Bryn continued in a more happy tone.

We all giggled making Misha choke on her juice. She turned out alright be we just giggled more and more.

We discussed about other school related stuff and then my roommates and I went back to my room.

“Auntie Robin why you didn’t tell us that we were going to your father’s school,” I scolded her as soon as she answered her cellphone.

“Sorry about that sweetie, but I don’t really like talking about my dad. He is lovable sure, but man if he can’t be a dick sometimes. He says serious stuff in such an immature tone that you can’t help but be angry.”

I understood part of that seeing how he acted first hand.

“Auntie you didn’t only forget about that you forgot to tell us about the dance to.”

“Dance? Oh you mean the monthly dance. Oh my god, how could I forget that I met Nora in one of those. ”

“So we have been told.”

“You talked with dad?”
“He called me and Lexi in his office this morning to talk,” I answered back.

“Please tell me he wasn’t annoying.”

“Not really, but he did say something that kind of lead us to have dates for the dance.”

I didn’t really want to talk about the investigation because unless something really important happened she didn’t have to know about it, I mean her wife was in the hospital we didn’t have to make her worry about us too, that clearly wouldn’t be right.

“You have dates! How are they called?”

“Kristina and Magnus Af Eldur.”

“You mean THE Af Eldurs, their father owns want of the richest bank in all of Scandinavia. Both good catches, right?.”

“Yes they are Auntie Robbie, they are both so cute, especially Kristina.”

“Good, I am happy that you are enjoying yourselves, I have good news on my side of the Ocean too. Nora has woken up. She still isn’t ready to talk, but the doctors says that she might in the following days. ”

I was so happy I couldn’t help but to tell that to Lexi. “Aunt Éleonora has woken up, Lexi.”

“She has! Oh my god, that is so wonderful, can I please talk to auntie please.”

“Oh sure you can, I already told her about everything we had to tell her though.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Said Lexi.

I gave her the phone and she started talking with auntie.

Everything from my night to Friday’s school day was royally boring so I’ m going to spare you details. The important thing was that I and five of my friends were going to go shopping and that because we all had authorizations we were all going to spend the night in a hotel in Geneva. We decided to go there even if Switzerland is crazy expensive because Bryn knows a place with the most gorgeous dresses.

As soon as we arrived in Geneva the first thing we did was check in. At lunch Brynhildr had managed to book us room because of her father’s name. We had 2 rooms, one for Misha, Ash, Lexi and I and the other for Bryn and Esme. As soon as we unpacked our stuff we all changed from our uniforms and readied ourselves to go on an extremely expensive shopping spree. Now, Auntie Robin had put money for us in our accounts so we decided to go to the bank to take some money out.

After the trip to the bank we went to the shop that Bryn talked so much about. We walked and walked in the Swiss streets and we couldn’t find the shop. Or at least that was until we saw a column of fire and firefighters running around and finally an Italian looking man mopping on the sidewalk looking directly at Bryn’s eyes with a very sad look in his eyes.