Chapter 18

Outside the security checkpoint at the airport, Samuel counted each of his students twice to make sure he had the correct number he turned to lead the group to their gate, happy that they had made good time before their departure. Sam wasn’t the most traveled man but he had heard plenty of stories of folks missing their flight despite getting to the airport with enough time. Checking the large board with all the flight and gate information on it he found that they actually had more than enough time. Their flight back to Nevada had yellow words next to it, saying delayed. Indicating that they would have an extra few hours to work with. “Could be worse.” He said to himself, wondering if he should organize a game, another option was break out sessions to talk about the trip and finally just leaving the teenagers to entertain themselves.

Moving up next to the trip's other chaperone, Samuel gave her what felt like an awkward smile. “Looks like we have some extra time to kill.” He then let her in on what he was thinking about for options, not really expecting to find fifteen or so seats next to one another at the gate to keep their group next to one another. While letting the pretty woman chew on his thoughts, he turned to the gaggle of teens. “Ok, class! Turns out our flight got delayed for a few hours. We are considering some options, So don’t run off ok?”

Raising her hand like a student might to answer a question in school, Sarah spoke up with her idea to pass the time rather than being done in pure boredom. “Miss DeLeon? There’s a salon down the hallway. Do you think we could have some fun?”

Glancing from the girl to her boss, Maria looked over at Mr Banks with a questioning look but a subtle smile. “I dunno.”

Banks had work he actually needed to get done, being on the field trip didn’t relieve him of his normal job and he didn’t have a lot of ideas on how to keep his charges occupied. That and seeing the hint of what Maria wanted with the corners of her mouth turned up, he didn’t see a reason why he should deny them. “Alright kids. Whoever wants to go to the Salon, Miss DeLeon will take you over there. Just keep in mind this is something extra, it is not included in the trip's budget, so only go with her if you can afford it. The rest of you can sit with me and get some RnR.”

With that, Maria started to gather most of, but not all of the female students that wanted to come along. It wasn’t till after she got her initial head count that she looked over to her sibling. He wasn’t gathering with the students to follow Sam and hadn’t walked over to her and wasn’t currently having a conversation with any one. He just looked like a pretty girl lost in thought as she looked out at nothing in particular.

She had threatened to make him get his nails done and if he had acted like the little shit he normally was she would have followed through on threat. Instead his normal combativeness had subsided, that and she felt like they had a real bonding moment in his time of need. So she wasn’t going to push it, despite what he might sometimes assume she wasn’t out to ruin his life. Though Maria at least needed to play her part and ask, like she had done for each of the students. “Gabriella, would you like to get your nails done with us?”

Blinking a few times, Gabe turned his head to look at his sister. The panic that had gripped him early was gone, it being replaced with something deeper than just being calm. His mind wasn’t even racing about, it felt more like he had when on a spring break he floated down a lazy river at a water park, a cold beer in his hand, the worries of the world a distant memory.

The klonopin had done its job to relieve anxiety, but side effects included sluggish thoughts, drowsiness and bad decision making and at the moment he was not having a side effect free ride on the klonopin train. Still getting his nails done had not sounded like a good time or a time he wanted to be a part of at all, so he shook his head. “N…no.”

Becky considered staying back with her friend, the girl was not having a great day, but she also really didn’t want to just sit around. She was about to try a little peer pressure on Gabby to get her to tag along, positive it would take he remind off things, when Jennifer spoke up.

“Come on Gabby, you should come too. You didn’t want to go to the pool, you sat with the chaperones when we ate. I promise we will have fun and from what I understand it is contagious. So, odds are you will find yourself having fun too.” She understood why the girl acted like she did, or at least partly. A bunch of strangers, when all she really had come here for was to spend time with her mom who she hadn’t seen in who knows how long.

Before she was on her anxiety meds she had a terrible time working up the courage to try and make some friends and felt lucky that her introverted self got sort of adopted by Sarah, who was a major extrovert. It took effort to push herself out of her shell and she wanted to do for Gabby, what Sarah did for her.

“Tss, we don’t need her tagging along.” Sarah said, her voice dripping with venom.

Having others turn to look directly at him made Gabe feel their gaze like a physical ****, his heart didn’t start beating any faster, but still it was like the room had darkened and a spotlight shone on him. Jennifer pointed out how it looked like Gabriella had been avoiding the other students, only making him stand out more.

It made him think about what Maria had been telling him about what he needed to make others believe the act. ‘What would Gabby do?’ He asked himself, taking note of the fact the group hadn’t stepped far away from the security checkpoint and he was pretty sure one of the guards, a man with dark hair that appeared to be in his young twenties was looking in his or at least the group of students' direction.

‘Does Jenn suspect something?’ The redheaded girl had been the one to speak up, but one of those looking at him, Becky, nodded her to the side and motioned for him to come along. ‘Gabriella would go… she’s a girly-girl, shallow and image-focused. She loves shopping and fashion, and looking pretty.’ that made him look down at his nails.

They weren’t bad, he hadn’t trimmed them since before he came on the trip, but they weren’t what someone like Maria would consider in good condition and she was one of the most girly women he knew. ‘She likes to get her make-up done and have her nails look perfect. She… no, I love to go to salons and get pampered. That’s how she stays so pretty… That’s why I am so pretty.’

‘Be Gabby, be happy, I am Gabby and I am happy.’ Taking a few steps forward his expression morphed into one full of glee that he didn’t really feel, he skipped up to the group. The bouncing steps came to a bit of a surprise to even himself as he spoke. “Espérame un momento, uh, wait a moment. I was just lost in thought! I, like, love getting my nails done!”

Sarah sneered at the vapid bimbo following after them, not understanding why Jenn lit up and welcomed her along. ‘Gah, Jenn is just too nice sometimes!’

Seeing Gabby coming along, apparently only not jumping at the chance because she wasn’t paying attention, it made Becky happy. She was far from what most people considered a girly girl, one asshole in her class even called her a dyke once when she turned him down because of softball practice. Yet of the activities her mom tried to get her to do, both of them going together to get a mani pedi had been the most enjoyable. “About time, I was about to leave you behind.” Becky teased.

Gabe for his part thought the girl would be above such things as going to get her nails done, back when he first saw her interact with Sarah and Jennifer it seemed like she had nothing in common with them, but he mentally shrugged. A girl was a girl, was a girl, he thought, mentally reinforcing preconceived notions.

The Salon itself was rather quiet, as far as Gabe was concerned, but it did smell like chemicals. He had to pick his sister up from such places more than once with them currently sharing a car and he didn’t understand how anyone could stand it. Yet he didn’t let the smile fade, trying to imagine a place like this was the same as visiting Disney for a child or at least it would be for someone like Gabriella. He imagined a place like this existed for those people that got stuck at an airport, but considering how a quarter of the place was dedicated to shelves with products it was clear where their focus was.

Inside he could see four employees, a bleach blonde white girl, a middle aged asian woman and two hispanic ladies, both appearing about middle aged. If he was back home he would assume they were of Mexican descent like Maria and himself, but out here in DC he wouldn’t bother to guess.

Each of them took a seat for their turn, Jennifer being one of the first to be taken back along with Sarah. Gabe scrunched up his nose at the chemical smell and was about to sit down when Becky grabbed his arm, her pressing into his side. “Hey, look at these.” She said pulling him over to the various products the store was trying to sell, her pointing to a rack with different earrings.

‘Gabby would like this… I like this.’ Gabriel told himself as his friend pulled something off a rack, a belly button piercing in her hand. “Is your…” Gabe tapped the plastic wrapping over the belly piercing. The girl didn’t seem like the type, but his mind felt a bit sluggish and he wasn’t sure if he remembered if she had one or not.

“No, but I thought about it and… it is cute.” Just as she said so, Maria reached over and pulled the package from her students fingers. She had considered buying some more shampoo and conditioner, her own running out a little faster thanks to her faux daughter using it too and did not like where the conversation was going. “I’m not going to be responsible when you come home with extra holes in you. We did not cover that in the disclosure agreement for this trip.” She wasn’t even sure this small location did piercings, but she was going to nip that in the bud before it went anywhere.

Having the object snatched from her fingers before being put on the rack, Becky shrugged. She could imagine her mom freaking out after getting it, but gave the crazy parent even odds on gushing about it instead, saying something about her little tomboy changing.

Ignoring most of the exchange Gabe ran his fingers over the different packages of earrings. His other hand reaches up to brush his hair aside and lightly pinch his earlobe between index and thumb. ‘Girls love jewelry… Why wouldn’t Gabby have earrings? What if someone asks? Would they think something was off?’ Instead of panic rising, mind going a million miles a minute and just freezing up from such thoughts, Gabe instead pulled some simple garnet studs off the rack.

The medication kept his own anxieties from getting in his own way and overthinking things, so he just tried to act on it. He imagined Gabriella adorned with jewelry much like Maria often was. An image of Gabby in a swimsuit came to mind for some reason, ankle bracelet on her left ankle, a toe ring, bangles on her wrists, a nice pendant necklace and large hoops dangling from her ears and the belly piercing Becky had held up.

“Mami.” Gabe held up the garnet studs as he looked to his sister. ‘What would Gabby do?’ He asked himself, already in motion. “Can I get this?”

The question took Maria back a mental step, before associating the question with the role he was playing out. She was tempted to say yes and see if the salon actually did piercings to call his bluff, but money was tight until she got paid again and for some reason Gabriel had come inside instead of backing away when he had the chance.

So that meant she was already going to need to put this on her credit card. Making him pay her back for getting his nails done after he got access to his accounts once more would be enough amusement that she thought it worth it. “I would like to say yes hija, but I’m betting abuela would love to be there when you get your ears pierced. Grandmothers like to spoil their grandchildren and I have no doubt she will want to be there for something like this.”

Off sitting in one of the comfortable massage chairs the salon had, Jenn watched as Gabby stared at the jewelry on the rack. Noticing for the first time that she didn’t have her ears pierced when she pulled back her hair. It made her think about the story that was being told about the girl, about her adopted parents passing and what she had to grow up in and now she trekked across the country to just see her mom. “Poor girl” she muttered, which caught the gossiping salon employees' attention.

With little prying they were able to get the redheaded teen to spill the beans about the girl in their shop from Mexico. How she had to flee from her home country, telling them all about what her teenage imagination could come up with for trials she must have to have in order to make it all the way to DC to find her mother. How she had been separated from her since she was a baby and desperately wanted to leave the cartel ridden streets of her hometown to be with her family. It was the type of story Jenn imagined would be turned into the type of sappy movies she loved.

Now sitting in one of the metal and plastic chairs in the waiting area Gabe came out of an unfocused stupor when he heard his name, or more specifically Gabby’s name. Little thought was given to the fact that on some level he had associated that name with himself. Instead he listened in on Jennifer, the slight smile that had been frozen on his face in the same way a frown was normally his default expression, grew slightly as he overheard at least part of the story. ‘Someone bought it.’ He thought to himself rolling his eyes when he heard the girl add and embellish the story.

The real story was something much different, him a grown twenty four year old man, not a seventeen year old girl. Gabe had signed on to chaperone the DC trip to win points with his new boss that was just starting and it just so happened to work out that he had leveraged a contact from college to get an interview out in the countries capital for a much better paying teaching position at a private school. He was going to leave Nevada for good, but had gotten wasted the night before and his phone got destroyed. Not only that, but he had lost all his clothes and luggage on the plane over here and had even lost his wallet the night he got drunk.

He was sure the bitch maid must have taken them out of his pants after he left his wallet in them. His bitch of a sister deciding to fuck with him… bully him into wearing girl clothes. That somehow devolved into his new boss, a man he hadn’t met yet, Mr Banks, believing he was a teenage girl, a little fucking girl instead of a grown man. While thinking that the real him, Gabriel DeLeon was out galavanting around the city, never bothering to contact him.

He still wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to break into the head administrator’s office back home. That finger print thing the principal did was a major problem and could get him in the same deep water as being caught by airport security. He was registered as a female student. Sitting there he tried to change gears and focus his mind on a solution, but such things as making plans felt elusive and at best fleeting.

In something close to a daze Gabe found himself being escorted to a much more comfortable chair, with the two hispanic women hovering over him. “We hear you are having a tough go of it.” The store employee gave the girl in the chair a sympathetic look, believing the story she had been told of her trying adventures and just now finally being able to go home and suffering bad cramps on top of her fear of flying.

Blinking, his eyes feeling heavy, Gabe shrugged both of his shoulders. “You don’t know that half of it.” The woman’s comment was the understatement of the century, but still he smiled, it was what Gabby would do.

“Poor thing, so courageous.” The second woman said, knowing she didn’t let her daughter go anywhere without knowing exactly where she was going to be, the world was just too scary a place for her to trust it with her daughter's safety. “Today, we are going to treat you. By the time we are done you will only see a gorgeous princess in the mirror! And…” She paused. “It is on the house!”

Not liking the sound of that at all the false smile slipped from his face as he moved to get up, but he didn’t get far. A hand landed softly on top of his own, looking over he found Jennifer touching him.

“Sorry Gabby, I was telling them about you, I was just… I was just telling them how I was going to pay for your nails and they… well they said they would take care of it. Isn’t that great!?”

In the feminized man’s head there was a scream, it was his own but sounded far off in the distance. Not being able to bolt for it like he initially tried, the smile came back to his face, knowing Gabby would love the idea. “Great isn’t the word I would use.”

The reply made Jenn laugh, not sure if the girl was thinking about a better word in Spanish or if the word great just wasn’t powerful enough.

What was done to him should have been an excruciating experiencing, nails being filed, cuticles being pushed back as the workers prepared his hands for the acrylic taggers that were pressed onto the tips of his fingers before the added one layer after another of paint and then yet another layer to what they said is to seal it all in, adding a slight sparkly to the light pink color. It wasn’t Barbie pink, but between their length and shape and his skin color they seemed like beacons, trying to get others' attention. A quarter inch past his finger tips, squared off a light sparkling pink.

If that had all they had done it would have been easier to swallow, but the workers had wiped off and redone his making into something he would expect to see on a girl ready for her quinceanera. So much attention had been given around his eyes. A **** looking device to pull and curl his lashes before a mascara wand ran through them. A pencil outlining his eyes and just slightly passed before they used multiple colors as they needed to get the eyeshadow just right. The girl in the mirror had pink lips, pink fat lips thanks to some lip plumper gloss.

How long they took made him expect to see a high priced whore, but instead his mind was mostly blank as he looked at the pretty girl that he could at best dream of speaking to back when he was in school, let alone kiss. The last thing that was added to complete the look as they called it, was a pair of clip-on earrings that look like gold half sphere earrings that matched a quarter in diameter. The earrings were hollow, but he could still feel the weight of them pulling on his ears slightly as the things pinched his ear lobes.

The girl in the mirror was without a doubt beautiful, enough so that he felt guilt for even thinking so. For one thing, he shouldn’t be beautiful, he was supposed to be handsome, his madre always said so. That and the fact she looked like a teen girl ready to go out on a date or to a dance. Seeing himself looking like this would have been the impetus for him to rage, or for him to feel like he should crawl into a ball to hide in shame. But for some unknown reason to him his thoughts still came to him in drips and drops while any **** emotion just wasn’t there. Reaching up to touch his face, every so gently he saw the girl do the same, her hands looking pretty with her new nails. “That's… me?”

“Girl.” Jennifer who had been done with her own appointment said, lingering near her new friend. “You look airbrushed gorgeous. The power of a professional makeover cannot be denied.”

The area near Gabriella was a bit crowded, the store wasn’t that big, but with the employees stepping back to let Gabby see herself, Becky was able to fit in the gap alongside Jennifer. “You were already pretty, but yeah, Jennifer is right.” She made a mental note to get her own makeup professionally done for the next school dance. That thought lingered for a moment before she put qualifiers on it, like so long as it wasn’t stupid and if she was able to get a date. “Gabby, what do you think?”

The question rattled around Gabe’s head for a few heartbeats, only a select few words making their way out and each of them were washed in disbelief. “I’m pretty.”