I’m in the thick of a dream when suddenly a loud knock from the front door rings out across the house. Daisy, my pitbull with a heart of gold, goes wild, making sure that I’m woken up by whoever it is at my door.

I groan, and roll out of bed. It takes a second for me to kick my covers off of my feet, but I eventually make it to the front door, and open it to find my friend Kylie there with her arms crossed. She’s dressed in the school uniform for some reason, despite the fact that today is Sunday, one day before we start our first day of high school.

Like an idiot, I just stare at her.

“It’s not Sunday, is it?” I ask.

“Ivan, today is Monday. Why are you not dressed–”

I slam the door and run to my room to get changed. Kylie lets herself into my house, preparing stuff for me as I make a mad dash to try and not be late on my first day of high school.

“Do you remember what you said on our last day of middle school?” Kylie asks.

“Not really?”

“You say: “I’m going to change!” and then you went ahead and didn’t change at all. You slept past noon every day of summer, you spent your days inside playing video games, and now you’re going to be late for your first day of high school.”

“Not if I run!”

She rolls her eyes. I can’t see her, but I can just tell that it’s what she would do.

“You said that you would change. You haven’t. You’re still the same immature little boy that you were one year ago.”

“That’s not true!” I tell her, stopping in front of her, finally changed.

Kylie looks me up and down, and sighs. “Your buttons are crooked.”

I fix the buttons, but that isn’t all that Kylie has to say to me.

“Your shoes are scuffed. Your shirt is wrinkled. Your pants are too baggy. Your hair is messy. Have you brushed your teeth? I hope you at least showered.”

“No time!”

“Good lord, Ivan. Please don’t make a habit of this. You’re going to make me late, too.”

“I never told you that you had to stay!”

She sighs, and throws my backpack at me.

“I looked your bag over. You seem to at least have everything packed that you need. I’m heading out now, but try not to be too late. Oh, and don’t run, okay? Take a bath and walk. The last thing you need on your first day is a terrible rumor about how badly you smell.”

I stick my tongue out at her as she walks away. But silently, I thank her. She has her own unique way of showing her love, but there’s no doubt that she does care for me. She’s been basically my only friend for as long as I can remember.

I look out at her as she walks down the road. She really is growing up to be a beauty. But she’s a bit too tomboyish, I think. The teachers might get mad that she’s wearing pants instead of a skirt, but she has always hated wearing skirts. In middle school, they were relaxed since she got such good grades and never got in trouble.

Well, who cares about her, really? I’ve got my own issues to deal with right now. She may get yelled at for wearing pants, but I’ll definitely get yelled at for being late. And I don’t have my good grades to drop back on like she does.

Still, I figure it’s best to not be too late. I take a quick shower, and grab a snack as I run out the door. Well, maybe not quite a run. More of a light jog. And I nearly make it to school without incident. That’s when I round the corner, and light jog right into a small girl.

I knock the poor girl to her butt. She was running with all of her might, and ran into someone twice her size. Well, maybe not literally. I’m about 5’2” 100 pounds, and she looks to be closer to 4’6”. And probably about as light as a feather.

I expect the girl to be crying, but instead, as I look down at her, she keeps a level head, and picks herself right up. She dusts herself off, and flinches a bit as her hand makes contact with her skirt. She looks down at her hands, which were scraped when she fell on the ground.

“Oh, sorry about that,” I tell her. “If you need to wipe the blood off, you can use my pants or something.”

“I have a handkerchief in my bag, don’t worry,” she says.

“If you insist. I’m really sorry, though.”

“You’ve got something more important to worry about. If we don’t run, we’re going to be late.”

“Ah, crap! I’ll race you there!”

She nods her head, and runs off at full speed. I follow just behind her. She’s wearing the high school uniform, a green and black plaid skirt and white button up. I thought she might have been an elementary schooler at first, but I guess she’s a high schooler.

The girl is slow, so we’re both going to be very late. Still, I feel bad passing her up. She fell because of me, and even if she wouldn’t have made it regardless, I feel as if the least I can do for her is be late as well. I’m sure that whoever is waiting to yell at us would rather yell at me than her, so at least I can be of some use. Then again, maybe if I’m a bit ahead of her, they can waste all their breath on me, and then she’ll have less to worry about. School starts out with an assembly today, so at least we won’t miss any class time, meaning that the teachers shouldn’t yell at us. Probably.

The school gate comes into view. The security guard sees us running up on his cameras, which are situated all across the school and the surrounding area, so he’s waiting there for us, arms crossed. He’s a big guy, ex-military. I’ve been warned not to piss him off.

“And why are you two late?” he practically growls.

“I accidentally shoved this girl over, so it’s all my fault,” I tell him. His eyes glow red.

“You did what to my daughter?”

Fear runs through my veins like blood. I flinch away from him, and tears start down my eyes. I’ve never done well with big men. My father was abusive, and my elder half-brother took after him.

I’m bawling my eyes out now. The man and his daughter are kneeled on the ground trying to console me.

“Hey, hey! I’m not angry!” the man insists.

“Did he pee himself?” the girl whispers.

I gasp, and look down. Sure enough, in my panic, I’ve accidentally peed myself.

“Well, at least nobody will see him like this out here,” the security guard mutters.

“What do we do?” the girl asks.

“I don’t know? Take him to the nurse’s office?”

The girl nods her head, and takes my hands. She tries to pull me up, but she’s so tiny that she fails. Her father reaches for me, but I flinch away and start crying again.

“Okay! Okay! I’m sorry! Look, you need to get up, okay? The assembly is going to end soon, and people are going to notice that you’ve wet yourself! Follow Fiona to the nurse’s office, alright?”

I nod my head, and force myself to my feet. Wobbly, and more than a little bit soggy, I follow Fiona through the front gate, and into the school. Thankfully, the nurse’s office is right near the front entrance, so I don’t have a long walk to get there. I sit down on a chair, trying to compose myself. Fiona looks around.

“The nurse isn’t here,” she says.

“What do I do?” I mumble.

“Hey, hey! It’ll be fine! Just wait here, I’ll go–”

The door opens, and we both look towards it, praying that it’s the nurse. But no. It may be the second best person, though.

“Kylie!” I cry.

“You’re making the janitor work overtime,” she whispers. She closes the door behind her. “You’re lucky that my dad texted me when he saw you. Or rather, the security guard texted him about you.” Kylie’s father is the janitor here at school. He’s a nice guy, but, well, how do I put this? He doesn’t mind messing with dirty things. I’ve gone to the swamp with him and Kylie to catch frogs. And he moves dead animals off of the road without gloves.

Kylie sets her bag on the ground, and rummages through it. She pulls out a pair of pants, and a pair of black panties, and hands them to me.

“The nurse has a bathroom here. Go and change in there.”

I take the clothes hesitantly. “Panties?”

“Yes. Did you want to walk through school commando?”

“It might be better than panties.”

“Pervert.”

“More perverted than wearing my best friend’s panties?”

“They’re brand new, so it’s fine. Besides, they’re boy shorts, so they’re not all that feminine.”

I groan, and accept my fate. “Fine.”

Thankfully, Kylie and I aren’t that different in terms of body shape. I mean, she certainly has more hips. And more boobs. And she’s taller. But not by much.

In the bathroom, I hurry and change out of my wet pants. Kylie handed me a plastic bag, and I put the wet pants and underwear in there, then wipe my bottom down with toilet paper. Then I hold the panties up, and stare at them.

“Kylie really isn’t feminine at all,” I mutter. Plain black boy short panties. Practically boxers, really, if you don’t think about it too hard. Far shorter, though. And her pants are boy’s pants, so I’m not really even crossdressing. Basically.

I step out of the bathroom, and the girls have already made fast friends. They’re smiling and giggling, but stop once I step out.

“Good,” Kylie says. “I’ll take the wet clothes to my father, and he’ll deal with them. You can come over to my house and pick them up some time, maybe this weekend.”

“He’s lucky that you wear pants, too, Kylie,” Fiona says.

“Right? Imagine if I had to force him to wear a skirt. Then again, he’s got a petite frame, so maybe it would look good on him?”

Fiona seems excited. “Maybe we can see how he looks wearing a skirt some time!”

“I would rather not,” I mutter.

“You’re no fun!” Kylie rolls her eyes. “Anyhow, I’m heading out. I’ve got to drop those clothes off with my dad, and then try to not be late for class. How about you formally introduce yourselves to one another, and then head to class? You might have missed the assembly, but at least you won’t be late for your actual class.”

As Kylie leaves, I look down at Fiona. She smiles at me.

“Good to meet you!” she says. “My name is Fiona! Kylie told me a bit about you.”

“Good things, I hope.”

“Nope!”

“Well, that’s to be expected. I’m Ivan.”

I stick my hand out, and she shakes it. The whole time she keeps the sweetest possible smile on her face.

“So what are you doing at this school?” I ask.

“Oh! I skipped a few grades! I’m really smart, or so they tell me.”

‘How old are you?”

“Ten. How about you? Are you a freshman?”

“That’s right. I’m 14.”

“Who do you have for first period? I’ve got math with Mrs. Newman, and Kylie told me that she does, too!”

“Oh, really? Guess we’ll be seeing a lot of one another, then. I’ve got her for first period, as well, but more importantly, she’s actually my mother.”

With the morning assembly over, we can hear students out in the hall now, milling about. We figure that we ought to excuse ourselves from the nurse’s office, and make our way to our first class of the day. The classroom is about halfway full by the time we arrive. Fiona takes a seat by the front of the class, and insists that I sit next to her. I’m not really eager to sit front row in my mom’s class, so I encourage Fiona to settle for the second row. We also leave a spot open to my left for Kylie if she wants.

“I hope I won’t be a third wheel,” Kylie says as she sits down. “You two haven’t left each other's sides since we got to school.”

“Just a coincidence,” I tell her. “But Fiona is a good girl. She’s been telling me all about herself as we were waiting for you. It seems that she’s really into fashion.”

“Oh, that might be helpful for when we make you crossdress later,” Kylie says.

“Keep it quiet! I don’t want weird rumors to start spreading!”

“The rumors could be worse. It could be about you wetting yourself on the first day of school.”

“Kylie, I don’t care if you’re a girl, I will take you around the back of the school and beat you up!”

“I certainly hope you don’t,” Mrs. Newman says, suddenly standing right infront of me.

I give her a smile. “You know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t.”

“No, you wouldn’t, because Kylie would win that fight. Of course, we already know that from last year.”

“That was a friendly fight,” I argue. “If it were a real fight, I wouldn’t be afraid to get dirty. I would win.”

“I suppose the rumor spreading around now will be about how you fight dirty and pick on girls,” Kylie says. “Better than nothing, huh?”

“Stuff it,” I mumble, and lightly punch her shoulder.

Thankfully, day one of classes isn’t exactly hard. I get some flack from my mother for missing out on the assembly, but she doesn’t scold me for long. And lucky Fiona doesn’t get scolded at all, just warned to be careful who she associates with. Thanks, mom. After that we start with introductions and stuff. My mother insists that we’re going to be classmates for the next semester, and school mates beyond that, so we should get to know one another.

“Ivan, would you like to start us off?” Mrs. Newman asks.

I sigh, and stand up. “Ivan Newman. My mother is your math teacher. I hope you give her plenty of trouble. I like video games, reading, and collecting comics.”

“You’ll lose some points for that slight against me, but good enough,” my mother sighs. “What about Kylie? Would you like to go next?”

“Sure!” Kylie says, standing up. “My name is Kylie! I’ve known Ivan since he was a baby, so I know Mrs. Newman very well. She probably won’t show her son any favoritism, but she’ll probably show me some! I like catching frogs and playing sports. I hope we’ll all get along.”

“Fantastic,” Mrs. Newman says. “What about Fiona? I’m sure people are curious about you.”

Fiona stands up and bows. “My name is Fiona. I’m only 10, but I hope you’ll all see me as an equal. I like fashion, books, and movies. I can’t stand horror movies, though.”

My mother thanks her, and then goes down the rows, letting people ramble if they want, or simply state a few things like we did. I make sure to pay attention, because I know that my mother likes to prepare a quiz on these things. She’ll ask the class questions about their classmates, seeing if we were really paying attention during introductions on day one.

The rest of the classes are about the same, perhaps a bit more boring. Kylie and I help Fiona find her classes, though we don’t share any other classes except for gym at the end of the day. We also hang out during lunch.

Gym class is the only class that really makes us do anything on day one, though it’s all stretches and a bit of running, nothing serious. It ends 30 minutes early so students have time to shower after gym. I’m quick with washing up, but the girls end up taking quite a bit more time. So I’m sitting in the hallway outside of the gym, scrolling through my phone when a shadow stops just above me. I look up, expecting to see Kylie. Instead, it’s some dude.

“Can I help you?” I ask. I try to keep my cool, but I’m already trembling. This guy is easily twice my size. I think he was held back a year or two, and if I recall correctly, he was part of the middle school football club.

“I saw you hanging around with those two girls all day. You got a thing for kids?”

“I know Kylie is flat, but she’s no child. As for Fiona, she’s only a few years younger than we are. She’s a good girl.”

“Are you trying to pick a fight?” he asks.

“I’m not sure what part of what I said sounded like I was?”

He laughs. “Oh my god, are you trembling? Seriously? What a loser!”

He kicks the wall right next to me, and I flinch away. He and some goons behind him that have gathered laugh at me.

The bully grabs the collar of my shirt, and lifts me up. “What? Are you afraid of me? But I’m such a nice guy! Don’t you remember how much fun we had back in middle school?”

I manage to sputter out, “Right! You’re a great man, you know? So good at sports, too, Larry! Can you let me down now?”

He throws me to the ground roughly. He and his goons are gathering around me, now. I don’t think they’ll be bold enough to actually beat me up in the middle of the hallway with so many people around, but they’re going to at least make me worry.

“Hey! Stop it!” a high pitched voice calls out. Behind the bullies, Fiona has stepped out of the locker room, and has both fists bunched. She’s glaring at the bullies.

“Aww, is your little girlfriend going to stop us?” Larry laughs.

Fiona steps towards them. “I have an idea,” she says. “How about you come with me and talk to my father? You may know him as the security guard. You know, about 6 feet tall, covered in tattoos?”

The boys quiet down. We’ve been warned by older students for years to never mess with the security guard. His biceps are larger than our heads, and my brother says he saw him crush a watermelon in one hand before.

Deflated, the bullies walk away. Fiona runs over to me, and hugs me.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“I’m fine. You didn’t need to help me.”

“Of course I did! You’re my friend.”

I laugh. I just met her, but twice now this younger girl has saved me. Back in the day, I had to rely on Kylie, and now I have to rely on an even younger girl. But I can’t just keep relying on them.

“They just wanted to scare me a bit,” I tell her. “Nothing bad would have happened.”

“I don’t care what their intentions were, they were mean!”

“Yeah, I know. But they’re jocks, it’s the only way they can get off.”

“Get off?”

“Don’t worry about that. Just don’t tell Kylie about this.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m pitiful enough as it is.”

“You’ve got that right!” Kylie scoffs as she leaves the locker room. “I’m just glad my dad doesn’t have to clean your blood off of the ground. Poor guy is overworked enough as it is.”

I roll my eyes. “Your dad has seen worse. I’ve seen him move roadkill with his bare hands, a bit of blood won’t bother him.”

“You still shouldn’t make extra work for him. You’ve done enough of that already.”

“Yeah, yeah! Bell’s about to ring, so are you girls ready to head home?”

“How bold,” Kylie says. “Asking two girls to walk home with you. Wow. What a playboy.”

I make a motion around my chest. “Sorry, I prefer – ow!”

Kylie doesn’t let me finish my insult, she throws her backpack at me.

“You owe me! You’re carrying my bag! And Fiona’s, too!”

“What?”

Fiona offers me her bag. I take it. Now, with a bag on my back and one in each hand, I walk for miles mostly quiet as the two girls chat up a storm. I mostly zone them out. Eventually, Fiona has to take a different path than us, so she heads off right around the area where I ran into her, and I continue towards my house alongside Kylie.

“So, do you have a crush on her?” Kylie asks.

“Gross. No. Like I said, I prefer girls that are well developed.”

She rolls her eyes. “Okay. Joking aside, she says that she’s going to come over on Saturday. My father will have finished laundry by then if you want to drop by and pick your stuff up. You can also leave the clothes I lent you.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s fine.”

“You didn’t pee yourself earlier when the bullies were bothering you, right?”

“Nah, my bladder was empty already. If I had thought to use the bathroom before running out this morning, nothing would have happened, but I was running late. You know how it is.”

“I certainly know how it is with you.”

I flip her off, but for the next 20 minutes it’s just the two of us, so I’m stuck with her for now. She gives me a bit more crap, but it’s friendly, unlike how the bullies are. They just want to scare you. Kylie just likes to play around.

When we get to my house, Kylie stops and waits for me to head inside before she continues onwards. She lives a few minutes away, and visits often. She even has her own key to my house, just incase I lock myself out, which has happened before. She’s also allowed to let herself in if I don’t wake up like I did this morning. Had I not woken up, she would have let herself in.

Following the incident with the bullies, Fiona isn’t really willing to leave my side at school, especially after gym. She hurries taking a shower, and sits beside me as we wait for Kylie. The bullies glare at her, but don’t dare harass her. I’m told that her father makes sure to glare at them extra hard as they enter school in the morning and leave in the evening.

Eventually, the weekend rolls around. I don’t roll out of bed until well past noon. It’s about 2 PM by the time I step out of the shower. Kylie wants me to come over to drop off the clothes, so I put them in my backpack, and tell my mom that I’m heading out. I arrive at Kylie’s house about 5 minutes later.

I knock at the door, and a moment later, I hear some soft footsteps. Fiona must be here. Kylie’s footsteps sound like a linebacker’s. She just has no grace.

Fiona opens the door, and looks up at me with a smile. She looks even younger when not wearing the school uniform, though maybe that’s because my mind equates the school uniform to high school. Right now she’s wearing a red button up dress with a long sleeve shirt under it.

“You coming in?” she asks. And mentally, I finish the sentence the way that Kylie surely would have finished it, “Or are you just going to stare?”

I follow Fiona inside, and find Kylie standing a few feet behind. She’s wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts. She hands me a plastic bag with my clean clothes, and I pull the dirty clothes out of my backpack and hand them to her.

“I don’t really want the underwear,” she tells me. “I can imagine that you would be hesitant to keep them, though. That would be a conversation and a half if your mother were to find these panties.”

“Right,” I nod my head.

“I wonder how she would react if I were to tell her.”

“You wouldn’t ever find out, because you would be dead.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure. I don’t want to tell her, anyhow. I want to keep this blackmail.”

“Such a good friend. I can’t believe my mother likes you.”

“Yeah, well, she’s always liked me better than you. Are we ready to head out?”

“Head out?” I ask.

“We’re going bug catching. My mom’s doing research.”

Kylie’s mother is a college professor and likes doing research on local animal populations. I’ve spent countless hours waist deep in mud or climbing trees searching for frogs, bugs, plants, and just about any animal you can think of. That includes fishing in rivers and ponds, digging in dirt, and even shifting through garbage.

“Where are we going?” I ask. I don’t bother arguing. I always seem to lose those.

“The forest.”

“Oh, good. No mud, then.”

“My mother saw how Fiona was dressed and didn’t want to make her wade through mud in such a cute dress.”

“How kind. I’ll just be happy to benefit indirectly from Fiona.”

Fiona and I follow Kylie out to a forest about 30 minutes away, close to our school. We’ve been here before, and have had plenty of success capturing insects. Their numbers have been waning in recent years, though. As houses pop up, the forest shrinks. Not to mention climate change, pollution, and whatever else. I’m no scientist, so I don’t fully grasp it, but I’m seeing first hand how the population suffers from human activity.

Kylie brought several tools with her. Nets to catch bugs, boxes to place them in, gloves in case things get dirty, and even a small spade for digging.

“Alright, let’s get this started,” Kylie says, eying the area.

First is an inspection of the general area. There’s quite a lot of litter, courtesy of high school students who like to play around in the forest and not clean up after themselves. We pick them up and stuff them in the bag that Kylie brought all the tools here in. We find that the trees generally look fairly healthy, and that very little building has been done around here lately. The other side of town is the main priority right now, with a new shopping center popping up. That won’t last long. People will want to be close to the school, and this forest will continue to shrink. When I was little, half of what we call town now was still the forest. There’s still lots of forest beyond the town, but it seems that it keeps growing smaller and smaller.

Fiona mostly watches and talks as Kylie and I climb trees and search through bushes. She seems to want to help, but seems nervous about touching bugs or climbing trees.

“It’s fine,” I tell her. “I’ll be there to catch you if you fall.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

She still seems nervous, but nods her head, and starts climbing up a tree that I pick out for her. It looks to be easy to climb, and there’s a fork low down that she can sit on and feel as if she’s accomplished something.

“Put your hand on that branch,” I tell her, and step towards the tree. I look up, gasp, and take a step away from the tree. Oops! I forgot that she was wearing a dress!

“What?” Fiona panics. Her foot slips. She falls.

Kylie is there before I am. She catches Fiona bridal style, and carefully places her down. Then she glares at me.

“Why did you look up her dress?” Kylie demands.

“I wasn’t thinking! I’m sorry!” I bow to both girls. Kylie laughs.

“That just goes to show that you didn’t mean anything,” Kylie says. “If you had been thinking bad things, you wouldn’t have made that noise when you saw her panties.”

Fiona is blushing, and holding her hands over her skirt.

“It’s fine!” Kylie says, slapping her on the back. “He saw my panties, too! Hell, he wore them!”

“Not so loud!” I try to quiet her down. It may be a forest, but it’s close to town, and people could be out here. The last thing I need is…

“Oh?” A voice says. And it’s just about the last voice I want to hear right now. Larry…

The girls step in front of me as Larry and a pair of losers that I’m not familiar with step forwards.

“So, Ivan here crossdresses and has little girls protect him?” Larry asks.

“You’re asking for trouble,” Fiona warns him.

“Maybe this is a bad idea,” one of the minions suggests. Larry tells him to shut up.

“Ivan, what would the other students say if they heard that you like to crossdress?”

I say nothing. I’m shivering like a leaf, on the verge of crying. I can’t imagine much that would make this situation worse right now.

“Answer me, boy!”

“He doesn’t owe you anything!” Kylie shouts at him.

“Yeah!” Fiona says, backing me up.

Larry laughs. “Really? I think he owes me if he doesn’t want me to tell everyone about this! How do you feel about being my private maid? You can even wear a maid dress, if you want.”

“Is this some kind of kink thing?” Kylie asks.

“King?” Fiona asks.

“Don’t ask,” Kylie says.

“What? Traps are kinda hot, not gonna lie,” Larry says. His goons give him a weird look, but shrug. He’s the boss here, and if the boss likes traps, then who are they to question him.

“I just made him crossdress once,” Kylie says. “But if you try to hold that over him, maybe we can let the whole school know that you’re into traps.”

“Anyone that says that they aren’t is just a liar.”

“What is a trap?” Fiona asks.

“It’s a dude that likes to wear skirts. Like a transgender.”

Fiona’s eyes narrow. She’s either confused or angry.

“A transgender is–”

Fiona cuts him off. “I know what transgender means. I’m transgender. If you have a problem with trans people, you have a problem with me, and if you have a problem with me, you’ve got a problem with my father, the 6 foot security guard.”

“Ex-military,” Kylie adds.

Larry scoffs. “Like I care! If I take care of the three of you, he’ll never even know about what happened here! And traps like you three are only good for one thing!”

His friends take a step back from him.

“What?” he asks.

“Well, you’re talking about murder and rape, right? We’re not really down for that, especially not when two or three of them are guys.”

“I’m not a boy!” Fiona says, stomping her foot and taking a step towards them. The boys don’t flinch.

“I’m still not interesting in touching a doohickey,” one boy says.

Larry rolls his eyes. “Alright, alright! No murder, no rape! And I’ll make you a deal, alright? I won’t tell anyone about Ivan’s crossdressing, okay? But in return, I get to look up Fiona’s skirt. I mean, Ivan already looked up his skirt, so it’s fine-”

And then, somehow or another, a fist connects with his face. He barely registers it, and I barely registered what I did before I did it. I look the fist up to its source, which happens to be me. Huh. I punched a sportsboy who is two years my senior, has a hundred pounds on me, and has goons with him. Not smart.

Sportboy just looks at me for a second like I’m an idiot.

“You’ve got balls,” he says. “That much is for sure. Of course, so do your girlfriends. Well, whatever. I think this is an interesting development, and I like to play with my food, so I’ll leave it at this tonight. Boys! We’re heading out!”

He laughs as he leaves. I fall into the dirt, hand still outstretched. The girls crouch down and try to console me.

“He’s gone,” Kylie says. “It’s alright.”

I can’t help but start crying. I try to keep it quiet, but I fail. I can hear the laughter grow louder. Larry stops to watch for a minute, then finally leaves.

“Kylie,” Fiona whispers.

“I know,” Kylie whispers back. “Make sure not to say anything if the boys are within earshot.”

“They’re gone.”

“In that case, you can break the news.”

“Um, Ivan?” Fiona says. “You peed yourself again.”

I gasp, and look down at myself. Sure enough, there’s a puddle of pee on the ground yet again.

“How do I keep managing to be so uncool?” I groan.

“Relax. I have some spare clothes. I figured we might wade into mud, so I’ve got some spare shorts and underwear. Um, these are kind of more classically panty style, though, so sorry. At least I’ve got basketball shorts, though. Option B is walking back to your house with wet pants.”

I groan, and hold my hand out. She shifts around the bag and pulls out some black panties and basketball shorts. I go around a tree and change, then meet back up with the girls.

“Things got a bit too exciting,” Kylie says. “We should head back home. I’ll be sure to let my parents know what happened.”

“Minus the peeing,” I beg.

“If you insist. I’ll run the laundry before you leave, so things should be fine.”

We follow Kylie back to her house. We’re all kind of down about what happened, so we stay quiet. When we return to her house, she throws the clothes in the laundry, tells her parents what happened, then returns to her room with Fiona and I in tow.

“Well,” Kylie sighs. “There’s that, then.”

We’re quiet for a moment, before Kylie claps her hands, and announces, “Alright! Time to make Ivan crossdress!”

“What?” I ask.

“Well, both Fiona and I have bailed you out twice, now, right? You owe us.”

“If not for you, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Kylie crosses her arms and looks at me. “And how was I supposed to know they were there? Or that you would pee your pants? I’m sorry, alright, but, really, I don’t think it was much of my fault.”

“It never is, is it?”

“Now, now, let’s calm down!” Fiona insists. “You don’t have to crossdress if you don’t want to, but I would like to see that. I think you would look cute.”

I scoff. “Like hell I would!”

“You looked up her skirt, you should at least do this much,” Kylie insists.

“I didn't mean to!”

“And I didn’t mean to attract the attention of those bullies for you.”

I glare at her. Then I roll my eyes. “Fine. my clothes are being washed anyhow, right? But in return, Kylie, I want to see you in something feminine, too!”

Kylie gives me a gross look, as if the suggestion of her wearing a dress is more offensive than me wearing a dress.

“I would like to see you in a dress,” Fiona says.

And that breaks her. Kylie sighs, and gives in.

“I have an older sister in college. She’s got old dresses and stuff that doesn’t fit her, so she’s given them to me. I don’t wear them because they don’t suit me, but I guess I can try one on. So long as Ivan does.”

Fiona looks between Kylie and I, eyes wide like a puppy.

“Let’s do it,” I sigh. I already agreed to, after all.

Kylie opens her closet. Dust puffs out, and we all cough. These are clothes that she never wears. Most haven’t been touched since her sister gave her them. It seems that she’s been getting clothes from her sister from years, and there are dresses of all sizes here. Some look like they’ll even fit Fiona. But they’re all mixed up, so it’s hard to tell which ones might be our size. We pull them out from the closet and start sorting them based on size.

Like an hour later, the dresses are sorted. Kylie’s sister had a taste for fashion, and wasn’t afraid to buy a ton of clothes. There are enough clothes on the bed right now to make the bed sag. Fiona seems to be the most excited about this, as not only does she get to see both Kylie and I in dresses and skirts, but she gets to try some clothes on, too.

“Pick a dress and get out,” Kylie says.

“What?”

“You don’t want to see Fiona or I naked, right? Get out and get changed!”

“Oh. Okay.”

Fair enough. I step out into the hallway, and start changing into a dress. As I’m doing that, Kylie father walks out into the hallway.

“I was thinking, maybe we should report – oh! Nevermind. I’ll leave you to have your fun.”

I hate Kylie.

A moment later, I’m changed, and knock at the door. “Can I come in?”

“Come in!”

The girls’ eyes are practically glowing as they look at me. I’m wearing a denim jumper dress, as Kylie informs me. And I guess I look cute, at least according to them.

“Ah! You’re so cute!” Fiona says.

“If you went to school like that you would stop getting bullied and probably get laid,” Kylie says.

“Isn’t that the problem? That creep seems to have a certain fetish…”

“A what?” Fiona sks.

“Forget it. Anyhow, you two look good too,” I mumble.

And it’s true. I mean, Fiona looks cute, surprising nobody, wearing a blue floral skirt with a white top and blue jacket that matches the skirt. But Kylie? Wow. She actually looks like a girl!

Kylie is wearing a simple black dress, but it seems that it’s simplicity hid the fact that it suits her well. It’s cinched in the waist, and flairs out to give her hips. It’s fairly short, though, so she seems anxious about us seeing under it.

“You know, if you embraced your girliness, you would have a boyfriend in no time,” I tell her.

Kylie crosses her arms and glares at me. Her face is red. “I don’t want that.”

I shrug. “Well, sucks for you. And Fiona? You look like the cutest girl in the world, do you realize that?”

Fiona’s face lights up at that. “Really?”

“Yes. Kylie could learn a thing or ten from you.”

“Be careful,” Kylie whispers. “He looks like he’s ready to sweep you away.”

Fiona laughs. “I don’t think so. Wearing that dress, he looks so cute. I don’t think he could harm anyone.”

“We found that out for sure out in the forest, huh? He hit that guy with all he had, and Larry didn’t even flinch!”

“Go ahead, just keep bullying me,” I sigh. “Might as well.”

“We’re not bullying you!” Fiona insists. “I just think you look cute! If you were a girl, you’re the type of girl I would want to date! Right, Kylie?”

Kylie flinches at that, and seems to be blushing. “Err, well, it would certainly be to some peoples’ tastes.” She holds one arm awkwardly, and looks to the ground for a second. “Okay! Enough of that! Should we try some different outfits!”

“Yes!” Fiona says, jumping up and down.

The girls have me trapped. I have to go along with their silly plans. And I can’t really do anything, can I?

“I only promised one outfit,” I tell them.

“Oh, come on! Don’t be a spoil sport! Oh, and let me take photos!” Kylie says.

“No! No photos! But I’ll make you a deal. Fiona, you don’t like horror movies?”

“No…”

“Then how about this: I’ll wear all the outfits that you want, but in return, we get to watch a horror movie of my choosing.”

“You’re evil.”

“You made me this way.”

She groans. “Fine! I really want to see you in more dresses!”

And so the deal with the devils is signed. I try on different outfits, including short shorts and skirts and crop tops. I look myself in the mirror, and am surprised by just how cute I actually do look. With some effort, I could probably pass as a girl. But it would be some serious effort.

As for Fiona, well, she looks cute in everything. She tries on rompers, and dresses, and skirts, and even a bathing suit. She looks great, and her confidence just makes her look better. When I told her that she’s the cutest girl in the world, I meant it.

And Kylie… it’s such a weird thing seeing my childhood friend actually look girlie. I almost don’t even recognize her. Fiona even does her hair, which she usually just keeps in a ponytail so that it stays out of her way. Pig tails are nice. So are braids. And twintails? Oh. Oh crap, she’s cute!

My heart beats as I look at Kylie in twintails a crop top and short shorts, and I realize that I might actually have a crush on her. That feels almost worse than what Larry did earlier. She’s Kylie! I can’t have a crush on her! She’s a tomboy and a jerk! And my best friend! I’ve been in her panties in a literal sense, I can’t want to get in her pants in a figurative sense too!

I manage to keep my cool, though. Well, as cool as I can be in a skirt, at least. And once we’ve tried on all the outfits, Kylie pushes me out to change back into normal clothes, but Fiona stops her.

“Why don’t we watch the movie while dressed up? That could be fun!”

Kylie hesitates. “Okay…”

I take Kylie’s laptop, and connect it to the TV in her room. I pull up my favorite 100% legal streaming website, watchallmoviesforfree, and pick the scariest movie that I know. It has to do with aliens coming down to earth and experimenting on people. I like to imagine that this is how the frogs that Kylie’s mother experiments on feels as they try to flee and are them captured.

We sit on the floor in front of the TV. Fiona squeals and presses herself against me as the movie is only about 10 minutes in. The aliens waste no time doing jumpscares and capturing humans and just generally being evil and scary. Theres no gore here, which is why I picked it as opposed to another movie, but it’s plenty scary without gore.

And then, I feel something wet under me. I look down, and theres a smelly puddle on the wooden floor below me. I look down at Fiona, whose eyes are wide. She’s bawling like a baby.

“Cut the movie!” I hiss. Kylie waste no time. She pulls Fiona out of the room to help her clean up. She takes her to her parents bathroom so that I can use the guest bathroom to clean myself up. I wipe myself clean, then call for Kylie to bring me some clothes. Her father drops some clothes in front of the door, and I crack it open to pull them in. Thankfully he has some sense, and has brought me my clean clothes that were in my bag.

I step out, and look over towards Kylie’s room. Kylie pokes her head out, and gestures for me to come over. Inside, Fiona is wearing an oversized t shirt that belongs to Kylie’s mom. She’s lying on Kylie’s bed and crying.

“You’re fine,” I whisper, patting her head. “I’m sorry for putting on that scary movie.”

She just sniffles.

“Right. I’m a jerk, huh? But we’re even now, right?”

“Not even,” Kylie notes. “You peed yourself twice. She’s still got an edge on you, there.”

I glare at Kylie. She sticks her tongue out at me.

“I guess so,” I say.

Kyle sits on her bed and pats Fiona’s head, while I sit on the other side, also patting her. Is this how you help people feel better? I don’t know. But this is my fault, so I feel responsible for this.

“I’ll make this up to you,” I promise Fiona. “Maybe we’ll find some more of Kylie’s sisters clothes. You’ve got some in the attic, right?”

“Yeah. That girl couldn’t ever do anything in moderation. She went through clothes and boyfriends faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.” Kylie keeps her voice calm as she tries to console Fiona.

Fiona sniffles, and looks at me. “Promise?”

I sigh. “Yeah. I promise. Maybe next week.”

She puts her arms around me. For a moment, she just stays quiet as she presses her wet face against my shirt.

“It’s going to get dark soon,” I tell her. “Do you want to change back into your normal clothes, and I can walk you home with Kylie?”

She nods her head, still stuffed into my shirt.

“Okay. I’ll leave the room for a moment.”

Thankfully for her, Fiona was wearing some of Kylie’s clothes when she wet herself, so she has her normal clothes to change into. Lucky for me, too, I guess, since I can go home in regular clothes, too. Then again, I could always just sleep over at Kylie’s house. Nobody would mind.

FIona takes more than a few minutes to change and then dry her face off. And then we walk her back home. Kylie’s parents offer to drive us, but I think it’s best to let Fiona calm down a bit with a walk. By the time we get to her house, a tiny little house at the edge of the forest, she seems to have calmed down.

“I’m sorry that pee got all over your clothes and floor,” Fiona says to Kylie.

“Meh, as far as stuff that gets on our floors goes, pee isn’t too bad. My mom is a scientist, so we’ve had all kinds of animals crawling around and even pooping on the floor. It’s fine.”

“Your parents are good people,” Fiona tells Kylie. “So is your mom, Ivan. I’m sure your dad is nice, too.”

I grimace at that. “No, he’s not. But he’s not around anymore, so it’s fine.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s not like you could know. I’m more sorry for having you watch that scary movie. So we’re even, alright?”

“You’re still going to crossdress for me more, right?”

“Only once more next week, but yes.”

“Okay. I’ll settle for that for now.”

“For now?”

“How often can you say no to this cute face?” she asks. “After all, I’m the cutest girl in the whole world, right?”

My eyes shift to Kylie for a second. But only for a second. “Of course,” I tell her. But I’m not so sure now.

Fiona’s father steps out of the front door, and stares us down. Fiona waves at him and goes skipping happily towards him. Her father’s features soften immediately, as he bends down and hugs his daughter. With a smile on his face, he waves goodbye to us.

“My head feels like it’s spinning,” I mutter. Sometimes you aren’t meant to see the other faces of people that you know. That man is supposed to be cold and hard. Fiona should only ever be bubbly. I shouldn’t be blushing in a dress. And Kylie?

I look over at Kylie. She cocks an eyebrow at me.

Yeah. That’s the face I want to see. Not one that sets my heart aflutter.

I punch her arm playfully, and walk ahead of her.