Beauty and the Vial: Tested

Chapter 9 ~ Ariel and Alex

By Jo Dora Webster

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

Chapter 9 ~ Ariel and Alex

Dr. Ariel came to my Dorm Room at 8:30 AM as promised and I was up dressed and ready to go with her. We arrived with fifteen minutes to spare for our 9 AM appointment and Dr. Crista Newman issued us into her office herself early. She took a swab of the inside of my mouth and then led us down the hall to a combination Lab and computing facility. She ran the sample herself. After a bit of number crunching a report with the results came out. We went back to her office before getting the results.

"We have confirmation of the information that your Great Aunt had from her sources. First you have XX chromosomes in your body. Second the genes that should have had you developing as a female in utero were turned off. Third, a medical records search for you confirms that you did have a set of female genitals which were removed when you were a baby. That's about all that I can tell you. We'll have to wait for you to see my husband, Dr Hugh Newman to confirm at least that you have a female brain. To confirm that you are a chimera would take sampling at least brain tissue and that procedure is not warranted at this time. It would give you peace of mind but not contribute anything for your treatment. You are intersex. Therefore if you decided to go ahead with correction to female norms HRT plus GCS would be prescribed. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Thank you doctor, I have no questions. I'm glad that you have diagnosed me as intersex and that everything that my Great Aunt told me has been confirmed. Dr. Ariel is there anything you would like to ask or comment upon?"

"I just want to thank you for coming in early today to see us Dr. Crista. Your input has been invaluable in getting us going in the right direction to help Alex."

"Have you thought of a female name yet, Alex?"

"Penelope or Penny to my friends, Dr Crista. Thank you so much for taking such good care of me."

" I'll take you down now to my husband's office and lab on the next floor up"

"We followed Dr. Crista upstairs and she led us to Dr. Hugh's door before returning back downstairs. When we went through the door, Dr. Hugh greeted us and he took us directly into the laboratory where there was a non standard especially enhanced MRI machine that Dr. Hugh had customized to do 3-D high resolution scans of the brain. I laid down on the MRI platform at Dr. Hugh's direction and was pulled into the machine on my back. I was in there a slightly longer time than a conventional MRI but soon I was pulled out of the MRI and was directed to get up so I did.

"Let's go back to my office where we can review your brain scan together."

We went back to Dr. Hugh's office where we saw a brain scan projected as a hologram.

"What we see projected is your brain, Penny, which is a female brain. We know it is a female brain because it lacks the area which males have which is the seat of aggression. When we have enough data, I'll publish my findings and then this test will be accepted as the definitive way to diagnose gender variant patients. Until then it's just experimental but I have high confidence that everything will be proven to the satisfaction of the scientific community."

"Wow. Thank you Doctor! I never imagined that I would get such dramatic confirmation that I am a girl. I am just floored!"

"Thank you Doctor, If there is anything that either I or Lamur Institute can do for you, just ask. We are in your debt for seeing us this quickly and using your equipment to help Penny."

"Of course. It was my pleasure. Thank you for coming to see me."

We left Dr. Hugh's office and Dr. Ariel took me back to my dorm room. It was 11 AM here so I knew that Great Aunt Montine would be up in Denver and that we needed to talk on the phone.

"Hello, Great Aunt Montine, It's me!"

"Is that you Alex?"

"You were right Aunt Montine, I am a girl. Two doctors confirmed it this morning, I'm intersex with a girl's brain. I'd decided to call myself Penelope and Penny to you and my friends. My family besides you are filled up with Erida's hatred towards me so they will never accept me."

"Penny the real question is if you accept yourself?"

"I do, Aunt Montine, I do! So much so that I am going to ask Dr. Ariel and Lia if they will entreat Hera and Aphrodite to unite to break Erida's curse on me and for me to become the 13 year old girl I should have always been."

"I know that I overdid it now turning you into adult women. Do you forgive me, Penny?"

"Always Aunt Montine. I never want anything to come between us. I'm sorry I got so cross with you. I didn't understand that my parents would still love me as Penny except they had been poisoned with Erida's hatred. Do you really think that it is possible for them to be free of Erida's Hatred?"

"All things are possible, Penny, only believe."

"I do believe. I do believe. With your love and the support of my friends, I'll get through the hard times. Great Aunt Montine, is it okay if I tell Stephanie about me being Gail Adella. I would just say it was magic without giving away the secret of the magic. Stephanie says that when I'm a girl we could be BFF's BFF's should tell as much of the truth as they can. Even though I feel like there is more to it, all I really know is that it is magic. Is it okay if I tell her it was magic?"

"You must swear her to secrecy first but you can tell her that you were Gail Adella and say only that it was magic. I am proud of you Penny for wanting to share this with Stephanie. Don't be alarmed if she starts out by feeling betrayed that you did not tell her sooner about it . I feel that she will come around especially with her wanting to help you become the best Penny that you can be."

"Hopefully next time I see you in person, I'll be released from the curse and I will already be Penny for real. We can have a great time together and we won't need any magic because I'll already be my true self."

"I'll look forward to that visit Penny. We'll just forget about the magic until you are ready to learn about it. You will follow in my footsteps as a priestess of Aphrodite just as women in our heritage have done for generations. It will give me great pleasure to give my birth rite to you."

"Thank you Aunt Montine. I am so glad we made up. Now I know that just like before when I think of you it will only be happy thoughts and the great love we have for each other. I love you. Good bye, Great Aunt Montine"

"I love you, too, Penny. Good bye!"

I noticed that there was a message on my phone when I got off the line with my aunt. I heard beeps but I wasn't sure it was another call till it was too late. I retrieved the message and it was from Stephanie.

"Hi Penny, I just love calling you that, please send me a message when you get this and I will pick it up the next time I am able. You already know that going from Denver to Lamur involves a whole day's worth of travel and this is my parent's and my travel day. I can't wait to see you tomorrow in person again. Please tell me all about the doctors and what they found out about you. I've got my fingers crossed that you will be a real girl like I am. We'll have so much fun as BFF's. Let's make arrangements tomorrow morning to meet in person. I love you Penny. Bye Bye"

I thought a little bit on just what I wanted to say to Stephanie. Once I had got my message composed, I called and got her voicemail as the two of us suspected.

"Hi Stephanie. Tag you're it! I'm being silly. Anyway the doctors confirmed everything my Aunt told me. I got a brain scan and I do have a girl's brain. My DNA sample said that I am 'XX' with genes turned off so I would appear to be a boy. My parents had the doctors take away the girls parts I had on my bottom as a infant. All in all that confirms that I am an Intersex girl. I had a fight with Aunt Montine before we left. She tried to let me know that I was a girl then but I would not hear of it cause my parents would literally disown me if I were a girl. We had a nice long discussion on the phone and made up. She's even calling me Penny like the Doctors and my friends are now doing. Life is good for now. Anyway I'll call you tomorrow to set a time and place for us to meet up. I love you Stephanie. Bye Bye!"

I was trying to decide what I wanted to do next when there was a knock on my dorm room door. I answered it and it was Celia and I invited her to come in. We sat down together on my bed and we began to talk.

"Penny, you missed breakfast, I've come to take you to lunch. I know that you have had a full morning but you don't need to skip meals."

"Before we go could I ask you a couple of things? Did you get a report from the Doctors on me?"

"Sure, Penny, you can ask. The Doctors proved out everything that your aunt told you. You are an intersex girl. What else?"

"Aunt Montine and I made up on the phone today. She told me I could tell Stephanie when she gets here tomorrow that I was Gail Adella. I was hoping that I could do it at our special place so she could see my true self and realize that magic is real at the same time, Please?"

"Swear her to secrecy just like you will before you tell her about your aunt's magic and you can take her there. I'll allow the cave to show its magic to her just like it shows it to you. Anything else?"

"When can you and Dr. Ariel set up an audience with Hera and Aphrodite so I can petition them to have the curse removed from me?"

"We can arrange it day after tomorrow. It will be in Hera's inner sanctum in Her shrine since she is Aphrodite's Mother but Aphrodite will be there too since you will take over for your Aunt as Aphrodite's priestess. You will need to set up a full shrine to Aphrodite here at Agape Duro to take the place of Aphrodite's shrine in Denver when your Aunt passes on. You will have much work to do and you will need a special place to do it. Don't worry Aphrodite will provide what you need to make the shrine."

"Do you know where I will be placed with foster parents when my parents disown me and abuse me once I am physically Penny?"

"How would you like to have the Newman's (The Doctors that you saw this morning) be your foster parents? They just got approved of for being Foster parents but they haven't had any children placed with them yet. They have one daughter named Julia, Julie to her friends, who is a rising Sophomore at Lamur Institute.

" I would love that. Would they keep me here at Lamur Preparatory?"

"You would not have to change schools and you would be coming home to then on the weekends and holidays instead of staying here all the time like you do now" One last thing for after lunch. You should pack your personal items up for after you have your audience with the Goddesses. You will be a real girl then and you'll have to move to the girl's dorm. Instead of having a single room you will be sharing with Stephanie. Stephanie has been offered a scholarship like yours so she can attend school with you."

"That's great news Celia that Stephanie will be with me and we'll share a dorm room when fall term begins. I guess I'm ready for lunch now. May we go?"

"Let's go to lunch!"

We left the dorm room and went to the faculty cafeteria where all the students and teachers left on campus ate their meals. Lunch was fantastic the way it always was whether in the student or faculty cafeterias. After lunch I got ready for my pep band class which I had as an activity year round when I was here. Next I had an hour in the computer lab. I loved to program and I was working on my very own MMORPG. I had a great idea for it that was not available anywhere yet and that's saying something. Next I had gymnastics in the gym and lastly I had Jazz Dance in the Dance studio. Supper time was next and I had supper again sitting with Celia.

"I see you made all your drop in classes this afternoon, Penny. Don't forget that they are drop in classes and attendance is not required. You will be very busy tomorrow showing Stephanie around campus and taking her to see our special place. You will be busy with your audience with the goddesses the next day and if all goes well you will be busy shopping for a new wardrobe and trading in your uniforms for the proper ones for you going forward. Please don't burn yourself out trying to do everything at once. You are on vacation and you can take time off when you need it from your studies."

"Wow! I didn't realize it but you are correct of course. I'll make sure I'm all packed after supper so that will be taken care of already while I am so busy the next few days."

"I've had empty boxes delivered to your dorm room. Please label things with Alexander's non school clothes and Alexander's uniforms so the uniforms can be put back into stock and your old clothes put into storage in case your parents want them. If they don't call for them we will donate them. That should allow plenty of room for your other stuff to be packed in your suitcases since you won't have to pack any clothes. I'll make sure your new uniforms will be hanging in your closet in your new dorm room so you'll have something to wear till you get to go shopping."

"Good night, Celia. I'm off to get packing and on to bed."

"Goodnight, Penny. Pleasant dreams. "

I arrived at my dorm room and started packing up my clothes that were not my school uniforms and the underwear that went with them. I found the boxes and labeled them by what they contained. Those boxes I sealed. I even had PJs assigned as part of my school items so I was set . I packed my excess uniforms up but left those boxes unsealed just in case I used more uniforms than I planned on using for the next few days. The rest of my items packing went smoothly and of course if I needed any of those Items I could dip back into my suitcases, only leaving out my toiletries to be packed in my toiletry bag at the end. Toiletries were also provided by the school so I knew that at the end I could trash anything inappropriate for the new me and know that they would be replaced in my new dorm room.

When I finished up packing it was indeed time for bed. I looked forward to spending the day tomorrow with Stephanie. I resolved to make our trip to the special place first so that I could tell Stephanie about me as soon as possible. With that decision behind me I soon fell asleep upon getting ready and entering bed.