It Wasn't a Mistake by Tiffany B. Quinn How bad can things get? In his darkest hour, Jerry finds out that his life has been one big character test... And he passed! Jeri finds ways to be productive and finds a new friend.

Chapter Nine: New Employment & A New Friend

It’s now nine months since the accident and I’ve been living full time as a girl for three months. At my last checkup, Mike observed that I’m about 90% female. Because of my physical age and new gender, he has brought in a Pediatrician and a Gynecologist to assist with my weekly monitoring. My penis is essentially gone and my scrotum has started to morph into a set of female vulva. We suspect that a fully functioning vagina is in my near future. I’ve had occasional cramping and an ultrasound shows that I am developing all the appropriate female internal organs. My fever is only slight now and I have only lost two inches in height and twenty six pounds in weight in the last three months. Those pesky Y chromosomes are all but gone now. I am no longer androgynous—I look like a 12 year old girl on the cusp of puberty. I weigh in at ninety pounds and stand a little shorter than five foot two inches. There is no doubt about it—I am becoming a girl. I’m still a little underdeveloped for a girl my apparent age but there is a hint of curves and my bottom is starting to be more rounded. The good news is that the change is slowing.

I’ve worked with my lawyer and medical people to get my legal documents changed to show that I am female since it is pretty obvious where I am heading. I changed my name too—I’m now officially going by the name of Jeri. Since the changes have slowed considerably I decided to get new identification documents (passport and driver’s license) showing me as I am now. I also changed out my credit cards, the deed on the house, my retirement records, college diplomas, etc. The only thing that throws people off is the birth date listed on the documents. Nobody can believe that I’m sixty years old.

Summer has started and I am enjoying a lot more time out of doors. Over the winter, I spent a fair amount of time skiing so I am in pretty good physical shape—for a kid. I’ve taken to mountain biking and hiking in the local mountains. My family is very nervous about my activities as it is not generally considered safe to be out in the woods with bears and moose on the loose even when you are an adult male. Samantha goes with me when she has time off from work and the boys and their wives go with me whenever they can. With my small young body, I can’t keep up with them like I used to but they are patient with me.

I’ve got a lot of time on my hands these days and spend as much of it as I can being active. It is so wonderful feeling young and energetic again!

I have also started to do some online consulting using my old professional skills. I’ve been studying web programming and have developed a couple of commercial educational websites which are starting to get noticed. They bring a little income to add to my savings. I don’t need the money. My retirement income is more than adequate to support me. I just need to keep productive.

A few months ago, I started doing some babysitting. First off, I became the preferred babysitter for my grandkids. It started when Mark and Debbie couldn’t find a sitter for Kimberly one night and asked if I’d help. Pretty soon it became a regular thing. Amanda picked up on it pretty soon and I found myself regularly watching Frank and Warren. One day, Amanda’s neighbor saw me playing with the boys outside and asked me if I was old enough to be babysitting. When I assured her that I was well qualified, she asked what my rate was. I had to grin at that because I was making $60 per hour when I retired—I don’t think she could afford that. Before too long I had become a go-to babysitter for half a dozen families and was starting to turn down jobs frequently. I found that I love working with small children. We would play games together and I would teach them how to work with each other. It was almost like managing an office full of adults.

While I’ve never been one to spend time with friends without Aileen around, it is now virtually impossible to hang out with my old adult acquaintances. It is just too weird being about 12 years old in appearance, hanging out with 50-60 year olds. Neither them nor I know how to break through the weirdness.

The one place where I was weak was in working with my new apparent peer group. My only real interaction with them was at church functions. I met some really nice kids there, but a few not so nice ones as well. None of the kids are what I would call friends. Most of the kids at church—and their parents—know about my past and are not sure what to make of me. I found that I struggled with relating to them on a peer level as they were emotionally and socially at a much different level than I am. The fact that I didn’t go to school with any of them also set me apart from their social groups. When asked about why I didn’t go to school we’d just tell people that I’m being home schooled—which is sort of true: I’m studying web programming on my own.

I’ve gone on a couple of church youth group functions. I have made an effort to be friends with a couple of the 10-12 year old girls—it is little rocky as there is an obvious maturity difference. Add that to the fact that most of them know I was a sixty year old guy not too long ago and it makes it difficult to connect with any of my new age group. Some of their parents aren’t too keen on me, a former male, hanging around with their daughters. I can’t say that I am close with any of the kids.

Tonight I’m going waterskiing with about twenty of the youth. It will be the first time out in my new bathing suit. It is a one piece suit—we must be modest at a church gathering. I am not much to look at as I appear to be your typical preteen girl who only has a hint at curves and no breasts. I don’t think that it will result in making new friends, but everyone will have a pretty good idea of how far the physical changes have really gone.

------< O >------

“This spot taken?” a young female voice asks.

Looking up from my blanket on the beach, I see a cute girl about my apparent age standing there with a towel. She is wearing a swimsuit similar to mine and huge pair of sunglasses. I notice that she is just starting to develop those feminine curves which will start attracting boys as their puberty begins to kick in. There is also a hint of breasts showing through her suit.

“No,” I smile up at her, “Make yourself comfortable.”

“My name is Laurie and I’m twelve,” she informs me as she spreads her towel next to mine. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jeri,“ I reply. “I haven’t seen you around before. Are you new here?” I’m glad that she didn’t ask my age.

“Yeah,” she sighs. “We just moved here a week ago. You been here long?”

“Yeah,” I respond. “Quite a while.” I imagine that she’ll hear the story soon.

“How come you’re hanging out by yourself?” she asks. “It seems that all the fun is happening over there.” She nods over to where the ski boat is picking up a couple of kids.

I sigh. “I don’t fit in all that well.”

It is not like the others are rude or anything, but most of them know about my transition and are not comfortable around me. Also, I still don’t know how to relate to this demographic who are just starting to figure out how life works.

“Why not?” she asks. “You are a cute girl. You should have lots of friends.”

“How come you aren’t over there then?” I ask her.

She shrugs her shoulders. “I get nervous around guys—I get pretty tongue tied around them and blush way too much when I make a fool of myself. I’d rather get to know some girls my age first. You look like you could use a friend.“

We spend the next half hour chatting—well she does most of the chatting. Apparently her father just got a promotion within a State agency and moved here from another part of the State. She wasn’t too clear on what her father does, but from what she could tell me it sounds as if he is working in my old department. How strange. I might have been her father’s boss if I’d not changed. I don’t want to bring that topic up.

She seems to be nervous about starting over again in a new school and making new friends. It sounds as if she left behind a couple of really close friends. Her father has been here for a couple of months but the rest of the family waited until school let out for the summer to join him. She asks me about the school and church groups and seems surprised when I tell her that I don’t attend the school. I tell her that I am studying at home—I just don’t tell her what.

After a while, a couple of other kids who have had their turn with the ski boat, wander over to meet the new girl. I introduce Laurie to the several other girls and a couple of boys that I am familiar with then lay back to watch new connections form. It doesn’t take long for them to out me.

“Hey Laurie,” asks one girl, I think her name is Cindy. “did Jeri tell you that she is really a sixty year old man?”

Until they forget that little bit of information, it is doubtful that I will ever fit in.

Laurie looks at me with surprise. “No way!” she exclaims. “I may be new, but I’m not that stupid. There is no way that Jeri can be sixty years old, much less a guy.”

I sigh. Here goes another potential friendship.

“It’s almost true,” I reluctantly inform her. “I am sixty years old and I USED to be a guy. I am a girl now. No one knows why,” except for me and Sam I don’t tell anyone, “but is probably due to a freak accident I had last summer.”

She stares at me intently. “You are pulling my leg. I don’t buy it. There is no way.”

Several of the other kids emphatically assure her that it is true. I even drag out my latest driver’s license to show her my age. The fact that I even have a driver’s license freaks her out a little. The picture is of a slightly older version of my current self as I have regressed some since the picture was taken. It says that I am female.

“He used to be good friends with my grandparents,” Cindy informs her. “We’ve watched him transform over the last year. It’s freaky.”

“He’s a she now,” one of the boys points out. “and still getting younger, I think”

“Whatever,” Cindy dramatically rolls her eyes. “It’s still freaky.”

Laurie surprises me by giving me a supportive hug. “Poor girl! Now I see why you need a friend. I’m here for you.”

And thus my first peer friendship is launched.

To Be Continued...