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Annie steeled herself. She needed to do this. There was no way around the conclusion that beyond this door was a conversation she just couldn't look forward to having. For the third time she stepped to the door and put her hand against it to push open. For the third time she went weak in the knees and stepped away again. Why was this so difficult for her? She thought about her father's reaction. She shuddered and made a fourth attempt with the same result. She even considered having Allie do this for her, but would that really help? She shook her head as she dismissed that possibility. Allie already was doing way too much for her on a daily basis, in Annie's estimation.

Trying to distract herself, she thought back to last night and coming home. They had stopped by the Change House and Andy had come back. But not before they had all stood in the park and comforted her after her statement about being nothing without them. Lisa had decided they all needed to take the, 'Oath of Sisterhood' that she had heard about at summer camp two years before.

Maybe she made it all up. Maybe she actually remembered some girls doing all those silly things. But, really, it didn't matter. The point of the whole thing had been to make Annie feel better about herself, and it had worked quite well. She knew all five of the other girls would be there for her, almost as certain as she was about Allie.

When she – sorry, he – had arrived at home with Allie, he had nodded to Evan and then toward the stairs. Evan's only greeting had been a grunt of acknowledgment as he lightsaber dueled with Darth Malak. Andy announced, “I'm home, Mom'n'Dad. Going up to get ready for bed. Probably read in bed a bit before sleeping,” toward the kitchen as he headed upstairs, Random right behind him licking at Andy's hand.

“G'night, Andy,” said Allie as she looked at him sympathetically. She went into the kitchen for her customary graham cracker and banana snack before bedtime activities. There was some talking that Annie couldn't quite make out in the kitchen, so he ignored it.

Anyway, this wasn't getting her task done. She smoothed her skirt, took a deep breath, and pushed through the door.

“Um, hi,” she said to the girl at the desk, “I'm Annie Wilson, I'd like to apply for the Freshman spot that's open?”

Behind the pretty brunette were four huge letters hung on the wall. K. A. T. S. Under them was a much smaller line of text, but still perfectly readable, “KATS Radio, the voice of the Wildcats.”

“Certainly!” replied the girl as she wrote the name down in some kind of log book – probably a cheerleader with that kind of chirpy-ness. “You're the first Freshman girl we've had interested, and we needed two boys and a girl. Chances are, you're a shoo-in. I hope you like it here, I'm a senior and I'd like to make certain it wasn't completely testosterone influenced after I'm gone! We'll be the only girls on staff,” she paused to grin and Annie found herself warming to her.

“Oh! Sorry, I'm Kate. I'm the Station Manageress, sometime fill-in talent, and fact-checker,” she said with a broad smile and stuck her hand out to be shaken – which Annie did, grinning at the girl and starting to warm up to her.

“Nice to meet you, Kate. What exactly will I be doing? Typing up the scripts, that kind of thing?” smiled Annie.

“Oh, sometimes, yes, but we desperately need a woman's touch on the broadcast. The guys in all the shows right now are good, but, well, they're such guys. If I wasn't here, I have no doubt that there'd be a much higher rate of fart-jokes-per-hour than there already is. Here,” Kate thrust a few pages at Annie, “read this. Focus on not rushing and enunciating while still projecting your voice.”

Annie was startled, but took the pages, and glanced over them a moment. She cleared her throat and read:

As soon as she finished the piece, she looked up at Kate in shock. “We only did that last night! And you gotta wait for us to tell the others who weren't there before you run this story, please?”

“Huh?” responded Kate, “What in the world are you talking about? Oh, I get it... are you one of the Sk8r Grrls the story was talking about?”

Nodding vigorously, Annie replied, “Yes, but three of the girls weren't there last night and we didn't have a chance to tell them about it yet. Please let us tell them first? Can you wait until after lunch?”

Kate giggled, then said, “Sure! Tell ya what: you come back and read the text again for a hot mic about halfway through lunch. You've got a great voice for radio, and you're definitely gonna be in demand to broadcast around here.”

“Really? But I thought, you know, being a Freshman, I'd only do the grunt work and stuff...” Annie tried to protest.

“Nope. You've got what it takes,” said Kate with satisfaction, then with a glance to the wall clock she stood and said, “Now, we've gotta hurry if either of us are to make it to first period without being tardy. See you at lunch.” She then motioned Annie out the door as she followed, then locked it up behind herself.

With her major hurdle for the day down, Annie rushed to her locker and grabbed her books. She stumbled through the door of the class just as the final bell rang, and grinned sheepishly at the frown the teacher was giving her. She hurried to her seat and tried to look interested as her mind wandered pretty much everywhere but where the teacher was trying to point them. None of her friends were in class with her until fourth period, but that was okay. Less teasing about staring at Billy Green, who was in her first and third period classes, both.

Right after the bell to go to lunch had rand, Annie and Allie found each other and excitedly exclaimed in unison, “I have news!”

With a giggle for each other they headed for the cafeteria. Annie went first and told the whole group. “I'm now officially part of the school radio station. In fact, they want me to read the lunch period bulletin in about half an hour. Oh! And we need to tell these three about our 'deal' with Wexler.”

“Deal?” asked Bridgette, “What deal? Wexler's probably the biggest tool on campus, what would possess you to make a deal with him?”

Suzy and Jenni tag-teamed the explanation from last night. Lisa was a little miffed that she'd have to give up perfectly good babysitting cash, but decided that this was more important. Annie turned to Allie and asked, “Okay, what's YOUR news? Make it fast, I have to go in about five minutes.”

“It was Bridgette's idea, really. We think there may be a way to get you a physical so you can try out for the Cheer Squad. Variation on how we got you enrolled,” she said, then nodded at Bridgette to explain.

She grinned broadly, “It's actually way simple. Okay. We already figured out that the doctor would know if Allie stood in for you for a physical. So... who says you have to go to the same doctor? The Clinic across the street from the main hospital gives students free sports physicals with their Student ID. So we go this afternoon and Allie goes in and gets a quick physical using your ID. QBP¹!”

Annie blinked. It couldn't really be that easy, could it? She looked up at the clock and eeped. She excused herself and went to dump her tray off before racing from the cafeteria to the Broadcast Room. She arrived a bit out of breath, but was already getting it under control when Kate saw her.

She rushed Annie into the sound booth, “Hey, Rookie! Okay, same script as this morning, just a quick 60-second newsbite between songs. Roger will signal you when to begin from over there in the other booth. Put these headphones on. Oh, and remember to actually insert your name, this time?” Then she was gone. Kate was a whirlwind. Annie may take some time to adjust to her, but was already liking the older girl.

She read her script flawlessly and then held in her excited whoop until she made it out of the booth.

“That was great, Rookie!” laughed Kate, “I think you're gonna do fine. That's all we need you for today. There's a staff meeting every Monday after school, and come in tomorrow morning to get the script for tomorrow's lunch reading. That's your first official assignment: Lunch News. Think you can handle it?”

“Yes! That felt so nifty,” gushed Annie, then she had a thought, “Um, I may be trying out for Cheerleader, will that conflict?”

Kate smiled in what could only be described as a beatific manner, then replied, “Oh, no. I'm Captain of the Squad this year, so if it conflicted, I wouldn't be here. If you make the Squad, then I'll have non-selfish reasons for making sure the schedule here fits with the Cheering. Alright, I guess I'll see you tomorrow morning!”

The rest of the school day was forgettable as usual, and since Volleyball was done, the girls all met up right after school to put Operation: Cheerleader into effect. They walked to the Clinic, went inside and Allie presented Annie's Student ID.

“I'm here for a sports physical, if you can fit me in,” she said to the nurse as she handed her the small piece of laminated cardboard.

“Have a seat right over there, the doctor will call you when she's ready,” said the bored lady. The girls sat and had barely settled when a door swung open and another nurse called, “Miss Wilson?”

It was over about twenty minutes later and the group were all excitedly chattering as they walked to the park. Better to goof off near the Change House, that way there was as much Annie-time as possible. There were a couple of large trees with lots of low-branches they tended to relax in, on, and against while at the park.

Eventually, the conversation turned to Annie's near-miss the night before, and seriousness infected all of them as they talked.

“I don't really know,” said Annie, “it's just... Allie can tell you, I never had a problem hiding being me before, but since I've been able to be myself so much, it's just harder. Every night I dread going back to being Andy more and more.”

Mary, as usual, was the one that made the observation that they were all thinking, anyway, “You have to tell your parents. Tell them soon. You're sure they won't understand?”

Allie answered, “I keep telling her that I think they'd be fine after a while, but she's afraid that before they accepted her, they'd do the things she's read about online when this kind of thing goes badly. Make her cut her hair, out her to the school, or worse. It's not really a good situation.”

Bridgette murmured, “Kobayashi Maru²,” under her breath, then added louder, “It's a massive no-win situation. If we keep hiding the truth, it just plain will be discovered sooner or later. It's a matter of time. That will end badly for her, and likely for us, too. If she tells, there's a good chance that the reaction won't be anything close to good,” she looked up and into Annie's eyes, “I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I'm incredibly grateful that I'm not you.”

None were sure if Suzy's offering to the pot were serious or not – she could out poker face a tree, “Allie could always tell them she's a lesbian first, then say she was only kidding, Andy's really a girl instead.”

Jenni groaned at the suggestion. Then she had an idea, “You know how everyone always says, rip off a band-aid quick and get the pain over with? Well, we need to figure a way for them to be told when they can't get to Annie. Like over a weekend or something. We all go on a weekend camping trip and leave a note and pictures. Would that work?”

“I dunno,” said Lisa, “but that sounds like the best suggestion so far. Sooner better than later, though, or poor Annie'll implode from the weight of secrets and depression. This weekend's out, we've got to deal with Wexler. Next weekend? Is there time to plan a trip and talk my parents into letting us use the back 40?” The assumption that the camping trip would be on Lisa's property was simply precedent. Anytime the group had needed somewhere 'outdoorsy' since they were old enough to do anything, it had been on Lisa's family's farm somewhere. Even the 7th grade camping trip with the Girl Scouts.

It was beginning to get dusky, so they meandered over to the Change House, found Andy, and walked as a group toward the Wilson home. The car was already there, so both of the elder Wilsons were there, and the girls knew from experience that Tuesday nights were 'leftover casserole' night at the Wilson's, and there'd be plenty of dinner for all of them. Cell phones came out and parents were called.

When they all filed into the kitchen, however, the looks on the adults' faces were... not something a teenager ever likes to see.

“Oh, hello girls,” Evie said, “we need to talk to Allison and Andrew for a few moments. Could you join Evan in the living room, please?”

The seven teens exchanged glances and the girls that didn't live there crossed the kitchen and went through into the living room.

“So. Andrew,” Roger began, “How did your day go?”

“Um, fine, I guess...” Andy replied a little confused, “Oh! I went to KATS and joined, like I said I would. The Station Manageress said she needed two Freshmen boys and a Freshman girl, so I was in, easy,” then he grinned, thinking he worded that cleverly.

“Did anything else special happen today?” asked Evie innocently, “I mean, I know we've raised all three of you to be independent but also to tell the truth, so you wouldn't lie to us, right?”

“What do you mean?” asked Allie, her heart beginning to pound.

“We received a call earlier, from a doctor informing us that she had faxed our daughter, Annie's, sports physical over to the school so she could participate,” said Roger calmly, “At first we told her that our daughter had already had a physical before Volleyball. She insisted that she had just performed the physical and that we wouldn't be charged, as Annie had presented her Student ID. That's when the name registered. Your mother told the nice doctor that our daughter's name was Allison, not Annie. The doctor said that she was certain it was Annie, because she had written it on the sheet herself, since the nurse was busy elsewhere. But then she remembered that she had seen Annie's sister in the waiting area. Then she offered us an explanation for our confusion. Maybe her twin sister had convinced her to try out for Cheerleading and the girls hadn't gotten around to telling us yet. I agreed that yes, that must be it. Then we hung up and your mother and I have been discussing it ever since. Now, do you want to let us in on why that doctor was so sure that we have twin daughters, not daughter and son?”

¹: QBP is short for “Quote, Buy, Print” from the esurance.com commercials. It's recently began to be used by preteens-teens to mean something quick and easy

²: Kobayashi Maru is a reference to a part of the Star Trek™ universe Mythos. The 'Kobayashi Maru' test is given to cadets nearing graduation in Starfleet Academy™. It is a lose-lose scenario in which the point is to see how the cadet responds to a command situation in which there simply is no right answer