Bullied and the Bitch

Chapter 9: Popularity - Gender Doesn't Matter

"Ugh!" I say, recoiling. "God! Why are there so many worms?"

El comes to stand behind me. "Oh. Earthworms. Don't worry about them. They're good for the soil. If they're caterpillars though we should remove them. They'll eat the leaves and kill the plants."

"They're disgusting. How can you work with these things?" I ask, repulsed. Even through the gloves I could feel my hands tingling at the shock of having touched something quite as gross.

She laughs. "You have no idea how funny it is to see a guy of your size whine about a teeny tiny worm," she teases me. I roll my eyes at her.

This is my fifth day helping out in the greenhouse, and I'm still not used to all the ickiness. El is in her element. The bugs and dirt don't seem to bother her in the slightest.

The last few days had been tough on me. The first day I had spent with the Brooke household and their tenants, I only worked half a day on the construction site. The following two days I worked the full eight hours with Simon, Samuel and James. I thought I was going to break my back. No one took pity on me, and any whining I did was frowned upon.

The weekend though, wasn't too bad. The whole household attended church this morning, though, and I was told I didn't have to go. But I went anyway, to see what it was all about. Like I expected, it was a bunch of pious old geezers exuberantly preaching their faith. But it wasn't as bad as I had expected. Their message wasn't as weird and irrelevant as I thought it would be.

After that we returned home and El cooked lunch. I've been helping out in the kitchen as well, with nothing better to do. El's a master in the kitchen. She makes everything look easy. My first day in the kitchen I accidentally made a slice in my finger. I had whined about the pain. El had helped me wash it, bandage it, then listen to my whingeing in an amused manner.

Anyway, back to today. After lunch, we ended up in the greenhouse again, with El working to trim and clean up her garden. And again, I tagged along.

I discovered that El isn't actually as silent as I had first figured. Once she's familiar with you, she's very easy to talk to. We've talked about so many things – TV, music, people in school, clothes, hairstyles. The last two El isn't too familiar with, so she just listens to me. The more personal things though, we stay away from. But overall – El's actually easier to talk to than Em or Priscilla, because I don't constantly get the feeling that she's trying to show me up or backstab me.

"So. How's your perspective in life?" she asks me casually.

"I don't know. I don't know what the hell I'm meant to be doing," I tell her.

"I think you're doing great," she says.

"Only because you're getting extra help in the kitchen and the greenhouse."

She giggles. "Am I that transparent?"

I shake my head in disapproval, but I'm smiling too.

"Gah!" I yell when I realize another worm had snuck up on me. El laughs liberally, nothing like the timid girl I was used to seeing in school.

My first day of school as a male also turns out to be my first time in something else. I get my first wet dream. I groan when I realise what the large wet spot in my blanket is. I also groan further when I recall who my wet dream had been about.

"Wake up!" Eddy bursts through my door, right on schedule. I bend my legs so that my wet spot is hidden behind the folds of my blanket.

"I'm up," I tell him.