The breeze in my hair and the smell of the countryside greet me as I roll down the window in Cole’s Buick. In contrast to my growing nerves, I’m excited at the thought of visiting Dad’s home once more. Mentally taking a list of my favorite places, I bury my face in my hoodie’s sleeves. Tony, snoring loudly in the seat next to me, appears to be in much better shape than he did in the weeks prior to our trip. He fussed over me like a mother hen in the outside world but would smash my face in during training. Damian drives as Cole navigates us to our destination and I, for the tenth time since the trip started, fight off the urge to fall asleep. I roll the window up. Dozing off to the sound of the wind through the glass, I hear Cole turn on the radio and the car ride passes with a sense of calm. After two hours in the car, I feel a growing urge to stretch my legs and move. I glance around at the dozing man in the front as well as the shifter in the seat next to me and smirk as a plan forms in my mind.
Reaching into my bag, I pull out two bottles of water and place one in Cole’s sleeping form. Making sure he remains asleep, I then turn to Tony’s vulnerable form and place the other bottle in his lap. Damian looks at me from the front and shakes his head in a ‘no’, but smiles as he catches onto my plan. I sit back with a curt nod and then flick my wrist up, watching the chaos unfold. Cole’s bottle explodes in his face while Tony’s bottle spews the contents into his lap. They both wake up sputtering curses and look around for their assailant. When their eyes land on me, they glare and ask Damian to stop at the nearest gas station.
“Bloody hell kid! I didn’t think you’d actually do it!”Damian exclaims laughter no longer containable as he looks at his drenched boss and partner. I smirk and try to hold my laughter as Cole and Tony leap after me for revenge.
“Blame it on yourselves!, ”I exclaim as I dodge Tony’s tail whip and Cole’s hand, ”You should know better than to fall asleep in front of a bored teenager on a road trip.” Light-headed, I give the men a slight smirk.
Unamused, the two men call for a pit stop and we remain at the gas station for a couple of minutes before we head back on the road. The men take the bag of drinks from me and try to not fall asleep for the remainder of the trip. As we finally get closer to our destination, I start to become anxious. Flashes of anxiety keep my antsy and I can’t help but fidget. Cole flits his eyes back and calls for a seat change when we get near an exit.
“I’ll keep the bugger from causing too much trouble,” he assures Damian as the Brit begins to protest, ”Besides, you and Tony probably need to talk.” Catching the way he tensed up, Damian ceased any argument he’d started to make and proceeded driving. Turning his attention to me, Cole pats my head and ruffles my hair.
“What the matter?” he asks in a calming paternal tone. Averting my eyes, I look to Damian and Tony as I hear muffled talking. Whatever they were discussing was heavy, I decided, and I looked at Cole. Could I really let him know about what's troubling me? Was it really a good idea to return to my hometown with these guys?
“It’s nothing, ”I start to say, but his eyes insisted I tell him,” I mean…it’s a bit nerve-wracking. To go back, I mean.” His eyes push for me to explain and my mouth suddenly feels dry (ironic as that is). Was that all it really was, or am I being over-dramatic? Cole seemingly knew that I was giving excuses, his face said it all. Reaching over in his bag, he pulls out a bottle of water and has me drink it. His eyes cloud over as he seemingly tries to organize his thoughts; a little scary, if I must admit it. His eyes then look into mine and I feel a slight sense of guilt for the man. He was just trying to help and I constantly shut him out.
“I’m scared of meeting them again. The other Undine, I mean.” At this he perks up, shock written on his face,” I don’t know how I’ll react to meeting them again and worry that they’ll start harassing me again.” Cole wipes my face with his hand. Sputtering, I glare at him. Demanding an explanation, I see the older man’s eyes flash dangerously.
“Lad, don’t you worry about them. If they so much as lay a finger on you, I will reduce them to nothing more than a puddle,”softening his gaze and leaning back into his seat, he sighs. “You focus on recharging kid. Leave the adult business to Damian, Tony, and me. We’ve got your back. Also-” Out of nowhere, he flicks his hands and a sudden burst of light flashes in my face. Blinking in confusion, I visibly display my discontent. He points to my face. Looking in a mirror, I gape in horror at the sight before me. This man-child had cast a spell on me to turn my hair blond, grew my hair out and placed a tiny crown on my head.
" Cole…you son of a-”He held his hand up and started laughing and took a picture. Tony looked back only to repeat the same response and show Damian in the front seat as he drove-which earned him a smack on the head and Damian scolding him.
“You really think that I wasn’t going to get you back for that little stunt you pulled earlier? Naive little boy!” The car erupted in laughter and the trip resumed at a happy pace.
~~~~~~~~~~
Our arrival in town went by smoothly. No one seemed to catch on to my arrival just yet. I’m grateful for this, seeing that I still look like Princess Peach! Cole, still chuckling under his breath mentioned that as punishment his spell would last for another hour…if it didn’t make me so nauseous, I would have water whipped him for that little tidbit of information.
“So,” I grumble,” I’m stuck looking like this for another hour?” At this, he nods. I launch myself at him,” What the heck man!? I can’t go around town looking like this, people will definitely target me as I am now!” He tsk’ed and shook his head in disapproval.
“Spyro, silly and pessimistic Spyro,” I deadpan at that,” I’m just being a great guardian and providing new experiences. Trust me, this will work out to your favor.” At which he snaps and flicks his wrist again. Terrified, I shield my eyes and almost wish I didn’t open them back up. This jerk, not only changed my hair (now to a light-brown with no crown), but changed my clothes to a mini-skirt and blouse with lace-up ankle boots. This was when I snapped, nausea-be-damned. I unleash 10 whips, only for them to dissipate and leave me seeing stars.
“What the-”Cole shakes his head, wand in tow and points it at me.
“We can’t have any more of that, okay. See, you’re going to have to suck it up and cross-dress. This is partially punishment from soaking Tony and me, as well as a solution to your anxiety. This way, you can charge up and not risk getting recognized. Okay?” Eyeing his wand, I slowly nod and agree silently. As much as I don’t want to, this might be our only option…
“Wait a minute,” Damian states as he puts the car in park,” as classic and funny as this is, he’s still a boy. How do you gather some clothes and a change in hairstyle will fool people. He doesn’t even sound like a girl.”
'Bless this man’, I think to myself.
Cole smiles. He looks at me and looks me over.
“He could fool them.”
“But I am a male.”
“You’re shaped enough like a chick. Slim-waisted, big eyes, and a round face; my boy, it’s amazing you managed to pass off as a male for this long.” He then pulls out a tube of lip balm and stalks over to me. I back up.
“I refuse.”
“You want to get harassed?”
“I’ll get a different kind of harassing if I parade around with that mess on.”
“Boss,” Tony said,” as much as I agree with you, the lip balm might be over-doing it. He’ll be fine with just this much.” At this he winks at me, eliciting a glare from Damian.
I sigh and look at my reflection in the car window. I get a bad feeling but push it back as I feel my body give a slight shudder. I was getting closer to my limit.
I groan, “Fine, let’s get this over with.” Cole beams and we exit the car. The town still has the same restless energy as I remembered. People in a market are buying produce, while Undine children raced around. We pass by some shops to sight-see and I navigate to where Dad’s lake was located.
Cole assigned roles for each of us. He would go with Damian to rent a hotel, while Tony and I were to shop around and grab further supplies for our mission. However, Cole (as scatter-brained as he is) stopped at every shop and insisted that we look around. It wasn’t until Damian grabbed him by the arms and escorted him out. I stuck with Tony, the least crazed person in the group, and we continued ahead of the two men. I look back and spot Damian pulling Cole out of another store when I bump into something.
“Hey!” the voice started and I begin to freeze,” watch where you’re-Oh, my bad, young lady. Please be careful.” At this, the man walks off. Once he was gone, I let out the breath I had been holding.
‘You’re good?” Tony asks, concern showing.
“Yeah, it’s just, ”I shudder a little,” that was one of the men who participated in harassing me when I was younger. He would often glare at me and toss salt at me.”Tony scowled at the man’s retreating figure and pushed e along.
“Don’t worry about that too much, okay,” he stated.
“It’s not that…”
“Then what’s the matter? You’re pale.”
" I just can’t believe that so far, Cole’s idea is working.” I comment,” I would have thought he would at least question my appearance when I bumped into him; or at least recognized me but NO! He actually believed I was a chick.” Face in my hands and my pride as a guy hurt, I already predicted that this was going to be a very long trip.
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