A/N: Hey everyone! As you can see, I've started a new story! I hope you guys like it, I'm working hard for you guys!
"Kimberly, I'm sending you to Lobelia Girls' Academy," sighed my aunt as she spoke to some rich guy on the phone. "I simply can't take care of you—no, not you Rick—and you really have no choice." I just stood there, dumbfounded and fuming. "It's in California, and you'd better behave there. No more sweaty karate, and stop giving me that look. What I say goes, and you know that Kimberly."
I dismissed the deliberate use of my full name, no matter how many times I told my Aunt Cynthia not to use it; she always made it a point to call me Kimberly. But she was shipping me off to Lobelia? That was the snobbiest, richest, most degrading all-girls' school in existence. I shot my father a pleading look, but he just sat there on the sofa twiddling his fingers and staring off into space like he had been doing ever since my mom died.
Well, she wasn't dead; at least that's what I told myself every time I passed her picture that hung on my wall. My mother was in the army, leaving my father behind to take care of Charlie, my older brother, and me. They had recently let women out into the battlefield in Afghanistan and she was one of the first to go out into the open. And that was when she disappeared. The correct term was 'Missing in Action,' as in, 'we can't find your mother and she's probably dead but we're sorry.'
When the man in uniform came to deliver the news, my father collapsed in the doorway and he's never been the same since. Some would even go so far as to call him a limp noodle, a vegetable. People just don't get that when someone you love disappears without a trace, you can't just start back over. You can't just forget about that person, as if they never existed. You'll dwell on that for the rest of your life, sometimes reliving the good moments and crying over the bad. My dad just shut his doors, refusing to let anyone in, including me. He was deemed unfit to raise me, and seeing as Charlie was off at college a few towns over, my Aunt Cynthia swooped in to take the roll of my legal guardian. She's been nothing but horrible, only keeping my father in the house because everybody knows he can't live on his own, not now.
"But you can't-" I yelled, advancing toward her. She held up a hand and gave me a pointed look as she finished off her conversation with Rick, hanging up the phone and slamming it on the coffee table.
"Kimberly," she said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "I said that you were going to Lobelia, and that's that. You can't go against me, not as long as I'm your legal guardian. You will do as I say and mind your tongue and temper, unless you want me to lose mine."
I was too angry to even form a coherent sentence so I dashed off into the loft that I used as my room before I started to cry. When I reached the top of the ladder, tears began falling from my cheeks, and I struggled to keep my balance. I threw myself on my bed and cried until my tears turned to rage and I felt the need to punch something. So I did.
I kicked at my bed and punched my wall, not afraid that I was being too loud or destructive because Cynthia would never come up there to yell and scream, my room was always the one place she never dared to come in. It was my sanctuary, and I was currently destroying it. I flopped back onto my bed, taking in the condition of my room: the bed had sunken to the floor, as I had broken the bed frame, there were several punch-sized holes in my wall, my desk chair lay half broken in the corner, and the room was just a general mess. And that's when I decided to call Charlie.
"Hello?" came the voice of my brother over the phone. I heard the rustling of papers in the background, but I pushed that aside.
"I'm so mad right now, it's not even funny," I deadpanned as I climbed out of my window and onto the roof. The perks of having the loft as my room were that I had a private area to myself that was cut off from the rest of my house, and easy access to the roof, 24/7.
"What did Cynthia do now, diss your karate again?" he asked with a chuckle.
"No. She's shipping me off to Lobelia. No iffs, ands, or buts," I said, still angry with her and the rest of the world. "Do you know how much that's going to suck? A school full of rich, snobby bitches that will most likely hate my guts and a skimpy, frilly uniform are enough to make me want to vomit. The likelihood of me fitting in there are zero-to-none, and that's if I get lucky." He laughed again, making me glower and scowl.
"This couldn't be more perfect," he said, and I heard more paper rustling in the background. What was he doing anyways?
"Charlie, please tell me what part of this you find perfect. Because I'm having a hard time figuring out what it is," I huffed, getting annoyed with my brother.
"It's the fact that I'm almost through enrolling you in Seaford Boys' School," my jaw dropped, he did what now? "I was planning on getting you here after you finished sophomore year, but I can tell you need out of that house quick. I might be able to get you in Seaford by the end of the week."
"Wait, come again?" I asked, not believing what my brother had just said.
"I said, you are now part of the Seaford family, Keegan. Congratulations on making it in, brother," I almost fell over, Charlie was a genius!
"Charlie, you're brilliant! That's an amazing idea!" I screamed into the phone. It all sounded so perfectly risky, so amazingly bold, I couldn't contain my excitement. I would have the pleasure of living in a boys' private school, undercover as a real guy! Best of all, I'd be far from Cynthia and I wouldn't have to see my father so depressed all the time, it'd be perfect!
"Now get packing, I'll send a friend of mine from Lobelia's college annex to pick you up at the mall tomorrow night. Don't bother taking any of your clothes or makeup, there's no point, you won't need it. And don't tell dad, don't even think about telling Cynthia, don't breathe a word of it to any of your friends, got it?" I let it all sink in, it was really happening. I made a checklist of all the things I'd need to take, then suddenly realized that I'd be a guy in a matter of hours and that all of it would be pointless. I nodded, but when I noticed I was talking to my brother over the phone, I voiced my agreement and he promised to call me the next day to make sure everything was set. The way I saw it, I could be out of there in less than a day.
After I hung up, I swiftly made my way back to my room; I needed to pack at least the essentials for my adventures as a dude. I was about to shove everything in my favorite pink duffel bag, but then I remembered that no straight guy would walk around with a pink duffel bag slung over his shoulder. I sighed, as I pulled out a gray backpack, safely unisex but awfully boring.
Dashing around my room and throwing things into my bag seemingly at random, something hit me: what kind of guy has boobs?
The first thing I thought of was to wear a sports bra, but when I did, my chest wasn't flat enough. Not that I had the biggest boobs of life, quite the contrary, but a guy didn't have even that, he had muscles. And a sports bra wasn't cutting it. I snuck into the bathroom downstairs, relieved that Cynthia had gone out after her announcement, and found a roll of bandages. I wrapped myself painfully then looked in the mirror, excellent.
I spent the rest of the night and most of the next day awaiting a call from Charlie, and when it finally came, I was giddy with excitement and ready to go. I was told to meet a college girl at the mall in front of the food court and that from there she'd drive me up to Seaford. There I'd be given a makeover and the next morning I'd be taken to Seaford Boys' School, where I'd spend the rest of my school days incognito as a boy. I was not to tell anybody where I was going, when I'd be back (as if) or anything that might blow my cover.
I slipped out my window for the last time as I prepared to set off on my crazy adventure, not even bothering to leave a note for Cynthia to find. She'd have to notice for herself that I was gone. I smiled as an image of her finding that her charge had disappeared, leaving her to care for the shell of her father and wondering where she had gone. A pang of guilt hit me when I remembered that I was also leaving my dad, but I quickly dismissed it, saying that it was best for the both of us to have some time to ourselves. He needed to get better, to recover from the shock of losing my mother. If he needed to be alone to do so, then by all means I was going to let him recover by himself.
I arrived at the mall and looked around for a girl matching the description given to me by Charlie. A tall girl with ling brown hair and bright green eyes who had an unnatural liking for the color blue wouldn't be that hard to find.
Sure enough, I found her. She was standing in front of the aquarium store, apparently mesmerized by the colorful fish swimming around in a tank that was part of their window display. She was clad in tight blue jeans and a thin periwinkle sundress on top of a gray long-sleeved shirt. Her hair was tied back in an elaborate looking braid held together with a grey ribbon, she was really pretty.
"Excuse me, are you Katrina?" I asked, tapping her on the shoulder. I was suddenly nervous that it wasn't really her, in which case I'd just tapped on a random stranger.
She flashed a smile, "Yes I am! But please, call me Kat. Katrina is such a stuffy name. And you must be Kim, pleased to meet you." I shook her hand and she ushered me to her car, chattering about how amazing she thought it was that I was going to be undercover as a guy and how I shouldn't worry about it too much and how pretty I was. I found myself blushing, not used to the complements she was giving me, but not rejecting them either.
After about three hours in the car with Kat, we finally arrived at what I guessed was my brother's apartment. Kat rang the intercom and Charlie's voice crackled through the speakers, granting us entry so we could begin my transformation from girl to boy. As soon as we got upstairs, I was enveloped in a huge bear hug by my brother, one that I eagerly returned.
Charlie and I had always been inexplicably close, not fighting as often as a brother and sister should, not that our mom ever complained. Once we learned about mom's disappearance, we only got closer. After he moved out for college, I realized that I missed him more that I thought I would, and I ended up calling him at least three times a week just to hear his voice.
"Man I missed you Kimmy," he said. I smiled as I retreated; he was the only person alive that could call me that, well, besides my mother. "Ready to be a guy?" I nodded and sat down on a stool as Kat got to work, transforming my head of long, golden hair into that of a boy's. I had to hold back a yelp as the first clumps of hair started falling, and I had to beg and plead for it not to end up too short, saying that I'd like to be a girl at least in private. I finally settled for a longish pixie cut, something I could gel up during the day but still look like a girl when it was soft and free.
When Charlie handed me the uniform, I just about died. It was so boring, so private school lame. It was a pair of gray dress pants, a crisp white dress shirt, and a royal blue blazer with the gold Seaford emblem on it, and a thin blue and silver striped tie.
"You have no idea what I went through to find one in your size, be grateful I didn't have to get you the elementary uniform," he said as I wrinkled my nose in distaste. I plucked it out of his hands and went to change, coming out of the bathroom looking like an actual boy. Well, a sort of, feminine boy, but I looked good enough to fool a few high school guys. I hoped.
"Well hey there Keegan, looking good," Kat said as she studied me up and down. She leaned down to straighten my tie and then stepped back. "My work here is done." She flopped down on the couch and was immediately asleep.
"She does that," Charlie said as he carefully wrapped a blanket around her. "But more importantly, you look great." He checked the time on his phone and told me to go to bed already, that I could sleep in his bed and that he'd sleep on the floor.
"Come on Char, you sleep in your own bed, I don't mind sleeping on the floor for one night," I argued. He had already done so much for me that I felt bad throwing him out of his bed. After about ten minutes of arguing, we finally agreed to both sleep in his bed, just like we used to do when we were on vacation. He tossed me a pair of shorts and a tee shirt, telling me to keep them for my pajamas and we crashed almost as quickly as Kat had, only to wake up what seemed to be only ten minutes later when Charlie's alarm went off.
"Turn it off…" I mumbled, still half asleep and trying to block out the sound with the pillow I had been using. "Turn it off…!" When it became apparent that nobody was going to silence the damned thing, I shot my eyes open and slammed my hand on the 'off' button and sighed heavily. I went to run my hands through my hair, only to find that most of it was gone, immediately remembering my situation. I looked to my left to see Charlie still sleeping next to me, underneath most of my limbs. I struggled to keep in a laugh; I had never been a still sleeper. Whenever my brother and I had to share a bed in a hotel when we were younger, he would always complain that I moved way too much and would wake up the next day under the tangled mess that at the time he wasn't too proud to call his sister.
"Charlie, get up," I whispered, nudging him. When all he did was turn on his side, I lost all my patience immediately and lined up my face with his, screaming at the top of my lungs.
"What? What's happening? Kim!" he yelled, jumping up, ready to attack a nonexistent assailant. When he saw me laughing on the floor, his expression turned from that of an overprotective brother to a face of pure annoyance. "Hey, watch it kiddo. I'm risking a lot to get you into that school. Be appreciative," he growled.
"I never said I wasn't, oh big brother. You just wouldn't wake up, what did you want me to do?" I asked sweetly. He gave me an annoyed smile and got up groggily just when Kat game through the door, baseball bat in hand yelling in a language I couldn't understand.
"Kim just woke me up, in a less than pleasant way," he said, motioning to me. "Sorry we scared you."
She looked puzzled, "Who's Kim?" I just looked at her like she was an idiot. "I only see Keegan here Charlie." She winked she turned to leave, calling over her shoulder that she'd be making breakfast and for me to hurry and get my uniform on or I'd be late for my first day of school. I realized she was right and scrambled to get dressed and boyish, rabid killer bears fighting angry hornets in my stomach. Ladies and gentlemen, when someone says they have butterflies in their stomach, they're lying to you. Because there's no way butterflies can be so savage.
I skipped breakfast, finding it hard to eat with that extreme battle still going on in my stomach. After Charlie ate enough food to feed a small army, he drove me to school where I would turn in my "transfer papers" which stated that I used to go to Seaford Public High School and receive my dorm assignment and class schedule.
"But wait Charlie, how am I supposed to keep my secret if I'm living with another guy? Isn't it going to be a bit weird when I come out of the shower with a towel around my whole body and not just my lower half? And boobs?" I asked, suddenly worried that this wouldn't work out. I bit my lip as he took his own sweet time to answer, the battle occurring in the pit of my stomach threatening to spill out.
"The dorms are big enough, your roommate won't see anything unless you let him," he said without taking his eyes off of the road. "So you'd better not let him see anything." He gave me that overprotective brother look as we pulled into the parking lot.
"I can't take you in, I have to get to class. Good luck, call me later," he said planting a kiss on my cheek and popping open the trunk so I could get my things. Well, my one bag.
"Thanks Charlie, you're the best," I said as I climbed out of the car and looked in the rearview mirror to make sure that I looked as manly as possible. "Love you!"
I trudged to the entrance, slightly peeved that the entrance was so far away from the parking lot. Just because this was a private school and the buildings were impressive shouldn't mean that there should be such a long walk just to get inside. By the time I got to the doors, I was so hot that I was tempted to take off the blazer and loosen my tie, but breaking dress code before I was even officially part of this school was a bad idea. I sighed and pushed open the double doors and found my way to the office's front desk where a lady with cat-eye glasses and an interesting choice in makeup greeted me coldly.
"You are?" she asked, as if I were interrupting her special quiet moment, which I probably was.
I cleared my throat and prepared myself to drop my voice a couple octaves, "I'm Keegan. Keegan Crawford, I'm transferring here from Seaford Public High School." The lady took out a file and leafed through it, handing me three sheets of paper.
"This first one is your dorm assignment. It has the building and room number right here," she said, pointing to the top left of the paper. "This one's a map of the campus, don't get lost. This last one is your class schedule. You're enrolled in the school's music division, so most of your classes are musically inclined, save for your core classes like math. You'll have the rest of today to get settled in, tomorrow you'll start your classes normally." I took all the papers and the lady shooed me out of the office, eager to get back to the silence of the empty office. I squinted down at the paper with my dorm on it, the glare of the sun reflecting on the white paper hurting my eyes.
After wandering around, attempting to find where I was going to live for the rest of my school life, I finally found my dorm.
"Dorm number… 217…" I muttered to myself, ripping the key off of the sheet of paper as I looked for the room. When I reached it, I opened the door on just about the biggest dorm room I had ever seen.
Immediately upon opening the door you saw a huge living room space with a comfortable looking sofa and a large flat screen TV. To the left opened to a medium sized storage closet and the two doors on the opposite walls opened to the bedrooms I would share with my roommate. I opened one, relieved to have it be the empty one that was mine. It had a four-poster bed in the middle, a nightstand to one side of the bed, the dresser against the wall and a desk with a computer sat adjacent to the door. It was a sight to see, and I'd be living in it!
As I turned to get the bag that I'd left in the doorway, I knocked into something. Or rather, someone.
"You really should close the door when you come in, roomie," came a voice from the person I'd knocked into. "And you are?"
I gulped, hoping that he didn't see right through me on the first day and squeaked, "K-Keegan." He chuckled and held out his hand.
"Nice to meet you Keegan, I'm Jack. Jack Brewer," he said as he shook my hand. "You got a last name Keegan?"
I regained my composure and dropped my voice a few octaves, "Crawford. I'm Keegan Crawford."
A/N: Okay, so that's chapter one of Seaford Boys' School, I hope you all liked it as much as I do! If there's any Ouran High School Host Club fans out there, I'm sure you noticed my reference (hint: Lobelia). So yeah, I'll introduce everyone later on, let's do this!
Love always,
~Claudia