Okay, as the story is nearing its end over on TG Storytime, I've decided to just cut down to one week between chapter bundles here. This way, you guys will likely get the story's final chapter at the same time the TG Storytime folks do! Yay!

1.

There was a knock on my bedroom door. I opened it to see Steve standing there, which surprised me. “Didn’t I scare you off yesterday?”

He shrugged. “You’re my friend, why wouldn’t I come back?”

“Because I was rude to you?”

“So what? You’re my friend, remember?”

“You mean you’re not mad at me?”

He took me by the hand and pulled me a little closer. “Of course not. You’re just… Going through a rough time. Nobody can blame you for how you’re feeling.”

I blushed. “Thanks.”

He smiled. “You’re wearing that lipstick again.”

I nodded. “Turns out I like it. Do you?”

He patted me on the shoulder. “On you, I like anything.”

I giggled. “Really?” He was buttering me up, clearly, but I was enjoying it.

“Yeah.” He brushed his hand against my cheek. “You look pretty no matter what.”

I was turning so red, it was embarrassing. “So… You ready for school?”

He shook his head. “Not just yet.”

“Steve?”

“I just… Please, just this once?”

“Just this once what?”

He shook his head. “Fuck it.” He leaned down and put his lips right to mine, and his arms around me. I rested my hands on his chest and I could feel his heartbeat. The world faded around us, and I just let him kiss me. It felt so wonderful, and I didn’t want it to end.

His hand slipped from my hip to my chest, and I felt him squeezing my breast through my shirt. I moved one of my hands to cover his, to make him squeeze harder. It felt so wonderful.

“Adam? Adam! Wake up!” someone said from somewhere, and I felt Steve fading away from me…

2.

Mom was gently shaking me awake. I groaned and turned over onto my side. “I don’t wanna get up…” I said. Wait, when did Mom get here? I didn’t care, I just wanted to sleep.

She smacked me on the butt. “I said get up, young lady.”

“Ugh…” I groaned. I turned back onto my back. “Did you just call me young lady?”

“You look more like a young lady.”

I turned back onto my side. “What time is it?”

“It’s seven forty-five, you’ve got about an hour before school.”

“Why’d you wake me up?”

She walked around to sit down on the side of the bed I was facing. “Because you were moaning, and rubbing your chest.”

Now I was awake. “Um… I was?”

She smiled. “I was a fifteen year old girl once, and you’ve got an older sister. If you think I don’t know what a wet dream is, you’re very wrong about that.”

I sat up and scratched at my left breast. Must have been the one I was rubbing, because it felt kinda weird now. “Do most girls have wet dreams that just involve kissing?”

“Is that all your’s was?”

“Uh-huh.”

“All it was?”

“Well, and Steve was… um... “

She ruffled my hair a little. “Dreaming about a boy counts.”

I hugged my knees to my chest, and I could already tell my breasts were a little bigger. “When did you and Dad get home?”

“Early this morning. Your dad came in here to see you and nearly blew his top when he saw you wearing one of your sister’s nighties.” She tugged at the shoulder strap of the nightie I was wearing. “He’s a little worried about you.”

“You mean because I’m not really Adam anymore?”

She smirked. “No, he’s worried because you didn’t take self-defense classes like your sister did.” She hugged me closer. “He’s actually happier that you’re a girl now than I am.”

“How come?”

“He wanted only daughters. When your dad and I got married, he told me his dream was to be the kind of dad who scares his daughter’s boyfriend into submission by showing off his gun collection.”

I giggled. “That’s funny.”

“I wanted all boys, so that I wouldn’t have to help anybody out with feminine needs. My mother was horrible at teaching me, I was worried I’d be just as bad.”

I smiled at that, then my smiled dropped. I wondered how long it was going to be before I had my first period.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Just thinking about periods.”

“They’re nothing to worry about, sweetie, just a part of life.”

“That’s what Melanie said, too.”

“And we’re here to help. Just don’t ask your dad, because he’s clueless.”

3.

I stood in the shower and enjoyed the feeling of the water hitting my breasts. I was right, they were bigger than they had been when I went to sleep. It amazed me just how different a shower could feel when you had breasts for the water to drip off of.

I rubbed shampoo in my hair and sighed in frustration. I had way too much hair! How did girls deal with this? Rinsing it was a nightmare. I grabbed the body wash that Dad and I used, then set it back down. It just didn’t smell right, now. Instead, I grabbed the stuff that Mom and Melanie used and decided to use that. It smelled a lot better. I guess my tastes were becoming more feminine, too. Great. Stupid sorceress. Couldn’t I just be a tomboy?

There was a knock on the door, then the door opened, somebody walked in, and then Melanie pulled the shower curtain open. “Hey!” I shouted, then hurried to cover my breasts and what was left of my privates.

She smirked. “Calm down, okay? It’s not like I haven’t seen a pair of boobs, or something that looks somewhat similar to a penis.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you’ve seen mine!”

“Like I said, calm down. I’m here to teach you how to shave.” She held up shaving cream and a pack of pink ladies’ razors. “It’s about time you learn how hard it is to stay pretty for boys.”

I blushed. “I’m not trying to look pretty!”

“You smell like you’re trying to be pretty.”

“It’s just body wash!”

“Hey, take it easy. I’m only teasing a little bit.” She sprayed some shaving cream onto one palm. “You can’t expect me not to tease my little sister a little.”

“What are you doing now?”

She started rubbing the cream onto my legs. “Putting shaving cream on your legs, obviously.”

“Do we need to do this now?”

“We do if you’re gonna wear those shorts I picked out for you.”

“Why can’t I wear pants?”

“Because all my pants are in the laundry that you forgot to do last night.”

I rolled my eyes. “I was a little busy almost flirting with Steve, it was a busy night!”

She smiled. “It’s okay. You didn’t have a problem wearing shorts last night.”

“Well, no, but that was just practice.”

She opened up the package of razors and handed me one. “Okay, we’re gonna start with the right leg first, understand? If you knick yourself, don’t worry, nobody gets it right the first time.”

I nodded, then took a deep breath. I knelt down and started down by my ankle, then brought the razor up. I was about to pull the razor away quickly, but Melanie put her hand on mine and made me pull away slowly. I nodded, then began back down by my ankle again. I finished that straight line, then continued on right beside it. Shaving your legs wasn’t too difficult, just tedious. I knicked myself once on my right leg, right on the area right where my sock would end. After that, we moved onto my left leg, and I made a couple more cuts. None too big that a band-aid wouldn’t cover them up, though.

Next we moved onto my armpits. I didn’t really understand why, considering I wasn’t going to be wearing a tank top this time, but Melanie said I needed the experience. I didn’t cut myself there at all. I toweled off, and then wrapped the towel around my chest, the way Mel taught me, then she blow dried and showed me how to style my hair into something that stopped my bangs from blocking my view.

“There, look? You look a lot better now, huh?” she asked, pointing out my reflection. I wasn’t really looking at my hair, though, I was looking at Amanda. This was her first public outing, her first time going to school. The one and only thing I found lucky was that this was the last four days of the school year. By next school year, everybody will likely have forgotten Adam. “Hey, didn’t you get the band-aids on good enough?” she asked, drawing my attention back to the real world.

“Huh?”

“Fresh blood, on the floor there,” she said, pointing to the floor. I checked out my band-aids, but they were on well.

“Um… It’s not from my legs.”

I saw a look of confusion on her face, then a look of recognition. “Uh… Time for you to be introduced to Ms. Playtex.”

I felt my eyes widen. “Huh?”

She straightened up a little, put a hand on my shoulder, then put on this goofy voice. “Amanda Richards, you have now become a woman.”

I gulped. “No…”

“Yep.”

“Un-uh.”

“Yeah.”

“But, I’m not done changing!”

She shrugged. “So? Maybe your periods aren’t connected to your physical progress, but your mental acceptance? You did kinda accept being Amanda last night, y’know.”

“I don’t even know what bathroom to use at school!”

She put on an annoyed look. “You’re a girl, you use the girl’s restroom, it’s that simple. Everybody who looks at you is gonna see a girl, so don’t worry about it.” She patted me on the back. Either way, time to show you where Mom keeps the pads.”

“You mean you and Mom don’t use tampons?”

“No, we do, but you can’t exactly use one. And Mom keeps pads in reserve in case we run out of tampons.”

“Oh.”

“It’s nothing to worry about. It means you’re a healthy young woman, remember?”

I sighed.

4.

The girl in Melanie’s mirror was me. No doubt about it, no way I was hiding it, I didn’t even want to hide it. I was Amanda now, and Amanda didn’t have any clothes of her own, so she was borrowing her sister’s.

Except that wasn’t really true. Melanie gave me that bra and panties I’d worn last night, and the shorts and tank top, but only because she was going to throw those out at some point in the near future. Now she had a little sister to pass stuff down onto. Yay.

I was still wearing shorts, but these were a little longer than the ones I wore the night before, they came to almost my knees. One of the band-aids on my left leg was covered up. The shirt I was wearing was a very plain shirt, even if it was almost skin-tight. Boys were definitely going to be staring at a certain place on me with this shirt.

Melanie grabbed me by the arm and practically tossed me into her vanity chair. “Hey!” I shouted.

She held up her index finger. “No ‘heys’, young lady. Today, you’re introduced to nail polish.”

“Why?”

“Why not? You were wearing lipstick last night.”

“Lipstick is easier to put on.”

“And you did a very good job, considering it was your first time. But that doesn’t matter. We’ve got twenty minutes before Mom takes us to school, and I’m painting your fingernails, got it?”

“You’re sure we have time?”

“Yeah, the stuff I’m putting on you dries pretty quick.”

I sighed. “Fine.”

“How’s that same purple as the lipstick work for you?”

I shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess.”

“Good, because that’s what I’m using, since you’re also gonna wear lipstick.”

“This is the first time I’m going to school as a girl! Why are you trying to make me uber-girly on my first day?”

She shook her head. “I’m not trying to make you ‘uber-girly’, even though you should really understand that saying ‘uber-girly’ makes you seem a bit more girly than you probably think you are, I’m trying to make you fit in.”

Dammit, she was making sense. Dammit, dammit, dammit. “Fine. Just hurry up with the nail polish.”

She smirked. “It’s not that simple. I’ve gotta shape your nails, too. They look too much like boy’s nails right now.”

I sighed. “Okay. Do it.”

“You’ve gotta pay attention to what I do, because I don’t wanna have to give you a manicure every time you wanna change your nail polish.”

Dammit!

5.

Dad was laughing at me from behind his newspaper. “Stop!” I implored.

“You’re fitting into your new role pretty well, Amy.”

Amy actually sounded pretty good as a shortened form of Amanda. Huh. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, wait, because I’d only decided to accept the name ‘Amanda’ last night. Silly me. “But that doesn’t mean you have to laugh at me!”

He put the paper down, reached over to me and squeezed my shoulder. “Somebody has to tease you, kiddo, and since it hasn’t been your mother or your sister, I’ll do it for them.”

“I thought you were the one who wanted only daughters.”

Mom walked into the room, phone to her ear. “No, I told you, we’re changing Adam to Amanda, and gender from male to female. How can this be this difficult? What? It was a sudden and surprising life decision, but we’ve decided to accept it, okay?” She hung up the phone and nearly slammed it down on the kitchen table. “God! Why is it so hard to help someone along after a ‘sudden and surprising life decision’?” She pointed at me. “This wouldn’t be so difficult if you hadn’t gotten yourself cursed.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” I knew she was joking, why did I screech like that? Actually, my voice seemed a little higher. Not a noticeable degree, but it seemed higher than it was yesterday. Then again, I wasn’t screeching yesterday, I was mostly yelling at Steve.

“Sweetie, your mother’s not blaming you,” Dad said.

Mom sighed. “No, I’m not blaming you. But you do have to be ready for school.”

“I am. And I know you weren’t blaming me, I don’t know why I said that.”

“Still, it’s gonna take me all day trying to get this straightened out. It’s amazing how difficult it is to get someone’s social security information changed. When you go and get a job, it’ll be a damn nightmare for you.” She picked up her car keys from the small basket they were kept in on the center of the table. “Okay, girls, let’s get going.”

6.

It was time to do this. To talk to the principal and get this dealt with. I took a deep breath, and tried my damndest to keep my butt bolted to the seat of the car while Melanie pulled me out. “It’s gonna be okay, Amy, don’t worry.”

I shook my head. “That’s what you think. We’re gonna walk in there, tell him some bullshit story about me getting a sex change, or something, and he’s gonna laugh at me.”

“No he won’t! Mr. Malski’s a cool guy. Remember when you egged that restroom last year and all he did was make you clean it up without putting it on your record?”

“And do you really think he’s going to believe that the boy who did that had some deep desire to be a girl?”

She shrugged. “Let’s go find out.”

I sighed. Game time, day-of-reckoning time. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

We walked into the building, and nobody seemed to notice me. Nobody pointed at me and laughed, or whispered to themselves some weird gossip that they thought up in twenty seconds, they just kept on doing what they were doing before I walked into the building. It was like I was invisible. That was a good thing.

We got to the principal’s office, the door was open, we walked inside and sat down at the chairs across the desk from his chair, which was turned to face away from us. Was he sitting in it? I doubted it, Mr. Malski was a big guy, we’d likely be able to see his shoulders at least.

The chair swiveled around and my heart felt like it was falling through a black hole.

It was her! It was the sorceress!

“Nice to meet you again, Amanda,” she said, a wicked smile on her face.

~o~O~o~

1.

I wanted to run. I wanted to run back home, lock myself in my room, and never come to school again. Why was she here?! Why?! What did she want to do to me now? I almost felt like I was going to pee myself.

“Are you the witch that cursed Amy?” Melanie asked.

The sorceress looked over at me. “Amy? It’s a nice way to shorten Amanda. I like it.”

Melanie slammed her fist on the desk. “Answer the question!”

The sorceress made a tsk noise over and over again. “A witch? Is that what she told you I was? I’m a sorceress, young lady.”

“Why are you here?”

“It just so happens that when Mr. Malski retires at the end of the year, I’m taking over. I’m familiarizing myself with the office today.”

I finally found my voice. “Did you do this just to watch me, Steve and Dean?”

She was still smirking, but she shook her head. “Not at all, Amy. I was selected for a few specific reasons. I’m qualified, I’m a hard worker, and Mr. Malski happens to be my father.”

That was confusing. When I first met this woman, she looked like she was eighty. “A-what?”

“If you thought the old woman who greeted you and Steve last Friday was what I really looked like, you’re mistaken. It’s just a form I take whenever I see people doing something illegal. They generally find it amusing to be caught by a frail old woman. You should have seen young Mr. Garnet when he was greeted by an elderly woman he never knew lived next door to him.”

“What all did you do to him as a punishment?”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “You still believe these to be punishments? That’s a very false belief, Ms. Richards.”

“Then what is this? What’s the point behind changing me into a girl or taking away Dean’s basketball skills or doing nothing to Steve?”

“Your life was written on your face the moment I met you. You had little drive for yourself, you liked to please your friends and family, you didn’t want, like a normal human being. Steve didn’t think anything for anyone, and mostly cared for himself, he wouldn’t have cared if he was left alone by everyone around him. Dean was a jock who believed he had the right do whatever he wanted, such as when he and his friends committed the panty raid. You think this is a curse, Amanda, but you’re wrong.”

“Whaddya mean?” I asked.

“These are challenges.”

2.

I sat there feeling a little dumbfounded. Challenges? Seriously? Was this woman as out of her mind as I felt she was? “What are you talking about?”

“This all sounds crazy,” Melanie said, folding her arms under her breasts. “How could these be challenges?”

The sorceress - Ms. Malski, I guess - sat back further in her seat. Her smile didn’t leave her face, and I wanted to punch it. “Dean needs to overcome his belief that a ‘sissy’ is just a weakling. When you see him out in the hallway a little later, you’ll see he’s done nothing to accept that idea at all.”

How would Dean look now? He was just playing basketball poorly when I saw him on Sunday, was he visibly feminine now?

She continued, “Steve needs to overcome his selfishness. I’m all but certain that had he told you what you were getting into that night, you would have stayed at home. Instead, he held that information back from you and forced you to help him.”

Overcome his selfishness? Steve wasn’t overly selfish, at least no more than any other teenager. And I really could say no, even when he doesn’t tell me what we’re doing. I just don’t, because he’s my friend.

The bell rang, we had five minutes to get to class. “Alright, girls, time for you to get to your classes.”

I stood up. “Wait, what’s my challenge?”

She ignored my question. “Amanda, you’ll find that your teachers have been told about your situation. They believe you’ve had gender reassignment surgery, but you’re allowed to use the girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. I imagine there’ll be a little bit of gossip about you over the next few days, but don’t worry too much about it.”

“What’s my challenge?” I asked again, but she stood up and walked past us. Melanie and I stared at one another for a second, then followed her out into the hallway.

3.

My first class of my last week of school with at least a little masculinity. Granted, I was also having my first period at the same time, but even though Little Adam was tiny, he was still there for a little bit longer. Didn’t give me a bulge, I noticed. Sigh…

My first class was algebra. Mrs. Williams was the teacher, and she gave me a somewhat disgusted look when I walked into the room. Nobody else seemed to care that where Adam Richards was, Amanda Richards replaced him. How are girls who used to be boys referred to? Trans-girls? You’d think a trans-girl showing up out of the blue would be at least noteworthy to them.

I walked my desk and sat down, waited for Mrs. Williams to take role call. I heard somebody behind me whispering to somebody else, which actually relieved me. Better to be the subject of whispers than of silence.

Much to my surprise, nothing about class changed. I don’t know why I thought it would, considering I was just as decent at algebra as I was when I was a boy. I almost fell asleep in the middle of class, which could have been related to my change, I wasn’t sure.

When the bell rang, I gathered up my stuff like I always did. Something about this all just felt too normal. Why wasn’t somebody jumping up and shouting “Adam’s a crossdresser!” or something like that?

As I went to stand up, I nearly collided with Jake Matthews. “Whoa,” he said, quickly stepping out of the way. “You okay?”

I flashed a slight smirk. “Yeah, just… Today’s been weird.”

He nodded. “Um… Adam, right?”

I shook my head. “Not so much anymore.”

“What name did you pick?”

I didn’t pick it, but… “Amanda.”

He chuckled. “That about makes sense. People have been talking about you all day.”

This was the first class of the day, man. “Really? Nobody’s said a whole lot to me.”

“I bet a lot of people got it out of the systems on Sunday. That’s when I noticed you.”

Really? People saw me on Sunday at that basketball game? Holy shit, and I thought I was being really low profile. Who noticed me?! “You saw me at the game?”

“Yeah. You were hanging on to Steve’s arm, I noticed.”

What?! “Huh? I wasn’t hanging onto his arm.”

“Not literally, but you two were sitting together, and he had his arm around you a few times.”

Did he? Had I let him put his arm around me? Why would I have let him do that? Then again, I do kinda remember asking him to move his arm at least once. Crap, was I basically flirting with him on Sunday? “Did I look like I enjoyed it?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. You didn’t seem to mind. Why?”

I shook my head. “Not important. I’m just… It’s been a busy weekend.”

I walked out into the hallway and was immediately struck by a surprising sight, and I knew exactly why nobody had laughed at me since I got to school. Dean Garnet, standing at his locker, wearing a light blue blouse and a flower print skirt and a pair of sandals. His buddies were snickering at him from a couple lockers away, and he looked very red-faced.

Wow, when Ms. Malski said he’d be a sissy, she wasn’t kidding. He was even holding his books like a girl did - like I was doing, actually - and he’d done an even better job shaving his legs than I had. What in the moist barrel of fucks?!

4.

My next class was a test. A big test. It’s the same test that I’m sure every transgender person has to go through (though not in the same way that I do), especially if they’re a teenager. I took a deep breath, then took the plunge…

...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the girls’ locker room looked exactly like the boys’ locker room. Exactly the same, except that there were no urinals in the restroom that was off to the side. It smelled a little different, because the boys’ locker room smelled like boy sweat, while the girls’ locker room seemed to smell more like hair spray.

I walked into the locker room like someone about to walk on hot coals. How would they react to me? Clearly my “transition” was well-known, or at least known enough. How would this go? How would this work? Crap, crap, crap, crap...

“So, did you really get a sex change, or are you just good at crossdressing?” Emily Clarke asked. I spun around and saw her standing there, topless, no bra whatsoever, just wearing a pair of tiny, tiny gym shorts. Four days ago, I’d be staring at her breasts because they were a pair of naked breasts in front of me. Now, I was comparing them to my breasts. “Hey, Richards, my eyes are up here.”

Dammit! Dammit! “Sorry, I was just…”

“Staring at my boobs? Yeah, I noticed.”

I sighed. “Not the way you think.”

“Whatever. You’re still a boy, obviously.”

Shake your head, shake your head, shake your head, shake your head, shake your head

I folded my arms under my breasts. “No, I’m not. I wasn’t staring at your boobs because I like looking at them, I was staring at your boobs because you’re bigger than me, and I was comparing myself to you.”

“Yeah, right. I’ll believe that when I see it.” She poked me in the left breast. Then again. Then again. It was hurting already because my breasts were really tender, but three pokes later, it was getting annoying. Then she suddenly grabbed me by the breast, and I kinda screeched and pulled back.

“What the hell?!” I screamed, my face turning red. Everyone was suddenly surrounding us.

“Okay, those feel really real. How the hell did you do that?”

“They are real!”

“How?”

Oh God, oh crap, oh nonononononononono… Why would I need to explain this on my first day? Why? What mean, rude, ridiculous God would make me explain this?! And on my first day!

“It’s obviously hormones,” someone said from behind me. I turned around and saw Shanna Duggan making her way through the crowd of other girls. “There’s a bunch of different kinds of hormones that doctors can prescribe that can cause that much growth in a few days.” She folded her arms under her breasts. “She’s obviously not finished her transition, right, Amy?”

I reached under my shirt and rubbed at my breast, but like I said, I was tender. “Yeah. Almost, but not done.”

Shanna glared at Emily. “See? She’s a girl, just like you and me. Just because she was born a boy doesn’t change anything.”

Emily shook her head. “Whatever.” She looked at me. “You wanna play dress-up and pretend you’re as much of a woman as the rest of us, go ahead. I don’t care. Maybe we’ll even go shopping together some day, since you don’t have too bad a taste in clothes, but don’t stare at my boobs again, understand?”

“Yeah,” I said. I breathed a sigh of relief. Yay! I could get changed now!

“Here,” Shanna said, holding something out for me. It was a sports bra.

“Huh?”

“I already know that Melanie doesn’t have any because I’ve had to loan her one before, so take it.”

“I didn’t even know you knew Melanie.”

“We used to be in the same grade, but I was held back this year. I didn’t need to take gym, I just like to.”

I took it and blushed, again. “Um… Thanks.”

She shook her head. “No prob. It’s a lot more comfortable than just letting your girls flop around while running the track.”

I shook my head. “No, I meant… With Emily.”

She flashed me a smirk. “Hey, my older sister went through this, it’s okay.”

“Your older sister?”

“Yeah, Kristin. She was born Kristopher, but she wasn’t right that way.”

Shanna had only moved to town a couple years ago, and I didn’t know she had a sister, let alone a sister who used to be a brother.

“Kinda like you,” she said.

“Huh?”

She gave me a look. “Seriously? You hadn’t noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“Melanie told me you’ve never had a girlfriend, and that you always hang around your friend Steve. You do everything with him, and when he asks you to do something, you don’t have a problem doing it. Amy, even when you were Adam, you’ve always been Amy. Now, you’re just becoming who you should have been in the first place, as opposed to who life chose for you to be.”

I sat down on the cement bench in front of the lockers and thought about what she’d said. I looked back on my life as Adam, and I realized one very difficult, very obvious truth.

I really shouldn’t have been Adam.

5.

When I walked out of the locker room, a little self-conscious because of the stupid gym outfit we all had to wear. Boys had it easy, because they got a basic tee-shirt and looser shorts. Girls, on the other hand, got a pair of skimpy shorts and a tank top. It was like boys got to dress athletically, while girls had to dress more provocatively.

Okay, not provocatively, but less athletically than the boys do.

Wow, I think I’m turning into a feminist.

I glanced over at the boys standing around on their half of the gym. The gym attendance was set up so that boys were on one side of the gym (closest to their locker room door) and girls were on the other side of the gym (closer to our locker room door; wow, I’ve used it once and I’m already saying I belong to the girls’ locker room). At first, we were asked to sit down, but eventually, Coach Walker stopped caring and just told us to sound off when he took role call. For the most part, we didn’t even stick to the preset “sides” anymore.

This was no more apparent than when all the boys decided to walk over to our side of the gym and engage in conversations with their friends or girlfriends.

But nobody walked up to me.

I stayed mostly to myself, off to the side. I talked to Shanna a little bit, but she had her own friends to talk to, and I was kinda shy. I mainly just sat there, thinking about my life as Adam. Shanna said that I was the wrong person when I was Adam. Had I really been wrong? I didn’t feel like I’d been wrong. I mean, yeah, I’d never found a girl to date, and I did hang around Steve all the time, but Steve was my friend. And so what if I’d never dated a girl? Not everybody has to go through high school dating, do they?

I sat down on the floor and hugged my knees to my chest. I was doing a lot of that now, but then again, I don’t think I could do that as a boy. Was I the wrong person as Adam?

“Hey, Adam,” someone said. I looked up and saw Steve standing there, looking nervous. “Can we talk, or… Do you want me to go?”

I shook my head. “No. Sit down.”

He nodded, then sat down. “So… How ar - “

I cut him off. “Amanda.”

“Huh?”

“Amanda. My name’s Amanda. Or, Amy, if you want.”

He nodded. “I like Amy. What, uh… What changed?”

Wasn’t right that way, kinda like you

“Was I… Wrong... As Adam?”

He raised an eyebrow. “What?”

~o~O~o~

1.

“What are you talking about?” Steve asked.

I said, “Shanna told me that it was obvious to her that I was wrong as Adam, that I’m finally the way I was supposed to be as Amanda.”

“Do you think you are?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve never really given much thought to it. Until now, anyway. I didn’t really do much when I was Adam, did I?”

He shrugged, this time. “How can you really measure that?”

“I mean with my life. I haven’t done much with my life, have I?”

He lightly smacked me on the back of the head. “You’re fifteen! What could you have done?”

That made more sense than I was willing to admit, but I still felt conflicted about everything. Everything. Was that part of being a girl, or was I just torn between a new friend telling me that I’m better off as Amanda and my best friend telling me there was nothing wrong with Adam? I hated not knowing. I hated this whole thing. Shanna was nice, and she’d helped me out, but she put that thought into my head, and now I was going crazy.

“Yo! Studs and studdettes!” Coach Walker shouted as he walked into the gym. “Attendance time!” He rattled off the names one by one. I had to prod Steve into answering, because he was busy staring at me with a worried look on his face. “Richards!” He finally came to me.

“Here,” I said, “over here.”

“C’mon up here, Richards.”

I gulped audibly. “Good luck,” Steve said, patting me on the back. I nodded to him.

I walked up to Coach Walker and then waited for what he was going to say. He marked off a few things on the clipboard, then turned to me and said, “Were there any problems in the locker room?”

I shook my head. “Just a little thing, but it’s okay now.”

“A little thing?”

“Just a little mix-up with me and Emily.”

“Little?”

“Nothing too bad. We solved it pretty easy.”

He nodded. “Good. Change like this can often cause some major problems, I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

You don’t know the half of it, Coach… I wanted to say that. Wanted to. I couldn’t, though.

2.

The best part of the last few days of school was that gym class was pretty much an open social period. You didn’t have to do anything, or you could do anything athletic that you wanted. If you wanted to stand around the basketball hoops and talk, you could. If you wanted to run the track outside, you could. If you wanted to do some mixture of the two, dammit, you could!

Most people, however, just wanted to stand around and talk. Nobody had a problem that they had to do it in their gym clothes. Me, I just wanted to sit off to the side. I didn’t feel like doing anything athletic. Probably had something to do with menstruating. Steve sat beside me. I could tell this was getting awkward.

“I’m sorry,” I said, nudging the conversation forward.

“For what?” he asked.

“For yesterday. When you called me Amanda. I… I shouldn’t have been so mean to you. I was just… I didn’t know how easy it was gonna be to be Amanda.”

“Whaddya mean? This,” he pointed at how I was dressed, “was easy for you?”

I shook my head. “No. Yesterday when we were together I… Felt different. I didn’t feel like Adam, and I shouldn’t have tried to be.”

“Wait, are you saying you accepted being Amanda because of us making fun of each other on your couch?”

“Does it sound too stupid to you, too?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m just… Just going through a lot of different changes.”

“I know.” He sighed. “I’ve been going through a few myself.”

Wait, what? “Huh?”

“Well… Ever since Friday, I’ve felt… Different… About you.”

“Um… Are you saying you have a crush on me? Because that would be weird.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know if it goes that far, or if I’m just trying to cling to you so that we stay friends.” He shook his head. “No, really, I kinda do have a crush on you. You’re too cute not to have a crush on you, and I know the person underneath all the cute, too, so that’s a plus.”

I blushed. He really thought I was cute? I should have smacked myself for that. Stupid, stupid Amanda. He’s your best friend! Best friend! Don’t give in to the idea of crushing all over your best friend!

“I like your nail polish,” he said. I looked down at my hands and felt a little stupid for forgetting that I’d let Melanie paint my nails this morning. What the hell was wrong with me?

“Thanks,” I said. “It doesn’t look… Wrong?”

He smiled. “No. It looks cute on you.”

Stop calling me cute!!!!! Did he want me to go nutty? I was already plenty screwed up from what Ms. Malski had told me - and she hadn’t told me my challenge, either - and now he was calling me cute, and complimenting me. It wasn’t helping my fragile state of mind.

“Um… Can you…” I started.

“Stop saying stuff like that?” he finished.

“Yeah.”

He smiled. “No. Because it’s true. You’re cute, and I want you to know it.”

I sighed inwardly. This wasn’t gonna be easy, obviously.

3.

Everybody junior and under and was assembled into auditorium. The seniors were all leaving in a few days, so they weren’t invited (nyeh, nyeh!).

(Wow, that sounded ridiculous. If I wasn’t undergoing some magical gender transmorphication, I’d actually care.)

“Hey!” Melanie called, trying to get my attention. I waved back to her and then ran up to her. “So how’s your first day goin’, little sis?”

I folded my arms under my breasts. “Little sis?”

She tapped me on the nose. “I’ve wanted to call somebody that for fifteen years, you should count yourself lucky I didn’t call you that when you were Adam.” She looked past me at Steve and then smiled. “So, you two make up?”

“If you’re asking if he’s my boyfriend, the answer is no, he’s still my friend. Just because I like boys doesn’t mean I’m gonna go gaga for my best friend.”

Steve asked. “When did you start liking guys?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I just do. It just happened.”

Melanie just shook her head. “Whatever, let’s get in here,” she jerked her thumb to the auditorium doors, “there’s some sort of announcement going on.”

We walked into the auditorium, found some seats near the back, away from everybody. I always did that when I went to see a movie or anything. I didn’t like to sit by anybody. Today, I wanted to stay away from people even more, just because I didn’t want to hear people whispering about me. There was plenty of room left over since there were enough seats for the school’s maximum student capacity, and the seniors were left out of whatever was going on here.

Mr. Malski walked onto the stage and grabbed the microphone and stand. “Hope you’re enjoying your last week of the school year, everyone. I know it’s just started today, but hopefully it’s at least some fun already.” This got him a laugh from a few parts of the auditorium. I chuckled a little. “I know a few of you have heard already, but along with this year’s seniors, I’m also leaving this Friday.”

“Ah, he’s leaving?” Steve asked. Oh crap… Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, I forgot to tell him. Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap…

“Oh crap,” Melanie said. Clearly she and I were on the same wavelength.

“What?” Steve asked.

I wanted to bash my head against the back wall. “You’re gonna be in for a surprise in a little bit,” I answered.

“What kind of surprise?”

Mr. Malski continued: “It’s not easy for a principal to have such a good rapport with the students under his charge, but I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you, getting to know you. I’d like you to know, however, that you’ll be in quite capable hands. She’s risen up the ranks quickly, was vice principal at a nearby junior high. Nepotism doesn’t have anything to do with this, I’d like you all to meet my daughter, Samantha Malski.”

Ms. Malski walked onto the stage, all smiles. I looked over at Steve, who looked like he was about to scream. I quickly clamped my hand over his mouth and said, “Nothing here, I’ll talk to you after we’re out of here, okay? Please nod, because I really wanna take my hand away from your mouth.” He nodded. “Good.” I took my hand away from his mouth, then wiped it on his pants. “Use a breath mint every now and again.”

Ms. Malski took the microphone from her father. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said to her father. She then turned to us and said, “Yes, even women in their late twenties still call their fathers ‘Daddy’.” There were laughs. “My father’s told me a lot about you, and I hope that we can have that same relationship. I don’t officially take over as principal until next school year, but I can be found in my father’s office all week long, so if you’d like to stop in and talk, I’d love to talk to you.” She smiled, that same disturbing smile that I saw earlier. It made me shiver.

4.

“That was her!” Steve almost shouted. I motioned for him to keep it down, but it obviously wasn’t that easy for him. “Amy, that was the witch! Tell me you saw her!”

I nodded. “I saw her. I… Um… Actually saw her this morning.”

“You what?”

Melanie piped in, “We both did, when we got here to explain Amy to Mr. Malski.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” That question was directed at me. Steve didn’t have any classes with Melanie, after all, and I’d spent most of gym class just talking to him. Stupid me. Stupid stupid stupid me.

I sighed. “I’m sorry, I really should have told you, but... “ You have no excuse Amanda, so just shut your stupid mouth. You have no excuse. Don’t even try to give him one, don’t you even try - “I didn’t think about it?” Why did you have to talk?! Why why why why why why why?!?!

(Now that I think about it, why am I having a conversation with myself? What is wrong with me?)

I shook my head. “Okay, I really don’t have an excuse, I just forgot to say something.” Was that so hard? Was that so hard? I need therapy. I really need therapy.

Steve shook his head. “It’s… It’s okay, you’ve been going through a lot. So, why is she here? To keep tabs on us?”

“No. She’s really here because she’s taking over for Mr. Malski. She’s really his daughter.”

“But she was like six billion years old on Friday.”

“She said that’s just a form she takes to scare people occasionally. I didn’t wanna believe it either, but it seems like her being our new principal next year has nothing to do with the challenges.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Challenges?”

Dammit! Something else I didn’t tell him. I’m a retard, obviously. “Yeah, that’s what she told us, that this wasn’t a curse, it’s a challenge.”

“So what’s mine?”

“She said it has something to do with you overcoming selfishness.”

He scratched at his head. “Am I that selfish?”

Melanie said, “Well, if it wasn’t for you, Amy would still be Adam right now.”

“Hey, that was Stephanie who made me go after the panties!”

I sighed. “It’s not important who made us get the panties back, or whether or not I’d still be Adam right now, I’m Amanda and I don’t mind it all that much, despite the fact that using the restroom is a little awkward when you’re on your period, but that’s not all that - “

Steve cut me off. “You can have periods?”

Melanie hit him in the arm. “Girls only when it comes to menstruating, understand?” Then she hit me in the arm. “Don’t mention girl stuff to boys!”

“He has a twin sister and he’s my best friend, why would this be taboo around him?” I asked. I looked around. “Hey, where is Stephanie, anyway?”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Well… Last night I sorta cooked dinner after leaving your place. I may have given her food poisoning, as a result of a bad enchilada.”

“You can’t cook.”

“That’s exactly what Stephanie said when I started cooking.”

Melanie said, “That’s exactly what I said when we were in home ec last year, remember?”

He scratched at his chin. “Am I the only one who didn’t know that?”

I just rolled my eyes.