"I don't want to go to an all-girls school, mom!" Amy nearly yelled.

Her mother's perfectly crafted smile nearly faltered. Amy always managed to do that; get on her last nerves, make her regret having a daughter and push her to the breaking point. But Amy didn't care; not ever since her father left them both to grapple for an uneasy peace between them. Her mother could get all of her dreams of having the perfect daughter and throw them out of the window. Amy wasn't never going to be one.

"But why not?" her mother asked sweetly.

"Because," Amy said, stretching the word, "I don't want to spend every 24 hours of my day stuck in a dorm with only girls for company!"

"At least you'll have Lauren," her mother told her gently.

"That's even worse." Amy sighed audibly, shaking her head and wanting to shake her mom. "You've already forced me to agree to the marriage with Bruce. Can't you just leave me alone?"

"If I do that, you'll never become the daughter I've always wanted you to be." Her mother's tone displayed hurt but Amy knew that it was just a ruse to guilt trip her into accepting her fate.

"Well then, you better get used to me just being me," Amy snapped.

Her mother frowned. It wasn't a nice thing to look at; it made her look older, the wrinkles more prominent. Amy felt a stab of guilt crush her heart but she forcefully pushed it away. What was done was done. She just had to stand her ground. Her mother had always been giving her these backhanded comments and she was finally going to get her sweetly wrapped revenge.

But her mother didn't say anything. Amy was getting worried.

"If you want a daughter who shops with you and gossips with you," Amy said slowly and carefully, "then why don't you just ship me over to Dad's and get Lauren?"

Her mother winced. Amy had to admit that it was low, even for her. She turned away, letting out an air of dismissal and there was a moment of silence, a point where no words were light enough to push the heaviness away. Amy's chest was twisted when she faced her bedroom window, impatiently waiting for her mother's reply.

"I don't even know you anymore," her mom finally said, her voice soft and sad. Amy's fingers dug into her skin painfully; it was as if her own flesh and blood had stabbed her with a rusty knife, "but if you want to stay at your father's then you're welcome to go. You might as well be a boy for all I care."

"Okay." Amy sighed. The tears prickled the back of her eyes.

Her mother quietly left the room. Amy shut the door behind her, crawled under the covers of her bed and sobbed.

.

"I need your help." Amy knew it was a horrible idea but her mother's words had left a wound in her chest, a wound she was determined to heal it until it was nothing more but an ugly scar. She was sitting in her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs. It was night time already; a perfect time to talk about without getting heard by Lauren, who was always looking for ways to ruin her life.

"Ah, I always love hearing those words come straight from your mouth," Shane Harvey said in the other line.

"I need you to turn me into a boy."

Amy heard Shane take a sharp intake of breath. "Damn, Raudenfeld," he said, sounding weird, "I always knew you wanted to have a dick between your legs but this is crazy."

"Shut up, Shane," she hissed, "My mother just hit me where it fucking hurts. Anyway, I'm going to leave this freaking house, stay at your place, pretend to be a boy for as long as I can and go to this new school in Austin called Hester. Oliver can help me fake the papers but I need a stylist to do this."

Shane seemed to be thinking about it. "You're crazy."

"I'm desperate." Amy sighed. "And angry and upset."

"Hm. Come to my salon tomorrow. I'll see what I can do."

He hung up. Amy put down the phone and let her head drop back against the headboard. Then she called Oliver.

"Hello?"

"Oliver? It's me, Amy."

"Oh yeah. I can read Caller ID now." He laughed. "What can I do for you?"

"I need you to fake some papers. School papers. Legal papers. Any papers that can get me into this school called Hester and have them all believe that I'm a boy."

The silence that followed made Amy nervous. Then she heard Oliver sigh deeply, as if this was something beyond his imagination. It probably was. Amy closed her eyes and waited for his response.

"I'm guessing this is Lauren trying to make a prank call," he slowly murmured.

"No, dumbass, this is Amy trying to get you to help her out," Amy seethed.

"Amy, this is stupid. You could get caught. You could be in a lot of trouble. And you might as well drag me along with you. I'm not risking my free time—"

"Oliver," Amy snapped, "You're freaking sixteen. Do you honestly expect the law to shove your ass into jail for helping a girl pretend that she's a boy?"

"No," Oliver said reasonably, "I honestly expect the law to shove my ass into jail for faking legal papers!"

Amy frowned. It was true but Oliver was still a minor. She remembered her mother's hurtful words and red flashed against her eyelids. She took a deep breath, hugged her knees tighter and said, "Oliver, I really need your help. If I do get caught then I won't say your name, even if they have to torture me. I swear upon it."

Oliver was silent but she could hear him breathing in the other end.

"I'll see what I can do," he finally said.

Amy dropped her phone, leaned back against her bed and cried again.

.

"I don't think you're Amy anymore," Shane was saying, sounding flustered, "She isn't stupid enough to do something like this!"

Amy rolled her eyes. The salon was where Shane worked at during the weekends. He was a wicked stylist and cute by gay standards with his carefully gelled dark hair and dark eyes. He always attracted attention to himself, even the girls but Shane was gay through and through. He did liked the prying eyes and whispering glances. She could see it in the way he walked and smirked.

"What would you do then?" Amy demanded. "I mean, your mother walks into your room and tells you that you should be a boy for all she cares! Since this phase is my rebellious teenage stage, then I should be obliged to rebel against her in the any way possible."

"I think you hurt her more than she's actually hurt you," Shane told her blandly.

Amy shook her head, hating to think about it. She never liked to think about her mother. It made her feel sad and angry. Parents had never been a stable point in her life. And when Lauren and Bruce came into the picture, everything just fell apart, like they had put their hands into the center of the Raudenfeld's unstable relationship and made it crumble from the inside.

"How are you even going to accomplish this?" Shane demanded, scowling, "I mean, no offense but you don't look like a boy. Not really, anyway."

"That's where you come in, jackass," Amy muttered as they walked into one of the empty chairs facing a mirror. As Shane checked his reflection, Amy gripped the back of it, staring hard at her friend. "Come on, I've seen you turn a guy from loser to winner with a comb and scissors! It can't be that hard to shave off my hair, add sideburns to my cheeks and then cover my boobs."

"Whoa!" Shane sounded panicked. He whirled around, raising a finger. "You are not shaving off your hair. These golden locks are too beautiful to be wasted."

"Sell it on Ebay."

"No."

"Then I'll shave it off myself!"

Shane seriously looked like he was about to lose his mind. He looked down at the dresser and picked up a shave. He waved it near Amy's nose, his scowl deepening. "I'll burn in Hell before I let you near this thing."

"What am I supposed to do then?" Amy clenched her fingers hard. "Since you won't help—"

"I didn't say I wasn't going to help," Shane murmured.

Amy nearly stopped breathing. Then without further ado, she leapt forward and gave Shane the biggest hug she had ever given to someone in her life. Shane staggered backwards and Amy couldn't even dare breathe; she was too scared that he might change his mind or something. She just knew one thing; if Shane didn't agree to help then she was lost. She was already thinking about changing her name to Sarah Heron if all of this didn't work out. She never wanted to go back to her house, to that pathetic excuse of a home where her mother was constantly pressuring her and where Lauren was always squeezing her to death. That wasn't a family. It isn't, Amy told herself as the tears prickled the back of her eyes.

"Okay, Amy." Shane patted her back awkwardly. She stepped back, refusing to let him see the weakness caving in. "When do we start?"

"Now." Amy glanced around them. "I bought some uniforms from Hester already."

"You what?" Shane's eyes widened. "How'd you managed that?"

"The internet, of course."

"Whoa, remind me never to piss you off."

Shane ushered her to the nearest bathroom. She could hear him breathing heavily.

"Change into your clothes and when you come out, you must be prepared for the makeover of your life!"