Beth pulled the old Diplomat into it's normal parking spot. She reached forward and turned off the chrome ignition. The only sound that could be heard was the faint bubbles and tinks of the engine starting to cool down. She did not yet move from her car as she looked out blankly through the windshield. The drive back to her sorority had given her ample time to think things through.

She did not yet have a plan as such as to what she could do. Her mind had given her plenty of ideas on how to start but many were impractical for a girl her age. Others required funds she simply did not have to spare. A detective, for example, while nice was definitely out of her price range. Others such as visiting her gynecologist and demanding a test to prove she really was female was terrifying. What if it turned out she really wasn't female? Could she take such an answer?

She continued to puzzle, or plan, how she would attack the problem of finding out about what happened to Eric as she pulled out her suitcase and dress bag from the back of the car. Getting out of the car was a bit of a shock as the temperature here in the city was a few degrees colder than home. Her winter boots, made more for looks than actual long term warmth, crunched on the snow. She quickly removed her bags and scurried towards the front door of the sorority.

Fire had claimed the original sorority house a few years ago. The alumni of the sorority had gathered together funds and had this modern house built for the younger sisters. While it was a nice modern house with a good kitchen it lacked in that history one almost expects of a century old sorority. The new house was, apparently, much warmer in winter, and cooling in summer than the original house had been. The only remnants of that house was in the chapter room. Much of the original woodwork had been saved and refinished to coat the chapter room.

The chapter room had a very old feel to it. The walls all made of oak paneling on the lower half with lights in the form of electric versions of gas lights mounted on whitewashed drywall inter spaced with wooden runs going up to the ceiling gave it an antique feel. The ceiling was surrounded by a border of the same wood. She was told that having the plaster work done on the ceiling itself had cost a pretty penny at the time. In the center was a small white dome where a ceiling fan had been mounted this was trimmed around with a plaster ridge. Across the rest of the ceiling was plaster murals of fancy boxes and vines.

She was told this was fashioned after the original house. The plan was to have pictures of the girls over the years in the small white squares but it had never been done. There was a large tome of pictures they girls were making now. The original tomb had been lost in the fire of course. Many of the alumni had donated pictures they had to help fill out the new tomb. Some of which had been copies of the more interesting pictures from the first house tomb.

The two sliding doors to the chapter room were open as she had entered the building. She caught herself staring at the room and broke her gaze away from the room as she hefted her bags once more to ascend the stairs to her room. She was on the second floor so the walk was not that bad. One of her sisters came out of the shared bathroom with a towel around her head, a mask on drying and a toothbrush in her mount. The front of her plain white, and short, bathrobe not quite shut revealing her plain grey sport shirt sleep shirt. It was rumored the shirt had belonged to a former boyfriend of hers but Beth did not believe that herself. The girl would have had to spend some time altering the shirt as it looked far more like an ordinary sleep shirt.

"Bethie!" Jane squealed as she rushed forward and engulfed Beth in a hug. Jane from far looks quite dainty and short. In actually the girl was almost five ten. She also topped the scales at hundred and eighty five pounds. Far and away not the girl she at first appeared to be. Beside her Beth's five seven and 1/4 looked positively small. Beth thought herself overweight at 145 pounds. Beside Jane she looked far to skinny if that was possible. Basically Beth was smothered in Jane's hug.

Being recognized as the girl she was for being who she was, by someone that really knew her was intoxicating. Beth felt muscles she didn't know were tensed relax and soon she felt the tears start to flow.

"Bethie. What's wrong hun?"

"Nothing. It's just something that happened at home and I don't wanna talk about it. Thanks though."

"O...kay.. You know you can come to me anytime. My door is always open." Jane gave Beth a slight puzzled but caring look.

"Except when your boy toy is around." Beth let out a small giggle at the mock shocked look Jane gave her.

"I'll have you know I'm quite the picture of maidenly virtue!"

"Yes.. When you were 12 maybe." Beth teased back with a real smile on her face.

"Oh you! You.. Oh just you wait! I'm gonna grab my pillow and we will see about that!" Jane moved to go to her room as Beth let out a squeal and hauled her suitcases to her room.

Jane wouldn't really grab her pillow. Beth knew she was doing that simply to help cheer up her sister. Beth had never had sisters growing up as a single child. Now she had a whole building full of them. It made her feel warm inside. Her dorm room was the same way she left it. Her makeup scattered across her vanity, the closet door not quite shut and her bed not quite perfectly made. She had been in a rush to get to the church on Friday.

The events of the weekend played over in her mind as she set to work tidying her room as she put her clothes away. Beth stripped herself naked and stood in front of her own mirror. She examined every part of herself from her toes to her head. She did not play with her vagina or rub her clit. A part of her wanted to but the rest of her had other more pressing matters to attend too. Her pert breasts now free of her bra showed regular looking nipples. She examined herself finding no surgical marks of any kind. This really was her body.

Yet if she had once been Eric how was it that she was a girl? This puzzled her greatly as it could not be done as far as she could tell. Beth grabbed her body powder, moisturizer lotion, and personal body wash along with her robe and walked naked to the communal bathroom. This late at night no boys were allowed in the house so walking naked was not uncommon. Generally the girls, just like she was currently doing, held their robe and supplies in front of themselves affording a medium of modesty as nothing was directly viewable.

The bathroom as such did not really have a lock on it. You could close the door, which most did to let others know someone was in there, but that was about it. The bathtubs, there was two on either side of the bathroom, had glass shower doors on them. The slight coloring, in pink, and the glaze of the glass made viewing someone impossible. These doors did have a latch that could be used. It wasn't much of a latch as it was meant for the privacy of the individual than security.

Beth set up her tub supplies as well as her powder and moisturizer on the outside of the tub were a convenient shelf was. She filled the bathtub with the sororities scented oil and bubbles as she really needed both. When the water was halfway and over the nozzles she clicked the button on the wall for the small heater. Both tubs had these small heating devices installed. It was a gift from some of the boys at a fraternity when the house was being built. The small device was no more that a small tube that when filled with water would heat the tube and therefore the tub itself. While not a hot tub or jacuzzi it did enable one to spend more time in a warm tub without wasting excess energy heating the large water heater in the basement.

To Beth it meant she could unwind in the bottom of a nice warm tub kept just a touch on the side of hot for far more time than she could at home. The real pity was the device did not have a temperature control and could not be set hotter. She did know there was a special panel on the end of the tub that allowed the devices to be periodically serviced. Dubbed the tub warmer, it kept most of the girls more than happy as the worst part of any bath was it getting cold. As she settled into position on the bottom of the tub she used the soap first on her body to wash away the worst of sweat, makeup, tears, and any other grime. Her hair was also washed with the shampoo and conditioner provided. This week it seemed that TRESsemme shampoo and conditioner was the pick. Some of the girls used their own products all the time.

Others, like herself, did weekly visits to New Doo and used their services on their hair. Beth had at one point thought that Loreal and Pantene were the choice to use but apparently they could leave a waxy buildup on the scalp that itched. Beth was happy to wash out the weekends load of hairspray, mousse, and yet more hairspray from her hair. Once done she sat with the shampoo in her hair as she let the steam and warmth of the water release muscles from all over her body.

Beth caught herself falling asleep in the over warm tub and reluctantly switched off the warmer and started to drain the tub itself. She started the shower rinsed herself off then applied her body wash all over and conditioner into her hair. She worked at making sure all of her hair was thoroughly covered before waiting a minute then rinsing it out. Using a clean towel she dried herself before exiting the tub to stand in the drier air of the bathroom. She had learned earlier on that applying moisturizer directly after a hot bath was a good way to get pimples. Thus she waited a minute for her body to dry by carefully combing out her wet hair. She used at first a brush then the comb to make sure no tangles or extra conditioner was left in her hair. Once done her body was dry enough to apply the moisturizer and powder.

Once she was finished and had her wet hair in a braid to sleep in she put on her robe, collected her bath supplies, and returned to her room. She spent some time figuring on which of her delicate sleepwear was the best suited to her mood. She chose a simple short plain pink satin nightie with matching panties and dressed herself. On the desk all charged up was her laptop. Beth opened the top and entered transsexual surgery into the search bar.

Her alarm was going off as Beth peeled her face off of the keyboard on her laptop. Waking up she looked at the dark screen on her laptop and moved the mouse. Sure enough her face had left a series of letters repeating across the screen. The page she had last looked at needed a refresh to restore it but there it was. It described how a minor surgery done with medical adhesives could change a male genital into looking like a female one provided the subject had sufficient space in their pelvic bone to accommodate the procedure. While not fully functional as a female it gave those with gender dysforia a chance at a normal life till they could get the proper surgery called a vaginoplasty done.

Beth wondered if this was what had happened to her. The article did not say how deep the vaginal canal was if any. She knew her own was about three inches deep before one hit her overgrown hymen. Her own hymen, if she really had one, was apparently too thick to burst on its own. It had also almost overgrown her canal making menstruation difficult. This was the reason she had been put on the menstruation suppressing drug Sobel. She knew this blocked progesterone from her system thereby preventing a period from happening. She did still bleed from time to time but it was always minor and lasted at best a day.

She had not found any mention of the drug ceasing estrogen or even testosterone from her system. Therefore, theoretically speaking, if she was once Eric she should have a beard and not have breasts. Transsexuals needed to take estrogen in some form being oral pills, injections or patches which she had not done. Beth also did not find any information that Sobel had estrogen in it. Some of the other brands of suppressants however did.

Realizing this was not helping her get ready for her classes Beth reluctantly tried to rise finding that her legs had cramped up from sleeping half on her chair and desk. She had to slow down a bit and massage out the cramps in her silky smooth legs. As she did so she inspected them looking for any old scars that a boy would likely have, even faded. She found none. This only served to cement in her own mind that she really was a she and had been since birth.

This still had not answered the mystery of Eric her unknown brother. She was at a loss as to where to proceed next. As Beth got dressed into a pair of tights, long skirt, and one of her more comfy knitted sweaters she puzzled over how to proceed. She wondered if the university had records of who was first enrolled at the university? They should but if she had once been Eric and had changed would the records not just show her?

The puzzles as to how to proceed created more puzzles threatening to overload her. Beth left her room leaving her braid in place as it was, now dry, with a minimum of makeup on her face. She had even forgot completely about her jewelry. As she descended the stairs in the house she started to quicken her pace. She was about to leave when she realized she had not grabbed her class books. She returned to her room, retrieved the books and the bag, along with a small coat before going out to scurry across the road into the underground entrance leading to the maze of similar pathways under the university for students, and faculty, to get around without being exposed to the elements. The few pipes that carried steam around the university for the various buildings that still used the old radiator systems kept the hallways quite warm.

Beth eventually found her way to her physics class and settled into one of the raised lecture seats dotted about the semi circular room. The room itself probably dated back to the turn of the century. She puzzled that thought out a moment. Why was it that turn of the century still referred to the early 1900's even thought it was after 2010. Beth just shook her head and opened her book and her cheap notepad. It wasn't the ipad that many students were using. It was instead a much older Palm Trio notepad. She had got it at a garage sale a few months back. It was good for taking notes and it even came with a battery extender adapter that let her charge the internal battery while she sat in class via a small solar panel. Sometimes getting hand me downs from geeks was a treasure in itself.

The trio did not have a record function, photo capability or even a phone app. The students using the I pads were restricted by this and complained often about their not being able to access a network in classes because of the jammer built into the buildings. Not that anyone could normally get signals due to the various steel structures thoroughly making cellular signals a nightmare anyways. Internet access at the university was limited to areas outside of buildings or via actual network cables.

Beth grinned as she though about some of this. The benefit of having to concentrate in class always helped her to focus as such the mystery of Eric soon disappeared to the back of her mind as the professor came in and started a new lecture on the various ways string had been used to prove, or disprove theories. Professor Magonical, no relation to the character in the H.K. Rowling books, was a lively teacher who taught by distraction. He used bits of history into how some things were done while teaching you the more important theories and laws at the same time.

Some of her classmates complained that he wasted too much time with his displays. Beth did not believe so. It helped that the Professor was kinda cute in an older man type of way. Like most of the women that took his class, Beth appreciated how cute the man was while she knew he was quite firmly married. Indeed his spouse taught another class in applied chemistry. Though she did not begrudge the two men for being openly gay she did respect them as both were really good at teaching.

Some of the students who had homophobia did not do so well at this university. Nobody was actually thrown out but if you were homophobic you were generally asked to attend counseling sessions. One surprise had been a first year student who had complained loudly. After three months of counseling he had come out as really being a she. The word was the homophobia was actually a suppressed reaction to not being able to be herself.

Another theory was that the counselor had brainwashed him into believing he was a girl. In a university this was actually plausible. They did have an extensive psychology department. It was while Beth was thinking about the new girl that she had a thought. What if what happened to Eric was something they had done to her? Although she could find no physical male evidence she did wonder if there was a psychological aspect to it.

"Penny for your thoughts?" The distraction broke Beth from her musings as she had to answer.

"Oh Penny? Lol what a saying especially from you!" Penny Smoths was yet another of her sorority sisters. The short girl was a bit on the chubby side. She claimed it was from big bones but Beth, and some of her sisters, believed it was more from the girls love of all things chocolate.

"Oh well if the shoe fits.."

"BUY IT!" the two girls chorused together before descending into a fit of giggles.

"Thanks I needed that."

"No problem. Seriously though from that troubled face I'd say you got a lot on your mind sis. Care to share?"

"Thanks but not right now. It's difficult to explain as even I don't understand it all. I'll talk about it with you all soon I promise." Beth replied.

"Oh one of those huh? Okay just remember we are all here for you even our elder sisters." Beth smiled at that. Elder sisters did not refer to seniors at the school but graduates from university. She could, like all sisters, call upon one of them should the need arise. Indeed it was common practice for an elder sister to apprentice a graduate sister until she got on her feet. Beth gave Penny a hug before she went to the main concourse where the cafe was.

The cafe itself was mostly a cafeteria with above average food. It was also about the only place one could get a meal that was healthy and not loaded with complex carbohydrates and grease. It also had some laptops bolted to benches for students to use via a card one paid for at a cashier. The card was more to keep a log of who used what machine than for time limits. The machines having no ports, wireless connection, or access to a printer were mainly for one to check email or play a small online game.

Beth got herself a small chicken salad with some vinaigrette dressing before she went to log on to the school network. She idly munched on her salad as she browsed the university network for student listings. She got into the enrollment records and found only her name listed for classes for the last 2 years. This disappointed her as there should have been some clue. As a last ditch effort she entered Eric Tanner into the search engine and waited for the hourglass to finish. It was taking awhile since this was on the main university network and not the internet itself. As she waited she ate her salad.

Beth was surprised when the search concluded. There was a listing for Eric Tanner at the university. All it said was Eric Tanner in a list of 14 other names. These were again listed under the heading of Project 14. A click on the title to see what the project was gave her a link stating that for more information she was to contact Professor Tandy. Beth had never heard of a Professor Tandy and had to do a search for that name.

The search took almost as long as the first one. It gave her time to finish her salad and open her small 1% milk and start drinking it. When the search did come up it was a very long list. This Professor Tandy was a busy person she thought. Head of spacial psychology department, whatever the heck that meant. It seemed this Professor was also involved with various committees both in the university and for the government if they were in fact one and the same.

So why was Eric involved in this Project 14? What was the significance of a psychology Professor with this project? Where did she fit into all of this? Yet more unanswered questions. Beth looked at the clock on the laptop and saw the time. Cursing herself for being so distracted she shut down the system, removed her card and lunch debris, and left the cafeteria on the way dropping the card into the box beside the cashier. Beth was already late for her next class in social economics.

In another building far across the campus in the privacy of the offices reserved for the faculty staff a message box appeared on a lone computer screen. The aged man in the grey suit with the small food stain leaned forward to look.

"Hmmm someone seems interested in Project 14." The old man went back to eating his greasy fries and chicken burger.