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The one on the left is a boy, the one in the middle is delusional, and the one on the right doesn't speak any English...

That's what Victoria thinks anyway.

Harper, Whim, and Suzi on a coffee run.

From this Episode:

Episode 11: Rescuing Whimself

Here's a link to the start of our story:

Whim Manor And The Boy Who Wasn'tChapter 1: Wicked Step-Sister,Friday, October 8, 2013—West Hills High School Library.“Jesus Dude, you’re on your own.” Justin backed away from me. We were peering around a stack in the library, peering at Nora. She was leaning against a bookshelf, reading. She didn’t seem immediately threatening. But she was big in an Amazonian sort of way. That and she looked twenty-five.“She can’t be that bad, can she?” I asked, watching her push her straight dark hair back behind square shoulders.“You remember the entire sophomore wrestling team running laps last week at lunch?”“Yeah?” I said.“That was Nora. She shows up at tryouts, guys try outs, they all laugh at her, and then she whoops all their asses. Every. Single. One.”I looked back at Nora. She was thumbing through a book—the book I needed—with a sort of amused sneer on her face. “Did they let her on the team?” I asked.“No, dude. She turned them down.”“Okay… Why’d she try out then?”“Coach Smith gave her a ‘B’ plus,” Justin whispered, shaking his head as his rotund body quivered beneath it.“What, in Gym?”“No, English. Coach Smith teaches English. My sister is in her class, said she was pissed about it.”“Wait… so you kind of know her then? You could talk to her, bring up your sister? Help me out.” I nudged him toward her.Justin dug in his heels. “No freaking way. I gotta go… to the bathroom.” He backed away from me, turned, and raced out the door, his underarms so dripping with sweat, they looked like they’d been hit by water balloons. If Justin was off to the large side of the body positivity scale, I was off to the other, being a little short and a little thin… or rail thin really. Honestly, just about anyone could beat me up—well, any of the boys… and, if I’m being really honest, a fair number of the girls too, Nora definitely included. So, cowering and trying to look like I knew this, and there was no point in beating it into me, I took a step toward her, then another and another—She spun, glaring at me. “Can I help you?”“Um, no, I mean—are you going to check that out?” “I was thinking about it. What’s it to you?”“That’s the ah—Emily Dickenson collection, right?”Standing up straight and taking a step toward me, she made the four-inch height advantage she had over me brutally obvious.“Um,” I said, “I got assigned that for a report. I could ah—pay you for it?”She raised an eyebrow. “When’s this report due?”“Monday.”“Cutting it kind of close there aren’t you… You got a name?”“Um, Harper. My name is Harper.”She took an uncomfortable moment to look me over, then let her expression drop flat. “That’s more of a girl’s name these days, isn’t it?”Not this again. I groaned. “Yes, yes it is. But I was named after my grandfather.”She shrugged. “Alright, Harper, what’s it worth to you?”“Five bucks?”She batted her eyes with smug amusement as her face pulled into a wolfish grin.“It’s all I’ve got.” I opened my wallet, forgetting about the extra dollar that was my bus fare. We both saw it, making my previous statement seem like a now-exposed lie. “I can give you six, but…”“But what?”“Then I’d need to walk home.”“So, six bucks and a little exercise? Not a bad price for a grade.” She held out her hand.I gulped and emptied my wallet.She snorted, turning the bills over in her hand. “You really are desperate, aren’t you? You know who I am, right?”I nodded.“And you know what I do to little boys who bother me?”“Give them the books they need to not fail English class?” I eked out.She flinched, and I flinched back like she might hit me. “Only when they don’t take me seriously,” she said, and I realized her flinch had been one of disbelief, not aggression.A prolonged groan later, she continued, “So, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to give you this book, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson. And I’m going to give your money back, and on top of that, I’m going to pay you six dollars. And for my six dollars, I expect you to take it home, and spend all weekend reading it, and then you’re going to get an ‘A’ on your report, or…”“Or what?”“Else.” She gave me a dirty look, stuffed my money into the book, added two bills of her own, and shoved it into my hands.I had been planning on going over to Justin’s that evening to spend all night playing video games. Instead, I texted him I was sick and spent all night reading… I couldn’t really sleep anyway. My mind kept imagining the different things that ‘else’ could mean.* * *It was noon on Monday, and I was sitting in the cafeteria, alone. Justin was pretty much my only friend, and he had lunch in another period. Something small and wet pegged the back of my head. A snicker, “she man,” rose from a few tables away.I don’t really want to explain this, but I probably need to… The thing is, I’m not exactly the most macho looking guy in the world. I have long hair. Between that, my name, and my slight build, I tend to get mistaken for a girl more often than—than I’m comfortable with. Some kids get their kicks making fun of anyone they can. They’re called bullies, and I was an easy target.I picked the wet, sticky thing out of my hair, thankful when it turned out to be a bean and, wiping my hand on a napkin, I sighed.Then the dark-haired giantess I’d been dreading all weekend, sat down opposite me and looked at me with a wolfish grin that ran ear-to-ear.“You’ve turned it in, correct?” Nora asked.“Um, no.”Her grin twisting into a sneer, she glared at me as I blurted out, “The due date got pushed back. It’s not until tomorrow.”As she drummed her fingers on the lunch table, her expression went flat, pensive.“But it’s done. I finished it.”“Let me see.”I fished it out of my bag and handed it to her.“Alright,” she said, standing up. “And –those–” She jabbed her finger toward where the snicker had come from. “Don’t let –those– get to you.”Still holding my report, she walked right past the lunch monitor and right out the door.As my relief in surviving slowly turned into dread at what was still to come, I looked up and saw everyone in the lunchroom staring at me. A long moment later, people started turning back and soon everything went back to normal.* * *After class, Justin was waiting by my locker.“She’s in my study hall. She told me to give you this.”He handed me my paper, filled-in with red ink: Grammar corrections, spelling corrections, and notes jammed in the margins.When Nora found me again at the end of the week, I showed her the “A-” I’d gotten, and she only made me give half the money back.I dreaded stepping foot in the library after that. Nora worked there the same period I had English, and my next assignment was on modern British literature. I had planned on doing it on a short book, an easy read, but Nora wouldn’t let me. When I handed her “Animal Farm” to check out, she handed me back “Brave New World.”This went on for months, and I was working up the courage to complain to the principal, when one day I realized my bullies had mysteriously stopped bothering me. They’d even stopped calling Justin ‘fatty.’ So besides being forced to read constantly by my guardian psychopath, life was tolerable.To be clear, Nora and I were not friends. We didn’t hang out. She’d just pop in from time to time to see how her little ‘project’ was going.Winter break of freshman year was hard. First Justin moved away, and then my mom suddenly decided to get remarried.She was a secretary at a tech firm. One week I was staying at my Aunt Agnus’s while Mom was away on a work trip, and the next day when she got back, her boss, Jack Grant, came by to have a man-to-man conversation with me, which for some reason he decided to do in his Porsche. He was intimidating: tall and strikingly handsome with cold blue eyes and well-kempt beard scruff. During the ‘conversation’ He’d drive his points home, quite literally, by hitting the accelerator whenever he bragged about himself, and then stomp on the brakes whenever he felt like changing subjects.I didn’t say a word back to him, and he never asked me a question, going on and on with urgency, like any pause in the ‘conversation’ might cause the car to explode.“…So, Harper,” Jack concluded as we were pulling back up to our apartment building. “Your Mom and I will be married as soon as the pre-nups come back from the lawyers. It makes sense to just get it done. Easier all around. There will be a civil ceremony at City Hall. You should come—for your mom.” He said, trying to sound inviting as nodded without looking me in the eye. “Good then, that’s all settled… Oh, you can get out now.”He paused just long enough to motion to the door.And, “I can’t. The door’s locked,” were the first words I ever spoke to him.* * *The next day we were at city hall. Inside, the air permeated with harsh fluorescent light that somehow made the already stark concrete walls even more colorless, the right angles of the architecture even more square, and the dirt-colored tile floor, designed to last forever, look like it already had.I was waiting outside the ‘ceremony’ room, which doubled as the city council chamber, when I spotted an angry giant stomping toward me with a baseball bat.My butt cheeks clenched as Nora stopped in front of me. She put the bat down, handed me a large paper bag, and fumbled around in her jacket until she produced a cigarette lighter.“What’s up?” She chin-nodded with a sneer. “Come to see the show?”“What show?”“My dad’s about to marry some gold-digger…”she grumbled. ”Last name Watson…“ And as she looked away, her tongue poked against her cheek, like she was thinking. “Hey… the name on your reports… Harper…?”“Watson…” I eked out.Sighing through gritted teeth, she grabbed back the paper bag and deposited both it and the bat into a nearby garbage can. “Well, let’s not do that then.”***Mom and ‘New-Dad’ seemed very relieved when they found out ‘Lenora’ and I knew each other.“So, you two are friends?” Mom asked.My eyes darted to Nora, and she gave a long glance back, then shrugged her shoulders and nearly sent me into shock when she nodded in agreement.“Do you two go to the same school? Is it a combined… high school, middle school?” ‘New-Dad’ asked.“Jack, they’re the same age,” Mom said.“Oh.”“Dad, we’re the weirdos,” Nora said. “Harper is normal-size for his age, and besides I’m almost a year older.” As ‘New-Dad’ nodded, I looked at Nora sideways, not quite trusting it, but still thankful for the way she had bent the truth.That weekend, we moved into Mr. Grant’s townhouse at the top of a glass tower overlooking the ocean. It must have cost a fortune, and although it was more stylish than huge, it was still easily twice the size of our old apartment. Everything was polished metal, with a sweeping staircase that arced gracefully down from a mezzanine. It was impressive, but felt impersonal in that same way an airport does.Nora pulled a “Harry Potter” on me the first night, showing me to my new ‘room’ in what looked like a storage closet, her face sporting that wolfish grin of hers all the while. But the next day, I found her clearing out the extra room she had been using as an office, a room next to hers, and I moved in. That night Mom and ‘New-Dad’ had to go into work, so it was just me alone, with Nora. We ended up kind of staring at each other in the living room for an hour or so, her face with an annoyed look, while my own shifted between abject terror and utter confusion.“Would you relax?” She flung the remote at me. “Watch something.”After flipping through the guide for a good five minutes, afraid of picking a show that would earn Nora’s ire, she groaned at me and, startled, I started up the most recent episode of “Dr. Who”…And then… to my surprise… she made me go back an episode, because she hadn’t seen that one yet, and she didn’t want any spoilers.Nora, as it turned out, was a closeted geek. Besides English lit and poetry, she was completely addicted to sci-fi shows, and her room usually had cosplay clothes strewn about. She wasn’t much into video games, but she started watching me as I played and often back-seat drove, shouting loud enough so Justin could hear it through my headset whenever we’d go on raids together.It still felt like I was a guest, just visiting their home, but Nora at least accepted my presence without much of a fuss. She helped me with English and History, and astonishingly, let me help her with Math. At school, however, things were different. She threatened to murder me if I told anyone we were ‘related,’ and she steered clear of me, even making me ride the bus home.Eventually, some of her classmates spotted us hanging out, and a rumor went around that we were dating. After that, she made sure to let everyone know we were brother and sister. She played it off like we were half-siblings, and always had been to explain the different last names, which shut everyone up.And then one night, we got home from a movie, and caught Mom and ‘New-Dad’ in a yelling match.After I went to bed, there was a gentle knock on my door. I opened it to find Nora on the other side, wearing her night clothes: a long t-shirt and shorts. One hand grasping her journal, its cover now torn, the other with a white-knuckle grip on one of the clicky pens she usually wrote with, its ink smeared on her palm. Her eyes simultaneously tired and alert.“I found out what they’re fighting about,” she whispered.I nodded silently. I’d never heard my mom that angry before.“Dad’s got to go away on a business trip this summer, all summer, outside the country. Your mom is... I don’t know… upset?” She added, “Not that I blame her. I mean, he doesn’t have much time for people. The wedding… She didn’t even get a honeymoon. So, I guess she’s feeling…”“Abandoned?” I asked.Nora leaned against the wall, sliding slowly down until she was sitting on the floor. She clicked the pen, turning it over. “Yeah well… I’ve felt that way before. I was thinking… what if she went with him?”“You think that’s a good idea? Aren’t they angry at each other?”“They’re okay… I think… I hope. Dad came by my room to apologize for the yelling. Said he was figuring out that some problems can’t be solved with money… It almost sounded like he was thinking about quitting his job.”“Yikes… Mom came by, she just said the fight wasn’t really anyone’s fault.”Nora jabbed the pen into the back of her journal, softly ripping the paper. “Work needs him. He loves his job, but this is the first time he ever had to go away for so long. It used to be a few weeks a year, tops… now it’s…”Not wanting to make her finish, I filled the silence, speaking without thinking, “And she’s got to stay here to look after us… Not that she’d admit it, but that’s got to be why… Couldn’t they just leave us on our own? No, I guess not, not legally. Unless they left us with… Aunt Agnus.”“How is she?” Nora snorted, giving a weak smile. “She’s weird, and strict, and she has cats,” I added.“I’m allergic.” She glowered off into space, scribbling on the back cover. “I guess I can take pills.”“And she, she smells… funny.” I added, “I mean I will if I have to, but… do you have any family nearby?”Nora gave a long slow shake of her head. Then after a minute of silence, a curious look popped onto her face. “Harper, how do you feel about summer camp?”“…Like in the woods?” My voice cracked. I am not an outdoors person.“It wouldn’t have to be. You know Dad’s loaded, right? I could get him to agree to just about anything.”“Well, if it means he gets to keep his job... I could give it a try…” I said, imagining ending up at the same camp as one of my bullies, feeling my face go slack as I realized the world was full of them.“What’s wrong?”I paused a long while. “I don’t like camping.”“Okay,” she nodded, “So, one camp, sans camping?”At that moment, more afraid of uncertainty than bullies, I nodded. “Okay.”* * *The next morning, Nora cornered her father, grabbing his keys before he could get out the door.“Not so fast, Jack,” she said.“Lenora…?”“Harper and I were talking, and there’s this camp we’d like to go to this summer,” she said, spinning his keyring on her finger.“What, really?” he asked.“Yes, really.”“How long?”She replied, “The whole summer, while you are away. I mean, while you and ‘mom’ are away.”“What—where’s she going?” His eyes went wide.“With you…”“Oh… oh…” his voice lifted. “That sounds—great. What camp?”“We’ll let you know when we decide on one, but it’ll be expensive, very very expensive.” Nora dropped his keys into his hand.“Ohh…” He paused a second to take that in before giving her his own wolfish grin. “Fine by me.”* * *That evening, I was sitting at the desk in my room when Nora entered.“So… ready to play ‘What’s the most expensive camp we can find’?” She asked, plopping down on my bed.“I’ve been doing some research, you?”“Horse camp?” she asked.“Do you even like horses?”“No, but it costs a lot… Why, what sort of camp do you suggest?”“How about a video-game camp?” I asked, knowing it was a longshot.“Ahh... No.” She tore a page out of her journal, crumpled it up, and threw it at me.“I guess we don’t have to go to the same camp,” I said, sighing. If she wanted to go off and do her own thing, I’d make it easy for her. After all, she’d been forced into being my sister, so maybe she needed a break too.Her eyes narrowed. “Really? computer games over me?” She looked annoyed, almost hurt. And that kind of freaked me out… I thought she’d be happy, relieved.“What?” she asked. “You’re looking at me funny.”“Fine, no computer game camps then.”“Okay,” she said, firmly. “So. No outdoorsy stuff for you… and no stuff only super-geeky boys like for me. agreed?”“So, no space camp?” I asked.She grasped another page in the back of her journal, like she was about to rip it out and throw it at me. “I’d never live it down. I mean, what do you really want out of a camp, ideally?”“I’d like to not have to get up super early in the morning… or at all, that and hot showers, and wi-fi.”“So, more or less just sitting around like a couch potato?” she cocked her head.“Yep.” I smiled. “But I wouldn’t complain if there was more to do.”Her brow lifted. “There is this one camp… a school really. I was reading a blog about it, but I don’t know if you’d like it…”“Why not?”“You might think it’s dumb. Honestly, I think it’s more for girls.”“But they take boys?” I asked, trying to ignore a phantom bean as it pegged the back of my head.She pulled out her phone, swiping through it. “Well… yes, they do, but… I’ve been reading this one girl’s blog, and she said the boys caused problems, at least the year she was there.”“Well, what is this magical mystery camp already?” I asked.She cleared her throat and read aloud, “The Galeton School of Intrigue. Classes run all summer long. Students stay at Galeton Manor, experiencing a life of nineteenth century leisure. They teach riding, dancing, etiquette, fencing… and they have –wifi–”She was trying to act all nonchalant. But the way her eyes darted between me and the website… she seemed genuinely eager.In a rush, she added, “They also teach marksmanship… do an escape room… and assassin?”“Assassin?” I asked.“That’s where you draw a name out of a hat, and that’s your target. You have to ambush them with a dart gun. That’s like a video game, isn’t it?” I made a finger gun, shot her, and mimed blowing away the smoke. “Cool. But—what time would I have to get up?”“The webpage says ten.” Nora pulled up a picture of a bunch of girls in fancy clothes sitting on a porch sipping lemonade. One of them was on a laptop.“Wifi and sitting around. Hmm…” For a moment I wondered if I could extort a new computer or console out of the deal. But looking at Nora, she actually wanted to spend the summer with me…I shrugged. “I’m in.”And I really liked the theme too. The idea of a cosplay camp sounded… well brilliant, even if I’d never admit it. But it did sound like just the thing that would get me made fun of. I was still getting over the post-traumatic stress of trying to –ironically– dress up like a brony three years ago for Halloween, and then having the bullies take it at face value, stealing my candy and chanting “she man, she man.” Still, as long as no one found out… everything would be fine.It, the camp, was absurdly expensive, but ‘New-Dad’ didn’t bat an eye. He was too busy spending every moment he could with Mom, planning their trip, which I noted, made his face fluctuate between an anxious grimace and a genuine smile.Nora was so caught up in it that she handled all the arrangements… which was fine with me because: video games. One night, she came into my room with a measuring tape.“What’s this for?” I asked once she had me lassoed around the chest.“I need your measurements.”“Ah, why?”“Galeton, they provide all the clothes.” She lifted one of my arms, measuring it from fingertip to shoulder.“What-in-the-what now?”“Unless you’ve got a closet full of nineteenth century clothes.”“So, we don’t bring our own?” I asked as she stood me up and spun me around.“Just a few sets of street clothes…” Kicking my legs apart, she measured my inseam, though quickly enough to not be awkward. “But it’s part of the fun, they give us new outfits all summer long.”“Oh… now I get why you were so keen on it.”“Keen? Who says that?” She smirked, then wrapped the measuring tape around my neck and pulled it tight like a garrote wire. “But that’s one of the reasons it’s so expensive.”“So… the clothes… are like… a school uniform?” I asked, just slightly choking to death, and Nora released the tape.“Oh sorry.” She tittered in an oddly menacing way. “I think there’s one set of uniform clothes, yes, going by the pictures, but most of it is individual, custom made,” she dropped the measuring tape and began writing it all down.“I don’t get to pick my own clothes?”“I wrote the headmistress. She said that’s one of the reasons they ask for an essay.”“Essay—what essay?” I said, and Nora’s journal fell out of her hands and hit the floor.She got all serious. “Harper, the application essay… you were supposed to write? You need to say why you want to spend your summer in the nineteenth century… include references to your favorite books and shows about that time. They’ll make clothes to match.” “So, like what, cowboys and the civil war?”“Well yes, and vampires, and steampunk. You can have fun with it. Those all work.”“Oh, so the essay is just for fun then, right?”“No.” She made a sour face. “Please don’t blow it off. The headmistress said she only accepts students who actually want to be there.”“This is suddenly sounding like a lot of work.”“It’ll be fine—once we get there. The essay is the only real work you have to do, so you better do a good job, or…”“Or what?”“Else,” she threatened with a wolfish grin.And then she spent the rest of the evening ‘helping’ me with ‘my’ essay. Which is to say she wrote it while I played video games.Chapter 2: Dear Sir or Madam,,With Justin gone, I tried to zone out school as much as possible, and the rest of the 9th grade just sort of came and went.Mom and ‘New-Dad’ were anxious to get away, excited to be hopping the globe on the company jet. Nora hardly noticed turning sixteen, but as the summer drew near, more often than not, I’d see a smile on her face. Most of the time it was hidden under a sneer, but it was there. It felt odd but good how much her summer plans revolved around us sticking together, comforting that whatever happened, she’d be there. She seemed bolder too, if that was possible, and more relaxed. She’d even talked me into taking a train up the coast, rather than have Mom or ‘New-Dad’ drop us off. Though I was nervous about them being up in the air and out of the country by our second day on the train.As much as I wanted to like it, I still wasn’t sure I could completely get onboard with 19th century life. So, just as a contingency, I packed lots and lots of video games: A laptop, a tablet, and a hand-held Mr. Grant had given me for Christmas. But, Nora did stop me with a glare when I asked if she had any extra room in her suitcase for a flat panel TV to hook up to my Xbox.* * *We had a private compartment on the train. Nothing too fancy, just a couch that converted into a bunk bed at night, and while Nora read, I’d often gaze out onto the scenery, memorized as the ocean rolled by, turning into desert, and back into coastal towns, green hills, and eventually forested mountains. But I was watching a show on my phone when I felt a tap on my shoulder. “We get there in half an hour. Haven’t you opened your packet yet?” Nora asked, her left eyebrow twitching ever so slightly.Feeling lazy from the rock of the train, I shrugged it away. “Why? Yours has all the information.”“Fine, if you won’t… I will.” She reached across to my bag and pulled out the envelope.“Welcome to the Galeton School of Intrigue. Dear Miss. Harper Watson… wait a minute that can’t be right…”My ears popped as I bolted upright, and we looked at each other for a long moment. The first moment, in fact, I ever saw Nora, with the sneer completely wiped from her face. She looked stunned.“Miss??!” I coughed.It only took a minute of searching the web to find out that ‘The Galeton School of Intrigue’ had stopped accepting boys two years ago. Apparently, a boy had ‘accidently’ started a fire in the basement, and it had never been all that popular with boys in the first place, so they decided to suspend their ‘male experience’ until they could rework it.“Crap…” I said reaching for my phone.“What are you doing?” Nora looked at me sideways.“Calling Mom and Dad?!”She grabbed my shoulder. “Please… Please don’t. Just give me a chance to think… I’m not ready to be responsible for ruining everyone’s summer just yet.”“You?” I asked, “What about me?”“Well… I should have… I mean I told you I’d take care of the arrangements.”“So, what now?!” I asked.“I don’t know. Let me think…”While she frantically looked things up online, I thought about what was going to happen: Mom and ‘New-Dad’ would act responsibly. And Mom, no doubt, would end up flying right back to the States to sort this all out. She’d tell me that I’m more important to her than any trip, and then we’d all spend the rest of the summer sighing, and telling each other it was for the best. All while Mr. Grant would be out seeing the world without her… And I really should have opened my packet before today. I started looking over the papers.“Hey, Nora…”“Yeah?”“How could they not realize I’m a guy? You sent them a photo, didn't you?”“Yeah, that one of us together… oh,” she shuddered, “with your hair down.” I usually kept it in a ponytail. She brought the picture up on her phone. “You do kind of look like a…” she trailed off.I looked over the forms. “They don’t even have a box for gender.” I huffed.“Harper?” Nora’s left eyebrow was creeping so far up it looked painful. “Why do they have measurements for your bust size?”After a few more frantic minutes, we figured out that all of my ‘girl’ measurements were exact duplicates of Nora’s. I guessed that somehow the web form had cached all of her data and auto-completed mine with them when she left them blank. “Any ideas yet?” I asked.“Other than trying to pass you off as a girl?...” She said with a sigh.I winced at that, thinking of my bullies' jeers of ‘she man,’ and as Nore saw my face, she shook her head, dismissing the idea.”We can always spend the summer with Aunt Agnus…” She added.I groaned. “She’s as boring as… as… Well, hanging around with her is kind of like sitting in church all day. Ahh… Sure, dump me off…”“I said ‘we’. I’d go too.” Her expression fell as she looked me in the eye. “I can’t enjoy summer if you’re spending it… helping her knit.”“Any other ideas?” I asked.“I think it’s best to just come clean and tell the school. The Headmistress, Ms. Windsor, seemed pretty cool when I emailed her. They only recently made it all-girls so maybe we could talk her into making an exception, but…”“But what?”“Well, when they separated the school, they opened a boy’s camp… a wilderness survival school, and it’s not exactly ‘highly-rated’…” she squeaked out, yet another first for her.“What does ‘not exactly highly-rated’ mean?”“Ummm… Two stars? They might send you there.”“Ah… maybe I –could– pass for a girl?” I made a weak joke as my stomach twisted.“Ha…” She sighed. “No time.” And then the train rolled into the station.The school had a shuttle waiting, and the driver didn’t notice anything ‘unusual’ about me. Nor did any of the three other girls already in the van. The only two open seats weren’t next to each other, so we had to split up. I sat in the middle row, next to a red-haired girl. Nora sat just ahead, next to a mousy girl with dark hair.The red-haired girl looked like she was brooding about something. “So, are you a lesbian?” she huffed in a whisper after we’d been on the road for a few minutes.“What? No,” I said, feeling sure she must know exactly what I was as soon as she heard my voice.“You look like one. Actually, you look like a boy. Anyone ever tell you that?”“You’d be the first,” I said.“But you must get that, you dress like one,” she said, looking me over.“Actually, people usually inform me that I look like a girl.” I moaned.“That doesn’t make any sense.”“It’s because I am one,” my voice cracked as my face turned red. “Wait you’re a?...” “A boy,” I said, slouching into my seat.“Boys aren’t allowed, this is supposed to be a safe space,” she said, sounding matter-of-fact.“Don’t worry, I don’t expect to be staying,” I said.Her face kept shifting, like she was looking for just the right insult. Until finally, her mouth opened. “Good, well Christie should be happy about that, at least there’s someone here even more pathetic than her…”“Who’s Christie?” I asked.The mousy, dark-skinned girl turned around. “I am.”“She actually wants to be here.” The red-haired girl scoffed. “She doesn’t get how lame this is.”Nora turned around and glared at her.“Oh… you’re the lesbian,” the red-haired girl said.“You got a name?” Nora growled between clenched teeth.“You first…” the girl rebutted.“I’m Nora, and that’s my brother Harper.”“Ha, that’s a girl’s name.”Nora looked at me and pointed to the girl. “Not worth it.” She grumbled and turned back around.“I’m Victoria by the way… thanks for asking,” the red head said, then turned her attention to the last girl in the van, a short blonde, sitting all the way in back, who’d been keeping to herself.“And you are?” Victoria asked, but got no reply.She reached back and tapped the girl on the shoulder, “And you are…?”“–Reading, shush.” The blonde held up a finger. Her accent wasn’t quite all British.“Hey! What are you reading?” Victoria pressed.The girl held her book up. I only saw it for a moment, but it was full of math equations and electrical diagrams.“Oh great, a nerd,” Victoria kept pressing, “Why on earth are you reading that?”“I’ve been working out how to make something, but now, I suppose, I’m going to have to stop to make you something instead,” The blonde said.“And what’s that?” “An off switch, either that or a friend because you seem to be working very hard at alienating everyone you’re going to be spending the summer with.”“If you must know—”“—I mustn’t, and I don’t care. You’ve broken my concentration. I’ve lost track of my equations, and I’ll have to start over, so…” The blonde sighed. “So, I might as well talk. You there, boy.”“Me?” I asked.“Harper, sorry. You’re in an interesting situation. How’d it happen?”“Um, they used to take boys. We saw an old blog post where they did, and I didn’t see anything on the application about it.”“Seems reasonable,” she said. “I hope they let you stay.”She turned back to Victoria. “See that wasn’t so hard, was it? Making a friend. Now you try.”“He’s going to have to leave. You’re wasting your time,” Victoria crossed her arms, stewing.“So, what’s your name?” Christie asked the blonde girl.“Wilhelmina Manor.”“So, like Miss Manners?”“No one has ever called me that…” she snorted, “Not with a straight face.”There was a loud thump, and the van started shaking.“The tire blew,” the driver yelled back, and the van slowed as the sound of limp rubber buffeting against concrete came from underneath. We pulled over and stopped on a grassy shoulder.The driver muttered into his phone, then said over his shoulder, “It’ll take half an hour to get the spare on. Just stay out of the way.” He looked us over, then noticing Nora’s height, pointed to her, “Except you. You help.”We got out and stretched. The road was two lanes, walled on both sides by trees. It twisted just enough so we couldn’t see more than half a mile ahead or behind.I felt sick.“What’s wrong?” Christie asked.“All this waiting. If I’m going to get in trouble, I’d rather get it over with,” I said.“Hey, take a look at this!” Victoria called from across the road.As the driver ratcheted-up the van and Nora handed him tools, everyone else made their way over to where Victoria was standing.“Just on the other side of the trees,” she said and led us back a short ways.And then we saw it. The trees stopped, and the world fell away.The sides of the pit were cut granite. It must have been a thousand feet across. It was flooded, and the water line lay about twenty feet below.“That’s old quarry lake,” Christie said. “Galeton was a mining town way back.”In the murky depths, two great ridges of rock spiraled downward, twisting around one another, like the spinal columns of long dead beasts.“That’s creepy,” Victoria shuddered.Christie added, “You can thank the quarry for all the stone buildings in Galeton. They closed it down after World War One, diverted the river and flooded the whole thing, turning it into a lake. Huh, the water looks lower than in the pictures.”“Why would they have to do that?” Wilhelmina asked.“The river runs right by it. They had to damn it up to keep the mines dry.”“You know your history.”“Doesn’t everyone?”Though the sun was growing dim, across the lake, an orange plastic fence was visible with a small earth mover sitting behind it, still and empty. I pointed. “Looks like they’re doing some work.”A rustle came from behind as the driver popped out of the trees. “Could you all wait closer to the van, please.” With a stern look on his face, he wasn’t asking.* * *The streetlights flickered with the warm glow of gaslight as the van’s wheels chattered down a cobblestone road. A block further, we came to a stop outside a walled estate. We stepped down from the van and were greeted by a young woman in her mid-twenties, who hurried us inside the main house. Evidentially, we were late.Nora took the woman aside and whispered to her, pointing to me. When I waved back, trying to look meek and not too guilty, the young woman took my hand and led us to a side room. She knocked on a door.“Yes,” a confident woman’s voice answered, and we were shown through.A middle-aged woman with dark curly hair, wearing a fancy brown period dress and a cheery smile, greeted us.“What’s all this then? How can I help?”Nora stepped forward. “There’s been a bit of a mix-up... It’s all my fault.”“Guilty of something already?” She glanced at the wall clock. “That’s a new record.” The woman seemed amused, not angry. “Well, introductions first, so I know whom I am punishing. I am Ms. Windsor, or Deidra to people who aren’t in trouble. And you are?”“Nora Grant, and this is… my brother Harper.”“Oh,” she said, looking comically stunned. “I think I see the problem.”Nora gave a quick explanation: how she’d been confused by old reviews, and how I hadn’t checked my packet until today. I stayed quiet, trying to look as remorseful as possible.Then Ms. Windsor raised a finger, speaking with great enthusiasm, “Lucky for you, we also have a boy’s camp, wilderness survival and all that…”My blood ran cold as she continued.“… roughing it in the wild…” She said with a twinkle in her eye.Suddenly light-headed, I only caught bits and pieces of the rest:“…chopping wood…” “…sleeping in lean-tos…” “…hunting squirrels…”Finally, Ms. Windsor got to the end of her pitch, “So what do you think?” She beamed at me, but paled as she realized her mistake. Her face softened as she bent forward. “Well, Harper, what would you like to happen?”“Maybe you could make an exception?”She eyed me curiously. “That would be highly irregular… but… well maybe we could? Tell me, Harper, do you know why we don’t have boys at the school anymore?”“Because they burned it down?”“Yes, that’s right some –boys– almost did. So, if I let you stay, do you promise not to burn down the school, or play with fire or matches? In fact, if you need to so much as to light a candle, please ask someone to do it for you—a girl, any girl—not that I hold grudges.”“I guess.”“I need more than a guess,” she said standing up straight.“I promise, no matches,” I added, gulping.“Fine. Well, the documents haven’t been updated since we allowed boys, so legally we should be able to, but… a lot of activities are oriented for girls: dancing, sewing and the like, are you a brave enough lad to give those a try?”“Yes ma’am, you’re going out of your way to help me. I’m not going to complain… and I understand, no burning anything down… especially the school.”She chuckled at that. “Good boy, but never call me Ma’am, it makes me feel old. If you must use a title, use ‘Headmistress.’ It sounds weird, I know, but it’s a period thing.”“Thank you… Headmistress.” Eh... it did sound weird. She smiled and patted me on the back. “Ms. Windsor or Deidre, please, you’re not in any trouble... so long as nothing incinerates. Now, let’s go meet the girls. But maybe you could keep quiet for tonight, maybe not mention your… um maleness, not until I have a chance to think things through. Spot trouble before it spots us. Oh, and we’ll have to find you some clothes… somewhere.”Ms. Windsor led us to an enormous front parlor where a group of a dozen or so girls was already waiting. They ranged in age from twelve to seventeen. Almost all of them looked rich, and most looked… a little geeky... history geeks maybe?“Welcome to Galeton Manor,” Ms. Windsor’s voice filled the room.“We are all guests of Lady Galeton, myself included, as this is her family home. It was built in 1820, in tandem with the Galeton Mining Company. The town grew around it and has slowly shifted into the quaint tourist destination we know and love today.”“Galeton is uniquely fun, in that, in the town square and surrounding blocks, everyone must dress in period costume. Any tourists who break this rule will soon find themselves in ‘jail’ thanks to our overzealous sheriff. It’s very entertaining to watch. Although, I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor souls who run afoul of that particular ordinance.”“But you don’t have to worry. Your part, as the Ladies of Galeton manor, is to extol the spirit of the town, to make people excited about being here, to make them want to be you. And they will, because you’re all going to have a fantastic summer.”“Shortly we’ll be breaking you into groups. There are eighteen of you, so we’ll have three teams of six. We will be keeping roommates together, so if you applied with a friend, you’ll be on the same team. You and your team will be assigned adjoining rooms. You can think of them as your family for the summer. We’ll get you all settled straight away, after this.“You will be allowed to go into town during the day in pairs. But there is one restriction you need to endure… You’ll be required to install an app on your phone so we can track you. Yes, I know it’s draconian, but it’s the only way we can let you legally roam free.”“Now does anyone have any questions or want to stage any protests about the phones?” She yawned like the latter was both common and trite.One girl raised her hand.“Yes?” Ms. Windsor called on her.“Someone said there was a guy here?”“Oh, boy.” She rubbed her temples. “And?”“Is it true?”“Yes, well up until recently, we did take boys. He didn’t know, so there’s been a bit of a… kerfuffle.”“He can’t stay,” Victoria proclaimed. “This is a girl’s school.”“Where is he?” one girl asked.And another followed it up with, “Is he cute?”Ms. Windsor motioned to me, giving me an apologetic look. “The boy.”I waved meekly. “I’m Harper,” I said, feeling a blush.Nora cut in, “It’s my fault. He’s my brother, and I didn’t notice the school had gone girls only, and I accidentally signed him up. The photo we sent in wasn’t a very good one, so he kind of looks like a girl in it, and no one noticed.”“Ohhhh,” a tall, spiky-blonde-haired Asian girl said.Victoria added, “It doesn’t matter. Boys aren’t allowed. Our parents signed contracts.”“Well, actually…” Windsor stated loudly and clearly, “Strictly speaking, we never updated those to disallow boys. So he might be able to stay. But I suppose that depends on you all. Would anyone not feel okay with a boy around?”I was shocked to see Christie raise her hand, right after Victoria.“I see,” said Ms. Windsor.“Oh no!” said Christie. “I just want to be on Harper’s team. If that’s alright?”“Me too,” a voice came from the rear and Wilhelmina stepped forward. “Not only would it be a terrible disruption to send him away, as I assume his sister would leave too, and we’d end up with uneven teams, constantly needing to readjust activities... But every time we did, we’d be reminded of our own inhospitality, that we turned someone away, simply for being a bit different than the rest of us. That, and he seems polite enough to me. If he was trouble that’d be one thing, but… he doesn't seem the sort. Not to me.” “Yes,” Ms. Windsor called on Victoria, who still had her hand up. She looked around the room to see the other girls nodding in agreement with Wilhelmina. Victoria gulped and said, “I just wanted to… volunteer to be on his team too.” And she crossed her arms, glaring at me.“Okay, that’s settled then.” Ms. Windsor smiled. “Does anyone have any more requests about the teams before I break you up?”I was glad the spectacle was over, and Ms. Windsor was busy going around the room, trying to take everyone’s preference into account. Some of the girls wanted to be paired up with a friend or two, and that took a while to work out, until the remaining students were placed by drawing names out of a hat.The final member of our team ended up being the spiky blonde-haired Asian girl who, as it turned out, didn’t speak any English. She was paired in a room with Christie. Our team was sent to a suite of guest rooms overlooking the garden on the first floor. Nora and I were together in a room that seemed something out of a fairytale: The furniture was made of old rosewood, with antique dressers and chairs, and a covered bed on either side. The walls were painted faux-weathered gold and the beds were dressed in sheets edging between pale pink and faded red. Everything looked old and worn, but well cared for. It all had a wonderful texture, like it was history itself.I plunged face down into the bed on the right.“Not too much for you then?” Nora asked.“I’m exhausted.”“Me too,” she said, plunging into the bed on the left.“Poor Wilhelmina,” I yawned, “sharing a room with Victoria.”“Don’t you mean poor Victoria?” Nora yawned back, and we yawned back and forth for a while.There was a quick knock on the door, followed by Ms. Windsor’s assistant, Tilly, saying, “Dinner in an hour, check your wardrobes…” She added, “Oh Harper, don’t worry about it… but… take a peek anyway.” Then she walked on and knocked on the next door.“Hmm…” Nora said, dragging herself out of bed. Still engulfed in bedding, I heard her rummage through the closet, followed by a short squeal, and I sat up to see her smirking, holding a dressing bag. She held aloft a handwritten note and read aloud, “Dear Ms. Grant. From your picture I can see that dark is your color, and so I leave you this black plume, as a token of the gloom, the darkness of the beauty of Lenore. This it is… and nothing more.”She rushed into the bathroom, and when she stepped out, she was wearing a black-on-black dress. Which you might think would be rather monochromatic until you realized the blacks were as distinct from each other as night and day, or at least as different as midnight and early evening. It consisted of a matte black floor length gown with lace trim and a sleek black satin bodice that sheathed her torso.“Could you zip me up?” she asked, motioning to her back. I dragged myself out of bed and did the honors, setting her dress into place.“It looks like it’s 1890’s style if I’m not mistaken. Or at least that’s what the card says.” She was giddy, just managing the perfect wolfish grin.“It’s very nice.”“You should check yours out… or at least, may I take a peek?”“I guess so…” I liked clothes, but always felt self-conscious about my appearance, being made fun of all the time. I, however, still appreciated whenever Nora would get something new. She often bought custom clothes off the internet, not costumes, not usually, but they all had elaborate detailing. Occasionally, she’d buy unisex clothing like jackets and such, and she always offered to let me try them on, which I did, eagerly. So, I was looking forward to a summer of fancy clothes myself, bully free, and it was now sinking in that I would likely get screwed out of that by circumstance.“Yeah, it sucks…” Nora, put her hand on my shoulder, then went back into the closet and pulled out another bag.“Dear Ms. Watson, I had great fun making this for you, as I have a sister named Harper! I know from your picture you tend to be a bit of a tomboy, and so is my sister, and it really is my best work so I hope you love it as much as I love her. ”“Oh wow,” Nora said, holding the gown up to herself. It was similar in style to the one she had on, but in a cobalt blue just a shade too bright to be navy, with black brocade, and silver piping on a double-breasted bodice that gave it a subtle military look. I recognized it instantly.“It looks like Lilith’s dress…”“Lilith?…?”“From Blade of the Corrupted, a time traveling steampunk adventure… I listed it as my favorite game in the essay. This is really cool… like really freaking cool…”“You know if you want to try it on… just for a second. I won’t tell anyone.” She held it out to me.My back tensed as the cackling chorus of ‘she man’ my bullies screamed in my head.“I mean you always play girls in games…” Nora’s voice became unsure, and I started to feel dizzy.I mean I did, but… “That doesn’t mean anything.” A bead of cold sweat dripped down my side.Nora stiffened up, “Hey, I’m not going to make you.”Stomach twisting, my voice cracked, “But you know… you can try it on later if you want.”“Deal,” she said, putting the bag back carefully. “It’s almost like I planned this isn’t it?” She stuck her tongue out at me, trying to make a joke. But the awkwardness kept it from landing.After Nora finished dressing, we made our way down to the dining room, where there were already about half a dozen girls standing around talking, all in fancy dresses.The clothes were all period of course, late nineteenth century, of all shapes and colors, all formal and proper. The girls hadn’t had time to do any make-up, so it felt more like a costume slumber party than a proper ball.And there I was, jeans and a t-shirt feeling quite out of place, when I felt a tugging at my arm.“Hiya Harper,” Christie said. She was wearing a frilly peach gown that shimmered in the low light. “Do you speak any… Japanese, or Chinese, or anything?”The Asian girl peeked out from behind Christie. She was wearing a lime green dress.“Hmm… no, sorry,” I apologized.“I think she says her name is Suzi, so I’ve got that figured out at least.”The girl motioned, said, “Christie,” and then motioned to me.“Oh, I’m Harper,” I said, then repeated, “Harper.”Suzi nodded and sighed.“Yeah, this is going to take a while, isn’t it?” I asked her.Suzi carefully formed the word, “Halper…” then corrected herself, “Harper.”I nodded and smiled. “At least one person here might have as tough a time as me.”Christie added, “I’m glad you could stay. It would have been too depressing if you couldn’t.”I felt a blush at the kind words. “Looks like I’m going to be spending the summer under—”Then Suzi tugged on Christie’s arm as another group of girls arrived, all wearing their cool fancy gowns, and the two chattered off to take a look.“—dressed,” I finished to myself and stood there alone, again.After everyone had gathered, Ms. Windsor rang a bell, and ushered us to sit at our team’s tables. Since it was already late, it was a light dinner: crusty bread and warm milk.Near the end, Ms. Windsor sat down beside me.“You look glum,” she said. “Feeling left out?”“Well, you know.”“Don’t worry, there’re plenty of shops in town with boys—men’s clothes. Used, but you never know what you’ll find. We’ll make it work,” she said.“Thanks, Ms. Windsor.”“Look, I’ve been thinking, and if there’s anything I can do to help. Any time you don’t feel comfortable please, just let me know.”“Okay.”“Promise?” She asked.“I promise,” I smirked back, thinking of something.“What is it?...” she poked me. “You did just promise.”“Well,” I said rolling my eyes, “I do take great comfort in playing with matches.”She shook her head with a dismissive smile and went to talk to another table.* * *That night I was lying awake in bed, when Nora whispered from across the room, “You asleep?”“No.”“So, what do you think? Is it okay… spending your summer with a bunch of girls?”“I don’t know. You’re the only girl I’ve ever hung out with before. But I think it’ll be okay.”“Hey, Harper?”“Yes?”Nora didn’t reply, and the room stayed silent for a minute.Then she spoke up, “Why’d you get so upset about the dress? I mean you said it was cool, but then you acted like it was on fire or something.”It was like I’d been kicked in the stomach. “I just don’t like being made fun of.”“Oh… sorry. I didn’t mean to.”“I know. But you know, I’m…sensitive about that sort of thing.”“Oh, okay.”—Thank you for reading! If you’ve enjoyed this story and wish to help Whim and Harper reach more people, please consider favoriting, commenting, or awarding a badge—

Description

The one on the left is a boy, the one in the middle is delusional, and the one on the right doesn't speak any English...

That's what Victoria thinks anyway.

Harper, Whim, and Suzi on a coffee run.

From this Episode:

Episode 11: Rescuing Whimself

Here's a link to the start of our story:

Whim Manor And The Boy Who Wasn'tChapter 1: Wicked Step-Sister,Friday, October 8, 2013—West Hills High School Library.“Jesus Dude, you’re on your own.” Justin backed away from me. We were peering around a stack in the library, peering at Nora. She was leaning against a bookshelf, reading. She didn’t seem immediately threatening. But she was big in an Amazonian sort of way. That and she looked twenty-five.“She can’t be that bad, can she?” I asked, watching her push her straight dark hair back behind square shoulders.“You remember the entire sophomore wrestling team running laps last week at lunch?”“Yeah?” I said.“That was Nora. She shows up at tryouts, guys try outs, they all laugh at her, and then she whoops all their asses. Every. Single. One.”I looked back at Nora. She was thumbing through a book—the book I needed—with a sort of amused sneer on her face. “Did they let her on the team?” I asked.“No, dude. She turned them down.”“Okay… Why’d she try out then?”“Coach Smith gave her a ‘B’ plus,” Justin whispered, shaking his head as his rotund body quivered beneath it.“What, in Gym?”“No, English. Coach Smith teaches English. My sister is in her class, said she was pissed about it.”“Wait… so you kind of know her then? You could talk to her, bring up your sister? Help me out.” I nudged him toward her.Justin dug in his heels. “No freaking way. I gotta go… to the bathroom.” He backed away from me, turned, and raced out the door, his underarms so dripping with sweat, they looked like they’d been hit by water balloons. If Justin was off to the large side of the body positivity scale, I was off to the other, being a little short and a little thin… or rail thin really. Honestly, just about anyone could beat me up—well, any of the boys… and, if I’m being really honest, a fair number of the girls too, Nora definitely included. So, cowering and trying to look like I knew this, and there was no point in beating it into me, I took a step toward her, then another and another—She spun, glaring at me. “Can I help you?”“Um, no, I mean—are you going to check that out?” “I was thinking about it. What’s it to you?”“That’s the ah—Emily Dickenson collection, right?”Standing up straight and taking a step toward me, she made the four-inch height advantage she had over me brutally obvious.“Um,” I said, “I got assigned that for a report. I could ah—pay you for it?”She raised an eyebrow. “When’s this report due?”“Monday.”“Cutting it kind of close there aren’t you… You got a name?”“Um, Harper. My name is Harper.”She took an uncomfortable moment to look me over, then let her expression drop flat. “That’s more of a girl’s name these days, isn’t it?”Not this again. I groaned. “Yes, yes it is. But I was named after my grandfather.”She shrugged. “Alright, Harper, what’s it worth to you?”“Five bucks?”She batted her eyes with smug amusement as her face pulled into a wolfish grin.“It’s all I’ve got.” I opened my wallet, forgetting about the extra dollar that was my bus fare. We both saw it, making my previous statement seem like a now-exposed lie. “I can give you six, but…”“But what?”“Then I’d need to walk home.”“So, six bucks and a little exercise? Not a bad price for a grade.” She held out her hand.I gulped and emptied my wallet.She snorted, turning the bills over in her hand. “You really are desperate, aren’t you? You know who I am, right?”I nodded.“And you know what I do to little boys who bother me?”“Give them the books they need to not fail English class?” I eked out.She flinched, and I flinched back like she might hit me. “Only when they don’t take me seriously,” she said, and I realized her flinch had been one of disbelief, not aggression.A prolonged groan later, she continued, “So, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to give you this book, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickenson. And I’m going to give your money back, and on top of that, I’m going to pay you six dollars. And for my six dollars, I expect you to take it home, and spend all weekend reading it, and then you’re going to get an ‘A’ on your report, or…”“Or what?”“Else.” She gave me a dirty look, stuffed my money into the book, added two bills of her own, and shoved it into my hands.I had been planning on going over to Justin’s that evening to spend all night playing video games. Instead, I texted him I was sick and spent all night reading… I couldn’t really sleep anyway. My mind kept imagining the different things that ‘else’ could mean.* * *It was noon on Monday, and I was sitting in the cafeteria, alone. Justin was pretty much my only friend, and he had lunch in another period. Something small and wet pegged the back of my head. A snicker, “she man,” rose from a few tables away.I don’t really want to explain this, but I probably need to… The thing is, I’m not exactly the most macho looking guy in the world. I have long hair. Between that, my name, and my slight build, I tend to get mistaken for a girl more often than—than I’m comfortable with. Some kids get their kicks making fun of anyone they can. They’re called bullies, and I was an easy target.I picked the wet, sticky thing out of my hair, thankful when it turned out to be a bean and, wiping my hand on a napkin, I sighed.Then the dark-haired giantess I’d been dreading all weekend, sat down opposite me and looked at me with a wolfish grin that ran ear-to-ear.“You’ve turned it in, correct?” Nora asked.“Um, no.”Her grin twisting into a sneer, she glared at me as I blurted out, “The due date got pushed back. It’s not until tomorrow.”As she drummed her fingers on the lunch table, her expression went flat, pensive.“But it’s done. I finished it.”“Let me see.”I fished it out of my bag and handed it to her.“Alright,” she said, standing up. “And –those–” She jabbed her finger toward where the snicker had come from. “Don’t let –those– get to you.”Still holding my report, she walked right past the lunch monitor and right out the door.As my relief in surviving slowly turned into dread at what was still to come, I looked up and saw everyone in the lunchroom staring at me. A long moment later, people started turning back and soon everything went back to normal.* * *After class, Justin was waiting by my locker.“She’s in my study hall. She told me to give you this.”He handed me my paper, filled-in with red ink: Grammar corrections, spelling corrections, and notes jammed in the margins.When Nora found me again at the end of the week, I showed her the “A-” I’d gotten, and she only made me give half the money back.I dreaded stepping foot in the library after that. Nora worked there the same period I had English, and my next assignment was on modern British literature. I had planned on doing it on a short book, an easy read, but Nora wouldn’t let me. When I handed her “Animal Farm” to check out, she handed me back “Brave New World.”This went on for months, and I was working up the courage to complain to the principal, when one day I realized my bullies had mysteriously stopped bothering me. They’d even stopped calling Justin ‘fatty.’ So besides being forced to read constantly by my guardian psychopath, life was tolerable.To be clear, Nora and I were not friends. We didn’t hang out. She’d just pop in from time to time to see how her little ‘project’ was going.Winter break of freshman year was hard. First Justin moved away, and then my mom suddenly decided to get remarried.She was a secretary at a tech firm. One week I was staying at my Aunt Agnus’s while Mom was away on a work trip, and the next day when she got back, her boss, Jack Grant, came by to have a man-to-man conversation with me, which for some reason he decided to do in his Porsche. He was intimidating: tall and strikingly handsome with cold blue eyes and well-kempt beard scruff. During the ‘conversation’ He’d drive his points home, quite literally, by hitting the accelerator whenever he bragged about himself, and then stomp on the brakes whenever he felt like changing subjects.I didn’t say a word back to him, and he never asked me a question, going on and on with urgency, like any pause in the ‘conversation’ might cause the car to explode.“…So, Harper,” Jack concluded as we were pulling back up to our apartment building. “Your Mom and I will be married as soon as the pre-nups come back from the lawyers. It makes sense to just get it done. Easier all around. There will be a civil ceremony at City Hall. You should come—for your mom.” He said, trying to sound inviting as nodded without looking me in the eye. “Good then, that’s all settled… Oh, you can get out now.”He paused just long enough to motion to the door.And, “I can’t. The door’s locked,” were the first words I ever spoke to him.* * *The next day we were at city hall. Inside, the air permeated with harsh fluorescent light that somehow made the already stark concrete walls even more colorless, the right angles of the architecture even more square, and the dirt-colored tile floor, designed to last forever, look like it already had.I was waiting outside the ‘ceremony’ room, which doubled as the city council chamber, when I spotted an angry giant stomping toward me with a baseball bat.My butt cheeks clenched as Nora stopped in front of me. She put the bat down, handed me a large paper bag, and fumbled around in her jacket until she produced a cigarette lighter.“What’s up?” She chin-nodded with a sneer. “Come to see the show?”“What show?”“My dad’s about to marry some gold-digger…”she grumbled. ”Last name Watson…“ And as she looked away, her tongue poked against her cheek, like she was thinking. “Hey… the name on your reports… Harper…?”“Watson…” I eked out.Sighing through gritted teeth, she grabbed back the paper bag and deposited both it and the bat into a nearby garbage can. “Well, let’s not do that then.”***Mom and ‘New-Dad’ seemed very relieved when they found out ‘Lenora’ and I knew each other.“So, you two are friends?” Mom asked.My eyes darted to Nora, and she gave a long glance back, then shrugged her shoulders and nearly sent me into shock when she nodded in agreement.“Do you two go to the same school? Is it a combined… high school, middle school?” ‘New-Dad’ asked.“Jack, they’re the same age,” Mom said.“Oh.”“Dad, we’re the weirdos,” Nora said. “Harper is normal-size for his age, and besides I’m almost a year older.” As ‘New-Dad’ nodded, I looked at Nora sideways, not quite trusting it, but still thankful for the way she had bent the truth.That weekend, we moved into Mr. Grant’s townhouse at the top of a glass tower overlooking the ocean. It must have cost a fortune, and although it was more stylish than huge, it was still easily twice the size of our old apartment. Everything was polished metal, with a sweeping staircase that arced gracefully down from a mezzanine. It was impressive, but felt impersonal in that same way an airport does.Nora pulled a “Harry Potter” on me the first night, showing me to my new ‘room’ in what looked like a storage closet, her face sporting that wolfish grin of hers all the while. But the next day, I found her clearing out the extra room she had been using as an office, a room next to hers, and I moved in. That night Mom and ‘New-Dad’ had to go into work, so it was just me alone, with Nora. We ended up kind of staring at each other in the living room for an hour or so, her face with an annoyed look, while my own shifted between abject terror and utter confusion.“Would you relax?” She flung the remote at me. “Watch something.”After flipping through the guide for a good five minutes, afraid of picking a show that would earn Nora’s ire, she groaned at me and, startled, I started up the most recent episode of “Dr. Who”…And then… to my surprise… she made me go back an episode, because she hadn’t seen that one yet, and she didn’t want any spoilers.Nora, as it turned out, was a closeted geek. Besides English lit and poetry, she was completely addicted to sci-fi shows, and her room usually had cosplay clothes strewn about. She wasn’t much into video games, but she started watching me as I played and often back-seat drove, shouting loud enough so Justin could hear it through my headset whenever we’d go on raids together.It still felt like I was a guest, just visiting their home, but Nora at least accepted my presence without much of a fuss. She helped me with English and History, and astonishingly, let me help her with Math. At school, however, things were different. She threatened to murder me if I told anyone we were ‘related,’ and she steered clear of me, even making me ride the bus home.Eventually, some of her classmates spotted us hanging out, and a rumor went around that we were dating. After that, she made sure to let everyone know we were brother and sister. She played it off like we were half-siblings, and always had been to explain the different last names, which shut everyone up.And then one night, we got home from a movie, and caught Mom and ‘New-Dad’ in a yelling match.After I went to bed, there was a gentle knock on my door. I opened it to find Nora on the other side, wearing her night clothes: a long t-shirt and shorts. One hand grasping her journal, its cover now torn, the other with a white-knuckle grip on one of the clicky pens she usually wrote with, its ink smeared on her palm. Her eyes simultaneously tired and alert.“I found out what they’re fighting about,” she whispered.I nodded silently. I’d never heard my mom that angry before.“Dad’s got to go away on a business trip this summer, all summer, outside the country. Your mom is... I don’t know… upset?” She added, “Not that I blame her. I mean, he doesn’t have much time for people. The wedding… She didn’t even get a honeymoon. So, I guess she’s feeling…”“Abandoned?” I asked.Nora leaned against the wall, sliding slowly down until she was sitting on the floor. She clicked the pen, turning it over. “Yeah well… I’ve felt that way before. I was thinking… what if she went with him?”“You think that’s a good idea? Aren’t they angry at each other?”“They’re okay… I think… I hope. Dad came by my room to apologize for the yelling. Said he was figuring out that some problems can’t be solved with money… It almost sounded like he was thinking about quitting his job.”“Yikes… Mom came by, she just said the fight wasn’t really anyone’s fault.”Nora jabbed the pen into the back of her journal, softly ripping the paper. “Work needs him. He loves his job, but this is the first time he ever had to go away for so long. It used to be a few weeks a year, tops… now it’s…”Not wanting to make her finish, I filled the silence, speaking without thinking, “And she’s got to stay here to look after us… Not that she’d admit it, but that’s got to be why… Couldn’t they just leave us on our own? No, I guess not, not legally. Unless they left us with… Aunt Agnus.”“How is she?” Nora snorted, giving a weak smile. “She’s weird, and strict, and she has cats,” I added.“I’m allergic.” She glowered off into space, scribbling on the back cover. “I guess I can take pills.”“And she, she smells… funny.” I added, “I mean I will if I have to, but… do you have any family nearby?”Nora gave a long slow shake of her head. Then after a minute of silence, a curious look popped onto her face. “Harper, how do you feel about summer camp?”“…Like in the woods?” My voice cracked. I am not an outdoors person.“It wouldn’t have to be. You know Dad’s loaded, right? I could get him to agree to just about anything.”“Well, if it means he gets to keep his job... I could give it a try…” I said, imagining ending up at the same camp as one of my bullies, feeling my face go slack as I realized the world was full of them.“What’s wrong?”I paused a long while. “I don’t like camping.”“Okay,” she nodded, “So, one camp, sans camping?”At that moment, more afraid of uncertainty than bullies, I nodded. “Okay.”* * *The next morning, Nora cornered her father, grabbing his keys before he could get out the door.“Not so fast, Jack,” she said.“Lenora…?”“Harper and I were talking, and there’s this camp we’d like to go to this summer,” she said, spinning his keyring on her finger.“What, really?” he asked.“Yes, really.”“How long?”She replied, “The whole summer, while you are away. I mean, while you and ‘mom’ are away.”“What—where’s she going?” His eyes went wide.“With you…”“Oh… oh…” his voice lifted. “That sounds—great. What camp?”“We’ll let you know when we decide on one, but it’ll be expensive, very very expensive.” Nora dropped his keys into his hand.“Ohh…” He paused a second to take that in before giving her his own wolfish grin. “Fine by me.”* * *That evening, I was sitting at the desk in my room when Nora entered.“So… ready to play ‘What’s the most expensive camp we can find’?” She asked, plopping down on my bed.“I’ve been doing some research, you?”“Horse camp?” she asked.“Do you even like horses?”“No, but it costs a lot… Why, what sort of camp do you suggest?”“How about a video-game camp?” I asked, knowing it was a longshot.“Ahh... No.” She tore a page out of her journal, crumpled it up, and threw it at me.“I guess we don’t have to go to the same camp,” I said, sighing. If she wanted to go off and do her own thing, I’d make it easy for her. After all, she’d been forced into being my sister, so maybe she needed a break too.Her eyes narrowed. “Really? computer games over me?” She looked annoyed, almost hurt. And that kind of freaked me out… I thought she’d be happy, relieved.“What?” she asked. “You’re looking at me funny.”“Fine, no computer game camps then.”“Okay,” she said, firmly. “So. No outdoorsy stuff for you… and no stuff only super-geeky boys like for me. agreed?”“So, no space camp?” I asked.She grasped another page in the back of her journal, like she was about to rip it out and throw it at me. “I’d never live it down. I mean, what do you really want out of a camp, ideally?”“I’d like to not have to get up super early in the morning… or at all, that and hot showers, and wi-fi.”“So, more or less just sitting around like a couch potato?” she cocked her head.“Yep.” I smiled. “But I wouldn’t complain if there was more to do.”Her brow lifted. “There is this one camp… a school really. I was reading a blog about it, but I don’t know if you’d like it…”“Why not?”“You might think it’s dumb. Honestly, I think it’s more for girls.”“But they take boys?” I asked, trying to ignore a phantom bean as it pegged the back of my head.She pulled out her phone, swiping through it. “Well… yes, they do, but… I’ve been reading this one girl’s blog, and she said the boys caused problems, at least the year she was there.”“Well, what is this magical mystery camp already?” I asked.She cleared her throat and read aloud, “The Galeton School of Intrigue. Classes run all summer long. Students stay at Galeton Manor, experiencing a life of nineteenth century leisure. They teach riding, dancing, etiquette, fencing… and they have –wifi–”She was trying to act all nonchalant. But the way her eyes darted between me and the website… she seemed genuinely eager.In a rush, she added, “They also teach marksmanship… do an escape room… and assassin?”“Assassin?” I asked.“That’s where you draw a name out of a hat, and that’s your target. You have to ambush them with a dart gun. That’s like a video game, isn’t it?” I made a finger gun, shot her, and mimed blowing away the smoke. “Cool. But—what time would I have to get up?”“The webpage says ten.” Nora pulled up a picture of a bunch of girls in fancy clothes sitting on a porch sipping lemonade. One of them was on a laptop.“Wifi and sitting around. Hmm…” For a moment I wondered if I could extort a new computer or console out of the deal. But looking at Nora, she actually wanted to spend the summer with me…I shrugged. “I’m in.”And I really liked the theme too. The idea of a cosplay camp sounded… well brilliant, even if I’d never admit it. But it did sound like just the thing that would get me made fun of. I was still getting over the post-traumatic stress of trying to –ironically– dress up like a brony three years ago for Halloween, and then having the bullies take it at face value, stealing my candy and chanting “she man, she man.” Still, as long as no one found out… everything would be fine.It, the camp, was absurdly expensive, but ‘New-Dad’ didn’t bat an eye. He was too busy spending every moment he could with Mom, planning their trip, which I noted, made his face fluctuate between an anxious grimace and a genuine smile.Nora was so caught up in it that she handled all the arrangements… which was fine with me because: video games. One night, she came into my room with a measuring tape.“What’s this for?” I asked once she had me lassoed around the chest.“I need your measurements.”“Ah, why?”“Galeton, they provide all the clothes.” She lifted one of my arms, measuring it from fingertip to shoulder.“What-in-the-what now?”“Unless you’ve got a closet full of nineteenth century clothes.”“So, we don’t bring our own?” I asked as she stood me up and spun me around.“Just a few sets of street clothes…” Kicking my legs apart, she measured my inseam, though quickly enough to not be awkward. “But it’s part of the fun, they give us new outfits all summer long.”“Oh… now I get why you were so keen on it.”“Keen? Who says that?” She smirked, then wrapped the measuring tape around my neck and pulled it tight like a garrote wire. “But that’s one of the reasons it’s so expensive.”“So… the clothes… are like… a school uniform?” I asked, just slightly choking to death, and Nora released the tape.“Oh sorry.” She tittered in an oddly menacing way. “I think there’s one set of uniform clothes, yes, going by the pictures, but most of it is individual, custom made,” she dropped the measuring tape and began writing it all down.“I don’t get to pick my own clothes?”“I wrote the headmistress. She said that’s one of the reasons they ask for an essay.”“Essay—what essay?” I said, and Nora’s journal fell out of her hands and hit the floor.She got all serious. “Harper, the application essay… you were supposed to write? You need to say why you want to spend your summer in the nineteenth century… include references to your favorite books and shows about that time. They’ll make clothes to match.” “So, like what, cowboys and the civil war?”“Well yes, and vampires, and steampunk. You can have fun with it. Those all work.”“Oh, so the essay is just for fun then, right?”“No.” She made a sour face. “Please don’t blow it off. The headmistress said she only accepts students who actually want to be there.”“This is suddenly sounding like a lot of work.”“It’ll be fine—once we get there. The essay is the only real work you have to do, so you better do a good job, or…”“Or what?”“Else,” she threatened with a wolfish grin.And then she spent the rest of the evening ‘helping’ me with ‘my’ essay. Which is to say she wrote it while I played video games.Chapter 2: Dear Sir or Madam,,With Justin gone, I tried to zone out school as much as possible, and the rest of the 9th grade just sort of came and went.Mom and ‘New-Dad’ were anxious to get away, excited to be hopping the globe on the company jet. Nora hardly noticed turning sixteen, but as the summer drew near, more often than not, I’d see a smile on her face. Most of the time it was hidden under a sneer, but it was there. It felt odd but good how much her summer plans revolved around us sticking together, comforting that whatever happened, she’d be there. She seemed bolder too, if that was possible, and more relaxed. She’d even talked me into taking a train up the coast, rather than have Mom or ‘New-Dad’ drop us off. Though I was nervous about them being up in the air and out of the country by our second day on the train.As much as I wanted to like it, I still wasn’t sure I could completely get onboard with 19th century life. So, just as a contingency, I packed lots and lots of video games: A laptop, a tablet, and a hand-held Mr. Grant had given me for Christmas. But, Nora did stop me with a glare when I asked if she had any extra room in her suitcase for a flat panel TV to hook up to my Xbox.* * *We had a private compartment on the train. Nothing too fancy, just a couch that converted into a bunk bed at night, and while Nora read, I’d often gaze out onto the scenery, memorized as the ocean rolled by, turning into desert, and back into coastal towns, green hills, and eventually forested mountains. But I was watching a show on my phone when I felt a tap on my shoulder. “We get there in half an hour. Haven’t you opened your packet yet?” Nora asked, her left eyebrow twitching ever so slightly.Feeling lazy from the rock of the train, I shrugged it away. “Why? Yours has all the information.”“Fine, if you won’t… I will.” She reached across to my bag and pulled out the envelope.“Welcome to the Galeton School of Intrigue. Dear Miss. Harper Watson… wait a minute that can’t be right…”My ears popped as I bolted upright, and we looked at each other for a long moment. The first moment, in fact, I ever saw Nora, with the sneer completely wiped from her face. She looked stunned.“Miss??!” I coughed.It only took a minute of searching the web to find out that ‘The Galeton School of Intrigue’ had stopped accepting boys two years ago. Apparently, a boy had ‘accidently’ started a fire in the basement, and it had never been all that popular with boys in the first place, so they decided to suspend their ‘male experience’ until they could rework it.“Crap…” I said reaching for my phone.“What are you doing?” Nora looked at me sideways.“Calling Mom and Dad?!”She grabbed my shoulder. “Please… Please don’t. Just give me a chance to think… I’m not ready to be responsible for ruining everyone’s summer just yet.”“You?” I asked, “What about me?”“Well… I should have… I mean I told you I’d take care of the arrangements.”“So, what now?!” I asked.“I don’t know. Let me think…”While she frantically looked things up online, I thought about what was going to happen: Mom and ‘New-Dad’ would act responsibly. And Mom, no doubt, would end up flying right back to the States to sort this all out. She’d tell me that I’m more important to her than any trip, and then we’d all spend the rest of the summer sighing, and telling each other it was for the best. All while Mr. Grant would be out seeing the world without her… And I really should have opened my packet before today. I started looking over the papers.“Hey, Nora…”“Yeah?”“How could they not realize I’m a guy? You sent them a photo, didn't you?”“Yeah, that one of us together… oh,” she shuddered, “with your hair down.” I usually kept it in a ponytail. She brought the picture up on her phone. “You do kind of look like a…” she trailed off.I looked over the forms. “They don’t even have a box for gender.” I huffed.“Harper?” Nora’s left eyebrow was creeping so far up it looked painful. “Why do they have measurements for your bust size?”After a few more frantic minutes, we figured out that all of my ‘girl’ measurements were exact duplicates of Nora’s. I guessed that somehow the web form had cached all of her data and auto-completed mine with them when she left them blank. “Any ideas yet?” I asked.“Other than trying to pass you off as a girl?...” She said with a sigh.I winced at that, thinking of my bullies' jeers of ‘she man,’ and as Nore saw my face, she shook her head, dismissing the idea.”We can always spend the summer with Aunt Agnus…” She added.I groaned. “She’s as boring as… as… Well, hanging around with her is kind of like sitting in church all day. Ahh… Sure, dump me off…”“I said ‘we’. I’d go too.” Her expression fell as she looked me in the eye. “I can’t enjoy summer if you’re spending it… helping her knit.”“Any other ideas?” I asked.“I think it’s best to just come clean and tell the school. The Headmistress, Ms. Windsor, seemed pretty cool when I emailed her. They only recently made it all-girls so maybe we could talk her into making an exception, but…”“But what?”“Well, when they separated the school, they opened a boy’s camp… a wilderness survival school, and it’s not exactly ‘highly-rated’…” she squeaked out, yet another first for her.“What does ‘not exactly highly-rated’ mean?”“Ummm… Two stars? They might send you there.”“Ah… maybe I –could– pass for a girl?” I made a weak joke as my stomach twisted.“Ha…” She sighed. “No time.” And then the train rolled into the station.The school had a shuttle waiting, and the driver didn’t notice anything ‘unusual’ about me. Nor did any of the three other girls already in the van. The only two open seats weren’t next to each other, so we had to split up. I sat in the middle row, next to a red-haired girl. Nora sat just ahead, next to a mousy girl with dark hair.The red-haired girl looked like she was brooding about something. “So, are you a lesbian?” she huffed in a whisper after we’d been on the road for a few minutes.“What? No,” I said, feeling sure she must know exactly what I was as soon as she heard my voice.“You look like one. Actually, you look like a boy. Anyone ever tell you that?”“You’d be the first,” I said.“But you must get that, you dress like one,” she said, looking me over.“Actually, people usually inform me that I look like a girl.” I moaned.“That doesn’t make any sense.”“It’s because I am one,” my voice cracked as my face turned red. “Wait you’re a?...” “A boy,” I said, slouching into my seat.“Boys aren’t allowed, this is supposed to be a safe space,” she said, sounding matter-of-fact.“Don’t worry, I don’t expect to be staying,” I said.Her face kept shifting, like she was looking for just the right insult. Until finally, her mouth opened. “Good, well Christie should be happy about that, at least there’s someone here even more pathetic than her…”“Who’s Christie?” I asked.The mousy, dark-skinned girl turned around. “I am.”“She actually wants to be here.” The red-haired girl scoffed. “She doesn’t get how lame this is.”Nora turned around and glared at her.“Oh… you’re the lesbian,” the red-haired girl said.“You got a name?” Nora growled between clenched teeth.“You first…” the girl rebutted.“I’m Nora, and that’s my brother Harper.”“Ha, that’s a girl’s name.”Nora looked at me and pointed to the girl. “Not worth it.” She grumbled and turned back around.“I’m Victoria by the way… thanks for asking,” the red head said, then turned her attention to the last girl in the van, a short blonde, sitting all the way in back, who’d been keeping to herself.“And you are?” Victoria asked, but got no reply.She reached back and tapped the girl on the shoulder, “And you are…?”“–Reading, shush.” The blonde held up a finger. Her accent wasn’t quite all British.“Hey! What are you reading?” Victoria pressed.The girl held her book up. I only saw it for a moment, but it was full of math equations and electrical diagrams.“Oh great, a nerd,” Victoria kept pressing, “Why on earth are you reading that?”“I’ve been working out how to make something, but now, I suppose, I’m going to have to stop to make you something instead,” The blonde said.“And what’s that?” “An off switch, either that or a friend because you seem to be working very hard at alienating everyone you’re going to be spending the summer with.”“If you must know—”“—I mustn’t, and I don’t care. You’ve broken my concentration. I’ve lost track of my equations, and I’ll have to start over, so…” The blonde sighed. “So, I might as well talk. You there, boy.”“Me?” I asked.“Harper, sorry. You’re in an interesting situation. How’d it happen?”“Um, they used to take boys. We saw an old blog post where they did, and I didn’t see anything on the application about it.”“Seems reasonable,” she said. “I hope they let you stay.”She turned back to Victoria. “See that wasn’t so hard, was it? Making a friend. Now you try.”“He’s going to have to leave. You’re wasting your time,” Victoria crossed her arms, stewing.“So, what’s your name?” Christie asked the blonde girl.“Wilhelmina Manor.”“So, like Miss Manners?”“No one has ever called me that…” she snorted, “Not with a straight face.”There was a loud thump, and the van started shaking.“The tire blew,” the driver yelled back, and the van slowed as the sound of limp rubber buffeting against concrete came from underneath. We pulled over and stopped on a grassy shoulder.The driver muttered into his phone, then said over his shoulder, “It’ll take half an hour to get the spare on. Just stay out of the way.” He looked us over, then noticing Nora’s height, pointed to her, “Except you. You help.”We got out and stretched. The road was two lanes, walled on both sides by trees. It twisted just enough so we couldn’t see more than half a mile ahead or behind.I felt sick.“What’s wrong?” Christie asked.“All this waiting. If I’m going to get in trouble, I’d rather get it over with,” I said.“Hey, take a look at this!” Victoria called from across the road.As the driver ratcheted-up the van and Nora handed him tools, everyone else made their way over to where Victoria was standing.“Just on the other side of the trees,” she said and led us back a short ways.And then we saw it. The trees stopped, and the world fell away.The sides of the pit were cut granite. It must have been a thousand feet across. It was flooded, and the water line lay about twenty feet below.“That’s old quarry lake,” Christie said. “Galeton was a mining town way back.”In the murky depths, two great ridges of rock spiraled downward, twisting around one another, like the spinal columns of long dead beasts.“That’s creepy,” Victoria shuddered.Christie added, “You can thank the quarry for all the stone buildings in Galeton. They closed it down after World War One, diverted the river and flooded the whole thing, turning it into a lake. Huh, the water looks lower than in the pictures.”“Why would they have to do that?” Wilhelmina asked.“The river runs right by it. They had to damn it up to keep the mines dry.”“You know your history.”“Doesn’t everyone?”Though the sun was growing dim, across the lake, an orange plastic fence was visible with a small earth mover sitting behind it, still and empty. I pointed. “Looks like they’re doing some work.”A rustle came from behind as the driver popped out of the trees. “Could you all wait closer to the van, please.” With a stern look on his face, he wasn’t asking.* * *The streetlights flickered with the warm glow of gaslight as the van’s wheels chattered down a cobblestone road. A block further, we came to a stop outside a walled estate. We stepped down from the van and were greeted by a young woman in her mid-twenties, who hurried us inside the main house. Evidentially, we were late.Nora took the woman aside and whispered to her, pointing to me. When I waved back, trying to look meek and not too guilty, the young woman took my hand and led us to a side room. She knocked on a door.“Yes,” a confident woman’s voice answered, and we were shown through.A middle-aged woman with dark curly hair, wearing a fancy brown period dress and a cheery smile, greeted us.“What’s all this then? How can I help?”Nora stepped forward. “There’s been a bit of a mix-up... It’s all my fault.”“Guilty of something already?” She glanced at the wall clock. “That’s a new record.” The woman seemed amused, not angry. “Well, introductions first, so I know whom I am punishing. I am Ms. Windsor, or Deidra to people who aren’t in trouble. And you are?”“Nora Grant, and this is… my brother Harper.”“Oh,” she said, looking comically stunned. “I think I see the problem.”Nora gave a quick explanation: how she’d been confused by old reviews, and how I hadn’t checked my packet until today. I stayed quiet, trying to look as remorseful as possible.Then Ms. Windsor raised a finger, speaking with great enthusiasm, “Lucky for you, we also have a boy’s camp, wilderness survival and all that…”My blood ran cold as she continued.“… roughing it in the wild…” She said with a twinkle in her eye.Suddenly light-headed, I only caught bits and pieces of the rest:“…chopping wood…” “…sleeping in lean-tos…” “…hunting squirrels…”Finally, Ms. Windsor got to the end of her pitch, “So what do you think?” She beamed at me, but paled as she realized her mistake. Her face softened as she bent forward. “Well, Harper, what would you like to happen?”“Maybe you could make an exception?”She eyed me curiously. “That would be highly irregular… but… well maybe we could? Tell me, Harper, do you know why we don’t have boys at the school anymore?”“Because they burned it down?”“Yes, that’s right some –boys– almost did. So, if I let you stay, do you promise not to burn down the school, or play with fire or matches? In fact, if you need to so much as to light a candle, please ask someone to do it for you—a girl, any girl—not that I hold grudges.”“I guess.”“I need more than a guess,” she said standing up straight.“I promise, no matches,” I added, gulping.“Fine. Well, the documents haven’t been updated since we allowed boys, so legally we should be able to, but… a lot of activities are oriented for girls: dancing, sewing and the like, are you a brave enough lad to give those a try?”“Yes ma’am, you’re going out of your way to help me. I’m not going to complain… and I understand, no burning anything down… especially the school.”She chuckled at that. “Good boy, but never call me Ma’am, it makes me feel old. If you must use a title, use ‘Headmistress.’ It sounds weird, I know, but it’s a period thing.”“Thank you… Headmistress.” Eh... it did sound weird. She smiled and patted me on the back. “Ms. Windsor or Deidre, please, you’re not in any trouble... so long as nothing incinerates. Now, let’s go meet the girls. But maybe you could keep quiet for tonight, maybe not mention your… um maleness, not until I have a chance to think things through. Spot trouble before it spots us. Oh, and we’ll have to find you some clothes… somewhere.”Ms. Windsor led us to an enormous front parlor where a group of a dozen or so girls was already waiting. They ranged in age from twelve to seventeen. Almost all of them looked rich, and most looked… a little geeky... history geeks maybe?“Welcome to Galeton Manor,” Ms. Windsor’s voice filled the room.“We are all guests of Lady Galeton, myself included, as this is her family home. It was built in 1820, in tandem with the Galeton Mining Company. The town grew around it and has slowly shifted into the quaint tourist destination we know and love today.”“Galeton is uniquely fun, in that, in the town square and surrounding blocks, everyone must dress in period costume. Any tourists who break this rule will soon find themselves in ‘jail’ thanks to our overzealous sheriff. It’s very entertaining to watch. Although, I can’t help but feel sorry for the poor souls who run afoul of that particular ordinance.”“But you don’t have to worry. Your part, as the Ladies of Galeton manor, is to extol the spirit of the town, to make people excited about being here, to make them want to be you. And they will, because you’re all going to have a fantastic summer.”“Shortly we’ll be breaking you into groups. There are eighteen of you, so we’ll have three teams of six. We will be keeping roommates together, so if you applied with a friend, you’ll be on the same team. You and your team will be assigned adjoining rooms. You can think of them as your family for the summer. We’ll get you all settled straight away, after this.“You will be allowed to go into town during the day in pairs. But there is one restriction you need to endure… You’ll be required to install an app on your phone so we can track you. Yes, I know it’s draconian, but it’s the only way we can let you legally roam free.”“Now does anyone have any questions or want to stage any protests about the phones?” She yawned like the latter was both common and trite.One girl raised her hand.“Yes?” Ms. Windsor called on her.“Someone said there was a guy here?”“Oh, boy.” She rubbed her temples. “And?”“Is it true?”“Yes, well up until recently, we did take boys. He didn’t know, so there’s been a bit of a… kerfuffle.”“He can’t stay,” Victoria proclaimed. “This is a girl’s school.”“Where is he?” one girl asked.And another followed it up with, “Is he cute?”Ms. Windsor motioned to me, giving me an apologetic look. “The boy.”I waved meekly. “I’m Harper,” I said, feeling a blush.Nora cut in, “It’s my fault. He’s my brother, and I didn’t notice the school had gone girls only, and I accidentally signed him up. The photo we sent in wasn’t a very good one, so he kind of looks like a girl in it, and no one noticed.”“Ohhhh,” a tall, spiky-blonde-haired Asian girl said.Victoria added, “It doesn’t matter. Boys aren’t allowed. Our parents signed contracts.”“Well, actually…” Windsor stated loudly and clearly, “Strictly speaking, we never updated those to disallow boys. So he might be able to stay. But I suppose that depends on you all. Would anyone not feel okay with a boy around?”I was shocked to see Christie raise her hand, right after Victoria.“I see,” said Ms. Windsor.“Oh no!” said Christie. “I just want to be on Harper’s team. If that’s alright?”“Me too,” a voice came from the rear and Wilhelmina stepped forward. “Not only would it be a terrible disruption to send him away, as I assume his sister would leave too, and we’d end up with uneven teams, constantly needing to readjust activities... But every time we did, we’d be reminded of our own inhospitality, that we turned someone away, simply for being a bit different than the rest of us. That, and he seems polite enough to me. If he was trouble that’d be one thing, but… he doesn't seem the sort. Not to me.” “Yes,” Ms. Windsor called on Victoria, who still had her hand up. She looked around the room to see the other girls nodding in agreement with Wilhelmina. Victoria gulped and said, “I just wanted to… volunteer to be on his team too.” And she crossed her arms, glaring at me.“Okay, that’s settled then.” Ms. Windsor smiled. “Does anyone have any more requests about the teams before I break you up?”I was glad the spectacle was over, and Ms. Windsor was busy going around the room, trying to take everyone’s preference into account. Some of the girls wanted to be paired up with a friend or two, and that took a while to work out, until the remaining students were placed by drawing names out of a hat.The final member of our team ended up being the spiky blonde-haired Asian girl who, as it turned out, didn’t speak any English. She was paired in a room with Christie. Our team was sent to a suite of guest rooms overlooking the garden on the first floor. Nora and I were together in a room that seemed something out of a fairytale: The furniture was made of old rosewood, with antique dressers and chairs, and a covered bed on either side. The walls were painted faux-weathered gold and the beds were dressed in sheets edging between pale pink and faded red. Everything looked old and worn, but well cared for. It all had a wonderful texture, like it was history itself.I plunged face down into the bed on the right.“Not too much for you then?” Nora asked.“I’m exhausted.”“Me too,” she said, plunging into the bed on the left.“Poor Wilhelmina,” I yawned, “sharing a room with Victoria.”“Don’t you mean poor Victoria?” Nora yawned back, and we yawned back and forth for a while.There was a quick knock on the door, followed by Ms. Windsor’s assistant, Tilly, saying, “Dinner in an hour, check your wardrobes…” She added, “Oh Harper, don’t worry about it… but… take a peek anyway.” Then she walked on and knocked on the next door.“Hmm…” Nora said, dragging herself out of bed. Still engulfed in bedding, I heard her rummage through the closet, followed by a short squeal, and I sat up to see her smirking, holding a dressing bag. She held aloft a handwritten note and read aloud, “Dear Ms. Grant. From your picture I can see that dark is your color, and so I leave you this black plume, as a token of the gloom, the darkness of the beauty of Lenore. This it is… and nothing more.”She rushed into the bathroom, and when she stepped out, she was wearing a black-on-black dress. Which you might think would be rather monochromatic until you realized the blacks were as distinct from each other as night and day, or at least as different as midnight and early evening. It consisted of a matte black floor length gown with lace trim and a sleek black satin bodice that sheathed her torso.“Could you zip me up?” she asked, motioning to her back. I dragged myself out of bed and did the honors, setting her dress into place.“It looks like it’s 1890’s style if I’m not mistaken. Or at least that’s what the card says.” She was giddy, just managing the perfect wolfish grin.“It’s very nice.”“You should check yours out… or at least, may I take a peek?”“I guess so…” I liked clothes, but always felt self-conscious about my appearance, being made fun of all the time. I, however, still appreciated whenever Nora would get something new. She often bought custom clothes off the internet, not costumes, not usually, but they all had elaborate detailing. Occasionally, she’d buy unisex clothing like jackets and such, and she always offered to let me try them on, which I did, eagerly. So, I was looking forward to a summer of fancy clothes myself, bully free, and it was now sinking in that I would likely get screwed out of that by circumstance.“Yeah, it sucks…” Nora, put her hand on my shoulder, then went back into the closet and pulled out another bag.“Dear Ms. Watson, I had great fun making this for you, as I have a sister named Harper! I know from your picture you tend to be a bit of a tomboy, and so is my sister, and it really is my best work so I hope you love it as much as I love her. ”“Oh wow,” Nora said, holding the gown up to herself. It was similar in style to the one she had on, but in a cobalt blue just a shade too bright to be navy, with black brocade, and silver piping on a double-breasted bodice that gave it a subtle military look. I recognized it instantly.“It looks like Lilith’s dress…”“Lilith?…?”“From Blade of the Corrupted, a time traveling steampunk adventure… I listed it as my favorite game in the essay. This is really cool… like really freaking cool…”“You know if you want to try it on… just for a second. I won’t tell anyone.” She held it out to me.My back tensed as the cackling chorus of ‘she man’ my bullies screamed in my head.“I mean you always play girls in games…” Nora’s voice became unsure, and I started to feel dizzy.I mean I did, but… “That doesn’t mean anything.” A bead of cold sweat dripped down my side.Nora stiffened up, “Hey, I’m not going to make you.”Stomach twisting, my voice cracked, “But you know… you can try it on later if you want.”“Deal,” she said, putting the bag back carefully. “It’s almost like I planned this isn’t it?” She stuck her tongue out at me, trying to make a joke. But the awkwardness kept it from landing.After Nora finished dressing, we made our way down to the dining room, where there were already about half a dozen girls standing around talking, all in fancy dresses.The clothes were all period of course, late nineteenth century, of all shapes and colors, all formal and proper. The girls hadn’t had time to do any make-up, so it felt more like a costume slumber party than a proper ball.And there I was, jeans and a t-shirt feeling quite out of place, when I felt a tugging at my arm.“Hiya Harper,” Christie said. She was wearing a frilly peach gown that shimmered in the low light. “Do you speak any… Japanese, or Chinese, or anything?”The Asian girl peeked out from behind Christie. She was wearing a lime green dress.“Hmm… no, sorry,” I apologized.“I think she says her name is Suzi, so I’ve got that figured out at least.”The girl motioned, said, “Christie,” and then motioned to me.“Oh, I’m Harper,” I said, then repeated, “Harper.”Suzi nodded and sighed.“Yeah, this is going to take a while, isn’t it?” I asked her.Suzi carefully formed the word, “Halper…” then corrected herself, “Harper.”I nodded and smiled. “At least one person here might have as tough a time as me.”Christie added, “I’m glad you could stay. It would have been too depressing if you couldn’t.”I felt a blush at the kind words. “Looks like I’m going to be spending the summer under—”Then Suzi tugged on Christie’s arm as another group of girls arrived, all wearing their cool fancy gowns, and the two chattered off to take a look.“—dressed,” I finished to myself and stood there alone, again.After everyone had gathered, Ms. Windsor rang a bell, and ushered us to sit at our team’s tables. Since it was already late, it was a light dinner: crusty bread and warm milk.Near the end, Ms. Windsor sat down beside me.“You look glum,” she said. “Feeling left out?”“Well, you know.”“Don’t worry, there’re plenty of shops in town with boys—men’s clothes. Used, but you never know what you’ll find. We’ll make it work,” she said.“Thanks, Ms. Windsor.”“Look, I’ve been thinking, and if there’s anything I can do to help. Any time you don’t feel comfortable please, just let me know.”“Okay.”“Promise?” She asked.“I promise,” I smirked back, thinking of something.“What is it?...” she poked me. “You did just promise.”“Well,” I said rolling my eyes, “I do take great comfort in playing with matches.”She shook her head with a dismissive smile and went to talk to another table.* * *That night I was lying awake in bed, when Nora whispered from across the room, “You asleep?”“No.”“So, what do you think? Is it okay… spending your summer with a bunch of girls?”“I don’t know. You’re the only girl I’ve ever hung out with before. But I think it’ll be okay.”“Hey, Harper?”“Yes?”Nora didn’t reply, and the room stayed silent for a minute.Then she spoke up, “Why’d you get so upset about the dress? I mean you said it was cool, but then you acted like it was on fire or something.”It was like I’d been kicked in the stomach. “I just don’t like being made fun of.”“Oh… sorry. I didn’t mean to.”“I know. But you know, I’m…sensitive about that sort of thing.”“Oh, okay.”—Thank you for reading! If you’ve enjoyed this story and wish to help Whim and Harper reach more people, please consider favoriting, commenting, or awarding a badge—