“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?”