Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Putting his laptop away Samuel stood up and pulled out his phone, then frowned down at the screen. "Something wrong?" Maria asked, hoping he was both okay and nothing else major was going to go wrong for the student's trip.

"No, erm, yes. Was just a text message from a friend. I was hoping it was your brother, he took time off, said he would chaperone then said he would meet us here something I wasn’t all that comfortable with and now well…" He ended his sentence waving his hands around the room, past both Maria and Gabe. "Nowhere to be seen. Are you sure you don't know where he is? All of my calls go right to his voicemail."

Maria crossed her arms right under her chest. Unintentionally drawing the man's attention to her large assets. "I'm not my brother's keeper. Gabriella, when your abuela sent you here.” She paused for just a moment to let it sink in with who she meant when saying grandmother. “Did she say anything about your tío?” It did feel like a little game to her, referring to her brother as an uncle to her fake daughter.

Gabe was still sitting on the bed, legs held firmly together and trying to process his situation. He considered himself not a smart man, but a brilliant one. He was not the type for quick witty retorts, he often thought about an issue to ****. A great trait when working out a problem to get the right answer, but now it felt like he was constantly behind this evolving situation and to make matters worse the constant embarrassment of how he looked, then having to remember to act the right way made everything seem, well like it was, worse. "Hmm?" He made the questioning noise as he looked up to his sister.

Maria just blinked for a second at her disguised brothers. She just gave him a chance to help cover his own ass and he wasn't even paying attention. "Sorry about her Sam, she can be a little flighty at times. Gabriella I told Mr Banks how smart you are. Please don't make him think you are some airhead." When she knew she had his attention she was going to tell him to give an excuse for her uncle, but the large man in the room with her interjected.

"Gabriella made her way across country borders, and across the States to meet up with you here... She has already proven to me she is as smart as her Ma. Now darlin, do you know where your Uncle Gabriel is?"

There was that word ‘darlin’ again and then to say he is only as smart as Maria, insult after insult. Even if he didn't look like some big breasted girl, he couldn't tell him where to stick his supposed compliments. "No." He said in a small voice, thinking how he couldn't say he was right here or he would show up shortly.

If he did that then the giant might ask if he had talked to himself, and what he had said and why wasn’t he here now. The man’s focus would be on him as he asked one probing question after another and every extra second he was in the spotlight, the bigger the chance of him finding out the truth. So he gave a small shrug with his answer as he tried to think of something else.

His phone was dead thanks to that drunk bimbo, so he couldn't call and would have to get his sister to relay a message. With all of that going on he was still trying to figure a way to put off having to keep this stupid act up. Samuel gave the shy girl a nod and reassuring smile. She did have to have tenacity to pull off what she did, but it did look like Maria was giving her daughter too much credit with how smart she was. That was often the case with parents he had found, though most people had always seen him as a big dumb jock just because of his size and football scholarship.

What did surprise him was how shy she was compared to her Mom, but she did grow up with foster parents. He hoped being around the other students would help the girl come out of her shell, and get her to take an interest in a boy her age instead of him.

"Well I do hope he is okay, but this behavior is concerning. Well I better be off and let the boys know of the change in plans. Maria, please let the girls know about the trip to the mall for dinner and to be ready for the tour."

Maria shut the hotel room door behind the large man and turned to her brother, raising an eyebrow. "Why was I the only person trying to cover your ass?" She put one fist in her hip as one second turned into two and then three without a reply. "I asked you a question LITTLE brother."

All of this was too much, but he didn't want to take another second of her shit in addition to all of this. He was going to jump to his feet and stomp over to her, but as he did the unfamiliar heels caused him to fall to the floor between the beds and out of sight from Maria. She was angry, but that was immensely funny. Gabe appeared sitting up, his arms on the bed to steady himself as he stood. "¡Cállate, no te rías de mí!" He yelled, telling her to shut up and not laugh at him.

Gabe's face started to get red as his sister continued to laugh, and laugh hard enough that she was putting her hand on the wall to support herself. To her it was also too much, though in a different way. Him acting all macho, and just waiting for him to fall forward while flailing his arms was just funny and his demand only made it funnier. "This isn't funny! I need help… and you're not my mother. Stop acting like it!"

Getting to the end of her laughter as she regained control she shook her head. "You need a lot of help and according to you and what you told Sam: You are indeed my daughter. But sure how about I call him up and say this was all a prank. That he was fooled and added you as a female student to his computer thingy, I'm sure it will go over well. I don't even know why you thought it was a good idea to tell him you wanted to go to school and then I set you up to give yourself an excuse and what do you do Gabriel? WHAT DO YOU DO?!"

Gabe tried to answer her as her voice went up in volume, but she talked right over him. "You told him how you wanted to be a school girl." Gabe's eyes went wide at that.

"I did.." His voice was drowned out as she continued talking at him, not to him. "Then when I give you the chance to maybe save your career, you are not even paying attention and tell him ‘no’, instead of giving a plausible excuse. Like you caught the flu, you missed your flight. Madre de Dios! You rant about how the girls in your classes are airheads or bimbos for acting that way and they are not!" She said, wagging her long nailed fingers at him.

"I'm tired of how you treat them, but maybe that is what Gabriella should be. Then you can know the truth about what is what." Her ranting started to die down and he thought it might be a good moment to actually get a say in all this.

"Look none of this is my fault." He was going to explain the situation to her, as she obviously got the wrong idea.

"No, it was you that took time off from work, it was you that went drinking. If you didn't you would have a phone, a suit to wear and would have gone to your job interview. That was all you, I was going to give you some embarrassment, but you asked to look convincing. Then it was you who called me Mom, knowing how I hate that. Now deny any of that, I dare you!"

Pouting his lipstick covered lips, Gabe looked to be sulking. He wanted to lash out at her, none of this was his fault, why couldn’t she see that? He didn't know about the stupid device, he just wanted the man to stop paying him attention. With his sister you either gave in or prepared for a protracted battle. They once fought over chores for a week, every day when their Madre wasn't around they went at it. Maria insisted she was in charge and that he needed to pull his weight and do some of her cleaning.

The house cleaning was left to her as it was woman's work, if their Madre wanted him to do them she would have said so. In the end he not only won the battle, when their Madre found out about their arguments, but Maria got grounded for the week and earned a spanking for trying to make him do her work. He wanted to smile at the memory of Maria being taken over her knee and spanked as she was told how disrespectful she was being, wishing she was here now to show Maria she wasn't too big to learn.

That wasn't going to happen and in this case, he needed, really needed her help to get out of this. So instead of arguing or denying her bullshit he changed the subject. "How are we going to delete the record on his laptop? With that in there he will know about all of this." He said motioning to himself with both hands.

"The second he scans me to be a teacher." Maria sat down on the edge of the bed glad he didn't deny any of the charges.

"That is why I asked what I did, but it isn't something we can do on the trip. If we were able to delete it he would just put you back in. Gabriella can’t just disappear now that he knows you are here and she definitely can’t disappear and suddenly Gabriel shows up. No, this is something we will have to handle on Monday. That way you can show up as your normal self for his system.” Maria ran her hand through Gabe’s hair to get it looking just right. “That also means Gabriella will have to be around for this trip and Gabriel has to take another day off on Monday. I'm going to hand you my phone and I want you to log into your personal email account then send Sam a message explaining you caught the flu, say how you just noticed this was sitting in your outbox. It will not look good, but it won't make you look as bad as he is thinking now."

Gabe smiled at his sister and held out his hand for her phone. "Yes! That is exactly what I needed."

Maria looked down at his open palm. "From this moment forward you are Gabriella Grace, my daughter and I will treat you as such. You will treat me with the respect I deserve, no back talk. I will do what I can to make sure you do not get caught. Now look me in the eye and tell me your full name, and how you will be a good girl for me." Gabe's happiness shattered and his face changed to a scowl, but before he could open his mouth Maria held up a finger. "I swear if the next words out of your mouth are not what I just told you to say I will leave you to figure this out on your own.”

It was difficult to see her brother when she looked at the creature before her… but she looked as though she was going to argue. Maria watched as her feminized brother closed his mouth and just looked at her, like he was waiting for her to change her mind, she only held his gaze.

Gabe looked away and felt like he wanted to cry, the idea of crying looking the way he did only made it worse. “I’m waiting, young lady.” Maria said in a stern voice. Holding it together the best he could, Gabe felt tears in his eyes as he responded to her.

“My name is Gabriella Grace DeLeon, and I will be a good girl for you Mommy.” Gabe flinched a little, not intending to say Mommy, sounding infantile.

“Mommy, oh dear. How about you just use Madre instead. Now say it again, but this time look at me and smile. Girls look better smiling, I think I heard my brother tell a girl or two to smile, time for you to do it too.” Maria put her index finger under her brother's chin, applying pressure so he would look up at her.

“My name is Gabriella Grace, and I will be a good girl for you Madre!” With a small smile Maria leaned over to her new daughter and kissed her forehead.

“I have to let the other girls know what is going on, you sit here and write that email for your tio, so he doesn’t get in as much trouble.”

Opening the hotel room’s door Maria looked back at her brother sitting down on the bed, holding her phone,but frowned seeing her with legs spread. “Gabriella, close your legs!” Gabe jumped at her voice and clamped his legs together. “In fact, cross your legs at the knee. Don’t let me catch you sitting any other way when I get back or I will be cross with you young lady.” Maria watched as Gabriella crossed her legs slowly as she pressed her lips together.

“Don’t forget to smile, you are so much prettier when you smile.” She knew exactly what he was thinking as she closed the door behind her. The other girls were going to be so happy to meet her pretty, but shy daughter. She thought with a sly wolfish smile on her painted lips. This situation had gone crazy, but she was going to try and enjoy herself and take her arrogant brother down a peg or twelve.