Dumb Bet

Dumb Bet

A Transgendered Novel

Dumb Bet

By Patricia Marie Allen

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2021 by Patricia Marie Allen

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Cover photo by Aprilkind on Pixabay

Dumb Bet

By Patricia Marie Allen

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

The bet

Chapter 2

Paying off the bet

Chapter 3

Total defeat

Chapter 4

Mom helps me adjust

Chapter 5

Cooking lessons

Chapter 6

Not so identical twin

Chapter 7

Who else will find out

Chapter 8

Out in public

Chapter 9

Dinner with Dad’s CEO

Chapter 10

Babysitting

Chapter 11

Making it complete for Mom

Chapter 12

The last hurrah

Chapter 13

A little help playing my last card

Chapter 14

Reconciliation and a revelation

Chapter 15

One of those boys

Chapter 16

Babysitting again

Epilogue

Looking forward

About the Author

More Books

Chapter 1

The bet

I don’t know why you can’t dress like a girl. I mean, I’ve never seen you in a dress and you’ve lived next door for five years, I told Susie, the tomboy that lived next door. She was my sister’s age, two years older than me, and I was starting to notice girls and she was one I noticed. Under her jeans (boys) and loose shirt, there was a good looking body. The only time you could tell was when she put on a swimsuit. And you should do something with your hair and maybe wear some nail polish or somethin’, I continued.

Leave her alone Frank. She can dress however she wants. I don’t blame her. I like to wear jeans and sweatshirts too, my sister defended.

Yeah, you’re nearly as bad a she is. You only wear dresses sometimes, when there’s some kind of special occasion. You’ve got a drawer full of nice nighties and all you ever wear to bed is flannel pajamas. The only difference between you and Susie is you polish your nails. Susie never wears dresses, I complained.

I don’t always wear flannel pajamas.

Oh yeah; I forgot. During the summer, you wear Dad’s old T-shirt and Boxers. Real girlie. I’ll bet Susie wears that kind of thing year round.

Susie whispered something to Karen, who nodded. I’ll tell you what, Susie said. Let’s have a contest. I’ll bet that I can do everything you do and that you can’t do everything I can do. If you win, I’ll wear whatever you say for a whole week and fix my hair all girlie. I’ll even let you go first.

What if I lose?

Well then, she grinned, you’ll have to wear whatever I say all week.

Whatever we say… I’ll even do it too. And you’ll have to do something with the sorry mop you call hair to make it look better. I don’t know where you get off talking about Susie’s hair. At least she washes hers, my sister Karen insisted.

We’re talking about actually ‘doing things’ not dumb stuff, like having babies or whatever.

No, it’s not like girls can have babies or anything.

I thought about it. I was pretty sure that I could find something that I could do that she couldn’t and I was really sure that I could do whatever she could do. It’s a good bet. I’m sure to see her in something really girlie.

OK, if that’s the bet, I’ll take it.

There’s just one more condition, Susie informed me.

Oh yeah, something that put you to the advantage, I’ll bet.

No, just to keep me from being at a disadvantage.

Oh yeah, what?

"Well, if you do find something I can’t do, then I still get to see if I can find something you can’t do and if I do, we’re even and there is no winner.

Ahh…

That’s fair, my mother said.

I didn’t even know she had heard our bet. Yet there she was standing in the patio door. I looked at her wanting to argue that the first person to find something the other couldn’t do should win, but then we’d have to take turns and being first was to my advantage. I might just be able to tire her out enough that she couldn’t do the whatever it was she thought that I couldn’t do.

Mom must have seen my indecision, because she continued, You have to give her the chance to get even.

OK, I said, knowing that even if I wanted to, Mom wouldn’t let me not agree.

OK, now I’ll add some conditions. If I think it’s too dangerous, you don’t get to do it, and I’m the judge of whether or not the second person has actually met the challenge or if it was a fair challenge. Since we don’t want this competition to go on into the night, you’ll each be limited to ten things to challenge the other, so make it good.

Fine by me, I said, figuring she was my Mom and she’d be on my side. I mean, Mom wore dresses often and always looked girlie, even when she wore pants. Ten would be enough to find something Susie couldn’t do.

Works for me, Susie agreed.

Let the games begin, my Dad said from behind Mom.

Where did he come from?

Mom and Dad came out and sat on the patio furniture while I tried to think up just how to go about this. I didn’t want to go right to the good stuff. I wanted to do some things that would tire her out before I got to the good stuff. But… maybe, just maybe I could get lucky and do something she just didn’t have the skill to do.

My first challenge was to do a handstand and walk on my hands. I took about twenty steps. I tucked out of the handstand, stood up and smiled at Susie. She surprised me by bending over and popping right up into a handstand and walking the same distance I had and tucked out with possibly more grace than me. When she popped up, her loose shirt bunched up around her shoulders exposing her T-shirt. Mom gave me a look like she was unhappy, but I couldn’t figure out why.

My next challenge was what had been a break dance move two decades earlier; I saw it in some ninja movie. I ran over to the garage and took two steps up the side and flipped over to land on my feet. If she can do this, I hope she doesn’t know how to do any other ninja stuff. Susie didn’t even hesitate, took her run and did the flip with ease.

This isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Time to see how brave she is.

I went to our fir tree, ducked under the branches and started to climb. Susie didn’t even wait for me to get through. She ducked in and climbed right behind me. When I got near the top, I poked my head outside the branches and continued to climb until I was holding onto the very top of the tree. Susie poked her head out and climbed up to match me just around the tree and grinned at me. I grinned back. She can’t know what I’m going to do next. I was sure this would get her. I jumped up, so my feet were outside the tree as well and turned loose, sliding down the outside of the tree. Imagine my surprise when I hadn’t even reached the ground and she copied my move.

I ran to the swing in the oak tree, jumped on and swung up as high as I could and bailed out with a back flip. Susie ran and caught the swing before it stopped, hopped in and followed suit. I can’t believe it; she hasn’t even hesitated once. Time to think of some good things to do.

I ran to the gazebo. Once inside, climbed the railing walked the circumference. When I jumped down, Susie jumped down right behind me.

Come on, she said, you gotta do better than this. This stuff is too easy. You only got five more things. If this is the best you got, you might as well forfeit right now, ’cause I’ll win for sure.

We’ll see about that, I said. I jumped back on the rail and then jumped out to catch a rafter. I swung back and forth a couple of times, then tucked my legs up and over rafter, ending up with my head up inside the roof, resting on my hands. Susie joined me mimicking my every move perfectly.

I swung a leg over the rafter and she did the same. Then sitting on the rafter, I put my hands between my legs, grabbing ahold; I pushed back, ending up hanging by my knees. A couple of swings upside down and I turned loose with my knees and landed on my feet. She did the same without even blinking.

Only three more, she said. They better be good.

Three? Four! That was only the sixth one, or do I claim victory because I can count and you can’t.

The flip off the rafter was number seven. The fancy move to get up there was number six.

Uh-huh.

Let’s ask your Mom, she said confidently.

I looked at Mom. Susie’s right, Mom said.

I glared at Susie as I tried to think of what to do next. I should have planned this better. I need something that requires strength, bravery and skill… what?

Suddenly it hit me. Back to the swing in the oak tree. Grabbing one of the ropes, I began to climb. As I reached the