It was when I was brought to the principal’s office that I realized I had been molested. I had casually mentioned what I had done with John and Mariah, and the next thing I knew I was sitting in the principal’s office with the school counselor and my parents. The counselor had talked to me about how what my siblings had done to me. As an 11 year old girl I was unable to consent to what they had done to me and my brother was being arrested for statutory rape. My sister had confessed that John had forced her into having sex with him and because she was 18 she was charged with second degree rape and sentenced to 6 years in jail. My brother was 17, but was tried as an adult because he was the one behind the assault and is being in New Mexico he was also sent to jail but for 10 years.
After it was explained what had actually happened to me I felt sick. I felt violated and betrayed by my older siblings, they had betrayed my trust and taken advantage of me. After what happened my interest and attraction to men had been entirely gone, I had a hard time trusting men in my life after this.
The case didn’t go to trial as my brother had confessed to his crimes and my siblings were quickly sentenced.
After that my parents didn’t talk to me, I felt like they blamed me for what happened. My dad mostly, he was pissed at me for coming out with it what happened.
Because of my sexual assault and my siblings’ arrest the swapping experiment was canceled. The doctors from the lab informed us that due to the arrests they could not in good conscience return the rest subjects to their respective bodies. So now I was stuck as Dahlia, when I met up with Oliver on the last day at the lab he explained that he was sorry for what happened to me but was happy with his new body. I told him that it was fine and I would be fine as a girl. A lie but I would have to deal with my new reality, no sense in looking back.
3 years later and I had grown, my breasts had already grown to a large b cup and my body had slimmed down. After what happened I stopped working out, every time I went to the gym I saw men that reminded me of John, and because of my maturing I would be cat called and I feared going out or showing off my body.
I had taken to dressing in dark clothes that covered my body, I wore my hair long and in my face, the only makeup I wore was black and heavy. My mom said it was just a “phase” as I began to listen to death metal and started acting out in school. I started hanging out with “a bad crowd” and had gotten tattoos from a girlfriend, pierced my face and body. I had learned guitar from my dad when I was male and now used those skills and “wasted my talent” ,as James would say, by playing heavy metal on my electric guitar. I had taken to calling my father by his first name, James, after we had a fight a couple years back when he was sick and tired of my “moping” and he straight up said that I had ruined the family by telling the truth about what John and Mariah had done to me. My mother tried to be supportive but wished that I would dress in pretty bright clothes like when I was younger.
I was ditching class again and smoking on the school’s roof, I flicked the cigarette from between my black painted nails that were chewed up, a habit that had become more pronounced after I was assaulted. I snuck through the school and jumped the fence to go to the skate park.