It was Saturday morning, and Michael woke me up pretty early. He had volunteered to show me some defense moves and help me exercise so I could have better reflexes and be quicker on my feet. He said, that way, I wouldn't have too much trouble with the guys at school.

"Come on, Alexandria! You're gonna be late!"

Psh, I'm never late to school.

I ran down the stairs to see my mother waiting at the door and asked, "Where's Michael? I thought he was taking me."

"No, Michael had somewhere to be this morning. You'll see him, don't worry."

Well, I wasn't really worried. I kinda just wanted to go with him. I hadn't seen him for over a year. None of us have ever been apart for that long. Once we arrived, I gave my mother a kiss on the cheek, and went in through the cool office. It usually took a couple seconds before I heard the heavy door shut. What I wasn't expecting, was what I heard soon after the slam of the door.

"You got lucky yesterday, but don't think that's gonna last."

I turned around to see Max, Jack, and Tony leaning against the wall beside the door. They were on the side with hinges, so I didn't see them when I exited on this side. I would rather not deal with them since teachers were here, and the classes were relatively close, so I just decided to book it to class. Jack and Tony were the only ones who bothered to chase me. I ran into the opened classroom which was, thankfully, just as cool as the office.

"Good morning," the three of us heard from behind us. ...Doesn't sound like he's having a very good morning. Oh!

"Michael!"

Michael was standing there with his arms crossed and a stern expression. He was holding something like a folder in one of his hands. He smiled when he saw me and ushered past the two boys, guiding me along with him by my back. But wait...

"I thought Mom said you had somewhere to be today."

"I do," Micheal replied as he handed the folders to my teacher, "Here you go Mr. V."

He went to sit down, and I sat next to him while he began to explain.

"Mr. Valerio was my favorite English teacher, and this is good for volunteer hours. Mr. V didn't have an aide, so I'll be helping him with the paperwork and the equipment, stuff like that. Plus, I can keep an eye on you here," Michael spoke as he ruffled my hair.

After Mr. Valerio finished taking roll, we went outside, and he let my brother get involved with the sports and running, so that was cool. The rest of the week went on without any problem from the trio who never seemed to get enough enjoyment out of causing me pain. Once Saturday came around, I spent all of that day and the next week studying. Scratch that, Michael and I spent all of that day and the next week with me studing for the exam. The next Saturday rolled around, and my alarm woke me up at eight in the morning for another day of rigorous studying.

I walked down the stairs to find Mom cooking eggs and bacon in the kitchen.

"Where's Michael?" I asked as I sat down for a plate. There was also French toast, so I got three slices of those and a glass of chocolate milk.

"He's sleeping."

"Oh. ...Okay."

I ate my fill, then went to Michael's old room. It looked a lot different now. All of his books and posters were gone, along with the television and radio he had in there too. His clothes weren't in small piles throughout the room, and Mom had replaced his thick curtains with ones that were very transparent and a lighter color.

"Michael, are you getting up?"

He only groaned and pulled one of the pillows over his head. I crawled on top of his back and laid my own head on the pillow. I yawned before speaking once more, "Come on, let's get this over with."

Michael turned, causing me to fall beside him, and wrapped his arm around me. I missed this. He was always my favorite big brother. I know that's messed up, but that's just how I felt. We lied there for awhile before I sat up and hung my feet over the edge of the bed.

I sighed, "I'd like to stay longer, but Mom and Shane would totally take it the wrong way if they saw us. Like, 'You can't be doing that. You guys are too old to be sleeping together anymore.' Gosh, it's not like we're gross like that or anything."

"No," Michael finally spoke as he sat up, "But they're right. It could happen to anyone. You just never know. That's what they're afraid of."

"Ugh, I hate this... I wish I could be a boy for real! Like, I'm always too young to do everything and too old to do anything... I mean, I'd never alter my body in any way because I just want my body to be natural, but if I had one wish, it would be to have been born a boy. I don't care if anything changes. I'm pretty sure most of my personality would be just about the same, but..."

"You shouldn't talk like that. Maybe you wouldn't like being a boy."

"Yeah, but people always want us to look a certain way, act a certain way, and I hate when people compare periods to being kicked in the balls! Like, you know what, maybe getting kicked in the balls does hurt more, but guys don't have that pain all day long for like three days. And I'm pretty sure most guys think that our abdomen is the only place that hurts."

"Well, your back hurts too, doesn't it? Mom's back hurts every time."

"Our back, the upper half of our legs, our breasts, we get headaches. And the-the-the, uh, the pms thing. Everyone is stupid because they don't even know what that means! Pms stands for pre-menstrual syndrome. Pre as in before. That means we're not on our periods yet. And that doesn't even affect most of us because we're pretty much emotionally unstable like all the time. ... I'm sorry. I just get so mad when I think about that-are we gonna study or what?"

Michael just gave me a sympathetic smile, placed a hand on my shoulder, and spoke softly.

"Are you gonna start?"

I just chuckled, "I hate you so much."

He just laughed and hugged me. He ruffled my hair before letting go of me.

"Nah, I'm only here for two more days. I've spent time with everyone else but you."

"Huh? What are you talking about? We spent loads of time together."

"No, idiot. I meant not studying. That's all we've done together. We need to do something else. Like old times."

"Mm... Video games?"

"Well, we can do that later. I was thinking more like something we haven't done since we were kids."

"Um..."

Michael laughed before telling me to head outside. It wasn't too bad today, so I agreed without hesitation. Since we weren't studying today, I put my cap on after changing out of my pajamas into more comfortable clothes.

Michael came outside with a duffel bag and had his old cap on. I didn't know he still had it with him. He took a pair of mitts and a baseball out of the bag. I haven't played catch in awhile. Parents are always too busy or tired to really play with the older kids, Cassandra was too little to play catch with, and John never really enjoyed that. He was more of a football guy like Shane and Ricky.

We played video games, played online games, watched some movies, played hide-and-seek with the rest of the family, and I helped him cook dinner for his last two days there. He had been cooking most nights so Mom wouldn't have to.

"But Mom! We have to go today before Michael leaves! I want him to see it," I whined hopelessly to my mom.

"Okay. Alright," she responded, finally giving in, "but Shane's gonna take you, and John wanted to go too."

"Yeah! Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you!"

I ran over to tell the boys and ask Shane if he could take us. Thankfully, he wasn't busy so he was able to take us right away. Michael was leaving in two hours. I had planned on donating my hair since it went down to my knees. There's a lot of hair on my head, so I figured I better not waste it.

I had never cut my hair before. It has always been trimmed. My mom told me about how I used to throw the biggest tantrums when I was younger because I didn't want my hair to be cut. It's weird. I was never very girly to begin with, but all before junior high, I definitely looked the part. Mom loved to dress me up in the girliest clothes. Anyway, my parents were going with whatever I wanted, and I wanted to be convincing. My hair will be shorter than Michael's even. My hair will be, like, Chris Pratt short. I took a deep breath before opening my eyes once more to see my hair. ...It was horrible.

Why? Why must every woman who cuts my hair style it!? Like I wanted it cut! Just cut! Luckily, strangers couldn't tell the difference between my fake smile and my real one. I told her I loved it, but, boy, was that far from how I was feeling about it now. I could tell the guys didn't even like it. Their faces said it all.

"Ugh, I'm taking a shower," I groaned as I itched my back where all the tiny loose hairs had fallen into my shirt. I figured once I got out of the shower, my hair would look loads better. I didn't want to see it until after I put all my clothes on because, well, I wouldn't really look like a boy that way, ha!

...Oh, hell. Yes. I ran my hands through my hair several times and fixed it a bit, and I loved it. ...I will never have to brush tangles out of my hair again. My neck feels so nice. ...I love this. I'm actually glad my boobs aren't very big now. I look hott as a guy.

Everyone was in the kitchen, all about to eat dinner. Perfect. Now everyone would get to see me at the same time.

"Hey, guys."

"Alex?" Mom gasped.

"Whoa," John breathed out as Shane just stared at me.

"Yeah," Michael dragged out in a very loud voice.

He was finally able to ruffle my hair yet again, now that a million little hairs weren't going to attach themselves to his hand.

"Who is that?"

We all looked to Cassandra.

"It's me, Andra. Alexy."

Yeah, we all had a million different nick names for each other. Her confused little expression remained.

"But how come you look like a boy?"

"Well ...Because I want to. So? Do you think I look cute?"

She smiled and nodded her head. We all laughed and started eating our dinner. Michael left half an hour later, and we all got ready for bed. Our parents needed their rest for work tomorrow, Cassandra was seven, so she had that little kid schedule, and I'm pretty sure John was gonna stay up later. I didn't have much time to stray from my school schedule, so this is how it is.

I spent the next week studying and practicing wrapping gauze around my chest. Without my small bras, I'd have a lot more room for other clothes when I pack. Also, the idea of not wearing bras at all was exciting! My voice wasn't high enough that I wasn't convincing, but I worked on deepening my voice a bit anyway. My butt was bigger than my boobs were, so I felt like that was gonna look weird. I mean, it might not. It's not really that big. Some guys have bigger butts too, but I never really understood that. Why do girls even look at guys' butts anyway? I don't know. It's weird. I wasn't sure if it mattered that I looked like a guy when I went to take the exams, but I didn't want to take any chances.