For the next few days, Rachel kept going to school and working with Jesse as her lab partner. It felt weird, since she knew him so well and he didn't know her (or so he thought), but their interactions were mostly good. There was one incident where Rachel felt like she'd slightly annoyed Jesse, but he seemed to have gotten over it by the end of class.

The next week, however, things were different. When Rachel got to her Science class, the teacher Mrs. McLain had an announcement. "Okay, everyone," she said, "Today's the first day of our Sex Ed unit. And you know what that means."

"Oh yeah," said Jesse. "We're all gonna be separated."

"That's right, Mr. Pindle," said Mrs. McLain. "All the boys are gonna go down to Mr. Blake's classroom, and the girls are gonna gather here."

A sex ed unit? Oh boy. Rachel had gotten "the talk" from her parents, but since she'd been male at that point, it was from a "boy" perspective. From a "girl" perspective, she wasn't sure what to expect. Well, she knew the basic stuff, but not a lot more than that.

As the boys were clearing out of Mrs. McLain's classroom, some more girls came in and sat in their seats. Once everyone had settled in, Mrs. McLain addressed the girls. "Hello, ladies," she said. "This is the first day of our sex ed unit. I would like to remind you that you are not to talk about anything you learn here with boys."

"Why not?" said a girl sitting diagonally across from Rachel. "Why do we have to be separated into two groups?"

"Because that is how the curriculum works," Mrs. McLain said simply.

"But what about trans kids?" Rachel asked. "Or...what if we already know about the 'boy' stuff?"

"We're just doing what the school board wants us to do," said Mrs. McLain. "And they also want us to show you this educational video about puberty." She hooked her computer up to the classroom's projector and started playing the sex ed video.

The video started with a title card reading "Girls' Big Changes" before fading into a blank blue screen. A white, animated cartoon character with a long cylindrical body, a smiley face, and spindly stick figure-like legs pranced onto the screen. "Hi!" the character said in a peppy, feminine voice. "I'm Tammy the Tampon! And I'm going to teach you all about menstruation!"

"Tammy the Tampon?" Rachel groaned. What were these people thinking? Were they just trying to turn her and her classmates off? Of course she knew what a tampon was, but a walking, talking cartoon one? It was too cringey for words.

Unfortunately, the anthropomorphic tampon was just the tip of the iceberg. The video talked a lot about breast development, PMS, menstruation, pubic hair, and-erp!-sex. All throughout the video, Rachel felt disgusted and uncomfortable. She'd barely gotten used to wearing a bra all the time, and the idea of having to wear pads in her underwear-or, worse yet, stick a tampon inside of her-was just too much to handle. She wished more than anything that she could go back to being a boy, where the worst she had to worry about was a wet dream every once in a while.

Rachel sighed in relief when the video was over. "Thank goodness," she said to herself.

"Well, I hope you all learned something," Mrs. McLain said as she turned off the projector. "Tomorrow we're gonna start looking at each aspect of puberty in more detail. But remember, you're not allowed to tell any of your boy friends about anything we talk about. And they're not allowed to tell you about what they learn, either."

***

The next day in Third Period, there was an assembly. Rachel went with her English class to the multi-use room where the school always held its assemblies. At first, she wasn't sure what the assembly was for. But when she entered the multi-use room, she had a nasty surprise. Hanging on the wall above the stage was a picture of her-or, more accurately, him. The picture showed Randy standing at the school's front gate with his backpack, looking really happy and excited about school. Rachel remembered that picture. He'd taken that picture for the yearbook at the start of the school year.

When everyone had taken their seat, the student body president Fiona Guzman came up onto the stage. "Good morning, everyone," she said gravely. "We are all here today to honor a classmate who died recently. Randy Miller was a sixth-grader at our school who had a lot of promise. He was very talented, and he was very outgoing. All of his teachers felt he was on the road that led to a successful future. But a couple weeks ago, he and his family died in a house fire."

Several of the kids surrounding Rachel were starting to cry. Rachel was crying, too-but for different reasons. This was her that Fiona was talking about. Fiona was spreading the story that Randy had died the same night as the rest of the Millers did. Rachel knew that wasn't true-she had survived, and been adopted by Ruth, and turned into a girl because Pretty And Pink didn't allow boys. But since nobody knew, the cover story was that she was dead. It hurt her to know that, even though she was there, everyone else thought she'd died.

"Randy's best friend, Jesse Pindle, has kindly volunteered to share some words," said Fiona.

Fiona stepped aside to allow Jesse to come onto the stage and stand before the crowd with a microphone. "Yeah, I knew Randy," said Jesse. "He and I met in Third Grade at Redhouse Elementary School. At the time, I didn't have many friends, but that changed when Randy invited me for a playdate. I went over to his house, and we had a lot of fun playing together. Many more playdates followed, and we grew closer. So much that after we graduated elementary school, I went with him and his family on a trip to the Caribbean."

Rachel remembered that. She and Jesse had shared a room in the rental house her family had rented out. The trip was probably one of the highlights of her life.

"He and I had several classes together here. Randy was even my lab partner in Science. But then, when I got back from my cruise last week, and I heard about the fire..." Jesse's voice cracked. "I couldn't believe what I heard. I went to Randy's house, hoping it wasn't true, but it was. The Millers' house was just a pile of ashes. The police even showed me Randy's death certificate."

Jesse tried his best to hold back his tears as he continued. "I miss Randy," he sobbed. "He...he was a good friend. Not just to me, but to everyone. Losing him has been a huge blow to all of us. But to everyone he knew, and touched...he will still live on in our hearts." Jesse bowed in sorrow and walked off the stage.

"Thank you, Jesse," said Fiona. "Thank you, everyone, for coming to remember our classmate and friend. Randy, if you're watching down on us from Heaven...we miss you."

"But I'm here," Rachel murmured to herself. It hurt so much to see her best friend grieving for her "death." She appreciated hearing the nice things Jesse said about her, but at the same time...Jesse was her best friend. Surely he had a right to know the truth.

As everyone was filing out of the multi-use room, Rachel looked to see if she could catch Jesse on her way out. She ended up running into him right as she was going back into the school's hallway. "Oh...hey Rachel," Jesse said, barely giving her a sideways glance.

For a few seconds, Rachel just stood there, unsure of how to react. "Hey Jesse!" she called.

Jesse turned her way. "What?"

"It's me!"

"What are you talking about?"

Rachel's face fell. She had not thought this through very well. "I was just...nothing."

"Whatever," said Jesse.

Rachel felt worse than she had at any point in the multi-use room. How was she going to tell Jesse the truth about herself?

To be continued...