Beauty and the Vial: Tested

Chapter 8 ~ Celia and Alex

By Jo Dora Webster

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How will Alex cope with learning what Celia will tell him?

Chapter 8 ~ Celia and Alex

I finally got back to my dorm room at Lamur Preparatory. I was anxious to get here so I could follow Great Aunt Montine's instructions to not read the letter until I was back in my dorm room alone.

Dear Alex, I'm sorry that I failed you and gave you too much a look ahead at what you could be, that I failed to tell you what your problem was and some way to deal with it. You see you were cursed by Erida goddess of hate and war. You have XX chromosomes like females do but Erida turned off the gene that makes a girl develop as a girl and you developed as a boy instead in the womb. You are also a chimera in that the XX genes in your brain were turned on to make you have a female brain. When the Hebrew God gave you a female soul to match your female brain Erida could not make you totally a male.

You know magic is real but so are Gods and Goddesses Like Jehovah, Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite and unfortunately Erida is real too. Dr. Ariel who showed you my fight with Erida is an Avatar of Hera Celia is an avatar of Aphrodite and Zeus. Together with their God and Goddesses they might be able to break the curse and allow you to be permanently turned to your female form by ending the curse on you. If you are really lucky ending the curse on you might end the curse on your immediate family.

I want you to go see with the aid of Dr Ariel who you can find through Lamar Institute a geneticist named Crista Newman that Dr Ariel knows. I think that if you can trust me again by finding out your real genetics then you will know that the rest of what I am telling you is real.

I won't try to deceive you. if you follow the path that I suggest things will get much worse before they get better. You will have to be taken from your parents and placed in a loving home because your parents will abuse you even more than your uncle's family. When Erida has to leave Lamur alone your family will be yours again as you are truly. The road will be rough and treacherous to get there, I love you always, Great Aunt Montine.

If only Great Aunt Montine had told me this before, things might be different for me. From what she told me I am intersex or at least transgender. I need to get the proof of what she is saying into my medical records It's too bad I wasn't a chimera down there too then there would be no doubt that I am intersex. Come to think of it I have a strange scar on my bottom. I could have had both sexes and they robbed me of my female sex. Thankfully Great Aunt Montine let me keep Gail's phone and change the number so I could use it. She put in Dr. Ariel's and Celia's number too. I'll get the ball rolling.

"Hello Dr Ariel this is Alex Megalos. I'm calling about something my Great Aunt Montine wrote to me"

"Hello Alex this is Dr Ariel. What can I help you with?"

"She told me that I have XX chromosomes and that something happened to turn off the genes which would allow me to develop as a female. She also told me that I'm transgender and that I have a female brain. She said that you might know a geneticist that could verify that named Dr Crista Newman. Can you get me in to see her?"

"Of Course! Let me make arrangements and I will call you back to let you know when I can take you. Is that Okay?"

"That's fantastic Dr. Ariel ! I look forward to your call. Good Bye."

"Goodbye."

"Hello Celia this is Alex. Could you come to my dorm room and read this letter that Great Aunt Montine sent to me?"

"Of Course, Alex. I'll be right there. Bye."

I was glad that Celia was coming because I knew that she and Dr. Ariel were my friends. I didn't have to wait long before there was a knock on my door and I let Celia in to my dorm room."

"Celia, this is my great Aunt Montine's letter. Please read it and let me know what you think."

"Of course."

She sat down beside me on my bed and read the letter.

"Everything that she wrote to you is true. I'm sorry that we did not share all of it before now. I have your medical power of attorney so we can get you seen by Dr Crista to check your genetics and her husband Hugh is developing an experimental bran scan that can verify your brain gender. So far as that unusual scar on your bottom they closed your vagina when you were a baby. You are intersex from your medical records. and it was Erida that made them do it."

"Gods and Goddesses exist too? Can we ask them to help me with Erida? "

"They do exist! Of course we can ask. Are you ready to deal with the rest of it?"

"That lifting the curse could turn me into a whole 13 year old girl. I can handle that even if I could not deal with being a woman, now. And if my family is abusive and I get taken away from them and I get foster parents I'll deal with that because I will still have my friends like you and Dr. Ariel."

"If you are sure then we will go through with getting the medical information and also trying to remove Erida's curse on you even if your parents are still under Erida's control?"

"I'm sure. Thank you Celia. I feel like I will be okay now. Thank you for coming."

"My pleasure, Alex. I'll go so you can settle back in and unpack."

Celia left my dorm room. Not a minute had elapsed before Dr Ariel had called me back.

"Alex I talked with the Newman's and they can both see you at the medical building next to the hospital at 9:00 AM. I'll come by at 8:30 AM and pick you up and deliver you back to the school."

"Thank you, Dr. Ariel See you at 8:30 AM tomorrow. Bye!"

I had found out that it was okay for Stephanie to get a phone call from me but it would come out of her daily allotment of 30 minutes of phone calling per day. She especially told me to call when I got back to my dorm so I knew it was really okay for me to call. I felt special that she wanted to use her phone time with me. I wanted to tell her about the science things about the way I was born to see if she would still like me.

"Hello Stephanie this is Alex. Can you talk right now?"

"Now is a good time. My phone times calls so I can stay within my allotted time.

"I found out some things about me that I did not know that my great aunt wrote me about that I'm going to get confirmed by some doctors tomorrow. I am intersex and my parents did away with my female parts on my bottom when I was a baby. I've got XX chromosomes but a gene didn't turn on so I didn't develop as a girl and I have a girl's brain. Is it okay that I'm weird and I might really be a girl?"

"Alex I would love it if you were a girl then you could be my BFF. I don't think that it is weird. You must have some awful parents that they forced you to be a boy and did not wait to see how you would turn out. As for you having a girl's brain, that explains why you are nicer than all the other boys and smarter. I thought that I would never have another BFF like Gail but having you as a BFF would be just as nice. If you were to transition to being a girl have you thought of what your name would be?"

"A name just popped into my head like it was who I was destined to be. My name would be Penelope or Penny for short. I was gonna say Alexis but I think it would be lame to have the same nickname. Everyone would still treat me like a boy calling me Alex. If I'm a girl I would want to be treated like a girl."

"Penny is an awesome name. I guess you found out from your great Aunt because your parents don't want you to be a girl. That's tough!"

"I used to act girly when I was relaxed but after my uncle abused me for being that way, I learned to put on a façade as a boy. You really think you would still like me if I transitioned into becoming a girl?"

"Of course, silly! You may not realize this yet but girls stick together, they cooperate, they help each other. I'd love to be able to teach you the things you need to know about being a girl. You've just got to call me tomorrow after you hear from the doctors to see what you can do about it. Okay?"

"Okay. Could you call me Penny? Just so I could try out having that name?"

"Of course, Penny. I can't wait to get out there so we can talk in person, Penny!

" I miss you more Steph. I'll call tomorrow. Bye Steph!"

"Bye Penny!

My time was slipping away. It was a 3 hour plane ride to Atlanta plus another hour to fly to Lamur and add 2 hours for getting back to eastern time so 6 hours were taken up flying besides the hour that the train trip took getting to the airport and 2 hours to get through security. I quickly put away the things out of my suitcases and by that time it was time to go to bed. I set my alarm for in the morning so I could get ready to go to the doctor tomorrow. I got ready for bed and into my PJ's . I turned down the covers and snuggled into bed. Before long I was asleep