Chapter 10

Dear Brother,

It's not a matter of "putting up with" when it comes to teasing in the showers. The teachers might say they will put a stop to it, but most pretend it doesn't happen. At best one of the teachers might decide to stand near the showers rather than go and hide in their office so the teasing is less. I've had to put up with it all year. You know that I barely have an A-cup on top. I know because I discovered some of my bras missing. Imagine my surprise to find them under your bed. At least you hadn't been stealing my panties; that I would have reported to Dad.

If you are now 5'10" I can't joke about you being my little big brother anymore can I? Still its good to hear that you aren't going to be competing for the title of "shortest guy in the class" again. I know that Dad always made jokes about being a "sawed off little Mick" and took great pride in being shorter than most other men, but it had to be a trial for you.

I've continued to take the Tai Chi lessons from Chin-pa. Just about all the other students have quit. Erica still goes. I think I mentioned her. She transferred in just a couple of weeks ago and I really didn't know her before you were picked up. Turns out that I have a lot in common with her. I told you that she transferred because her father murdered her mother and then committed suicide after discovering that his wife was looking for a man who could be a volunteer and leave Earth. Everyone at school thought she was a complete hick because she has a strong accent and is supposedly from some small town in the backwoods of Kentucky. She is from there, but her mother made sure she got to visit a big city a couple of times a week. Erica is actually better at ballet than I am. It helps that she's only five foot even and might get to five foot three at most. Most male ballet dancers aren't all that tall, so you'll almost never see a tall female ballet dancer. I'm already 5'5". I know Father used that to accuse Mother of cheating on him. Thank god Mother has those old pictures of her cousins with Orla and Aine. Who would have thought that we had some tall lanky cousins. Father is so small.

Anyways, sorry to digress. Erica loves dance as much as I do. Its funny, but we never complained about how exacting Chin-pa's instructions are. The man demands perfection and at the speed he wants you to move that takes incredible concentration and body control. We are so used to going through that in dance practice that we never considered it to be a problem. It's helped us become friends because the other remaining students don't like the fact that we refuse to complain. Of course Chin-pa keeps offering to teach us more when the other students have left. We have learned one additional routine already. Chin-pa says that if we sped up how we performed it, we could use the moves in a fight. I'm not sure I ever want to be in a fight that close.

You need to convince Marissa that she shouldn't be embarrassed by what she did. I understand that part of a pickup is about establishing the authority of the sponsor. You, Katy, Beth and Holly had to see Marissa as the focus of the family. It sounds like Marissa hasn't accepted that completely. She shouldn't be embarrassed. She should be proud that she was able to take charge and control what had to be chaos and lead four people to a new life. Not many could do that.

As for Katy. I can't help you much there. I always thought lesbian meant man-hating harpy. You know like Lindy. The three hundred pound behemoth who hates men and lusts for the most feminine women in the high school. That girl makes me feel so icky when she looks at me. It doesn't help that I know my long red hair definitely meets with her approval. I won't cut it though. I like it that way.