My mom woke me before my alarm went off, and after a few minutes of brain rebooting, I staggered into the shower, then got dressed for the day. Mom had laid out a sundress for me, but I really wasn’t ready for that. I don’t know if I ever will be. I wore a pair of light tan jeans, with a light red (no, it’s not pink-I don’t care who says it is) t-shirt. My usual ankle socks and trainers, of course, and I put my hair into a nice ponytail.

“Okay, Mom, I’m awake. Now can you tell me why I’m awake at 5:30 in the morning?”

She looked a little disappointed that I hadn’t worn the sundress. “I thought you might want to come with me to pick up your Dad, honey. We can talk about…things, while we drive to the airport.”

Oh, and I can just guess what we’re going to talk about, too. Ookay. I do want to see Dad, and get his reaction to me, and I guess I’m even looking forward to a friendly conversation with Mom as well. At least I hope it’s friendly…

We took Mom’s minivan so that we’d have room for Dad’s luggage and stuff. It was a little rainy, more of a mist than rain, actually. I was hoping the Sun would dry things a bit as the morning progressed. The beating of Mom’s wipers, back and forth, back and forth, was almost hypnotic, and it made me sleepy.

“Mom says that you’re getting along with Debbie now, and that you have a date? Seems like an awful big adjustment in a fairly short time. I’m worried that you might be trying too hard to fit in, and that scares me a little.”

“Mom, I-”

“Just hear me out, sweetheart. You’ve gone through a lot of changes recently, and I really think you need to give yourself more time.”

“Mom, I’m not trying to rush anything. I needed to be honest with Debbie, it was driving me crazy, and not trusting her could have been very hurtful. You don’t see me wearing a skirt or walking around in high heels. I’m really not trying to be more of a girl, not yet, and maybe not ever, I don’t know.

“As to the date? I don’t know. I know I get a bit giggly when he’s around, but we’re just going to a movie. Part of me is scared to death about this, but part of me is sooo…attracted to him for some reason. I have to figure out what my body is telling me, but I’m pretty sure it’s not saying ‘Hey, you need to be making wild passionate love’-at least, not yet! The only way a boy is getting in these pants is if I suddenly turn back into Gabe.”

Jenny laughed.

“All right, I was just concerned. Things will be different for you now. Some will be better, some will be worse, but some will be just annoying and unfair.”

“I know, Mom. I’m terrified about my first period, I’m nervous about my date with Tim, and I’ve never
really felt so vulnerable and weak before, but I’m not going to let that stop me from living!”

I could see that I had pleased her. We spent the rest of the hour’s drive talking about school, my magic lessons, and what I was going to wear on my date. I had just planned on my jeans and a T-shirt, but Mom was hoping I’d try the sundress. Oh, geeze! She had a good point, that Tim would be pleased, but I just wasn’t comfortable with that yet.

We got to the airport about 5minutes before Dad’s flight was scheduled to arrive. We parked the minivan near the terminal where he would be, and then went in and found some seats to wait. The flight was a little late, but I soon saw my dad. I was very nervous. Mom got up to meet him, and I followed behind her. They hugged, and then he looked at me.

“Hi, kid. How are you handling it?” He asked, “You certainly turned out beautiful.”

I blushed. “Thanks, Dad. I’m …adjusting.”

He held his arms open, and I gave him a hug.

“I’m so sorry you have to go through this, baby.” He said. “I just want to let you know that I’m very proud of the way you’re handling everything, and that you can count on me to support you any way I can.”

I hugged him even harder. “I know, Dad. I love you.”

“You two are going to make it hard to do these sales trips. I won’t want to leave again!”

We both looked at him. “Good!”

“You probably don’t want to hear about how well I did on this trip, do you?”He asked.

“Sure we do, Dad. We just wish you could be home more, that’s all.”

“Well, I had a conference call with the some of the company brass yesterday, and they said I’ve done very well, especially when you consider the past year. They had a few issues though,”

That didn’t sound good.

“What happened?” Mom asked.

“Seems they lost a Vice President and a major salesman this week. This is going to mean some major changes in our lives from now on.”

“You’ll be gone more often then, won’t you?” It just seemed like I’d never get to spend any time with Dad. He’d been gone so often, I sometimes didn’t even get to see him when he was home.

“Well, honey, sometimes you need to make sacrifices to get that promotion, or the raise in pay, and we’ll need that raise to support your shopping habits now.” He joked.

I just hugged his arm. “I just want you, Dad.”

His eyes got big, and he looked at Mom. “I can’t do it anymore, Jen.”

She smiled and nodded.

“The conference call was to tell me I was being promoted, sweetheart. Your dad is now the Vice President, in charge of sales, meaning somebody else does the traveling. I have to make one more sales trip to train my replacement, but I’m due to be back here early next month to take over my new job.”

“All right! Way to go, Daddy!”

“Aww, thank you, princess. It’ll be nice to be home, then. I can get out my old shotgun and intimidate your boyfriends!”

I gave him the evil eye. “Are you sure you really want this promotion? There’s a lot of stress being a vice president, you know.”

Mom and Dad laughed at me.