Chapter Text
“Hey, Gangles?” Twigs asks as she knocks on Gangles’ door.
Gangles opens the door to his sister’s teary face. He ushers her in and shuts the door. “Shit, Twigs. What’s wrong?” He asks.
“I need you to promise me something. I need you to swear it.”
“Of course. What’s wrong?”
“I need you to promise not to hate me. Im going to tell you something, but you can’t tell anyone. Not Clarissa, not Philip, not dad. Nobody.”
“Twigs, you're scaring me. What happened?”
“Swear it.”
“Yeah. ‘Course Twigs. I love you. Now tell me what’s wrong.”
Twigs sits down on Gangles’ bed and takes a deep breath. “I’m a girl.” She shuts her eyes and flinches when the bed dips next to her. She feels her brother’s arm around her and starts crying again.
“Okay..? Is that all..?” Gangles looks at his sister confused. He thought she was going to admit to milder or something.
“What do you mean ‘is that all’?! I just told you im a completely different person than who you thought I was!”
Gangles cuts of Twigs’ ramblings.
“I mean, obviously this is a big deal, but like, I thought you were going to tell me you murdered your teacher and needed help hiding the body.” Derek hugs his sister close. “Besides, me too. Well, I'm a guy, but the sentiment is the same.”
Twigs looks up at her brother. “You… what?”
“Yeah, I mean. To be honest, I’ve been introducing myself as Derek for months now.”
Amanda looks at her brother, eyes wide. “I’ve been calling myself Amanda for almost a year!”
Derek smiles at that. “So we switched?”
“Looks like we did.” Derek and Amanda smile at each other.
“So then, miss Amanda, what next?” Derek asks his sister.
“Well, mister Derek, I wanted to tell dad. I know he’d be supportive but it’s scary.”
“Yeah I know. What if we just didn’t tell him?”
“Not tell him? Derek, how would that even work?”
“I mean, tell him, but don’t tell him.”
Amanda looks confused, so Derek explains. “I’ll tell dad I'm Derek, you tell him you’re Amanda, and we move on.”
Amanda laughs at her brother. “Gangles, that’s dumb.”
“Maybe so, but you’ve stopped crying, so I’ll count that as a win.”
Amanda and Derek chuckles at that and Amanda yawns. It’s been an eventful day.
“Sleepover?” Derek suggests.
“Sleepover,” Amanda agrees. She runs across the hall to her room and grabs her blankets. She sets up on Derek’s bed (taking up way more than her half) and he pulls up their favorite movie. The opening credits to Never Give Annabelle A Gun start up as she drifts off, worries floating away with the sound of Butch and Mr. Parker’s voices.