For the rest of the week, all anyone at school could talk about was Ralph being turned into Ruby. Everyone-the boys, the girls, and even the teachers-were scratching their heads over what had caused the transformation. The generally accepted theory was magic, though that raised more questions than answers. What kind of magic was it? Was it a curse? A forgotten wish? A potion that had been slipped into Ralph's food earlier that day?

Of course, Zoe had a pretty good idea. It had to have been Skylar. She must have gotten mad when the video of Zoe in her underwear went viral and put a curse on the locker room in case the culprit decided to come back. The fact that Skylar was supposedly out sick for the entire week didn't deter Zoe, either. It seemed like the perfect way to throw people like Mr. Al off the scent.

It wasn't until the next Monday that Skylar reappeared at school. Zoe met up with Miles in the morning like she did every day, but they were both surprised when they entered the school hallway and ran into Skylar chumming it up with her friends.

"Skylar?" Zoe asked.

"Hi Zoe! Hi Miles!" said Skylar. "I heard about what happened with Ralph."

"Yeah." It was all Zoe could do not to look at Skylar accusingly. "It was pretty scary."

"I'll bet it was even worse for Ralph-or Ruby," said Skylar. "I heard her parents are trying to get in touch with a therapist who works with trans girls that are transitioning."

"She's not even gonna try to change back?" Miles asked.

"It was a magic transformation, wasn't it?" said Skylar. "How could any doctor reverse that?"

"I guess she wouldn't have much of a choice but to learn to be a girl," said Zoe. "Unless she decided to be, like, a trans boy or something."

Skylar shrugged. "I don't know," she said. Changing the subject, she asked "What about the club fundraiser? How have you guys been doing with it?"

"We're doing great, actually," said Miles. "My foster home's manager bought fifty T-shirts for the kids at the foster home. And he said he might get more later."

Skylar's jaw dropped. "Fifty T-shirts?" she said. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Nope. Not kidding."

"I've got the order form," Zoe said, reaching into her backpack. She got out her order form and showed it to Skylar.

"Holy shit," Skylar said when she read over Zoe's order form. "We might run out of T-shirts to sell!"

"How many shirts do we have?"

"A couple hundred."

"A couple hundred? How much money do we need for the Delaney Chase memorial again?"

"$50,000. Alan set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for it."

"Well, next month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month," said Zoe. "Maybe you'll be able to draw more attention to the GoFundMe page then."

"Most likely, yeah," said Skylar.

Miles looked at his watch. "Well, we should probably get to class," he said.

"Oh, okay," said Skylar. But as Zoe and Miles were leaving, she said "Wait a minute! There was something else I wanted to ask you."

Zoe started to panic. "What is it?"

"I don't know if you know, but my birthday is on Thursday," said Skylar, "And I'm having a party at my house. Do you guys want to come?"

Wow. This was not what Zoe was expecting. "Us? Why?"

"Well, I've already invited all of my friends, so I figured I might as well invite some people from the breast cancer awareness club. I invited Alan, and Michael, and Isaac, and Katrina, too. If you guys want to come, you're welcome to."

"Uh...I guess so," said Miles.

"Sure," said Zoe.

"Great," said Skylar. "I'll see you then!"

Once they were out of earshot of Skylar, Zoe said to Miles "Is this really such a good idea? What if this is a trap?"

"I mean, maybe," said Miles, "But Skylar said she'd already invited other people from the breast cancer awareness club, so..."

"How about we talk to someone?" said Zoe. "See if Skylar was telling the truth about inviting them?"

"Good idea," said Miles. He pulled out his phone and texted Alan asking if Skylar had invited him to her birthday party. Within seconds, Alan texted back with Yes, she did. I don't know if I can make it, but I'll try.

"Well?"

"Alan says yes," said Miles. "I think it's legit."

"I hope you're right about this," said Zoe.

***

Skylar's birthday party was held at 5:00 PM on Thursday, September 15, 2022. Zoe's mom gave her and Miles a ride to Skylar's house, which was just a few blocks away from the school. "Now be careful in there," Zoe's mom said when she pulled into the driveway. "Don't let Skylar turn you into mice."

"We'll try not to," said Miles.

"I hope you're right about this," Zoe muttered as she and Miles approached the front door.

Miles had barely even knocked when Skylar answered the door. "Hi guys!" she said. "Come on in!"

Zoe and Miles went into Skylar's living room, where everything was decked out for a birthday party. A table was set up full of pizza, chips, popcorn, and cookies. Balloons and streamers were hung up on the walls. Several of Skylar's girl friends were already there, hanging out on the couches and eating food while they gossiped with each other.

"Wow," Zoe said in spite of herself. "Nice party."

"Thanks," said Skylar.

"Is this everyone who's gonna come?" Miles asked.

"No," Skylar answered. "You guys were kind of early. I'm still waiting on Naomi, and Hailey, and Katrina. But I hope Michael Collins comes."

"Why?" Zoe asked.

"Well...I kind of like him," said Skylar. "I'm hoping I can get him to ask me out sometime."

"Huh," said Zoe. "Well, good luck with that."

After getting a plate of food, Zoe went and sat down with the other girls at the party. To her surprise, it was pretty easy to get in on the conversation and talk to them. They talked about school, and about their families, and about life in general. Zoe had had plenty of conversations like these with Miles and other guys she knew in the past, but having "girl talk" felt different. Sure, when you got down to it, it was still her talking about life, but there was a different, more feminine feel to it. Apparently Zoe fit in with other girls better than she thought.

Eventually, Zoe left to get some more chips. But when she went up to the food table, she was surprised to run into Brittany Meier. "What the-Brittany?"

"Hey Zoe," said Brittany.

"What are you doing here?"

"My boyfriend invited me to tag along with him."

A cold fist closed around Zoe's heart. "Your boyfriend?"

"Yeah. He says he's in the breast cancer awareness club with you."

Zoe looked behind Brittany and realized Isaac Schmidt was right behind her. "Hey Zoe," he said.

"You...you're Brittany's boyfriend?"

"Yeah. We just started dating last week."

No way, Zoe thought. Brittany was hers. She didn't care if they were the same gender now. She wanted to be the one in a relationship with her, not Isaac Schmidt. Zoe wished she could punch Isaac and let him know how she felt about going in on Brittany. But she knew now was not the time. Getting in a fight would just make her look bad in front of Brittany. "Well, congratulations," Zoe forced out.

"Thanks," said Brittany.

"No problem." Forgetting about getting more chips, Zoe went over to where Miles was sitting with his own plate of food.

"Was that Brittany Meier?"

"Yes," Zoe said acidly. "And she's got a boyfriend now."

"Ouch," said Miles. "So you still like her."

"Yeah. I don't know why I still kept my romantic attraction toward her when I turned into a girl, but I did."

"Well, hopefully she breaks up with him," said Miles. "Or he breaks up with her."

***

A little while later, Skylar's mom brought out the three-tiered birthday cake. Every sang "Happy Birthday" to Skylar and watched as she blew out the 17 candles on her cake. Then Skylar's mom started cutting pieces of cake for everyone to eat.

Zoe had to wait a minute before she got her piece of cake. When she did, she stood against a wall while eating it. After Zoe had eaten about half her piece of cake, someone came up to her. "Hey," the person said. "You're Zoe Fletcher, right?"

Zoe looked up at the speaker and realized it was Michael Collins. Like many of her other classmates, Zoe recognized Michael as one of her friends when she was Zack. Of course, despite being in the breast cancer awareness club together, their past relationship was obsolete now.

"Yeah, that's me," said Zoe.

"You know, I don't think we've had a chance to talk properly," said Michael. "You're new here, right?"

"Yeah," said Zoe. "My parents-my new ones-adopted me just a few months ago."

"Ah," said Michael. "Is it scary, going to a new bigger school like this?"

"Not really. I've been to schools like Interstellar High before."

Michael nodded. "Do you have any friends here?"

"Oh yeah."

"You have a boyfriend yet?"

"Nope."

Michael's face lit up. "Well, you are pretty hot," he said. "Want to go out sometime?"

Zoe's heart stopped. Michael Collins had just asked her out! Her first instinct was to say yes, since dating boys was part of being a girl, and Brittany was already taken anyway. But then she remembered what Skylar said. Dating a guy Skylar wanted would most definitely not help her relationship with Skylar.

"No, I don't think so," said Zoe.

"What? But don't you want a boyfriend?"

"Not yet. I don't think I'm ready for that kind of relationship yet."

"Aw, man," said Michael. "But if you ever change your mind..."

Zoe bit her lip. "I have to pee," she said. She didn't really, but she figured that was as good an excuse as any to end the conversation.

When she went into the other room, Zoe ran smack into Skylar. "Did you just turn down Michael Collins?" she asked.

"What the-you were listening?"

"Sort of. I overheard you talking."

"Oh. Well...yes, I did. Earlier you said you liked him, and I didn't want to ruin your birthday, so..."

"Thanks, Zoe," Skylar said. She unexpectedly wrapped her arms around Zoe and gave her a hug. "You're the best."

Once she got over her initial surprise, Zoe smiled and hugged Skylar back. "Thanks," she said. "You're pretty cool, too."

To be continued...