Sorry this has been a long time coming. Life has really been busy!

Chapter 3
My head seemed like it was spinning on the day we made the decision to "begin the transition" during our meeting with Dr. Van Zandt. There was talk of hormones, school and a ton of other issues.

Avery was included in the meeting since Dr. Van Zandt felt everyone in the household needed to be included in the decision, and in everything that followed. Kelsey whispered to Avery that it seemed like "one of their projects."

I didn't really like being considered a "project."

"That's not what she meant," Avery whispered to me, although the insisted that we keep a video journal of my journey into girlhood.

It all moved pretty fast. There was the trip to the endocrinologist to map out the plan with the hormone blockers and the female hormones.

Then we met with the school administration. I was really fortunate that I went to a private "arts" school. We were informed by our principal, Ms. Marsh, that I wouldn't be the first "transgendered" student at the school. A male-to-female student graduated a couple of years before. And there was a "trans-boy" a grade ahead of me.

I actually knew him, but did not know he had been a genetic female.

"As for as the school is concerned, Reagan is a girl," Ms. Marsh said.

There really would be no major issues, she said, other than the fact that I needed to remember to use the girls restroom from now on.

I rolled my eyes when she said that.

Of course, we went shopping to adjust my wardrobe. I wasn't being totally radical. A few dresses and skirts, yes. But mainly jeans, shorts, t-shirts and a few cute tops that screamed "she's a girl now."

There were a few awkward moments. Kelsey and Avery insisted on documenting my search for the right training bras.

"Oh come on, it's a monumental part of a girl's life," Kelsey insisted.

"Yeah, but do you guys really have to videotape me modeling them?" I asked. I'm pretty sure I was blushing.

I settled on pretty, if somewhat conservative. Both Kelsey and Avery felt they were wise choices.

As for the panties, I just grabbed a pack off the rack and chunked them into the shopping cart. Nothing really short-short or frilly. Just bottoms. And don't get me started on thongs, those are gross.

I had somewhat of a makeover. I got a more of a girl's haircut and style, with highlights. I got my ears pierced and started doing my nails on a somewhat regular basis.

Kelsey and Avery did their best to clue most of the people we knew on my "change."

Most of the people we knew were fairly liberal, so most of the response was pretty positive. There were a few that didn't take it well, more so from extended family, aunts, uncles.

One of the most curious responses came from neighbors we forgot to tell. A girl may age lived across the hall with her mother. She was pretty nerdy, and I thought, somewhat snobby. She and her mother seemed a little strange. She went to a different school, so they weren't clued in.

Her mother found out from a mutual friend and they came over one night to let us know "how supportive" they were.

It was a bit weird, I admit, and I was invited to join Alicia's Girl Scout troop. Alicia and I ended up going to my room while her mom talked with Kelsey and Avery, and believe it or not, we actually hit it off.

She was a computer nerd who wrote poetry, but liked some of the same video games I did. She and her mom were a lot of the hippy side, which would rub off on me, especially after I slept over at her apartment for the first time.

She didn't have a whole lot of friends outside of her Girl Scout troop, but we would become very close friends. We still are.

She was the first person who ever talked to me like boys. And as a girl, she was the first I ever confessed liking boys, too.

As for school, it went fairly OK.

Wardrobe-wise, I really didn't wear anything on those first few days to draw attention to myself. Jeans, t-shirts, non-flashy tops. I worse sneakers. Ocassionally wore my hoodie. It could be cold in that old building.

Relationships were different. Nick Sczpanski had been my best friend since I started going to school there. Like me, he had lost a parent when the towers fell. His father had also been a firefighter.

He really didn't know how to take it, me being a girl. I didn't have a crush on him. He was, at least in my opinion, still just a friend kind of friend.

But he admitted being a little uncomfortable, and we sort of stopped hanging out together. We were still cordial, but things had changed.

One of my other friends, Molly D'ambrosia, became an even closer friend. She had been a punk girl, but still somewhat of an Italian sweetheart.

She found me sobbing in a stairwell after a conversation with Nick on the first day, put her arms around me and told me everything's going to be all right.

"Boys are just hard to understand," She said.

"I know, but it's not like I was wanting to date him or anything," I said as I wiped my tears. "The way he's acting makes me feel like a freak sometimes."

"I can relate," Molly said. "People treat me like a freak because I happen to have purple and pink hair, tattoos and piercings."

There were somewhat humorous sides to the transition at school thing. We are arranged according to voice in chorus. I was moved from a boys' line to a girls' line.

"This is probably where you should have been in the beginning," my chorus teacher said. "But I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

He was right. There were several girls with deeper voices than I was.

And I got kicked out of ballet class ... on the first day!

"How could you possibly get kicked out of ballet?" Kelsey asked. "You love ballet."

"Read the note," Avery said.

"Reagan has been in my class for three years. She knows the dress code. I expect ALL girls to wear black leotards, pink tights and hair neatly in a bun, no EXCEPTIONS. But I will allow her to wear a wrap-around skirt."

"Oops," Kelsey said.

"We didn't think of everything," Avery said.