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Chapter 1
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Grace. Some people walked with it, some people flew with it. Julian barely dreamed with it.

Swimming lessons for P.E. went on, and he sat to the side with his classmates while a girl dove off the high board. It was a beautiful dive. Julian sat in awe.

Of course, the boys sitting around Julian cheered for a different kind of beauty that she too possessed. It was that age where boys started to look at girls a certain way. Julian, however, didn’t care about all of that at the moment.

Their female classmate entered the water, executing a far better dive than the instructors had asked—in fact, they said nothing of any diving and were unhappy to see a student actually putting the diving board to use.

A boy said to Julian, “Hey, what’d you think? She looks good, huh?”

“That was a nice dive.” Julian mused. Compared to most girls, it was wonderful, but, compared to his idol, it was just that. Really nice.

“You’re a weird one, Tanimoto.” The boy got up. “Come on, it’s time for our swimming exercises.”

Weird? Oh, if his classmate only knew. Julian kept a secret from everyone at his school, save for a teacher and a few people working in the office. It was one of two secrets, but being a girl trapped in a boy’s body was the big one that only a select few people knew about.

Julian Tanimoto, at the age of fourteen, had his . . . her first injection nearly two weeks ago. Every time he opened his eyes and looked down, he hoped for the best, but nothing was happening yet. He was still a little, half-Japanese boy in swimming trunks.

And it was still class time.

He sighed, and joined his classmates in the enormous swimming pool. To the side, Julian saw one of the coaches reprimanding the girl, calling her careless and saying that she could have gotten hurt. He felt sorry for her, and the pool water did nothing to wash the feeling away. He could think of only one thing to do.

When it was time to hop in the locker room shower and dress up again for the last couple classes for the day—or lunch for some of the students—Julian hurried his clothes on, and sought out that girl as soon as the first bell rang to let all students out of their classes.

Finding her was easier than he had thought it would be. Approaching her felt like it could have been a mile further away. That didn't stop him from trying. Would any of the best heroes have stopped?

“Excuse me, hey,” said Julian, catching up to her. “Denise, right?

Denise nodded.

“I just wanted to say I liked your dive earlier. I wish I could do that.”

“Really?” she responded. “Yeah, I guess it was pretty cool, even if it wasn’t very good. I just did it without thinking. My folks will probably hear about it and ground me.”

“Why would they ground you?”

“For endangering myself. To them, I’m not even supposed to do more than basic swimming exercises. Sorry, but I have to go to class before the next bell rings. I don’t want my grounding to get any worse.”

“I should probably do the same. I’ll see you around.”

“OK.” Denise started picking up speed.

Julian continued walking toward a corner, feeling more awkward with every step. He wasn’t sure what he said or did, but Julian was certain that it was something that bothered the other girl.

Then she called out toward him after Julian made a turn. “Wait, you, person. I didn’t get your name.”

“It’s Julian.”

“You have class too, right? Then we can talk at lunch. Bye, Jude.” She was gone again before Julian could try to correct her.

Moments passed during his next class when Julian realized that he and Denise hadn’t exactly agreed on a place to meet. Oh well. He supposed that finding her again was going to be his grand adventure for the afternoon.

“There you are,” said Denise.

Julian sat against the shaded wall outside of the indoor pool area. He had hoped that it was the best place to wait and look for Denise, and it seemed like he was right when he saw her smiling at him.

So he smiled back. “Hey there,” he said.

Denise sat next to him, and dug the lunch out of her backpack. Julian grabbed his backpack and did the same. The early September heat did nothing to bother them now.

“How did you learn to dive like that?” he asked.

“It’s a long story.” Denise explained. “My parents wanted me to learn how to swim in case of an emergency, but I’ve watched so many divers out there that, one day, I decided to try it. I failed miserably on my first try, but would have tried again the next week if it wasn’t for school starting when it did.”

“You mean earlier today was your second try?”

“Yeah. I saw an opportunity, and blacked out halfway up that ladder. I only half realized what I did before the coaches were scolding me for it. I’m not half as brave as that. Honest.”

“I don’t think so. That sort of dive takes guts.”

“But I was so scared. I don’t know how I even managed to dive down from there.”

“Would you want to try again someday?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. When my parents find out, I don’t think they’ll even let me. They might blame it on my idol worship of my favorite hero ever.”

“Swan Diva?” Denise shot a friendly glare at Julian. He said, “She’s my favorite too. I wish I could move like she does. I can’t even dive through the air like you do.”

“You’re not like other boys, are you? Most of them either want to be like Arrow or Captain Patriot, or to be with Swan Diva. I don’t think I’ve ever met a boy who wants to be like her.”

“I have a poster with her on my wall. My mom saw it, and said something about me being that age, whatever that means.”

Denise giggled.

She leaned in closer and asked, “Do you like girls, or boys?”

Julian said, “What sort of question to ask is that?” His mom and doctor each asked the same sort of thing to him a number of times before his shot of estrogen.

“Well, who do you see yourself kissing?”

“I don’t know. I never really thought about it.”

“Oh. So, when you caught up with me earlier, you weren’t trying to flirt or anything, you were just paying me a friendly compliment.”

“That’s right.”

Denise nodded for a moment with a look of contemplation. Then she said, “I’m cool with that, but only if you let me dress you up like a girl sometime.”

“You’d do that? Sure. I mean . . . Yeah, if that’s alright with you.”

“You’re serious?”

“What, you weren’t?”

“I was joking before, but now I’m really curious about you.”

“So, you’re not scared that I might like girly things?”

A gust of wind blew past them. Plants rustled. Denise’s smile got more and more twisted. Then she laughed.

“You’re alright, Jude. Judy.”

“It’s Julian. At least for now.”

“Fine, then I’ll call you Judy when you’re wearing girl clothes, or until you decide on a better name. There, it’s decided.”

“What’s with you?”

“I finally made a friend at this school, and he . . . or she . . . is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.”

“Please don’t tell anyone.”

“That you’re interesting?”

“That I’m really a girl trapped in a boy’s body.” Julian felt the full impact of the awkward silence, and wanted to find a place to hide. He didn’t just say that; this wasn’t really happening.

But, Denise just gave him a soft smile and a light nudge with one arm.

“Your secret is safe with me.”

“It . . . It’s what?” asked Julian. “I mean, thank you, but really?”

“Just promise me you aren’t always like this. It’s like you’ve got this mold stuck on you, and it’s up to me to break you out of it.”

“I’m not very good at being outspoken or easy going.”

“Would you like to know a secret? Neither am I. The fact that you ran up to me earlier proves that we both have a way to go. So let’s help each other. Friends?” Denise extended a hand.

“Friends.” Julian accepted the gesture, and shook Denise’s hand.

“Of course, no good friendship is complete without some contest.”

“You’re making that up.”

“I am, but let’s do it anyway. Let’s see who can first meet our idol. How cool would that be?”

“Meeting Swan Diva in person? That would be awesome.”

It only took a few weeks, but the eighth grade finally felt as if it had begun. For once, Julian felt like he could talk to someone about anything.

Sadly, lunch recess was no longer long enough, unlike before when Julian thought it was too long. He and Denise parted to go to their next classes.

It was math. Julian was OK at it, but too many other students, even ones who did better than him, kept asking him for help with their homework before and after class. He often thought about wearing a disguise, like Swan Diva’s full facemask and long white hair, to get people to leave him alone about the subject.

His subject was superheroes, but no one asked him about that, no matter how much they clearly needed to be corrected when heroes and villains were brought up in history or art.

Count Devio did not have fangs, particularly not ones that could bite into Captain Patriot.

Super Califragilistico did not serve expert dishes out of nowhere as a power.

Bunny Girl really did leave fake eggs all over the place, and no one had figured out why yet.

Yes, it was math that people came to Julian for as if his heritage naturally made him the residing superhero of the subject. Today, after such a good time at lunch, he wanted something, anything, to come and save him from the fate of fixing the umpteenth math problem on a paper that would undoubtedly get a higher score than him anyways.

A student ran in panicking and screaming then. The teacher looked like he was about to take disciplinary action even though class hadn’t actually started yet for twenty-odd seconds.

Julian remembered feeling as if that clock on the wall had slowed down.

The student spoke up. “It’s Captain Patriot. In Faultline. He . . . Captain Patriot’s dead.”

Something, anything at all . . . This had to be a cruel joke.