It was several weeks later after a session with Dr. Franklin when Katie and I were sitting in my room working on a project for our business class when Katie turned and looked at me.

“When’s Prom?” she asked. I stopped typing mid sentence and looked at her, more caught off guard by the question than anything.

“May, I think. Why?”

“Just wondering. I need to get our dresses together.”

“Dresses?” I replied. I hadn’t even thought that far ahead. “Are you asking me to prom?”

“Hmm…” Katie acted like she was pondering this question. “Yes.” She smiled.

“I’ll go with you. You must have an idea for our dresses inside that pretty little head of yours.”

“Um… Actually I do…”

The Friday after Katie and I had discussed prom, I was sitting in Dr. Franklin’s office with her and mom.

“Jackie, I think it’s safe to say that Josh isn’t dressing like a girl because he thinks it’s fun. I think Morgan can wear pants now, if she wants.”

“So does that mean that we are done with sessions?” Mom asked. Dr. Franklin raised an eyebrow.

“No. Morgan still has a ways to go with the Post Traumatic Stress from the incident with Carl Paskly, and I still need to confirm a few things before I can recommend sexual reassignment surgery for Morgan, if that is how far she wants to take this. I would recommend that we get her on hormones as soon as possible to keep any more male traits from appearing.” I looked at mom, who was contemplating what Dr. Franklin had just said.

“I consent to the hormones and I want Morgan to research the surgery thoroughly before she makes a decision on that one way or the other.” Mom smiled at me.

“I kinda thought that you’d see it Morgan’s way.” Dr. Franklin said picking up a folder from her desk. “Morgan, inside this folder are the prescriptions you need to start receiving hormones, and I anticipated your mom’s suggestion that you research the surgery. There are some documents in there that will help you. Some have been written by me, and some by others. Jackie, I’d like to talk to Morgan alone for a bit.”

“Ok.” Mom said standing, She turned to me and patted my leg which was bare under the short pink skirt I had on. “Call someone when you are through.” Mom kissed me on the top of the head.

“Ok. Love you.” I said to her.

“Love you too.” She said and then left the office.

“So, how have things been?” Dr. Franklin asked.

“Good.” I replied, shifting in the seat. “I haven’t had any cold sweats or flashbacks recently…” I felt the hair on the left side of my head tickle my ear. I had a few flashbacks since the day that I had to shoot at Carl Paskly. Katie had gotten really good at detecting them and helping me through them. One of the worst had occurred while we were at school. We had taken a slightly less congested route to get from our math class, which was upstairs to our business class. The quickest and least congested route was the stairway that had the door that I exited that day. I had told Katie that I was ready to try that stairwell and apparently I wasn’t as ready as I thought. As soon as my feet hit the floor next to the door, everything that happened that day came flooding back and I all but collapsed. Katie and been holding my hand as was normal for us as we moved from classroom to classroom. She could tell a lot about what was going through my mind by the way I holding her hand. Apparently when I flashed, I squeezed her hand really hard and about brought her to her knees. I had no clue where I was, and the pictures that were running though my head were of Detective Cassingham and I being chased by Carl Paskly. I could hear the sounds of the gunfire, smell the sulfur after I fired, hear the sounds of the glass breaking, tires squealing, the thunks of each one of Paskly’s rounds that struck the Suburban. Katie had instantly realized what was going on, and attempted to pull me away from the door, but I was not going to move with the amount of force that a one hundred ten pound girl wearing shoes that didn't have much traction was going to have. In the end, Katie had attacked a pressure point. I still don’t know which one she hit, but it worked. Unfortunately, by the time that she had reacted in a way that brought me back to reality, I had relived the entire incident, in vivid detail.

“That’s good. I take it you haven’t tried the stairwell again.” I must have looked at Dr. Franklin with a look of disbelief on my face. “You can get over it. You just have to face up to it and that is the part that is not going to be easy.”

“I’ll just not use that stairwell…” I said.

“Have you driven the route that you and Detective Cassingham drove that day?” I shook my head. “That could trigger a flashback as well. Maybe you should have Katie drive and you ride and see what happens.” She said.

Katie and I had done what Dr. Franklin suggested and driven the route that Cassingham and I had taken away from the school on that day. Unlike my experience in the stairwell, I had a vivid recollection of the events that had transpired that day, but they didn’t incapacitate me like what happened in the stairwell… Katie shifted as she pulled into a parking lot and parked the car.

“Well?” She asked, obviously wondering what was going though my head. I brushed a few strands of my freshly dyed strawberry blonde hair out of my face and smiled at her.

“I’m ok. This didn’t do to me what standing by that door did. I’m not sure why but I equate that doorway to everything that happened.”

“Maybe that’s because you equate the door to the start of everything that day. I mean the first thing you thought of when we tried to use that stairwell was what happened.”

“Yeah.” I replied. “You would think that driving the route that had almost killed me would have some effect…”

“Well, It didn’t. I think that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah. I’m hungry. Lets go get something to eat.”

We were laying in my bed relaxing when I remembered that Katie had never answered my question about our prom dresses.“So, what are our Prom Dresses going to look like?” I asked.

“You’ll see. How big is your waist?”

“Umm… Twenty eight inches, I think…”

“You think?” Katie said. “I think we are going to need to figure out how big your waist is so we know how much of a reduction to try.”

“Reduction?” My eyebrows went up. “Do our dresses involve corsets?”

“Maybe.” Was her simple response. “What do think of burgundy and white?”

“Umm… The two colors would work, I think.”

“Ok. I think that they will look good on you.”

“And what colors are you going to have?”

“Navy and white.”

“The skirts are going to be poofy aren’t they?”

“Maybe?” Katie said making the statement sound like a question.

Katie and I had sat down in our study hall, Miko smiled as we sat down.

“So, do you guys have your dresses for Prom yet?” Miko asked. I simply pointed at Katie.

“Yes, I’ve designed our dresses, but Morgan has no clue what they look like other than the colors of hers and mine. That will be a surprise for her. Lets just say that between her, Jen and I, we’re going to turn heads.”

“Now I want the details…”

“Not with Morgan within ear shot. I want it to be a surprise…”

“Oh.” Miko said. I pouted, knowing that I wasn’t going to find out anything until Katie wanted me to.

Two weeks after Dr. Franklin had said I could start wearing pants again, I still hadn’t worn any. Katie and Jen had worn a few pair, but were still mainly in skirts. The weather was getting warmer and I was looking forward to being able to stay cool by way of a sundress rather than wearing pants. I had not really worn shorts since I was about twelve, even on the hottest days of summer. Spring break was just wrapping up when I slipped on a pair of denim shorts and a teal tank top before going down to the kitchen. Mom was standing in the kitchen and looked over at me.

“Shorts? You haven’t worn shorts since you were a kid..” She said. “Where’d you get them.?

“From Jen. I figured I’d try them. I haven’t worn anything like this since the incident with Carl Paskly… I have a feeling that I’m going to end up in a skirt before today is over. I understand that girls like to show off their bodies, but I’m not sure that super tight clothes are the way to go about it…” Mom chuckled.

“I have asked my self that since your sister started to wear clothes that I thought were too tight. I’m glad to see that she has reverted to wearing clothes that she doesn’t have to squeeze into. They have to be more comfortable than clothes that barely fit. The only thing that really bothers me now is the lack of length on some of your girls’ skirts…” I didn’t have a problem with the length or lack thereof on the skirts that I wore. I just meant that I had to be careful on how I moved while I was wearing them.

“You want them to be longer?” I asked, opening the fridge and pulling out a bottle of water.

“Yeah, but not much, more like knee length. I went through the miniskirt phase when I was your age. My mom threw a fit.” She chuckled.

“When Jen caught me, and told you what I was wearing, Did you know that it would have led to this?” We sat down at the table, and just talked.

“I had a feeling. Actually I had my suspicions from the time that I caught you in Jen’s dress after your father was killed. Your sister had been complaining that someone had been getting into her clothes for some time before that. I wasn’t, and I know your dad wasn’t… He wouldn’t have fit into them if he tried… My clothes were more his style.” My jaw dropped. “It had to have been you. What? Did I just tell you something about your father that didn’t know?”

“Yeah… Dad wore your clothes?”

“Only once. We were young, and I convinced him to dress as a french maid one year for halloween. He was rather convincing, just like you.” Mom paused and looked thoughtful. “When you started adding months to the ‘punishment’ I had given you, I knew that it wasn’t going to actually be a punishment. Between the two calls I made to Jen that day, I called Dr. Franklin to give her a heads up, and to get her opinion. She agreed with me until I called her the following Monday moring and told her what you had said about being in the wrong body. She cleared her schedule and we went and saw her that day.” I had idly wondered how mom had arranged that… “She was going to see you on Thursday of that week, but felt that it would be better to see you as soon as possible.”

“So that’s how you got an appointment on a Monday without having it set up in advance…” I said. Mom nodded.

“Dr. Franklin and I had kept in touch ever since your father was killed. You were really close to him and you took it pretty hard. I know your grades dropped a little bit, but you are a smart girl and you brought them back up. When I took your pants away, I was trying to see how serious you were about wearing your sister’s clothes. Your revelation about being born in the wrong body pretty much settled the argument right then and there. I will say that even with what’s happened after you started your transition, you seem much happier than you did before…”