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Editor Note: The images used for this story were purchased and used under royalty-free license* from Istockphoto.com . ~Sephrena

Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

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Chapter 5 - When Did He Become A Girl?

The rest of the weekend was pretty much uneventful. My brother was weirded out by my cross over, but he'd seen me dressed often enough that he seemed fine with it by Sunday night.

Monday morning was about as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't realize that I had committed myself to this girl thing so much until then. Putting on my boys clothes Monday morning actually felt odd, and I wasn't sure that I liked wearing them anymore. If nothing else, it seemed out of character. I did wear a pair of panties instead of boy’s briefs, making it slightly more bearable.

I usually wore my hair in a ponytail to school, but I was afraid to do so today. If I pulled my hair back, I was worried that it would bring to much attention to the studs in my ears. Why didn't I wait until the end of the school year before getting them pierced? I blamed my mom.

Worse yet, I wouldn't even be able to remove the studs until after the school year ended!

Instead, I wore my hair down, trying to keep it covering my ears to prevent any tormenters from finding out. Hopefully it would work.

Anyway, I felt oddly out of place walking to school with Emily that morning. We'd spent enough time together on Sunday that she seemed slightly down when I wasn't dressed up as Megan. When Ethan joined us at his house further down the street, he didn't seem to notice anything different.

When we reached the school, it became apparent that Ethan was either in the minority for noticing differences, or he was just too nice to say anything. There were quite a few people staring at me while I walked down the halls, and I heard at least one person ask who the new girl was. Could wearing my hair down instead of in a ponytail be enough to cause confusion about my gender? If they did see the earrings, it would help tip the balance the wrong way.

I even had a couple of teachers look at me curiously when they were taking roll, wondering if I really was the same boy that had been sitting in the same seat the week before. I honestly didn't think I looked that different.

"Maybe it's your attitude," Emily said at lunch after I had explained the looks I'd been receiving all morning. "I mean, ever since Saturday night you've been acting differently. Perhaps they can see the difference."

Ethan had a confused look on his face during this discussion, and I realized that I hadn't seen him all weekend. He didn't know about my decision to live as Megan.

"What happened Saturday?" he asked obliviously. Before I had a chance to respond, a look of understanding crossed his face. "Oh, that's right, how did the demo CD thing go?"

"Fine," I replied. I was nervous about discussing my new life in such a public setting and I was hoping it could wait until after school.

"Tell him," Emily said, destroying that idea.

"Fine," I whined, knowing that I needed to tell him sooner or later. I leaned into the table and the two of them leaned in closer to hear my whisper. "I'm going to start living as Megan."

The shock on his face didn't quite mirror the shock Emily had shown upon learning the news. I got the feeling he didn't want me to do this about as much as Emily had been waiting for it.

"Why?" he asked, louder than I would have liked him to. "I mean, why now?"

"Well, they want a female singer," I explained. "Not a boy with an alto voice."

He grimaced at this news, indicating my earlier assumption had been right. He didn't want to lose his best male friend. How could I tell him that the male friend he knew seemed to be slipping farther and farther away with each passing day?

"You know Mary wants me to," I continued to explain. "Now's as good a time as any to do it."

He continued to look downtrodden for the rest of lunch. I knew that he would come around, but things were going to be slightly different between us. Perhaps he could see it after that point, but he seemed to treat me differently. He was treating me like he did when I was dressed up as Megan, even though I wasn't.

The rest of the school day passed in much the same manner. People seemed to be questioning my gender more than I thought they should, but at least nobody seemed to notice my earrings. If they had, at least they didn't mention it.

Eventually the three of us were walking home, one day closer to the end of the school year.

"Are you okay?" I asked Ethan. He still seemed slightly down.

"Yeah," he replied regretfully. He had his hands in his pockets and had been staring at the ground for nearly the entire walk. "When are you going to start?"

"Last Saturday," was my answer. He stopped walking, and stared at me. Turning to face him, I noticed that he seemed even more depressed. "Come on, Ethan. Megan never seemed to bother you this much before."

"Yeah," he said. "But before there was always an end in sight. Brett was always coming back. I'm not so sure that will happen now."

I was confused at his rationale. I could always decide that living as a boy was the right way to go. His face seemed to say otherwise.

"You're too comfortable as Megan," he eventually said. "You always have been. It's only a matter of time until you realize it and decide to stay a girl."

I laughed lightly. Was he serious?

He saw my dubious expression, and laughed lightly himself. "I know, I know, you don't believe me. But it's true." Emily was nodding her head in agreement.

"What makes you say that?"

Ethan looked like he didn't quite know how to put the explanation into words. It was Emily who was able to respond. "Megan is happier. You're always so depressed when you go back to being Brett."

"I am not!" I countered.

"Yes you are." Ethan said. "Now I know why you were so down this morning while walking to school."

"I wasn't down."

"Yes you were," Emily stated. I really didn't know what to say. I'd never noticed this before. It couldn't possibly be true, right?

My life was changing too fast.

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An hour later my mom was driving me to my hair appointment. I was beginning to think that this was a bad idea. The hair appointment, not the Megan thing.

My ears were hard enough to hide, but getting a female haircut would be downright impossible to hide! Mom didn't seem to think it would be a problem, but she didn't have to live with it for three weeks!

Emily had wanted to come with us, but her family was going out to dinner together for a cousin's birthday. Ethan didn't want to set foot anywhere near a salon. I was cool with that. It gave me time to talk to my mom about the things that had been pestering my mind since our walk home from school.

"Mom, am I happier as Megan?"

She looked startled at the question. I know I felt relief when I changed into a pair of girl’s jeans and a pretty red top after school. I was beginning to wonder if there was truth to what Emily and Ethan had said.

"What makes you ask that, honey?" she asked me, avoiding my question entirely.

"Em and Ethan said I was," I replied. "They say I get depressed when I go back to being Brett. Do I?"

She looked uncomfortable at the question. I realized that even though she really wanted a daughter, she wanted to make sure that it was my decision, not hers.

"Don't take this the wrong way, honey, but they're right," she said. "I remember the very first time you dressed up. Remember when your cousin Chloe was visiting? She somehow talked you into that pretty dress of hers. You never wanted to take that thing off."

"That's not true!"

She looked regretful now, but she kept going. "It is, Megan. Every time you've dressed up, it's been difficult to get you to stop. I thought for sure you would have gone full time as Megan before now. It's who you are."

I stared at her in shock at that statement, my mouth agape! Mom thought I was a girl! She'd thought that for years now, apparently! Had the decision already been made?

"Don't look at me like that, young lady! I'm only telling you the truth!" She seemed to be upset at my reaction. "I don't want to tell you what you should do with your life, but you need to take this decision seriously."

"I am," was the only response I could give.

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