Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Gabe waddled outside the hotel room in the heels Maria insisted he wear. Thankfully these weren’t stilettos, but three inches is still three inches and his knees were already buckling trying to balance in them. The five minutes of practice Maria had given him weren’t exactly a replacement for the years other girls get. He’d never seen any of the girls at the school even wear heels this high, not that he paid much attention to such things, but that seemed to be the point.

The feminized man had already fallen a few times in the heels back in the hotel room. Maria had said block heels should be easy, but he was pretty sure he was going to break an ankle. Now walking not just out of the hotel room, but the hotel itself into the world proper Gabe felt more exposed than he ever had in his life. It was like every physical and mental nerve was exposed to the elements. He could feel the weight of the makeup on his face, the taste of the lip gloss. The pull of the bra straps over his shoulders and the confinement of the bra itself wrapped around him to hold in his tissue paper tits.

All of that was only part of it, his body was practically devoid of hair. His mustache was gone and, right now, his legs were almost completely on display thanks to the short purple school girl skirt. He felt one gust of wind was all it took to show the world the pair of panties he was wearing. He felt so out of place in this outfit that was clearly borrowed from other students. ‘I am literally wearing one of my female students' underwear… How did I let her talk me into this!?’

Swiveling his head around to see just how many people were staring, he was surprised to see at most only casual glances from the random people about. He knew… he could feel their eyes on him and was sure he was just missing the stares. “Maria, this is beyond the pale.” he spoke in the feminine tones his sister had instructed him in with their quick lesson, but didn’t feel comfortable speaking in anything over a whisper.

Maria held Gabe’s shoulder to balance him as they made their way onto the bus. She could feel the nervous energy pouring off of him. “You are just lucky one of the girls was willing to let someone borrow a pair of shoes.” She was sure that if she asked one of the students with a similar shoe size to her brother would have sneakers or a pair of flats that could be borrowed, but she loved the idea of her ego driven brother having to wear a pair of heels that were brought for the banquet. Three inch block heels were **** than what she would make him wear. “I wasn’t expecting you to have to wear these on the bus, but thanks to your mistake, we’ll have to make due. Now be a good girl for me Gabriella.”

Gabe was surprised by the height three inches gave him. It was incredible. The girl from the bar had been wearing heels with a large platform in front and what had to be at least six if not a seven inch heel: she looked sexy as hell in them. While his borrowed shoes were much shorter than that and a block heel, it was still like standing on stilts.

His sister, vain as she was in his opinion, had worn heels on the trip to DC. Now though, she was wearing what looked like a pair of comfortable sneakers for a long field trip that involved lots of walking and normally even then she’d be looking down on him. In these heels though, they were actually standing at eye-level.

This also gave Gabe a perfect view of the seats, as well as the confused and awkward looks by the kids on the bus. The hand on his shoulder vanished as he stood at the front of the bus, in the front seat was the tall blonde man that he was supposed to meet for the first time on this trip to impress him by volunteering to chaperone. Instead, the man bought some insane story about him being a teen girl. Beyond him were a group of twelve teenage students. Only a few looked his way, but standing before them made him feel like someone had shined a spotlight down upon him.

Principal Banks stood up from his seat on the bus to welcome the last two to arrive. He gave a reassuring smile to the mother and daughter, patting his hand on the younger DeLeon’s back before turning to address the students. Gabe was still startled by just how tall Sam was and what felt like a pressure from his gaze. The skirt wearing man was sure it was just his imagination, but it felt like there was a pressure on him, that any second he would be called out for what he was doing. Gave had been short his entire life and now, even in these heels, he was as tall as Maria, but next to the towering athletic build of the principal, he felt like a child.

“Ok class.” The large man said, speaking from the diaphragm to project his deep voice. “This is Gabriella Grace DeLeon. She’ll be joining us on this trip. Let’s all make sure she feels welcome ok?” Murmurs echoed among the class until Maria made a loud clap with her hands to get them to quiet down. Gabe was impressed that she had such control over these kids, it took him a few weeks and making some examples out of students that didn’t give him their undivided attention before they would follow his commands. Though he supposed his sister had been at the crappy school longer than him, he was just a first year teacher slumming it there.

“Go on, take a seat with the other kids.” Maria had lowered her voice, but not enough to be a real whisper. She needed Gabe to a seat and phrasing it the way she did allowed her to both remind him of his current situation and make a jab at his younger appearance. Something that she knew irritated her brother most days, but this one proved to be an asset.

‘Other kids…’ Gabriel thought, grumbling. His irritation mixed with his thoughts, stress and panic as he glanced at the students on the bus. The panic itself was barely kept at bay as he took one step after another, hardly paying attention to the fact kids moved their backpacks or shifted in their seats to show they didn’t want to sit with the known girl.

As he walked down the aisle the skirted man could hear his boss, Mr Banks begin to read aloud the itinerary for today’s trip, going over local museums and monuments they’ll be seeing in DC. “And one more thing!” Samuel said with a little more excitement in his voice, hoping it would be at least a little contagious. Sometimes he resonated well with students, but being teens it wasn’t always easy to get them excited about anything. The group here was supposed to be a more mature group considering the title of their organization and how they year round ran small events to raise money for trips like this. “I’ve changed our lunch plans from Bumblepears to the food court at the nearby mall, so keep your wallets tight. If you want to go shopping, we might be able to squeeze a few minutes in before we leave.”

Maria was about to let her brother move on his own to find a seat, but when she saw the first student's reaction she quickly followed him, not wanting him to go on some tirade about them not showing proper respect or whatever nonsense she had half heard him talking about at their dinner table in the past. “Now behave and don’t make a scene. Try and pretend you’re one of the many air-headed bimbos you seem to think these girls all are and stay quiet.” Maria hissed into his ear as she sat him down in an empty seat.

Taking the indicated empty seat Gabe let out a sigh, trying to not show the frustration on his makeup covered face from how much this situation was getting to him, that and his sister's constant jobs. Still he was thankful he’d only have to stay in these ill-fitting clothes for a few more hours. It wouldn’t be the end of his problems, but the very idea he was wearing, not just girl’s clothing, but ones borrowed from the students he taught was just another level of wrong.

The mention of lunch made him think of food and his stomach churned. He hadn’t had a real meal in something like ten to thirteen hours. Gabe would hardly call wings and peanuts from a bar as sustenance, so the last real meal he got was actually breakfast right before he got on the plane.

His sister was being a bit of a bitch, but he felt so out of sorts he answered in the affirmative as she walked by, he whispered “Ye-Si, Mama” under his breath. Only just catching himself, remembering that English was not Gabriella’s first language and needed to only respond in Spanish. He recalled how he even learned Spanish growing up. Back then it was only himself, his Mama, and Maria.

He picked up Spanish quickly, with his mother mostly speaking her native language around the house. Continuing to engage others with it like Mama’s friends from work who would come over for tea, making English his second language even if he did speak it fluently.

English was much easier to learn as he grew up surrounded by english-speaking movies and hearing his mother speak it when he was with her out and about. Escaping into his memories and away from what was going on around him, Gabe thought of music. He hated listening to his mother’s dated songs. She’d play her old tunes on her cassette player. Sometimes he’d put his headphones on and blast his Foo Fighters or Linkin Park albums as loud as he could. Something he was wishing he could do right now and pretend he wasn’t sitting in a skirt with his thighs pressed together.

Pressing his lips together Gabe could taste the lipgloss. Even if he closed his eyes, he couldn’t ignore what he currently looked like. Having to pretend his sister was Mama, while his actual parent, his only real parent was many states away. It made him think of another absence in his life. He’d asked his Mama about his father before, but she just called him a deadbeat bastard and told him never to mention him again.

Gabe always imagined what having a father would be like. Mama refused to date too, so it wasn’t like he had men in the household to look up to. She felt it would be a bad example for Maria to be seen seeking a man’s company. She refused to even let Maria hold a boy’s hand until Prom. It seemed like there was something big that both his sister and her weren’t telling him, but he never cared enough to pry.

When Gabe finally met other boys who knew Spanish he would get teased for how high-pitched his voice was when he talked. He tried to say it was normal, but really he had just been mimicking the inflections of those he had grown up around, so he’d stick to only speaking English around kids his age. He’d still use Spanish to talk to his Mama and Maria, but it soon became more of a private tongue that he didn’t share with strangers.

He even got in trouble in school when he took Spanish 101 and was too embarrassed to answer the questions after the first time someone told him he sounded like a child. He just wanted the easy A with him fluent in the language, but between that and his dyslexia it had been a struggle. To Gabe, Spanish felt more like a special language to use within his family’s company.

No one else at school grew up speaking the language like they did. The few times he and Maria got along together, it was in insulting some racist white guy in Spanish behind his back, or laughing at their mother’s telenovelas together.

Now, though, that feminine pitch of his voice that escaped him whenever he spoke his mother’s native language would mask not just his intentions, but his identity. Not only could he avoid talking to too many of the students, but, if he did speak, they wouldn’t even notice beyond the language barrier itself, or so he hoped.

Alice, one of the female students on the trip, sat in her seat and scowled as she watched the student she didn’t recognize and knew for a fact wasn’t part of the Future Business Leaders of America walk down the aisle between the seats. It irked her to see someone who hadn’t earned the trip like she had, like they all had on the trip. Seeing the girl’s white blouse strain to contain her chest just bothered her more. “Gah! Do you see her? Oh Em Ge, look at her rack. What a slut.” She said mostly to herself, but partly to Sarah, her friend sitting across the aisle to her.

The pretend language barrier didn’t mean he couldn’t actually understand everyone else talking in English behind his back. Well, one row back and across the aisle. Though that seemed to just be the first.

Sarah latched on to her friend's comment, really taking the girl in. Wearing a blouse that looked like it would throw a button when she inevitably flirted with a boy, a mini skirt and heels when they were going to be walking around. Knowing right then that this girl didn’t belong and seemed to only have getting male attention on her agenda. “I know, right? Bet she got a boob job.”

Gabe’s eyes peered down at his fake tits bursting at the seam of this blouse. Two boxes worth of tissues, plus the boxes they came with, shoved inside one of Maria’s spare D-cup bras. He cursed Maria for making them so big, even if they did distract them from his face. He could remember teasing Maria about this very thing growing up. Though her big tits were real, yet he still felt his cheeks burning in embarrassment as he heard how the two students were talking about him.

Before he went off to college he remembered one conversation he had with his older sister, more of a fight really. Gabe recalled shouting “A Teacher? You're more likely to get a job at a dairy farm with those udders. As one of the vacas!’ It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last that he would refer to his sister as a cow.

“With, like, what money? The girl’s clothes don’t even fit. She’s so stupid she couldn’t even remember her own size.”

“Betcha she’s related to Miss DeLeon, only reason she’s even here. No way an airhead like her could be in this group.”

Gabe wanted to ignore their various comments but he reminded himself that he wanted them to think he was an airhead afterall. ‘It’s only for a day. We’ll be back home and I won’t have to hear any of this anymore.’ He reassured himself, trying his best to keep a positive attitude as he worked through this nightmare situation. The trip was longer than a day, but he was so focused on getting to the mall to buy clothing he had settled on that being the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Wonder how she knows Miss DeLeon? You think she’s her daughter?”

“Niece maybe. Like, no way someone as smart as her would have a bimbo like that for a daughter, but they HAVE to be related with their last names and all.”

“Betcha she’s some street rat that Miss DeLeon felt sorry for and took on this trip. She’s way too nice for her own good.”

Gabe was blown away by the way they held Maria up like that. He never figured Maria for being a bad teacher, but for the few weeks he was teaching them, they never seemed to ever respect him. They talked in class, texted, chewed gum, and he constantly heard them talking about him behind his back when he monitored lunch.

“Betcha Miss DeLeon wouldn’t like hearing me tell her about you bullying the new kid.” Gabe’s ear perked up to a new voice among them. It was the girl sitting directly across the aisle from him, now sitting on her knees and giving the other girls a **** stare.

“Oh get lost, Bec~ky.” Sarah said the dark haired girl’s name with a sarcastic tone. “You really like being an outsider, huh? Standing up the brainless bimbos?”

Becky glared at a few of the other girls in her class at how merciless they were being. When they had arrived at the hotel their theater teacher and current chaperon had come around asking for clothes for someone that had theirs ruined and it was clear to her exactly who that was.

“Sarah, you were talking about a purple skirt that you bought to get Tad’s attention and I recall you letting Miss DeLeon borrow it for someone in need.” She tried to muster up the same glare her mother saved for her Dad, though she was sure she could only muster up a fraction of it. “Alice, you lent out your shoes for our dinner didn’t you? I would think it would take a real moron to call someone names about what they are wearing in a situation like this. Or but I’m not sure exactly how self aware either of you really are.”

“Rebecca Roads!” A booming voice yelled out. “Sit down and face the front of the bus!” Gabe heard Principle Banks call from the front of the bus. Becky, as Gabe recalled the other girls refer to her as, slumped down again and gave Gabe a friendly wave as she saw him looking at her.

“Betcha you two will get along real well. You can talk about being from broken homes.” Alice said not wanting to let someone else get the last word or show how much her words hit her.

“Oh, yeah, betcha the new girl’s from some trashy single mom who opens her legs for anyone.” Gabe was not about to let that slide, opening his mouth to reply. His hands were balled into fists, his knuckles were white from the strain. He saw his students in class talking, gossiping or passing notes. So long as they didn’t disrupt his teaching he let it slide, they weren’t worth his frustration, but now they were talking about him and his Mama.

Turning to look over the seat he was about to put an end to this nonsense, not thinking about the ramifications due to his anger, but before he could snap at them, Becky raised her hand. “Miss DeLeon?!” She shouted, causing a small amount of alarm in the two mouthy students. “Can I move seats?”

“Yes Becky, but just once. Pick a seat and stick with it.” The girls seemed worried that Becky was gonna tattle to the teacher, which finally shut them up. Then, before Gabe knew it, the girl had launched herself across the aisle with her small, designer backpack, and sat next to him.

She wore a jean jacket over a black top and some fluffy black skirt. Her hair was in a long bob haircut dark, darker than even Gabe’s hair and much straighter. Gabe’s hair had a small natural curl to it, but thanks to his sister's shampoo found it much curlier like hers. His own thick hair felt heavy, almost like he was wearing a helmet, but her hair fell flat along the sides of her face, looking light and breezy.

“Ugh, can you believe those bitches?” Becky rolled her eyes as she spoke to her new seatmate. Gabe was immediately brought to the present by her words. He had to hold himself back from lecturing her about swearing. She seemed to register the wrinkle of his eyebrows. “Yeah, pay them no mind, I’m Becky Roads, you?” She didn’t extend her hand out for a shake or anything, she just reached into her pocket and pulled out some candy, popping one in her mouth and holding out a second for who she saw as a peer.

“Uh… no hable ingles.” He shook his head, hoping she’d think he didn’t know any English at all. It only seemed to invite a snicker and an amused smile.

“It’s ok. You understand me though right? Like I’m not just speaking Klingon over here?” This girl, Gabriella, had clearly been bothered by what the other girls had been saying, so she knew that Gabriella knew enough to understand some of the bitchy comments.

Pretending to not speak any English felt like it would be a huge pain in the ass, making Gabe believe he couldn’t just be completely unintelligent. The comments about being an air headed bimbo, the same thing he accused some of his students of, dug into him much more than it should. So, he nodded to the question about understanding and took the offered piece of candy from the student sitting next to him. ‘Pineapple flavored!?’ He was shocked to find one of his favorite flavors. ‘Tropical flavored candy, at least this girl has good taste.’ It reminded him of drinking Pineapple Soda while he waited for his Mama to get home from work.

“Nice! What’s your name?” Becky repeated her question.

“Uh… Gabri-ella” Turning his head to look at the girl he felt her eyes boring into him, making the skirt-wearing man worried she’d recognize him after stumbling on the fake name. Then when he saw her look away, craning her neck to look up to the front of the bus where his sister was, he felt that spike in panic grow dimmer, though her sitting so close to him and asking questions meant it wasn’t going away.

“Gabriella… Gabri-ella.” Becky said like she was tasting the name, a small smile on her face. “Your name is pretty, wait!” Becky thought for a second, her knowledge of the Spanish language only existing because of television and movies. “Gabriella.” She pointed to the large chested girl next to her. “Bonita” She wanted to relay that she thought her name was pretty, but Gabe blinked his eyes a few times, his heavily mascara covered lashes batting a few times when the teenager called him pretty. “Are you Miss DeLeon’s niece? OH! Can I call you Gabby!?”

“no, um, Hija, er, Niña.” Gabe didn’t think Becky would know the actual spanish word for ‘daughter’, plus it felt weird calling himself her daughter anyway. The more generic niña made it feel more vague and ill-defined. Less real. He wasn’t even going to acknowledge the name Gabby. On one hand there was not difference between being called one wrong name over another, but if he accepted a nickname it felt more like he was accepting that it was okay to call him Gabriella.

“Oh wow, I didn’t know she had a daughter. I guess she does look like a mom, well, someone’s mom… I guess yours?” She laughed at the awkwardness of what she was trying to say, picking up just enough of what Gabby said knowing hija or nina, she wasn't sure which, but one of them meant daughter. “What I mean is, you do look like her daughter.”

Gabe blushed at that remark, it was simultaneously embarrassing and insulting and he really wanted to set the record straight, but doing so would ruin the entire illusion. Seeing the shy girl blush, Becky took it as a silent thank you or confirmation.

With the girl next to her being mostly silent Becky started to absentmindedly look around the bus, she crossed eyes with one of the other girls from before, who seemed to be snickering in her and Gabriella's direction.

“Ugh, I hate this stupid club. It’s full of nothing but preppy assholes who think they’re better than everyone else. It’s this whole town honestly, way too many assholes all over it.” Gabe was certainly confused why she was here on this trip if she thought that way about her friends, for that matter he wondered why she was sitting next to him and talking to him like they were friends.

His facial expression of confusion seemed to prompt the girl to continue much to his dismay. “Oh, well, not you Gabby, obviously!” She made a half-hearted chuckle to calm her nerves. “I just mean all of them. I’m only here cause I’m hoping it’ll pad out my credentials and get me into whatever college I want and out of this gawd-foresaken town.”

Gabe wanted to tell her to not call him Gabby, but the supposed language barrier made it difficult. What she said about this town and the people in it he could relate to. He hated his hometown as much as his Mama loved it. It was why he was trying to get a job out here in DC, or tried. ‘So many people screwed this up for me, that hotel maid, that slut from the other night… if it wasn’t for them… Gabe took in a deep breath and let out a long sigh, feeling the pull of the bra’s band and the straps as he took in the air. ‘That doesn’t matter right now.’ He told himself, his mind still having difficulty staying in the present, thinking about why he was so happy to be gone from his home town for those 6 years he was away in college.

“You get it.” Rebecca nodded seeing her new friend sigh when talking about back home. Suddenly wondering if Gabby was even from the same place. She didn’t fit in with the other girls in this school club, though she had made little effort to do so and now she could practically feel the malice for daring to stand up to them. Feeling a little anxious she pulled out a softball from her bag and began to pass it back and forth between her hands. The physical activity helps to calm her, center her. The scowl on her face seemed to melt away as she rhythmically felt and watched the ball bounce in her hand.

Seeing the hispanic girl look at the softball she fiddled with, Becky raised an eyebrow. “You play?” She handed the ball over to Gaby, then went back to passing it between her own hands when the girl shook her head. “Oh, no worries. Is soccer more your sport?”

Her eyes went wide as she processed what she had asked, “N-nnot because you’re hispanic, I just meant because we also have a soccer team and you might wanna…” Gabe at this point was laughing and clutching his weak stomach, never before had someone used soccer as a micro-aggression against him, and the teen girl seemed so earnest in her apology for it.

Reaching over Gabe took the large ball, the thing looked so large in his hands. The girl’s sport seemed odd to him considering baseball was already a thing. “Juego Baseball” with as much of an accent as he could muster through his cracking voice, just to come up with some kind of lie that would calm her down. His sister had him practice some stupid lines back in the hotel and trying to talk like that made his own voice sound odd, feel odd. Giving him yet another reason to feel uncomfortable.

The student next to him seemed to take what he said and run with it. Becky seemed to calm down completely, the scowl was already gone, but the neutral expression changed to something closer to excitement as she talked about something she was obviously passionate about. The topic of Softball and Baseball and the differences between them.

Gabe felt a little thankful he hadn’t been pulled into some conversation about a reality tv show or whatever it was teen girls watched. It was clear to him the girl had a passion, making the one sided conversation that much more bearable as the bus rolled along and took them to their first exhibit.