I'm No Prince

Suddenly Clover

Andrew woke up, once more surrounded by pillows. He laughed quietly as he sat himself up, noticing he'd woken up before Kelsey had, this time. He soon remembered his secret thoughts, however, and he felt nervous. Kelsey was right there on the couch, snoring, as she usually did. He had a chance to explore the possibilities in secret, and he almost felt like he would do so without hesitation.

Andrew hesitated, however, and wondered how he was going to even go about discovering this side of himself. He was still Andrew, and he was a very nervous person. He didn't know why, but just the thought of trying his plan, even though Kelsey was still asleep, was terrifying to him.

He'd wondered, ever since he asked himself if he wanted to be a prince, if maybe being a "prince" wasn't for him. He'd then thought back to the kinship he'd felt with Zelda while playing Smash with Harry and the others, and the question was a simple one. Did he want to be a prince, or did he truly want to be a princess?

Andrew quietly stood and steeled himself for the course of action he knew he needed to take. He was going to find out what he thought about being a girl, once and for all. As his heart pounded out of his chest, he wondered what he would do if he decided he liked that better than being Andrew.

He snuck from the living room, terrified that Kelsey would wake and he would be found out in the middle of his insane quest. He carefully made his way into the hall, and stopped at a crossroads between two doors: Kelsey's room, and his own. He paused for a moment, considering his options.

If he chose Kelsey's room, he would be on edge about everything until he made it out, but if he chose his own room, it would mean wimping out, and calling off his plan to discover who he was. Andrew wasn't quite sure what he should do. Either way, he would feel like he was betraying somebody, and either way, he wouldn't feel completely like himself.

It wasn't as if he knew what he was even looking for within Kelsey's room. All he knew was that he'd been struck the night before with the sudden desire to try on more feminine and girly clothes, and had hatched this plan. What would he do if he entered his sister's room, tried on her clothes, and was then caught? What if he was simply caught rummaging through her clothes, instead, however? Andrew did not know what he was going to do with himself.

What would he do, he thought, if he liked the feel of the clothes? What if they felt more like the person he was supposed to be? If he ended up truly wanting to be a princess instead of a prince, who would he be? Andrew knew that he wouldn't be a "he" anymore if he decided to be a girl, and he also knew that he would not want to go by the name "Andrew", either. What would he even call himself, he wondered.

He wasn't sure why, but the first name that came to his mind was "Andromeda". It felt similar to Andrew's own name, and he could still be "Andy" to all of his friends. It would be a solid choice, but it felt lacking to Andrew. "Andy" wasn't him. He told all of his friends to call him that when they first met, but "Andy" wasn't even his preferred nickname, when it came down to it. Really, he preferred the nickname his mother had given him: "Drew", which was the nickname Kelsey called him, as well as what he went by when he was with Harry and Jason, his two closest friends.

Andrew knew, he wouldn't want to be "Andy" instead of "Drew". But if he was a girl, he didn't want his actual name to be Drew, either. This was another puzzle, something else that Andrew didn't understand about himself. The more he thought about it, the less appealing "Andromeda" was to him, and the more confused he became.

He knew, however, that he really wanted to try his plan out, and so he reached towards the handle of Kelsey's door, turning it and entering his sister's room.

**Kelsey**

Kelsey drowsily opened her eyes, her face sunken deep into the soft armrest of the living room couch. She forced herself awake, knowing that she'd want to prepare a little bit of breakfast for herself now that she was up. When she sat up, however, she noticed that Andrew was gone from his place in the pillow castle, which was miraculously still standing.