A Bet to Lose

[Jacqueline]

[2/4]

He exhaled again. Of course he trusted her, and he had to remind himself of that. He did as she told him, and as he was taking off his shirt and boxer shorts, she was rummaging in her closet. "Lift up your arms," he heard from behind him, an instruction that he completely expected, and once he did, he felt a shirt go over him. "Left leg, then right leg," she instructed him, and he felt her pull up what felt almost like ordinary boys' underwear on him. Then Zoe snapped something elastic, with a lot of fabric hanging from it, around his waist and ran a pair of straps over his shoulders. "Okay, you can look now," she said, and he heard the giggle in her voice.

Richard looked down and saw a lot of yellow. He could read upside down fairly well, and he saw the brightly colored pink words "Little Miss Sunshine" with a picture of a smiling sun. His legs were covered by a full yellow skirt that reached to just above his knee. With Zoe giggling, he pushed up the full skirt and bent over, looking at what she had put under the skirt. "What the heck?"

"Mom called them modesty panties," Zoe said.

"More like granny panties!"

"Yeah, pretty much. But perfect for you when you're not wearing diapers, means your dic-k won't fall out," she said with a giggle. "So, tell me the truth. Do you like the outfit?"

"I really do like it," he replied. He'd tricked her into putting him in that first dress, gone out in public in all kinds of dresses afterwards, even been put in ribbon-tied baby bondage that one time. Somehow, just telling her that he really did like wearing this childish outfit felt like another step. "The only thing I don't like is the straps." They were digging into his shoulders, and he pushed them off to let them hang down.

"Actually, it looks better that way, and they make convenient handles," Zoe determined.

Richard blushed a bit, looking down, but he didn't argue. He could trust his sister, so he didn't mind her holding on to him. It wasn't a sexual thing, not with her. It was just comforting being led, letting his big sister make decisions for him, knowing that she really did have his well-being in mind. He just wanted to know one thing. "Where did you even get this?"

"Mom bought it secondhand when I was eleven, it's been sitting in the back of my closet forever. I swear, I was so relieved when I showed her it didn't fit. She told me to hold onto it, I'd grow into it! She forgot about it first, I forgot about it for a while too. But it looks like its new owner can really appreciate being Little Miss Sunshine." She smiled. "I think I'm going to keep calling you that today. You don't mind, do you, Sunshine?" Smiling in return, he shook his head, and Zoe was abruptly reminded of a less pleasant experience.

When he was nine and she was ten, she'd tried to give him a cutesy name, just for fun. He'd dripped half-melted ice cream onto himself, and she started calling him Sticky Ricky. He'd taken it very badly: he immediately went upstairs to wash himself off, then he retreated to his room, blocking the door, not even finishing the rest of the bowl. She'd kept calling him that through the door, and Heather had told her, very firmly (and hypocritically, in Zoe's opinion), to stop it before telling Richard to come downstairs and finish his ice cream before Zoe ate it. Instead, in total silence and pure spite, he had gone back down, washed out the bowl, flushing the ice cream down the sink in the process, then gone back upstairs. His mother, shocked at the waste and at his reaction, had told him that he wasn't getting any dessert or sweet snacks for a week, and he hadn't seemed to care.

Richard hadn't said a single word to his sister (and not much to his mother) for that whole week and a good while thereafter, and she'd thought of him as an overreacting spoilsport who couldn't take a joke. Zoe, at fourteen, mentally thanked her mother for quickly putting an end to it and kicked herself for having been a stupid brat. If he'd had any inclinations towards showing her his softer side back then, she'd helped to force them down instead of bring them out. If she'd been nicer to him, she probably could have been doing this with him years ago, and she still intended to make up for lost time.

The chat was still going:

[11:50 AM] Susie: Actually he's had antibodies for a month.
[11:52 AM] Susie: He wants to meet you all at the YMCA with Leslie on Friday.
[11:55 AM] Caroline: oh shit ricky is that wedding bells or a funeral dirge i hear?
[11:56 AM] Leslie: LMFAO
[11:57 AM] Zoe: *searches ebay for pink coffins*
[11:57 AM] Leslie: OMFG LMFAO
[11:58 AM] Richard: Et tu, Zoe?!

Zoe giggled when reading his reply, and he chuckled. At least he wouldn't actually have to go a whole week without Susie, even if sex wasn't part of the itinerary. "Well, that's definitely going to be fun. But for now, Sunshine, phone down. I know you've been trying, but today, you're going to get your hair braiding skills up. It just takes practice."

They practiced for a while. She showed him different braiding styles, ways that hair could be intertwined even if she knew that he wasn't ready for them yet, but seeing them done made him a bit more aware of how basic an ordinary braid really was. His fingers were starting to get the knack of it within twenty minutes. Watching her little brother in a yellow shirt and skirt outfit, braiding his long, straight hair with increasing finesse, was far more interesting than anything else she might have been paying attention to. Richard started shaking his hands around at the wrists. "My fingers are starting to hurt, can we leave it like this?" he complained after getting his hair into some decently crafted pigtails.

"Okay, we'll stop here. You're doing a much better job. Let's show everybody." She took a selfie with her brother, both of them smiling, and uploaded it to the chat with an explanation. Richard was worried that maybe Susie's dad was looking over her shoulder, but that hadn't happened, and the other girls daaaaawed over how cute he looked and complimented him on how good he'd become at braiding his own hair. "And now, I have a special little gift for my sweet little sis." She reached up into the upper part of her closet and pulled out a hefty, broad-spectrum pack of crayons along with a reasonably thick coloring book.

As a first grader, Zoe hadn't colored in all the pages in order, with some pages being better done than others, and Richard started on the first untouched one, a panoramic beach view. "Perfect start for our little Sunshine," Zoe said, smiling, and she looked to see whether Richard was an outside-the-lines or inside-the-lines kid. He actually went a step further: he was an extra-lines kid. Most of the pages were generally simple, with lots of open spaces, and instead of just coloring them in or smearing the colors, Richard decided to add complexity when he felt like it, drawing a rudimentary dolphin and surfer after coloring in the sun a bright yellow. He couldn't recall ever having played with a coloring book before.

He turned the page and there was the last picture that the younger Zoe had touched, a picture of a clown's face with a thick black X in crayon over it. "I remember that now," Zoe said before Richard could ask. "Oh my God, I remember. I was, like, six. Yeah, this was for my birthday, my sixth birthday, I think. There was this festival, you were off doing something else, but Mom wanted me to see the performing clown, and I was nervous, and it was doing balloon animals." Richard chuckled at the clown being called 'it' and wondered if he should finally watch the movie. After the things he'd seen, he figured that nothing that Hollywood could submit to the general public could possibly faze him. "And it saw that I wasn't having fun, so it made this.. terrifying face, and it did that coin trick from behind the ear thing." Zoe's expression got serious, as she remembered how she'd nearly caught lasting coulrophobia. "I didn't even see the coin, I thought it had actually pulled something off my head. I screamed. I screamed and ran. I think I made it all the way to the bathroom before Mom caught up with me. I couldn't even breathe, I was screaming so hard. We did not go back to that part, we went to... right, you were in the bouncy castle! And that's where Mom took me, and you were doing flips onto your butt and rolling around. I remember now."

"I kinda remember doing flips, I don't remember the rest of that," Richard said. He had actually been on more than one bouncy castle, having enjoyed them a lot when he was younger. (He realized that he still did - he just didn't have the opportunity to get on one.)

"You didn't see the rest of that, and Mom never told you. I remember now, she promised me that she wouldn't!" It wouldn't have mattered, she realized. She could never recall Richard ever making fun of anyone for anything, even when he was very little. He just never found it an enjoyable thing to do.

"If it'd been me, I'd have freaked out the same way or worse," Richard told her matter-of-factly.

Zoe nodded. "You totally would have. Speaking of which, they did a study in a children's hospital, it was in Britain or something, and guess what percent of the kids found clowns scary. Just guess, pick a number."

"Eighty?" Richard ventured.

"One hundred." Richard laughed. "I'm not kidding. Every. Single. One. Girls and boys. The older ones found them worse. So yeah, big ol' X over that clown, and if you find any more in there, you can cross them out too." He agreed with a smile. "Okay, Sunshine. We have milk, we have bananas that we need to use or get rid of, we have sugar, and we have a food processor that Mom never uses. I'm going to go see if my milkshakes are as good as Susie's. You be good, little sis."

As soon as she left the room, he immediately started flipping through the pages looking for something important. Did it have one? Oh, there was a good one, and he knew exactly what to do. He immediately got to work, but she came back in the room, milkshakes in hand, before he was done, and he flipped the book upside down as soon as he heard her come in.

Zoe chuckled as she handed him his milkshake. "Are you hiding something from me?"

"Yeah, don't look at what I'm doing. I'll show you when I'm done. It's a surprise." Richard, having hated surprises, had never said those three words to his sister before.

She gave him a smile. "All right, Sunshine. Let's see what kind of surprise you'll give me." Milkshake in hand, she turned to her computer, put on her headphones, and found music videos to watch.

[Jacqueline]

[3/4]

She had barely gotten through one before Richard said that he was done, the milkshake finished and the page colored.

Zoe took one look at what he'd done and guffawed. The page he was showing her featured five clowns, and he had very much crossed them out, but not in the way she'd expected. The first had been shot with a big black hole in the head, and he'd drawn red lines to make it look like its brain had splattered out from behind. The second was turned into a rotting, green zombie, with a couple of limbs blacked out. The third had its hands in front of its stomach, and Richard had made it look like it was trying to hold its intestines in. Number four had a brown noose around its neck, hanging from an overhead rafter, and number five had a lot of red lines on its body as if someone had slashed it up with a knife. He'd crudely colored in the rest of the page. Zoe laughed more at the idea that her brother, all dressed up as Little Miss Sunshine, had been such an edgelord, and in a way, it was one of the most ordinary-boy things she'd ever seen him do. She giddily held the book to her chest. The idea was silly, but somehow, by doing that with her old coloring book, she felt like he'd reached back into her childhood and retroactively removed a bad experience from it. She wouldn't really remember that awful face, that trick that had disturbed her so much at the time, and her terrified screaming anymore; she would remember her dressed-up brother drawing dead clowns. "Ricky, thank you so much. You can color in the rest of the book, but I'm keeping this one. Wait, I'm really keeping this." She pulled out her phone and proceeded to upload a picture of the page to the Squad chat, where she started to explain how the image had come about and why she'd wanted it.

Richard smiled at her from his seat on the floor, looking up at her in the chair. "I'm glad you like it." He'd thought maybe she'd be disgusted at him for it.

"I absolutely love it. You are the best brother ever." She opened her arms for a hug, and Richard took it, with him on his knees and her still sitting in the chair, a position that made him feel much smaller, much more like a little girl. She kissed him on the top of the head. "And if you see any more like that in there, you do the same thing to them, okay, Sunshine?" He agreed happily and went back to his coloring, and Zoe decided to keep her playlist going in her ears, reading the Squad chat (the reactions to the photo were of amusement and complete understanding) while he laid on the floor like a little kid, his bare feet kicking back and forth in the air as he innocently colored in many other pictures, including an Easter one of little bunnies hopping around, with lots of added flowers (one with a rabbit bite mark on it) and a big smiling sun, and a Christmas one that he spent a lot of time on.

It began as a picture of a fireplace and a tree, with chairs and a sofa facing the fireplace, and Richard began coloring it in before he went for the flesh tones and began creating human figures. Zoe watched him, the music playing in her ears, but said nothing. He drew a blonde head sticking out from the chair, a short, red-haired girl wearing pink and hanging up a stocking, a brown-haired girl in a blue dress opening a present, and a head with brown hair in pigtails next to a head with long, black hair on the sofa.

"Leslie's hanging up the stockings by herself," Zoe said when he was done.

"She should be able to by Christmas," Richard replied, and Zoe clutched the necklace that Susie had given her, one of the matching necklaces that she and her girlfriend nearly always wore. She couldn't resist the urge to hug him again. She paused the video, laid down on the floor with him, put her left arm around him in a solid embrace, and started helping him color the next page with her right.

That was how they spent most of the afternoon together. There were a whole fifty pages that the six-year-old Zoe had left uncolored, and the teenagers took more time together than Richard would have alone, having happily childish discussions about what color should go where. Occasionally, they didn't agree, and swapped the decision-making, leading to a silly patchwork of coloring that looked just like a real kid had gone through it. Under normal circ-umstances, both of them would actually have been a bit snippy about that sort of thing, but it was just a kid's coloring book after all and their defenses towards one another were basically gone.

Zoe's phone buzzed when they were mostly done. It was Robert, who had texted to inform the siblings that the blackmailing pedophile was in the process of being arrested. "Looks like it's safe to go out in the sunshine, Sunshine," Zoe said, smiling. "Want to get some ice cream?"

"Sure!" Richard beamed happily.

His pink socks didn't go with the yellow very well, and it was too warm out for tights, and they both realized that Richard needed more cute socks to go with his shoes. Zoe found a pair of stretchy, ruffled socks that she'd never worn and that could be made to fit around his feet, and he put on his Mary Janes. She gripped one of his hanging straps, as if to make sure that he wouldn't wander off, and he didn't mind at all.

Their phones were in Zoe's pockets along with the money she'd been able to save up with her limited allowance. It was a sad joke, really, especially compared to Susie's seemingly limitless supply of unearned cash. It was basically symbolic, a few dollars here and there with the very occasional five thrown in, and over the course of a month, she only got enough to head to the convenience store a dozen blocks away and take her little sissy brother out for ice cream. Zoe was both jealous of Susie's limitless supply of unearned cash and grateful for the generosity that she had shown with it, and she wondered if Susie even had to ask for it or if her dad just handed her a fat suitcase full of twenties as soon as he got home.

It was six blocks from their suburb to the main road. They were passed by a bicyclist on the sidewalk, who went to the grass to get out of their way, and he was the same guy who Richard had seen before and they knowingly smiled at one another.

They were caticorner from the store, waiting for a walk signal to go one way or the other, when a police car pulled next to them. Almost on a lark, Richard looked to see who was in the back seat of the cop car and holy crap, it couldn't have been, but it was, it was actually him, it was actually the pedo. "Zoe!" Richard whispered quickly, pointing, and the siblings and the blackmailer stared at each other for a split second.

Richard flipped him the double deuce, then, inspired, he clenched his left fist and used his right to point to the man. Then, he curled the fingers of his right hand and extended the middle finger of his left, pushing that finger into the hole made by the curled fingers, and his fingers were too tightly curled for it to go in, but that finger was being forced in anyway.

Knowing exactly what that symbolized, the blackmailer looked Richard in the eyes, and, despite him wearing a shirt proclaiming him to be Little Miss Sunshine and his sister still holding on to him, there was no mercy whatsoever in those eyes.

When he had been arrested, the man had thought that someone else must have intercepted the envelope, that the little skipping sweetheart he had seen had been oblivious to his attempt at building a relationship. Only then did he have some idea of who he had messed with, the enormity of the mistake he had made. He began to sob. The light turned green, and the cop car drove away, the siblings crossing the street at the same time.

"That was a major coincidence," Richard said, a bit spooked once he thought about it.

"Not really," Zoe replied, shrugging. "We left as soon as Robert said that fuc-kclown was getting arrested, it takes the cops time to do it, and we're going the same way." If they had kept going, they would have eventually made it to the local semi-downtown area and the police station on the other side of town.

They crossed the larger street to get to the convenience store with the attached ice cream shop, and Richard's very first thoughts were 'Have we even been here before? Why don't we come here more often?' The answers were, of course, that a convenience store a dozen blocks away wasn't particularly convenient for kids who didn't bicycle, and their mother could buy a gallon of ice cream for what two scoops cost there.

Richard's outfit attracted a bit of attention from the few people in the store, and the college-aged cashier gave the siblings a big, inviting smile as soon as she saw them. "So what will you be having today?" she asked in a friendly tone.

"I'll have one scoop of dark chocolate and one of rocky road with a waffle cone," Zoe replied.

The cashier turned to Richard with a big smile on her face. "And what would you like?" she asked in that happily condescending voice reserved for talking to small children.

Richard had no idea what the girl thought or knew he really was and decided he didn't care. "A cone and a scoop of mint chocolate and a scoop of strawberry, please!" he chirped in the happiest, sweetest voice he could.

"Mint chocolate and strawberry! Delicious. Would you like sprinkles?" the cashier asked, smiling.

"Yes, please!" Richard chirped.

"All right, lots of extra sprinkles, just for you."

To keep up the act, Zoe was going to remind him to thank her, but he'd already chirped "Thank you!" once she handed him his cone.

"You're very welcome." The cashier turned to his sister. "That'll be eleven-oh-five." Zoe fished exact change out of her pocket, then took Richard by the strap again to pull him to an outside bench far from anyone. She didn't know what the cashier thought about Richard, but she wanted to talk to him normally and it'd ruin the act if anyone else heard.

Zoe chuckled. "Wow, she really went full on with that. I wonder how much she knew." The girl hadn't treated Richard like a ten-year-old; she treated him more like he was half that age.

Richard nodded. "I kinda wish everyone would talk to me like that," he said quietly. What other boys would have found belittling and insulting, he felt care and comfort in. "I mean, it doesn't make sense all the time, but, just, as much as possible."

"Oh? Well, then, I guess I can try," Zoe replied in the voice he'd asked for. "I'll treat Little Miss Sunshine just like the little sissy she loves to be." Richard smiled as he ate his ice cream - the sprinkles on the strawberry were very deliciously sweet - and, chuckling, Zoe shook her head. "That's actually pretty tough to keep up," she said in a normal voice.

The two of them sat together for a while, enjoying their ice cream, and Zoe thought for a bit before deciding if she actually wanted to talk about what she'd been thinking about. She hoped she wouldn't ruin the mood just by bringing it up, and she looked around and decided to just go for it. "There's a reason why I picked ice cream," she said quietly, and Ricky turned to look at her. "You remember that time you'd got ice cream on yourself, and I started name calling, and you just went fuc-k this and went upstairs?"

Richard had decided long ago that he'd never bring that up, and he'd gradually kind of forgotten about it, but she'd jogged his memory. "Oh, yeah, that. That was..." He shook his head. He didn't want to blame himself and he didn't want to blame her either, they'd both been a lot younger. "On the day that happened, there were there four kids picking on this other kid in school, the teacher was out for some stupid reason, so we're all just sitting around talking. I forget what they did to him, but they're just standing around his desk, I know they saying some nasty stuff to him, and what really got me was that he was just keeping on talking to them like nothing was wrong, like this was normal. I didn't understand, I still don't. If he would have just done something, or called for help, they might have stopped or someone else would have done something, maybe me, but they all just kept going. Then I promised myself that if somebody ever picked on me like that, I wouldn't keep talking to them like they were my friends."

That made the whole thing make a lot more sense to Zoe. "And then I picked on you that same day."

Richard nodded. "I was keeping a promise to myself, I felt like I'd be betraying myself if I ever talked to you again. Mom came up to me, I think it was like ten days or something, and she was... actually pretty scared. She just said it was over, that I shouldn't keep going with this, I think she threatened to take me to a counselor if I didn't start talking to you again." Zoe nodded. "The funny part is, all four kids had gotten suspended the day after they did that. Somebody must have said something or maybe they did something else. Somebody came from the office and told them to come with her, I didn't see them again for a while." He could recall the exact moment some of the kids in the class had gone 'You're in troooouble!'

Zoe decided that an apology would have been worthless and made no comment on his reactive nature. Instead, she chose to say what had been kicking around in her head, and she lowered her voice. "I just keep thinking that if I'd been nicer to you, we could have been doing this for a long time."

Richard shook his head. "No way, I would have been way too scared to ever tell you about it. I mean, I always kind of wanted to do it, but it would have been way too scary. Even, just like, in the house." Zoe nodded in understanding. It had taken a lot of incubation for Richard's soft side to hatch properly. Despite the fact that he was less passable as a little girl at 13 than 9, Zoe didn't even want to imagine what he might have become if someone had tried to hatch it before he was ready.

Still, if she had been a better sister, she might have been able to help him incubate it. "I still just wish I'd had your trust a lot sooner," she lamented. Instead of replying, he scooted closer to her on the bench and ate every last bite of his waffle cone. Neither of them was sure if it was worth the money, but it had definitely been delicious.

[Jacqueline]

[4/4]

As they walked home together, Zoe still holding on to one of his straps, she remembered what she had told him when she was furious with him, that the little sissy in her Christmas dress was who he was and would always be. It had become a real truth. Even if he grew to be quite a bit taller than her and put on enough muscle to be twice her weight, which was very possible given what their father had looked like in his prime, it wouldn't matter. He very much had the same relationship with the rest of the Squad, particularly his girlfriend, and unless something truly awful happened, he would always and forever be their sweet little sissy. Zoe smiled at the thought of Richard lifting her with one hand and Susie with the other while wearing a pretty dress fitted just for him.

When they were almost home, a small hissing sound came from Richard's backside. Zoe laughed loudly. "Milk and sugar!" Richard explained, and Zoe just laughed louder, and he frowned a bit. "People fart, Zoe."

Seeing her sweet little brother frowning in his pigtails and pretty yellow outfit was one of the cutest things she had ever seen in her life, but she felt like she was picking on him and she really didn't want to pick on him, and it took very little effort to make herself poot out her own gas. She giggled. "Yup, people fart," she replied and kissed him on the nose.

The two of them finished their coloring book together, with the occasional bathroom break, and then it was about time for Mom to get home and so Richard, very reluctantly, changed back into his boy clothes. He had loved being Little Miss Sunshine so much, loved being given a coloring book to play with, loved being looked after by his big sister, loved being treated like a five-year-old who needed someone to hold on to him so that he wouldn't get lost. When he was actually that age, part of him had enjoyed it but most of him had been mistrustful of anyone who treated him like that, as he'd felt bullied and humiliated, and he had been so circ-umspect and fearful of such situations that he didn't really want to interact with people at all, and his mother and sister had never understood why and he couldn't remember clearly. Now that he was in close relationships with people who loved him and anyone who tried to actually bully or humiliate him was in for at least one very unpleasant surprise, he was much more appreciative of being treated little.

Their mother came home later than they'd expected, knocking on the door so that they could open it with her carrying two piles of heavy bags, and then she told them to put away the groceries. She'd had a long, tiring, and sweaty day. She still didn't quite understand what was going on with her children, who had been sitting on the couch watching anime together - had they ever done that before? - but at least they were willing to help her put food in the refrigerator and sort the mail.

Sorting groceries was simpler than sorting laundry: frozen in the freezer, cold stuff and all fruits and veggies in the fridge, everything else in the pantry. Richard checked the mail, mostly junk, and his heart lurched, a lump in his throat. One of the letters was for him! A closer look at it relaxed his attitude. It was from the city, not the major downtown but the local area, and he blinked in confusion. He briefly entertained the idea that someone had faked it and that there was anthrax in there, but he saw nothing when trying to peer through the envelope. He decided to stop being paranoid and carefully ripped open the top.

Inside was a check, made out to him, for two hundred and fifty dollars.

His sister looked over at him. "What is it?"

He looked at the ripped top. It had been postmarked Monday, and the local post office was good at getting local letters delivered. So, it obviously wasn't about anything that happened that day, what could... of course! He was being dumb, it wasn't about turning in the pedo, but it WAS about...

"It's snitch money," Richard replied, laughing. He heard the shower running so he didn't yell upstairs to his mother.

"Why is there no explanation?" Zoe asked, starting to giggle.

Richard knew this one. "Because it's snitch money, if there was a guy who didn't want to be known as a snitch, if they put something in there, then everyone looking over his shoulder would go 'hey, this guy's a snitch.'"

"Right, I get it," Zoe said, gradually laughing harder. "Leslie's going to just..." She pulled out her phone, and Richard did the same.

[5:57 PM] Zoe: LMAO
[5:57 PM] Zoe: check this spaghetti out
[5:58 PM] Zoe: the city PAID RICKY $250, there's no note, it must have been for turning leslie's bio parents in
[5:59 PM] Leslie: ROFLLLLLLL
[5:59 PM] Zoe: this is the icing on the cake
[6:00 PM] Leslie: my dad just came in and asked what i was laughing so hard at
[6:01 PM] Leslie: now HE'S starting to laugh
[6:01 PM] Zoe: I legit want to send your bio parents a picture of the check with ```This is how much your lives were really worth, fuc-kfaces!!```
[6:02 PM] Leslie: OMG you and your brother ARE related LMAOOO
[6:02 PM] Zoe: Susie, before you say anything, it's not about how much, it's that THE GOVERNMENT PAID HIM FOR IT
[6:03 PM] Leslie: Paid for mowing but it's not grass

Richard and his sister both laughed.

[6:03 PM] Zoe: BRUTAL HOW DID YOU GET SO BRUTAL
[6:03 PM] Richard: Leslie's sounding like 4chan lmao
[6:04 PM] Caroline: so they didn't give an excuse for the money?
[6:04 PM] Leslie: I wonder where I could have picked it up from?
[6:04 PM] Caroline: usually with stuff like this they make it look like a welfare check

"Wow, she knows a lot about it," Zoe said. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised." Richard got his knowledge from the Internet. The people that Caroline worked with had more direct experiences with the underbelly of the world.

[6:05 PM] Zoe: All they sent was the check, nothing else.
[6:06 PM] Caroline: probably because hes 13 and it was mailed to suburbia
[6:06 PM] Caroline: ghetto would have been way different
[6:06 PM] Caroline: anyway sunshine what will you spend it on?

Richard couldn't answer right away, because his mother was coming down the stairs. "Hey, Mom! I got snitch money!"

"What?"

He showed her the check. "The city paid me, there's no note or anything, it's got to be for me giving them that tip for that drug deal," Richard replied.

She took a pen from a cup on the table. "Sign the back of it, I'll cash this at the bank tomorrow," she told him, and he scrawled out his name. "That's certainly a pleasant surprise. I'm glad they gave you something. Maybe you'll spend it on me?" He stared at her, and she smiled. "That was a joke. What isn't a joke is that I have a somewhat elaborate dinner in mind tonight, and I will need both of you to help me with it." She was glad that her children agreed. She still felt like there was something else going on, but at least she could come home and not have even more things to deal with.

[6:08 PM] Richard: I have no idea lol. Making dinner.
[6:09 PM] Leslie: Three potential housewives in one house.
[6:09 PM] Caroline: omfg, better delete that before zoe reads it
[6:09 PM] Leslie: Why? Even if the therapy works I still want her making me dinner :heart:
[6:35 PM] Susie: I'm back. Was doing driving lessons with Dad. Reading chat.
[6:37 PM] Susie: I think we found Ricky's new career lol!
[6:38 PM] Susie: Rule 1 applies to MY money.
[6:38 PM] Susie: btw Dad says I can have a credit card when I get married or turn 18 :/
[6:40 PM] Susie: So I need to make one of those potentials a reality :hearts:
[6:41 PM] Caroline: so when do you and rickys mom tie the knot?
[6:41 PM] Susie: I KNEW I WAS SETTING MYSELF UP WHEN I SAID IT ARGHHH
[6:41 PM] Leslie: L M F A O
[7:00 PM] Zoe: Sure, I'll make you dinner, Leslie. You can be the main course :heart:
[7:01 PM] Leslie: I guess that makes you dessert :heart:
[7:01 PM] Caroline: i kind of want to say something bitchy but youre actually lightening my mood, ty for that
[7:02 PM] Susie: So what was your actual dinner?
[7:03 PM] Richard: Something called jjigae (awesome scrabble word). Mostly spam fried rice. We were getting in each other's way making it, lol
[7:03 PM] Zoe: Literally too many cooks, at least mom had specific jobs for us
[7:04 PM] Susie: SPAM fried rice??? The actual spam product?
[7:05 PM] Caroline: really not that rare here susie
[7:05 PM] Zoe: We followed the recipe right off Hormel's website.
[7:05 PM] Leslie: I've never had any spam (salt).
[7:06 PM] Susie: OMFG I HAVE TO RESCUE YOU BOTH
[7:06 PM] Caroline: have you even actually had it?
[7:06 PM] Susie: I smelled it once and once was enough!
[7:07 PM] Zoe: we've had it all our lives but I can totally see where Susie is coming from.
[7:07 PM] Richard: ^
[7:08 PM] Caroline: car now has a third rule, no music, politics, or food arguments now

"Never heard of that rule," Richard said aloud, catching his mother's attention. He and his sister had gone from the dining room to the couch, and their mother was watching them use their phones, shaking her head at the state of modern American teenagers. So constantly attached to their gadgets. Didn't anything interesting ever happen in their lives? Then again, she had her own screen she liked to look at, and she went to play her own games.

"Never came up when you were around," Zoe replied. "I think it was the first time I was in Caroline's car, Susie told us her Rule 1, and Caroline said that she didn't play music because she didn't want anyone arguing over it, and she didn't want to deal with political stuff either. Funny because she was the one who started calling us the Squad."

[7:09 PM] Zoe: Could have used that rule yesterday, miss eveything burger
[7:10 PM] Caroline: youre the ones who missed everything
[7:10 PM] Richard: Ooooof.
[7:10 PM] Leslie: Sssss.
[7:10 PM] Zoe: :snake:
[7:12 PM] Susie: Okay, I don't mean to interrupt this fascinating discussion of your barbaric and uncultured culinary practices, but I have something to tell Ricky and the rest of you about my dad.
[7:13 PM] Susie: Well, it's more like instructions. Everyone just follow my lead when it comes to him, even if it seems kinda weird or not what you'd expect.
[7:14 PM] Susie: It's probably just for Ricky but you all should know
[7:14 PM] Susie: also ***HE MUST NEVER KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT RICKY'S DRESSING E V E R***
[7:15 PM] Caroline: copy that

Richard nearly typed in 'Yes, Your Highness' before he remembered he was in a group chat.

[7:15 PM] Richard: I understand. :smile:
[7:15 PM] Leslie: I guess the unexpected part comes later lol
[7:15 PM] Zoe: Yes, we could guess that one :laughing:
[7:16 PM] Caroline: btw i cant drive you friday
[7:16 PM] Caroline: my dad just said he got a massive rush order and ill be helping him as much as i can
[7:17 PM] Caroline: even with me like this
[7:17 PM] Leslie: Mom can take me. Thanks for saying so early :slight_smile:
[7:17 PM] Richard: I'll WALK if I have to.
[7:17 PM] Zoe: I'll be walking with him.
[7:18 PM] Caroline: isnt there heavy rain and wind forecast for friday?
[7:18 PM] Richard: **I'll WALK if I have to.**
[7:18 PM] Zoe: **I'll be walking with him.**
[7:19 PM] Leslie: :heart:
[7:19 PM] Susie: :heart:
[7:19 PM] Leslie: Actually Mom can take you.
[7:20 PM] Leslie: Maybe you'll tell her how you keep getting mixed up in bad stuff.
[7:20 PM] Richard: I have no idea. I'm a monster magnet or something.
[7:21 PM] Caroline: SPAAAAAACE LORD MOTHER MOTHER
[7:21 PM] Caroline: none of you will ever get that ignore me

The Y was about four miles away, and not for the first time in his life, Richard regretted never being into cycling, nor was he familiar with the local buses, and Zoe simply regretted not having more friends with cars. Discomfort, though, was something that didn't even concern him when it came to Susie, and Zoe apparently felt the same way about her girlfriend.

The two of them continued watching their show together, and boy clothes or girl clothes, physically bigger or smaller, Richard knew that he would always be a good little sissy for his big sister.

[Sissy Little Girl]

Jacqueline, you knocked my socks off with those four chapters.  That part about the pedophile sent chills down my spine.  I do hope you have more adventures about Ricky and the squad.  I'm really into this story.  8)

[Jacqueline]

[1/3]

"Time to get up, Sunshine," Zoe told Richard, zapping him awake with the shock collar around his neck. He stood up and his Little Miss Sunshine outfit was the only bright thing in the room; everything else was dark. "Let's see what we've got for you today," his sister said, rooting through his nearly pitch-black closet. "One of these, a couple of these, one of these, and one of these." She jammed a corset over him, and the flesh that was on his midsection went immediately to his breasts and ass, his ribs crushed. His feet were shoved into ballet boots, and shocks were used to keep him upright. A disc went around his waist, and he knew that if it touched anything, he'd be shocked heavily and for a long time. His mother and sister cooperated in shoving the gag, which looked like a scoop of ice cream, into his mouth.

"Stop squirming, we're just trying to help you," his mother told him firmly. "It's to make you a better person, Richard. You're much easier to carry this way and your new father will appreciate having a son like you." The pedophile who had tried to blackmail him was standing there, naked and smiling. NO, Richard thought, there was NO way she'd do that, NO way he could be...

Wait, there really was actually no way!

Richard, suddenly aware of where he was and what he was doing, tore the collar off with one hand, the bondage melting off of him, and pointed with the other, and the man screamed as he was immolated. His mother and sister stared at him with empty, hollow eyes, but of course it wasn't actually them, and he rocketed himself into wakefulness with anger and disgust.

"Just get fuc-ked," Richard muttered to his subconscious, pissed that it had even fed him such a thing. He could have had a flying dream, a video game dream, even a really weird dream with lots of interesting imagery, but no, he just had to have a nightmare about that crap instead. It was still dark out, and, annoyed with himself, he went back to a dreamless sleep.

Even after a morning shower and brushing teeth and combing his long hair (his mother told him that he could have it as long as he liked as long as it was combed), he looked haggard as he slowly ate breakfast that morning.

His sister was going to wait until their mother was gone before asking him what was up, but Heather had noticed as well. "Richard, is something wrong?"

"Real bad dream," he said.

"What about?" Heather asked.

There was no way he was going to tell her much of anything. "People hated me while pretending to love me," he said. "I went lucid and hated one of them back. It was real bad, I don't want to talk about it."

His mother patted him on the shoulder and kissed him on the head. "It was just a dream, Richard." She'd had bad dreams of her own. A primary recurring theme was her husband, gaunt from drug abuse, pursuing her in the darkness like in a horror movie. Sometimes, he would get her on drugs as well. Other times, he would simply consume her alive. And her children - far younger than in real life - were always there, watching it happen. She would never tell them that they had such a prominent place in her recurring nightmares.

"So, what was the dream actually about?" Zoe asked him once their mother had left for work.

"It was kind of about the stuff we've been doing, and I really don't want to talk about it." He looked away for a moment. "Zoe, have you ever considered the idea that my sissiness might need to be forced out? I mean out into the open, not out of me. Like, if you somehow made me do sissy stuff or pushed me into doing it even if I didn't want to, that I'd become a better person for it?"

The question was so jarring and utterly alien that Zoe blanked for a second. "Ricky, I have literally never thought that about you or anyone in my entire life. Even when I was pissed at you, I just wanted revenge, I didn't think it'd make you a better person or anything like that, that's sick." She thought of what their mother had done to her and decided not to mention it; Heather certainly wouldn't try it on him, at any rate. "I know that you and Susie are doing kinda bondage sex stuff but that's different, and she won't even lock you into anything, remember? You know Leslie doesn't see things that way and neither does Caroline." She almost asked 'Where are you getting this from?' but she had a reasonable guess as to the answer. What he needed at the moment was reassurance, and she had plenty of that to give. "Nobody is ever going to do anything like that to you. Ricky, this is you we're talking about, nobody CAN. You wasted the last guy who tried anything close, well okay that was Robert, but still, you."

"I wasted him in the dream when I went lucid, too," Richard said, smiling a bit.

"See? It was just a stupid nightmare caused by some demented shit you saw on the Internet. I can't tell you that you're totally safe from everything in the world, but you're safe from THAT."

"Zoe, I needed that. Thank you so much," he said, smiling. "You want to do some more fun stuff, like yesterday?" Richard felt like he was spitting in the nightmare's face by asking.

"I've actually got a major backlog I want to catch up on today, but if you want to just hang out and chill for a while, we can."

Richard smiled a bit. His sister needed some time to herself, and just knowing that reminded him that she was a normal person. "It's okay, do your backlog. Do you have any more outfits like that Sunshine one in your closet?"

"I checked, there's nothing else back there that will fit you. We're doing wash tomorrow, I think Mom's got a couple of dresses in there."

"Eeeeeewwww," Richard replied. The idea of wearing his mother's clothes was just plain disturbing.

"Yeah, I figured you'd say that." She put her arm around him, hugging him protectively. "Your big sister is going to go read some healthy and fun stuff. Well, maybe not totally healthy." She giggled a bit. "You wear whatever you want, little sis, and try to stay out of the darkness for a while."

"I will," Richard replied, smiling at her with renewed innocence. He felt like he'd puked rotten garbage all over himself and she'd cleaned him up.

Richard put on his floral print housewife dress and his pink, jingly socks just because he liked how they sounded and felt, deciding not to put on his heels and to leave his hair loose for the moment. He sat at his computer, considering how he was going to spend his time. He wasn't in the mood for games - he wasn't even in the mood for fiction of any kind. He wanted to stay out of the darkness like his sister had recommended. He started browsing around, and he remembered what he'd been into and decided he wanted to get back to. He was going to teach himself to become a real hacker!

Of course, searching 'how to be a hacker' wasn't actually going to help him, and he knew that. Instead, he just immersed himself in every piece of computer lore he could find, learning about opcodes, buffer overruns, cryptography, Ring -3, and TCP/IP, soaking it all up, meditating in a sense, trying not to think about that other stuff, occasionally jingling the bells on his socks and smiling. He was struggling to understand things and he was confused some of the time and he was at peace with himself. If he couldn't understand something, he moved on to something else. It was his angry focus without the anger.

Zoe called him for lunch, snapping him out of his trance, and he actually frowned when he realized she'd already microwaved the burritos they both liked. "I guess there's not really anywhere else to eat within walking distance anyway, just the ice cream place," he lamented. His guts were a little bit sick of ice cream.

"Why'd you want to eat out?" she asked.

"I've got a bunch of money I haven't spent, too," he reminded her. "And Mom's giving me two hundred and fifty bucks when she gets home." He looked at her solemnly, and she smiled at him in his pretty dress. He looked so serious after having jingled down the stairs. "You've done so much for me, Zoe. Especially this morning. I kind of want to spend it on you." In a way, he wanted to reward her for what she wasn't doing, would never consider doing, to him.

"I'd like some of it, but I think you should spend at least some on Susie."

"Why?! What could I possibly buy her that she could want and not have bought already?"

She chuckled. "You don't understand girls, Ricky. You can't buy her something she can't just buy herself. You can only buy her something she didn't know she wanted until you bought it for her. I know, it's tough, but you don't have to even plan it. Just, next time you're somewhere, even the thrift store, and you see something she might want or that just seems to be missing from her house, ask her if she likes it, then buy it for her. You know how you hear people say 'it's the thought that counts'? That's the thought that counts."

"That's twice today you've really helped me."

She smiled at him. "It's like you've totally forgotten who owes who here. You probably saved my girlfriend's life just last week, remember? I'm just glad to be able to help you, little sis. I'm still on my backlog today, but we can spend some more time together tomorrow before Leslie's mom comes to pick us up." She was reading an exceptionally convoluted and wordy fic about some high school kid who got sent to a fantasy world that was more or less of his own making.

"Okay. Thanks again." The siblings smiled at each other and returned to what they had been doing. Richard barely remembered in time to change back to boy clothes before his mother got home, and after giving Richard his money, Heather asked her children to set the table - and scratch her back, which her daughter reluctantly did - as soon as she got home. She'd had a bad itch she just couldn't reach for hours, and rubbing hadn't helped.

She didn't want to have to keep asking her kids, she knew she had a backscratcher somewhere in the house, but where did she put the thing? It wasn't in her drawers, she knew that. Of course! She knew her children's closets were full of storage. It was probably stashed away in there somewhere. Making sure not to touch Richard's computer at all - that was where he kept his private stuff, after all - she went through his closet and started opening boxes.

"Richard, could you come here please?"

[Jacqueline]

[2/3]

Even before she'd finished the first couple of words, Richard was immediately rushing to his room, his sister close behind, knowing immediately what had happened just from her tone of voice. Many of the boxes had been opened, and she was holding up the housewife dress he'd worn that day. He'd thought of various things to say to her when she found out, but all he managed to say was the most basic: "Mom, I dress up sometimes, but I don't actually want to turn into a girl."

Her tone was very serious. "Where did you get it all? Does Susie know about this?"

Abruptly, Richard laughed. "Think really carefully about those two questions, Mom," he said, smirking, and she stared at him. "Don't they kind of answer each other?" Heather relaxed somewhat, her major concerns gone. Her first worry had been that he was stealing from her or someone else to be able to get such things, or doing even worse things for the money - maybe even with those skills of his! - and she'd also been worried that this would turn his wealthy girlfriend off. Apparently, the opposite was true. "It's... basically how we met," he continued before she could ask anything else awkward. "Don't ask specifics. Please?" Heather's own parents had pried too much into her own affairs when she was a teenager, and she understood where he was coming from. "I'm just having fun, that's all, and she is too."

"I'm sure of the sort of fun you've been having with her," she said, returning the dress to the box where she found it. "Have you been having any of this fun outside?" He nodded. "Zoe, do you... of course you know. You've been participating in this as well." Zoe nodded. "All your friends know. He's been doing it with your whole group, hasn't he?" She continued to nod. The idea gave Heather some comfort. Doing perverted things with one's significant other was different from doing them in public - she'd done things with their father that she would never tell them about - and Richard certainly couldn't be doing anything really perverted or off-putting in a group of four girls while still remaining their friend.

"Not all the time, though, not tomorrow," Richard said, holding up a placating hand. "Susie's dad's home, and he's going to be there with us at the YMCA at 3. It's Leslie's physical therapy day."

"Susie bought you those swimming trunks, too," Heather said, and her son nodded. She sighed. "Well, I have some more personal time. I'll drive you over there. I haven't been swimming in a while, either."

Richard was mortified at the idea. "Mom, we've already got a ride, and if you tell him about any of this-"

"First, you can tell your other ride that it isn't necessary. Second, I might be dumb, but I'm not stupid, Richard," his mother stated firmly, cutting him off. He still looked nervous and Heather knew exactly what he was worried about. "Your mother is not going to make a fool of herself or you in front of your girlfriend's father!" Her own mother had almost done exactly that. If that woman had been any worse, Richard and Zoe might very well have never been born.

"I don't even think he knows she's my girlfriend, Mom."

"If you're spending any time with her in front of him, believe me, he'll find out." Richard had to acknowledge that she was right. He was very good at roleplaying, as Susie could certainly attest, but convincingly roleplaying 'not her boyfriend' for an hour - with both of them wearing very few clothes! - in front of a man who was surely very suspicious of any male anywhere remotely near his daughter? No, that was not going to happen. Not showing up would have been even worse.

"And, Mom, while we're at it," Zoe suddenly said, "I'm bisexual, and Leslie is my girlfriend." Richard looked at his sister in alarm. She had chosen to drop that on her mother when she was in the middle of processing what was with him. Why had she done it then? To take the heat off him? To make it seem like a minor thing in comparison? (The answer was somewhat of both. Zoe figured that both at once would be faster and have fewer consequences than one at a time.)

Heather took a deep breath, looking at her daughter in shock. "This is what Robert meant," she realized. "He meant this. He knew about you, both of you."

"Yup, he did," Zoe replied.

Heather almost asked 'Why didn't you just tell me?' but realized that the question was foolish. Her children didn't entirely trust her. That was why they'd looked at her that way last week. In a rush, she also realized that as Richard had known so much about the sort of horrible place where her brother had almost sent his cousin, he must have been worried that she would do the same. Granted, the boy was just thirteen and prone to overreacting, but why had he ever imagined that she would do such a thing?! Was she that bad of a mother - maybe she was? Her emotions started getting the better of her. First that, now this. Her tolerance for the unusual was far below that of her children, and she felt like her moral foundations were shifting out from under her. "I need time to think," she said, trying not to cry. "You two just stay up here, and I'll call you for dinner, and we can talk about this then."

Zoe almost said something apologetic, that she didn't really want to stress her out, but then she remembered the thing with the unwanted dresses and that nasty email from her cousin and decided that this was a modest and appropriate revenge. "All you have to do is nothing, Mom," Richard said. He'd been thinking of that one for some time.

[5:22 PM] Richard: Mom knows everything. About Zoe and Leslie, too.
[5:22 PM] Zoe: She's processing it all.
[5:23 PM] Zoe: If she does something REALLY stupid this might be the last time you hear from us for a while.
[5:23 PM] Richard: Until Friday, she actually said she wants to drive us.
[5:24 PM] Zoe: Yeah, hopefully she actually does that and isn't building to a super freakout.
[5:24 PM] Leslie: I just told Mom all that. She and Dad wish you luck.
[5:24 PM] Caroline: wishing you luck here too
[5:24 PM] Susie: Good luck, Ricky and Zoe!! :hearts:
[5:25 PM] Richard: Thanks, everybody. I think we'll be okay.
[5:25 PM] Caroline: lets be real here if she tries anything you'll crater her and she has to know that
[5:26 PM] Susie: I don't want it to come to that.
[5:26 PM] Richard: I don't either, I REALLY don't want to use that on our mom.
[5:27 PM] Zoe: She doesn't hate us too much and we won't hate her too much, it's that simple.
[5:27 PM] Zoe: And if she does anything "for our own good" it's fuc-king asteroid time
[5:29 PM] Richard: Zoe just said that she'll probably just tell me to give the dresses away. One of you can pick them up.
[5:29 PM] Zoe: It's ME we're both more worried about. Her fuc-king BROTHER was about to send his kid to torture prison, remember
[5:30 PM] Richard: Astronauts will know what happened if she does that, they'll see the crater from space
[5:30 PM] Zoe: She's my mom, and I have no idea what she's thinking. That actually hurts a lot.
[5:31 PM] Susie: I always know what my dad is thinking. He told me I should. I wish your mom was the same. :(
[5:31 PM] Richard: She just called us for dinner in a nice voice BBL

Heather felt like she was in a Twilight Zone episode and wished for her child to enjoy being feminine. 'Granted!' the monkey's paw had replied. 'It's your son!' Of course, that didn't help her decide what to do. She vividly recalled a scene at her workplace five years ago, in which an angry, stern member of upper management had asked a tantruming worker, "What are you trying to gain here? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this?" What could she do that her children wouldn't hate her for?

She certainly knew what Martin - who she was starting to consider an incredibly nasty person, worse than the boy she remembered - would have recommended. He had wanted to punish her son just for telling him and his family things that he didn't want them to hear. His answer would have been to forcibly stop their behavior with heavy-handed means, and a part of Heather was suggesting that she ought to be doing the same thing. But her children weren't his, and they certainly weren't behaving in the way that Michael was. Despite their mistrust (and fear, she had to admit) of her, they didn't even conflict with each other anymore!

What was she thinking? Was she really about to ruin her own family, destroying her relationships with all she had left of her husband, because her son enjoyed dressing up like a girl with his friends - and his luxuriously rich girlfriend enjoyed him doing it! - and her daughter had a teenage girl-crush? (She didn't really believe - didn't want to believe - that Zoe had permanent lesbian tendencies that she wouldn't simply grow out of.) Heather thought again of what Robert had told her and abruptly remembered why she'd been talking to him on Friday to begin with - she'd just given her son the money he'd earned for doing that! Good God, was she really about to piss off Richard to no good end?! The boy could destroy people!

She might have been dumb, but she was certainly not stupid!

[Jacqueline]

[3/3]

"Dinner's ready," she shouted upstairs, acting like as much of a mother as she could, and her very worried-looking children came down. Heather had mixed spam and peas in with standard macaroni and cheese, with tall glasses of water to wash down the salt, and her children quietly sat down to eat.

She took a breath. "Zoe, if you and Leslie have real feelings for each other, then I'm not going to interfere with that. As long as what you are doing is safe - and I know she is disabled - I am not going to be angry with you." She sighed in defeat. "It's your life, and it's your choice. Just be careful, and don't put any pressure on her. It's her life too."

Zoe breathed an enormous sigh and laughed slightly in pure relief. "I won't, Mom." She still couldn't forget any of the nasty shit that her mother had done to her, but the hatchet could stay well and truly buried if her mother wasn't going to get between her and Leslie. Richard was confused for a bit. Pressure? Leslie wasn't that bad off, she didn't bruise easily or anything like that... oh. His mother had meant emotional pressure. That wasn't going to happen, either.

"As for you, Richard, as long as Susie isn't going to try to put you on hormones or something like that," Heather started.

"The hell, Mom, what stories have you been reading?!" Richard blurted out, interrupting her, before his mind caught up with him and he realized that there was no way she was remotely coming from that point of view. "She's not crazy."

"Well, as it turns out, neither am I. So, as long as it's safe, I don't care what kind of fun you have together. And that goes for both of you." Heather felt a weight lifted from her shoulders as she said that. She remembered her own parents all too well. She felt like she was getting gradually hedged out of her children's lives, and they were so young, and she remembered how her own mother had tried to worm her way into her own life - that word 'vicarious' again - and how it hadn't helped at all. She wasn't going to be the queen bitch. She wasn't going to be the one to blame. Not again. And she certainly wasn't going to be like that prick older brother of hers! She had her children and they had her and that was all there was to it. She shook her head. He was just so young. "Richard, I know that this thing of yours makes you think you're invincible. There's just so much that can happen to you, you're not Superman."

His mother was giving him what he wanted, so he tried not to get angry with her for basically suggesting that he was the kind of teenage moron his cousin was. "I've learned this one, Mom. Believe me, I know. I'm not going to do anything too stupid and especially not alone." How could he possibly tell her that he'd learned that very lesson in an up-close way just yesterday? He was very glad that no one would tell her - she really would freak out if she heard about that!

Instead, Heather was worried that Susie would get tired of him and then do something like expose his secret to people at Richard's school when it reopened. She was dumb, not stupid, so she refrained from saying something like that out loud - he was in love with her, he would be mortally offended by the idea. And society itself was changing so fast, so much activism for causes she'd never even heard of before, maybe it wouldn't even hurt him socially? The heartbreak would, she knew, much more than any exposure, but she certainly wasn't not going to tell him not to date the rich girl because she might break up with him later! Besides, he certainly wasn't emotionally vulnerable in the sense that he could be easily bullied or picked on. The boy was fearsome to adults! God help the child who picked on him, no matter how he liked to look! Wait, how did he like to look? "Richard, if you would like to, I want to see you wearing your favorite outfit. Would you please go and change into it after you have finished your dinner?" Her tone of voice was as polite as she could make it. Especially after her foolishness with her daughter, if her son thought that she was telling him rather than asking him to do a thing like that...!

Richard was startled by the request. He was certain that a mother asking her son to dress up was something that he would only ever see in unrealistic fantasies or outright abuse. 'I'm not going to dress up for my mom!' was, of course, an option, and one he almost took. He turned to Zoe, who was surprised, delighted, and extremely amused, giving him an enormous grin. If he could start openly dressing so cutely full-time at home, then there would be fewer things stopping her from treating him like her little sissy brother the way they both enjoyed. Well, of course, when Susie wasn't treating him the way she wanted.

"Okay," Richard replied. He almost added 'No pictures', but that would have been silly. There was no one in the world that she could have shown such things to, and if she later were to go crazy enough to try to blackmail him with them, it would be like threatening to light herself on fire. He decided to enjoy his food instead of worrying about impossibilities.

They ate quietly, in silence and general relief. It felt like they had all just signed an armistice to end the cold war. And then Richard, smiling a bit, went upstairs to change .

"I don't understand him at all," Heather quietly said to her daughter once his door closed. "How can someone so... well, you know how he was. So antisocial, so... protective of himself, so vengeful, he's still so..." She couldn't think of a word that both matched what he was and she actually wanted to say about him. "...and now he wants to be at least a little bit feminine?"

"Mom, that's WHY he's like that. You know those animals with the armor and the spikes on their backs, and they have soft underbellies? That's Ricky. The whole reason he has that stuff is to protect his soft side."

"And sometimes he can jump on someone's head," Heather replied, and Zoe groaned at her mom's videogame joke. Heather smiled and suddenly thought of a way to possibly patch things up with her daughter. "Speaking of people who need a softer viewpoint, perhaps it's Michael who should be wearing dresses." She was expecting good humor and reconciliation; instead, her daughter stared at her with alarm, almost panic.

"Don't ever say that!" Zoe whispered harshly. "If Ricky heard you say something like that, he'd freak!" She was freaking out a bit herself. Christ, that had been just like what he'd asked her after his nightmare!

"It was just a joke, Zoe," Heather softly replied, a bit startled and not understanding. The way her daughter was looking at her, she had just said something utterly offensive, and she made a serious effort to figure out how it could have been.

"God, you just don't get it," Zoe hissed in frustration. "It's not funny, and if you want to see his soft side, don't ever make him think that you want to do this as a punishment, to anyone, for any reason, ever!" She almost blurted out 'He'll KILL you, Mom!' Instead, she decided on "He'll just do that thing again instead!" She was watching his door upstairs to make sure it was still closed. How could she even begin to explain this?

Heather needed no explanation. "Or you would," she said softly. "I understand." She did understand, then, even better than her children did. Dressing so femininely, especially for a boy, obviously wasn't completely a sexual thing, but it was in that vicinity. Therefore, adding force to the equation was in the same general category as rape. What she had previously done to her daughter was completely unconscionable, extreme fraternity hazing at the very least, and she had basically just told a rape joke. "It's a very personal choice," she chose to say aloud, and Zoe heard all the regret and realization in her voice.

Richard's door opened, and Heather was surprised that there wasn't much to be surprised about, except for the colors on display. He wasn't wearing makeup, but he had done his own pigtails very well, a pair of rainbow ties holding his hair. Heather had worried that he was going to appear wearing something revealing or even pornographic, but instead he wore his full rainbow outfit, his dress against his knees and his gloves at his elbows, his socks and medium heels on his feet. He slowly walked downstairs, smiling the whole time but still slightly expecting his mother to freak out.

"Did you pick that outfit yourself?" Heather asked. They were appropriate first words to ask him, the first time she saw him dressed like that.

"Susie picked it for me, but it's still my favorite."

Heather nodded. "All right. If this is who you want to be, then this is who you should be. As long as it's tasteful and modest, you don't need to dress like a boy or a girl on my account," she said, clearly and carefully. What she had really been afraid of was that he would have looked like that one boy she'd seen on television, that boy whose mother allowed him - or urged him, or possibly even forced him - to wear revealing and rather disturbing outfits. What she saw in front of her was simply a cute hairstyle, what was almost just an extended shirt, a pair of tasteful, long boots, and fancy gloves that he was wearing just because she'd asked to see the outfit. "But I won't have you dressing like a slut in public, Richard, and so we're clear, that goes for both of you," she warned anyway. "That's too far."

Zoe just scoffed angrily, feeling doubly insulted but not replying. Richard's tone was mollifying. "Mom, I don't do that. Even, like, at the pool, you know what trunks Susie bought for me."

"I'm aware," Heather replied. "But now I need to know. Did you actually go where you said you were going?"

"We didn't lie to you, Mom," Zoe replied, annoyed. "Especially not about the pool, Leslie really has to be there on Tuesdays and Fridays and I really want to be there with her. We did go to the frolfing course, and he did get his socks and shoes muddy when carrying her over. What he was wearing sometimes wasn't what you expected, but it's actually where we went, every time."

"And made additional stops I was unaware of. I understand," Heather replied, knowing like she had to sound like as much of a parent, be as much of a parent, as she could. "I'm not a fool, Zoe. I knew that the two of you would start keeping things from me as you grew older, and I know that you're keeping things from me now. And I'm well aware that I've made awful mistakes as a mother, but I'm concerned about you, both of you, about your safety and about your health. I don't want you, either of you, to do anything that's going to ruin your lives later on down the road." She sighed, turning to Richard. "I don't want to be scared of you and I don't want you to be scared of me, either."

He chose his words carefully, trying not to be harsh at all. "Can we just not do bad stuff to each other anymore, Mom? Me or Zoe or you?" He wanted to say more, but he didn't know how to phrase it, and his words got caught in his throat.

Heather was expecting her son to promise something, to do something for her if she left them alone, and she suddenly remembered what she'd come home to last week. "You did all the chores like that, didn't you?" Richard found himself blushing as he nodded. "And you very much enjoyed it. You don't need to say anything, your mother understands. All right, then. No more bad stuff, no more forcing you to wear clothes you hate or attend social events with people you detest," she said, turning to Zoe. "I won't keep either of you from spending time with your friends or anything like that, I won't judge you for the way you are. But. The two of you have shown me that you are not normal teenagers. Therefore, I don't want to see any of the normal teenager crap from either of you. No drinking, no smoking, no lying - and I know you're not going to always tell me everything, that's different - keep your grades up, keep doing your chores however you're dressed doing them, keep the moody phases to a minimum, I know it's all hormones, no pointless arguments or teenager tantrums, you actually use those brains of yours and don't get into any dangerous situations, and above all, absolutely no drugs of any kind. I won't have any of that in this house or in my children. Do we have a deal?"

"Just one more thing, can you never, ever go through my closet ever again? I checked, there's nothing of yours back there," Richard said. He had been through every box in the closet while finding places to store his new wardrobe.

"Either of our closets," Zoe added firmly.

"I'll leave both of you your privacy, I can do that for you. Then do we have a deal?"

Richard glanced at his sister, who seemed much more annoyed than he did. "Deal," Zoe said after a bit. She wanted to slap her mother for her earlier 'slut' comment, but she was more than willing to just put this all to a permanent stop if she could be openly in love with her girlfriend without worry.

"Deal," Richard agreed.

"All right, then. This is our family now. I'll respect you and you'll respect me. I am concerned about one more thing. Richard, you said that this is what brought you and Susie together, and I won't ask details. But would the two of you still be together if you didn't allow her to dress you?"

The question cut to the quick, jarring his sense of self. Yes, they'd been doing a great many very intimate things, but was he really her boyfriend or more like her pet? If, one day, he had to be done with being a sissy, would she be just as done with him?

Zoe came to his rescue. "Mom, she loves him for who he is. Don't ask him if she'd love him if he was someone else, he doesn't know and she probably doesn't either."

"All right, that's fair," Heather replied. "Give your mother a hug." Both of her children leaned in to hug her, Zoe very slightly more reluctant than her brother. "I'm going to go relax now. I love you and I want the best for you. Both of you." She turned to Zoe. "Even if I'm sometimes so terrible at showing it." She went upstairs to play a monotonous game that would let her brain lose focus on everything else.

"My ass," Zoe muttered quietly once her mother was out of earshot. Her brother looked at her. "Never mind. It's fine, it's over, we don't have to worry anymore." They immediately went to give their friends the good news.

[5:35 PM] Leslie: Needing to wait for someone when you're worried about them is one of the worst things.
[5:37 PM] Susie: It really is.
[5:38 PM] Caroline: rickys been feeling the same about you, you must have figured this out
[5:39 PM] Susie: I'm with my dad. Ricky's just waiting to be with me again. He's not waiting while worried. It's different.
[5:42 PM] Leslie: I'm going to play games. I really can't sit here stressed. Zoe TEXT ME when you get this!!
[5:44 PM] Susie: I'll stay in the chat, my dad'll be doing work stuff for another hour or two.
[5:46 PM] Caroline: just sitting here watching a movie rn
[6:03 PM] Richard: /tts We're back!
[6:03 PM] Susie: OMG that made me jump
[6:03 PM] Caroline: ok hacker boy howd you do that
[6:03 PM] Leslie: Didn't even need the text! What was that?
[6:03 PM] Zoe: lol I saw him do it
[6:04 PM] Richard: ```/tts``` (text to speech) is great stuff. :smile: It all went fine, best it could have really! Wearing my rainbow dress right now :grin:
[6:04 PM] Zoe: She ASKED to see it!
[6:04 PM] Susie: I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!! :hearts:
[6:05 PM] Zoe: Leslie **we don't need to hide from her anymore!!!**
[6:05 PM] Caroline: this ended better than the movie did
[6:05 PM] Richard: Yeah she made us a deal, we can do whatever as long as we don't get into regular teenager trouble like smoking or drugs or something
[6:05 PM] Leslie: This is one of the best days ever, I am not even kidding
[6:05 PM] Leslie: THE BAD THING we were so worried about WON'T HAPPEN
[6:05 PM] Caroline: like the two of you were ever going to do regular bad teenager shit lol
[6:05 PM] Zoe: IKR!! to both caroline and leslie (edited)
[6:06 PM] Susie: And now Ricky can hang up all his pretty outfits and put his boy clothes away for special occasions :slight_smile: Like tomorrow lol
[6:06 PM] Richard: Good idea! :)
[6:07 PM] Leslie: I just want to know, this is just a question, Ricky did you threaten your mom at all?
[6:08 PM] Richard: I tried not to. I think she was feeling a little threatened anyway, but I didn't give her any ultimatum or anything like that, btw SHE MUST NEVER KNOW ABOUT THE PEDO BLACKMAIL THING or she will **actually** have a heart attack.
[6:09 PM] Zoe: It feels like she's doing what she thinks she has to do, not what she wants to do. If she doesn't go back on it, that's good enough for me.
[6:09 PM] Richard: She actually said the word "deal" so we're good.
[6:10 PM] Leslie: If this is all okay now, anyone for Cards Against Humanity?
[6:10 PM] Richard: You play that?!
[6:10 PM] Zoe: Ricky, if you and her get blank cards at the same time, SHE WILL WIN.

Neither Caroline nor Susie had played it before, and it was a very entertaining evening indeed.

Heather found her backscratcher before she went to bed. It was in her secretary in plain view, where it had been the whole time.