An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

This might sound a little bit harsh, but I have to say that I am fool. The biggest of fools actually. When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in. I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man without even meeting me once was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer. That was completely ridiculous. I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

Changing my last name wasn’t the part that bothered me, I was expecting it since the moment “father” (I totally meant the quotation marks) decided to “take me in”. The part that really infuriated me was changing my name to Brooke. Although that extra “e” seemed to be an innocent and minuscule change, it had the potential to transform into a terrifying monster that would ruin my life. I was already teased for being small, having shoulder length hair and a gender ambiguous name, if my name started screaming female, I wouldn’t even be able to argue with anyone with those that wanted to tease me.

To say that I didn’t want to go the boarding because there was a chance I might get teased 24/7 was obvious. I didn’t have much of a choice though, it was either the school where I might or might not get teased or continue living with my aunt like I had done for the past few weeks. Thanks, but no thanks to that. Living with my aunt was like being Cinderella or being a certain boy who lived before he was accepted to a certain wizardry school, it was hell! A hell that would hopefully not have an equivalent in my new school. I was already putting my suitcases in the luggage compartment of a bus that would take me half way to my destination, so domain of Hades or not, I couldn’t regret my choice.

I entered the bus and went to the place indicated on my ticket, a seat completely at the back of the bus. I waited for people to come sit near me, but nobody came so I made myself comfortable and then I started recuperating all the sleeping hours I had lost due to my aunt.

“Hey kid, wake up, we have arrived at the terminal.”

I was woken up by the deep voice of a man who seemed to be the driver. I was startled for a second, but I quickly stood up and making sure to apologize to the man whose time I had taken, I exited the bus.

It was raining outside, but I wasn’t worried that worried about it, I mean, I had my suitcases with me, I could change anytime… Or at least I thought so until the universe decided to play a trick on me! I looked at the place where I had put my luggage and I realized it was empty!

Someone had taken my suitcases! I ran back to the entrance of the bus and asked the driver if he had seen my stuff.

“Sorry kid, we are not responsible if anything is lost, so I can’t do anything for you.”

Soon after finishing that sentence, the driver kicked me off his vehicle, closed the door of his vehicle and entered the bus station.

To say that I was livid after that interaction was an understatement. I was about to follow the rude man inside to find his boss and complain to him, but a car passed right beside me driving through an immense puddle of water and large quantities of water flew towards me. I suddenly found myself wet head to toe.

As the first cold drops of waters hit my body, I lost all my will to fight and started remembering the last year. Mother dying, living with my aunt, realising that my father did not care about me, losing all of my possessions and now this! I had managed to hold my tears until that point, but that… that was too much… way too much! The dam that had been holding my tears was about to break and I couldn’t do anything about it.

I just sat on the nearest bench and not caring anymore about keeping my appearance as a tough (although, short) guy, I started crying for the first since I was 5 years old. I reminisced about the past, about how I used to have so much fun with my mom, before cancer took her away from me. I thought about my aunt and how she used to deprive me of most necessary needs…

I had been crying for not even 2 minutes when I heard someone talk to me.

“I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

I lifted my head and I saw a young woman with short red hair talking to me. She seemed to be only few years older than me and she probably was the one that had been driving the car that had put me in this pitiful state. I wanted to be mad at her and tell she was a terrible person for what she had done, but she looked ashamed of what had just happened, so I forgave her.

“It’s Ok, I was already wet anyway,” I said to the girl while sobbing.

“Do you have a change of clothes? I wouldn’t want for you to fall sick because of me… ”

“I just lost all my luggage, it was probably stolen…” I answered truthfully.

The girl looked at me with a mix of shame and sadness.

“Do you live near here? We might be able to call your parents to take you back home and change.”

“My mother is dead and my father is out of the country at the moment … In three hours I have to take a bus to my new boarding school…”

The tears restarted falling again at full force.

The girl sat beside me and then held me until I stopped crying. Afterwards, we restarted talking.

“I’m sorry for taking part in what has probably been a quite terrible day, I can’t offer you much, but I think I may have clean clothes that will fit you in the trunk of my car.”

For a second I was happy, good news! But then I realized that the clothes she would lend me would probably be hers. I wanted to change, but I didn’t want to look girly.

“I’m a guy, you know. I can’t wear girl clothes.”

She didn’t looked surprised at my statement. She just nodded and started talking.

“I noticed the fact that you were a boy once you started talking, so don’t worry about that. The clothes I have in my trunk are somewhat androgynous so I thought you might still want to wear them.”

I was going to refuse, but the wind started picking up and I suddenly got quite cold. The girl noticed me shivering and so grabbed my arm and took me inside a beauty salon that was in front of the bus terminal. She opened the salon’s door with a key and told me to wait at the back.

I was going to say something, but I realized that she probably wouldn’t listen to what I had say. I waited in the back of the shop for 10 minutes before she came back with two bags in her hands.

She showed me two bags and then started talking.

“Change. No arguing,” She said in a quite serious tone.

I didn’t want to fight with someone that was helping me so I immediately followed her orders and entered the restroom that was behind me.

I started looking at the content of the bags.

Inside one of the bags and I found a pair of black skinny jeans, a black t-shirt and a pair of purple sneakers. The clothes looked form fitting and honestly I kinda hated that, I had no doubt that by wearing these clothes some people might start confusing me for a girl. I was going to yell something through the door, but remembering the girl’s “No arguing” comment, I decided to just shut up.

After being disappointed by the first bag, I looked at the second one and my disappointment went through the roof like a ball going through a window. Inside, I found a few new pairs of socks and … a new pair of panties.

I had to make a comment. No way was I wearing those! I might have cried in public, but I still had little bit pride. Guys don’t wear those, ever!

“Huh… Did you really have to buy girl’s underwear?”

Yes, I know my words didn’t match my outrage, but that’s just the way I am.

“The clothing stores around here only sell female clothes, so even if they aren’t to your liking, go change kiddo!”

Being a rebellious teenager and an extremely manly guy, I decided of course to just get the hell out of the store… or not. I actually obliged and few moments afterwards I came out of the restroom with dry clothes but with most of my dignity gone. Here goes my objective of being a paragon of manliness.

“No need to be embarrassed, you are wearing those out of necessity, no? I am sure most people would understand. By the way, my name is Allison, what yours? ”

“Brook.” I said probably looking as red as a tomato.

“Well, Brook. You look quite tired so why not sleep in one of the unoccupied rooms of the salon. Few people are going to come in today, so it won’t probably bother my boss. I will wake you up in 2 hours, so don’t worry.”

I took her offer and followed her to one of the rooms of the salon.

“There is no bed here, but you can sleep on the chair, sleep well Brook,” She said with a soothing smile in her face.

I sat on the salon chair and hoping that Allison wasn’t secretly a serial killer or another kind of criminal, I fell asleep for a second time today.

“Brook, Brook, Wake up!”

Allison was shaking me up while calling my name.

“What? Is it time to go? ”I asked the girl who seemed to be panicking very hard.

“Yes, but there is been some kind of incident,” Said Allison seriously afraid.

“Incident?” I asked having somewhat an idea of what might have just happen.

“Remember when I said that this room wouldn’t be used today? Well, I was wrong … you were mistaken for a customer and …”

I stopped listening at that moment…

My hunch was right, I was totally given a girl’s haircut, right? Uh… Honestly at this point I didn’t even care anymore, the moment that I started wearing panties I had lost my man card and all of my dignity. Seeing how I was going to what seemed to be coed a boarding school, I might as well try to live as a girl … I’ m just kidding of course, my clothes should have dried by now, I am just going to change and then cut my hair once I arrive at school.

“Don’t worry, Allison, having a girly haircut is far from the worst thing that could have happened while I was asleep. I will just take my stuff and be on my way. I might have enough time to change before boarding the bus if I go now.”

“Sorry, Brook. I have caused you trouble twice today,” She said with guilt in her eyes.

“You helped thrice too, so you are still in the positives. Do you have the bag where I put my clothes?”

“You didn’t have it with you?” Allison said confused.

The universe sure hates me.

We both thoroughly searched through the building to find my clothes, but they seemed to have disappeared. So I just gave up.

“You know what Alison… I’m just going to take my bus, while I still have my wallet and my ticket on me. I seem to suffer from extreme bad luck, so I’m just going to take off. If you find my clothes, keep them, I have some of your clothes anyway too, so we will simply exchange them once we meet again… if that ever happens…”

Alison looked extremely sad, I could see that she felt bad about all the things that had happened today. She opened her mouth and uttered a few words.

“Sorry and bye Brook.”

“Bye, Alison,” Saying those words, I exited the salon and went back to the bus terminal. It wasn’t raining anymore, so at least I had that going for me.

I didn’t have any trouble finding my bus because the name of my new school was written on it. I presented my ticket to the driver and because I wanted to meet the least amount of people possible in my female form, I decided to seat at the back.

A few minutes passed and the bus started filling up, so I started looking outside, through the window, trying to avoid the gaze of others. My plan worked for a few minutes, but then someone started talking at me.

“Can I sit here?” Those words were said by a girl my age that had blue eyes, blond hair and a very warm smile.

Trying to make my voice feminine yet not caricatural I answered back. “Uh… y…yes?”

The girl sat right beside me and then restarting talking. “I’m Mackenzie, you?”

“Brook.” As I mindlessly uttered my real name, regret seemed to form in my mind. I hadn’t thought before speaking and now my life would be ruined if I ever met Mackenzie in male form!

“Your hair is very beautiful Brooke. Your short wavy bob goes perfectly with your face. ”

“T…t...thanks, your hair is very beautiful too.” Her hair was braided with a bun at the back. Her haircut, her platinum blonde hair and her clothes, a blue sundress, made her look like a princess or the heiress to a great fortune. I couldn’t help but be impressed by her elegance.

“Are you a freshman here, Brook?”

“Yes.”

“Same thing, over here, although I’m used to going to boarding schools and living in dorms,” Mackenzie said those words with quite bit of sadness.

“Busy parents?”

“Yes, like everyone here. You? ”

“Busy dad and dead mother.” I kept it short because I didn’t want her to know too much about me, I also honestly didn’t feel like talking about my family.

“I’m sorry about your mom…”

“So I am Mackenzie, so I am….” Although I tried to prevent it, a few tears fell from my eyes, Mackenzie seemed to have noticed it because she took out a few tissues and gave them to me. “Sorry, for ruining the mood.” I said while cleaning up my face.

“It’s my fault, for asking such personal questions, sorry…” Said the blonde.

“No, I asked them first, so it’s my fault, sorry...”

We looked at each other for a few seconds and then we laughed for a few seconds.

“We are apologizing so much we must sound Canadian to anyone around us,” I said trying to lighten our already improved mood.

“I’m actually Canadian.” Mackenzie said.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yep, Maple syrup, Hockey, poutine and everything.” Mackenzie said while laughing.

I joined her laughter too. “Aren’t you just describing Canadian stereotypes?” I asked jokingly.

“Yep, but you started it!”

Mackenzie started giggling and then so did I.

“Mackenzie, you are really funny!”

She looked surprised at my statement.

“You think, so… That’s the first time I got that compliment. You are really funny too. By the way, call me Mackie. Mackenzie, that’s just way too long. ”

“That’s what’s she said!”

Mackie stared at me.

“Sorry, Brooke but for that joke lame comment I will have to take away your title as the world funniest person.” Mackie said while laughing.

“First and a half, is still quite a good position,” I answered while still laughing.

“You are way too funny Brooke, your personality doesn’t match your appearance.”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” I said to her

Yes, my words had a double meaning, but hopefully she would never know that.

I was having fun for the first time in months, in fact I was enjoying myself to the point of almost forgetting that after this first meeting with Mackenzie, I should try to avoid meeting her again. Those thoughts made me kind of sad, but it had to be done to make sure that my secret was never revealed to anyone. Thinking about that, I decided to enjoy my time with Mackenzie to the maximum.

Throughout our journey there wasn’t a minute were Mackie and I weren’t joking. We had decided to keep it light by not talking too much about our personal lives and it worked. I don’t know how we did it but Mackie and I managed to spend 3 hours just joking non-stop. If it was true that laughing made you live longer then me and my new friend might live to see the fifth millennium.

As the bus approached the school grounds, I realized that there wherever I looked I only saw girls. My eyes could have been deceiving me, so I decided to ask Mackie just to be sure. “Mackie, there seems to only be girls around here, why is that?”

“Because this is an all-girls school, duh!”

I won’t go too much into detail, but let’s just say that several f-bombs and insults towards my father went through my mind at that very moment.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

Mackenzie and I started walking towards the dorms.

“Brook, you look quite angry. What’s happening? Are you boy-crazy and feel like this place might be hell?” Asked Mackie while laughing.

I did feel like this place was like hell, but it was for completely different reasons!

I honestly didn’t know what do right now. Trying to contact my “father” would be difficult, impossible even, I simply didn’t know how I could do that… His phone number, his postal address, his email, pretty much everything I knew about him was written in one of my notebooks, but that notebook was now gone. I couldn’t go see the principal either because there was no way he or she would believe that I hadn’t gone through this voluntarily. I mean no matter how you put this, no boy would accidentally end up going to the all-girls school he was accidentally accepted to wearing girl clothes and having a girly haircut. That was simply unbelievable. I mean, people believe all sorts of things nowadays, but there was no way that I could make my story sound convincing. To go see the principal was like a deer trying to talk an avid hunter into veganism, an incredibly stupid idea. I could already see the headlines “Teenage boy, tries to sneak into a girl’s school but gets cold feet!” or “You will never believe what this teenage boy tried to do!” Just thinking about it made my shudder. I could already see the bullies at my old school talking to the media and saying stuff like, “He had always been a little bit creepy, but to think he would go that low.”

Until I could contact “father”, I had to perfectly play the part of a girl while making sure that no one discovered my little secret (with atomic potential).

“Brook, are you alright? You have been quite quiet.” Asked my worried new friend.

“Yes, I’m just shocked by the quantity of information my father withheld from me…”

“Your dad didn’t tell you this was an all-girl’s school? Wow, that’s almost as bad as my dad who secretly had another child but never told my mother and I about it.”

“That’s messed up.”

“I know, right. The worst part about it, is that we still don’t know anything about the other kid and my father has decided to take her in.”

Could she be … Nah, impossible, we have already established that the universe hates me.

“Your dad sounds as bad as mine. He doesn’t even know my g…name.” Almost messed up there.

“Seriously?” Asked Mackenzie completely incredulous.

“Seriously,” I answered back.

“Brooke, you win.”

“I didn’t know this was a competition.”

“It isn’t. But just to let know that even if we have just become friends I will be there for you if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

Mackenzie really acted as an excellent friend. Back at my old school I did have friends, but they wouldn’t defend me when I was teased and they would ignore me when I started talking about personal stuff. I kinda wished I would have met Mackie as the old me, the real me.

We arrived in front of a board that had quite a large number of people around it. It didn’t take us long to realize that the board contained a list with our assigned dorms and rooms.

I went searching for “my name” and ended up finding it without any difficulties. I was with two “other” girls in my room and sadly none of them were Mackenzie. I ended up in room 102 of the Northern Dormitory, while Mackenzie was in room 109. The rooms were assigned alphabetically by dorm and by first name, so it didn’t take long for us to find were we would be.

For some strange reason Mackie wasn’t sad that we weren’t in the same room instead she started profusely laughing.

“What’s happening are you in a room with somebody you know?” I asked the still cackling girl.

“No, I’m laughing for a completely different reason. I just read something incredibly funny.”

“What?”

“Not telling. You will discover soon enough,” Said Mackenzie with a devious smile.

I rolled my eyes. Girls, man, I’m pretty sure I will absolutely never get them.

Mackie and I arrived at the Northern Dorm and then separated in order to see our rooms.

My room was square, large and had beds on all the walls minus the one were the door was. 3 sets of uniforms were placed on each bed. The Uniform consisted of a red tartan pleated skirt, a blouse, white knee socks, a red blazer and what I considered to be and a bow-tie. There was also a note that said to try it on and report back at the entrance if our uniform didn’t fit.

I took a set of clothes and decided to try them on in the bathroom. I opened the door of what I thought the bathroom and…

…

…

Decided that this was impossible after all. I should just pack my (long lost) bags and go back to my (now non-existent) home. There was no point to this! Why do you ask? Well, because there wasn’t a (place profanity here) bathroom in this f-ing room, it was a closet! An f-ing closet! How was I supposed to change or take shower if there wasn’t a bathroom in my room? Was I supposed to just go the communal shower room and risk exposing myself to the girls who wouldn’t understand my situation? Today the gods had forsaken me and now I had concrete proof of it.

Ugh … I took a deep breath, calmed down and decided that the best place to try my clothes was the closet.

I entered it and closed the door. Sadly for me, not even two minutes after I started changing my two roommates entered the room and my heart started going at full speed. I quickly put on my skirt and my blouse, but tripped as I was putting on my socks and found myself lying in the floor of the room with thankfully enough clothes to not be immediately expelled.

I quickly found out that my roommates were changing too and so I decided to get the hell out of the room as quickly as possible. I wanted to reduce my crimes to the minimum if I ever was caught.

As I was went out of the room, I heard some comments from my roommates.

“What was that?” Said one of the girls.

“Our roommate coming out of the closet!” Said the other one while laughing.

As if!

I will admit that her comment was funny and that normally I would have laughed at it, but because this time she was talking about me I couldn’t help but be extremely embarrassed.

Soon after that embarrassing incident I found myself knocking on Mackenzie’s door.

I was welcomed by someone I assumed was Mackie’s roommate, a brunette on the chubbier side.

“Hi, you searching for something?” rudely asked the girl at the door.

Before I could answer Mackenzie came to the door.

“It’s ok, Kendra, she’s here to talk to me.”

Mackenzie and I sat on her bed.

“Brooke, where are your shoes and why is one of your socks is missing?”

“It’s a long story…”

“I can’t be that long, we were together 20 minutes ago. Start talking.”

“Well, I was changing in the closet when ...”

Mackenzie interrupted me while looking me confused.

“Why were you in the cl...” She stopped her sentence, looked at me head to toe and then restarted talking.

“Oh, never mind.”

“What was that about?”

“Nothing, nothing, I just realized that I would do the same thing if I were you.”

This girl I swear…

“What was that supposed to mean?!”

“What I’m saying is that if I was underdeveloped as you are right now, I might also be a little too embarrassed to change in front of others.”

“…”

“I know, why don’t we go bra shopping on Saturday? Wearing at least a training bra might help you gain a little bit of confidence,” Mackenzie said cheerfully.

“…”

I want out…

No, seriously I want out!

Bra shopping… Bra shopping! I, a guy, a totally masculine guy at that, was going bra shopping!

No way!

I frowned.

“You lost all your clothes, so going shopping is a great idea. Anyway, you need a bra, you almost look like a boy like this. Also we might wear our uniforms most of the day, but you need something for the afternoons and the weekends. The uniform is not obligatory after 6 pm and people are going to think you are weird if you don’t change. ”

As much as I wanted to argue with her, she was right…

“Are we allowed to do that?”

“Do what? Going out on weekends? Sure, some of the older students even have their parents drive their cars here in order to have a little bit more freedom.”

“How do you know so much stuff about this school, isn’t this your first year here?”

“One of my half-sisters, who is in eleventh grade told me all of this.”

“Wait, you have several half-sisters?” I asked surprised.

“Yes, dad, is sadly for mom, a ladies man. Almost all of my siblings go to this school, the exception is my half-brother John for obvious reasons.”

“How many half-siblings do you have?” I asked curious.

“That I know of, four. I also have two full-fledged sisters.”

That man gives my father a run for his money.

“I think your dad deserves the prize you gave my father a while ago.”

Mackie giggled uncontrollably at my comment

“Yep. Brook why don’t you go take a shower? Afterwards, you can change into this.”

She presented me a pink t-shirt and some black shorts.

“I know from our conversation on the bus that you have lost most of your clothes, so I thought, why not give her some sleepwear. Seeing how you are only going to wear them at night the fact that they might be a little too big for you doesn’t matter that much.”

I accepted her clothes and then went back to my room. Shower, eh, how was I supposed to shower?

Thinking about that I arrived to my room.

As I opened the door, I stumbled upon my two roommates talking.

“Oh, if it isn’t our roommate, the runner?” Said one of the girls, a Hispanic looking girl with long hair.

“Sorry, about before …” I said quite embarrassed.

“No, no, no it’s ok, there is no need to apologize. You are completely allowed to be shy.” Said my other roommate, a small girl with black hair and a ponytail.

“I’m Beatricia and the small girl over here is Adele, happy to meet you.”

“Brooke, happy to meet you too.”

I shook their hands.

“Say, changing in front of other people gives me anxiety (almost the truth) can you wait outside for a bit?”

“I’m ok with that, it’s almost time for supper anyway, so we should probably go to the dining hall. You coming Adele?”

“Yes.”

“Well then, see you Brook. Oh by the way, when you weren’t here the dorm supervisor came in with a letter she put it on your bed.”

I took a look at the letter decide to read it after changing and putting all of my stuff, uniform included, in the closet.

I took some post-its and made sure to label all my clothes with them. Afterwards, wishing with all my might that the message that had come in was from my “dad”, I turned the letter.

…

…

The letter was from a bank. I opened it and apparently my dad got me a credit card with a very high expending limit.

I would say thanks, but the man hadn’t even met me and anyway what I needed wasn’t money, what I needed was a way to get away from here ASAP!

I put my new credit card in my wallet and then went in direction of the dining hall.

As I made my way there, I started thinking of a way of safely taking a shower. I mean, there had to be a way, right? I’ m pretty sure that I couldn’t be the only person here that couldn’t shower with the others, right? Right?

Maybe, late at night I could sneak out of my room to take a shower. I didn’t know if there were people making rounds at night, but I had to take a chance.

Thinking about my plan, I started memorizing the layout of my floor.

Dinner was quite uneventful, I simply sat down with Mackenzie and started cracking down jokes with her.

Afterwards, I excused myself and went back to my room for a quick nap. I would need it because I wasn’t sure when it would be safe to execute my plan.

At 10 pm, 3 hours after dinner, I woke up and started faking being asleep, my roommates looked like they were sleeping too, but I needed to wait until the 11pm curfew had passed to execute my plan.

By midnight it sounded like everyone in my floor was sleeping or at least I hoped they were, because I absolutely didn’t want to get caught by anyone. I waited an extra 30 minutes to make sure no one was holding guard and then I started putting operation Midnight Shower in progress.

First, I put 2 out of my 3 pillows under my sheets and arranged everything to make it look like I was sleeping. Making sure everything looked nice, I then proceeded to silently go to the room’s closet and take out one of the numerous towels that were neatly arranged inside. Making sure to not make any noise I opened the door to the room and sneaked out as discretely as mouse.

The halls were dark, very dark actually, but I had already memorized where the showers were so I had just to make sure to keep in mind where the walls were. I advanced at snail pace around the halls until I finally made it to the bathroom.

There the door luckily opened. I opened the lights for a minute to make sure I knew where I had to go and then started advancing towards the back of the room were the showers were. I tried to open the door of the shower room and I realized that the door was locked.

My plan had failed!

I couldn’t even take a shower in this place!

Ugh… I resigned myself to simply washing myself with the help of the sink. I disrobed myself, put my towel near me and started cleaning. Everything was going well, until I heard someone walking towards the bathroom. I wrapped my towel around me, took my stuff as quickly as possible and tried to find the nearest stall. Sadly, I slipped because of the wet floor and face planted with my things going everywhere.

I tried to gather all my stuff again, but because of the darkness I couldn’t catch everything. Seeing how useless was my struggle I decided to just give up.

I took everything I could and then stood up.

As I made my final prayers the lights went on and somebody entered.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

I prepared myself for my execution closing my eyes. Well, goodbye any chances of ever having a social life…
“Oh my god, Brook, what are you doing here?”

Wait a minute … I knew that voice...it was Allison! I opened my eyes.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Allison

“I’m an eleventh grade student here, my job at the salon is seasonal. But seriously Brook, what are you doing here? Aren’t you a boy? ”

“I am, but listen to my story before doing anything else.”

“I will… just change right now please,” Said Allison, blushing.

We went to discuss outside, near the entrance of the dorm.

“So Brook, how did you end up here?”

“For some unknown reason my father thought that I was a girl and he ended up signing me up here.”

Allison looked at me incredulous.

“Your father thought you were a girl?”

“Yep,” I answered back.

“Your history sounds way too incredible to be true… But I believe you, or at least I will believe you if you tell me your last name. ”

I looked at her confused.

“Why my last name?”

“I’m pretty sure there is only one person in the world that would end up adopting a child without checking out their gender and then sending them to this school.”

“Who?”

“My dad,” Answered Allison.

“Why?” I asked curious.

“Dad for the longest time, only thought about two things, money and women, because of that he ended up with a lot of kids, kids that he cares about but he’s not invested in. He will make sure you have a high quality of education, he will put a lot of money for you in a trust fund, he will make sure that you don’t go astray or live in poor living conditions, crap, he will even adopt you as long he knows your mother, he will do all of that, but he will also just leave parenting to my half-sister’s, Mackenzie, mother and her two nannies. That’s the kind of dad I have. ”

It was hard to describe the look on Allison face, she looked proud yet ashamed of her dad.

“Mackenzie is your sister?”

“Yes, among others, have you met her?”

“Yes, we became friends today.”

She smiled.

“Great, but you still haven’t told me your last name.”

“Falconer.”

She looked happy, then she sighed and shook her head.

“You are indeed my half-sibling Brook. My condolences to your virility though ...”

I became confused once again. What was going to happen was my father going to transform me in a girl?

“Why are you saying that?”

“You will have to survive here for the next three months, has you may know, dad has gone on a trip with Mackenzie’s mom and knowing them they will be uncontactable unless there is a major emergency.”

Hahaha, that was funny I thought I heard that I will have to be a girl for the next three months. Funny right? Right? What, it wasn’t a hallucination and I will indeed be a girl for the next term? Are you serious? What? Very so … Ugh… I resigned myself… denial wasn’t working,

“Are you O.K, little sis?” Asked Allison.

I was going to glare at her, but I realized that I should get used to being called that, these three months will feel like an eternity. Dressing like a girl, being addressed like a girl, acting like a girl, all those things just seemed like a huge bother.

I sighed. “I am alright… Do you know of a safe way for me to take a shower?”

“Well, I could obtain a key to the showers, but you will not like the process and I need to know if you can swim.”

“I can swim, why?”

“To obtain the key you may have to go to tryouts for the swimming team, the cheerleading team and the volleyball team.”

I stopped listening after swimming team …Swimming? That meant a girl’s swimsuit! Me in a girl’s swimsuit? Just hearing that made me want to run away and join the circus... I mean no matter how you put it, I couldn’t do that, right? I mean, wasn’t wearing a swimsuit as a guy a point of no return? I mean, I did already cross one when I cried in public and another one when I started wearing the school skirt (which are kinda comfy, something I will never admit in public!), I did also cross one way earlier when I put on panties (also surprisingly comfortable)... See what was happening! Being in this situation was making me like things no boy should like! If I kept going on like this what would happen to me? I really wasn’t sure what was happening in my brain! What would my mom think of me living like this? She and my step-father had put so much effort into making sure I didn’t go astray… I really shouldn’t be doing this, I really didn’t want to do this!

“Why would I have to join the swimming team, even temporally?” I asked Allison

“The sports committee leader has keys to the showers, we could make a copy of it if she lends it to us, but she won’t do it unless she has something to gain from it.”

“What would she gain from me temporally joining?”

“They need freshmen to attract people to the sports teams, if it’s only upperclassmen in the team some of the younger students might be intimidated.”

It was good enough of an explanation… I still didn’t like this situation though.

“And you think that I will look convincing in a girl’s swimsuit?”

“For your sake, I hope that yes.” Answered Allison sincerely.

I gulped… How the hell was I to do that?

Allison looked at my face and then put her hand on my shoulder.

“I’m going to help you though, 12th and 11th grades students only start the day after tomorrow. I’m only here because our older sister can get really bossy when Rosie, Mackenzie’s mom, is not there. Tomorrow morning I’m going to see what I can do to help you… For now, let’s just go to sleep. I am tired,” She added.

As soon as I woke up I went to the dining hall hoping that Allison would be there. She was and she had Mackenzie with her.

“Hi Allie, hi Mackie,” I said still tired from my nightly expedition

“Hi sis,” Answered Allison.

Mackenzie looked surprised. “You know each other?”

“We met yesterday morning and then we learned that we were half-siblings yesterday night,” I answered to Mackie.

Mackenzie’s surprise turned to confusion.

“But yesterday Allison told me that while coming to her last shift of the year at work she had met a boy named Brook?” Mackie murmured.

I could already see the friendship I had acquired with my newly discovered sister crumbling to the ground and turning to dust. Although we had just met the day before, I didn’t want to ruin my relationship with Mackie. I wasn’t sure how I would make more friends as a boy in an all-girl’s school. Just like I had the day before, even though I totally didn’t want to, tears started falling down my face.

Both Mackenzie and Allison looked at my face, and then came to hug me.

“It’s Ok, sis.” She said while winking at the last word.

“I knew you were a boy since the moment you were about to say that your dad wasn’t sure about your gender.” Mackie added in low voice.

“And you didn’t say anything?” I said trying to get the tears out of my face.

“I wasn’t sure, why you were there, but you didn’t seem to be here for the bad reasons, so I just let it go.”

“And yet you proposed me to go shop for bras?” I asked embarrassed and still teary eyed.

“Well, if you want to stay here, you have to look and act the part don’t you?” Said Mackenzie.

I was slightly mad at her perfect logic. Weren’t comments like that had brought me in the situation I was in?

“So when did you meet last night, I remember that Allison arrived just after you went to sleep in your room?” Said Mackenzie.

“For me a nightly expedition to the bathroom and for her a nightly shower, her mission failed though, the doors to the showers were locked. Today, I‘m going to help our sis to obtain a key to the showers. ” Allison said.

“How?” Mackie asked.

“By doing a few favours to Sabrina… Now, that I think about it you should help too.”

“What should I do?”

“Join our sis, in her week at the swimming team, the cheerleading team and the volleyball team.”

Cheerleading and volleyball? Where did those come from, I had only (against my will) agreed to do swimming. Ok, I say that, but I’ m aware that Allison said a few things after swimming club. Oh … at least volleyball won’t be that bad.

“You want to put Brooke in a swimsuit?” Said Mackenzie.

I’m going to be honest, even though I knew exactly what she meant by that question, I couldn’t help but to be deeply offended. Mackie really needs to learn tact.

“With some of my help,” Answered Allison. “Anyway, see you after class in front of the pool building.”

The first day of class passed without any major problems, Mackenzie was with me in most of my classes and so were my roommates Adele and Beatricia. I hadn’t befriended them yet because I wasn’t sure how to interact with the mythical creatures that were girls (exception of my sisters, my mom is a mom, moms are moms, and they don’t count as girls, duh!). Mackie liked my roommates and ended up, inviting them to our shopping trip in three days. I didn’t like that idea because it would increase the chance of one of them discovering my secret, but Mackie used her logic (that I really hated at this point) to persuade me that befriending girls could only be good for me in the long run. Yeah, right.

Anyway at 3:30 pm, Mackie and I were standing in front of the pool when Allison arrived with two bags. We entered the building all together and Allison started speaking a girl she called Sabrina.

“These are my sisters, like I told you this morning, in exchange for the key they will help you for the next week, Brooke is extremely shy, so let her change before everyone else,” On those words she handed me a bag and said a few things in my ear.

“There is a gaff and breast forms in there, how to use them should be obvious. In the other bag there are your swimsuit. Be careful sis. ”

A few minutes later, Allie was gone and me and Mackie where in the changing room. Mackie went into a corner and I in into another. I had no problem putting the gaff, but the breast forms caused me a little bit of trouble. For some reason, I couldn’t keep them into place while I was putting my swimsuit. Anyway, weirdly enough there were two unmarked bottles in the bag when I finished, one seemed to be some kind of glue and the other one I didn’t know exactly. Did Allison put those in the bag accidentally? Anyway, as I finished changing, Mackie told me to exit, I was really embarrassed and honestly I couldn’t and didn’t want to move from there. Mackenzie ended up grabbing my hand and dragging me out of there.

I just wanted to disappear as soon as I exited the changing room. I felt extremely exposed and extremely self- conscious. I felt like if anyone looked at me I would just melt like a certain wicked witch. The breast forms moved a little bit while I was walking, but it wasn’t that bad, I was actually pretty sure I could swim in any style like this.

As the minutes passed, members of the swimming team and potential members alike started entering the pool area. Just like Allison told me, many of the potential new members seemed to be relieved by the presence of Mackenzie and me.

Now there was lot of talk about competitions, members of the team and similar stuff which I listened without caring that much about, I wasn’t joining the team so why bother?

We stretched and soon enough we found ourselves in the pool, the breast forms jiggled a little, but they weren’t moving at a level were teenage boys (and some girls) would have stopped all of their activities (even mental ones).

The upperclassmen ended up racing a little and soon afterwards, so did us. I found myself racing against the other freshmen while doing backstroke. As soon as I started swimming, I starting feeling like there was jelly on my chest. One bad movement on my part would bring a situation of catastrophic embarrassment. I thread through the water with extreme carefulness making sure to balance my falsies, so they would not end up flying like rockets towards my rivals and…

...

Surprisingly enough, nothing bad happened. I managed to avoid the ultimate embarrassment while managing to finish third out of 8. Was my curse gone now? As I thought so, I entered other races with the other newbies. I ended up swimming in other styles and my breasts didn’t end up flying in any of them, I was also near the top in most of my races. Great, because I would have definitely lost all of my pride as guy if I couldn’t win against most girls in a sport. I don’t know how, but I ended up forgetting what I was wearing and had quite a bit of fun, if I wasn’t in the situation I was right now, I might have tried to actually join the team.

At the end of practice, Mackie and I waited for the last person to come out of the changing room to start advancing towards it. Just as I was about to pass the last girl, someone from my dorm, she slipped. In her stupor she tried to grab the first thing she could. Sadly for me that ended up being the strap of my swimming suit. I managed to hide my chest, but one of my breast forms fell to the floor and without even looking at the other girl, I rushed the changing room with tears streaming down my face.

She had seen them! That girl had totally seen my breast forms! How was I to face the other girls, now? I mean unless that girl was extremely kind, I couldn’t possibly think of a way the rumor wouldn’t spread around! I could already hear the stupid nicknames I would be called. How would I survive the next trimester like this? On those words my tears started falling down faster.

A few minutes in my crying session (which started to be way too common), Mackie entered the changing room, looked at me, then came back with the girl that had seen my shameful display.

“Brook stop crying, Maud is my other roommate and she is trustworthy, she says that she will keep quiet”

“You will?” I asked while still sobbing.

“I will,” said the tall and pale brunette. “I really don’t want to cause you any problems to you or your sister, drama between roommates is really terrible and I don’t want to do anything with it.” She added.

I didn’t really believe her, but I really wanted to. Why was my life so complicated?

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

As I went back to my room I discovered that I had received another letter. This time though it wasn’t from a bank, but from my cousin Leon, my (not so) kind aunt’s son. Leon was a great guy, we didn’t have that much in common, but in the few weeks we lived together Leon tried to get me out of the house as much as possible in order to protect me from his mother. Aunt Abigail hated me there was absolutely no doubt about that, she hated me and everyone in the family knew it. Why? I wasn’t too sure about it, I mean, I did know that something happened and that it was somewhat my fault but I never could remember what happened. Repressed memories? I hoped not, what I was living right now was already enough for quite a few therapy sessions, anything more and I would add poverty to the results of my curse. Hahaha… Sigh.

I opened the letter from Leon and started reading.

“Brook,

I know that this isn’t the most convenient way to communicate, but since I didn’t know if you had access to a computer I just decided to communicate like this. Mom has sent the things that couldn’t come with you at school to the house of the Falconers. As you can expect, she hoped that they would just throw your things away, you know clichés about opulent people being evil and all (ironic coming from her I know). Anyway, just to be sure I called ahead to the Falconers to be sure that mom wouldn’t be dooming your possessions and I got quite a good impressions of the girls who answered. Apparently, they are your half-sisters, I don’t know if you are going to live like Cinderella once vacations start, but know that I will do anything to help you if it’s the case. I can’t do much since I have just started college, but I will still try my best. Oh and this weekend I will be near your new town, I don’t know if I could come to visit you, but if I can, I definitely will.

Take care Kiddo. ”

You know that classic scene where somebody tells you they have good news and bad news for you? Well, Leon thought he was sending good news and only good news but somewhat one of his good news managed to transform into terrible news, absolutely terrible news actually.

His kind news had taken a liking to blood during their journey and now they were going to literally murder me by lack of sleep! There’s absolutely no way I can hide the fact that I’ m going to an all-girl’s school from him! What I am going to tell him! “The school is a super-secret facility were they make us assume a completely new identity, my attire is because no-one would expect the (Extremely) super manly me to ever dress as a girl. It’s camouflage, urban camouflage, hiding in plain sight kind of stuff, part of my hardcode training” Yeah, right… If I said something along the lines of that my cousin might send me an asylum. Thinking about it, I might end up there anyway in a few weeks… Speeding up things a little might not be so bad… Maybe I could tell story along the lines of “It’s a new pedagogic technique, they make boys dress as girls, in order to make them more understanding of girls. I have been chosen to be part of the experiment due to my completely manly ways. I am hating every part of it, but you know I have to do it for science”. More convincing, but still… Perhaps, I could just say it is an initiation of some kind…

As I was thinking about reasons to explain why I was dressed up as girl my roommate, Beatricia entered the room.

“Sup’ Brook, you reading another one of your letters? You should maybe enter the new millennium.” Said Beatricia joking.

I would have told her that as someone with XY chromosomes in an all-girl’s school I was already way deeper in the millennium than her, but you know...

“Brook, honestly though, you don’t have a computer despite being a member of one of the most influential families of the last few years?” Beatricia asked.

“Just joined the family, I haven’t had the chance to really obtain one. For the longest time, I also never thought I could ever afford one so …”

Beatricia looked a little bit ashamed. “Sorry, I just said some very inappropriate stuff. It was meant to be a little bit of banter. Forget it. ”

I laughed.

“You were kidding?”

“Partially, I did have a computer, a bullet went through it two years ago though.”

Beatricia eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their orbits and starting turning around earth.

“A bullet! How did that happen?” asked Beatricia.

“Step-dad caught me staring at some earrings.”

For once, I was telling the truth. They were some studs with a skull design, nothing feminine, if it had been anything feminine I couldn’t even imagine what would have happened… Arron, my step-dad, was for some reason obsessed with protecting me from anything feminine. Apparently it was orders from mom. I didn’t really understand those orders because as far as I remember (which isn’t that far actually, only until I was seven or eight years old) I have never been feminine. I would play sports, bother girls and do stupid stuff hanging out with the guys. I actually ended up with a few scars in my back due to one of those incidents, I don’t remember it that well, but mom assured me that I was lucky she saved me from getting anything that would have damaged me permanently. Did I do something dangerous? I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter now does it?

Anyway while I was reminiscing, Beatricia didn’t seem to recover from her shock. I felt like going to go to sleep to see if she was still going to be shocked and outraged in a few hours, but she suddenly started moving again.

“Your step-father shot your computer because you wanted earrings?”

I nodded.

“And your mother didn’t say anything?”

Actually my mom said something along the lines of “Double tap, that machine is the devil’s work, its corrupting Brook’s mind.” I was pissed for a while, but hey, what could I do? Sacrifice a computer mouse and hope that some random spirit would revive my laptop? Mom was really serious about me acting as manly as possible if she said the computer was evil I couldn’t do much about it.

“No nothing…”

Mom got way better in the last few months of her life, I mean she was still a bit zealous about me acting like a paragon of virility, but way less than before. We actually had quite a bit of fun drinking tea and talking about lots of stuff as she slowly slipped from my grasp. I kinda miss her

I started crying again… Beatricia noticed.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t be talking about your mom, Mackie told me she passed away not too long ago… ” On those words she quitted the room.

I laid on my bed and cried myself to sleep…

“I can’t see it… ”

“You can’t really, I mean it’s hard to see but I can very certainly see it, I mean look at the facial structure. That facial structure is totally manly.”

“Stop lying, Colette you can’t see anything, Brook totally looks like a girl.”

At those words I opened my eyes. I had been discovered! What to do now. Jump out the window, do a cool flip, go through the gates while doing another cool flip, stop a car, go to the nearest airport and go live a new life in a new continent? Yep, totally a realistic idea, should execute right now. As I thought that somebody starting talking.

“Brook woke up and she seems to be panicking Alexandrine. You scared her! ”

I opened my eyes and over me where three girls, two tall blonde twins with blue eyes that looked extremely similar to Mackenzie and a girl with caramel skin and a braided ponytail. They were all wearing the uniform of the school and so I had an idea of who they were.

“Sorry, for the rude introduction Brook, we are as you can imagine your new bosse… sisters, Allison told us of your situation so we are going to help you survive this school. Don’t worry it’s our last year here, so we know all the tricks in order to get away with almost anything here. By the way, I am Chanel the eldest among the known Falconer siblings and half-siblings. These are the twins Colette and Alexandrine, second and third eldest they are noisy so avoid talking about your secret with them. When Mommy Rosie, the twins and Mackenzie biological mother that is, is not here I rule, so if you have any problem with any of us of the siblings come see me I would deal with them.” said the darker girl.

“So bossy!” said the twins quite loudly.

“Noisy, just like I told you.” Said Chanel smiling.

As soon as she finished talking, the twins and her disappeared from my room the same way they had appeared in my life…

I could see why Allison didn’t want to deal with any of the elder sisters… They were tiring… Why couldn’t they be like Mackenzie (the tactless) or Allison (bringer of terrible ideas)… If John isn’t normal I might think that I joined a family of weirdos. Lovable weirdos until now, but still weirdos, not that I was normal myself, seeing how I was starting to be fine with wearing girl clothes… Hahaha… I might really need therapy after all…

At lunch I met up with Mackenzie, Adele, Beatricia and Maud who had seemed to join our little group. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but Mackenzie seemed to think it was a good idea. Something about keeping close watch on her. She said that, but minutes afterwards she was discussing boy bands with her. Girls, man, I really don’t understand them…

While Mackie was being annoying Beatricia was apologizing to me for making me sad yesterday. I forgave her, but she still felt quite guilty. I didn’t really have any idea on how to deal with her, so I just started cracking jokes with her. It took a while, but I managed to make her laugh and she calm down.

I wanted to talk with Mackenzie about Leon coming to visit, but I didn’t really have time until we were changing for the cheer tryouts.

“Mackenzie, I was wondering something can we have visitors?”

“On weekends, from 2pm to 6pm, why?” She asked curious.

“My cousin Leon wants to visit me.”

“And?”

“And do you remember my wardrobe?”

“It’s a little non-existent, why? Do you want to look good for your cousin, do you come from deeper into the country that we thought?” Mackenzie said giggling.

Mackie really pisses me of sometimes…

“Seriously, Mackie if Cousin Leon sees me dressed up as a girl, I really don’t know what’s going to happen…”

“Don’t worry Brook we will simply go shopping and he would not find us here! You might want to communicate with him thought and tell him something along the lines of “the school has just become coed so that’s why staff still acts like it’s an All-girls school. That might also explain why he would mostly see girls. We have a perfect explanation so don’t worry and have fun! Ok?” Said Mackie.

Well, I did have fun yesterday… might try to have fun today too. I say that, but I still wasn’t sure of how I would keep my falsies to enter the atmosphere… Oh well, I am wearing an undershirt and the cheerleading uniform has absolutely no cleavage nothing should fly off unlike yesterday.

Anyway, for some reason I ended up finding out that I was among the lightest person to try out for the cheerleading team. As you can imagine that ended up meaning that I ended up in a position way higher that I would have wanted. I really wanted to thank Allison for the gaff because otherwise my (not so little) friend Richard might have been spotted while we practiced.

Just like the day before I ended up having fun today too. I was accepted into the team, but once again I ended up refusing citing reasons…

The day afterward, I didn’t even have to try myself to volleyball because I was judged to be too small. Mackie said something along the lines of “no surprises there” and we ended up going to see Sabrina who had already done a copy of the key.

We went back to the dorms, we discussed with the other girls about our shopping trip the next day and I ended up going back to my bed quite early. At 2 am I woke up and executed my plan from earlier that week perfectly. For some reason, the door ended up being open this time. I took my shower, went back to my bed and trying to think of how to survive what would surely be an eventful day I fell asleep.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

I didn’t sleep that much that night, I couldn’t. I spent a few hours, awake, just thinking about all the ways my day could go wrong. Those hours honestly felt like months, but eventually morning came and Mackie and the rest of my extremely weird yet somewhat lovable family came to wake me up.

Alexandrine and Allison shared a room, so the plan was for me to change in their room while their roommate was out. Mackie lent me a navy blue sundress with some flowers on it and I just put in on without complaining that much, I mean, the other day I had worn a girl’s swimsuit after all, I couldn’t do worse… Ok, maybe you could argue that wearing a bra (regularly from now on moreover) was worse than wearing a one piece swimsuit once, but the swimsuit just felt worse! At least, after today there was no way for me to fall deeper in the hellish pit of feminity.
Anyway, I put the gaff on and I became unsure about what to do with the breast forms. I thought about it for a few minutes and just decided to not wear them today, as they would really embarrassing through my dress (no more embarrassment this week please!). After making my decision, I put the dress on and exited the room.

“Brooke, get back inside,” Said my sister quite seriously with her hands behind her back.

“Why?” I said looking at her, quite confused.

“Makeup!” She said smiling and showing me a plastic bag containing her new torture devices.

Yep, definitely after today, I wouldn’t be able to do more feminine.

I sighed, entered the room and sat down while Allison started playing with my face.

“We are going to keep it light, just lip gloss, some mascara and a little bit of blush. I also need to fix your hair a little, you really haven’t been taking care of it.”

I nodded while Allison went to work. She was in front of me so I couldn’t exactly see what she was doing, but Allie tried to explain to me everything she was trying to do. I didn’t care that much, but I still tried to remember her instructions. Three months is a long time and you never know what could happen in them.

After a few minutes, Allie moved out of the way and … WOW! A very pretty girl appeared in the mirror in front of me, I mean I looked like myself, but not lame old me, no, awesome (girl) me. To be honest, I was quite impressed and quite pleased at the way I looked. If I hadn’t been a boy I would have loved to be the girl that was staring at me.

I think I stared at the mirror for at least three minutes before making any kind of noise.

Allison didn’t say anything while I stared at the girl in the mirror who looked quite at flabbergasted by her own beauty. After a while, I hugged Allie and simply to exited the room with her.

We exited the room and our sisters who were waiting outside assaulted me with hugs me and then proceeded to insult me by using the cute word. Feeling like I was going to drown in estrogen I gently pushed them away and, frowning, I started making my way to the dining hall.

Mackie suddenly approached me and whispered into my ear. “Brooke, are you sure that you are a boy?”

I looked at her puzzled and she simply rushed to the dining hall.

I made a mental note to ask her later what she meant by that.

After breakfast, the Falconer clan and friends split in two cars and started driving towards the mall. In the luxurious car I was in, Chanel was at wheel and me and the twins where at the back.

The twins were discussing whatever, while I couldn’t help but think about what Mackie had said earlier. I didn’t have really have the chance at breakfast to ask her what she meant by being sure I was a boy. She simply was surrounded by way too many people. Anyway, I didn’t understand what she was asking me. I mean, I had the correct parts to be a boy, no? Wasn’t that everything I needed? I honestly didn’t have any clue what she was trying found out by her question.

As my thoughts kept getting deeper and deeper they were suddenly when the twins started singing. Their voice wasn’t that bad but, the song they started singing simply was … annoying… very annoying in fact. After a few minutes of it Chanel simply ordered them to shut it if they didn’t want to walk to the mall and then back to the dorms.

They stopped singing and the Chanel started talking to me. “Sorry Brooke, they aren’t that bad usually. I don’t know what’s happening to them today. ”

The twins pouted at Chanel’s comment.

“We aren’t kids you know!” Colette and Alexandrine said simultaneously.

“Yeah, right!” Chanel said before starting to laugh.

The twins crossed their arms and pouted even more, before starting giggle. I couldn’t stop me from giggling myself.

The twins looked at me and then smiled. “It worked! We managed to put a smile in our lil sibling’s face.”

I looked at them quite confused.
Colette started talking. “You were looking quite worried about something, so we the extraordinary big sisters we are designed a plan to distract you.”

Alexandrine continued. “Today is for having fun, don’t worry! You….no…We will figure out how the deal with your problems later.”

Chanel nodded. “The brats are right, Brooke, just have fun today Brooke! We know it hasn’t been the easiest of weeks for you but, we want you to forget about it. We might not be offering you the kind of fun you are used to, but I can assure you that we are going to do our absolute best for you to have a blast shopping with us today. Just help us by forgetting about being a boy for a few hours. Today simply be Brooke Falconer a girl shopping with her sisters and her friends. ”

Forgetting about being a boy! Impossible! That’s what I felt like saying, but you know me… I simply resigned. I mean they were right after all, there was no way today could be boring with the amount of weirdos that would be there with me.

As soon as we arrived at the mall we joined with the others. Allison son came right beside me, pulled me aside and the whispered in my ear.

“I have your breast forms with me right now, you almost forgot them in my room. We are going buy your bras right now, so follow me. We will have you put a bra in the bathroom later. ”

I nodded and then she talked addressing the others.

“Brooke and I, have things a few things to take care off see you, in a while.”

The others nodded and we separated from the others. A few minutes later, I probably became redder that I had ever been before, following my half-sister in the kind of shop that no guy ever wanted to be in.

Allie bought a few sets of underwear and then she shoved me into a bathroom stall were I installed my breasts forms and then probably lost my masculinity probably forever by wearing a bra. I exited the stall. Allie looked at me.

“Does it seem OK?”

My sister just asked me if my bra is OK, I don’t know if to laugh or cry… I’m honestly more confused than anything because I am not sure if I’m hating this… I mean the first time I had to wear girl clothes, I didn’t really have a choice and I was more embarrassed than anything else, but throughout this week I have been getting more and more used to it and now… Well I am not too sure if being a girl is as bad as I thought it was. I…I… am not Ok am I?

Thinking about that last thing I simply started crying.

“Brook? Brook! What’s happening? Are you alright? Are you hurt? Is it too tight or something?”

I shook my head.

Allie looked at me and then simply hugged me.

“Is it about your secret?”

I nodded.

“Do you want us to try to stop everything and go back to the way everything was before?”

I really thought about it for a few seconds. I mean, really thinking about it, I probably was exaggerating when thinking about what would happen if I said I was a boy. I mean it had only been a week and I hadn’t done anything that might warrant me getting sued by anyone or finishing in jail. I had kept to myself and I made sure to never see things that could be considered private. Also my family was rich and my sisters who for an unknown reason seemed to love me could probably force my father to bail me out if I got in trouble. The principal should have a way to contact my dad if there is an emergency, no? ... I mean from what Allie told dad was uncontactable by us, but the school has to have a way to contact him…

Allie looked at me more and more worried.

“Could we stop it?” I asked still sobbing.

Allie looked unsure. “We could try?”

“Well, I don’t want to… I… I want to be with you and Mackenzie and Chanel and the twins… I don’t won’t to end up alone in another place. I don’t want things to go back the way they were before…”

As I said those words, someone entered the restroom to get out immediately after.

Allie and I looked at each other and we both chuckled.

Allie hugged me.

“Even, if you don’t want to be alone you shouldn’t be doing this if it making you suffer.”

“I… I … I don’t hate being a girl…”I said honestly.

“And being a boy?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well we have time to figure it out, just know that either way we will be there to protect you. You might not have been part of the family for long, but we consider you a fully member of it. We will protect you don’t worry.”

On those words she hugged me again.

“Let’s clean your face, reapply your make up and continue our solo shopping for a while.”

“We weren’t done?”

“Almost, you need a cellphone and a laptop, one is pretty much a required accessory nowadays and the other is almost necessary for school. Oh, and don’t bother looking at the price. Dad has to make himself useful in some places! ” She said while winking at me.

I smiled and Allie started fixing my makeup. As soon as she finished, she texted the other girls to tell them we were going to take a little bit more time and we starting our way to a tech shop.

As we were walking around my eyes met with a young man with black shaggy hair and full beard. I was confused about him being here, but I knew his identity for a fact it was …Leon … My cousin Leon…

He looked confused for a few seconds and then he opened his mouth. “Brook?”

As soon as those words exited his mouth, I ran back to the restroom stall and started crying my eyes out. I am pretty sure I heard Allie drop several f-bombs as I ran out of there.

What the hell! Can’t I have a good day for once! Leon was going to hate me now! He will now think that there is something that he isn’t right in my head and probably beat me or denounce me! He will not want to do anything with me! I… I… I just couldn’t take this anymore… I cried myself to sleep in the stall.

“Is she there?”

“She has too, it’s the only stall we haven’t checked in the mall and, well, those are her shoes.”

Two voices I recognized were standing in front of my stall.

“Brooke?” One of the voices, Colette’s, asked.

“Brooke come out, please.” The other, Alexandrine’s asked.

I didn’t answer.

“Brooke, open this door immediately! We all are really worried about you.” Chanel said.

All of them, did she mean the other girl’s too? If they were there … Wouldn’t that mean that they know about the situation.

I opened the door to the stall and all the girls, even Beatricia, Adele and Maud, were standing in front of it. At the sight of my friends I wanted to cry again. They knew! If they didn’t know my secret at least they knew I wasn’t right in the head!

Adele started talking.

“Brooke, we guessed your secret, your sisters didn’t tell us. I mean the sudden breasts, your night expeditions, Maud’s incident, your complete lack of knowledge in most of our conversation topics and our incident the first day. I mean we had our suspicions with all of this, but hearing that you disappeared after meeting someone from your past kind of confirmed that you were a little bit more than just and underdeveloped girl. But you know what Brook we don’t care. Even if you have your shortcomings as a girl and even if you are unsure about yourself we still consider part of the gang because, no boy would panic to the point of causing a 2 hour search for him.”

I blushed and probably became as red as when I was in the lingerie shop.

Beatricia took it from there.

“Brooke, I am going to be there for you. Nothing you have done until now indicates you are bad person and honestly your lack of luck seems to cause quite interesting situations!”

As she said that I rolled my eyes and most of us started giggling.

I went out of the stall and I got a collective hug. Maud that hadn’t said g or done anything until now approached me and simply said. “Your sister is cool, so you can’t be that bad of a person. I won’t say anything...”

I nodded and then noticed that both Mackie and Allison had been missing from this whole scene.

I asked Chanel about it.

“Allie and Mackie are talking with Leon right now.”

I gulped.

“Is he angry?”

“No Brooke, he told us that at one point in time he expected you to do this.”

And so once again, I was confused.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

“Wait, what?” I said completely incredulous.

“He said that he expected you to do this at one point, that’s all I heard. If you want to know more go to talk to him he is waiting outside.”

I stepped out of the bathroom and I saw Makenzie, Allison and Leon sitting in a bench.

Blushing, I said a very shy “Hi” to Leon and as I did so the other girls came out of the bathroom.

Leon waved his hand and I then sat down between Mackenzie and Allison.

The twins, Chanel and my friends then approached us and told us that they were going to get shop a little bit more.

Mackie and Allie nodded and then Allison gave a paper to Colette.

“We don’t know how long this is going to last so here’s a few things Brooke is going to need and a where you can find them. I have noted which sizes to get so look at them before buying them. ” She then looked at Chanel and said “Make sure that the twins get the right sizes sis.”

Chanel nodded and the Colette and Alexandrine rolled their eyes trying to clearly display how much they were annoyed by those words.

Allison sighed and then just said “Sorry my dearest elder sisters, but you suffer from acute laziness I don’t want you to take the easiest way out. Anyway, if we take too long please buy the red shoes I saw the other day.”

The twins nodded and the gang moved away.

“Brook, you seem to have quite a crew. I’m quite happy see you that you have made some friends, despite your runny makeup, you look happier than when I saw you this summer.”

I smiled at him and said “Half of them are my sisters,” I said laughing.

“Really?” He said quite surprised.

“Really,” Said Allison. “We officially are 7 siblings: 5 girls, 1 boy and our newest addition our little Brookie.”

“I kind of understand how Brook could end up in an all-girls school now. It has to be hard to keep track of that many children. Anyway, Brook I’m happy to see you happy.”

“I seem to have people who care about me now.”

Allie and Mackie coughed clearly trying to send me a message.

I corrected.

“I have people that care about me now,”

“That’s nice little cousin, very nice.” As he said that he reached for me with his hand and brushed my hair with it.

“Leon, you told the girls that you expected me to dress a girl, why?”

“Brooke, you might not remember this, but when you were around six or seven you often used to come spend weekends at my house. When you did you I would babysit you and for some reason you always seemed sad. At first I didn’t understand why, I mean I would try my best to make you have fun making play with my old toys and I letting you watch what I would have love to watch on TV when I was younger. Neither of those things worked and for about two months I searched desperately for a way for you to truly have fun. I failed miserably because nothing boyish would work on you. I was about to give up until at Halloween my girlfriend at the time brought her little sister and plenty of costumes and her played dress up all afternoon. I didn’t really understand why but dressing up as a princess and putting on makeup actually made you happy. At first I was a little bit angry at what you were doing, but Cheryl convinced me that you were doing couldn’t be bad to you because it was making you happy. For some, reason those words were the magic ones to make me accept you and other people who lived outside the norm. I started to understand all the hate that was shared around our family and I also started to realize that I had to give you a place where you could be you. I gave it to you and fun fact, I had to stop you countless times from touching my mother’s things. Due to all of that I simply couldn’t think of you has anything else, but a girl. You actually surprised me when you came home this summer and that you tried to play that whole paragon of virility thing, I mean it was the complete opposite of when you were little.”

I couldn’t remember, I really couldn’t remember any of the things he talked about. Was he really talking about me? I mean, I had the impression that I had always strived to be manly. Was I wrong?

“I can’t remember any of that.”

Leon expression changed to a quite serious one. “Yeah, I noticed and that really scares me Brook. I mean, once winter came that year you completely disappeared from my life and my mother started calling you devil’s child. I was afraid that she had discovered our little secret, but I wasn’t reprimanded for anything, so I thought it to be something else. Anyway, whatever it was it was big, I mean the scars on your back, your change in comportment, your faulty memory and my mother hating you. All of those things seems to point to you accidentally coming out and then some really screwed up stuff happening.”

As Leon finished his sentence I looked at Allison and Makenzie and I realized that they were getting furious.

“Brooke, you have scars on you back? “Asked Allie.

“Y…Yes… on my lower back.”

“How bad are they?”

I didn’t answer, I couldn’t answer. The scars on my lower back were simply my mom said they were nothing more and nothing else. I mean they had to be right, right?

“Really bad,” Said Leon. “Seriously bad, when I first noticed them this summer I was enraged because I couldn’t believe anyone would do that much damage Brook.”

“Brooke, why didn’t you tell us about this?”

“I…I… don’t know. I mean, they simply have just always been part of me and my mom used to tell me to never show them to anyone.”

My sisters and Leon gasped. “Brook, you do know what that is implying, right?” Said Mackenzie.

I had absolutely no clue what they were implying, my mother couldn’t have done that to me right? And if she did, she only meant to help me right? Right? I just started crying again.

Allison held me close.

“I think we should stop, now. I don’t think we should push more stuff unto Brooke right now. She has enough on her plate as it is.” Allison said.

“You are right and I think I should go. I seem to cause more distress that Brook can handle.”

I wanted to say no but, Leon was kind of right he was going to places and I really didn’t want to go. Not today and probably not the rest of this year at least. I wanted to know if I was a boy or girl, the rest would go after.

I stood up, Leon hugged me and then he passed me his phone number.

“I will answer anytime kiddo, if you need someone to talk to just called me.”

He put his hand on my head one last time and then he simply went away.

Allie looked at me and then smiling said at me. “There’s two hours until we have to go. Want to actually shop a little?”

I nodded but I added. “Can I stop looking a panda though?”

Mackie, Allie and I laughed as we entered the bathroom. Allison reapplied my makeup for the second time today and then we were on our merry way.

Before going to meet the other girls, my sisters and I went to a tech shop to buy me a cellphone and a laptop. Seeing how my absent and forgetful father was paying for everything I just bought whatever seemed the be the best without actually looking at the price, the exception to that was my cellphone plan for which I took one that would make sense with the number of friends and how close they were to me all the time. As we were already there I decided to pick a few video games that had interested me for a long time, but I really hadn’t had the chance to buy because of my step-father completely obliterating my last computer. Now, now I know what you might say about that but you know this this was about me becoming me not me going from a caricature of a male to the caricature of a female. If I was a girl I would at least try to be a cool and nerdy girl I mean back when I was completely and utterly male (about a week ago if you forgot) I thought that those kinds of girl were maybe a little bit less icky.

After my mini-geeky adventure we went to meet the other girls who were shopping for shoes. The moment I walked in I was swarmed by my friends and my sisters who all wanted to educate me on the way of shoes. High heels, ballets flats, you know, the whole kit. Honestly, I actually didn’t care that much, but hey if I was perhaps (and it’s a big perhaps) possibly a girl I needed to know you girl stuff.

We went from alley to alley looking at different pair of shoes until I saw them … I didn’t really understand my reaction at first but the moment I saw them I just wanted them to be mine. They had seduced me the same way sirens seduced sailors. I needed those platform boots, I just needed them. They were classy, cool, they didn’t scream female, the heels were quite chunky which made them 100% more attractive to in my book and they would transform the dwarf I was in a beautiful grunge/rocker girl (types of girl that were now in my book completely acceptable). Now, I think I may have squealed a little bit when I saw those shoes because the girl were looking at each other like aliens had just landed.

Allison looked particularly shocked and then annoyed.

“Geez, Really? I mean seriously have you seen that? Brooke our Brooke is acting girly without instructions! We should have come here right away this morning, I might have averted one of her crying fits if I had known that all I needed was a pair of boots!”

Blah-blah-blah, the shoes were nice and if I had not cried this morning I would have never thought that. I will admit thought that maybe the squeal was a little too much.

Anyway, I tried my pair of boots while the girls separated in search of god knows what. While they searched I tried all different kinds of shoes but decided to just buy 3 pairs my boots included because my closet at the dorm wasn’t that big. As the others to come back, I started wishing that I hadn’t waited for because they came back with stilettos.

“Try them.”

As Mackenzie said those words I turned back and went towards the cashier. I didn’t make it too far because the twins suddenly appeared were in front of me.

“Try them.”

I was going to escape from the sides but standing at my right and left were Adele and Beatricia who simply repeated my sisters’ words.

Realizing that I couldn’t escape my lovable (yet somehow annoying) captors, I sighed, sat down and put the torture devices on my feet.

I stood up and for a very short instant I thought that perhaps being a girl wouldn’t be worth it. I mean seriously, how anyone could walk with those?! I tried to make a few steps but I was as coordinated as a newborn calf walking on a surface full of butter. After a few falls I took those things out of my feet and held them in my hands.

“Wear them!”

“Ugh, like no? Why would we do that?” Said Colette.

“I mean, seriously Brooke we would never wear those things,” Said Alexandrine.

All the other girls Chanel, Allison and Maud excluded nodded.

I looked at them with puppy eyes and I started getting (voluntarily) teary eyed.

“I want to have fun too!”

The twins sighed and so did the others.

One after they started wearing the stilettos and failed miserably at doing so. I had quite a few laughs at everybody but Maud, Chanel, Mackenzie and Allison who could totally rock those heels.
.
After shopping for shoes, we went shopping for clothes. I bought myself some pajamas, a few jeans, some blouses, a few dresses and some t-shirts. I needed a new wardrobe and price didn’t matter, so with some counsel of my sisters and my friends I bought whatever would look good on me.

As we were about to leave, Allison pulled me aside and gave me a small bag.

“I bought this, while you were distracted buying stuff. It’s a heart locket, wear it to remember that even if things aren’t going well there are people who care about you and that will do anything to protect you.”

“Thanks.” I said hugging her.

“Try it.”

I took out the jewellery box out of the bag and as I opened it I was surprised at the sight of the silver heart locket which had a falcon engraved in the middle of it.

“Custom made? When did you have the time to order it?”

She nodded “I ordered it the day we learned we were sisters. All the members of the family have one similar to this one, dad is the one that usually buys them but seeing how it’s going to be a while before we see him I simply decided to order it myself.”

“Thanks sis! I will treasure it.”

She smiled “You better! Seeing how much it costed!”

She laughed and then we joined the others.

All my sisters looked at me with a small on their faces.

“I guess its official now.” Said Chanel.

“Yep.”

“Well, welcome officially to the family Brooke Falconer!” Said Mackie while hugging me.

One after the other all of my sisters did the same thing and when they were done we went on our way.

As we went back to the school and in the car I talked a little bit with the twins and Chanel about what had happened while I talked with Leon.
“Our idea of keeping the day fun didn’t work after all!”

“No, but its OK Alex it wasn’t really your fault and you know I still had fun.”

“Maybe, but now you have more things to worry about!”

“Colette it’s, I would have had to deal with those things eventually anyway.”

“Are you really going to be Ok, Brooke” Said Chanel looking at me momentarily through the rear view mirror.

“Yes, I will Chanel and if I am not I will you.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Being a girl and having a support network was maybe a little bit annoying and a little bit tiring, but it was worth it, well worth it. I wouldn’t exchange it for anything ever! As I thought that we arrived at school and I said goodbye to my sisters and then I went back to my dorm room.

There I chatted again with my roommates until dinner time and then spent a wonderful with everyone.

At midnight, I sneaked out of my room like usual to go take my shower and I made it to the bathroom without problems. I thought I heard a few noises, but I didn’t think that much about it. As I arrived to the door of the shower room I realized that it was once again unlocked. I opened it and I came face to face with a student I was sure I hadn't met before.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

Standing before me was a redheaded girl who looked extremely distressed. As soon as her brain registered my presence she very clumsily fixed her bathrobe before trying to escape by running next to me. I said trying, because not even a fraction of a second later she slipped and found herself on the ground. I didn’t laugh nor did I panic. I didn’t do either of those actions because what had just happened to her could have happened to me. As you can remember, I’m not the luckiest individual.

Anyway, I didn’t know why she was so stunned after seeing me. I mean, I was the person with male genitals who was in an all-girls school’s dorm shower room wearing a bathrobe. I might be a girl inside, but no member of the administration knew that. Whatever reason that girl had for running couldn’t be as bad as mine.

Before facing the girl, I tried to fasten my bathrobe as hard as I could in order to make sure that nothing highly incriminating slipped out and sent me to an early death. After that I action, I faced the panicked girl and trying to look the less nervous possible (action that was almost impossible considering the position I was in) I talked to her.

“You ok?” I said helping her stand up.

“Y…you d…d…didn’t see it did you?”

“See what?” I asked sincerely.

“See my…” She paused and then she looked at my face for a few seconds. She seemed to be searching for something in my eyes. I didn’t know why exactly, but after analyzing me the girl seemed to calm down. Did I again the power to calm people with my eyes or something?

I didn’t have time to explore that idea because the girl, who had seemed to have gain tremendous amounts of confidence in seconds, sighed and took a quite serious tone.

“Y…you k…know its p…p…past curfew, right? W…w…what are y…y…you doing here?” She said crossing her arms.

“From what I can tell, I came here to do exactly the same thing as you. And did you just gain huge amounts of confidence in a few seconds because you thought you could turn the situation on me?”

I don’t know about her, but I definitely did gain a large amount of confidence because of that situation. Think about it, she didn’t seem to be older than me and from her reaction when I first saw her I could gather that she maybe wasn’t really supposed to be here. Her words had to be bluff? Right? Right?

I seemed to be right because the girl blushed and spat something that seemed straight out of anime. Something that sounded like “Y…You are w…wrong, s…s…stupid!”

You know the kind of ridiculous, cliché, stupid and sometimes cute line certain anime characters spitted often. Normally, I would have cringed hard at the person who said those words, but this time I didn’t have the time for that. We seemed to have made too much noise and I was clearly hearing someone walking towards here.

Because the person clearly wanted to be heard I knew that this time for sure it wasn’t student. The other girl seemed to think the same exact thing, because she immediately shut up and started looking for a place to hide.

I closed the shower room door, took her by the hand and while trying take our clothes with me, I entered what I thought was the janitor’s closet.

The place being what it was, we had no choice but to be quite closed to each other and even in the dark I could clearly sense that my new “friend” was turning red of embarrassment. I wasn’t that comfortable either, I mean I had only acknowledged being a girl less than 24 hours ago, I had never been this close to a girl that wasn’t family.

The dorm supervisor entered the room, turned on the lights and searched for a while before finally quitting the room and while all of that was going on me and the mysterious redhead were having one of the most awkward moments ever.

Ten minutes after the adult left, we exited the room and awkwardly stared at each other.
“M…my c…clothes please!”

As she said those words, I threw her clothes at her.

“C…Can you go please? I need to c...change! ”

“I…I need to do the same thing! You go, you are at fault here!”

“A…at fault? Y…You are a…at fault! I have permission of the school nurse to use the shower at night, idiot! I didn’t need to b…be in that stinky room with y…you!”

Yeah, right!

We angrily stared each other for a while before I decided to enter the newly locked shower room to change.

I showered, changed and waited for the nuisance to go away before returning to my room.

“O.M.G Brooke, that story was so funny and cute!”

“Cute! That didn’t have anything of cute!”

“That was awkward! The most awkward situation ever!”

“I am sure that if you meet her again you are totally going to develop a crush on her!”

“On what basis!” I said blushing. “I don’t want to do anything with her Mackie!”

“Yeah, right! That what you say but your body is totally telling me the contrary.”

“With how much details about her you packed the story, you can’t be anything, but attracted to her!”

“You are crazy Mackie!”

“Yeah, crazy right.”

“Leave her alone, sis, if she say she isn’t attracted to her she isn’t, ok? Brooke hasn’t had the easiest of days yesterday, remember?” Said Allison who hadn’t said a word since I started talking about last night.

“But Brooke, do you have any idea? Who that girl might be? ”Said Allison again.

“No, why?”

“That girl wasn’t taking a shower in the middle of the night for no reason! Maybe she has the same reason as you.”

“What, being accidentally signed to up an all-girls boarding school.” I said mockingly.
“No, silly, being transgender. Think about it, Brooke, she said that she had permission of the school nurse to use the shower at night.”

“And?”

“Well, the nurse wouldn’t give that right to anyone! Brooke, you really don’t seem to be your normal self today.”

“How?”

“Even if you are only thinking about that girl, you aren’t panicking at the possibility that she might right you out.”

“Isn’t that what normal people do?”

“You aren’t normal Brooke.” Said Mackie smirking.

“As tactful as ever, Mackie. As tactful as ever.”

Allison pretended to cough.

“Going back to our topic, I think we should find the redheaded girl as fast as possible.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Could we please not do that? I don’t want to meet that girl ever again.”

“I don’t think you have much choice in that matter Brooke, she uses the shower at hours similar to yours.”

“I could always go later.”

“Maybe, but finding her and talking to her is still important, Brooke. She could talk about you to the school nurse or the school psychologist.”

As she said that an old friend of mine knocked at my door, her name: panic. As soon as she said those words I changed from my pajamas to my new clothes and texted my roommates to join me immediately. Adele and Beatricia were having breakfast so it took a while before they made it to the room.

“What’s the matter, Brooke, you look really worried.” Said Adele.

“She was in an incident last night and now she has to find the person she was with,” Said Mackie.

“Brooke, you are pregnant!” Said Beatricia jokingly.

“No time to be joking, Trish, our little Brooke’s adventure in female land might end if we don’t find a certain someone.”

“Who?”

“A very shy small redheaded girl, with a ton of freckles and green eyes.”

“Oh my god, Brooke, I know who that is! But you totally aren’t going to like this!”

“Why? Who it is?”

“Temperance Webster McArthur, her moms are the school psychologist and the school nurse.”

I might as well start packing my things right now. With such a team as parents there was no way that she wouldn’t talk them about me.

“Adele, are you sure?”

“Yes, she perfectly fits that description, especially the very shy part. Temperance doesn’t talk to anyone and prefers to eat lunch in the nurse’s office or the psychologist office. The only people she seems able to communicate normally with are her mothers.”

“Wait? But wouldn’t she live with them then! What would she be doing in the dorms?” Said Allie.

“I think that I overheard some teachers saying that they had problems with plumbing in the teacher’s cottages or something. Maybe she came here because of that, I am pretty sure her and her moms live in the cottage closest to the dorms. ”

“Then why at night?”

“She is shy, she might not like showing her body to anyone.”

“That fits what I saw last night. I don’t she might be trans like Allie was saying before you came here.”

“Why would you think that Allison?”

“I don’t know? Maybe being around Brooke has tainted my thought process. ”

“Tainted?” I said giving her an angry look.

“Sorry, that was me being tainted by Mackenzie.”

We all giggled and then got serious again.

“I think you should go see Temperance, Brooke. It’s early in the morning and she might have not talked yet. You might be able to convince her to not say anything about yesterday,” Said Allison.

“You want me to go to the house of the three people most dangerous to me right now?” I spat.

“No, Brooke. I want you to go the house of three potential allies. Even if you don’t acknowledge it, you are clearly attracted to Temperance. Maybe that attraction could turn into a crush in the future and perhaps eventually in love or maybe it could just be the start of a new friendship, either way that girl is sickly shy, Brooke, and you are apparently one of the only people in school who she can talk to, you should try to save her from loneliness, Brooke. As for her psychologist mother, Brooke, one day you will have to see a shrink about your scars, your gender identity and your whole relationship with your mom, why not prepare yourself by befriending a shrink, it might be easier that way. Also, it might a good idea to befriend her in case you get caught, having a psychologist acknowledge you as a girl might save you from the worst things that could happen. As for the nurse, think about shots and the papers you might give before receiving them, if you are friends with her daughter she might think the M on your different papers is a huge error. All advantages.”

“And if they discover I am not fully who I pretend to be?”

“Well, you are not pretending anything, you are just being yourself. If things turn bad, we will deal with it later. Now, go befriend Temperance and prevent her from talking to her moms.”

Ten minutes later, I was nervously standing in front of Temperance’s house. I think I perhaps spent 5 minutes just looking at doorbell before ringing it.

The door opened and I saw the girl from yesterday standing there blushing.

“W…What You doing h...here?”

“I… I… wanted to talk with you.”

“A…About w…what?”

“Yesterday.”

Temperance was turning tomato red.

“W…Why would y…you want to talk about that?”

“Can I enter? It’s going to be long to explain.”

Temperance seemed to hesitate for a second, but eventually let me enter.

“W…what’s your name?”

“Brooke. And from what my friends told me you are Temperance, right?”

She nodded and then she took me around the house until we arrived in front of what I thought was her room. She made a sign for me to wait and then she entered her room for a while. I think three or four minutes passed before she signalled for me to enter.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

Entering her room, I didn’t find anything that caught my eye. I hadn’t been in the rooms of many girls, but Temperance’s room seemed quite normal. Turquoise walls, a desk, her bed a laptop and a few books, movies and video games in surfaces I didn’t name. Normal, I think. I could see that she had taken a few stuff of the wall, but I didn’t think that much about it. I mean, we all have our embarrassing interests, right? I sat on her bed and she sat beside me.

Temperance looked incredibly red due to my presence in her room. Honestly, though, her blushing matched my discomfort. Being here after everything that had happened yesterday was weird, being alone with a girl in her room was weird and, crap, being here wearing girl’s clothes was weird. It just started dawning on me how awkward this whole situation was. Not only for me, but also for her.

For the longest time, we just sat there in silence, awkwardly trying to think of a way to start our conversation. It took what seemed an eternity before one of us could even say a word to each other.

“Where are your moms?”

“Jogging. They… they should be back in about an hour. You know about them?”

“Yes, I heard of them that’s how I found you. You don’t jog?”

She shook her head.

“Not… not my thing.”

“Hmm… What… What is your thing?”

“Cl…clothes, movies, books and video games.”

I smiled at her last words and then I remembered how terrible I was to her yesterday.

“I…I want to apologize, yesterday I was kind of rude. I mean, I could make an excuse about being stressed and that being the cause of my behaviour, but that would be false. I just saw an opportunity to be smug and took it.”

“I… I …I was rude too, I shouldn’t have called you stupid. I… I don’t know you yet, but you don’t seem stupid…” Said Temperance with a shy smile. “And you… you made the effort to search for me and apologize. How could you be a bad person?” She added.

She was wrong about the whole me searching for her thing, but I would let her believe it. I wanted to be friends with after all.

“Say, could you keep quiet to your moms about you seeing me there?”

She nodded.

“Good.”

Once again a major crisis was averted.

“Why… why were you there last night?” Asked temperance blushing less than before.

“I have a condition that makes it very awkward to shower near the other girls.”

Technically not a lie.

Temperance eyebrows rose as I talked about a condition.

“Does… does one of my moms know about it? I... I don’t want to intrude, but…but you know they might actually give you an official permission for late night showers.”

I didn’t know how to answer that question without self-incriminating myself. I could lie to her, but then one of mothers would tell her the truth and I would be busted. I could also tell her the truth and hope that Allison was right about her.

I was tempted to take the leap of faith option, but then I remembered that many factors that made my situation seem way worse that it was actually. There was the whole being trans without any member of the staff knowing, the whole being in her room thing and of course the whole closet scene last night. Needless to say the odds weren’t in my favour in this very moment and just thinking about that fact made me teary eyed. I was screwed. There was no way around it.

“I have a story to tell you, but please do not freak out.”

Temperance had a puzzled look on her face as she nodded to my request.

“I don’t know how to say this, but I am not supposed to be here, I was accidentally signed up to this school.”

Temperance looked at me completely confused.

“The truth is that… I am transgender and I just discovered it this week.”

I think I saw her eyes lit up for a fraction of a second.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m biologically male.”

Her face took a quite serious look.

“You are biologically male and nobody at school’s knows it… you know how that sounds right.”

Her shyness was gone and I could feel her anger rising.

I couldn’t hold my tears anymore.

“Bad, terribly bad, I know… but please listen to me. It isn’t how it sounds.”

She stood up and then I thought that my life was officially over … To my surprise she came back with a box of tissues and said: “I give you half an hour, no more than that. If you can’t convince me before that I will have no choice, but to report you.”

I took a deep breath and started talking. I told her everything and when I mean everything I mean it. I talked about my mom, my aunt, Leon and his memories, my week and how emotionally exhausted it was. All throughout my tale I could see Temperance mellow as the words exited my mouth. By the end of it she was hugging me and I wasn’t the only one in tears.

“Brook... you are either the greatest actor and storyteller I have ever seen or the unluckiest person ever… And you know what? Seeing how you actually went to see me despite the risks, I can’t help but to believe your words.”

She restarted talking.

“The truth Brooke is that...”

As she said those words, the main door of the house opened.

“Temperance, sweetie, we are home! Come eat breakfast with your adorable mommies.”

Temperance deflated and went back to her blushing self.

“Mommy, I have a friend over could you be less embarrassing please!”

“Honey, have you heard that! Our little Temperance has made a friend!”

“Oh my God dear, I can’t believe this. Temperance come here with your new friend so we can take a good look at her!”

Thankfully I wasn’t wearing any makeup, so it didn’t look that much like I had a major emotional crisis.

Temperance took my hand and lead me downstairs.

“Look at them honey, they are holding hands. Our little Temperance is holding hands with someone. Can you believe it?”

I think I could feel Temperance embarrassment through her hands.

“Mom, mommy could you please stop em…em...embarrassing me in front of Brooke.”

“Oh, so her name is Brooke.”

“Well, hello Brooke. I’m one of Temperance’s mothers, the school psychologist, you can call me Mrs. Athena. Unlike the teachers the administration doesn’t mind how students call me,” Said a Tall woman with black hair and very blue eyes. She looked like she was in the late twenties despite some indications going against that.

Right beside her stood her wife, way smaller than her. She was a redhead with green eyes and a ton of freckles. She looked exactly like an older version of Temperance.

“You can call me Mrs. Emily, I am the school nurse. Say Brooke have you eaten breakfast yet?”

My stomach answered for me.

“Well looks like the answer is no. I hope you don’t mind pancakes!”

I think I saw Temperance mentally face palming herself. Sorry, Temperance, I will totally apologize for this when the time is right.
~*~
“So Brooke, how do you like your new school? Do you feel lonely or…”

“Honey! Could you please not do that, she just came here to have fun. Don’t scare her away!”

“Oh sorry dear! Hahaha! Bad habits. So how did you two meet?”

“At school! We met at school!” Said Temperance.

“Well obviously you met at school, sweetie, but how precisely did you meet?” Said Mrs. Athena.

She turned to me.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking that Brooke! I just want some reference on how to treat cases as a fusional as our daughter Hahaha!”

If Temperance could bury herself under the ground that would be what she would right now.

“I just saw her and thought that she might need more friends.”

“Oh, Brooke that so sweet of you! You get an extra pancake because of that! Temperance has been stressing since this summer about making friends in high school! Yet when she came here she didn’t want to leave our side! We started really worrying about her!”

“Honey! You are embarrassing Brooke and our daughter!”

“Sorry Temperance and sorry Brooke. I am just so excited!”

Breakfast here was fun. Very fun actually. Seeing Temperance’s cute reactions to anything her mothers said was priceless. The Webster-McArthur’s were a lovable family, the 3 of them. Especially Temperance, I kinda hated myself for saying that I didn’t want to meet her ever again this morning. I feel like I would have missed something wonderful if I had kept that promise.

As I was ready to leave right after breakfast Temperance approached me.

“Will…Will you come to hang out again? I mean… My moms are embarrassing, but you have given them expectations and I don’t want to break them… And I’m not sure if I can really leave you alone with everything going in your life and… and…”

For some unknown reason I was smiling.

“Don’t worry, I will come here again. Breakfast here is as entertaining as breakfast with my friends and my sisters. I might start coming here often… Hahaha.”

She laughed as well.

“Let’s meet at school next time.”

“I… I wouldn’t want to take some of your time away from your friends… you clearly need them.”

I hugged her and smiling at her, I said “You also are in need of a good friend! We will definitely hang out again and when the time is right I will present you to my friends and family.”

Although I didn’t mean it, that last sentence clearly had a double meaning and Temperance understood it.

“You… you are going too fast, perv!”

I laughed at her joke and hugged her goodbye.

I went back to my dorm thinking about Temperance. I really hoped she would get along with my friends and the rest of my family. She needed friends and as wonderful as I was, I couldn’t count for a whole network of friends.

As I entered my room I saw Beatricia and Adele talking with Mackenzie.

“We were waiting for you sister, tell us how it was while we start working on our homework.”

“Calm down Mackenzie, it wasn’t date. Just a friendly meeting.”

“Simple meeting, right. Then why are you blushing so much,” Said Trish.

“Ok, it ended up being more than a simple meeting, it kinda turned into a confessional and then a fun moment with her parents.”

“Confessional?” Asked Adele.

“Confessional. I had to admit my crimes after she discovered that something wasn’t quite right.”

“Did it go well? Was Allie right?”

“I couldn’t prove her theory, but yes it went well. Temperance is awesome. Cute, kind and very nonjudgmental.”

“Oh my … All those compliments and blushing again? Oh my sis … are you developing a crush for her. ”

“N…no what are you talking about? We are friends! Or at least we will become friends … soon hopefully.”

“Girls did you hear the same thing as I did when our little Brookie said that last word.”

“Yes, Mackenzie. I think our little Brooke might be going on a date by the end of next month.”

“I wouldn’t bet on that Trish. Remember how both of them are, there is no way they will be going out by next term.”

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever become as annoying as them. It almost seemed to be a requirement to be a teenage girl!

The week went unexpectedly well until Friday. When I say well, I mean as good as it can go when you have all your sisters and your friends teasing you about a girl you just met. There were no incidents this week which was quite nice! I mean, remember how much happened last week? You could write a whole novel with just those events!

Sadly, I didn’t see Temperance all week and that kinda tainted my week, but hey that’s what happens when you try to befriend someone has elusive as her. I’m pretty sure that in a week or two she might start hanging out with my friends. I just needed to subtly start presenting her to my other friends… A plan just started forming in my head.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

“That doesn’t seem like a very bright idea Brooke, I mean seriously … there is no way that she wouldn’t notice that you planned everything and I’m pretty sure you won’t have any chance with her after that. Don’t try to be deceitful, just be honest with her. Just tell her that you want to hang out with her and your other friends,” Said Allison.

“But…”

I was interrupted by my older sister.

“No buts, Brooke. Your plan is very dumb… There is absolutely no good reason to end up locked up in a supply room with her and the others and even if there was, someone would get in trouble with the school staff.”

“I guess...” I said looking down.

“Look, here is what you are going to do, tomorrow morning go see her with Mackenzie, the three of you can hang out and I’m pretty sure that this way Temperance will start to open up.”

I nodded and went back to my room.

So much for taking what seemed like months to make my plan to enlarge Temperance's group of friends.

“Brooke, you know that you don’t have to do everything Allison tells you right?” Said Mackenzie as we were walking towards Temperance’s cottage.

“If you don’t think this is a good idea why are you here?”

“Curiosity mostly... I kinda want to see what this elusive Temperance is like.”

We arrived at the house and I rang the door.

The door opened and I was greeted by Temperance wearing an oversized t-shirt.

“Broo...” She looked at Mackenzie and then started blushing profusely.

“W…who... who is she?”

Before I could say anything Mackie started talking.

“I am Mackenzie Falconer, happy to meet you Temperance, I have heard so much about you… My sister can’t stop talking about you.”

Temperance’s blush intensified and I myself turned tomato red. Mackie would pay for this!

“Can we enter?” Said my traitorous sister give Temperance a broad smile.

“S… S… sure I… Brooke s…show her to my room and then come help me... transport a f…few snacks…”

I gulped.

“Sure…”

“Wanting to have a secret conversation? Hum? My … my already so couple-like…”

Temperance’s blush reached a new intensity and so did mine.

I glared at her.

I honestly can’t believe that she said that aloud! This is emotional terrorism, nothing less, there will be hell to pay for this.

I guided Mackenzie to Temperance’s door and then went to the kitchen awaiting my fate.

“W...What the hell Brooke?” said a clearly embarrassed Temperance.

“I thought you might need a few new friends, so I kinda invited my sister.”

“... Without telling me first?!”

“I didn’t see you all week... I couldn’t find you anywhere and I’m pretty sure that if I had asked you to hang out with me and my friends you would have said no…”

“...”

“Look Mackie is just teasing us, she does this for fun I’m pretty sure that you will be talking to her as naturally you talk to me in no time...”

Temperance started looking reflexive.

“W...Why does she keep teasing at you liking me? I mean its impossible right… we have just met and I keep being horrible to you … you should hate me by now …” said Temperance in a sad tone.

For a moment I didn’t know how to act or what to say but then I shyly approached her, hugged her and said “You should also be hating me by now... The way we met, what I told you the day afterwards and even what I am doing right now. I’m pretty sure that I have only caused you trouble and anxiety since the moment I met you.”

“Brooke… I can’t hate you … I mean sure, the few times I met you might have been moments embarrassing to the point of wanting to burry myself underground… but they have also been some of the most memorable and amusing times of my life. I… I want to be your friend and if that comes with high amounts of stress so be it. I will get used to it. I love my moms, they are always here for me and everything, but you know, not having friends my age is so freaking hard. ” Tears start coming down her face. “So hard and so tiring... I don’t want to be alone anymore…”

“I know how you feel... two weeks ago… I was as miserable as you were… but then I met all these wonderful people and they completely changed my life. I not only want you to meet them I also want you to befriend them,” I said smiling.

“I am going to try my hardest ...”

“Then we should go back to your room very soon or you will hate my sister because of the comments she is going to make...”

When we reached the room we saw Mackie sitting on Temperance’s bed checking something on her phone.

“Oh, so you finally came... I wanted to go to kitchen but I didn’t want to interrupt whatever you were doing.”

“Mackie tone it down a little... your teasing is making Temperance very uncomfortable.”

“Oh ... sorry about that… I… kinda forget that everyone isn’t as comfortable with this type of stuff as we are in our group”

“It’s OK Mackie, it allowed us to have a great moment.”

Mackenzie raised an eyebrow.

“Wait ... that sounded wrong.”

“Yes, it did ... stupid,” said Temperance

We all looked at each other and then chuckled.

“Seriously, though sorry for being such an ass and making you feel uncomfortable Temperance, I know you aren't used to social interaction and yet I use some extreme form of it.”

“It… it's OK really… I need to get used back to social interaction.”

“Used back?” I asked.

“Yeah… used back, Brooke. I haven’t always been socially inept Brooke.”

“I didn’t mean to imply…”

She grinned.

“Teasing you… but it’s true that when I was way younger I used to have many friends. We would always hang out and back then I had no problem talking with anyone.”

“What happened?”

“Bullied…”

“Why would anyone …”

“I don’t know... maybe because I stutter a lot in front of new people… maybe because my family was different from theirs… maybe because I… anyway at one point it simply became easier to abstain from social contact. No arguments, no bullying if no one knows you are there. ”

“Did you talk to your moms about … your problems?”

“Didn’t need to… they noticed right away. The advantage when your parents are a shrink and a nurse is that there is no need to say some things, they notice bruises of the mind and the body before anyone else does. I kinda wish they hadn’t noticed though. I think they feel partly responsible for the way I am today and I kinda feel guilty that they had to move to make me feel safer.”

“It’s not your fault if people are jerks! You know that, right?”

She smiled.

“Yeah, I know … but thanks for caring and listening Mackenzie, Brooke.”

“No problem…”

We answered both at the same time.

“This conversation was way too depressing… Want to watch something?”

Our movie was interrupted by Temperance’s parents coming home from their morning jog.

“Dear… I think that our little Temperance circle of friends is growing… I recognize Brooke's shoes, I think, but this pair of shoes doesn’t ring anything.”

“Brooke must have brought someone to befriend Temperance.”

“Brooke is such a nice girl then, we should invite her to eat breakfast here as much as she wants then. She can only have a good impact on our daughter.”

“Well, let’s prepare a big and delicious breakfast for the girls.”

While this conversation was occurring Mackenzie and I were laughing while Temperance had her head deep into a pillow.

“Well aren’t you a nice girl Brooke… Do you imagine what would have happened if you had gone with your original plan?”

“What original plan? What are you talking about?” Asked Temperance

“Nothing important, Temperance, absolutely nothing important.”

“Yeah, right... Brooke, at least be honest about your terrible plans.”

“OK... I will, but Temperance don’t think bad about me for what I was thinking of doing it was just an idea… I couldn’t have gone through it anyway…”

“What was it?”

“She wanted to reproduce the conditions of the night you met.”

Temperance glared at me.

“Perv!”

“She’s joking Temperance. The truth isn’t that much better though, I wanted to put us in a situation where you would be forced to interact with me and my friends… I’m sorry, I realize now how crazy and manipulative that would have been. ”

“Oh, Brooke you really need to stop thinking like in sitcoms, anyone but me would be pissed at you for even thinking about going through that plan.”

“Thankfully, you talked with Allison before going through your plan.”

“Yeah, thankfully.” I nodded.

Temperance started looking nervously at me and Mackie.

“Brooke and... I guess Mackenzie too, now, I kinda have something to tell you I...”

Before she could finish her sentence the door to her room opened and her moms appeared.

“Oh, Mackenzie Falconer! What a lovely surprise! What are you doing here? Are you friends with Brooke and Temperance.”

“Well you see, Mrs. Webster, Brooke is my sister and she just introduced me to your daughter.”

“Wonderful... when you came to my office on Wednesday did you come to talk about your sister and my daughter.”

“I might have...” She said giving her the most innocent smile.

“Oh, you... Well let’s all have breakfast, I hope that you are hungry girls because there is quite a lot to eat!”

Breakfast was once again a very enjoyable thing at the Webster-McArthur house. I don’t think I ever laughed so hard while having food and by the look on Mackenzie’s face neither did she.

Now, one thing that was on my mind all breakfast was the conversation that Mackenzie and Temperance’s psychologist mom had had earlier this week. What did they talk about? I absolutely needed to know … Especially because Mackenzie didn’t seem to know that much Temperance. I didn’t know what she could have said about us.

I tried to stir the conversation towards that direction but neither Mrs. Athena nor Mackie took the bait. God, another thing that’s going to cause me sleepless nights.

At around noon, it came time for us go back to our dorms due to Temperance and her moms going to visit a family friend that afternoon.

Before going back to the dorms Mrs. Emily, Temperance’s nurse mom, approached me and started whispering to me.

“Brooke, you should have told me your last name is Falconer! It would have made my week, a whole less stressful. See, I was checking everyone vaccines cards, because everyone is going to have their flu shots soon, when I noticed that the system we use had flagged one of our students as male, now I would have thought that to be a complete innocent error in our records if all the other information about that student had put them as female, but many other documents showed them as male. I thought that maybe that student could have been transgender until I noticed that there was no mention of transition on any of that student's records. I was so worried that we might have an actual boy hidden among our students.I mean do you imagine the outrage that something like that would cause? The worse part about it would have been that some of our transgender could have gotten bullied because they would be associated with that rascal. I was thinking about sending a message to the principal about this case, but now I realize there is no reason to worry. Thankfully, I realize now that you are Brooke Falconer and there is no way that you are an actual boy. ”She winked at me.
“Look, come see me at my office on Monday afternoon, so I can figure out where the error came from and so I can correct your records”

I nodded, trying to hide my shock. Did she figure me out or does she still think that all of this is a computing error? I didn’t know… I didn’t want to know… She didn’t seem mean, but really who knows what other people think.

I whispered a few words of this to Mackenzie.

She shrugged.

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure that she is going to help you: she likes you, I’m pretty sure she knows that her daughter loves you and also, I’m now 99 percent sure that her daughter is trans as well,” she said smirking at the end of her sentence.

“What?”

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

“You heard me, I’m pretty sure Temperance is trans.”

“How can you be so sure of that?”

“Haven’t you heard her? I’m pretty sure she wanted to come out to you today! ”

“That doesn’t mean anything Mackie! There is plenty of things that she could have been trying to say!”

“Like what?” She said smirking once again. “Her gayness for you? Not only is that obvious, she probably wouldn’t have included me in that conversation.”

“Whatever, but do you have any significant proof that she is trans, Mackie? You know very well that she could have been trying to say any number of things.”

“Actually, I do have significant proof, while I was waiting for the both of you to stop doing amorous stuff in the kitchen, I noticed that there was a bottle of pills that had been very poorly hidden in Temperance’s bookcase. I looked at the label on the bottle more closely and then doing a research on what the pills were, I discovered that she had been prescribed antiandrogens. That’s my absolute proof Brooke.”

I didn’t know what to say… Temperance being the same as me… I… I didn’t know how to feel about it … Should I be happy that I met somebody like me or should I feel sad that shyness wasn’t the only thing that made Temperance’s life complicated?

“Brooke, are you alright? You looked really out of it for a second. Does it bother you that much that Temperance is trans as well?”

“What?! No! It’s just that I now realize that Temperance is dealing with so much stuff at the same time… I don’t know if I could handle the stress and the anxiety that she has to deal with daily.”

Mackenzie gave me a look of disbelief.

“Brooke, I hope you notice the irony in what you just said!”

Irony, what irony, there is no irony in what I just… Actually… Yes, there is plenty of irony in what I just said.

“Brooke, being empathic is great but think about yourself sometimes too, ok?” Said Mackie giving me a hug.

“I will sis, I will.”

The rest of the weekend was really uneventful in the physical realm, in my mind though, plenty of stuff was happening and few of the thoughts I was having were really positive. I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened on Saturday.

Weirdly enough, none of the girls asked me about what had happened on that day. I questioned Chanel and Allison about it and they told me that Mackenzie had told them everything. They didn’t think that there was much they could do about anything that was happening, so they suggested to everyone else to simply not talk about it. “Worrying is useless,” Chanel words. I didn’t think so, but it’s not like could do anything about it Monday so… I tried as hard possible to forget about Monday.

Anyway, Monday afternoon came and I was standing in front of an office extremely nervous. I took a deep breath and then proceeded to knock on the door.

“You can enter,” Said a voice from inside.

I reluctantly opened the door and I was shocked to see that not only the nurse was in here, but the psychologist and … Temperance.

“Why are you here Temperance?”

Temperance mom started talking “To…”

Temperance interrupted her mother almost immediately. “Let me say it, I think it’s better if she heard it from me, mom. Brooke…I…I want to apologize, I…I told on you last week and that’s why I… I also kept avoiding you…”
I couldn’t look at her.

“Brooke, I just wanted to protect you! I didn’t want anything to happen that might get you kicked out of school. I didn’t want to lose you. You pretty much are the only real friend I have and seeing how my moms have the power to legitimize you being here… I just thought that it would be best if I talked them about you.”

“And you didn’t talk to me about it!” I said very angrily.

Temperance started crying. “Brooke, you go through so much risk every day. I didn’t want to want to wake up one day and discover that you were gone… ”

“So you betrayed me!”

“I’m so, so sorry Brooke! I just thought it would be better this way.”

“Brooke, Temperance really did make you a service. I really did discover that something wasn’t right in your documentation and I was really going to tell the principal that something wasn’t right. If I hadn’t met you on that weekend and if Temperance hadn’t told that she knew about you, I would have thought the worse about you. It’s one thing for a boy to end in an all-girls school, but it’s another for them to not out themselves, then start acting perfectly as girl and then to start befriending a vulnerable girl. Sorry, if that sounds harsh, but understand that I only wanted to make sure my daughter and all the girls in this school were safe.”

“It doesn’t sound that harsh, I spent my whole first week thinking about how bad my situation seemed… How I should have just said that this was an error and how I shouldn’t have let things get this bad… I don’t hate you for thinking along those lines if it had been anyone else but me I would have thought the same exact thing.” There were very few reasons that could justify my actions… and no the paranoiac state I was in the very first of school wasn’t a good reason I knew that now. If I hadn’t been trans and I would have still gone through this as long as I have, I would have stop being a paranoid wimp at about the third day and from then I would have just been a creep. As such, I understood her line of thinking and I also understood the fact that Temperance made the right decision by telling on me. I knew it… Yet …

I looked at Temperance and said very, very painful words.

“I understand your reasons, but I can’t forgive you right now, Temperance.”

She ran out of the room with her nurse mother going out immediately after her.

Mrs. Athena looked at me and sighed. “I hope, you can forgive her eventually Brooke, she really likes you and she really hated ratting on you.”

“I also hope I can forgive her too…”

“Oh, well. Sit down will you. This might take a while.”

I sat down.

“Now, let me tell you a few things. Me and my wife met working at a gender clinic we are strangers to trans people specially trans kids, seeing as we often worked with them as seeing as we often worked with them and seeing as … we ended up adopting one of our patients.”

I didn’t react.
She raised an eyebrow.

“No reaction… you already knew? Weird, Temperance told us we interrupted her twice before she could say it.”

“Mackenzie saw her prescription.”

“Oh… that explains that… I was worrying about her not …”

“Passing? Don’t worry about that your daughter is a beautiful girl,” I said blushing

“Tell her that to her, will ya! She doesn’t believe me or other mom when we tell her that.”

“Why?”

She looked at her watch.

“Well we have time and I guess she wouldn’t me telling you about her so here we go. As you can maybe tell by her name, Temperance came from a Christian fundamentalist house, the kind that normally wouldn’t have accepted her and that yet surprisingly did. Both her parents accepted her and loved her unconditionally, they did everything they could so she could live as a happy little girl. And happy she was, she would always enter the clinic with a smile on her face and her parents although disapproving of me and my wife’s ‘lifestyle’ still found themselves to be quite diplomatic. Anyway, things went south went both of her birth parents died in a terrible car accident and she found herself in her grandparents care for a few weeks. They didn’t take very kindly to Temperance’s gender status and they pretty much kept insulting her and abusing her for all of her stay at their house. Then surprisingly, it was discovered that her parents will it was said to give guardianship of Temperance to my wife and I. Apparently they considered us the only people they knew that would make sure that Temperance grew up to be a fine young woman. You should have seen the dagger in the eyes of her birth family when the two of us came to pick her up. It was so satisfying to save Temperance from their claws. Sadly though, we discovered that the damage was already done to Temperance. She didn’t smile that much anymore, she didn’t have confidence in her anymore and she had developed social anxiety. We tried to keep her in the same school she went to originally, but we soon learned that members of family spread rumors about her being trans and her having lesbian parents and let’s just say that we had to move out for safety. Now that I have told you about this, it’s your turn tell me about yourself Brooke, what’s your story?”

I took me a while before saying anything because I couldn’t thinking about Temperance’s life story, it was so similar to mine yet so different… I sighed and then started telling my life story.

It took a while, but I managed to go through my life story. I omitted a few details like my aunt’s abuse, because If possible I didn’t want to find myself in court. I wouldn’t be able to handle it, I knew that for sure.

Anyway as soon as I finished talking Temperance's mom stood up, went to a computer and then came back.

“I have just added a note on your records that says that you are transgender and that both me and my wife and I know about it. I will notify your P.E teacher about it, but other than that nobody else but me and my wife would have to know. I will send a word to the dorm that you have permission to use the shower room off hours. You won’t have to worry about getting expelled anymore, but you will have to see me for the next two weeks so we can talk a little bit more and so I can make sure my endocrinologist friend has time to see you. ”

“Endo what?”

“A hormone doctor… You are 14 and I can’t have you go through male puberty. I wouldn’t hear the end of it, I have to make time for the other students, you know!” She said smiling.

I hugged her.

“Keep those for Temperance, will you? Unless you want to be still mad at her.”

I didn’t feel betrayed anymore. Temperance hadn’t only saved me from being expelled, she had also saved me from puberty! I had to forgive her… I just had to.

I looked at my watch and saw that I still had thirty minutes till curfew I ran out of the office, went to the cottage and knocked on the door.

Her other mom answered. She looked surprised to see me, but then she smiled.

“She’s in her room and yes, you can go see her.”

“Thanks!”

I ran towards Temperance’s room and then slowly opened the door to see Temperance laying on her bed crying with headphones on her ears. I approached slowly and then poked her arm.

She turned and said “Brooke? What are you doing here?”

“You are forgiven.”

And with that I kissed her.

At dinner I was telling the girls about the very romantic moment I had with Temperance. When Chanel tapped me on the shoulder.

“What?”

“Very bad news, Brooke. I just received a call from home, Emma our maid and legal guardian when dad and Mackie’s mom are out has called me because she has discovered that dad hasn’t actually signed your adoption papers.”

“And?”

“Your aunt is still your legal guardian.”

“So? She doesn’t care about me I don’t see the problem, we just have to wait until Christmas and then I will not have to worry about that terrible woman anymore.”

“Brooke, if she discovers that this is an all-girl’s school, could you imagine what would happen?”

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

"I really can’t understand how this could happen! Didn’t dad go to court for you?" Chanel said.

"Well he did, but as they were about to finish the procedures, the company called him. They had an emergency that required him to be on site immediatly. He had to run and the judge allowed him. He simply said to him to sign the papers and mail them at the courthouse." I answered.

"So your aunt being your legal guardian is just a technicality?" Mackie asked.

"I think so… but imagine what would happen if my aunt discovered any of this before dad came back. I mean … she would only need one day to ruin my life. She could come here make a ruckus and then everybody would know about me… or worse she could take me away and before the authorities realised that this is just a technicality, I would be… "

I didn’t want to finish my sentence…

"Brooke, we should tell on her."

"I can’t."

"Brooke, not only you can. You totally have to!"

"I can’t, I might hate her, but she still is part of family and she is paying for Leon studies I can't do this to him."

"Brooke, our family has enough money to keep him in college all his life… you know that money is not a problem! Brooke this is a very serious situation, stop with all these excuses! You know very well that there is no good reason to not denounce your aunt! "

"I…I…"

I ran towards my room… she was right… absolutely right… yet, I couldn’t do it. It just felt so wrong to do something like this, she was terrible yes, but she still took care of me for 4 years… that meant something right?

I sat on my bed, took my phone and called Leon.

He picked up immediately.

"Hi."

"Brooke? What’s up?"

"Leon, I want to know something..."

"What, cousin?"

"If your mother ever ended up in jail because of me would you hate me?"

Leon was quiet for a very long time.

"Honestly, I would be upset at you for a very long time, even though I can understand why you would it."

"You are making this hard for me, you know that Leon," I said sobbing a little.

"Sorry Brooke, but it is the truth… I know that she has been terrible to you… I was there… and I was in the wrong for not doing anything the many times she was terrible to you ,but … She is my mom you know … She might be homophobic, transphobic and abusive … but she has mostly been good to me and I don't want her to be locked up. Espcially at her age."

I actually started crying.

"Why Leon? Why would you be on the side of somebody that could have killed me multiple times. Why did you lie when you said that you would protect me Leon ? Why after telling me weeks ago that you were on my side do you have to make my journey to freedom so difficult?"

Leon lack of help and support really upset me. I hoped that with his approval what I was about to do would be easier, but he actually only made it worse. It wasn't the first time that Leon had upset me this much, it happened twice before.

The first time happened a few days after moving in my aunt’s house, It was when were all having supper. My aunt asked me to get a few plates because we were having visit and sadly for me I slipped on the wet floor and sadly the plates didn’t survive the fall now. Now, I knew that the dishware was expensive so I apologized profusely. But, my aunt didn’t care about the fact that it was an accident, she didn’t care about the fact that I had cut myself and , crap, I was sure that even if it hadn’t been me who had broken the plates I would have been the one to get punished. Why? Well, because of an incident that happened a few days earlier. When I first came into her house she thought that my hair was a little long, but I refused to cut it and apparently, saying no to her triggered something in her because since that day she started seeing me as an enemy and no as her nephew. I barely remember what she said that day… I think it was something along the lines of "Nobody disobeys me in my house."

Anyway, going back to the plates apparently Leon had been the cause of the water on the floor. He could have said something to share the blame, but he didn’t and because of that my aunt made me pick the pieces of every single plate with my bare hands. At one point, she stepped on my hand to make sure that I would cut myself at least once in the whole ordeal. Because according to her you don’t learn anything if you don’t get a few scars. The incident itself wasn’t that bad, but what came afterwards was pure hell. It had been since then that she made me work like crazy around the house making me really work like a slave, apparently she made me do work in order to pay my debt… She explained the punishment saying that each week of work she would deduct a few bucks out of my debt... It's only way later that I understood that she had no intention of making me ever stop working. I spent more than 150 weeks at her house and apparently it wasn’t enough to pay her back. My gifts at Christmas and at my birthday were debt reduction and my portions of food were heavely rationed. Leon didn’t do much while I was pretty much an indentured servant to his mother.

The second time happened a while later. It happened one day after going shopping at the mall. Apparently my aunt had seen me eye a dress for too long, event very similar to the whole earring incident with my stepfather. Anyway, my aunt really didn’t like what she saw. So she bought the dress and forced me to wear it at school the next day. It was hell, teachers and students alike laughed at me and from that day on, I started getting bullied constantly. Even though I wouldn’t admit to it then, I liked that dress very much and I was very pleased with it. I think my aunt may have noticed because I was beaten for weeks after that. Leon didn’t do anything to prevent that event either and now that I know that he suspected that I was trans back then, I can't help but being disappointed inhim especially now that he won’t give me his approval to free myself now and forever from his mother.

Leon was the most decent of my cousins and I liked him for that, but he was coward.

Apparently, I said that last word aloud because I could sense Leon getting upset.

"I couldn’t help you Brooke, you know why… I depended on her then and I still do now. Without her I would still be living in that terrible town, Brooke. Her paying for my university is the only think that has allowed me to have hope for the future. I love you like a sibling Brooke but you know that I had no choice but to do whatever she wanted, she held my future in her hands and as much as I love you I wouldn’t want to end in the street for you. It wouldn’t do any good for me or you. Brooke sometimes being brave is worse that being a coward …"

There wasn’t any confidence in the last words he said. You could tell he didn’t really believe in what he was spouting. I showed my disappointment with silence.

"Brooke, why are you doing something as unnecessary as wanting to put an old woman in prison?"

"She technically is still my legal guardian… "

"Your father’s fault?"

"Yes."

"How does somebody like him manage one of the richest companies in the world?"

"He doesn’t, his employees do or at least they usually do . I don’t know why he had to disappear from court that day…"

"Why not simply survive until December and forget about her afterwards."

"Everybody else judges it too risky."

"Do you?"

"A little…"

"Brooke, don’t search my approval for this, Ok? I won’t hate you if you do it but I also can’t condone it."

"I really hate you right now Leon,"

I ended the call and curled up in my bed.

It was after school and I was sitting on a bench near the forest that surrounded the school. I had avoided everyone today, except Temperance. I couldn’t do that to her after everything that had happened the day before.

"What’s happening Brooke? You look so upset."

"I am…"

"May I know why? "

"I would prefer it, if you didn’t know why… I don’t want to be angry to all my friends and family at once."

She held me close.

"It’s that bad?"

"Yes."

I couldn’t believe how my aunt was still influencing negatively even if she wasn’t physically here and deep inside I was upset that I wouldn’t immediately do everything possible to get rid of her. Was it fear? Loyalty? I couldn’t tell and that upset me. Either way… I was sure that my sisters would do something about her…

Temperance wasn’t saying anything and I was seriously tired so I almost fell asleep. I say almost because suddenly we saw a flash and heard the sound of a camera shutter. We looked around to see if there was anybody near there, but we didn’t see anyone.

"What do you think that was?" Temperance asked me.

"A photographer?"

"Thank you captain obvious … but seriously Brooke why would anyone take a picture of us?"

"Because we are cute…"

"Brooke, you are making too many jokes for somebody that was almost crying due to troubles with her friends."

"Well, being with you calmed me down, I need to keep my spirits up and that last thing wasn’t a joke, especially when talking about you."

Temperance blushed.

"Brooke, seriously, though I really don’t like this."

"Temperance, don’t worry… This school is really accepting of lesbian and bi students, nobody would say anything if whoever took the picture showed it around the school."

"I know. And that is why I am worried…"

"Are you afraid that we might have a stalker?"

She nodded.

"And I thought that I was the one who had unrealistic thoughts. Temperance this kind of thing doesn’t really happen in real life."

"Brooke, do you remember how we met or how you came to this school?"

"Ok, you got a point, I will tell my s…"

I couldn't finish my sentence.

"Brooke whatever is ruining your relationship with your family is not worth it… Please solve your problem before I become your only friend."

She was right. My aunt wasn’t worth it… I had to talk about her the next time I went to see Temperance’s mom.

Five days to get ready mentally would be enough right?

"I am going to do it and I’m sorry that it took me so long to take this decision."

Chanel hugged me.

"It’s ok Brooke. I understand that this is an incredibly hard thing to do."

I thought about the photographer and mentally shrugged. There was no way it could be anything serious Or so I thought until the next day I found in my locker a picture of Temperance and I with the following written on the back of it : "I know many things about you Brooke Falconer, who you really are, how you managed to enter this school and many other details. I didn’t care that much before, but now that you are taking advantage of a sweet and pure girl such as Temperance I will have to ruin you."

I closed my locker and started heading towards class, looking around for suspicious individuals. Whoever had been listening to snippets of my life was probably expecting fear from me. I wasn’t afraid of whomever that was sending the messages. Since Monday I was sure that I wouldn’t get expelled anymore and I was also sure that no matter what I wouldn’t end up alone. Her screaming that I had ever been a boy would never have the impact of my aunt doing the same. There was only one way that that person could ever harm me right now and if they didn’t know how Temperance and I ended up together it would surprise me if they knew about my aunt seeing as I talked about these two things at the same time with my sisters. Anyway, my aunt problem will be solved next week, so I didn’t have to worry that much about that crazy person.

I can only imagine Temperance’s face when I tell her that we really have a stalker.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

As soon as I got to class, I sat completely at the back, scribbled a few indications on a sheet of paper, went to see Mackenzie and then I put subtly in her hand a paper in which I asked her to meet me in a secluded corner of the library as soon as soon as class finished. I was trying to get as much clues as possible on the identity of our stalker and through the plan I had just expertly crafted I was sure to obtain many, many indications on our mysterious individual.

Here are a few elements and details of my plan (take notes they might be useful one day!): First, what’s already been done: the note. There were three very important elements to this part of the plan:

1. Sitting at the back of the class when I wrote my note.

2. Writing instead of communicating verbally with Mackenzie.

3. Asking Mackie to immediately meet me somewhere after class.

The point of this elements were simple, they could help me establish without a doubt if whoever was following me was in my class. I was sure that if my stalker saw me communicate with Mackenzie this way they would probably write a stereotypical message along the lines of "Your friends can’t help you" or "If you ask for any help I might have to ruin them too", you know stupid sentences. The stalker seemed to act like they were in a movie or something and I was pretty sure that that poor delusional person would try to dissuade me from getting any help from anyone. Not only would me getting help make their "ruining" of me more difficult, it would also mean there would be increased chances that they got caught. Problems, I was sure that they probably didn’t want to deal with it and that yet the poor fool forgot to say anything about that. Anyway, going back to my plan to establish the photographer identity, like I said my plan was to first to establish if they were in any of my classes and then to establish if I knew them personally. I was already pretty sure that whoever had been taking pictures of me was in my dorm, otherwise they wouldn’t have known about Temperance and me. We hadn’t been hiding but the picture was taken the first time we met since the day we started dating so unless it was a coincidence that they had camera on them as Temperance and I were out I was sure that whoever had photographed us had listened to my conversation with my friends and sisters.

While class was going on, I decided to establish a list of suspects (Yes, I was really getting into this whole investigation thing. I mean for once, I could establish plans that didn’t have anything to do with me getting away with slightly questionable things!). Anyway, I decided to establish a list of people who were with in my different classes that also were in my dorm, in total there were about 15 or so people who fit the criteria, 7 of them being in the class I was in right now.

I scratched one name immediately, Mackenzie’s, not only was she my sister and I had total confidence on her; she and Allison were one of the main reasons I was still in this school. She planning to get rid of me right now didn’t make any sense especially now that I wasn’t an illegal anymore.

Thinking about it even more, I was pretty sure that I could eliminate Adele, Beatricia and Maud from the list. Adele and Beatricia could have also gotten rid of me quite easily and seeing how we sleep in the same room if they were appalled by me they would have already made my life hell. Very similar for Maud she had gotten plenty of chances to get rid of me, it couldn’t be her either. Only Adele was in my current class so that only reduced the number of suspects in this class to 5, one of them being Kendra, Mackenzie’s roommate. She was suspect number one for now, she didn’t really like me and no I wasn’t only thinking that because the first time we met she was rude to me I wasn’t petty. She was generally very rough with me when we had P.E and she clearly didn’t like the fact that I was Mackie’s newly discovered sister. Apparently she and Mackie were childhood friends and they decided to go to this school together, things should have been perfect between them but since the beginning of the school year they haven’t really been around each other that much except after curfew. The first day of school Mackie was in the bus with me instead of her and pretty much every day since then, Mackie has been around me or my friends. At this point saying that I was monopolizing Mackenzie’s time was pretty much a euphemism. Although I said that, I couldn’t be sure it was Kendra, in the letter the person who took the picture talked about Temperance and not Mackenzie, I wasn’t even sure that Kendra knew that Temperance existed.

As I kept reflecting on the subject, I scanned the class for people who were looking at me, I didn’t see anyone turn towards me, but I noticed 3 bags that could contain the camera used to take the picture… Among the bag owners there was someone whose name was on the list her name was Brittany and I was pretty sure that her room was across from mine. She was very quiet, but not as shy as Temperance, maybe there was some kind of link there? Could I have disrupted a sisterhood of introverts?

The bell rang and my sister and I met at the library like we had planned. We sat beside each other in a table at the back. Of course to be sure that nobody listened to us, we were back to the wall.

I took out a sheet of paper, put it between us and started writing.

"Sorry for these arrangements, I just want to be sure we aren’t heard."

"What’s happening Brooke, did you finally crack from all the pressure? Have you discovered a secret conspiracy against you or have you joined a secret society?"

I chuckled, but then very seriously took out the photograph and passed it to her.

She took a look at the picture and then turned it and read it.

"Are you Afraid?" She wrote.

"Not that much there isn’t a lot that person can do. I kinda want to catch them though, if they are a student I may want to send them to Temperance’s moms in case they aren’t taking their meds or in case they might be developing a condition. I don’t want imagine the alternate option though otherwise it could be something way creepier that I would want to handle on my own and I would have to stop this whole investigation thing fast. "

"What?"

"I don’t really think it’s plausible due to the proximity to us needed to learn everything about me, but the culprit could be somebody working for the school."

"We would have to get the police involved then, especially because of the comments on Temperance. Talking that way about a 14 year old can’t be sane. Anyway, you are right about the fact that there aren’t that many adults who could listen to our conversations the way a student could. I mean the only employees who could do that would be the dorm supervisors, maybe the janitors and the security guards."

A series of thoughts went through my head. Guards… security… surveillance… surveillance cameras! I scanned the room for them and noticed that right behind us there was one of them and it was looking at us, well at our backs more precisely, but still at us. If this was a show about crime on television with improbable technology, I would be worried about a security guard zooming in on our sheet of paper and reading what we had written. Those things don’t (yet) happen in real life so I dismissed the thought while commenting on it on the sheet of paper.

"We should be thankful that whoever is in the camera behind us can’t read our text right?"

Mackenzie turned and looked at the camera for longer than a person normally would. Once she faced me, she looked a little bit shocked.

Mackenzie turned the sheet of paper and started whispering to me "That surveillance camera is from dad’s company one of their newer models. It records in an incredibly good resolution and it’s equipped with an insane zoom function, allowing the reading words in a sheet of paper from quite a distance away."

"Are you serious?"

She pulled her tongue out.

"Halfway, it is a sophisticated camera that records in a very good quality and that automatically starts recording in thermal mode when it becomes too dark for normal recording, but I don’t think it could zoom to the point of reading our sheet that’s completely ridiculous and completely useless on a secu… That’s actually a great idea Brook pitch it to dad to when he gets back from his journey across the world he might give you good money for that idea especially when you remind what you had to live through to get this idea."

I stopped listening at thermal mode… Thermal imaging such a thing could have allowed someone to see me exit my room at night...

I stated writing down on the sheet of paper again.

"How do you know all those details?"

"Dad funded the school security system the year before Chanel and the twins got here. Dad also makes sure that the school always has the best technology, from his company, possible in order to make sure we are safe."

I doubted the last part of her sentence.

"How do you know the details about this camera in particular?"

"Dad talked about it extensively last year. Apparently law enforcement agencies and a few employees wanted to install a system in which bugs would synchronise with the cameras, and then send the combined data to specific computers. Dad wasn’t sure about it because apparently the system was very easy to hack into and third parties could have easy access to the data."

I didn’t really like the information that Mackie had just given me, it itched my curiosity and at the same time it made me incredibly afraid. Something incredibly creepy could be happening as we spoke right now.

"We got side-tracked, but this whole security thing is really worrying me. Could you do something for me? Go to the place where we always seat for supper and breakfast at the cafeteria and check under the table and under the chairs very subtly, I will check in my room if there isn’t anything hidden somewhere, if you find anything communicate with me via text. Actually thinking about texting, text the girls and ask them to have a snack in the cafeteria and ask them to check under their seats and under the table where they usually seat, this way it would be less suspicious that you entering alone the room alone and checking under our places all alone."

On those instructions we separated.

First things first, searching for security cameras, there aren’t supposed to be any in the rooms, I mean we change here! I firstly looked at the corners to see if there wasn’t anything hidden and then looked more closely if I couldn’t find anywhere where a person could hide a camera.

I didn’t find anything that looked like a camera and I also didn’t find anything that looked like a listening device. Just to be sure I made a search on the web on effective places to hide bugs. One search indicated that a good place to hide a bug was a computer mouse. I did buy one despite having a laptop. I needed it for gaming purposes: track pads aren’t that great. Anyway, I carefully dismantled my mouse and sadly found the parasite I had hoped wouldn’t have been hiding inside of it.

I crushed it and at the same time I received a text message.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

I read what the girls sent me.

"We have found a bug."

I sent a text back.

"So did I!"

"I’m going to see a dorm supervisor to see if we can get them to investigate on this matter, join us. I really don’t like you being alone in these circumstances."

I agreed. I had dealt with plenty of situations before, but this really was out of my league. I didn’t know if it was a student or an adult but either way would be bad for me. I wasn’t that big and it wouldn’t surprise me if anyone took me down.

Mrs. Hausler who was in charge of our dorm took a while before appearing. Apparently while we were waiting for her she had to deal with a fight that broke out between two students.

Normally, I would have asked about who fought but this really wasn’t a good time.

Alexandrine talked first.

"Mrs. Hausler we think there might be some kind of creep lurking around the dorm or maybe even around the school."
Her twin continued.

"We found this."

Collette took out several very small black objects.

Mrs. Hausler looked confused.

"What are those?"

"Recording devices," I answered back.

"Somebody has been recording you?"

"Yes, they found them in the dining hall and I also found one in my room, I destroyed it tough, but that’s not all."

Hesitating a little I took out the picture and showed her the text behind it.

She took it from my hand and then started thinking for a few seconds.

She sighed.

"20 years in this school thinking that I have seen everything yet I still manage to get into complicated situations… "
She sighed again.

"Here’s what’s going to happen girls. You are going to put these backs before anyone notices. We can’t do much for the one who was in Brooke’s room, so we can only hope that whoever installed this thinks that it broke accidentally. The idea behind this is that we don’t want to alert the culprits about the fact that we caught them. Do you understand? I want you to keep this quiet. We probably will get the police to investigate this matter while school is in session, so I don’t want you running your mouth and causing our culprit to disappear. Brooke, I want you to always be with someone, for your safety. I’m going to ask you to not be even a second all alone."
I nodded.

"Is there anyone in this school that would want to hurt you or your reputation in any way?"

"Well, there is Mackenzie’s roommate Kendra."

Mackenzie looked at me puzzled.

"Brooke! What are you saying? Kendra’s is one of my best friends. She would never hurt you!"
Chanel intervened.

"Mackie, you haven’t really been hanging out with her lately."

"Yes, because I was making sure that my sister new life went well."

Allison intervened this time.

"Maybe, but you didn’t explain that to Kendra did you? Since school has started you have only really hung out with Adele, Beatricia, Maud and Brooke."

"Well, so have you! And shouldn’t you be hanging around people your age instead of your little sisters!"

"I’m keeping Brooke safe from your tactless and tasteless commentary. If it were only of you, she wouldn’t have any confidence in herself and anyway unlike you I have a life outside Brooke."

Mrs. Hausler coughed.

"Girls! Stop this right now! You can discuss this in calmly manner outside this office."

Mackenzie and Allison nodded and angrily exited the room.

The rest of us exited shortly afterwards and I was shocked to see that Kendra and Brittany were sitting in front of the office waiting for Mrs. Hausler to summon them. It clearly looked like they had a fight or something. Could it be about me…? If it was the case then seeing me and my whole gang exiting Mrs. Hausler office couldn’t be good at all! They would be able to get rid of any evidence before tomorrow. I wasn’t sure that I could convince the dorm supervisor about their probable culpability though, especially seeing the way we got side-tracked. I could go back in, but in a way Mackenzie and Allison had destroyed the serious of my argument by engaging in a petty fight. I had to let it go and seriously hope that if it were them, they would have made enough mistakes for the police to catch them.

Although this story was really worrying me, there was something that was bothering me more than it, I was seriously confused about what had just happened between Allison and Mackenzie. Did they think I was so mentally weak that I wouldn’t be able to survive without either of them! Honestly! They had seriously pissed me off with that conversation!

My family separated as soon as we were in the waiting room. Chanel went after Allison and the twins went after Mackenzie. Adele, Maud, Beatricia and I decided to go back to the dining hall hoping that none of the Falconers would be found there.

Thankfully it appeared that Allison and Mackenzie decided to go to vent in other places. I was happy this time about this, but I seriously hoped that I would never feel this way again. Yes, I really couldn’t stand the way they thought about me or the way talked about me, but you know… It was kind of true that in a way I relied on them.

"This really turned out strangely!" Adele said breaking the silence at the table

"You don’t say! I wasn’t expecting to be mad at my sister when going to that room! What a crappy week! I really hope to be able to live a normal week at this school. "

I remembered that I had to put back the bugs under the table, but I wasn’t really sure about the usefulness of this action. The culprits might already know that we have found them after all.

I took out a sheet of paper and started writing.

"I’m going to be so happy when my aunt is gone and so are the creeps."

The girls nodded.

I went to sleep unusually early because I didn’t feel like dealing with more problems than those that I already had.
At 3 am I was woken up by my cellphone vibrating. At first I didn’t think that much of it, I thought that I had possibly received an email knowing that no one I knew would text me at this ungodly hour but then I remember that my phone was only supposed to vibrate when I received text messages. It took me a few minutes lying in bed before I had the motivation of picking up my phone. I turned my phone on; waited for my eyes to adjust and then my heart skipped a beat as I saw the message.

It was a picture, a picture of girls I knew, a picture of of Temperance, Kendra and Brittany. All of them blindfolded and clearly restrained. I felt like screaming and calling for help but then I read the message under the picture: "Make a scene or call the police and this will turn out ugly."

I took a deep breath and started thinking about this whole situation. I had trouble imagining how things could have turned this way. Who could have done this? I was clearly right when I thought that Brittany and Kendra where somewhat involved in this but who would have thought that I would be right when I thought that this whole thing wasn’t probably completely the work of students. This was confirmed now as a student couldn’t have managed to kidnap 3 other students in a short amount of time. It had to be an adult, an adult that at one point had managed to recruit Kendra and Brittany to do his bidding thus not raising attention to himself… It probably was a security guard, but why? I mean if he had wanted money he wouldn’t have taken Temperance; he would have taken me or one of my sisters. Was he really just a pervert or was there something more going on?

I covered myself with my blanket to avoid waking up my roommates and then texted the mysterious stranger.

"What do you want?"

A few very worrying minutes passed without the stranger giving me a response.

"Early riser, I see. I didn’t expect a response until morning, better this way. Get out of the go towards the woods where the picture was taken. I know about your little midnight trips so I if you are detected I will know you did it on purpose."

Now I knew for sure that the mastermind behind all of this was a security guard. Nobody else could have seen me, given access to my room to Kendra or Brittany and installed the bugs in the dining hall. I still couldn’t think of any reason why this whole thing could have been happening. What did this security guard want really from me?

Just like I had done these past few weeks I slipped out of my room unnoticed, only this time I didn’t stop at the bathroom, no, this time I continued until the entrance door. I tried to open it only to remember that they would trigger an alarm if they were opened without an alarm after curfew. I searched for a window that wasn’t in front of too many bushes and then I simply climbed out of it.
It took me a while to find the right place navigating in the dark but I eventually managed to find the right place. I looked around, felt something on my back and then everything faded to black.

"You don’t like that much like a pervert when you are at asleep!"

I couldn’t see anything and my head was hurting like crazy.

"I hope you understand the irony in what you’re a saying? I’m not the one who has kidnapped four young girls."
I felt a slap.

"Four girls? I’m afraid that you may not know how to count? I only count two in this room. Two perverted boys having infiltrated a school for young girls, and two young homosexuals who would have preyed on young women if I hadn’t imagined a plan to protect all the girls in this school. If I hadn’t spotted all you, god knows what you would have done to the innocent minds of this school! "
I felt like face palming myself. I couldn’t believe that the "stalker" was an extremely conservative security guard with delusions of grandeur. I somewhat felt relieved that it wasn’t some kind of pervert, but at the same time I was worried that at any point of observing me he would have discovered that I had an aunt with ideas similar to his.

I sighed.

"What are you going to do with us now?"

"The girls, I don’t know yet… Maybe send them to one of those camps where they convert the likes of them. My plans for you and the guy are different though, thanks to your discussions with your sisters I have discovered that there are people with the right morals in both of your families, so I’m sending you back to your aunt and him to his grandparents."

So much for getting rid of my aunt next week. If that idiot managed to send me back god knows how long it would take the police to manage to found me at my aunt's house. I couldn't even begin to imagine what my aunt would make me live through.

As I was about to scream for help, I heard some kind of knock and I was gagged.

"Hello ma'am, you must be Abigail, Brook's aunt?"

After this is done I will never procrastinate again.

An Accidental New Life

 

When my mother died and my father, someone that I had never met in my life, proposed to take me in, I actually believed that I was going to live with him. That of course wasn’t going to happen. That man, without even meeting me once, was sending me to a boarding school - a boarding school that apparently didn’t even know my name or gender, because in the letter they sent me to tell me I was accepted, they kept referring me as Miss Brooke Falconer.

That was completely ridiculous, I mean, I was Brook Woods, a tough (yet slightly short) guy!

---

 

"Can I see him?"

"Yes, of course! I think you should go immediately afterwards though. In three or four hours they might notice that he is missing."

"Well, I better get home fast then."

A few seconds passed and I could hear my aunt sighing.

"I cannot believe it. Brook really did do it! I cannot believe that after everything I did to that boy he betrayed his god and his whole family in order to follow his perverted delusions."

If I hadn’t been gagged I would have been insulting my aunt.

"It’s the fault of modern society ma’am, they keep telling kids that they can be whatever they want but they forget to tell them that they still have to follow the rules of nature."

"You tell me. I spent the last 2 years of my life trying to raise this child the way my now dead sister would have wanted and this kid throws it all away the moment he moves away."

"Not even respecting his mother wishes, really the worst! I hope you punish him appropriately when you go back home."

"No worries about that, I will make sure he doesn’t this way anymore. Leon put him in between the front and back seats of my car. I would put him the trunk but, I want to have a discussion with Brook before we go home."

Leon was here, the bastard was here and he was helping his mother taking me away. What a spineless man! Saying he understands what I am going through, saying that he is on my side and that he always knew that I was different and yet helping his mother the moment he asks her something. I couldn’t believe this! I so wanted to believe that there were decent people on my mother’s side of the family but clearly this wasn’t the case.

I wasn’t outside for too long, Aunt Abigail and the security guard had clearly met somewhere outside of the school. It wasn’t the city, so it probably was somewhere around the woods that surrounded the school. I hoped to escape at some point and save Temperance before she was taken away, I would survive a few hours with my aunt, but I was afraid that my girlfriend’s grandparents would mess her up to the point where even years of therapy couldn’t help her anymore.

Sadly for me, one of the ways I could have escaped literary flew away a few minutes afterwards. My cellphone vibrated and one of my two abductors got rid of it.

"Leon? Get rid of the blindfold and place his head towards my seat I won’t be able to talk to him directly but at least this way he will be able to see the disappointment in my face."

I could feel Leon doing as he was told.

"Good, Leon take your seat and make sure that he doesn’t do anything that would put us in trouble. Now, Brook Woods, I cannot believe that you embarrassed your family in such a shameful way. I thought that with the education that I had given you your shameful habits would disappear but clearly it wasn’t the case. I should have flogged you harder that day, if only your naïve mother wouldn’t have come to stop me."

That sentence made me hate that woman a thousand times more but, it also helped me in so many ways. Since the day that my scars were seen, I had been afraid that the scars in my back had been the work of the mother that I so loved in the last few months of her life. My mother hadn’t been the most accepting of me acting in a feminine manner but, she wasn’t violent about it. I remembered stern talks from her, confiscation of some of my toys and the computer incident, but no beatings… From her at least, my stepfather did beat me a few times when mom wasn’t around for long periods of time. He would make sure to not leave any marks that thought I guess my mother wasn’t OK with it.

"Leon? Slap him for me will you, he clearly isn’t listening."

Leon did as he was told without saying even a word to me.

My face hit the backseat and my locket moved. For a few seconds, I saw something that caught my attention in the front of the locket. I looked at it and realized that the eyes of the falcon that was engraved in the heart shaped locket were red. It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening. I now realized, why I was allowed to always have my locket in me even in the classes that strictly prohibited any kind of jewellery… I smirked… It was my victory… Several cop cars were probably waiting for the right moment to get me out this car and to stop this stupid ride.

"Mom? He is smiling," said Leon in a panicked voice.

"You got rid of his cellphone, yes?"

I couldn’t hear an answer so I imagined that he nodded to that question.

"You also searched him for any kind of technological objects, yes?"

I assumed the same as last time.

"Keep an eye on him will you? See anything suspicious make sure to tell me."

"Yes, mom."

"Had I known that you would be so much trouble, I wouldn’t have bothered trying to hide your mother’s death to your father. I wanted you to grow up to be an acceptable member of society like your grandfather would have wanted yet…" She sighed and then started crying. "Why can’t you be normal Brook? I am trying to save you from an eternity in hell and yet you have to laugh at my face… Can’t you see that everything that I have done the last few years were for you! Father would have loved to see all of his grandchildren grow up to be good people… He always said that, always, always. He was even saying that when he was dying in my hands from that stupid heart attack… Do you understand how much effort I put in making sure that my father’s last wish was properly executed! How much it hurt to hit my children so that they would have acceptable comportments! How many hours studying with them, training them, watching over them, just to make sure that they would be people my dad would have loved… WHY BROOK! Why couldn’t you simply stay like god would have wanted! Why did you have to undermine all if my efforts…"

She started crying as intensely as I did when I tried to accept myself. I didn’t feel empathy, just pity… Some part of me could partially understand where she was coming from but that part was so miniscule it could as well not exist. That woman was vile and she had turned her sons and my other cousins in people who were as vile as her… I truly hated her.

Suddenly, I heard police sirens and I felt the car accelerate.

"How did you do it? How the hell did you do it, huh?! Leon, hit him good! Make him talk."

I waited for the hit to come, but something way more violent happened. I felt the car come suddenly to a complete stop and everything faded to black.

When I came back to myself, I could hear someone crying … someone that I hadn’t seen in months and that wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near here… I very carefully moved my arms that were hurting like hell and I got rid of the blindfold. I saw my dad standing near some EMTs or paramedics… I wasn’t that sure anyway… Seeing my dad there I was sure that I had been seriously knocked out. I blacked out again…

I opened my eyes to see that I was in a hospital room. Around me, I could see Alexandrine, Allison, Chanel, Colette and Mackenzie sleeping in a corner of the room. I could also see a male teen that looked a lot like my father (my best guess was that he was my brother John) and a woman that looked very similar to the twins sleeping in the other side of the room.

"Sorry Brooke."

I was startled and then I looked at my right side to see my dad sitting on a char teary eyed.

"I’m so sorry for everything that happened all of this is my fault."

I didn’t say anything… I wanted to know what he was going to say after that…

"I shouldn’t have gone with this stupid plan to get you to be your true self…"

I smiled… I smiled when I realised what he was about to tell me…I know I shouldn’t have seeing how I had almost died earlier (that day?) but, how the hell couldn’t I smile at hearing that my father wasn’t a total asshole… just a reckless one… a reckless asshole that with his reckless plan had probably made me transition years earlier that I would have without him… I had spent the last few weeks hating him, yet now I couldn’t seeing as it would have been hypocritical of me…

"Dad, you are forgiven…"

He was still sobbing. "But..."

"This wasn’t planned... was it?"

"No, of course not! How could I send one of my kids to the hospital?"

"Then everything is right…"

"Did you know?"

"I suspected something at the beginning but then I just started thinking of you as an asshole and I started to thinking that maybe all of this was a coincidence."

"The whole asshole thing was part of the plan. If you thought I was a total ass, you wouldn’t suspect this to have been planned."

"The girls were on it, right?"

"Yes, of course I told the two youngest to keep an eye on you and I then told the twins and Chanel to keep them in check. Were they good to you?"

"They are the best sisters a girl could have. The luggage disappearing on my first day was that Allison?"

"Yes, we also paid the bus driver to not tell you anything and Mackenzie was seeing your girlfriend psychologist mom to make sure that we weren't making a mistake with this whole thing."

"Question. How would you have put in a situation where I was forced to change clothes if it hadn’t rained?"

"Allison would have been drinking something and then would have slipped spilling the liquid on you."

I smiled again.

"You are quite clever dad."

"So, are you kiddo. The girls told me about all the plans that created in the last few weeks; I can see how we are related."
We both laughed.

"How did you know about me? I was far from having figured it out myself."

"Your mother sent me a letter a few months before her death saying that you were trans and that although she couldn’t bring herself to raise you as a girl she didn’t see anything wrong with me doing it. I waited for news about her but for some unknown reason I only learned that she died two years after the fact."

"Aunt Abigail said something about that..."

Dad got visibly angry.

"I wish I had pressed charges the moment you talked about it with the girls; I shouldn’t have asked my lawyers to wait before you were O.K with it."

"Where is she now?"

"Dead. Abigail and Leon weren’t wearing their seat belt so they were launched in the air when their car crashed. When I learned that they had crashed into a tree I was so afraid that you were dead too." He sobbed.

"Two last questions, dad I am getting tired… How the hell did you manage to put sign me up to an all girl’s school and how the hell did you manage to put a tracker in such a small locket?"

He smiled.

"Money and connections, Brooke, you are inheriting both, but for now go to sleep princess. Goodnight princess…" He said kissing me on my forehead.

"Goodnight dad."

I only ended up staying a few days in the hospital and when I went back to school I learned that I wasn’t going back to the dorms. I was afraid that dad had judged the school to be dangerous and decided to put in another school but Allison and Mackenzie ended up telling me that the Falconer mansion was actually in the woods near the school and that them staying at the dorms was just part of the plan. I was happy about that because I couldn’t imagine being far away from Adele, Beatricia and Maud. I also couldn’t imagine being far away from Temperance and her very entertaining moms.

Temperance? Well, Temperance ended up being O.K the man not having being able to find her grandparents because they had died the year before.

Brittany and Kendra? Well, they were promptly expelled after being brought back to the academy.

The security guard managed to escape but the police are tracking him and I am sure they are going to find him one day.

Me? Well, I started HRT and I am becoming more beautiful every passing day, same thing for my girlfriend. I am also enjoying having very good friends and a pretty cool family. I would have never imagined myself saying this on my first day at school but, this is quite an enjoyable (not so) accidental new life.