Bears Know Best

Chapter 32: Game Day

THE NEXT MORNING, I spit a strand of hair out of my mouth as knocking on my door woke me up. "Time to wake up Taylor," I heard from the other side of the door. It was Rachel's voice, so I wasn't overly pleased to hear it.

"Ugh," I said and thought about turning my face back into my pillow, but couldn't bring myself to do so. I sat up and pushed my hair back before calling out, "Okay, I'm up..."

I looked over at a very girly clock that looked like flowers coming out of a flowerpot sitting next to my bed. It was eight in the morning, and I figured we had about an hour before Dad headed to the stadium. He was always early to the games so he could get properly stretched, warmed-up, see the trainer, etc. before the game. I went to my closet and suddenly figured out that my old jersey that I used to wear with Dad's number on it wasn't in the closet anymore! I went through the drawers and found that all that was in there were overly juvenile panties, training bras, shorts, and jeans. Nowhere could I find that jersey, and I hadn't taken it to Conneaut with me.

I was just about to give up after one more search of the closet when I noticed a pink jersey sitting on a hanger. It was more my size than the old one which had hung about my knees, and was in pink. 'No wonder I hadn't seen it...' I thought to myself. 'Probably more Rachel's doing, but I do like it better.'

I found a pair of my shorts and a white blouse to wear underneath it in my suitcase. There was no way I was touching the wardrobe in the room that I felt like Rachel honestly wanted me to wear! 'Something is really off about her,' I thought to myself again as I showered. 'Of course, something has been very off about her since about a month after she moved in with us!'

I dried my hair and went to extra care to make my hair style as perfect as the last day it had been styled professionally. I figured it would be inevitable I would run into my old nemesis and others I had known from before. I still had no clue how I was going to handle that one. I had little doubt that everyone would think I was really transgendered or something and I didn't really think that was going to go over well.

I was almost shaking as I pulled on my bra, pulled my blouse over it, my shorts, and the jersey on top. I was actually surprised by how cute I looked at that moment. 'I look like I'm ten or less still, but I do look like a girl and I'm cute,' I thought the last couple things just to spite the worried part of me.

Alyssa just about ran into me as I opened my door to go down for breakfast. "That bed is so comfy!" she told me.

I smiled at her, "Dad found that mattress company somewhere when he was traveling and bought them for all of the beds in the house."

"Cool," she said and linked her arm with mine. "I like the jersey," she told me. The back of course had 'LANDT' in big bold letters, along with Dad's number, fifty-six.

"Thanks, but I can't take credit for it. My old one isn't in my room anymore... Rachel must have swapped them."

"Well, that's at least one thing you can wear out of there without being mocked too badly," she said with a smile. We both practically skipped to the table, where we found Breanna already there with a bowl of cereal in front of her. As Alyssa and I poured our own bowls of cereal Danielle walked in.

"Morning," Breanna called to her brightly.

"How are you such a morning person?" Danielle asked not completely cranky. I knew the feeling.

She shrugged, "This is sleeping in for me, my little sister usually wakes me up and annoys me at least a couple hours earlier so she can watch cartoons and play."

"We should have had Taylor wake you up this morning then?" Alyssa joked.

"What are you trying to say?" I asked grumpily.