Chapter 1

"Why so glum, Bobby?" Ginny asked. "You look like you've lost your best friend." Virginia, was my older sister. She was 18 and a senior. I was 15. Considering the age and gender difference, we were very close. In a way, I wish we weren't. It would have been easier if she wasn't everything I wanted to be. Pretty, popular, and a girl

"Actually, you're right, I did."

"Oh well, those things happen. No biggie," she consoled me. "Betsy and I," Betsy was Ginny's closest girlfriend, "we have fights all the time. Usually about stupid things, like boys." She laughed. "We make up. I'm sure you and Jeff will too. You've been best friends, like forever." Jeff lived a few houses down the street. Our mothers met at a baby playgroup.

"It's not like that. We're still friends.

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is I don't want him to like me.

"I'm confused."

"So am I." I sighed dejectedly. "I have to tell someone."

"I'm someone."

"If I tell you, you'll hate me."

"I won't hate you."

"What if you do?"

"What if I don't?"

"I love Jeff." I looked at her expectantly.

"Love, like bromance or love like romance?" she asked matter of factly, to my surprise.

"I want him to be my boyfriend."

"That doesn't answer the question," she persisted. "He's a boy and he's your friend. So, do you mean you want to hang out with him or make out with him?

"Make out."

"You're gay?" she asked incredulously.

"No."

"Isn't wanting to kiss another boy gay?"

"If you're another boy, yes."

"We used to take baths together. I have first hand knowledge that you are not my sister."

"I am."

"Where's she been hiding for the last 15 years?"

"Inside me."

"All that time?"

"For as long as I can remember."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"You wouldn't have understood. Neither would Mom or Dad? You would have made fun of me and they, well, I don't know what they would have done. I was afraid to find out."

"Why now?"

"Because I love Jeff and I can't hold it back anymore."

"Well, little sister, this is an interesting development."

"Don't tease me."

"What makes you think I'm teasing."

"You're not?"

"No. I love you. If being a girl makes you happy, than a girl you are."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"You don't mind that I'm transgendered?"

"No. It doubles my wardrobe."

"Seriously. What if your friends find out?"

"If they're my friends, they won't care. If they do, it doesn't matter. I'm going away to college in a few months, anyway. Having a transgendered brother will probably make me the coolest girl on campus. Is that how you say it, transgendered brother? It doesn't sound like they go together."

"Transgendered sister."

"Does she have a name?"

"I'm right here."

"Do you," she emphasized 'you'," have a girl's name?"

"Yes."

"Do you want to tell me?"

"You'll laugh."

"I do wish you'd stop telling me what I will or won't do. So far you've been one hundred percent wrong."

"Sorry."

"No apology necessary. So?"

"It's," I hesitated, "its Jasmine."

"Oh, like the princess in Aladdin? That Jasmine?"

"Yes."

"Well then, since we're short a magic lamp, what shall we do about Jeff?"

"I don't know," I moped.

"Why not just tell him how you feel."

"I'm love sick, not brain damaged. At worst, he'd beat me up for coming on to him. At best, he'd want nothing to do with me for coming out to him. I don't want to lose him."

"Uh huh. Well, we need a Plan B. How about you go to your room, log into Jeff's Facebook page, and wank your wiener. You can worship him from Jafar," she punned.

"Why don't you go wank your own wiener."

"Girls don't have wieners, present company accepted. We have clitorises or clitori, whatever."

"You do have a penis. It's pink and rubber and in a shoe box in the back of your closet."

"Whoa. Who gave you permission to be in my closet?"

"I like your closet better then mine."

"Okay. As my first official act as your big sister, mia closet sua closet." She walked over and put her arms around me. "Now then, enough of our penises, peni, whatever, and back to Plan B."

"What makes you think I haven't already tried Plan B?"

"Mmm, hmm," she nodded. "Plan C then." She stood back and studied me. "Walk over to the TV set."

"Why."

"Just be quiet and do what I tell you. Walk. Stop. Turn around. Put your arms out and turn around again. Turn sideways. Arms up. Bend from your waist and touch your toes."

"Ginny, now is not the time for exercising."

"Trust me."

"I do."

"Good. You've been going at this problem all wrong," she asserted confidently for someone with no experience. "You don't want Jeff to be in love with you. You want him to be in love with Jasmine."

"I am Jasmine."

"Yes, you know it. But Jeff doesn't. He needs to meet her."

"And how do we arrange that?"

"You go on a date."

"What makes you think that Jeff will want to go on a date with me?"

"He won't with you. But he will with Jasmine."

"How do you know he will?"

"He's a boy.

"So am I, through no fault of my own, which brings us back to the problem."

Ginny walked over, took my face in her hand and turned it from side to side. She let go and fussed with my hair. She stood back and nodded approvingly. "You'd be amazed what the right makeup and hairdo can do for a girl. By the time we get through with you, even our own mother won't recognize you."

"Seriously? And who's we?"

"Me and Darla. Her mom owns a beauty salon and day spa. She works there and she's going to beauty school so she can run it someday. She's a wiz with cosmetics and hair."

"No, please. She'll make fun of me."

"No, she won't. I guaranty it."

"Why not?"

"Because she's a lesbian."

"How do you know that? Oh, you and she? You're not, I mean, it's okay, if you are."

"Easy. No, I'm not, but, when we were in middle school she got me to practice for going out on dates. She's actually a heck of a kisser, but girls don't float my boat. We're just friends now."

"Okay."

"So, here's the plan. Mom and Dad are going to his conference in London next month. They're leaving on Wednesday and won't be back until the second Sunday. That gives us ten days for you to seduce Jeff into becoming your boyfriend. If not, then we can go back to Plan B. I'll even let you borrow my pink rubber one if your's gets too sore."

"Ginny, stop!"

"Hey, girl talk. Get used to it. Now listen, over the next few weeks, tell Jeff about your parents going away and how they don't want you home by yourself, so you're going to stay with gram and grandpa. Make a fuss about them not trusting you and its too bad, because you could have a big party. Invite some girls, wink wink. Put the idea in his head. On Thursday after they leave, I'll go over to his house and ask him if he'd help me out. Our cousin is staying with me while they're away. She's his age and your gone, so would he mind taking her out to a movie on Friday night."

"What if you're wrong and he recognizes me?"

"That's a risk you're going to have to take. A broken heart or a broken nose. Your choice, princess.