Katie and I walked into the classroom that housed one of our business classes. Katie and I walked in and sat down at two of the computers in the class room. Mrs Johnson, the head of the business department, walked into the room and sat the bottle of water and assorted papers and books in her arms on her desk. She logged into the workstation on her desk and picked up the remote for the projector. There were a few more students that scurried in right as the bell rang, and Mrs. Johnson made a note of who they were.

“Good afternoon, I want everyone to keep working on the power point projects that we started. Katie, would you and your friend come up to my desk please?” Katie and I stood and walked up to her desk, feeling everyone’s eyes on us. Katie and I got to her desk and looked at her.

“Yes, Mrs. Johnson?” Katie said. I was staying quiet to see if she could put two and two together and realize who I was.

“Having not seen you, I’m going to assume that you are Morgan?” Mrs. Johnson asked. I smiled and nodded. “You look every bit as pretty as what I’ve been hearing about you.” She said. I blushed. “Ok, you guys missed the beginnings of the project for this week. Chapter three of your books gives you the details as well as all of the data to use. You guys have until next Monday as your absences were excused for the last three days…” Apparently someone had been covering our bases on our behalf… Katie and I glanced at each other. We had played around with Power Point and had a firm grasp on how it operated.

“Yes, Ma’am.” We both said together before heading back to our computers to get started. Between the two of us, I was the better typer, but Katie was the better speller. We opened one of our books to Chapter three and started to read the particulars on the project. I had put a post-it-note flag in my book at the beginning of the project as I thought that it was something that we might end up doing. Katie skimmed the information relating to the project and looked at me.

“Ok, it looks like we are responsible for showing the sales growth of our sales team to the vice president of operations, who would oversee the sales department.” Katie flipped a page. “Due to a new product, called the ‘Wonder widget 2000’ our sales have grown 2500% in a six month period, mainly because our widget is better than anyone else’s on the market…” Katie said, turning the book to show me a picture of the wonder widget… It looked like a piece of cheese to me.

“Ok, and we have to be showing the VP of OPs this for some particular reason, what is it?” I said to Katie. Sometimes some of our teachers had observed that Katie and I were really good at deductive reasoning.

“Hmm.” Katie said, examining the book once more. “This seems to be a budget meeting and R&D and sales have teamed up to make some changes to the wonder widget that our customers have requested and R&D needs more money. The point is so R&D gets their money, our customers get the changes that would make the wonder widget even better, and keep Widgets Inc at the top of the industry…”

“So, it’s up to sales to convince the VPOPS to to give more money to R&D?” I asked.

“Looks like it.” Katie said, shrugging and smiling at the same time.

Katie pulled up in front of Dr. Franklin’s office building and let me out of the car.

“Who’s picking you up?” She asked.

“Mom is, unless she gets caught up on something at work, then Jen is. Why?” I asked, feeling goosebumps start to pop up on my bare legs.

“There’s a Barns and Noble around the corner. I was going to go find something to do until your appointment was over and then we could go back to your house and work on the project some more.” Katie said. I could see goose bumps starting to appear on her legs which meant she was starting to get cold too.

“Ok, that works for me. Are you trying to get the project done faster and better than everyone else?” I asked, a grin spreading across my face.

“Yep. I’ll scratch out some notes while I’m there and we can digitize them later.” She said.

“Ok, I’ll call mom and let her know that you are going to be picking me up so we can work on this project.” I said to her. Katie nodded, and I closed the door and went in to the building. As I walked up the stair case, I fished my phone out of my pocket and called mom. I didn't’ get her, so I left her a voice mail. “Mom, Katie will pick me up from my appointment with Dr. Franklin, and will be coming over tonight because we have a project for Mrs. Jonson’s class that we want to try to have done by Friday. Love you. Bye.” I hung up the phone as I opened the door to Dr. Franklin’s suite of offices. Suzanne sat behind the receptionists desk, and smiled as I walked in.

“Hello Morgan.” She said. “Have a seat, and I’ll let Dr. Franklin know you are here.” Suzanne picked up the phone and called Dr. Franklin. I sat in one of the seats in the waiting area, and a few moments later, Dr. Franklin opened the door.

“Come on in, Morgan.” Dr. Franklin said. I followed her back to her office, and sat in one of the seats that made up a small, cozy seating area. Dr. Franklin sat in the other.

“Good afternoon.” I said to her, noticing that she was making notes in her head about the way I was acting.

“Good Afternoon. How have the last few days been for you?” She asked.

“They’ve been good, although I think I’ve spent more time out of classes than in them…” I said to her, shifting slightly to put both of my feet on the floor. The chair I was sitting in was tall enough that my feet didn’t touch the floor unless I was sitting on the edge. Dr. Franklin smiled as my toes touched the plush carpeting in her office.

“You’ve spent more time out of classes than in? How does that work?” She asked.

“There have been a few people that have had an issue with me transitioning.” I said. “I had a student beat me up over it. The doctors at the hospital said I had a minor concussion. He has been expelled, and I’m doing ok.”

“Did you know this student?” Dr. Franklin asked, a look of concern crossing her face.

“In passing. He was on the football team, I want to say the star quarterback…” I said, reaching up to brush a piece of hair behind my ear. Mom had let me grow my hair long on the condition that I took care of it and It did. The long dirty blonde locks helped me fit in as if I had always been a girl. My mannerisms had slowly gone to feminine as my hair had gotten longer. Dr. Franklin smiled.

“What did he do?” She asked.

“He shoved me against the wall, called me a faggot and punched me in the stomach. I responded by dropping him to the floor. Officer Mullin, the school resource officer saw the whole thing. My description of what happened matched what he saw.”

“I see.” Dr. Franklin said, scribbling some notes on her notepad. “Given that you are now the victim of a hate crime, does this affect you wanting to transition?”

“Not at all. It just makes me want to be me all the more.” I replied, knowing it was exactly how I felt in my heart. “I’ve been thinking about something though.” Dr. Franklin raised an eyebrow.

“What’s that?” she asked, her pen hovering above the pad of paper.

“Eye color. It’s easy to change your hair color, and you can get colored contact lenses. I’ve been wondering off and on what I would look like with grey or blue eyes…” Dr. Franklin scribbled some more notes down.

“I think you should talk to your mom and an optometrist about that, professionally. Personally, I think that grey eyes would look stunning with your blonde hair.” She said. “I think that since you are starting to ask me questions, that we can call this session finished.”