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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What?”

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

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

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

“Boyfriend?”

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

“I was mugged.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes.”

“Really?”

I said with an unwavering stare. “Yes.”

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

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

I looked at her confused for a minute.

“What?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What?”

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