The Friday after Thanksgiving is traditionally a day one avoids shopping centers unless one has a specific deal they wish to take advantage of. Not Faith. Faith loved Black Friday, as it’s known – the hustle, the stampede of shoppers – she loved it.

She dragged me to the mall to buy me more clothes. She was not happy with the style she assumed Shelly inflicted on me. She said, “I can’t accept you as my older sister with the conservative clothes you wear.”

“They aren’t conservative.”

“You don’t own a single abdomen revealing top. You have no tight leggings. You have no short shorts. I’m not saying you have to dress like a sex worker. But, you have assets you should be showing off a bit more.”

We traveled the young women’s clothing stores for crop tops, tank tops, corsets and half-corsets, and leggings in stretch fabrics, flowy fabrics, and leather. The first time I tried something on, I came out of the changing booth and asked, “When am I going to wear something like this in Winter?”

“That’s what a coat is for.”

“I’ve never understood freezing your ass off to look hot.”

“Pretend Marc is standing right around that corner over there. Do you want to ask him how you look in that crop top or in a long sleeve Christmas sweater?”

I blushed.

“That’s what I thought. The top’s okay. I don’t like the leggings color on you. Next outfit.”

For several hours and in and out of half a dozen stores, we improved my wardrobe. She paid for most of it. On the way home, she said, “We have to tell Mom and Dad. I can’t keep buying my friend half a wardrobe each season.”

“I know.”

“And what are you going to do about finals in a few weeks? You can’t put Dave’s name on a test and get away with it at my college.”

“Nor mine. Again, I don’t know.”

“With Mom and Dad on your side, they can help you with talking to the school. You probably need a lawyer to help you sort it all out.”

That evening, Faith dragged me into the living room as Mom and Dad were sitting – cuddling? – together on the sofa.

“Mom, Dad, Eve has something to tell you.”

“What is it, Dear?” Mom said, sitting up and giving me her full attention. Dad hit mute on the television remote.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you about who I am,” I said. “I have no idea how to prove this to you but… I’m David.”

Dad laughed. Mom just looked confused. Dad said, “My son was never what I would call curvy, young lady. And you must be a foot shorter than David.”

“I don’t blame you for not believing me. If I hadn’t just spent two months as a woman I wouldn’t believe me either.”

“David’s had a problem that he didn’t tell us about for two months?” Mom said. “Now, I know this some kind of prank. Did Faith put you up to this?”

“She isn’t lying,” Faith said. “Hear her out.”

“It was eight weeks ago, also on a Friday night…” I told them what happened in Shelly’s dorm room and the subsequent few days.

Mom and Dad, mostly Dad, peppered me with questions only Dave could know the answer to. Dad thought I got one wrong, but Mom and Faith confirmed I was right. Mom even asked, “What’s my original hair color?”

Faith and I laughed. “Do you even know? Faith asked me that when she was first told about my change.”

“No,” she said with a chuckle. “I think I’m a dirty blond. But, these days there’s a lot of gray when I don’t keep up with dying it.” She stood up and embraced me. “I believe you, Love.”

“I’m still a bit skeptical. But, if Britney believes you, I believe you.” He stood up and gave me a hug.

“How did Shelly take it?”

“We’re BFFs now.”

“You broke up?”

“She doesn’t feel the same way about me physically.”

“And you?”

I blushed.

“She has a boyfriend,” Faith said.

“Already?” Dad said.

I took out my phone and showed them a few selfies of me and Marc.

“He’s a handsome boy,” Mom said.

“Too good looking,” Dad said. “Have you and Marc…?”

“She doesn’t have to answer that,” Faith said. “If you can ask her, you’ll start asking me.”

“Should I start asking you?”

“Donald!” Mom said.

“I was just curious.”

“I convinced Eve to talk to you because she has a problem,” Faith said. “She isn’t registered for classes and she can’t take Dave’s final exams for him without getting him expelled if she’s caught.”

“Oh, right,” Dad said. “It’s not too late. I’ll call my friend Kerry. She can’t help herself, she’s a contract lawyer. But, she’ll be able to recommend the right lawyer to help us talk to the college.” He left the room to go to his home office.

“You always wanted a second daughter, Mom.”

“Not at the expense of my only son, Eve,” she said. “Are you fully…?”

“I’ve had my period. I’m due for the next one soon.”

“How did that go?”

“Shelly prepared me well.”

“That’s good. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you,” Mom said. “Your make up is amazing.”

“Also Shelly.”

Mom was very understanding and asked me about my studies. She only asked a few questions about Marc. Dad returned shortly.

“It took over five minutes to convince Kerry I wasn’t saying you were transitioning or anything medical like that. She gave me the number of an acquaintance who works in civil rights and identity law. I’ll call them Monday.”

“Just don’t let this become a big national news story,” I said.

“Yes, we want to avoid that. You’ll probably have to meet with this lawyer in their office whenever I can set up a meeting.”

“I know.”

* * *

Saturday morning, Mom was so happy to hear Faith was taking me to a clinic for a gynecological exam. Suffice it to say, it was not as bad as I imagined it could be. It was only terrible. At least I wasn’t a thirteen year old girl my first time. The doctor was very understanding and she prescribed birth control pills. When I told her I didn’t have insurance, she gave me a prescription card to help offset the cost.

Faith and I went to the mall again afterward. We were standing outside a store when a familiar voice called out, “Faith.”

We turned around and saw J.B. approaching. J.B. was my best friend through high school. Faith never really liked him.

“What, J.B.?” She said.

“Is Dave home for the weekend? I haven’t heard from him in a while.”

“Dave couldn’t make it home.”

“That sucks. All his texts are short and boring. Any idea what happened to him? Who’s this cutey?”

“Eve is my cousin,” she said. “Eve, this is J.B., Dave’s friend.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said. He extended his hand and I shook it. I never realized how cute J.B. was. Of course, I was fully aware that he was a bit of a player. His body language now was saying, “check me out.” I said, “Have you known Dave a long time?”

“Since grade school. If you hear from Dave, Faith, tell him I’m hoping to get a phone call from him.”

“Sure, J.B. We gotta go.”

“No prob. B-bye hot stuffs.”

As we walked away, I said, “Is that why you never liked him?”

“I liked him before he started calling me hot stuff.”

“I never noticed it before.”

At home, I spent an hour talking to Marc on the phone. Faith only butted in a little.

Soon, it was Sunday afternoon and Faith was driving me back to campus. “I have to say, Eve. It’s amazing how natural a woman you seem. If I didn’t know you were once Dave I’d never have suspected it.”

“Yay for me embracing my feminine side.”

“I’m serious. You could have hid yourself away, cut your hair, camouflaged yourself in boy clothes, and so on. I don’t know what I would do if I woke up as a bro one morning. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks, Sis. That means a lot.”

“And I got a big sister out of it!”

“And I got to be a big sister.”

I texted Marc as we got close to campus. He was standing outside my dorm as we pulled up. I got out of the car and kissed him immediately.

“Now, I see why you wear such high heels,” Faith said. I was still half a head shorter than Marc in these sky high heels.

“Let me get your bags,” he said. “Is this your sister?”

“Hi, I’m Faith. And you are far too hot.”

He blushed and said nothing as he grabbed my bags from the trunk.

“Don’t embarrass him.”

“What? Do you have a brother?”

“I do. But he’s ten years older and married.”

“Do you have a pic? I want to know if you were the lucky one.”

“Faith!”

He pulled out a pic of his brother and his wife walking a red carpet.

“OMG, is that Anielle Delacroix?”

“Yes, she’s his wife.”

“Da-amn. No pressure, Eve.”

“None at all,” I said.

“I still have another hundred miles to get to my campus,” Faith said. She gave me a hug. “Be good.” She gave Marc a hug and said, “Be good to her.”

“Always.”

She got in her car and drove away as we waved at her. We kissed again. Someone nearby called out, “Get a room.”

“How was your weekend?” I said as we reached my room. Robert wasn’t there yet.

“Good. Anielle’s pregnant, but don’t tell anyone. She’s planning an announcement.”

“Is that their first?”

“Yes. I can’t imagine my brother as a father. Mom and Dad were excited to become grandparents. The baby was all anyone talked about all weekend.”

“Do you want kids? Eventually?”

“Sure, I guess. That’s a weird question for you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” I said. There was an awkward silence.

“Not anything you need to worry about today.”

Robert arrived shortly and that put an end to any idea of another big make out session. After Marc left, Robert said, “I didn’t ruin the mood, did I?”

“That’s all you’re good for.”

“Hey.”

“I’m joking. No, it’s almost that time of the month.”

“Bummer. Isn’t sex supposed to help with cramping?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

I told him about telling the family my secret.

“That’s awesome. Hopefully that lawyer can get things settled.”

Dad and I met with the lawyer on Wednesday. Her name was Micah Peterson. She was in her mid-thirties. She was professionally dressed but her offices had in a bit of a punk vibe. She said, “This is going to be difficult. There’s not any prior law regarding people spontaneously changing gender. Frankly, you look indistinguishable from a normal woman your age. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. On the one hand, it makes it easy to argue for a legal name change. On the other, it makes it almost impossible to get someone to believe you use to be a man. What is the end goal?”

“I’d rather be a man, I think.”

“You think?”

I paused. “I have a boyfriend.”

“Does he know?”

“Yes. He actually figured it out. I showed up when Dave stopped being seen on campus, etc.”

“Smart kid.”

“So, since you have a boyfriend, you’re feeling better about the change?”

“Mostly. I use to have a girlfriend. She calls us BFFs now.”

“Probably the most interesting friend-zoning I’ve ever encountered. Are you seeing a therapist?”

“No.”

“I’ll have my assistant get you the name of a couple therapists who work with gender issues,” she said. “I’ll contact the school and arrange a meeting with the Dean of Students. Hopefully we can get in before finals start. After that we’ll have to play it by ear.”

* * *

The meeting with the Dean took place on Friday. Micah, Dad, Mom, and I met outside his office before going in. Anil Mittal was an older man. His office reflected a refined taste. He had a slight British accent. After introductions he interrupted Micah by starting, “So, this, you are telling me, is David Putnam, second year business major?”

“She calls herself Eve, now,” Micah said.

“And her transition was somehow magical?”

“I prefer to say an unexplained phenomenon,” Micah said.

“Ms Peterson, it is only because your reputation proceeds you that I am not laughing. Mr. Putnam’s files say he is six foot five inches and over two hundred pounds. This woman could not physically be him and yet you swear she is.”

“Yes.”

“This blessed event happened in September?”

“The twenty-ninth,” I said.

“Why did you wait so long to do anything about it?”

“Ms Putnam was hoping it would all go away. When it didn’t, she was afraid no one would believe her.”

“What do you want me to do?”

Micah took some papers from her case. “In the short term, we’d like the university to issue papers saying Eve can take David’s exams coming in the next couple weeks. It would be a shame to have her lose an entire semester. In the long term, we will probably have her name legally changed and we would like David’s records transferred to her.”

“We can discuss the transcript issues after you deal with the name change. As for her finals, she will have to take them separately from the other students. It would be too much of a hassle to allow her to take the exams without ID, fake or not. They will take place here and I will proctor them personally. I will have to get approval from the university president. But, I don’t think he’ll object. So, this is a tentative solution.”

“That sounds like a good solution,” Micah said.

“Thanks, Dean Mittal,” I said.

“If you ever go back to being David, you will inform me immediately,” he said.

I nodded.

In the hallway outside the Dean’s office, Micah said, “That went very well. I’ll work on getting the name change started. That will probably not get anywhere until Spring. Complicating this is your gender change. We will need to find a sympathetic physician since it can only be accomplished with a physician’s sign off. I’m going to call a couple congressmen I know to see if we can mitigate that. It will take time.”

“Thanks for you help,” Dad said.

“It’s what I’m paid to do. And as the Dean said, if you find yourself as David again, call me before you call the Dean.”

“Easy to promise at this point,” I said.

* * *

Marc and I continued to be intimate without reaching home plate. Finals took place a couple weeks after the meeting with the Dean. Taking the exams alone in a corner of his office was weird. It was certainly a lot quieter than sitting in a room with a hundred other students.

Dad came up to campus by train to drive my car back home. Micah was still working on getting me a new driver’s license. Marc had already packed the car before Dad arrived. They shook hands.

“I would have driven her home if she had asked,” Marc said.

“Britney would have loved to meet you.”

“Part of why I didn’t ask him to drive me home, Dad.”

“It’s okay if I meet your boyfriend.”

“You won’t ask me a bunch of questions afterward.”

“I could.”