Free Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger

hand a half-hearted shake. “I’m sorry you had to walk in on this scene. Laura’s very emotional these days, and every little thing seems to set her off.”
    “Well, I guess having your sister suddenly become your brother might not seem like a little thing to her.”
    Mom looked sort of pale; she obviously wasn’tgetting any more comfortable with my new gender as the days went by.
    “Are you two hungry?” she asked, deftly changing the subject.
    But before we could reply, Charlie interrupted again. “You don’t understand anything! I need a dog! I swear to God I’m getting myself a dog. I’ll go to a shelter and get one by myself! I swear to God!”
    “You’re not swearing to anybody , do you hear me?” It took Mom awhile to lose her temper, especially with Charlie, but once the point was reached, there was no going back. Her voice careened into the soprano range and blew right into Charlie’s face. “You’re going to your room, and you’ll stay there until I tell you to come out! And I don’t want to hear a word about it!”
    I motioned to Sebastian to follow me back outside.
    “Whoa! Some family!” he said as if he were complimenting me.
    “Not like yours?”
    He snorted. “My mother never raises her voice—it gives her a headache. But then, she never really has to. I mean, I’m the only kid, and I’m damn near perfect.”
    “I’m sure. She never argues with your dad?”
    “Not in living memory,” he said. “He works about twelve hours a day, so he’s not around that much. He’s a big-deal lawyer.”
    “I guess he makes a lot of money.”
    Sebastian shrugged. “I guess. But making money is stupid. I mean, you have to make some money, but I want to do something that actually matters when I’m an adult. Otherwise, why bother to be an adult? Just so you can buy stuff?”
    This was not the kind of conversation I was used to having with anyone. But I enjoyed this kid, I really did. I liked the way I never knew what was going to come out of his mouth next. So I decided to broach the topic I’d been thinking about since lunchtime.
    “That was really cool the way Russ Gallo came over and gave me his shirt,” I said, sneaking up on my real topic of interest. “I’ve never even spoken to him before.”
    “Yeah, Russ is a good guy. You know, I was thinking, if you’re gonna be a boy now, maybe you oughta get some more muscles. Like, work out or something. So if people push you around, you can push back.”
    I shrugged. “Not really too interested in muscles.”
    He grabbed my upper arm between his thumb and first finger. “Pretty skimpy for a guy.”
    “You should talk!”
    “Hey, nobody spilled milk on me today!”
    I dragged the conversation back to my original direction. “I thought Russ’s girlfriend seemed nice too,” I said.
    “Kita? I guess. I don’t know her very well,” Sebastian said. My heart had begun to sputter when he said her name out loud. Kita Charles. I’d never heard a more beautiful name.
    “So, have they been together for a long time or what?”
    “I think so. Since last year anyway.”
    “Huh. That’s pretty long for high school.”
    Sebastian shrugged.
    “I mean, you know, Kita’s so pretty. You’d think she’d be dating lots of different guys.”
    Sebastian stopped walking and looked over at me. “What? Do you like Kita?”
    “No!” I yelled. “God, where’d you get that idea? I was just asking how long—”
    “Okay, okay, don’t get your panties in a twist.”
    The fear that seized me when Sebastian made his correct guess came out of nowhere. I wasn’t expecting him to figure me out, and I wasn’t expecting myself to flip out about it. But what if he told somebody that I liked Kita? It would be bad enough if I were just the school lesbian—imagine the hoopla that would ensue now that Iwas out as transgendered! If Kita knew I liked her like that , she’d probably be as disgusted as everybody else. Everybody but goofy Sebastian.
    “God,