Hazing Bra - END (Prove Yourself)

=========

NINE MONTHS LATER

"Come oooon, you're taking forrrreeeevvvver!"

Bianca's shrill yell cut through the stone wall to the ladies' locker room at the beach like she was standing right next to Olivia.

Rolling her eyes, Olivia didn't bother answering or picking up her pace. When she emerged, she smiled back at Bianca's scowl and answered, "I'm ready." Lily snuck up behind and wrapped her arms around Olivia's tummy, announcing, "So am I!"

All those months ago, she could hardly imagine a day like this. All that fumbling to find a way to fit in, only to be trapped by a curse. That run was just the beginning. The answer was in acceptance. She'd been punished but she "took" it, conceded that it was what she had to do and who she had to be. She wanted to get away from who she was before and she wanted to get away from being Olivia. But absence is not will.

She knew she wasn't an outgoing, clever, or a big "Cojones" man like Bianca told her to be. But she still wanted to be a man. The actual moment came without ceremony or trumpets from the heavens. It was like crossing your eyes and seeing into a picture. She didn't have to force herself. She was just Thomas and Olivia, as fluidly as Bianca usually shifted personas.

Though not necessary, she made amends for her original theft with anonymous gifts of clothes to the girls around her. And, though not easy, she figured out how to balance being Thomas and Olivia. It helped that Thomas had classes on different days from Olivia. And, whenever reality felt weird to someone else, they just shrugged it off as their own error.

She went back to the Manly Brothers once, only to prance around as Thomas in Olivia's comfiest bra and tell them she had changed her mind about membership. Instead, she was starting her own club. It was Gamma Alpha Psi and Bianca was the only other member, so they weren't official, but she had big plans for the next class session. The curse and its consequences, she asserted, were being presented the wrong way to those who exploited it.

It wasn't about proving you wanted something, could take it, and be tough about it. It was about learning who you were from your mistakes. If you take, then prove your "make". Bianca scoffed at that one and the awkward rhyme.

But Bianca wasn't in much of a place to talk, since she had been stuck in her female form for three weeks. When Olivia asked if Bianca maybe just wanted to be a girl, the moments of quiet, before stuffing her emotions behind a shield of disgust, were telling.

Olivia spent Thanksgiving with Thomas' parents and reassured them with calls using Thomas's voice, backed by street noises. During the prep, her mom quietly admitted (between awkward hints at her relationship to Thomas) it was fun having Olivia helping, like she had a daughter for the day. It was balanced by Olivia's mom lamenting how often Olivia couldn't be available for shopping. She spent some of the Christmas season with that mom and received a little, glittering heart jewel her mom had worked on for weeks, without being a social butterfly about it. And she didn't post a single thing on Instagram. It was just between them.

Thomas/Olivia knew that she/he was giving reality a splitting headache, and would eventually have to resolve things once and for all, but the ebb and flow of being a renewed Thomas and a comfortable Olivia scratched all corners of her soul.

Walking calmly across the sand in a two-piece bikini, her pink flip flops settling into the sand, her chest warmly leading the way, Olivia beamed. She smirked as Lily staked her own claim to a portion of the beach for their blankets and went feral on anyone who tried to intrude. With a rub on the shoulder, she reassured Lily, "Alright. It's alright. We have plenty of space."

Calmed slightly but mostly emboldened, Lily viciously charged at the tide and came close to beating it. After branding Lily a "crazed idiot" under her breath, Bianca looked down through her hands at her bust, which refused to diminish, as she muttered, "I'm the real failure here. Dammit!"

Encouragement to breathe and meditate just ended in bull snorting and charging after Lily grabbed Bianca's arm. Snickering, Olivia spread out and watched the clouds. She still didn't understand the curse or the spell or whatever it was but she understood herself/himself and that was what she knew mattered most.

Once the fight between Lily and Bianca had been decided without a victor, both girls wrapped up like exhausted pretzels, Olivia rose, stretched with her arm behind her head, and smiled again.

"Come on....come on, you two. No more fighting. Let's go swimming!"

~~~~~~~

Art by Bethany Weaver
Story by MajorKerina