Misha started talking: “I’m sorry, so, so sorry, for everything I have done to you Alexis,” She was on the verge of tears.

To be honest, I didn’t know how to react. In front of me stood one of many bullies that I had in my lifetime. A person who used to beat me for being feminine, was standing, there, in front of me crying while wearing a skirt. Was she projecting on me the frustrations that she accumulated throughout the years? Was she in a bad period of her life when she met me? I didn’t have much time to think about that because her Irish stepsister started talking.

“You know Alex, Misha?”

“I used to bully her.”

“What! You, bully someone, that’s kind of weird. I mean you are so kind, I could hardly see you do that. ”

“It was the old me. A version of me you never met because it was before your father met my mother. Sit please, there is quite a long time before supper and I’m going to tell you what happened even if I know that it will not justify my actions. ”

We all sat on our beds and Misha started talking

“I had always known I was different. I wasn’t like the boys I had befriended throughout the years. For one, I liked boys and two, I felt like a girl on the inside. I can imagine, Alexis or Alex like they call you these days that you understand what I felt inside? ”

I wanted to say, that no, that I had just started questioning my gender identity and that I wasn’t sure about my sexual orientation but I thought it would break the mood so I just nodded.

“Well those thoughts, weren’t welcome in my house. My father, an old-school Russian man who had come to Canada to escape communism hated those ideas and would have killed me if I had ever thought of uttering them in my house.”

Same situation as me then. Apology instantly accepted. Even if I am still mad about the time Misha pushed me in a soiled toilet. I didn’t want to interrupt her story so I just said a few words.

“I get that, Misha, our father trying to kill me is how me and my newly discovered sister got here.”

Misha looked horrified at my comment and so did her sister. “Your father tried to kill you?”
Commented Aishling.

“Yes, and he almost managed to do it but we were saved by the police just in time,” I answered.

“Our aunt, who is adopting us, isn’t that lucky though, she will never walk again,” Added Lexi.

“Damn, your life has been hard since I last met you Alex. Anyway, like I was saying my father would have killed me if he had known that since I was about six I had known that I was girl inside, so I decided to hide it and by hiding it I meant trying to act as manly possible. I would cause trouble, get into fights and bully other kids, in particular Alex, here present, who was an easy target due to her small size. ”

“What allowed you to become to person you are right now?” I asked her.

“My father died from a heart attack and I was set free. A few days after he died, I started buying girl clothes and stashing them in my room. I didn’t have to eat my emotions anymore so I started losing some weight too. Every day of that spring, I would run home to my room, change into my comfortable new clothes and practice makeup. One day while trying them on, my mother discovered me and pretty much kick-started my transition and my weight loss, a few months afterwards my mom got hired at the Louise Larivière School for girls and months later she met the father of Ash while hiking around the community. Pretty much a lucky streak. ”

So my bully was getting happier and happier as my life got sadder and sadder, fun stuff. If I didn’t genuinely believe that she was a changed person I might have been mad but I am not a vengeful person, so I just decided to let it go.

“Quite the happy tale,” I said.

“Yes, quite the happy tale,” Repeated Misha.

Misha looked at the clock and realizing that it was almost time for supper she entered our en-suite bathroom and changed out of her uniform her sister on the other side, just changed in front us, or more like my sister as I was looking at the wall, one week ago I still was a guy and some girl things made me quite uncomfortable.

A few minutes afterwards, we went to the dining room with Misha and her sister. There were about 40 girls in there. We sat with Misha and Aishling in a table who could sit 6 people. We asked the pair of girls if they had other friends that were coming. Our question was quickly answered when an Afro-Asian girl and a blonde girl walked towards us and sat at our table.

“Hello, Misha. Hello, Ash. Who are those new faces?” Asked the tall blonde.

“I am Alex and my twin is Lexi, happy to meet you.”

“Your names sound like the name Alexis, any relative with that name? “Asked the other girl.

Lexi and I each gave the other a look. We pointed at each other and said: “Yes, her!”

All the other people at our table were confused, including Misha.

“I know your full name Alex, but your sister as the same name as you? “Asked Misha.

“Yep, which is why our aunt Robin enrolled us with our nicknames,” I said

“You were enrolled? Don't you mean invited? No offence but last time I saw you, you were starving daily even if you were going to private school. I could hardly see your family being able to pay this school.”

“Our aunts are rich, they are adopting us after the incident with our father.”

“Incident?” Said both girls whose names I still didn’t know.

Before we could answer Aishling started talking: “It’s a long story, if the twins are alright with it I might talk you about it later.”

I wanted to ask the girls for their name but Lexi cut me short. The blonde one was Brynhildr Baash and her mixed friend was Esmeralda Mori Villanueva. Esme’s dad was an Afro-Colombian rapper and her mother a Japanese Idol both met on an American concert in which they were scheduled to perform one after the other. Bryn’s father was an incredibly rich banker who didn’t have time for her. We talked about a lot of things during dinner. Esme had noticed that Misha and I knew each other and they wanted to know more about our relationship. Misha didn’t want to say to her best friends the kinds of torture she had put me through and I didn’t want to relieve them so Ash who could read her stepsister like an open book closed the subject by saying that we went to the same school and that was that. Esme and Bryn got curious but sensing the distress in Misha, their best friend, they decided to shut up.

I changed the subject. “So Bryn, Esme do you go to the girl’s school or academy whatever…”

Esme answered. “We go to the girl’s school. Alex and Lexi, where do you go? ”

“The girl’s school too,” I said.

“You should both join the cheer-leading club then, clubs being mandatory it would be better if you were in one with people you at least know.”

I had a thought in my mind, something about cheer-leading usually being were trans-girls ended up at in the few transgender fiction stories I read on the plane to France. It reminded me of what Mme Pissard said earlier about this not being that kind of story. I had a chuckle. My life these past few days hinted to what kind of story?