Stepping out of his room he felt alive sort of, like reborn. What ever happened now he was just going to do what he liked. He finally didn't care what other people thought. Before he just pretended he didn't care, he knew that now. Now it was real, he was really free to just be “self” whatever prefix the world wanted to add to it was fine.

“Hello, you must be Avery. I'm Jessica.” A woman said as she was sitting on the couch. The recliner open and books spread around her with papers everywhere. Not the books like he read these were school books. “Wow, your hair is amazing, did you do that all yourself?” She asked.

With a huge smile I just nodded. I was proud of my hair and knew it looked good. Amazing was just what I was looking for.

“It's beautiful, I wish I could do something like that. Your really good.” Jessica said.

She had medium brown hair and it looked nice in it's own way. Not nearly as long as his but nobody had hair as long as he did. She had a yellow button down shirt or I guess blouse on and some light faded stretch jeans with holes in them for looks. A black belt showed off her thin figure with the shirt tucked in as it was. She looked smart and casual. For a moment he wondered why he was paying so much attention to how she looked all the sudden. Maybe it had something to do with his new found freedom. He smiled a bit bigger at her “beautiful” comment and she returned the smile.

“I left your lunch on the counter for when you were ready.” Jessica said. “If you like I’ll get it for you but I'm kind of buried in here. She said waving to the assorted books and papers.

I held up my hand and shook my head to tell her to stay seated. I’d feel guilty making her climb out of all that just to take a plate from the counter to the table for me. Cindy was on the floor with a thin board and a bunch of crayons and coloring books. We waved and smiled at each other before I made my way to the kitchen.

I found the plate and then the booster seat. It was a cheeseburger and a small pile of chips. I found a glass and got some water and even put ice in it since it was all right there on the door to the fridge. One thing for sure, this house had nice stuff. I had just began eating when the twins came back downstairs. They were back in the blue top they had on at breakfast. When they noticed me both of them came over and sat down across from me at the table. Were they going to ask me which one they were again? They didn't even have the glasses on.

“Were sorry.” Grace said.

Well, that's not what I was expecting at all. I set down the burger and took a drink to clear my mouth.

“We were mean to you and you don't deserve it.” Faith said. The weird part is it looked like they both meant it. They started to do that alternate speaking thing again.

“We tried to trick you which was wrong. Normally we get away with it.” They said. “Well you made that fail in an epic way. More like catastrophically fail.” Switching every other sentence which was kind of hard to follow. “

“On top of that, we came back and tried to do it again. Twice. We knew we were wrong and we did it anyway. It was mean and we are really are sorry.” They both really did look sorry as they continued.

“What's worse is we knew you wouldn’t tell on us and that's probably the worst part of all. We were mean to you, we tried to have our fun at your expense and then we took advantage of you. We know you likely won't believe us and we can't blame you but we really are sorry.” They cast their eyes downward as they apologised together. “

Because we know you won't tell, if you want us to when mom and dad get home we will tell them what we did.” Looking up at me with somber eyes that also held a honest conviction to them.

Holy crap. They both really meant it, they meant it all. Once more, if I say yes they will tell their parents and get in even more trouble. I don't even think it's a trick either. If I say yes I think they will really do it. What they did was kinda mean sort of. Where I come from though it don't even show up on the radar of mean things to do. Try glueing someone's hand to the floor while their sleeping sometime. I couldn't get them in more trouble. The look on their faces washing the breakfast dishes was enough, they really hate washing dishes. As mad as their parents were when they found out about the pictures it's likely they will be washing a lot of them too. I just shook my head no.

Their faces showed surprise. “You don't want to tell on us?” Faith asked. I shook my head again.

Grace had to clarify for some reason. “When mom and dad get home, do you want us to tell them what we did?”

Again I shook my head no. I shrugged and waved my arms a little in my “It's not that big of a deal” type way. They looked at each other a bit then back at me and smiled a little. It was a little creepy how they did that. Like they moved the same way at the same time. The talking thing was a little confusing too. Do they like plan this all out in their room before they do this or is it really how they are?

“Thank you Avery, we owe you one.” They said and got up from the table. “And, your hair is way cool, one day you have to teach us. When we stop being stupid long enough for you to trust us anyway, were totally jealous. Did you really do that yourself?”

I gave a big smile and nodded. Yeah my hair is “way cool” I thought. They went back up to their room and I realised they came down just to apologise. This house was weird. People just don't do stuff like that. Nobody even made them do it. With a shrug I finished my lunch.

After lunch I tried the reading chair again. That lasted maybe an hour before once again there were two twins in the room. This time they didn’t stand in front of me they both grabbed the chairs at the computer and turned them to face me. I could feel their eyes on me and tried to ignore it. Somehow I managed to finish the page I was on. Setting the book down I looked at the two stalkers and raised my eyebrows to ask “What already”.

“Mamma asked us to show you how to work the tablet.” Faith said and Grace added “If now is a good time anyway.”

I was not going to get to read this book very much it seemed. It was kind of hard and I was making slow progress. I thought I was getting the hang of it but I kept getting interrupted. I really did want to know how that thing worked and I think the girls were trying to be nice to me. I could likely push them away but then how long would it be before they tried again.

“Find the good people.” The words from Ashley came to me. Well they did try to trick me with all that switching stuff. That wasn’t exactly mean but were they good people? The way they apologised was good. I don't think they thought they had to do it either. Did that make them good? Maybe this is the find part then. To learn if they are good or not. I nodded and set the book down then headed to my room to get that tablet.

When I came back out they were both still in the chairs and smiled and hopped with a little clap to their hands. I paused in confusion then Grace said “Sorry, we just like looking at your hair.” I fought back most of my smile and held up the tablet. “One day you have to show us how to do that” Faith added. I smiled and gave a slow shrug as if to say “maybe” when I was really thinking “not likely”.

They looked at each other and did a twin eyeroll. Faith darted off up stairs to her room and Grace said. “We um, forgot to bring ours down. A moment later Faith returned with two purple and sparkly tablets. It took a bit at first to find a place. The girls wanted to just sit on the couch but they would be too close to me. The kitchen table would be too big. Eventually we all knelt at the coffee table after clearing the stuff on it to the kitchen table. The girls on one side and myself on the other.

They showed me how to turn it on and charge it with a cord I found in my desk. They showed me the lock screen and what they called the internet search something, how to get more apps as they called them. Both seemed rather shocked and dismayed when I expressed no interest in all the music stuff they wanted me to fall in love with. They made me download the player anyway “You can't not have tunes” they insisted, even using their login so I had several ready playlists and songs. One of the playlists near the top was called “NO POS Girl Power.” With a questioning look they explained.

“Pos means Parent Over Shoulder.” Faith said and Grace added. “It's a bunch of really cool songs but if mom and dad hear them they get really mad and, well.” Faith finished. “Just don't play it around them.” in unison they finished with “Trust Us.” Which earned a giggling snicker from Jessica who was still on the couch.

So one “app” I won't use, but I did get a dictionary and a thesaurus which were way too cool. They even showed me how to make it say the words. This would help so much reading that ring book. Now I was excited. They tried to show me how to use the Kindle part. It had a ton of books but most of them needed money to read. I had these ring books for now so I decided that part could wait.

Almost as good as the talking words they found that one thing Mary used to find all those cool braid videos. There were tons of them and I could watch them all. The girls said there were videos here for anything I could think of. Testing this I did a search for something I thought would be odd enough. They raised eyebrows when I entered “Glue hand to floor” but I shook my head with a “Don't ask” expression. Sure enough there were videos of people doing way more stupid stuff with glue than just a hand to the floor. This thing was going to be fun.

A short time later I was again in the reading chair. The girls were on their tablets in the love seat on the far side of the room. Jessica was still on the couch. Most of her stuff was put away now and she just had one rather large book she was reading. Every time I came to a word I didn’t know how to say or what exactly it meant I would enter it into the dictionary “app” and have it read the word and definition to me. I was so excited and happy I even bounced a little each time. The word voice would make everyone look up. The first couple times they witnessed my glee I felt embarrassed, I almost went to my room. This chair was way more comfortable than my room though and after a bit, I didn’t care anymore. Let them see me this was too cool to not use.

Cindy decided she wanted to have a tea party some time later. She brought out three small chairs then filled them with a brown teddy bear a baby doll and a barbi. Then a little plastic tea set. It was rather cute watching her and when I finished a chapter I spent some time doing just that. She noticed but didn't seem to mind at all.

In all the other houses except the last one which was just Ashley and I if you found something fun you hid it. If other kids noticed someone would either start doing it too until it was not fun or broke what ever made it fun to begin with. I think that's why I started reading and Ashley drew. Most kids could care less if I wanted to stare at a book all day and a piece of paper and pencil was not all that attractive to the mean kids either. Once a bigger kid tried to take Ashley’s drawing and got poked very hard in the hand for the attempt. It even bled a little and left a small dot that never seemed to go away.

I was a bit lost in memories when my tablet beeped. It startled me and I twitched. There was something in the “notifications” the girls called it I think. I clicked on it and it opened the text messaging app. The girls tried really hard to make me like this thing. They showed me all the family in the contacts and said we could send messages back and forth to each other. At first they seemed confused. Expecting me to love this new way I could finally talk to other people or something.

Most people didn't know if I couldn’t talk or just wouldn’t talk and that was fine by me. It made it less likely they would try to “fix” me. People tried to get me to write things almost as soon as I learned how to write. Mostly I flat out refused. The girls knew I could read and write and type good enough for searching for things I couldn’t say I didn’t know how to do it, how to say I don't want to do it though. I had to write at school. They said if I didn't do it there I would have to go to a “special” school. The way they made it sound did not sound good. I did want to learn and writing did help me learn to read which was hard enough when I had to hide sounding out the words from people.

Group message Grace and Faith.

“Hi Avery” it said with a bunch of smiley faces and one with big lips that kept making a kissing motion at me. I frowned. Well this was going to get annoying quickly.

“What can we do to get you to type to us?” Followed by a bunch of faces again. Some crying some with hands that looked pleading.

I looked up at them again across the room and pouted. They pouted back. Did they think that because there were two of them it was more effective? Alright so maybe it was, but not good enough. I picked up the tablet again almost ready to just turn it off but my thumb hit the box to reply in and a keyboard opened up. If I typed anything to them they would never stop.

There was a weird button near the spacebar with a smile on it and curiously I clicked it. It opened a new keyboard sort of with all the faces they were sending me. There were pages of different ones. Some were kinda cute and some were kinda funny I had to admit. There was one with simple eyes and a zipper over its mouth. I clicked on it and it went into the little box. Then I clicked on another one with its eyes closed and a thin smile. I clicked that one also. Then seeing an arrow to the right I tried to delete them but it sent the message instead.

Instantly it showed up in the text above where the “conversation” was. I scowled and bounced with agitation even let out an audible whimper which made Jessica look over. The girls froze for a second then looking at me they smiled. Then the evil duo actually turned back to each other and high fived. Yeah, so rude.

I pushed the power button and set it back down. It beeped again a moment later. I thought I turned it off curse this thing. I pushed the power button again and the lock screen thing showed up. Then I remembered and held down the power button. It beeped again as the screen turned off. Testing it I hit the power again quickly but nothing happened. I smiled softly and went back to my book. I could see them typing but when they realised my tablet was no longer beeping they fell sullen.

I went back to my book but without the tablet for the hard words it was back to the slow going and not being sure I knew what was going on. The girls were still there. Seemingly back to doing whatever they were doing before my assault. Then there was a knock on the door.

Jessica got up and when she opened the door she pulled in two boxes. One was pretty big and another medium size one. She went outside and came back a moment later with the mail. She opened the smaller box and looked confused. Then opening the big box it seemed she figured out what everything was. “Avery, I think this is for you.” Jessica said.

Completely confused I got up. I never get things in the mail. When I got close enough it was easy to see. Jessica had opened both boxes all the way. The bigger one had several packages of my diapers in it. Both the girls and even Cindy could also see exactly what was in there and they were all looking.

Red faced with embarrassment I tried to pick the large box up but it was too heavy. Adding frustration to my emotions I quickly grabbed one of the flaps and started dragging it into my room. I didn’t want everyone to know I need baby diapers. My eyes watered and I was almost crying but I still had one more box to get.

I turned around and started to push the box farther into my room. When I heard a knock on my open door I froze. Couldn’t they just leave me alone, or did they come here to laugh at me. As I stood still not turning my shirt fell funny. When I drug the box in my shirt rode up and the top part of my diaper which came way higher than my pants caught my shirt and now it was easy to see. Everyone must have seen me as I came in here. I did not want anyone in my room. Grace and Faith stood in the door. Faith holding the other box. I looked at my vanity. I never bothered to put that stuff away and there was half a package of my diapers along with the powder and wipes. My eyes were red and puffy.

“It's okay.” Grace said as they stepped into my room. She moved toward me and started opening her arms as if to hug me until I jumped back. “We already know. They told us before you even got here. You don't need to feel bad, nobody will tease you at all we promise.”

Faith was not far behind. When Faith noticed the stuff on my vanity she started unpacking the box. Two more bottles of powder were placed as well as two boxes of small disposable gloves and a tube of what I would later learn was diaper rash cream. Faith took out a larger box that had a lot of packets of wipes in it and just set it under the vanity off to one side. She then began organizing the stuff on top of the vanity. She took the extra powder and a pack of gloves and stacked them on top of the box of wipes underneath. Then she moved the rest into a corner neatly. She took the open pack of diapers and removed the ones that were left. Then put them all in the large bottom drawer which honestly was a really good spot. She paused for a moment then opening the second somewhat smaller drawer took all the stuff she neatly organized and put them in. Then she tossed the empty bag of diapers into the trash can.

As Faith was doing that Grace grabbed the big box of diapers and drug it to the closet. Once open she quickly stacked all the diapers along the back wall. Faith seeing what she was doing took all the stuff out from under my vanity and passed it to Grace and all of that was quickly stacked into the closet. Soon every trace of diaper stuff was hidden away. I was still standing somewhat stupidly as my closet door closed and both girls turned to me with twin smiles. Grace placed the smaller box into the bigger one and pushed it into the hall. “See, nothing here to be embarrassed about.” Grace said.

I backed up somewhat sullen but already feeling better as I sat on the bed. My feet didn't come close to touching the ground and if I didn't want to lay back I had to slouch forward and hunch. They really weren't going to pick on me.

“Wow, these are really cool.” Grace said making me look up.

“Did you do these?” Faith added.

They were looking at Ashley’s drawings in my mirror. Ashley hated it when people looked at them but since she gave them to me I think she would be alright with it. Too late now anyway. I shook my head no. When they asked who did it took a moment for me to decide if I should tell them or not. I straightened my legs which made me ungracefully slip off the bed. That was fine, I wasn't feeling too graceful at the moment anyway.

Moving to my vanity I opened the top drawer and took out the braid book. I opened the cover and on the inside top corner was written. “To Avery and Ashley From Mary and Sofi.” I pointed to Ashley’s name.

“Ashley did these? Grace asked and I nodded.

“Is this the book you learned to do all those cool braids with?” Faith asked and again I nodded.

“Is it alright if we look through it?” Grace asked.

I must have looked a little worried. This was my most valued possession. This book as humble as it was represented so much to me. It brought Ashley and I closer together and almost got us two friends before we had to leave.

“We will be super careful.” Faith said.

Other than the swap thing they were being really nice to me. And that message thing. Can't forget the message thing. I wanted to still be mad about that but I should have expected something. Every house has a way they think will get me to talk or write or well, I guess send messages. They didn’t do it to be mean. With a nod and a sigh I moved over and sat down in my desk chair. Grace pulled the stool over and the girls started looking at the book.

There were a few comments and pointing but they were not doing anything that would hurt the book. I didn’t think they would but there was no way I was letting it out of my sight. A few minutes went by and the pages kept turning. “This one looks nice.” “That doesn’t look too hard” and so on.

“Could we try some of these?” Faith asked.

My eyes went a little wide. There was no way I would let that book vanish into their room upstairs.

“We can do it in the living room. It won't leave the coffee table.” Grace added after my expression.

I wanted to say no. It was mine and I wanted to keep it. Then I remembered Mary and Sofi. If not for this book we likely never would have had what fun we did. This book was given to both Ashley and me. It was meant to be shared. Because I believed them, I had to let them use it. I walked over to the book. Both girls parted around me as approached. I closed the book and stepped back holding it to my chest as I turned to them. They looked a little sullen as I pretended I was going to say no. I tried to drag it out but too much of a smile came to my lips and they caught it. Once I knew my roose was failing I let the smile come and nodded yes. Their shreeks of glee was almost defining as they hopped up and down holding each other's arms.

Mostly to find a more quiet place I left them in my room and placed the book on the coffee table. I got my book from the reading area and my tablet and moved to the loveseat the twins usually used. They can't braid sitting here and I didn’t want to be that far away.

The girls rushed by to their room to return with two stools and hair brushes and ties. I watched for a little while. At first they tried to do their own hair but it looked really bad. After they got tired of hearing my giggling and laughing they finally decided they needed to do each other one at a time. They asked me a couple times if I would join them but we all knew I would say no so they didn't push it.

Seeing that most of the funny part was probably passed I opened my book and turned on my tablet. When the tablet started it started beeping madly. Both girls looked my way as I eyed them suspiciously. I had a new notification. “You have 19 unread messages.” I looked back and tried to scowl but they both turned away as if nothing had happened. Sigh.

I ignored the messages. I read some more and started to make good progress. The girls managed eventually to pull off respectable dutch braids. I smiled and gave a small golf clap which seemed to satisfy theme as they showed off their work to me. It took me a bit to do it the first couple times even to someone else when I started so they really did do well.