The Referee

Dandelions

Please note this is a draft.

The reflection in the bathroom mirror looked back solemnly at Gabriel.

'Do I really want to do this?' she asked herself in a whisper.

Her heart sank when she thought of the reaction her father would have. Why did he have to have today off, of all days?

Gabriel sighed heavily, adjusted her dark pony tail and wiped a small eyeliner smudge from underneath her green eyes.

'Just get it over with!' she told the mirror. What ever reaction she got from her father and the other students could not be worse than living with this lie every day. 

She smoothed down her school blouse and pulled the waist band of her uniform skirt higher on her narrow waist. With one hand, she swung her heavy school bag over her shoulder and reached over to open the bathroom door.

As she expected, her father sat in the kitchen drinking his morning coffee. There would be no sneaking past him to the front door. If he didn't look up from the paper he might just mistake Gabriel for her younger sister and let her go without comment.

For the briefest moment it looked as though she was safe. 'Photo day today isn't Cara?' her father said.

Then he looked up.

Time seemed to stop as Gabriel felt her father's stare boring into her. His instant displeasure became immediately apparent in the narrowing of his eyes, his lips pressing hard together.

'Gabriel!' he shouted so loudly that she physically started. 'Go and get that muck of your face and get changed! I told you! You will NOT go out of the house looking like that.'

'I will. I'm a girl.' Gabriel managed to say, so softly that the breath barely left her mouth.

'What did you say?' her father said in a low growled warning.

Now or never, she reminded herself.

'I will go to school like this! I'm a GIRL!' she shouted, small spots of spittle flying from her lips.

That would have been the perfect moment to run from the house and to have the last say. But her legs wobbled under her and refused to cooperate. Gabriel stood, swaying, in the hall way, her bravery dripping away with every second she lingered.

The chair legs squealed on the wooden floor as her father stood, placing his large hands on the kitchen table. Gabriel winced at the sound and her shoulders slumped, knowing exactly what words were about to come from her father.

'I was there when you were born!' (she could have lip synched it if she dared). 'I bathed you and changed enough nappies to know exactly what's under that skirt and I won't have my son making a fool of himself!'

Gabriel's hand crept around to the front of her skirt as if to hide a nakedness.

'Why can't you see what's under the skin, not just under the clothes, Dad?' she said in pleading voice.

For some reason these words gave her the extra courage she needed and she turned on her heel, heading for the front door.

'If you go out there like that, don't expect to be welcomed back!' her father shouted after her.

Gabriel closed her eyes for the briefest moment, drew in a wonderful clearing breath and walked the rest of the way to the front door of her family's small brick house.

As she opened the front door and stepped out into the cool morning air, she let her father's angry words wash over her head and felt them drift away over the grass and up the street. She smiled and drew in a hitched breath, barely able to believe she had passed the first hurdle.