(The amazing HinaYui (hinayui.deviantart.com/) has provided pictures for this story.  Look for them in future chapters!)

  His parents called him Theodore.  In Greek, it means 'God's Gift' but he was anything but.  Most called him Theo.  He wanted his friends to call him T-Dog... But he didn't really have any.  From the time he started school, his teachers used to say he didn't play well with others.  He would push people around and intimidate them, a classic bully.  He'd steal and he'd lie.  You would be excused for looking at him and not thinking he was all that scary.  He was fair skinned and blue eyed, with long, shaggy, blond hair that he refused to get cut because that's what rebels did.  Combine the long hair with his slender frame and small stature (He was the smallest boy in his class and only one of the girls was smaller) and you might think he was a delicate young girl.  But if anything, his lack of size only made him meaner.  "Small man syndrome" they called it.  "A goddamn psycho", others called it.  When they found out he came from a single parent home, most would say "Oh, poor Theodore."  But those who knew him figured he's probably why his dad left.  At least that's what they'd say behind his back.  They didn't dare say it in front of him because he'd turn into an animal and attack.  Of course most didn't know that his mom had recently experienced a breakdown.  Without her husband and with Theo being trouble at home, she couldn't handle him.  And that's how Theo wound up living with his 'strange' Aunt Nancy.

  Really, Nancy wasn't that strange.  It was just that she worked as a seamstress.  She had worked on movies and had provided costumes for theater productions.  As a result, she was always hanging around with 'theater' people, certainly an odd and eclectic bunch.  When they came around, her family always called them odd and strange.  Nancy soon learned not to let her friends and family mix.  What can't be argued is that Nancy was unusual, compared to her family.  Where most of her family was blond, she had dark hair.  Where most of her family was on the shorter side, she was very tall, a few inches shy of six feet.  And where most of the family was very conservative, her interests had been anything but.  So no wonder her family considered her strange and rarely contacted her.  But when Theo's mom had her troubles, only Nancy was able to help.

  He'd only been with her since school started in September.  The first mistake she'd made was to call him Teddy.  He had gone nuts and trashed his Aunts sewing room and workshop.  After that, she put a lock on the door.  It took her weeks to fix the damage, putting her behind in work and costing her money.  She knew she had to get a handle on Theo, and a plan began to form about how she might be able to get him under control.  So she negotiated a deal with him.  If he'd behave, she promised to use her professional skill to make him a Halloween costume that would make all his friends stop and take notice.

  "What kind of costume?", he asked suspiciously. 
  "A bear", his aunt replied.

  He was instantly interested.  Theo loved ferocious predator animals.  He identified with them.  And a bear was perfect.  Powerful teeth, deadly claws... And he knew his aunt had made costumes for movies and theater so he knew it would look amazing.

  With that, there was an understanding between them.  If Theo would start to misbehave or destroy something, Aunt Nancy would just say

  "Oh, so you don't have any plans for Halloween?"  Theo would calm down.  

  Every night Theo could hear his aunt sewing in her workshop.  He kept asking for a sneak peek, but Nancy would always refuse.  

  "I want you to be surprised" she'd say.  Halloween was on a Monday this year and Theo was counting down the days until he could wear his costume to school.  So it was no surprise Theo was interested when Aunt Nancy asked him if he would like to come to a weekend party.  A chance to see the costume early?  A chance to show it off to people?  Maybe he would win a prize for best costume.  And if he didn't?  Theo figured he'd bust that lock somehow and trash his aunts workshop again if this costume wasn't everything he dreamed of.

  "It's going to be an amazing costume?", Theo asked.

  "I guarantee, it will be", she replied.  "My best work ever, I think!" she said with a great smile.  And Theo couldn't help but smile too.

  Theo was actually somewhat behaving at school.  In the back of his mind, he thought his aunt might change her mind about the costume if he got in trouble.  Even the teachers noticed it.  But Theo couldn't stop his old habits from flaring up when he came across an old doll.  Theo instantly hated it.  Maybe it was because he was sensitive when people mistook him for a girl, but anything overtly girly made him instantly destructive.  So when he found this old doll sitting unattended, he wanted to destroy it.  Theo didn't care that it was an antique porcelain doll.  He didn't care that it was carefully dressed in a handmade dropped waist Victorian style, with sleeves and neck trimmed with French Valencia lace.  He wouldn't ever recognize the silk ribbon sash with a carefully tied bow in back that accented the waist, or the winter-white Batiste slip it wore under the dress.  Without a thought, he swept the doll onto the floor, and, as his heel crushed the porcelain head attired in it's ruffled Victorian baby bonnet.  It made Theo happy somehow, like he'd protected his masculinity from the evil femininity.  As he sneered in victory, he was completely surprised when he looked up to see his classmate, Emily, standing there looking at him.  Her big green eyes were wide open, and on the edge of tears.  Theo realized he was going to get in trouble.  So he did the only thing that occurred to him.

  Theo stepped up to Emily, putting his face in hers.  She was instantly terrified.  You might think that unusual, as Emily was actually quite a bit bigger than Theo, being one of the biggest girls in the class, but she knew about his reputation.  And, not that it really mattered to Theo, he knew that Emily was a complete girly girl and no threat.

  "You tell anyone about this, anyone, and I'll do the same thing to you I did to the doll", Theo said grimly.  Emily could only nod in shock.  After staring at her for a bit, Theo walked off, stomping as he went.  He was worried she still might talk, but soon the story went around school how clumsy Emily had dropped her mothers antique doll that she'd brought to show in history class and Theo relaxed.  Once again, he had his way.  The bully had won.

For now...