Joel is eighteen, and just about to start college. But he hasn't gone through puberty yet because he grew up in isolation from others of his species. He's looking forward to growing up and developing a gender and a sexual orientation, though he's a bit apprehensive that he might be a girl; that could take some getting used to.

This story is in my "Valentine Divergence" setting, like my earlier stories "Butterflies are the Gentlest", A House Divided, and "Nora and the Nomads". It begins about nine years after "Butterflies are the Gentlest" and two years before "Nora and the Nomads", but it has no characters in common with any of the earlier stories. I've tried to write it as a stand-alone, but if you find it confusing, reading those earlier stories first, or at least "Butterflies are the Gentlest", might help.