Ch.10 Black Sheep
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Rosalind

I frantically searched for the clothes I had been wearing when I came into Vera’s room while she did likewise. I could hear Mr. Brooks answer the door downstairs and it sounded like he was trying to calm Liz down. As I pulled off the clothes I had been wearing, I tried to do little alterations in my body to return me to my former shape.

Things were starting to sound heated downstairs. Mr. Brooks takes his property very seriously and I could hear him telling Liz that he didn’t consent to her entering his house and that I would be down in a second. I didn’t think Liz would try to shove past a guy in a wheelchair in his own home, but I realized that after the last week, I had no idea what either of my moms were capable of.

Once I had everything on and most of the flesh shaped, I checked with Vera. “Do I look okay?”

“You forgot your nose.” And she booped me on my little button nose. I reached up and pulled it into its regular profile. I gathered my book bag and thought about giving Vera a quick peck, but thought better of it when I realized what I looked like.  I didn't want to force her into anything physical if she was only attracted to the female version of myself. 

With a reluctant farewell, I said goodbye to Vera and she wished me luck with the conflict I was facing. I hustled down the stairs and when Liz saw me, she immediately started in with “You’re grounded, that means you can’t go to Vera’s house; now or ever!”

“Hi Mom, yeah, school was pretty good today. How are you?” Mr. Brooks wheeled out of the way to let me through and I caught a flash of a grin on his face. My complete refusal to engage in a verbal sparring match with Liz stifled her for only a moment, but by the time Mr. Brooks was closing the door; I was halfway to Liz’ car.

“I’m telling you, son, I’ve had enough of that smart mouth. I do not know where my sweet baby boy has gotten off to but you are a pale imitation.” And she clambered into the driver’s seat and promised another talk tonight when Mama Cathy got home. Then she turned up the radio and tried to forget that I was there, which suited me just fine.

I didn’t get long to wait in my room before Cathy got home and was apprised of the day’s happenings. I had been sitting my room reliving everything with Vera when they finally called me down. Were Vera and I a thing now? Maybe that’s too soon. I found it difficult to stay focused on my parents. They had shown themselves to be so myopic and dull that I didn’t feel any particular need to try to salvage our relationship. After all, they were the ones setting fire to everything; I was just trying to be my own person.

Before I seated myself at the table, I got a glass of water. When Cathy started in with “We’re very disappointed…” I put the glass under the ice dispenser on the door of the fridge and the machine rumbled loudly drowning her out. It was an asshole move; I know. When I turned around, I could see the red of Cathy’s rage rising up her neck.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Honestly, we don’t know what to do with you.” I sat down with my glass of water across from them and tried to belie no emotion on my face. I kept telling myself not to antagonize them further but it was so hard not to smirk and quip. My preferred strategy now was just going to be quiet, emotionless, and stoic.

“Why were you even over at Vera’s today?” Liz asked.

“School stuff, also we’re friends, sometimes we like to hang out.” I answered in an even tone.

“Why did it take you so long to come down when I got there?”

“We didn’t hear you at first, we were listening to music.”

“I thought you were doing school stuff?”

“We were, but then we finished and she wanted me to hear this band she’d just discovered.”

“I didn’t think you liked her kind of music.”

“Apparently, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Shit. Why did I say that?

“We’re beginning to understand that, yeah.” Cathy intoned. “Well, here’s how we’re gonna move forward. We’ve stopped payments for your phone, the insurance as well as the monthly installments on your truck. If you would like to live here while you attend college, you will have to abide by our wishes to the letter and that includes no unauthorized trips while you’re grounded, which you still are until the end of the school year. If there is any more of this disrespect then we’re taking the computer too and you can find your own place to live. Also, you need to get a job before graduation.”

“How am I supposed to get a job without a car? This is city is nothing but sprawl.”

“I guess you better find something before your insurance runs out and the truck gets repo-ed.”

I was livid, but I tried not to show it. I should have guessed that this would be the next play. I thought about telling them that I wasn’t even going to attend college here, but I didn’t want to overplay my hand. The less they knew about my plans for the future; the better.

“Why don’t you take dinner up to your room tonight, I’m not sure I want to share the table with you at the moment.” Cathy finished.

“The feeling’s mutual.” I muttered while grabbing some rice and chicken from the take-out Cathy had brought home with her. Between everything with Vera and now this, today had been a whirlwind of emotion. When I got to my room, I shut and locked the door and then changed into my female form and had a good cry on my bed.

I texted Javi and told him about my troubles, though not about Vera. He commiserated as he always does, but like me, he was short on solutions. There was not a lot I could do. My parents, like so many before them had chosen to tighten the purse strings rather than discuss things and come to a common understanding. I wasn’t even sure if such a thing was possible.

After talking over things with Javi, I found myself looking around online at trans resources. Hoping that maybe there would be somewhere that I could turn to for help, financial or otherwise. I found myself on some dead forum from a few years back looking over information that was hopelessly outdated when I read a comment from another trans girl about some static she’d faced from feminists who thought that her and others like her were invading their spaces. She told a detailed story about how they had accused her of every malfeasance they could think of and instigated a campaign of harassment that went on for months.

That sounded eerily familiar so I dug deeper into that rabbit hole. It was with growing horror that I found myself staying up way past a reasonable time to go to sleep reading about this community which my parents were no doubt apart of. So much of this rhetoric sounded familiar. I mean, there’s a labrys painting hanging on the living room wall and I had grown up hearing about (and largely ignoring) sacred wombyn space. How had I not known that they were like this?

Even when I got to sleep, the rest was fitful. My sleep was so poor that I didn’t even change shapes during the short period when I did seem to be unconscious. Everything that I had learned last night and waking up in the boy form now felt like such a repudiation of who I was that I worried that I was now unable to change shape. With a thought, I was able to switch back though and I let out a breath that I hadn’t been aware that I been holding.

School passed that day like a slideshow. I felt like I was moving at 10 frames per second and could barely keep my head up in class. At lunch, Vera and I shared a few uncertain looks with one another, but I was too tired to even think about how to pursue what we had begun the day before. I knew there were more alterations that Vera wanted, but those too would have to wait until we could get a moment together in private.

When school got out, I texted Liz that I was taking the truck to get the tire fixed. She agreed but asked me to turn on the location tracking app on my phone. They had only insisted that I get it for emergencies when they got me the phone, but now I felt as though I was being monitored like small child.

It hurt to part with the small amount of money Vera had given me, but having the truck in working order was paramount whether I was truly going to get a job or flee as soon as I graduated. I determined that after a good night’s rest, I would start looking at colleges to apply to outside of the immediate area.

That night dinner was a quiet affair. Mama Liz was often the peacemaker when Cathy got into one of her moods, and she made an effort to encourage conversation but neither of us seemed talkative, so we were left hearing her go on about her day at work. Honestly, it was a nice break from the constant back biting.

I still didn’t sleep that well, and woke up early the next morning. I let myself luxuriate in my default form for a bit. I put on my robe and worked on some schoolwork and filled out an online application for a pizza place. Then I began to changing back to the Teddy-form. I had just finished the face when the door knob to my room began to turn. I know I had locked it!

“Teddy, I think maybe we’ve been a little too hard on you and I wanted to…” Liz trailed off then, catching sight of the generous bust under my robe. I always waited until the last minute to change those back. The face - I didn’t have to see if I didn’t look in the mirror, but the breasts, I noticed the missing weight of them immediately.

“What are those?” Liz said pointing at my chest. My choice here was either to immediately shape them away and claim that she was seeing things or somehow convince her that they were prosthetics. Since the latter option came with the implicit admission of being irredeemably gender non-conforming, I decided on the first solution. I crossed my arms over my chest and in so doing, pushed the mass down into my stomach.

“What are what?” I said, indignant. Then I spread my arms wide and let the flap of my robe open a little to show the flattened chest area that she expected.

“No, I saw something.” And she felt around my stomach and in the sleeves of the robe; looking for breast forms no doubt. If she had pulled the robe off, I would be completely fucked. I had not worn a penis in weeks and there was no way to explain the presence of a vagina there without the aid of magic. I hadn’t had the money or the recovery time that surgery would require.

“There is some very strange stuff going on with you lately, young man.” She said when she couldn’t locate a pair silicon breasts in my robe or on my floor. “You need to get downstairs. Your bus will be here soon.” And she stormed off downstairs.

I let out a sigh of relief when she did. Then I tested my door. The little lock thing still moved, but the lock didn’t take. I could still retract the door latch when turning the exterior knob. Cathy was carpenter by trade so it had probably been no trouble at all for her to disable my lock in order to allow just such an intrusion as the one I had just suffered.

As I threw on an outfit and gathered by books for the day, I couldn’t help but realize just how much faith I had placed in that lock. Without it, I was completely defenseless. They could open my door at any time and see the sleeping girl in my bed. There wouldn’t be a way to explain that either. I could maybe fix the lock, but it would only be a matter of time before I was right back in this situation.

That day at lunch, I told Javi and Vera about what had happened that morning. “I need another place to stay, you guys. My home is not really safe and if I get busted; we all get busted.” I felt really bad about forcing this on them, but I was left with no other choice.

“I don’t know how keen my dad would be, Rosalind.” Vera said. “After the other day, he asked me if I was still a lesbian. I think he may have heard us.”

“Wait, heard you what?” Javi asked.

“We umm…” I started and then looked at Vera who smirked at me.

“Ah, okay. I see.” Javi didn’t seem to know how to react to this news but also didn’t want to press us any further for details. “Doesn’t matter, Roz, you’d be more than welcome over at my house. I mentioned to my parents that you’d been having trouble anyway. I didn’t tell them what kind, just that your moms were being unreasonable.”

“Thanks, Javi”

“I don’t know if you’d be able to stay to the end of the school year, but it would at least give you some time.”

“Can we do it tonight? I can’t take the risk that they’ll walk in while I’m sleeping, and after this morning; I think I can look forward to a surprise inspection soon enough.” My mind raced with the logistics of how I might get the bulk of my stuff over to the Perez household without having a huge blowout fight with Liz and Cathy.

“Do you want me to help? I could probably do something.” Vera stated. “I mean, I could…” and she trailed off, stopping herself and looking around for anyone that could be listening. “Get one of your parents out of the way for a bit if you wanted me to.”

I understood what she was offering. And it would work, Liz usually worked late on Wednesdays. Cathy would probably be there and we could just put her on pause until I was done. It felt like a big risk getting Vera involved with her magic, but I really did not like all this confrontation and if any of it could be avoided; then maybe a little gambling was warranted. Vera could have her lie down, and there’d be no reason for her to suspect anything other that she’d taken an uncharacteristic afternoon nap.

“Okay, that would be good. Can you… umm, can you get all the way to my house?” So far, we’d only see Vera’s shadow travel around the school not the six miles she would need to go to get to my house with it.

“I don’t know. I never tried. Maybe it’d be easier if I came by Javi’s house too.”

“Actually, that works. I’m going to need to get the truck out of the driveway so that it doesn’t get messed with. I can take you home and then park it on a side street a few blocks away.”

“Kay, I’m texting my dad now that we’ll be having company tonight.” Javi said as he punched at his phone, which probably should have been off, but no one had said anything incriminating so I guessed it was okay, and I wasn’t about to nitpick when I was going to be relying on his hospitality for the foreseeable future.

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