"You sure the smoke alarm is working?" I asked Taran, cheekily, referring to a time when a forgotten casserole had almost burned the house down. She closed the cooker door and then turned to look at me before poking her tongue out and then giving me the finger. "Very funny, smart-ass," she said," just wait till it's your turn to cook" The Price To Pay - Vol. 2.06 - Worries by Alys

I quickly put the phone in my pocket on the entry of our Biology teacher. I glanced around the room, but there seemed to be no-one looking at me. There was no obvious suspect. I wondered what the message could mean. 'I know your secret' was very ambiguous but naturally I feared the worse. But who in school could possibly be aware of the developing female body underneath my male clothes.

"What is the advantage of meiosis to an organism in reproduction?" asked Mr Franklin.

There was a sudden silence. I looked up from my open textbook and realised that I was being stared at by a man in his early fifties.

"Celyn, I asked you a question. I would be grateful if you could respond," stated the slightly annoyed Biologist.

"Oh, sorry sir, did you say the advantage of meiosis?" I asked, hesitantly, having only half heard the question.

Mr Franklin frowned and then as if remembering something smiled indulgently at me.

"Celyn, I understand you might be a bit rusty after your time off, but you will need to revise the topics we have studied recently if you are to catch up," he said before turning to ask the same question to another student and receiving the appropriate answer.

I tried to pay more attention to the rest of the lesson and even succeeded in answering a few straight forward questions from the text book but it was a struggle. Every few minutes my mind would wonder back to the mystery of the text message.

I was very wary of who was around me as I walked out of school with Siá´n at the end of the day.

"How was your day?" asked my travel companion in a friendly way.

"It was OK, I guess," I replied, " it all seemed a bit of a blur, I've got a lot to catch up on"

"Don't worry, Celyn, you'll be fine in a few days," reassured Siá´n as we both unshackled our bikes.

The weight of my school bag on my shoulders, due to all the course booklets I had acquired, made the journey home a lot harder and by the time I turned off the road into my driveway, waving goodbye to Siá´n, I was sweating profusely.

"How was your day, dear?" asked my Mum as I staggered through the front door, dumping my bag on the floor and making my way upstairs for a refreshing shower.

I had only taken one step up when I heard my Mother's raised voice.

"Celyn!" she said sternly, "you know you're not supposed to just drop your school pack in the hall."

"Aw Mum," I responded, " I really need a shower, I'll move it later."

"No Celyn, you'll move it now, it's time you got out of your slovenly habits," she insisted.

"Alright Mum," I responded, conceding defeat," I'll take it up."

I trudged back to the front door and shouldered the offending item.

"Dunno why you're having a go, you didn't used to be bothered," I commented, grumpily.

"Celyn, you know perfectly well why," she explained, " you're now female and it's important for you to learn that girls are naturally tidier than boys."

"Thanks for reminding me," I muttered, out of earshot, as I slowly made my way up the stairs," again and again and again."

Finally I was able to dump all my clothes and let the pulse of the shower spray massage some of the physical and mental pains away. I considered for a few moments my Mother's tortured logic in trying to teach me to do something that should, according to her version of my changed gender, come naturally. I decided that I would never understand how her mind worked and turned my thoughts to my greater problem, finding out who, in school, might know the truth about me. I went through a long list of fellow pupils but none of them seemed possibilities.

Later I lay on my bed, in a loose t-shirt and jogging bottoms, feeling rested and listening to my Ipod. I had a little time to waste before the evening meal so I checked Itunes for some tracks of my favourite bands. I wasn't looking forward to have to spend some time, later on in the evening, on my backlog of school work.

My phone buzzed, announcing the arrival of a text message. I picked it up and read.

How did it go?

I quickly sent a short positive reply to Sioned and then returned my mobile to my side table. I briefly glanced at my calender and groaned.

I hated having to dilate with a vengeance, but I knew if I didn't I'd get a major row from the consultant when I had my next internal. I opened the small drawer, marked the appropriate day in my special diary, another thing that would get me told off about if it wasn't up to date, and then took out the dreaded equipment.

A while later, feeling pretty sore inside after my stretching session I made my way downstairs in search of some painkillers. I opened the door to the kitchen and found my sister putting the finishing touches to a casserole before placing it in the oven.

"You sure the smoke alarm is working?" I asked Taran, cheekily, referring to a time when a forgotten casserole had almost burned the house down.

She closed the cooker door and then turned to look at me before poking her tongue out and then giving me the finger.

"Very funny, smart-ass," she said," just wait till it's your turn to cook"

"Well that's never as far as I can see, Dad never does," I responded.

A strange smile spread across her goth made up face, giving her rather a sinister look.

"In case you hadn't noticed, you are now a GIRL, sis," she said with emphasis," and you know Mum's rather quaint idea of gender roles."

I groaned," not that as well," and then wandered over to the medical drawer, took out a couple of Ibuprofen and then swallowed them with a little water.

"As well? What are you on about and what's with the pills, you feeling sick?" she asked.

I explained about the tidiness gene and the dilating.

My sister walked over to where I was sitting at the table with my half empty glass. She sat down next to me, putting her arm gently around me shoulder.

"How did it go today, Celyn?" she asked.

"Alright I guess," I replied.

"Only alright, tell your big sis what went wrong," she said.

I gave her a general account, including the incident with Alex and Elfed in the toilets. She shook her head when I described how they had noticed traces of nail varnish.

"We'll have to get Mum to lay off the makeup on school nights, we don't want you getting into trouble with the other kids," she stated.

"Can't I just lay off it altogether," I pleaded.

"Celyn you know you'll be living full time as a girl in less than eighteen months, you need to know how to use it yourself, otherwise everyone will think you're odd"

I sat and stared at the table, I wished I could just move away and start again, life was becoming so complicated.

"What's wrong? Was there something else that happened today," Taran asked.

"Yes," I said after a little hesitation.

"What was it?" she asked, sounding concerned about me withholding something that was obviously worse than the incident with the two bigots.

"Wait I'll show you," I responded and went to fetch my mobile phone. I noticed that there was a message from Ceri, which I responded to as I walked back to the kitchen. I sat back at the table, retrieved the anonymous message before handing the phone to my sister.

"Here," I said," read this."

I watched her face as she read the message a few times. Finally she turned to face me.

"But what does 'I know your secret' mean? Who sent it?" she asked.

"No idea," I replied," it could mean anything and it could be anyone sending it."

"Only one way to find out," she said with determination before pressing the call button.

"Don't do that, Taran," I urged," it could be anyone."

I tried to grab the mobile off my sister but she held it away from me as it dialled. Suddenly the ringing tone ended. Taran put the phone to her ear.

"Hello," she said," who's that?"

I stared at her and wondered who might have answered the call.

"No good," she said after a few seconds of apparently listening to some message.

She held it to my ear.

"This Orange phone is switched off, please try again, later," announced the computer generated operator.

"I told you it was a waste of time," I said, while feeling despondent at her failure.

"Leave this with me," she said, mysteriously, while she made a note of the number, "I'll get some friends to sort out whoever this idiot is, by the time we've finished with him, he won't know whether he's coming or going."

"How do you know it's a boy?" I asked, surprised at her confidence about the gender of my stalker.

"Believe you me," Taran said, "there's no doubt in my mind that the person behind this is male."

The oven pinged the imminent end of the casserole cooking cycle. Taran sent me to change for dinner while she prepared the table.

After swearing my sister to secrecy about the negative incidents I went to my room.

I decided to go with as male a look as possible and put on a loose casual shirt and trousers. This only gained a disapproving look from my Mother, even though she knew the ground rules for school nights. I was allowed to dress as a boy, although I could wear female clothes if I wished, as if I would.

"So, son, how did it go back at school?" asked my Dad, as if wiping out the past four months out of existence.

"Gareth," scolded my Mum," it's daughter not son!"

"Sorry, Haf," he replied, apologetically," sometimes when Celyn is dressed like that it is hard to remember."

I gave my father a positive spin of my day and then turned the conversation onto TV and sport, much safer topics.

After dinner I spent a little while leafing through my school work but very soon the physical strain of the day began to hit me and I felt my eyes closing.

That night I tossed and turned as I struggled to sleep and escape from the recurring dreams of someone, whose face I never got to see, ripping my clothes off in a whole school assembly and shouting out, "Everyone look at the freak!"