Nine

Dani spends the time that Eddy is gone with his father alone in the room, putting her clothes away. She brought clean sheets and her blanket that she wanted, because Eddy had told her that the ones they provide feel like hospital sheets.

This was pretty much like a dorm room so she had brought a few things along to make it feel more home like. Such as a huge box of junk food. A mini fridge that Eddy had to bring up later. She had brought some things that she could find only in New York.

She had brought two different kinds of toiletries. Shampoo and conditioner that was unscented and some men's body wash for through out the week. On weekends when she didn't have class and she could stay in her room, she brought her favorite Parisian body wash, perfume, shampoo and conditioner.

She had her razors and her wax, as well as her face cleansers. She brought her bras and panties, along with pajamas. But she also has two pair of boxers to put on under her pants. She has girl clothes for the weekends and boy clothes for the week.

The school uniform is tan pressed slacks, a tucked in white shirt, a blazer and a tie. They only had to wear them during class hours, which was from nine in the morning until two in the afternoon. After that they could wear whatever they want.

Dani is in the middle of sorting her bras when there is a knock on the door. She panics and flings them to the floor, kicking them under the bed. “Just a minute-” She calls out, sounding too feminine for her liking.

On the way to the door, she clears her throat, before she whispers in a gruff tone beneath her breath. She practices the voice on the walk. When she reaches the door she pulls it open a bit, peaking out.

An unfamiliar boy stands there in his uniform, looking way to chipper. When he sees Dani, he smiles at her. “Hi, I am Thomas. I am the sort of the class president of the school, so it is my duty to come and welcome you to the school.”

“Uh, thank you..” Dani says quietly, uncertain.

“Are you settling in okay? If you need anything, you can come to me. Trust me when I say that I can get it for you way faster than the office can. If you need a tour, I would be happy to show you around-” He tells her.

“That's okay-”

“It's kind of my job. Among other things. Have you met anyone here yet? Making friends would help you adjust, I am sure. By the way, what is your name?” Thomas rambles, talking quickly.

Lord, he has way too much energy. Dani is having trouble keeping up with his quickly changing topics. “Um, Dani. Short for Daniel.”

“Danny. Nice to meet you.” Thomas sticks a hand out.

“Yeah, you too.” She says, shaking his hand. She finds the whole exchange to be rather odd.

“Come on, Thomas.” A voice calls from down the hall and the guy straightens up quickly.

“Alright, well, I have to go. I am down the hall, first door on the left, if you need anything. The name is Thomas Carver, remember that.” With that, he turns away to walk down the hall, calling back “See you around, Danny!”

A figure joins him from where he leaned against the wall and Dani hears the guy say, “Class President? More like the school's bitch.”

“Shut up, Ash.”

Dani shuts her door quickly, walking back over to her bed and falling on it with a sigh. So far she had met two students at this school and both of them were odd. Maybe this was not such a good idea.

Although she had to admit, that first boy was pretty darn cute. And he got her refernece to William Shakespere, so he is intelligent. At least he has that going for him.

Another knock sounds on the door and she huffs. For the love of God, who could that be now? She moves over to the door with the same amount of enthusiasm that she would have if she were walking to the gallows.

But when she pulls it open to see who is out there, she feels her excitement return when she finds Eddy out there. “Hey, I wasn't expecting you

back so soon. I thought that you would hang out with your Dad for a long while, since you only have tonight.”

“Yeah, well, I didn't want to leave you alone too long on your first night here. I thought you could use a friend so here I am.” Eddy says, pushing past her to come into the room.

“Oh, well now I feel bad because I am taking you away from spending time with your dad.” Dani tells him, moving over to sit down on the bed with her legs crossed under her.

“Eh, don't be. We did all the cathcing up that we needed to do in the first twenty minutes. After that was just idle chit chat and polite conversation.” Eddy tells her, moving over to join her.

The words 'chit chat' make her think of her father. “Are you going to get in trouble staying the night up here? Like, with my father? For keeping the car?” She would hate for him to jeopardize his job for her, just to make her feel more comfortable about being in a new place.

“I told him that my Dad lived really close by and I asked him if I could keep his car over night so that I could stay the night with my dad so that we could catch up. He said of course, which was really cool of him.” Eddy tells her. He lays a hand on her leg and smiles. “You know, your Dad is not too bad of a guy.”

“Hmm, that is a matter of opinion.” She says drily. She has issues with her father that he knows nothing about. He is a good guy, sure. She will give him that. He is great with other people. He is a well liked guy.

His only fault is that he is a shitty father. He does not do right by her. He can manage to have conversations with every person in the world but he can not even manage to have a single conversation with her. He can be there for any other person in the world but her.

“Alright, enough about your father. On to better subjects now.” Eddy says and Dani agrees.

The conversation stays light after that, with him making no more mention of her father, which she greatly appreciates. He helps her set up her room and unpack all of her boxes.

He organizes her book shelf for her in order of size and color of books, but he keeps the series together. It is the way that she usually does it and she is pleasantly surprised. “Thanks.”

“I figure if it's not how you usually do it then you can fix it later when you get time, but at least there are out of the box, you know?” Eddy tells her, putting the one box inside of the other so that they are stacked neatly.

She takes them and puts them with all the other boxes, before she puts them in the bottom of her closet. Now that they have unpacked her room, things get kind of awkward.

It is getting late, which brings to the front of her mind the little issue of sleeping arrangements. The fact that there is only one bed in the room has not escaped her notice at all.

It does not seemed to have escaped his either judging by the way that he keeps casting looks at it. To get her mind off of it, she asks him, “Is it always so cold up here? I am freezing to death!”

“Um, it's fall in Vermont. It is pretty much always cool up here. Just wait until it's January up here. That is when you will really freeze to death.” Eddy tells her, sitting down in the reading chair by the book shelf.

“Yay! Something to look forward to!” She says with a chuckle that is cut short by a yawn.

They woke up so early this morning to hit the road and she is exhausted. She is ready to change into her pajamas and get in bed. But she does not know how this is going to work.

But Eddy must be reading her mind because he tells her, “If I can borrow one of the pillows and the old blanket off the bed, I will make my pallet in the floor and we can get some sleep.”

“Oh, but um-” She begins but stops herself from speaking, afraid of how it might sound. But she can't let it go, so she just comes out and say it. “You can't sleep on the floor, it's too cold and you will catch pnuemonia. I don't see any reason as to why we can't, uh, share the bed.”

“Share? Are you sure?” He asks her, looking just as uncertain as she feels.

“Yeah. I don't see why not. I would feel like crap if you slept on the floor and then caught a cold or something, since you stayed with me to help me settled in. Besides the floor is hard on the back, I imagine. After driving all day, you can not be relishing that.” Dani says and he chuckles.

“No exactly.” Eddy admits.

That is how three hours later she finds herself laying in the dark next to a sleeping Eddy. She is afraid to even move or breathe too loudly for fear that she will bother him.

Every time that she is around him her biggest fear is that she will make a fool of herself in front of him. Like now, she is afraid that if she falls asleep, she will touch him in her sleep, or worse, curl up to him.

So she lays there in the dark just looking around until her eye lids grow too heavy to keep them open. She falls asleep against her will, no longer able to force herself to fight off her slumber.

But when she wakes up the next morning she is still on her side of the bed and he is on his, with neither one of them touching the other. She gets up quickly, climbing out of bed to move over to her closet to pick out an outfit for the day.

Out of habit she almosts grabs her favorite skirt and top, but then she rememebers that she is suppose to be a boy. So instead she has to grab her slacks and and her wig.

She goes into the bathroom to get ready, since it takes her a while to become a boy. After she takes a shower, she pulls on her sports bra and then wraps her chest up with a roll of thick elastic bandages.

Next is her waist thickening corset and the pair of boxers that she pulls on over her briefs. Then she pulls on her shirt and buttons it, before she tucks it into her pants. It takes her about fifteen minutes until she is finally dressed and ready for the day.

When she opens the door, she finds Eddy sitting on the side of the bed, looking at her. He grins at her when he sees her in her full costume. “I am never going to get use to you as a guy.”

“Yeah, I don't think I am either.” She grins back at him and all the awkwardness from the night before is gone. They have fallen back into their old familiar friendship.

She is sad when she has to wave him off and watch him leave. She is all alone there at the school and she looks at the huge building looming over her.

She just might be in over her head.