I was lazing sleepily in a patch of sunlight. I rolled onto my back and the way the light warmed up the dark fur on my belly, it almost felt like the sun was giving me a hug. I was in the woods somewhere, in a little meadow. It was around noon, the sky was clear blue, and it was quiet, warm, and peaceful.

After a few minutes I rolled again, and curled myself up into a ball. My tail tucked under my chin and I sighed happily. I was just about to drift into a light sleep when the wind shifted slightly. It was just enough for me to catch the scent of wolves, and they were close.

I felt my muscles tense as my ears twitched and my eyes opened. I heard them coming from behind, and I launched myself across the meadow. My tail was tucked down as close under my legs as I could get it as I ran. I heard their jaws snapping at me, but I managed to stay just ahead of them, just out of their grasp.

I leapt and my claws caught hold of the trunk of a nearby tree. I scrambled up as fast as I could, as high as I could. There were two of them, large hungry wolves jumping and scrabbling at the tree trunk as I made my way further up into the foliage.

My heart was pounding and my eyes wide, ears folded back. I was out of immediate danger though. They couldn't climb, so all I really had to do now was find somewhere comfortable up here to wait them out.

Moving cautiously, I made my way out along one of the branches towards a likely-looking spot. I was almost at my destination when the branch suddenly gave way and I felt myself falling back down towards the wolves' hungry jaws.

I let out a startled gasp as I woke. I found myself sitting up in bed. My heart was racing and my body was covered in a sheen of sweat.

My eyes flicked around as I quickly surveyed my bedroom. I was half expecting to find the wolves here waiting for me. Or Chuck and Doug, or my parents. I assumed the dream-wolves represented one set of bullies or another.

As usual I was alone. There was no-one else here.

I checked the time as I calmed down after the dream. According to my clock it was just past eight o'clock, Saturday morning. I was glad it was the weekend again. I was looking forward to getting back to the store.

My morning shower was quick as usual, and I still didn't need to shave. It was a week now since I last had to deal with those twenty stupid hairs on my face. That was unusual. Normally I had to shave two or three times a week.

My hair still hung down to my shoulders. My plans to get it cut had been thwarted the past three days.

On Wednesday the haircutting place was closed because of a power failure. Then Thursday there was a huge thunderstorm and I didn't want to get utterly drenched walking to and from the place. And when I finally got there on Friday they were busy, they told me I'd have to wait an hour. And while I didn't have anything else to do, I didn't want a haircut so badly that I was willing to spend a full hour sitting in an uncomfortable chair reading last year's periodicals to get it.

So I just made a point of avoiding my parents. That actually turned out to be an excellent strategy. It meant not only did I not have to listen to them gripe about my hair, but I didn't have to listen to them complain about anything else either.

School wasn't quite as easy. My hat was still back at the store so I didn't have any way to hide my longer hair. I had a few classmates give me a hard time about it, and two of the teachers did as well. The most embarrassing moment was when one of the teachers blocked me from going into the boys washroom.

He eventually let me pass but not until he'd made me say out loud that yes, I was in fact a boy.

And the most awkward and confusing part of that whole experience was I honestly couldn't tell if he'd mistaken me for a girl or if he was just going out of his way to be an asshole. If he was trying to make a point about boys with long hair, it was probably the most creative and humiliating way to do it. So I guess I had to give him props for that.

Once I was dressed I quietly made my way up the stairs. There was enough time to have breakfast, but I could hear my folks getting up and I didn't want to share the kitchen with them. So I skipped the food and went straight out the side door and set off for work.

I got there about a half hour early, and just sat down on the ground with my back against the door to wait.

Some twenty minutes later I heard and felt it unlock behind me. I quickly got to my feet and Selene welcomed me in.

"Good morning hon, nice to see you here bright and early."

"Good morning ma'am," I replied. I blushed slightly as I admitted, "I've been looking forward to getting back here since Tuesday night."

She just smiled as I went to the back to leave my hoodie in the stock room.

As I returned to join her at the counter she commented, "I see you decided not to cut your hair after all."

I frowned and explained "Actually I just haven't had a chance yet? Things kept coming up. Maybe I'll find time next week."

I continued frowning though as I thought about it. I kind of liked it long, but I wanted to cut it because of the trouble it was causing me at home, at school, that sort of thing. If I could last another week though, school wouldn't be a problem. Then if Selene gave me full-time hours in July I wouldn't be home so much, so that might not be a problem either.

That would just leave random people mistaking me for a girl. And while that made me feel kind of weird, it didn't actually bother me all that much. So maybe I'd just leave my hair long after all?

Once again I realized my boss had been talking while I was lost in my own thoughts, and I quickly focused my attention on her. She had some more training planned for me this morning.

The first couple hours were fairly quiet, only a half dozen customers came by. It was just getting towards noon when my boss and I both heard my stomach grumbling.

She smiled slightly and suggested, "Why don't you take an hour for lunch, hon?"

"Oh," I hesitated. "I didn't bring anything to eat, and I don't really have any money for food right now. I can just keep working, I don't mind."

She frowned, "Did you at least have a good breakfast this morning?"

I shrugged, "Nah, I didn't have time before my folks got up. It's ok, I'll grab some leftovers later tonight."

Selene sighed, and I noticed she had that troubled look on her face again. After a few moments she seemed to come to a decision. "Come on hon. Get your hoodie. You and I are going to get some lunch."

"Uh, ma'am?" I felt awkward again. "You don't need to do that on my account. I'll be fine, it's no big deal. I can go a day or two without eating, it's ok."

That just seemed to make her more certain she wanted to feed me. I wound up grabbing my hoodie from the back, then the two of us stepped out the front door together. She was back in her youthful look again since she was taking some time off.

She didn't actually seem to have a key for the front door, she just closed it then tapped the lock with her finger. I heard the clunk as it locked, then she smiled "Come on."

Rather than going left towards Main Street she took me right, across the parking lot then out to Ste Marie Street. We turned left and wound up at the door of a Chinese restaurant. Selene led me inside, and a few minutes later the two of us were seated across from each other in a booth.

She smiled, "I hope you like Chinese food hon. It's one of my favourites."

I looked around quietly and nodded, "I hope so too ma'am. I've never had it before."

A waiter brought us some glasses of water and I looked at the menu, but I had no idea what to order. I'd never even been in a restaurant before really, not a proper sit-down one. I'd had fast-food of course, been to the burger place and stuff like that once or twice.

Selene had some suggestions and I wound up just letting her do the ordering for both of us.

While we waited for the food, she asked "Hon it's really none of my business, but I'm a little worried about you. Do you want to tell me what it's like for you at home? Do your parents not feed you enough?"

I blushed and shrugged slightly. It felt awkward talking about it but I said quietly, "It's not like that. I just don't like to eat with them? So I stay out of the kitchen when they're in there. I usually wait till afterwards then just get left-overs."

I added, "Or in the morning I'll try to get up first, then I can eat before they're up. I wasn't quite early enough this morning so I just left the house, instead of eating while they were around."

She sighed again, then said "After next week you'll have your first pay. So you'll be able to afford to get yourself some food when you need it, right?"

"Yes ma'am," I nodded.

When the food came I was surprised at how much there was, there was no way the two of us would eat all this. We had a plate full of beef and vegetables in a spicy sauce, a plate of chicken and vegetables in some kind of sweet sauce, and a plate of pork fried rice.

I found the chicken dish was too sweet for me. The beef dish was tastier but it was a little too hot for my palate. It was good though. The pork and rice was my favourite of the three.

Selene seemed to like them all about the same, but she let me have as much of the pork one as I wanted since I liked it best. Even so, by the time we were both full there was still a lot of food left. We'd only really eaten about half of everything.

When the waiter came back Selene asked him to pack the left-overs up for us, she indicated I was to get the pork and rice dish and she'd take the other two.

The plates were all taken away then a minute or two later the waiter returned with two bags.

"Here you are ma'am," he said as he set one down in front of Selene. Then he put the other one on the table before me and said, "And there you go miss."

That left me with those weird mixed feelings again as I realized the whole time we'd been here eating, the waiter thought I was a girl.

Selene paid cash for our meal, and the two of us walked back to the shop together carrying our left-overs.

"Thank you for lunch ma'am," I said as we got back to the store.

She smiled as she tapped the lock then opened the door, "I hope you enjoyed it?"

"Yeah," I smiled. "And it'll be really nice having this for dinner too. I really appreciate that."

I left my hoodie and my dinner in the stock room, Selene tucked her food away on a shelf under the front counter. By the time I returned to her side she was back in her middle-aged look again, ready to continue the day's work.

As I stood beside her she commented, "I noticed when the waiter called you 'miss', you didn't bother to correct him."

"Uh, yeah..." I felt myself blushing. "It feels kind of weird when that sort of thing happens, but I guess I don't mind. Not enough to make a fuss about it anyways."

"I see," was all she had to say about that.

She had one of those knowing smiles on her face though, which left me wondering what she was thinking.

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