Who Is Lucas Ryker O'Riley?

19. COMPLICATED

Once mom and dad were pretty satisfied that I knew what I wanted and convinced I understood the ramifications of that decision, they called Dave down for a briefing of our discussion.

After picking his mouth up from the floor, and we had satisfactorily answered his questions, Dave was tentatively on board with our plans on how we were going forward with my new identity. At least he said he was.

But leave it to Dave to point out how the next big family get together with Grandmas & Grampas Martinek and O'Riley, not to mention all of our aunts, uncles and cousins was going to be something wild.

Before we broke our family huddle, I told them that after we enrolled for high school, I'd still like to sign up and try out for the football team later this summer. Mom, Dad and Dave all looked a little surprised.

Dave asked if I wouldn't rather try out for cheerleading instead, but then shrugged, "Why not, I guess, if you really want to."

In the mean time though, we agreed that I'd need to make a trip with Mom to the shopping mall to help me replace my wardrobe with what I'd need to make my new look work. With the major details discussed, I headed upstairs, hoping for a decent night's rest.

Closing my bedroom door behind me, I sighed in relief. I couldn't believe how well that had gone, though hesitant he may be, even dad was on board. He's definitely not enthusiastic about it, but he understands my reasoning.

This was now a reality and the realization of that fact suddenly became all too real. I started to panic and wonder if I was making the right decision or had I screwed up.

I don't know the first thing about being a girl. I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe I shouldn't do this. I told myself as I began to panic.

But then, I had a rational thought, That's not entirely true. You've observed girls enough to know a few things about how girls act, talk, and carry themselves. Besides, you can just keep quiet and intensely observe some more until you start getting it down and you can start watching all kinds of girly teen movies/ TV shows and take notes. For starters, you need to start taking care of your skin, start a routine of washing your face with girly soaps like that bottle of floral face wash mom has in the other bathroom.

Deciding to take my own advice, I reached up and tried something new, I tied my hair back into a high ponytail to keep it out of my face and headed for the bathroom with the girly face wash.

While washing my face and then brushing my teeth, I looked at myself in the mirror with my hair like this. It reminded me of all the times Mandy always had her hair tied back in a cute ponytail when we were outside running around, playing basketball, swimming in the pool, or riding our bikes and I couldn't help but think about all the special times I had spent with her.

After rinsing the toothpaste from my mouth and patting my face dry, I realized that I hadn't checked my email or Messenger on the computer. My parents haven't let me have a cellphone yet.

Checking my email first, I noticed two that were marked urgent, high priority. They were both from Mandy, one from the evening we left and the other was written earlier today. She wrote that she wanted to check in on me in one and in the second email she said that she was starting to get worried that we might not have made it here safely yet.

I quickly replied to her second email and apologetically explained to her how I was sorry for not checking my email and writing back sooner. I explained that there was so much to do and I fibbed a bit, saying that I just got the internet up and running tonight.

I finished my email by letting her know that I missed her and wished she could be here to help me adjust.

Boy, if she only knew.

After hitting send, I checked my Facebook and Instagram pages and saw that a few of my old classmates had written messages on my page, along with Mandy who had added not one, but three messages of her own.

In one message, she included a picture of herself making an exaggerated sad face. I could see redness in her sad eyes that indicated she had either been crying or was about to.

I responded to everyones posts, but did so without sending any new pics of me. Just as I finished, it struck me that I'd have to make a new Facebook profile with my identity once I started to meet new people out here.

Actually, I decided, I'd better go ahead and do that now and start making a few generic posts about my move.

Oh man, this is going to get complicated.