Talia gets up the next morning and gets ready for her run. This morning, she wasn’t taking the same route she took yesterday morning. Today, she takes a different route and runs only twenty miles, instead of her standard thirty miles.

The route she took, was more scenic, quieter, and less busy in the morning. She enjoys the route as she jogs. She was slowly warming up from her jogging. The weather when she started her jog was cool, but it was slowly getting warmer.

By the time she arrived back home, her mother was pulling out of the driveway. She waves to her mother as she passes her. By the time Talia walked into the house, she was feeling a little hungry.

Talia opens the refrigerator and grabs the small bowl of fruit. She also grabs some cream to pour on top of it. She sits at the counter turns the television on and flips through the channels. Nothing catches her attention, so she turns the television off and eats her breakfast.

After Talia is done eating breakfast and has put her dirty dishes away. She heads upstairs and takes a shower. Since she had her schoolwork done and submitted. She had the rest of the day to either goof off or find something to do.

Since she didn’t really feel like goofing off. She grabs the box of silk-screening shirts and hoodies she did and mounts them on her scooter. She knew where most of the people who placed orders with her lived. She knew that they had jobs, so they should be home.

Talia grabs her helmet and puts it on. She doubles checks the box to make sure it was secured, before mounting her scooter and starting it. She wanted to get an all-electric scooter, but the one the scooter store had was out of her price range. The gas-powered one was cheaper and easy to take care of.

Talia closes the garage door behind her as she drives off to make her deliveries. The first few deliveries were nearby and the person she was looking for was home. As Talia makes her deliveries, she passes by one of her teacher's houses. She spotted Mr. Jenkins outside cutting his lawn. She waves to him as she drives past his place.

By the time she gets to her last delivery, she spots Ava outside in a thong bikini. She shakes her head as she enters the backyard “You know Ava, you’re going to be the darkest person on the track and field team this year.”

Ava looks towards Talia when she hears her voice. She has always liked Talia and didn’t have a problem with her being on the girl’s track and field team. She knew Talia was always polite and never did anything to make the other girls feel uncomfortable. She hated the fact that Talia was being forced to choose to either give up running or join the boy’s track and field team.

“I know, Talia.” Ava sits up and accepts the order of t-shirts and the two hoodies she ordered from Talia.

She looked at them and liked what Talia did to them. She folds them back up and places them back in the bag they had been brought in. She looks up at Talia “Have you decided what you are going to do, yet?”

“No, and I hate that the school board, the city government, and our state are making me do this.” Talia sits down on the other lounger next to Ava’s.

“Well, me and the other girls think it sucks that they are doing this to you. You’ve never done anything to us or the girls from the other school. If nothing else, I know you have been letting other girls who have competed against you win.” Ava and several other girls on their school’s field and track team have noticed that sometimes Talia has been letting other girls she competed against win. They knew how fast Talia was from practice and knew she could easily beat the other girls.

Talia was a little taken aback that Ava and some of the other girls on her track-field team realized that she had been holding back against their competitors. She tried to be fair and let some of the other girls from the schools they competed against win a few meets.

“When did you guys realize what I was doing?” Talia watches Ava’s facial expressions.

“Midway through the year, last year. We know how fast you are and how during practice you always try to let everyone who runs against you win or come close to winning.”

“And it didn’t bother you?” Talia was shocked about that.

“Nope, we saw how hard you trained and knew you did it to encourage us to improve ourselves. Also, to let the rumors other people spew about you having an unfair advantage be proven wrong. I don’t care if you were born one gender, but identify as being female. He’ll I’ve known you since elementary school and I still think you are a girl, because you have never acted like any of your brothers or the guys we go to school with.” Ava knew Talia loved dressing up and preferred girlie movies over the macho movies/action movies that guys like.

“Thanks, Ava, that means a lot to me.”

“Hey, if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.” Ava hugs Talia.

“Thanks.” Talia returned the hug and was glad Ava was a nice person.

Talia knew there were a few girls in her high school who hated her. She was more girlie than they were. Talia stands up and leaves Ava’s backyard.

Since she was done with her deliveries, Talia decided to ride over to her father’s construction site to see how he was doing. She knew her father was in the process of building two new warehouses for a manufacturer that was bringing twelve hundred new jobs to the area. Their city and state governments were giving the new company a bunch of tax cuts for building their warehouses here in West Lakedsor.

By the time Talia arrives at the construction site. Her fuel gauge showed that it was getting low. Luckily there was a gas station nearby where she could refuel. She spots her father’s pickup truck parked at the construction trailer. She parks her scooter near her father’s truck and places her helmet on the seat.

Talia walks up the steps of the construction trailer and knocks on the door before entering.

“It’s open.”

Talia hears a strong male voice answer to her knocking. She opens the door walks into the trailer and spots the foreman who works for her father sitting at his desk eating a sandwich. She closes the door behind her.

“Good morning, Mr. Sherman. Is my father around?” Talia knew Mr. Sherman normally took an early lunch.

“He’s out on the site doing an inspection. What brings you by here, Talia?” Eddie looked at Talia as she stood by the trailer door. He knew she wasn’t born female, but identified as one.

He didn’t have a problem with transgender people. The ones he did have a problem with, were the ones who pretended they were a different sex, just to have access to women’s locker room and bathroom to spy on the women.

“I was nearby and thought it would be nice to see my father. I hope I’m not being a bother.”

“You’re not being a bother. You’ll find your father in warehouse one. He’s looking at a spot where some machinery is to be installed. The inspector
is supposed to be out here soon to inspect it.”

“Thanks, Mr. Sherman.” Talia turns to leave.

“If you’re going to the warehouse, put a hard hat on, Talia.” Eddie knew it was the rule on the site.

“I will, Mr. Sherman.” Talia steps outside and walks over to her father’s truck to grab the spare hard hat he keeps in the truck. Her hard hit was back home. It was pink and had butterflies and birds silk screened on it.

Talia makes her way towards the warehouse where her father is. Several men wave to her or call out her name. She waves back to them as she walks into the warehouse. She figures her brother must be over at the other warehouse doing some welding. She saw sparks when she walked into the building.

Talia looks around and finally spots her father talking with two other men. She didn’t know their names, or who they were. She approaches her father slowly.

Connor was busy talking to some men when he spotted Talia walking towards him. He wondered what she wanted because she normally didn’t like coming to any of the construction sites he and her brother worked at. He feels her stand next to him, while he still talks to the two gentlemen from the company he was working for.

After the two men finished talking and walked away, Conner looked at Talia “So, what brings you up here, sweetheart?”

“I was nearby and wanted to see my father.” Talia hugs her father.

“Well, it’s good to see you as well, sweetie.” Connor returns the hug. He hasn’t had time to spend with his daughter since her vacation started.

Talia was normally gone for her morning runs before he and her mother got out of bed. It was rare for her to be back by the time they left the house. Also, when they got home in the evening, they were too tired after dinner to spend time with her.

“Walk with me, sweetie.” Connor had a few more things to inspect at the site.

“Okay, daddy.” Talia likes spending time with her father. She didn’t like working at a construction site like her brothers did.

Talia walks with her father as he heads toward another part of the warehouse. He was inspecting some plumping that was recently installed. She knew her father got all of his plumping supplies from the business where her mother did the bookkeeping.

“So, have you decided what you are going to do yet, sweetie?” Connor knew how much his daughter loved running.

“Do you mean after I graduate high school Daddy or about the track and field team?” Talia looks at her father for an answer.

“Both, sweetie.” Connor Talia’s brothers did want to go to college. They liked the jobs they were doing.

“To be honest, daddy. I don’t know what I want to do. My grades are pretty good and my SAT scores from last year were 1540. I was the fifth highest in my grade last year. As for track and field, I don’t know. You know if I run for the boy’s team, it would look weird to have a girl on the team, and if I beat the other boys from other schools, more than likely they or their parents are going to complain that I beat them. It’s a loose, loose situation for me.”

Connor wishes he could do something for his daughter. She trained so hard since junior high to be as fast as she is. Whereas most kids her age would be goofing off or only train at school. She gets up every morning and runs twenty to thirty miles every day. Even when it was raining outside, his daughter would run.

“Well, whatever you decide to do sweetie, you’ll have me and your mom backing you. How would you like some lunch either from the roach coach or the food truck?” Connor figures Talia might be hungry.

“Okay, and thanks daddy.” Talia hugs her father.

“Any time, kiddo.” Connor returns the hug.