Chapter 4 - Rhapsody

	After storming out of the office Mitchel heads to the bathroom, the men's bathroom, looking in the mirror to see if he needs to change his clothes or if they are okay, as he did potentially stain them. Once he is sure his clothes are presentable, such as they are, he heads to the kitchen as he hasn't eaten in awhile. He is clearly in a sour mood, but more introspective than explosive. On arrival Mitchel finds the dining room is mostly empty on his way through the Kitchen, except for a lone figure who also seems to have had the idea of finding food. Mitchel looks to see if he knows the person or not, though he doesn’t really know anyone one.

	The figure is vaguely familiar, she’s the young bat that is almost always in the cafeteria, always watching the other students. She almost looks like a younger version of Ms. Nightfang, except she has dark black fur and long black hair as well, making her look like a living shadow. Contrary to her dark appearance she is currently wearing a sky blue dress, with matching blue and white stockings. She looks up to Mitchel,  having the same deep piercing eyes as Ms. Nightfang.

	Mitchel quietly nods in greeting, to which the young bat nods back, and goes about fetching himself food from the kitchen. Though Mitchel gets the feeling of her watching him as he looks through the kitchen fetching food. As he expects he finds multiple fridges, except each are colored differently. Blue, Pink, Lavender and then a Deep Purple one that is separated from the other three. This causes him to blinks in confusion at the four fridges.

	"Different Fridges to meet the needs of the student and staff here at the school." Comes the oddly monotone voice of the young bat as she seems to just appear behind Mitchel. "You will likely want to ignore the Purple one. That’s for theses with... extremely special diets. Instead you will want the Lavender one, I believe."

	Mitchel blinks, "Why? What's the lavender one?" he looks back towards the voice and the young black bat, he can pretty much figure out that the blue is boys and the pink is girls, but... who ever heard of different foods for different gender, isn't it by species?

	"Mother believes that boys and girls have different dietary needs. I am not really sure of the logistics of it all. But the Lavender is for those like you that are 'in-between'. It contains a mix of both genders needs." She says with a shrug. "As I said, I do not really understand it."

	Mitchel frowns, "I'm not between them. I'm a guy. Blue is for guys?"

	"If you were a guy, you would dress like one." She states simply in her monotone, much like someone would state the sky is blue. It's an accepted fact here. "You are one of those who parents' did not want a boy. So you are in a transitioning phase." She replies as she watches the otter. "But I am not going to stop you from opening any of them. Things will happen as they should."

	Mitchel turns on the girl and frowns, "I'm not dressed like this because I want to, you know."

	"I know. But it does not change things. Not Really." She responds. "You can either accept it and find joy in new possibilities or you can fight until you just exhaust yourself and just give in anyway. Either way the same outcome happens, the only different is your mindset towards it."

	Mitchel frowns, "Uh huh. And what gender has your mom forced you to be? Were you born a girl?" he crosses his arms in frustration and asks, "Or do you get exemption from it because your mom runs the school?"

	"I am different, yes, but not an exemption." She answers, and closes her eyes and suddenly she becomes a he before Mitchel’s eyes. About two inches taller, though still a bit effeminate looking from being a bit thinner then he should be at his height.. "I was born a girl." He says his voice a few octaves deeper now. "But I was born with magic, I can shift my gender at will." He says and shifts back to being a girl, as easy for her as it would be for someone to flip a switch. "I am here, to experience both sides, so that I can decide which I prefer."

	Mitchel doesn't lose his frown at that display of magic. He just shrugs, then says, "If I eat from the blue fridge, you will tell your mom and I will get in trouble, won't you?"

	 "No." She states. "I told you, I will not stop you. That would include tattling to discourage future attempts. It will not change anything in the long run. If I stop you now you will try it again when I am not around, and if Mother punishes you, you will still try it just to spite her." She speaks so plainly and matter-of-factly, that she sounds like she can see the future.

	Mitchel groans and sits down at one of the counters, "This sucks! I don't want to be a girl! I have no interest in it, I never have!" despite not having eaten yet today, he feels sick to his stomach, his appetite having pretty much died from this conversation. "Can't I change your mom's mind somehow? What can I do to stop this?"

	"What one wants and what one needs is not always the same thing. Mother plays a long game, VERY long sometimes. Very few realize just how far ahead she plans her moves until years later, when they usually thank her." She replies then adds, mimicking his voice as she speaks "I will never thank her." And shifts her voice back to her sweet monotone. "They all say something like that. They all tend to be wrong. You must understand; my mother is not the villainess you may think of her as. While she plays a long game, her plans can and have changed. It is just a matter of learning the rules and playing on her level."

	Mitchel stands up and says, "I haven't even had the chance to fully be a guy, and she wants to take that away. Mock it all you want, I don't care anymore." He huffs. 

	"I am not mocking you." The bat girl replies. "I've just had this talk with at least a dozen others."

	“Whatever.“ He says and rolls his eyes before heading out of the kitchen and through the building, he pauses to see if the weird girl is following him, before continuing on and heads out of the building into the yard, finding a place to sit in the chilly air and muttering a curse at how breezy the tiny skirt is. He sits and stares up at the sky for a while, trying to figure out what the hell he is going to do.

	After about an hour a voice speaks. "You know you cannot stay out here forever." It's the Bat Girl’s voice again. "Mother already told you some of her rules." She says, suddenly hanging from a tree that he were sure was empty a moment ago. "You had the right idea, but the wrong application."

	Mitchel blinks looks over his shoulder at the bat, "Huh?"

	"Mother follows the rules parents set for her." She says as she looks down to him from the branch she hangs from. "You lost this round because you took the direct approach. While the quickest way between two points might be a straight line, it is not always the easiest."

	Mitchel frowns, "My mom doesn't care about me... All she cares about are her ‘perfect angel’ daughters. Bunch of conceited, slutty, bitches." He mutters under his breath.

	The bat nods in agreement "Correct, that is why you cannot follow the direct path this time. You need to find another route that follows the rules to get the goals you want." She explains, trying to guide the boy to his own solution.

	Mitchel, being rather thick skulled and currently only focused on the moment, stands up and his voice slightly raise in ire as he feels the girl doesn‘t understand, "What goals? Huh? My life is ruined!" His whole body trembles with anger, which spills out towards the bat, just because she's the only one there, "I told my mom what your mom is doing to me and the other kids here, and all she cared about was making sure I didn't father any babies! Your mom wants to turn me into a girl and I can't do anything about it! I can't run away, because I'd get caught and be even worse off! I can't give in, because this isn't what I want! Neither of them give a shit about my goals or feelings, or fears, or anything! I'm just some doll for them to play dress up fuck with!" by the end he is flat out shouting, and shaking with the frustration and anger.

	The bat girl doesn't seem bothered by the yelling. She simply lets him get it out. "Your goal is to not be a girl, right? Where does the line between Boy and Girl begin and end?" She asks as she continues to watch him. Remaining clam and pleasant with him, even if he continues to yell and rant at her.

	"I don't want to dress like a girl. I don't want to be called 'Michelle', I don't want to have to get permission to cum! I want to do guy things, and be myself!" Mitchel says.

	"Let us start with that last one. What is stopping you from being you, regardless if people call you by Mitchel or Michelle? The great bard once said, 'A rose by any other name, smells just as sweet.'" The girl says, her deep purple eyes watching him from where she hangs.

	Mitchel shouts out, "These clothes! You and everyone else sees it and treats me like someone I'm not, just because your mom decided that I can't wear guy's clothes! I can't be myself, because these clothes aren't me!"

	She cocks her head curiously "So you are your clothes?"

	Mitchel sighs, "Of course not, but if everyone treats me differently, I can't be myself... and dressed like this, I can't relax, or move how I want."

	"So then who you are is defined by who others think you are?" She asks again, seemingly trying to understand what the otter means.

	Mitchel says, "Kinda, yah..."

	"Then it sounds to me, that you don't even know who Mitchel is if Mitchel gets defined by those around him. If Mitchel only acts as others treat him, then Mitchel is only a guy because others have treated him as a guy, because that is how they defined him. But that doesn't say anything about who YOU are and why YOU can't be yourself." She says as she states the obvious as she sees it.

	Mitchel glares at the weird girl and barks out, "I am a guy! Quit twisting my words around!"

	"I am not twisting anything. You say that who you are is defined on others, who till now have treated you as a guy. So if that is factually true, then you ARE a girl now as that is what people are redefining you as, and is what you are now. OR you are not defined by others and will be you regardless if others treat you as a boy or girl. It is simple logical fact." She replies in her sweet calm monotone, not once raising her voice as she explains her views.

	Mitchel says, "Not just on that, obviously! But it's harder dressed like this, to feel like a guy. Do you know what guys out there do to guys who dress like this? They are going to think I am a faggot or a sissy or something! It's not fair to force me to do this, just because your mom thinks it is fun to play sick games with people's lives! She doesn't care about helping. She turned that one kid into a brainless slut just because he tried to get away, how is that helping, huh?"

	"Out there is not in here. No one will treat you like that here. Which is now your home, like it is to others." She says softly and then blinks as he refers to that kid, and starts showing a bit of emotion for once. "Joseph..." She says with an honest chill in her voice before her mood goes cold, rather than just logical "He got what was coming to him." She says with a sudden sneer, which seems very odd for her from what little the otter had gathered about her so far.

	Mitchel frowns, "By running away? How does trying to escape from this kind of fate make someone deserve that, huh?"

	"Running away was not the reason.” She states bluntly as she glares to Mitchel for once. “Oh it WAS the last straw, but it was not the reason. Joseph was NOT like you! NOT like Francis or any of the others that attend here! He was a mistake! He was a psychopath, arrested sent to Mother by the state for reformation. He was NOT a nice person and mother was FAR too kind with him!" She sneers... Starting to get angry and upset herself as she talks about Joseph.

	Mitchel sighs and sits back down, "Whatever. It doesn't matter. Your mom made it clear that what I want doesn't matter at all. I can't fight that."

	She drops down from the tree. Cold winds starting to whip around the pair. "It DOES matter. You need to know this." She says as she stalks over to the boy. Her shadow suddenly seeming impossibly long as the darkness seems to surround her and soon Mitchel as well, the world slowly seeming to fade away. "You can talk bad as much as you want for your opinions on what Mother is doing to you and your friends. I will NOT however have people holding what happened to Joseph against her!" She says as the moon suddenly seems to eclipse as the world goes completely dark.

	Mitchel frowns still, but stays quiet, letting the bat talk, trying not to be nervous at the sudden display and looks around and notices that in the darkness images form. Images of a blood red fox with bright green eyes. But as he look into them, there is something... dark and twisted behind them. Some would say they looked empty as if the boy lacked a soul. 

	"This is Joseph Adam Renard.” The girl points out “And THESE are his parents." The images shift, and rather then what Mitchel expects to see of a boy with a happily family, he sees a pair of dead foxes, skinned and laying in a pool of blood with Joseph standing over them holding a bloody knife and a twisted grin on his face. 

	"He was sent to us a year later after his trial was settled and the state decided to send him for rehabilitation. He was with us for three years before he tried to escape. Should I show you what happened in those three years? Or maybe what happened the night he escaped? Or will you believe me when I say he got what he deserved?" She asks with a cold dark anger in her voice as she glares at Mitchel.

	Mitchel turns away and scowls, "Fine, whatever... but it still doesn't give your mom the right to play her sick games with me."

	The girl shivers and seems to relax some, but still a bit on edge as the moon returns to illuminate the night sky and the images fade. "She is full filling your mother's desires. Your mother sent you here, and told mine what she wanted fixed about you. Which was your 'boyness'. You were punished fairly for what you did to Samantha. You know how badly the world out there would treat her. She thought you were cute, and offered to help. You shunned and insulted her. Never really even apologized. It was always about you. To concerned about your ability to orgasm or how people will see you, rather than the feelings of others. But despite that all, Mother gave you the chance to convince your mother. And yet when YOUR mother dumps you, you continue to blame mine." She is trying to be calm, as she's not angry at you, but just mentioning Joseph and reliving a few of those memories seems to have deeply disturbed her.

	Mitchel frowns, "I did apologize. That same night it happened."

	"It takes more than just words. Samantha would have graduated this month, but your actions severely hurt her self esteem. She had just started to accept herself as a girl and not just a boy dressing up, when you pretty much accuse her of being a gay cross dresser. You set her back several months of work. Mother has been working very hard to try and build Samantha’s confidence back up."

	Mitchel mutters a curse to himself then stands up and says, "Talk to you later." He says excusing himself and heads inside. Once more he looks to see if the bat follows him, but the courtyard is now empty as he enter the building. He heads towards the room that Ms. Nightfang took him to that second day, assuming that it is Sam's room. Mitchel softly knocks at the door, hoping that it is the right room, fidgeting with the hem of the small skirt he is wearing and trying to figure out what he is going to say to fix things.

	Its awhile before there is an answer. The door opens partially and a slightly grumpy and just woken mouse peek through the crack at him. "Do you know what time it..." She stops as she finally sees who it is, and slams the door in Mitchel’s face.

	The click of the lock is audible to the boy’s ears, and Mitchel groans, "Sam... come on, I know it's late, but please, I need to talk to you... to apologize properly." His ears flat to the sides and he puts his paws to the door frame on either side of the door, having not expected that kind of reaction to his being there.

	"You've had plenty of time to say whatever you wanted." Sam replies, it's clear that she's still upset with him, but seems to give him a bit to explain, as it will likely be the only way she gets back to sleep.

	Mitchel sighs, "Yah, I know. It's another thing I need to apologize for." He rests his forehead against the door, willing to talk through it if she won't see him face to face. "Look... I'm sorry for how I've treated you since we met... when I first saw you, I was just thinking about sex, not about you as a person... And I didn't know what this place was about, Ms Nightfang had been harping on me, calling me gay and teasing my masculinity, so when I found out, I thought it was all just some joke being played on me. I didn't think about how you would feel at all... then this past week I have been selfish and a complete ass, thinking only with my dick and not with my head. I know this doesn't make what I did any less painful, and I'm not asking you to forgive me... I just wanted to tell you that you shouldn't pay attention to what I said that night. You are a beautiful girl. That's why it was such a shock, it seemed so out of place. I should have just appreciated you for that, and I'm really sorry that I ruined that chance."

	Sam is silent for a moment or two and then speaks up "Well with any luck you might learn personally not to judge by appearances based on your current clothes." She says through the door. 

	Mitchel sighs and says, "Yeah. Anyway. I'll let you sleep…" and with that, he turns and starts to walk away, not having anything else to really say.

	"If you really want me to forgive you, then I'll need to see improvement." She says giving him a chance. "It's one thing to just apologize, and I do thank you for finally doing so, even if took forever. But between that encounter and this past week, it feels like you're doing this more out of pity then sincerity."

	Mitchel shakes his head, pausing a few steps from the door, "It isn't pity. I fucked up, and I never bothered to think of how it would affect others. I need to change that. I'm not saying I'm all better. I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm saying that I was an ass, and that what I did was wrong and stupid."

	"So you are not doing this in ANYWAY in hopes that Ms Nightfang will see you manning up and decide to change her mind about putting you in drag and letting you cum?" Sam asks with a slight grin.

	Mitchel says, "No. I don't think I can do anything to make her change her mind. She wants to ruin me, and my mom doesn't seem to care. This is because I honestly owe it to you."

	What good mood Sam was going quickly dissipates. "God... She is NOT trying to ruin you. Give me one good reason you think she is trying to ruin you that doesn't involve your perceived gender role."

	Mitchel sighs and asks, "Can you honestly say that anything in life isn't tied to perceived gender roles? You found your path, and a way to attain it, and that's cool. I like being a guy though. I like sports, I like flirting with girls, and I like dressing in my old clothes. I like everything about being a guy, and she wants to take that all away from me."

	"Girls play sports, Girls can flirt with girls though you seem to have been flirting with a guy the past few days, Girls can even wear guy clothes. So no those don't count. You might not be able to wear your old clothes now, but that doesn't mean it will remain a constant. Yes, I found my path here, but I knew long before it I wasn't right. I'm not saying you are wrong, but god! I get so tired of those that complain about Ms Nightfang like she's personally torturing you because she's making you wear different clothes!"

	Mitchel  shrugs, "Fine. I didn't come here to argue with you Sam. Just to say I'm sorry. Good night."

	Sam narrows her eyes as she listens to the boy start to walk off. "Yeah, Fine. Night. Be sure to continue be narrow minded, so you miss other chances as well," She replies with a sigh, if anything she seems to sound disappointed more than angry, though she doubts Mitchel will notice.

	Mitchel turns to glance at the door, "I'm not trying to be narrow minded. Look, I haven't eaten yet today, I'm dressed as a girl for the first time in my life and feeling really humiliated by it, everyone keeps telling me that I am flirting with a guy just for wanting to hang out and be friends with him, and everything I say seems to be some cardinal sin. I'm trying my best here Sam. I don't know what else to do."

	"Just give it a chance. Is that so hard?” Sam asks through the door as she leans against it. “I mean, Look at where you are now. Your apologizing for ruining something that could have been enjoyable for you, but because it didn't fit with your perceptions you missed out. What if, this turns out to be the same? You weren't interested in me when you thought I just a cross dresser, but after you've realized the truth beyond your nose your trying to make up for the lost time. Is it really so hard to give it an honest chance, rather than dismiss it outright because it's not what your used to? I‘m not saying you will enjoy it, just that you might if try…"

	Mitchel sighs, "It isn't the same as giving it a chance when you are forced. I'm not being invited to explore, I'm being shoved into it without any warning, without any explanation... I don't even know if I am wearing this stuff right or not!"

	"And you weren't forced into the room with me? You were given fair warning to expect a transsexual mouse?" She asks pointedly, knowing that if he had he wouldn't have freaked out like he did.

	"I was told that you were a reward for being a 'good boy', that was it. I didn't even know that this church and school helped people with gender identity issues. All I knew was that Ms. Nightfang had spent a couple hours that day and the day before, telling me that I was obviously gay, because of all the things I liked, that I was overcompensating or something. If I had been told the truth... I don't know what I would have done, but I wouldn't have blamed you for trying to trick me like I did." Mitchel says with a sigh and hangs his head a bit.

	 "But that's kinda my point. Your complaining about not having a choice in dressing up. You didn't seem to have a choice then either. I may have been a 'reward' but weren’t you given a choice in accepting that reward? In choosing how I would reward you? Or does the fact she called it a reward make you not choosing invalid?" She asks and finally seems to decide to open the door, as she realizes it’s rather silly trying to have a deep conversation between a wall of wood.

	Mitchel shrugs, "I don't know Sam. I don't know anything anymore." He replies and stands in the walkway, unsure about returning to the very pink room that the mouse calls her bedroom.

	Sam grins softly "Then you're in a good place. This is a school, a perfect place to find out everything."

	Mitchel shakes his head, "I heard what my mom and Ms. Nightfang talked about. This isn't a school for me... it's one step away from an orphanage."

	"It is a boarding school, about 90% of the student body lives here." Sam replies

	Mitchel asks, "Did your mom say that she didn't care what Ms. Nightfang did with you?"

	"My mom wanted what was best for me. Your mom probably doesn't care about any of her offspring beyond perceived obligation of being a mother. She‘d like dump any other children in a heartbeat if she found reason to."

	"Yeah, so Ms. Nightfang looked to make you better. I don't know what she wants to do to me except for punish me and make me gay." Mitchel says as he leans against the doorframe. "I don't think she is a monster. I just think that she has her favorites, and then she has those she just plays with..."

	"She's looking to make you better too. She's just rougher because your resisting. So far she does seem to be punishing you, but then you likely asked for it." Sam says and sits on her bed. "And she toys with everyone."

	Mitchel shrugs, "She talked about giving me breasts and putting me in a corset... she thinks that I can only be better if I am a girl. If you were told that you could only be better if you were a man, wouldn't you resist?"

	Sam cocks her head a bit "That doesn’t sound like the Ms. Nightfang I’ve come to know… Did she tell you that directly?

	Mitchel says, "I was in the room. She told my mom that was what she was planning."

	"Is there a possibility your mom was asking what Selene could do to you?" Sam asks, pointing out a fact the otter might have overlooked.

	Mitchel shakes his head, "I don't think so. Maybe… but I really don't think so... then Ms. Nightfang's daughter said that I was likely already getting special food for some reason." he shrugs, "I don't know. I can't go home, I can't run away. All I can do is either give up, find a way to get out, or end it."

	Sam sighs and narrows her eyes at Mitchel "Oh god, Stop being melodramatic! You're going to end it because your being dressed like a girl? I mean I know it can be bad, but god! Don't be such a weenie... " She says and throws a stuffed fox at him.

	Mitchel shakes his head and looks down to the plushy as it hits the wall next to him, "No, I didn't say I was going to, I told you, I'm going to try to be better, convince her that I don't need or want to be a girl... I just can't find any other solutions than those three options."

	"I don't think that'll work. I still feel you should at least give it a chance. I mean it's not like she’s gonna cut your balls off…" She says and walks over to her dresser, rummaging through it a bit before tossing the boy something else.

	Mitchel tries to catch whatever is tossed his way. He fumbles a bit, and barely manages to not drop them. Once he has a firm grip on it he looks down to see that it is a pair of 'pajama jeans' and long nightshirt with a blue winged pony and a rainbow mane with the words '20% cooler' printed on it. Mitchel blushes a bit in his ears, looking at the jammies, then he looks up at Sam and smiles a little. "Thanks."

	Sam smiles softly "Your welcome. It gives you something to sleep in, and the pants are good enough to wear any time. Maybe that will help you feel like you got some choice."

	Mitchel nods, "Thanks. For everything..." And after a moment's hesitation, he asks, "Can I kiss you on the cheek?"

	Sam hmms softly and seems to think about it for a moment before replying. "I don't see why not"

	Mitchel leans in and gives the mouse a tender kiss on the cheek, then says, "I'll let you get to sleep."

	Sam smiles a bit at the kiss and nods, and then adds "Oh, and You may want to apologize to Ms. Nightfang. If your being forced to wear clothes, it's probably a punishment. Maybe if you apologized you might get to choose. I'm not saying she'll let you choose not to wear girl clothes, if that what's being paid for. But she might let you choose girl clothes you'd at least be comfortable in..."

	Mitchel nods, "Yah, I already planned on talking to her tomorrow." He smiles softly to Sam, then turns and heads back to his room.

	Sam nods "Night, and sleep well Mitch." She says as she watches the boy leave.

	Mitchel says good night in exchange and heads back to his room. He strips down and then dresses up in Sam's jammies, a bit surprised that  they fit, then curls into bed and soon falls to sleep after the long day he has had, hoping it that it can’t get much worse for him…