Be a girl

There was no sign of Oscar for the remainder of the week, which the four of us all expected. By Monday lunchtime, Rachel believed the boy had had plenty of time to mull everything over, and went off to go find him, prepared to drag him over here if need be.

The conversation between Claire, Izzy, and me was fairly casual and laid back. Claire and Izzy talked about how their respective weekends went. I refrained from mentioning my own weekend, since nothing good ever happened over them. The conversation quickly shifted to things in which we were interested. Nothing too important or stressful.

Rachel returned fairly shortly, Oscar in tow. He looked particularly moody today, and like he didn’t want to come over here, but he was forced by a Rachel who refused to take no for an answer. Hands in his pockets, head staring firmly at the ground, Oscar grumbled a barely audible “Sorry” to Claire. I suspected Rachel pressured him to say that.

Claire accepted his apology with no qualms and acted like nothing was wrong from then on. The conversation continued, though Oscar didn’t speak, acting very much like I had when I was first introduced to the group. Except, instead of refraining from speaking up due to nervousness, he was more refusing to speak due to his awful mood. Claire tried to bring him into the conversation several times, but he simply grumbled something inaudible each time and nothing more.

She tried her best not to show it, but everyone could tell that Oscar’s new attitude was starting to get to Claire. It eventually got to a point where even Rachel got so fed up with him, she demanded he explain what was wrong. He mumbled something that I couldn’t hear, but Rachel wasn’t having it.

“Tell us what the hell is wrong or so help me,” Rachel demanded after his last non-answer, the anger extremely evident in her voice. She was done with his nonsense, and she was letting him and everyone else know.

With a wistful sigh, he finally relented. It was still a mumble, but at least this time it was comprehensible. “I just feel like I’ve lost my best friend,” he grumbled, staring at the ground, hands awkwardly resting in his pockets, and kicking the dirt with his shoe.

“I’m right here though,” Claire said, both confused and dismayed. And why wouldn’t she be? She was indeed right there. She hadn’t disappeared or ended her friendship with Oscar or anything. In fact, the exact opposite: she had actively tried to include him. But Oscar was acting as though she had cut off all ties with him. Sure, she looked different. She was half a foot shorter, her beard was gone, her face was prettier, her skin was softer, she had two new additions to her chest. But she was still the same person on the inside, I knew that much. My power didn’t change people’s personality, only their appearance.

“Yeah, but Jaxon isn’t,” Oscar grunted forcefully.

“Oscar, I know I look different, but I’m still me,” Claire insisted. “I’m still your friend.”

“Are you!?” Oscar exclaimed. “Are you!? Because you sure as fuck don’t look like my friend! You can’t expect to show up with a new name and appearance and expect me to just accept that! Who the fuck even are you anymore?”

Then he stormed off, hunched over and grumbling to himself. Rachel grabbed him by the arm, attempting to stop him from leaving, but he shoved her off. Hard. He really wasn’t in the mood. I expected Claire to call after him, tell him to stop and come back, but she didn’t. She did hold out a hand out in his direction, as if to call him back, but she gave up, and dropped her arm back down by her side. A frown appeared on her face as we all watched Oscar disappear around the corner. Even Rachel let him leave.

Had Oscar really lost his best friend, or was he the one pushing her away?

The mood of the entire group dropped after Oscar’s dramatic exit. We all remained quiet for quite a while. What Oscar had said had clearly hurt Claire, and it didn’t sit well with me. I felt like I owed it to Claire to help Oscar come to his senses and repair his relationship with his best friend. If Oscar felt as though he’d lost his best friend, then it only made sense to try and convince him that Claire really was the same person as Jaxon, despite her change in appearance.

To me, the course of action was obvious. If we were to convince Oscar of his folly, we would need to have him and Claire do an activity together that they both enjoyed. And that meant playing the game they always played together. The one that they had introduced me to.

I relayed my idea to Claire. Though her usual enthusiasm was absent, she agreed that it was a good idea, giving me a smile that was ever so forced. She suggested that I be the one to invite him to play, since he had no reason to be upset with me. Probably. I was pretty sure he didn’t know that I was the one who transformed her, and I very much wanted to keep it that way. For everyone’s sake. I didn’t want to imagine what he would do if he found out my involvement.

The plan was simple: we get him playing the game, and have Claire join us. Thereby allowing Oscar to see that Claire really was the same person she’d always been. That she was still his best friend.

***

I booted up my computer as soon as I arrived home. I found that Oscar was online and messaged him, asking if he wanted to play some games with me. He agreed, though I suspected that he was rather reluctant to accept, given how long it took him to write his reply.

“Hey,” he grumbled as he joined the voice call with me.

“Hi,” I replied, trying not to sound like I was annoyed at him. I of course was rather irritated by him, because of how he had treated Claire earlier today. But it was important that he be in a good mood before I invited Claire to the call. The plan was to repair the two’s relationship, and Oscar being in a bad mood was not conducive to that.

We met up in game and started off with some low effort content. I made sure to keep playing until mum dropped off James from school before I invited Claire to the call. I didn’t want any interruptions while the two acclimated to one another again. Oscar was surprisingly normal whilst we played. Granted, I didn’t mention any recent events, including the whole thing with Claire. He seemed to be having fun, which I expected since he and I playing games together was a fairly usual activity on school nights.

When I returned to my PC after answering the door and letting my brother inside, I messaged Claire informing her that it was time. She took a few minutes to respond to confirm that she was ready. Alright. Fingers crossed that this worked. For Claire’s sake.

“Hey Oscar,” I said to get his attention.

“What’s up?”

“I think Claire wants to join us.”

“Pssh, what does she want?” he said dismissively. The sheer venom in the pronoun referring to her was palpable. The mention of our mutual friend’s name did not fill him with joy. In fact, I worried she may no longer be a mutual friend based on that reaction. This did not bode well in the slightest. She wasn’t even here yet and he was already grumpy. So much for keeping him in a good mood.

“She wants to play a game with her friends, like she’s always done,” I retorted with no attempt to hide my annoyance. His attitude was really beginning to irritate me.

“What if I don’t want to play games with her?”

“What is your problem!?” I roared, “Seriously! Your friend wants to hang out and you refuse. You say that you feel like you’ve lost your best friend, but whose fault is that?”

“She’s the one who became a girl!”

I did not want to deal with this. I was neither eloquent nor charismatic enough to explain to him why it was actually him who was in the wrong. Nor was I in the mood. I’d just about had enough of his nonsense.

So, instead of responding with my words, I simply invited Claire to the voice chat. So much for keeping Oscar in a good mood, but he’d brought this upon himself. It was hardly my fault that he became all irritable the moment I’d mentioned Claire’s name.

A short bleep notified us that Claire had joined the call. She gave us both a pleasant greeting. “Hey guys,” she said cheerily, “How’s it going?”

“Ugh,” Oscar groaned, sounding rather disgusted. “I was doing fine til you got here.”

“Huh? What did I do?” Claire asked, sounding rather dismayed.

“I dunno,” Oscar scoffed, “My best friend only just disappeared for a week, then came back as a different person and expected everyone to act like nothing happened.”

“But I’m not a different person!” Claire exclaimed, “I’m still me.”

“Are you though? You don’t look like the same person to me.”

“So what!?”

“I’m with Claire on this one,” I interjected. “What does it matter that she’s a girl now? It’s not like she chose this.”

Oscar groaned so loudly I was sure he had slumped back in his chair and rolled his eyes, despite me not being able to see him. He probably had an appropriate grumpy face to go with it too. He sounded so exasperated. “How are you so accepting of this!?”

“Because she’s my friend!” I cried.

“He was mine!” Oscar growled, “Way before you showed up!”

“SHUT UP!” Claire yelled, stunning Oscar and me. “Just please, stop.” She sounded almost on the verge of tears, but she soldiered on, much more softly than she normally spoke. “Oscar, for the first time in my life, I feel like myself. Like I’ve found that missing piece that completed me. I feel like I’m living. And my best friend is acting like I no longer exist, and it fucking hurts, dude. I’m still the same person I’ve always been. I haven’t gone anywhere. So stop fucking acting like I have.”

“Nice speech,” Oscar retorted, “But it doesn’t change anything.”

“You know what? Fine. I’ll prove it to you. One V one me, right the fuck now. You win, and you can keep thinking whatever bullshit you want. I win, you stop whining like a little baby and accept that I’m still me.”

“Are you sure—” I began, but was immediately interrupted by Oscar.

“Fine,” he huffed, “But I’m not going to get beaten by a girl.”

“Boy, I will destroy you,” Claire snarled.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I reiterated.

“Stay out of this, Ben,” Oscar muttered. I snapped my mouth shut.

The two of them went into the guild hall, with me tagging along behind to watch their heated bout go down. They both agreed to do a best of five, so that the duel was fair. I watched as they entered the PVP arena and began their duel.

Each round was startlingly close; both of them were at similar skill levels. Skill levels far above my own, owing to them having played the game together for years, whereas I had only been playing for a couple months. The first round went to Claire, who let out a cry of victory. Oscar grumbled, but quickly reset. He took the second round. And the next. Knowing that she couldn’t afford to lose another round, Claire struggled extra hard, and managed to just barely scrape the victory in the fourth round.

The final round. Whoever won would win the entire duel. Claire knew the stakes here; she couldn’t afford to lose. Why she had suggested this in the first place, I had no idea. It seemed all too asinine to even contemplate, let alone agree to. I wished that I could have stopped this entire thing, but the two of them were determined that this was the way to settle their disagreement. I just worried that this would only end up with both of them being hurt, no matter the outcome.

Like all the other rounds, the last one was extremely close, but Oscar just barely managed to win. He cheered and made some rather animalistic noises to celebrate his triumph. It was extremely childish, I thought. He was celebrating the loss of his best friend. It was all so wrong.

Claire, dejected, congratulated the boy on his triumph, and then she left the call abruptly. Once Oscar had calmed down, I informed him that I would also be leaving. Without waiting for a response, I disconnected.

To say I was worried about Claire would be an understatement. A horrible pit had formed in my stomach after her defeat, and I could only imagine how she must have felt in this moment. Her idea was… horrible, in my opinion, but I felt powerless to stop them going through with it. The outcome was unfavourable, and I feared that might happen before they began.

She hadn’t just lost a battle, but also a close friend. And that must have been devastating for her. I messaged her the moment after I disconnected from the voice call, asking her how she was doing. She gave a non-response, saying she was fine. An obvious lie. She wanted to be left alone by the sounds of it, and I decided it best to respect her wishes.

Undoubtedly, I was going to speak with her about it tomorrow at school. It was too important not to. I knew that someone would need to talk to Oscar about his behaviour, but I didn’t want it to be me. There was one obvious choice: Rachel. She and Oscar were fairly close, and Rachel wouldn’t let Oscar get away with some bullshit like this. Whether or not he would listen, I did not know, but it was necessary.

Poor Claire.