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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 20 - Lunch with the Prescotts

Emily and I rode home with my parents.

Emily wanted me to wear my Sunday dress to lunch, to help emphasize my new gender, but I was worried it would be too much for her parents to handle.

Somehow we managed to compromise, but it didn’t seem like much. I got to take off the dress, but I was going to replace it with a lighter sundress that wasn’t quite so formal.

Emily joined me in my room, and we eventually selected a white dress that had some pink highlights along with pink flowers on it. It was very feminine, and I was worried about it upsetting the Prescotts, but Emily said it would be fine. At least I got to replace the heels with flats.

“Be back for dinner!” Mom yelled on our way out the front door. I agreed, and let Emily lead me over to her house.

I’d spent a lot of my childhood over at Emily’s house, but I was never so nervous to enter as I was then.

Eventually we reached the front door, and without pause, Emily opened it and pulled me inside.

“Hi, Em,” came a voice from the sitting room to our left. “How was church?”

“Hi, Jules,” Emily responded to her older sister. Julie was 18, and like Emily, she was a beautiful blonde. “How’s Anna doing?”

Anna was Emily’s 10 year-old sister. She was sick in bed, so Julie had stayed home from church to watch her. Anna was the number one fan of both Emily and me. She would do anything to hang around with us. I adored her like she was my own sister. In fact I think I had a better relationship with her than I had with Austin.

“She’s doing well,” Julie said. “She slept all morning and she said she was feeling better not too long ago.”

Julie finally looked at me, and she was shocked at what she saw.

“Brett?” she asked, not believing it could possibly be me.

“No,” Emily replied before I could. “This is Megan.”

“Hi,” I told Julie with a small wave.

“Wow!” was her response. “If I didn’t know...”

“Is that you, girls?” Emily’s mom interrupted from the kitchen. She then appeared in the doorway. “Good. Lunch will be ready in about 15 minutes.”

“Okay,” Emily replied. “We’re going to go say hi to Anna.”

“Alright,” her mom said and walked back into the kitchen.

Emily started up the stairs to the second floor, and I followed behind her. All of the bedrooms in their house were on the second floor, including Anna’s. We walked down the hallway until we reached the door. Emily knocked and then slowly opened Anna’s door.

“Anna?” Emily called out. I heard a groan from inside the room. “I’ve got someone here who wants to meet you.”

“Who?” was Anna’s gruff reply. She certainly sounded sick.

“Megan’s here to see you.”

“Megan?” Anna said excitedly. Emily took that as an invitation and opened the door and stepped into the room. I followed Emily in. Anna was sitting up in her bed, and she looked excited to see me.

“Hi, Anna,” I said when she could see me. She was staring at me with wide-eyed wonder. I stepped over to her bed. “Are you feeling okay?”

“You’re so beautiful!” she finally said. I felt myself start blushing again.

“Not as beautiful as you are,” I argued. Like her sisters, Anna was blonde, and it was obvious now that her beauty would match that of her sisters as she grew older.

She smiled at my compliment. The brightness in her eyes was almost enough to overcome the look of sickness that she displayed. She continued to gaze in wonder at me.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her again and bent down to feel her forehead. She seemed to have a fever.

“I’m feeling good now,” she stated jubilantly. “Are you staying for lunch?”

“Yeah.”

“I want to come!” she said with a lot of enthusiasm. “I’m feeling better, honest!”

“I’m sure you are,” I told her with a slight laugh. She definitely didn’t sound this well when we first arrived in her room.

Emily was standing in the door, watching us. I caught her slight laugh at Anna’s enthusiasm over me. The three of us had spent a lot of time together. We’d often play Barbie’s with Anna when she was younger, and we included her in some of our mall trips and when we went to see a movie. Seeing her sick, even if it was just a cold, was always a painful thing. Her enthusiasm for life was just so great.

Susan Prescott appeared in the door at that moment.

“Feeling better, honey?” she asked Anna.

“Yeah, Mom!” Anna said excitedly. “Can I come down for lunch? I want to spend more time with Megan.”

Mrs. Prescott laughed at her youngest daughter’s reaction. “Sure, honey, if you feel up to it.”

“I do!” Anna insisted and threw off her covers. I noticed that she had bare feet, and since I was right next to her dresser I opened her sock drawer and pulled a pair out. There was also a couple of scrunchies and I thought she might like to have her hair kept out of her face.

“Socks,” I told Anna and handed her the socks. She bent over to put them on and I took the time to pull her hair back into a ponytail.

“There,” I said. “All ready?”

“Yeah,” she replied.

I looked up at Emily and Mrs. Prescott. They both had smirks on their faces.

“What?” I asked them warily. They were thinking something I probably wouldn’t like.

They looked at each other with some kind of understanding, but it was Emily who finally voiced the words: “You’ll make a good mother some day.”

I could feel myself blushing again.

*  *  *

Lunch was pretty basic. Mrs. Prescott had made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Even so, it was good food. She was nearly as good a cook as Mom.

Anna insisted on sitting next to me, and I was very happy that she was feeling well enough to sit at the table. She really was a great girl.

The conversation started off light. Mr. Prescott filled Anna and Julie in on what happened at church. But it wasn’t long before the discussion turned toward me.

“So, Megan,” Mrs. Prescott started. “Are you going to be around for a while?”

“Yes,” I said after finishing the bite I had taken of my sandwich. “I was talking with my mom last night after I got home. I truly am happy with the way my life has gone over the past week and a half.”

“You like being a girl?” Julie asked the confirming question.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “Everyone says that I always seem so much happier when I’m Megan. Emily and Ethan, both my mom and my dad, and even Austin said so last night.”

“But you can’t let others decide this for you,” Mrs. Prescott warned.

“I’m not,” I told her. “But everybody telling me I was happier got me thinking about it. It took a bit to realize, but I AM happier this way. Everything seems to fit.”

I took another bite of my sandwich while they digested that information.

“You’re always going to be Megan now, right?” Anna asked, almost afraid of the answer.

“Yes, sweetie,” I told her. “I have to go to school as Brett for the rest of the school year, but I’ll be Megan afterwards all the time.”

“Good!” she said and wrapped me in a hug. I’d always liked Anna, but somehow our relationship seemed even closer now.

“What about next year?” Mr. Prescott asked. “Are you going to attend school as Megan?”

“I hope so,” I told him. “My therapist wants me to live full time as a girl before I make my decision. But frankly, I don’t want to ever go back to being Brett.”

“It sounds like you’ve already made the decision,” Emily said from across the table. The smile on her face told me that she thought it was the right one.

“I’m sure Mary will make me wait before making the decision final, though,” I said dejectedly. “She always seems to find some reason for me to slow down.”

“Who’s Mary?” Anna asked.

“Mary is my therapist.” I told her. “She helps me talk about things and helps me make informed decisions.”

“Oh,” Anna replied. “You can always talk to me, you know?”

She sounded like it was the most obvious thing in the world to do, and I had to laugh lightly at that.

“Of course, Anna,” I replied with a smile.

“Emily said you got a record contract,” Julie said with excitement, changing the topic.

“I did!” I said excitedly. I just wish I could tell them the details of what that meant.

“She’s already got one song and had a couple of photo shoots,” Emily added.

“The record company says that I’ll probably be on the radio in a couple of months.” I explained further. “They’ve started a campaign, but they said it takes a while to get going.”

“It’s still awesome,” Julie said. “I wish I could sing that well.”

“Would you be willing to sing your song for us?” Mrs. Prescott asked.

I really wished I could! But I couldn’t start singing Intuition for them and then have Sarah singing it on the radio. My secret wouldn’t be much of a secret then. As much as I wish I could share this with them, Dad would be furious if I did.

“I can’t,” I replied with a frown. I was trying to think fast about how I was going to explain why.

“Why not?” Anna asked. She seemed upset that I wouldn’t share with her.

“Megan doesn’t like to sing in public,” Emily stated.

Julie choked on her drink before managing to get out a laugh.

“You’ll have to get over that!” she said when she was able to settle down.

“Yeah,” I told her. “But the record company has asked me not to sing it outside the studio until it’s been released. They’re hoping it becomes a hit.”

Mr. Prescott nodded at that information. He was a lawyer, and he seemed to agree on the contractual side of the record company.

“Besides,” I continued. “My dad won’t let me share any of this with anyone until my career has been established.”

I had to choke back the tears that were threatening to come spilling out of my eyes.

“Leaving Emily out of this part of my life is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do!” I told them.

Emily was nearly crying now too. She really seemed to understand how hard this was for me. Sometimes I really hated my dad. Why couldn’t I just tell them?

“Me too?” Anna asked.

“Of course you too, Anna,” I told her with a smile that I hoped was reassuring. It seemed to be enough for her because she smiled and went back to her lunch.

“It’s okay,” Emily said, smiling despite the sadness I could see in her eyes. “I know it isn’t your decision. The fact that you want me there so badly means the world to me.”

Her parents were smiling at us. We’d been through so much together, and it hurt not to have her there when I could use my best friend the most to talk about the changes in my life.

Emily smiled at me before continuing. “That’s why I know you truly are my sister.”

*  *  *

The rest of the afternoon was more subdued. The Prescotts wanted me to sing for them, but I managed to hold them off. I was worried that they would be able to recognize my voice when Sarah’s first single came out.

Emily and I spent some time with Anna before she crashed from exhaustion. We listened to some music with Julie and even played a board game with her parents before I had to return home for dinner.

After the emotional lunch, dinner at home was quite a different experience. After reassuring my mom that everything was okay, I excused myself from the table and went up to my room to finish the homework I hadn’t had time to do yet.

“Megan,” Mom said when she poked her head into my room later that evening. “It’s time for bed.”

I looked at the clock and was surprised that it read 11:00.

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “Wow!”

Mom smiled back at me. “What have you been doing?”

“I was looking myself up online,” I told her. “Look at this.”

She came over to my desk and looked at my computer screen. I already had an unofficial fan site. The author claimed to have heard Intuition, and was eagerly awaiting the song’s official release. The fact that she knew the name of my song made it seem more likely that she had heard it.

She’d also compiled a number of pictures of me. Many were from the Tween awards, but there were also a few from the restaurant beforehand and I think even a couple from the first photo shoot I went to, where the paparazzi were outside waiting for someone.

“Wow!” Mom said, clearly impressed.

“I know!” I replied. “Look how many pictures of me are already out there!”

We looked through some of them before Mom insisted that I get ready for bed.

“Remember,” she said on her way out of the room. “Tomorrow is Judy’s birthday and we’re going over to her house for the party.”

Oh great! I had forgotten about Aunt Judy’s birthday party! I started to feel nervous. Aunt Judy was really nice, but we hadn’t told any of the family about Megan yet. I would either have to go as Brett, or the family would be meeting Megan.

“Good night, honey,” Mom said, unaware of the torment she had caused.

“Good night, Mom.”

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