Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Looking around, Mr. Banks tried to count the heads of his charges to make sure he didn’t leave one of them behind as they came to the end of their tour. “Ok kids, that was Mount Vernon. I hope you all learned something today. I learned that DC has a mountain, can you believe that?” Samuel smiled as he heard the echo of groans from the kids as he led them out of the mansion, their tour coming to an end.

He kept an eye on his watch to keep a close eye on the schedule so everyone would be able to make it to all the different events. The trip had gone smoothly enough, the lack of a third adult was mostly noticed as the students split up on the tour. No one had been injured and no property broken so it seemed like a win.

He had been a bit nervous starting his new job, but everything had worked out so well so far. Samuel found kicking things off with the FBLA trip, with the more responsible students, to be exactly what he needed to calm his nerves. No one disrespected him, or was misbehaving, no more so than should be expected of a teenager at least.

The only thing that really stuck out so far was one of his teachers, Maria. An **** smile came to his lips as he thought of the woman. She had a surprise of her own, one he had to help handle. A child from her past, her own child had shown up thanks to her own mother. Looking over at one of his students holding a souvenir cast-iron old-fashioned key like it was a sword and laughing with a friend he hoped that Maria’s daughter adjusted to her sudden new environment.

Gabriel pressed his hand firmly to his belly like it was going to help settle his hungry stomach as he left the old building that once belonged to the first president. Gabe did wish he had the attention to spare to really take it all in. The place was surprisingly busy and walking around in a mini skirt had him on high alert at all times, afraid someone was going to point out what he thought was obvious, that he is a man. The three inch block heels made their presence known with each step on the hardwood floors. Not only was his foot stuck at an angle because of them, but they seemed to cry out to everyone to look in his direction.

The click clack of heels as a girl walked always got his attention and now that it was his own footsteps it was nothing but constant anxiety inducing. No one had said a word though, he wasn’t even sure where the girl who had sat with him on the bus had gone off to. She had been next to him at the start of the tour, but thankfully had gone off with a different cluster of students. Allowing him to stay in the back of a group and fret about his predicament without anyone pestering him.

Stomach gurgling at one point in the tour, Gabe wanted to complain about not having anything to eat, but Maria was over in the back to make sure there were no stragglers. He realized that if he had managed to avoid all this insanity and still had his old clothes, he would have had to march around even longer on an empty stomach. The cup of coffee he had wasn't enough and definitely not after a night of heavy drinking.

‘At least now, Mr Banks promised us all to get a nice meal at the mall soon enough.’ The thought brought a frown to his face, referring to his boss as Mr Banks wasn’t inaccurate, it was professional. Yet in his current situation it somehow also felt more juvenile. ‘At least I don’t have to call him Mr. Samuel or Mr Sam. I hate this… maldita Maria.’

Glancing around at the rest of the now gathering students, Gabe saw he wasn’t alone either. Some of the kids were looking like they were starting to drag at this point from the long plane ride and then all the walking. The new school principal calculated it all, or so he vaguely recalled the itinerary that was sitting in his work email account that he currently had no way to access.

The tall blonde man standing in front of the group glanced at his watch to check the time before addressing the group. “You all have done a fantastic job sticking to the schedule and now we are on to our lunch time destination. Next up, the food court! Just a good thirty minute drive and we should be able to make it over there with time to spare. Now, I want you all to stay close to Miss DeLeon.” He motioned to the woman at his side, the frustration of not having a third chaperone kept from his face. “Myself or at least two other students. I would be a fool to think you aren’t going to want to wander off, but please remember we are on a trip together. So stay together as much as possible and keep your cell phones handy. If you see a phone call from a chaperone, you are to answer it promptly.”

Soon a half dozen girls began to rush over to Maria to ask about going to different clothing stores so they could pick up some new purse or jacket or leggings. Standing amongst the gaggle of teen girls wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience for the skirt wearing man, but he needed to go with his sister for shopping, so there he stood, listening to them yammer on about the different stores they needed to hit. Something he couldn’t help roll his eyes at, like any of them needed anything they were talking about.

One of the girls… his golden-brown eyes stared at the back of her head, the girl's high ponytail swaying with her slightest movement as he tried to recall her name. She had a solid B in his class and just the other week she had reminded him about assigning homework. A brown-noser for sure, but she was one of the few that he thought had a good head on her shoulders. That was until he overheard her talking about him or specifically talking about Gabriella, learning about her lack of empathy… that or she was just a real bitch like the other student Becky had said.

The teen had said she wanted to grab a pair of leggings, Gabe hated the popularity of that article of clothing. He recalled how he sent quite a few students to detention for wearing such an inappropriate garment. There should be some amount of modesty among girls their age. It irritated him a bit further that the office, specifically the hard ass vice principal Bisc sent the girls back to class with no disciplinary action, saying they were fine so long as they weren’t too tight.

‘Girls these days dress too provocatively.’ He thought, the echoes of what was said about his own current clothing by the very teenagers he sent to the office running through his mind. ‘Leggings… gym clothes should not be worn out and about.’

By the time they shuffled back onto the bus, the two chaperones could barely contain the kids who were jumping up and down like animals. The reemergence of the energy in the group wasn’t contagious for the sour disguised teacher. He felt like he should feel a bit excited, or relieved, getting to the mall to use the vouchers was the goal after all. A feeling of relief should be there, comfortable clothing was around the corner, but he knew his sister too well. Maria was still going to make him wear whatever girly outfit she felt was appropriate for him. There was no way she’d let him wear pants, let alone sensible sneakers.

Sitting back on the bench seat, this time Becky sitting by the window, Gabe pulled off one of his borrowed heels to try and massage his aching foot. Rolling his ankle and pressing his fingers to his sore appendage felt great, but as soon as he did, he noticed a boy from across the aisle where Becky sat before gawking at his exposed foot. It was still covered in a thigh-high white sock, but something about the kid's stare made Gabe feel uncomfortable, violated in some way, so he put the stupid heel back on and tolerated the pain.

‘I’m a man, I can handle a little pain.’ He thought making a mental effort to press his thighs together and look away from the student and in turn had him looking in the direction of his seatmate who was holding what looked like a campaign button that said George Washington for President.

Tapping the button in her hand Becky glanced over to her new friend, giving her a friendly smile. “I know, a cheap souvenir, but I thought my Dad would get a laugh at it. Something to keep in his truck.” She turned her head slightly to the side as she thought it best to elaborate more on that. “He is a truck driver, drives one of those big trucks you can sleep in. Did you get anything?”

The question made Gabe wince, not that he would have bought anything, it was just a reminder that he couldn’t if he wanted to considering his wallet had been thrown away with his pants. It was also a bit of a reaction because he once again found himself interacting with one of the students, cursing himself because he could have just as easily chosen an empty seat.

The mall itself was pretty decently sized. Gabe was hoping they could stop at the Darcy’s that they had to walk into just to get to the mall, but instead Maria guided him and a bunch of the girls over to Infinite-18. Meanwhile, Mr Banks took all the boys in the group to the electronic shop to look for games and toys to play with, a place Gabe very much rather be.

As the female students scattered into the store, Maria met back up with her disguised brother to compare notes. “You’re doing a lot better than I expected. Maybe you have potential at this whole ‘girlhood’ thing, .mi Hija”

“No soy tu Hija” He retorted, shrugging off her attempt to get under his skin by saying he was her daughter.

Maria smirked as she pushed him into the juniors section that had rack after rack of dresses. “¿No? ¿No fuiste tú quien me llamó mami hace un momento? She quipped, mentioning how it was just him calling her mommy a bit go and phrasing it in a question to needle him. Maria held up her hand to pause him, holding back any retort he might have. Let’s stick to english for the moment. We need to get you behaving more like some airheaded teen if people are to believe what you are selling. Can’t just have you relying on Spanish.” Making Gabriel act like he was dumb when he prided himself on his intellectual superiority brought a bright smile to her face. ‘Let's see how you like pretending to be what you accuse your students of being.’

“Ugh, fine, but my voice is too deep for this.” Gabe could barely look at the outfits Maria was shoving against him to see what style she wanted him to wear.

“Well, let’s work on your voice first then. And don’t lie, you still sound like a whiny little girl to me. Though you always did sound like that, even in pants.” She pointed to his mostly exposed legs. The small amount of vocal work at the hotel had proved his most recent statement to be a bold-faced lie, but she didn’t correct him. Instead she pulled a dress from a clearance rack, ran her fingers over the fabric before pressing it to his artificially puffed out chest.

The pastel dress was sleeveless, allowing it to highlight her siblings small frame, with what was commonly called a boat neck, neck line that would hide the fact her fake daughter had just as fake of a chest. It exposed just a little bit of skin at the stomach with a cute almost snowflake like pattern, while the hem of the A line skirt that looked like it would fall half way down his thighs. pulled out a nice pastel sundress for him to wear. The skirt of it barely went to his thighs. It was something she would wear if she were younger.

“Hold this.” Maria said, pressing the garment to him a little harder and turning him around by the shoulder once he took hold of it so that he was facing in the direction of a changing room. “Try imitating a cat. Just meow.”

A grimace held firm on his face as he held the pastel blue dress at arm's length, his eyes looking frantically for some of the students when he heard someone talking nearby. It was just a middle aged woman on the phone walking past the juniors section. “This is stupid.” He said referencing both his current predicament and her prompting to embarrass him further.

“Just do it, Hija.” Maria was marching her younger brother in the direction of the changing room, intending to get this over with quickly, but pulled on him when she saw another dress she thought looked cute. She felt like they should hurry, but still having her brother try on a few dresses wasn’t an opportunity that was going to come about often. “Take this one too.”

He was about to snap at her that she wasn’t her mother, but the stern look and the desire to not draw more attention to himself kept him silent. A few seconds passed as a third dress and then a forth was added to his collection. Each additional outfit seemed worse than the last, not because the individual dresses were worse than the other, but the fact that his sister seemed intent on getting him a wardrobe. “What are you doing? We don't need that many… can’t I just get some pants?” He whispered.

“Gabriella, your voice sounds odd, are you coming down with a cold?” Maria asked, drawing attention to his use of his natural voice and continuing before he could answer. “And I’m going to keep picking out lovely outfits for you to wear till you do as you were told.”

Gabe squeaked his voice trying to imitate Mr Whiskers, the orange cat that their neighbor would let wander into his Mama’s garden.

“Good.” Maria praised. “Now hold that sound. Try to just hold that note as long as you can.” Before Gabe even realized it, he sounded like he had the highest pitch voice ever. Like he was some kind of singer in a girl-band. Face growing crimson he hustled off into the changing room.

Alone for the first time since putting on the borrowed skirt, Gabe hung up the clothing pressing his forehead up against the cheap wooden wall of the changing room. He wanted to bang his head on the wall, but that wouldn’t help him at all. With a sigh he started to unbutton the blouse, the buttons being on the wrong side not being much of a problem when taking off the garment that wasn’t designed for someone wearing this large of a bra, stuffed or not. The image of himself in the mirror didn’t fill him with manly pride.

Doing his best to not look at himself in the mirror after that first glance he sat down on the half seat that was in the changing room and took the horrible shoes off and then the long white thigh high socks off. The things looked sexy as hell on a girl, that gap between them and a skirt, it was a sight he loved. The thin material rubbing against his hairless legs was an experience that could be enjoyable, like running his hand up a girl's stockinged leg.

Though most of that was out the window with the fact that they were on him and had a habit of needing to be adjusted as they slid down. Taking in a deep breath he blew it out slowly, unable to keep his eyes away from the mirror to see the feminized version of himself with an open blouse.

He had never been a big man, but sitting there block heels laying on the floor next to him, girls knee high socks left on the floor next to the shoes, a purple knife pleated tartan skirt and a now obviously stuffed bra and completely devoid of hair it was painful to see himself. The scowl that had often been on his face since coming back from college looked down right cute on his makeup covered face, even in anger he lost part of his manhood. The dark spiral he was on the edge of was interrupted by his sister calling out from the other side of the door.

“Meow for me again hija, we need to keep working on this and hurry up. I want to see you in those pretty dresses.”

Giving a middle finger to his sister, who couldn’t see what he was doing through the changing room door he moved to take one of the dresses she wanted him to try on. “Vaca” Gabe whispered, not feeling bold enough to call his sister a cow loud enough for her to hear. Pressing his lips together hard in a line briefly before doing what his sister wanted felt like an insult to his pride. ‘I’m a full grown man and she wants me to meow like a cat while putting on a dress!’

He grumbled as he struggled with the little clasp on the dress and then unzipped the skirt as he once more felt like a fool as he held the note as long as he could. Taking hold of the pastel dress he stepped into it, struggling for a few moments with the back zipper before giving up and not even bothering to look at himself in the mirror. Not wanting a repeat on the emotional damage front at how pathetic he was, so he stepped out.

“Hmm.” Maria touched her hand to her chin as she looked at her smaller sibling, turning him around to zip up the dress and doing her best to keep in a laugh. It wasn’t that Gabe looked funny or ridiculous, no he looked a little upset and with the entire aesthetic he looked like a moody teen girl.

“It can’t have been that easy.” Gabe felt the dress close up behind him, its soft material hugging him. She had given him a few things to try on when he had walked into the changing room, not something he really did when shopping. Try on one pair of whatever to make sure the sizes were correct, something he had difficulty with with his height and build.

Once he knew what sizes at a store fit he just picked those same ones and was off to pay for his clothing. Maria on the other hand had always been the opposite. She liked browsing, trying things on even if she didn’t plan to buy it. Even when they were little and she had to take him to buy a new pair of pants while their mom worked, she always wanted him to try on everything.

“Oh, it’s normally not. Maybe you’re just a natural? Your voice always did squeak when you get angry. Maybe it was the universe telling you to speak more ladylike?”

Gabe blushed at that comment and didn’t say anything else, but had noticed she had already collected more things she wanted him to try on. ‘Does she think I’m some sort of doll?’

“We only need to get… what? Three outfits, how about we get me a pair of jeans and three t-shirts?”

Ignoring his question Maria pointed to her mouth. “Ok now, I want you to try and hold that note from your little cute cat noises, and feel…” She moved her hand to touch gently to her own throat. “You need to know what it feels like in your throat to sound how you want hija. Then, try talking like the pretty girl you are. Say something like ‘These dresses are sooooo pretty. I can’t choose just one.” Gabe remained quiet, refusing to play along. “Do it! Remember, I have those photos.” While giving her pest of a brother a glare she pulled her cell phone from her purse so that he understood the threat she was leveling.

That got Gabe to go along with with his controlling sister. “Meoooooo-ohh my gawd, these dresses are sooooo cute. How can I choose just one? I’m gonna look sooooo pretty.”

“Excellent improvisation. You’re really getting into that girly-headspace. And you sounded perfect, or almost. Say it again, but I need to both hear and see how happy you are. It’s a shame this is only for another day after this, you could try out for the school choir and get a soprano-role. All the other girls will be so jealous.”

‘Other girls!’ The two of them always teased one another, he often came out on top, or so he believed. In his opinion he was smarter than Maria, no that she was dumb, but considering she liked working for a public school he believed the point was debatable. Here right now though was her chance to verbally **** him without him able to put his older sister in her place. “Will you stop-”

Gabe exited the dressing room once more after changing clothes, only to get partially blinded by a flashing light as Maria took another photo. He should have known Maria would pull something like this again. The phone in her hand seemed like part of her threat to get him to do what she wanted, he didn’t expect another photo to happen, even if he knew she couldn't be trusted. “Stop that! Haven’t you humiliated me enough?” Gabe realized his hand was pressed against his hip as he said it and he immediately shook it off, though Maria saw it all.

“No way, not until you take accountability for your actions. You haven’t even apologized for getting drunk.” Gabe grumbled at this. He couldn’t believe she was still demanding an apology from him for something that wasn’t even his fault. The fact that she had the gall to demand such a thing while she actively trying to humiliate him just made it so much worse. ‘She knows that once I start drinking, I’m not going to stop. I’m fucking Keg and those were vacation days, I can do what I want. Only a pussy stops a good thing too early.’

“Like I said, we’ll keep going. I like that one though, we’ll keep it and start the next part of our lesson.”

“Lesson?”

“You need to act more flighty and ditzy. You’re still too arrogant around the kids and they’re noticing. The language barrier is only helping so much. Start by adding more pauses and sentence breaks in your speech. Say things like ‘like’, ‘um’ and ‘uh’. Really struggle to find the right word to say before you say it. Not only will this help sell the act, it will give you time to find the right thing to say next.”

“This is demeaning!”

“But it is effective. I’ve been teaching much longer than you. I know how kids behave. No one thinks twice about what Melissa Carter says, bless her heart. She’s a smart girl, but she talks like she’s from the valley and no one asks her anything about the homework or if she got a good grade. They assume she’s dumb because of how she talks, even if she’s actually smart. Do the same and people won’t pay you any attention.”

Gabe was shocked by how well Maria seemed to know her own students that well. He remembered Melissa and didn’t think twice about her, but she’s right. She got an eighty six on her last math test, But here he was assuming she was a dumb blonde.

“So, um, like how do I do this?”

“Good, good. You’ll make the perfect bimbo in no-time.” Gabe grumbled again. It was a lose-lose situation here. The better he did at pretending to be a girl, the more humiliated he felt for pretending to be a girl. “Let’s finish finding you some cute outfits, but since you are a happy girl, happy to be shopping with the mother she loves, I think it would be fun for you to pose for me in each one.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry, I can help you, I know exactly how you should pose in each of these outfits.” Maria said with a devilish smile on her face.

“Ahh, what about jeans and t-shirts?” Gabe swallowed hard. “Please?” He added in a smaller voice. The vouchers that the airline gave were his money, he knew he should just tell her how things were going to work, but she had him by the balls with her bullshit rouse.

“Gabby, I think that is what I heard your new friend call you. I like that attitude, if you can keep that up you can choose one of the dresses from what I have gathered so that you have input in your wardrobe too.”

Touching his stomach the short man grimaced. “Can we get something to eat first? I’m…” He stopped for just a moment when seeing one of the male students walk across his eyeline as he walked through the clothing section of the store. “I’m umm… how do you say tengo hambre?” He said, pushing down his feelings about acting like he isn’t fluent in English and some sort of ditz to boot.

“Aww.” Maria touched her brothers cheek, something that she would to get her hand smacked, but for whatever her brother’s faults he understood the position he was in, even if he didn’t seem to accept it was his own fault. “We will get you some lunch, but how soon that happens is up to you. If you take too long we will only have time to get you some crackers for the bus.”

The grimace on Gabe’s face morphed into happier, a **** smile that touched his eyes. ‘Perra’ he thought the curse word, while he was saying something completely different. “I hope we have time to try on all the pretty things you got for me!”

It was then that Gabe tried on outfit after outfit, still in his bare feet he tried one one dress after the next, each outfit change had him exiting the changing room and being **** to pose how Maria wanted him, something aggravating and it only got worse with each change of clothes. The pastel blue short dress, then a beige jumper with a cotton long sleeve blouse, a dark colored summer dress that felt light on his body, along with many more. Like a literal school girl outfit and each of them he held his body how Maria wanted, with a smile on his lipstick covered lips. It was infuriating, he had to do what she said, but with each outfit he was giving her more material to **** him with.

It was while Gabe was being tortured with feminine finery that Becky browsed a different store. The rules were to be in a buddy system, but she hadn’t bothered to find someone to go with her. She felt bad for Gabby, the girl had to borrow clothes from the other students on the trip and then got shit talked about those very clothes. “She needs a friend.” Becky told herself as she found what she was looking for. The dress in her hands was a shade of orange, sleeveless but with a high bodice. A slight smile grew on her face as she held the garment up, it was similar to one she remembered Taylor Swift wearing and thought it the perfect gift for the girl who had almost nothing. She had already started the preparations and with the buzz of her phone she got the answer she was hoping for from her father.

Becky: Dad, a girl in my glass lost all her clothes thanks to the airlines. Can I buy her something to help?

Dad: Sure thing sweetheart! That is mighty nice of you.

Becky: Thanks! Could you transfer some money to my account so I can afford it?

Dad: Of course! Just message your mother

Talking to her mom was something she was trying to avoid, but with permission given she sent off another message.

Becky: Hey Mom, Dad said you would be able to transfer me some money for dress for a friend that lost her clothes thanks to the airport.

Mom: Did he now

Mom: How much do you need?

Rolling her eyes Becky continued the text conversation, she could just hear the aggravation in her mom’s voice when she told her that Dad said it was okay. The teen girl didn’t understand why she was so frustrated, but believed she understood how things would have worked if she went to her first. A bunch of a questions, asking her about doing something around the house for it. When just asking her dad it was much easier, he hardly ever said no to her.

With the new purchase in hand the highschool girl made her way back to the store she last saw Gabby and her mom at. It wasn’t until she started walking up did she feel apprehensive. ‘I don’t really know what she likes to wear. I hope she likes it…’ It was around then that she could hear her soon to be friend, she hoped, talking and considering she was repeating herself in English it seemed clear to Becky that Gabby was practicing her non native language.

“The rain in Spain stays mainly in the pane… plane.” Gabe said for the fourth time in the feminine voice his sister had been coaching him on. Messing up the one word hadn’t been on purpose, but the last time he said it Maria had said his tone of voice was off, how she as his sister put it needed to speak with a smile.

“Hey Gabby, hi Miss DeLeon.” Becky have a small wave of her hand, her fingers wiggling.

“Ah. Hi, hon.” Maria said seeing one of her students, the one that her brother had been sitting with on the bus. “Do you need anything?” She asked, glancing around, all while Gabe’s mascara outlined eyes went wide at the presence of one of the students just showing up.

Looking behind her, around where her teacher was looking, Becky gave the woman a apologetic smile when she turned back around. “Sorry, I kind of went off by myself, but it was because I was getting something for Gabby. I know things are tough, so I bought you something.” She said holding the bag out to who she thought was another teen girl.

Opening and closing his mouth a few times, a false start on what to say made Gabe look more like he was struggling on how to say something in English considering what Becky believed they were up to when she approached, instead of him the first thing that came to mind.

“That is sweet of you, Gabriella, what do we say?” Maria looked to her brother who was now wearing the pastel blue dress and the shoes that had been loaned to him.

“Th…thank you.” Far as Gabe was concerned right now any attention was bad attention. He had just done a shopping montage with his sister for things this student in front of him should be wearing, not him. Yet she was handing him a bag from another store and inside was another garment… another dress.

Waiting patiently, Becky gave the girl the time she needed to answer. She was able to tell before that Gabby knew more English than they were letting on to, but had chalked that up to some shyness and was happy to know they wouldn’t be having much of a hard time communicating. “I hope you like it, the dress is a remake of… well a cheap remake I guess of what Talor Swift wore.”

“Is that so?” Maria gave the teen a smile, putting her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Gabriella actually loves her songs, she uses them to practice English sometimes. Don’t you?”

Not wanting to answer that question Gabe pulled the dress from the bag. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the singer, the girl is talented, but he didn’t believe there was a man alive that would admit to enjoying her music. Some Frank Sinatra, that he would admit singing along to. “Pretty.” He said looking at the garment, acting as if he was trying to find the word for the dress. It was indeed pretty, but he wanted to wear it just as much as he wanted to wear the dress he was currently wearing, or just as much as he wanted a bunch of army hands crawling over his skin.

“This is incredibly kind of you.” Maria said to her student while pressing her hand onto her brother's lower back as she whispered to him. “Dile gracias y dale un abrazo.” She said in a quite voice in Spanish, telling him to say thank you and give her a hug. When he turned to look at her, she just nodded.

“Thank you, I ah, like, yeah. I mean, I love it.” He stumbled over his words, trying to both add the word like in the sentence as his sister said and at the same time try to say he liked the dress and ending in an awkward hug to the girl that felt like it was crossing some line. ‘A male teacher should not be hugging a female student!’

“I bet you girls are hungry, we just have one more stop. Gabriella needs to get a purse and a few pairs of shoes. How about you tag along with us, I’m sure she would love the company. That and I can’t have you going off alone.” She gave the fair skinned girl a hard look to make a point of the fact that she wasn’t following the rules, though she didn’t glare at her long.

Hearing the topic of hunger made Gabe nod and speak over part of what Maria was saying. “Oh thank God, I’m starving.-er, oh thank gawd, I’m like, starving.”

Without prompting, Maria went and grabbed Gabe’s hair and tussled it up to show how proud she was. She didn’t know why, but it was heartwarming getting to bond with her little brother like this. She hated always fighting with him growing up and even if this was partially just to punish him for his bad decisions, she couldn’t deny how much fun she was having. ‘When he…’ Her smile grew a little more. ‘She does as she is told she is fun to be around.’

Later at the food court, Gabe wanted to go grab some pizza, but since Maria was paying, she ordered the two of them a salad. She did get them to add some chicken. “We can’t have you ruining your make-up or spilling sauce on your new dress. Use a fork and take small bites like a lady.” Gabe began to bite only for Maria to then kick him sharply in the leg. “And cross your damned legs.”

The interaction brought a smirk to her face, seeing Gabby sitting with her legs spread, her cute new four inch wedges on her feet, only to be corrected on acting like a lady, reminded her of interactions with her own mother. Causing her to snicker a bit.

Maria thought about the condition she found her brother in this morning, how furious she was and compared that to how content she felt with her brother dressed up as a teen girl and playing the part of a demure girl. Sure it took some prodding and little reminding for the current power dynamic to come about, but calls of your not my mother seemed to have come to an end. A sweet and pleasant smile held firm on her face. ‘So much can go wrong, but that was a lot of fun.’ Maria thought as she took a bite of her own salad, knowing that for as much enjoyment she was getting, Gabe was feeling the opposite and no doubt couldn’t wait for the trip to end.