Talia reaches from under her blankets as the alarm on her cell phone starts playing Walking On Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves. She presses the snooze button on her cell phone and retracts her hand back under the blankets. She really didn’t want to get out of bed.

Lately, there has been complaints about her being on the girls track team. Other high schools in the area have refused to compete against her. They were calling it unfair because she wasn’t born a female according to the new rules coming out of Washington D.C. and from her State Government.

She doesn’t know why she still gets up every morning to run. When Talia hears her cell phone start playing Walking On Sunshine again. She turns it off and gets out of bed. She takes her night clothes off and brushes her long dirty blonde hair. She puts it into a high ponytail and puts on her jogging clothes.

She grabs her earbuds and put them in her ears. She selects her favorite music list to listen to while she is jogging. She stuffs her credit card into her cell phone holder and leaves the house. She shivers from the cool morning air as she begins her thirty-mile run. She normally alternates how far she runs each morning.

Talia listens to the music and tries to get the conversation that she had with her coach out of her head. She either had a choice of running for the boy’s team or give up the sport. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

She knew she could beat several boys from the other high schools with her eyes closed. They weren’t a match for her. She bets that if she did run and beat them. They would complain about it or come after her like they did when she first started coming out while attending junior high.

The first few weeks of school had been name calling and some light bulling. Later on, a group of guys she knew since elementary school, started picking on her. They broke into her locker and tossed everything, then when they had gym class, her male gym teacher refused her to change with the girls. So, he made her change in the boy’s locker room, but away from everyone.

While they were out on the floor doing their exercises and goofing off. One of the guys came back and sprayed her clothes with lighter fluid. He didn’t set them on fire, but she couldn’t wear them because of the fumes coming off them.

Her parents ended coming up to the school and all hell broke out. Her parents weren’t going to put up with her being bullied. After that incident, she overheard her gym teacher telling another teacher that she brought it upon herself.

She found out later from placing bugs in all her classes, that some of her teachers felt the same way as her gym teacher. They felt that if you were born a boy, you were a boy. If you were born a girl, you were a girl. It didn’t matter how you felt or how your sexual organs were. You would never be the opposite gender in their eyes.

One teacher even said as much. No matter how many surgeries you have, a boy will never be a girl and vice-verse. You were either a boy or a girl, period.

Members of the local city government and the new school board members elected felt the same way. Her parents wish they could move to let her be free of these backwaters’ ideas, but there wasn’t anything they could do. They were still paying on their mortgage and her father had his construction business, that was doing really well.

So, the only thing she could do was just put up with the new rules and regulations. She concentrates on her running and by the time she is done running. Talia stops at the local convenience store and purchases an apple fritter and a cold bottle of milk.

There was a park nearby and it had benches where you could seat down and enjoy the scenery. Talia walks over to the benches and sits down to eat her pastry and drink her milk. While she is sitting there watching the cars go by.

By the time Talia is done eating her pastry and drinking her milk. She tosses her trash away in a nearby trashcan and brushes her hands off. She takes a wet napkin out of her pocket and clean her hands from the stickiness from the apple fritter. She tosses the napkin into the trash can and jogs back to her house.

When Talia arrives back home, she heads upstairs to her bedroom and strip out of her running clothes. She walks across the hall from her bedroom and into the bathroom in her birthday suit. Her parents were at work and her two older brothers were at work. One was a tow truck driver for a local garage, while the other one was a welder for her father’s construction company.

Her mother worked for a local plumbing store as their book keeper. She also did the books for their father’s construction company. Sometimes she would help out on the construction site. She learned how to use a hammer and operate some of the bulldozers and backhoes.

She takes a shower and wash her long dirty blonde hair. She still couldn’t get over how useless her testicles were. The last time she had a physical in order to stay on the team. Her testosterone levels were extremely low, but her estrogen levels were a little high.

The doctor she had wasn’t sure why her levels were so unusual. He also didn’t understand why she didn’t have erections like the other boys in her school. When she goes to wash her chest, she notices her chest felt weird. There was a slight bump under her nipple. She’ll have to ask her mother about it later.

When Talia gets out of the shower, she blows dries her long hair. She didn’t like letting it air dry, because it caused to many tangles. Even with the conditioner she used on it, it still caused her hair to tangle.

Since Talia had the day to herself. She goes downstairs to the garage wearing a pair of faded denim coveralls with paint stains on it to silk screen some more t-shirts. Some of the kids at school liked her silk screening and placed orders with her.

She goes to work, doing the screen images they want. Sure, they could order them online and maybe get a cheaper price. However, they could get them from her within a day or so. Also, there were restrictions on what the companies online would print on the shirts, hoodies, and other items they want order.

She works until she gets all the orders that came in done. Once they were done and drying. She packages all the orders and set them inside a cardboard box to take to school next week. Since school was out for Spring Break. She still had time to decide what she was going to do.

Talia washes her hands and put everything away. She was happy her father expanded the garage to give her a space to setup all her silk-screening equipment. She heads into the house and heat up some barbecue her father made. It was her father’s favorite past time.

She heats up some tatter tots to go with the barbecue. She could have had the left over potato salad her mother made, but she wanted something different. She does heat up some of the seasoned green beans.

Talia turns on the television set in the kitchen and watches the news. She had to do a report for her government class about current political policies going on this week. So, far she had five pages written for her report. The thing is, she only had to write a five-thousand-word report.

She always did more than she was suppose to do. Her government teacher sometimes hated when she did more. She wishes the high school she attended had better teachers. Not all of them were bad, but the majority of them were.

After lunch, Talia puts her dirty dishes away and grab her laptop to work on her paper for her government class. She wanted to work on it, while the information was still fresh in her head. She plays her favorite music while she adds to her report. She makes sure she cites where she got the information, so her teacher doesn’t deduce points off her grade.

After Talia is done working on her report. She submits it to her teachers email account like the class was instructed to do. She makes sure everything was correct before pressing send.

Talia gets up the next morning and gets ready for her run. This morning, she wasn’t taking the same route she took yesterday morning. Today, she takes a different route and runs only twenty miles, instead of her standard thirty miles.

The route she took, was more scenic, quieter, and less busy in the morning. She enjoys the route as she jogs. She was slowly warming up from her jogging. The weather when she started her jog was cool, but it was slowly getting warmer.

By the time she arrived back home, her mother was pulling out of the driveway. She waves to her mother as she passes her. By the time Talia walked into the house, she was feeling a little hungry.

Talia opens the refrigerator and grabs the small bowl of fruit. She also grabs some cream to pour on top of it. She sits at the counter turns the television on and flips through the channels. Nothing catches her attention, so she turns the television off and eats her breakfast.

After Talia is done eating breakfast and has put her dirty dishes away. She heads upstairs and takes a shower. Since she had her schoolwork done and submitted. She had the rest of the day to either goof off or find something to do.

Since she didn’t really feel like goofing off. She grabs the box of silk-screening shirts and hoodies she did and mounts them on her scooter. She knew where most of the people who placed orders with her lived. She knew that they had jobs, so they should be home.

Talia grabs her helmet and puts it on. She doubles checks the box to make sure it was secured, before mounting her scooter and starting it. She wanted to get an all-electric scooter, but the one the scooter store had was out of her price range. The gas-powered one was cheaper and easy to take care of.

Talia closes the garage door behind her as she drives off to make her deliveries. The first few deliveries were nearby and the person she was looking for was home. As Talia makes her deliveries, she passes by one of her teacher's houses. She spotted Mr. Jenkins outside cutting his lawn. She waves to him as she drives past his place.

By the time she gets to her last delivery, she spots Ava outside in a thong bikini. She shakes her head as she enters the backyard “You know Ava, you’re going to be the darkest person on the track and field team this year.”

Ava looks towards Talia when she hears her voice. She has always liked Talia and didn’t have a problem with her being on the girl’s track and field team. She knew Talia was always polite and never did anything to make the other girls feel uncomfortable. She hated the fact that Talia was being forced to choose to either give up running or join the boy’s track and field team.

“I know, Talia.” Ava sits up and accepts the order of t-shirts and the two hoodies she ordered from Talia.

She looked at them and liked what Talia did to them. She folds them back up and places them back in the bag they had been brought in. She looks up at Talia “Have you decided what you are going to do, yet?”

“No, and I hate that the school board, the city government, and our state are making me do this.” Talia sits down on the other lounger next to Ava’s.

“Well, me and the other girls think it sucks that they are doing this to you. You’ve never done anything to us or the girls from the other school. If nothing else, I know you have been letting other girls who have competed against you win.” Ava and several other girls on their school’s field and track team have noticed that sometimes Talia has been letting other girls she competed against win. They knew how fast Talia was from practice and knew she could easily beat the other girls.

Talia was a little taken aback that Ava and some of the other girls on her track-field team realized that she had been holding back against their competitors. She tried to be fair and let some of the other girls from the schools they competed against win a few meets.

“When did you guys realize what I was doing?” Talia watches Ava’s facial expressions.

“Midway through the year, last year. We know how fast you are and how during practice you always try to let everyone who runs against you win or come close to winning.”

“And it didn’t bother you?” Talia was shocked about that.

“Nope, we saw how hard you trained and knew you did it to encourage us to improve ourselves. Also, to let the rumors other people spew about you having an unfair advantage be proven wrong. I don’t care if you were born one gender, but identify as being female. He’ll I’ve known you since elementary school and I still think you are a girl, because you have never acted like any of your brothers or the guys we go to school with.” Ava knew Talia loved dressing up and preferred girlie movies over the macho movies/action movies that guys like.

“Thanks, Ava, that means a lot to me.”

“Hey, if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.” Ava hugs Talia.

“Thanks.” Talia returned the hug and was glad Ava was a nice person.

Talia knew there were a few girls in her high school who hated her. She was more girlie than they were. Talia stands up and leaves Ava’s backyard.

Since she was done with her deliveries, Talia decided to ride over to her father’s construction site to see how he was doing. She knew her father was in the process of building two new warehouses for a manufacturer that was bringing twelve hundred new jobs to the area. Their city and state governments were giving the new company a bunch of tax cuts for building their warehouses here in West Lakedsor.

By the time Talia arrives at the construction site. Her fuel gauge showed that it was getting low. Luckily there was a gas station nearby where she could refuel. She spots her father’s pickup truck parked at the construction trailer. She parks her scooter near her father’s truck and places her helmet on the seat.

Talia walks up the steps of the construction trailer and knocks on the door before entering.

“It’s open.”

Talia hears a strong male voice answer to her knocking. She opens the door walks into the trailer and spots the foreman who works for her father sitting at his desk eating a sandwich. She closes the door behind her.

“Good morning, Mr. Sherman. Is my father around?” Talia knew Mr. Sherman normally took an early lunch.

“He’s out on the site doing an inspection. What brings you by here, Talia?” Eddie looked at Talia as she stood by the trailer door. He knew she wasn’t born female, but identified as one.

He didn’t have a problem with transgender people. The ones he did have a problem with, were the ones who pretended they were a different sex, just to have access to women’s locker room and bathroom to spy on the women.

“I was nearby and thought it would be nice to see my father. I hope I’m not being a bother.”

“You’re not being a bother. You’ll find your father in warehouse one. He’s looking at a spot where some machinery is to be installed. The inspector
is supposed to be out here soon to inspect it.”

“Thanks, Mr. Sherman.” Talia turns to leave.

“If you’re going to the warehouse, put a hard hat on, Talia.” Eddie knew it was the rule on the site.

“I will, Mr. Sherman.” Talia steps outside and walks over to her father’s truck to grab the spare hard hat he keeps in the truck. Her hard hit was back home. It was pink and had butterflies and birds silk screened on it.

Talia makes her way towards the warehouse where her father is. Several men wave to her or call out her name. She waves back to them as she walks into the warehouse. She figures her brother must be over at the other warehouse doing some welding. She saw sparks when she walked into the building.

Talia looks around and finally spots her father talking with two other men. She didn’t know their names, or who they were. She approaches her father slowly.

Connor was busy talking to some men when he spotted Talia walking towards him. He wondered what she wanted because she normally didn’t like coming to any of the construction sites he and her brother worked at. He feels her stand next to him, while he still talks to the two gentlemen from the company he was working for.

After the two men finished talking and walked away, Conner looked at Talia “So, what brings you up here, sweetheart?”

“I was nearby and wanted to see my father.” Talia hugs her father.

“Well, it’s good to see you as well, sweetie.” Connor returns the hug. He hasn’t had time to spend with his daughter since her vacation started.

Talia was normally gone for her morning runs before he and her mother got out of bed. It was rare for her to be back by the time they left the house. Also, when they got home in the evening, they were too tired after dinner to spend time with her.

“Walk with me, sweetie.” Connor had a few more things to inspect at the site.

“Okay, daddy.” Talia likes spending time with her father. She didn’t like working at a construction site like her brothers did.

Talia walks with her father as he heads toward another part of the warehouse. He was inspecting some plumping that was recently installed. She knew her father got all of his plumping supplies from the business where her mother did the bookkeeping.

“So, have you decided what you are going to do yet, sweetie?” Connor knew how much his daughter loved running.

“Do you mean after I graduate high school Daddy or about the track and field team?” Talia looks at her father for an answer.

“Both, sweetie.” Connor Talia’s brothers did want to go to college. They liked the jobs they were doing.

“To be honest, daddy. I don’t know what I want to do. My grades are pretty good and my SAT scores from last year were 1540. I was the fifth highest in my grade last year. As for track and field, I don’t know. You know if I run for the boy’s team, it would look weird to have a girl on the team, and if I beat the other boys from other schools, more than likely they or their parents are going to complain that I beat them. It’s a loose, loose situation for me.”

Connor wishes he could do something for his daughter. She trained so hard since junior high to be as fast as she is. Whereas most kids her age would be goofing off or only train at school. She gets up every morning and runs twenty to thirty miles every day. Even when it was raining outside, his daughter would run.

“Well, whatever you decide to do sweetie, you’ll have me and your mom backing you. How would you like some lunch either from the roach coach or the food truck?” Connor figures Talia might be hungry.

“Okay, and thanks daddy.” Talia hugs her father.

“Any time, kiddo.” Connor returns the hug.

For the rest of the week, Talia does her normal routine of getting up early and going for her morning runs. She switches the distances she jogs up and the direction she goes as well. She noticed recently that her areola has gotten bigger and her nipples have become more pronounced, especially when cold air or cold water from the shower hits her chest.

Along with the changes to her nipples and areola, she noticed the bumps under her nipples were getting bigger and sore. She approached her mother about this development. Her mother made a doctor’s appointment with the family doctor they had used for years.

As for her part-time job of making silk screen t-shirts, mirrors, and other items. She wanted to expand her services on that and was saving what profits she made to buy a laser engraving machine. She saw one on television and liked how it worked.

She figures she could make more money and expand what she could do. She knew several people who would pay to have their headrests and floor mats in their cars and trucks done. She could also engrave people’s tools and such.

Her mother took her to have her chest measured and bought her a few new bras. She loved the fact that her body was changing, but what was causing the change worried her and her mother. She told her father she would cut the grass, so she put on a pair of shorts that showed off her long legs and shapely hips, along with a tank top. She borrowed her mother’s straw floppy hat to wear while she cut the grass.

Most of her neighbors around her neighborhood knew about her and were friendly towards her. There were a few who didn’t understand why a boy would want to become a girl. However, looking at her, you couldn’t mistake her for being a male.

It takes Talia an hour to cut the front yard. Her father had put a mulching blade on the lawnmower, so she didn’t have to do any raking. The side yard and the backyard were the easiest to cut. Sure, she had to move things around, to cut the grass. Her father and mother loved cooking out and entertaining their friends on the weekends.

While Talia is cutting the front yard, her older brother stops in for lunch. She waves to him as she walks up and down the yard. She had her earbuds in her ears listening to music.

Ralph spots his sister/little brother cutting and pushing the lawnmower. Looking at her he didn’t see a boy, but a girl with the way she moved and was dressed. He walks into the house to grab some lunch, since he is in the neighborhood.

How he felt about his little brother wanting to be a girl, he couldn’t tell you. His little brother has always been different and weaker than himself and his other brother. He may not understand why his little brother felt the way he did, but he won’t allow anyone to hurt his brother either.

He also thought that the rule preventing his little brother from running on the girl’s track team wasn’t right. He knew most of the girls on the team and they didn’t have a problem with Talia being on the team, even when they were in the locker room. His girlfriend Tammy had told him that Talia always made sure she was covered and always turned her head. Even when some of the girls on the team teased Talia about not having a period or her small penis.

He has seen his little brother naked and had to agree that Talia’s penis was no bigger than his thumb. He had wondered why Tammy had mentioned something about his little brother. When he asked her, she informed him that all the girls on the team didn’t see Talia as a boy, but a girl.

He hears the front door open and spots Talia walking into the house. She comes into the kitchen where he was eating.

“Is the yard done?” Ralph watches Talia grabs a glass and fills it with sweet iced tea.

“Almost, I only have a small section to do. Since the yard doesn’t need to be edged. I wasn’t going to edge it.” Talia drinks some tea.

“I think you’re right about that. So, have you made a decision about the track team?” Ralph was wondering what his brother was going to do.

“Yes, I have. I’m going to run for the boy’s track team, but I’m going to make it known I won’t dress and wear the uniform they make the males do. I am going to embarrass as many as the guys from other schools as well.”

“You know that might make some of them mad.” Ralph knew his brother would do it.

“Then it will teach them a lesson. They want to be a holes, then I can be one in exchange.” Talia has already made up her mind about the situation.

“Just be careful, little brother. Guys don’t take kindly to being beaten by someone who looks like a girl.” Ralph drinks some of his tea.

“I will.” Talia knew asking her brother to call her a she or his little sister was a waste of time.

After getting something to drink, Talia heads back outside and starts the lawnmower. She works for twenty minutes finishing up the lawn and brushes the lawnmower off when she is done. She puts the lawnmower away and sweeps the sidewalk off. She could feel the sweat pulling down between her legs. She wishes sometimes her father had bought an above-ground pool last year when they were on sale, but didn’t. Their backyard was big enough for one, but because her parents like throwing barbecues parties, and playing volleyball. They couldn’t see having a pool.

She goes inside the house and relaxes in the A/C. She checked to see if any new orders had come in and saw that she had an order from an organization to custom-make a logo for them. She writes them back, with some questions to see what they represent and get some basic background. She designs several different logos and sends them back to see which ones they like.

Afterward, she walks into the laundry room and starts working on laundry. Her mother taught her how to separate her clothes and how to wash her lingerie and undergarments. She never knew how women had to be careful when they washed their intimates.

Once she has her laundry going, Talia grabs the frozen hamburger meat and puts it in a bowl of warm water to defrost it. She figures she’ll make tacos tonight for dinner.

Dr. Donald Doctor’s Office:
Talia was nervous as Dr. Donald examined her. Dr. Donald’s nurse, nurse Lockwood takes several vials of her blood and gives her a shot. Dr. Donald puts her through a series of tests and does an ultrasound of her abdomen. She giggles from the cold lubricant and when the nurse moves the wand around. She was ticklish on her stomach and sides.

After Dr. Donald does the ultrasound, he takes several X-rays and an MRI of her body. The x-ray shows that Talia has a uterus and ovaries inside her body. As for her testicles, something didn’t feel right about them when Dr. Donald Doctor felt them. They were small, compared to the normal development of a teenager.

Also, Talia didn’t have an Adam’s apple either. He felt her chest area and felt the development of breasts. He determined she was slowly developing breasts and they would be fully developed by the time she graduated from high school.

By the time Talia was done with her medical exam, she was feeling tired and hungry. Her mother takes her out for an early lunch. While they are sitting at the restaurant, enjoying their meal. Talia looks towards her mother “Mom, what do you think is happening to me?”

“I don’t know, sweetie. None of my prenatal checkups showed anything strange about you.” Brenda remembers all the tests she was given when she was pregnant with Talia.

“Mom, do you think this will change things with the school and the school board?” Talia wonders because she was developing like a girl, would that change the rules so she could run on the girl's track team?

“It might, sweetie. We’ll have to get our lawyer on it.” Brenda wonders how this happened with Talia.

She knows as soon as she gets home, she’ll have to do some research about her daughter’s condition. In some way, she is thrilled that Talia was meant to be a girl. She always wanted a daughter, now she has one.

After lunch, Brenda and Talia do some window shopping. Brenda took the whole day off from work to spend with her daughter. She treats Talia to a spa day. She was friends with the owner of the spa they went to and they didn’t have a problem treating Talia like a natural girl.

Instead of making dinner, Talia and Brenda stop at their favorite pizza place and pick up some pizzas, wings, and cheesy bread. Talia looks at all the food they are taking home.

“Do you think we have enough, Mom?”

“Between, your dad and brothers, I think so. You’ve always been a light eater like me.” Brenda knew Talia was like her when it came to food. She wasn’t a big eater like her brothers.

“So, it seems all my strange behavior has a reason behind it, Mom.” Talia looks at her mother with a smile on her face.

Brenda smirks when Talia says those words “Who would have ever thought, that you knew what you should have been? You’re going to need to tell your psychologist Susie Lewin about what you have discovered.”

“I think she’ll be as surprised as we are.” Talia wonders what her counselor will think of everything.

When Brenda pulls into the driveway, she spots her husband’s and son’s pickup trucks. Her other son hasn’t gotten home yet. She helps Talia with the food they bought and heads into the house.

Connor and Ralph watch as Brenda and Talia walk into the house carrying food from their favorite restaurant.

“Looks like we’re having takeout tonight.” Ralph slaps his hands together.

“We thought everyone would enjoy it. Where’s Tommy?” Talia looks around for her older brother.

“He’s on his way. He gave one of his coworkers a ride home.” Connor knew his son gave two of their newest hires a ride home.

“Hopefully he’ll be home, in time to keep Ralph from eating all the food.” Talia looks over towards her second-oldest brother.

“Hey! I’m not that bad.” Ralph knew he and his father liked the same type of pizza. They were carnivores at heart.

Talia and their mother loved a bunch of veggies on their pizza. He and his father loved a lot of meat on their pizza. His older brother was a pepperoni and sausage pizza person. He didn’t like a lot of meat on his pizza. Now cheese, that was a different story.

“So, how did the doctor’s appointment go?” Connor looks towards his wife and Talia.

“The doctor discovered some things about Talia, that we didn’t know.”

“That there’s a brain up there in her head?” Ralph looks over towards his sister.

“No stupid.” Talia turns and sticks her tongue out at her brother.

“Kids, behave.” Brenda looks at Ralph and Talia.

“What did Dr. Doctor discover, sweetie?” Connor looks at his wife for an answer.

“Talia has both male and female reproductive organs. The problem is, that her male organs aren’t working properly. Her female organs are working perfectly, and this is causing her to develop like a normal teenage girl.”

“Mom, are you saying that Talia was born with both male and female organs?” Ralph looks at his mother.

“According to the x-rays Dr. Doctor did today, yes. Talia might have been born with male organs, but they aren’t working properly and that’s why she is developing like a teenage girl.”

Tommy walks into the house and smells pizza and wings. He heads towards the dining room and spots his family sitting at the dining room table.

“I hope you bought a large pepperoni and sausage pizza for me.”

“We did, Tommy.” Talia looks at her older brother as he walks into the dining room.

“Good.” Tommy sits down and grabs a paper plate.

Brenda looks at Connor “We’ll talk later.”

Connor nods his head and takes another bite from the pizza slice. He looks over toward Talia and wonders what that means for her now. He’ll do everything he can for his little girl.

Talia starts the morning like normal with her jogging first thing in the morning. She got up earlier than normal, so she could get a shower in and catch a ride with her mother to school. Normally, she rode with either her mother or father to school and caught the bus home.

“Bye, mom.” Talia had worn a dress to school today.

“Have a good day, sweetie.” Brenda watches as Talia starts walking towards the front door of the high school.

“Thanks, mom.” Talia walks towards the front door of the high school she went to.

She was a junior this year and had only one more year left. She shared a locker with one of the girls she grew up with. She goes and grabs the books she needed for her first three classes. The first bell was math and she was glad to get it over with.

The subject was Algebra and she was doing so-so in it. She had a hard time wrapping her head around the formulas the teacher wanted her to use to solve the problem. Luckily, her mother was good at dumbing it down for her. Her older brother was good at math, but her mother was better.

As Talia was recording everything Mrs. Passante was writing on the blackboard. She gets hit by a balled-up piece of paper. She ignores it because she already knows who threw it at her.

She feels another one hit the side of her head. Talia ignores that as well. When a third one hits her, Talia pulls out a small round object and throws it at Dave. She knew he was the one throwing the pieces of paper at her.

The round object hits Dave and shatters. The next thing everyone in the classroom smells is a foul odor coming off him.

“Mrs. Passante, can we leave please.” Betty was holding her nose, because of the stink in the classroom.

Mrs. Passante turns around and finally smells the foul odor drifting around in the classroom. The smell was so bad, that she was ready to lose her breakfast.

“Yes!” She rushes for the door, followed by everyone else.

A smile appears on Talia’s face as she glances over towards Dave. He was ready to throw up and was being avoided by everyone sitting near him. She gathers her books as quickly as she could and walks out of the classroom.

Tony walks up to Talia “You didn’t need to do that.”

“What? He had it coming and Mrs. Passante wasn’t going to do anything. She’s one of those teachers who think I shouldn’t be here or on the track team.” Talia knew how most of her teachers felt about her.

Her brother gave her the idea of bugging her teachers. Most of the gadgets she used came from a website called Spy Eye. The watch she wore had a built-in eight-gig SIM card in it. She also had a pair of sunglasses she could wear that had a hidden camera in the bridge of the glasses that she could link to the watch. That way she records everything she sees.

“I don’t know what you used, but you didn’t need to stink up the classroom.” Tony knew Talia had been getting picked on ever since she came out in middle school.

“Well, if Mrs. Passante did her job. I wouldn’t have to go to such extremes.” Talia tried resisting being picked on and reporting her attackers. Sometimes it did some good and other times it didn’t.

“Well, you know Dave is going to get even with you.” Tony knew Dave was the vengeance type.

“Let him, I have something for him.” Talia was given a bottle of pepper spray to defend herself with. She was shown how to use it properly and was warned about what would happen to her if she missed using it.

“Do you want to tell me?” Tony knew Talia had a bunch of tricks up her sleeve.

“Nope, it's best you don’t know. Hey, did you finish the report we were assigned to do for Mr. Willis's government class?”

“Yeah, I sent it in over the break. I wonder what our teachers did during the break.” Tony knew most of his teachers worked hard.

“Hopefully, catch up on grading the papers we turned in.”

Talia and Tony, walk into their second-bell classroom. The two of them sit next to each other and start taking notes. By the time class was over, the two of them headed toward their homeroom.

The morning announcements were announced. Nothing they didn’t already know. A dance was coming up and it was a big thing around school. It was opened to all grades, and since Talia has been attending. She has never been asked to dance. She asked a few people in the past but was turned down.

The few friends she did have, already had dates or girlfriends. So, she never went to any of the dances. Talia reads a few posts on her cell phone while waiting for the bell to ring. When the bell rings, she heads towards her third bell class.

“See you at lunch, Talia.” Tony waves and heads towards his next class.

Talia heads towards her third bell class. She was taking chemistry next, which she enjoyed a lot. She was good at causing explosions and doing all sorts of tricks with different elements.

After the third bell, she has advanced French and Spanish before lunch. For lunch, she sits with her friends and eats the salad she made to bring for lunch. Since, ninth grade she hasn’t eaten a school lunch. She always brings her lunch from home.

After Lunch, she has gym class. This week they were back in the gym, instead of the classroom. She doesn’t bother to dress out for the gym. She didn’t feel comfortable being in the boy’s locker room with the latest developments she learned about herself.

When she walks into the gym, she sits down on the floor and waits for her gym teacher to come out of the locker room. She spots Mr. Stone as he walks out of the locker room. She waits for him to come over to her.

Mr. Stone spots Talia sitting over by the wall when he exits from the locker. He wonders what her excuse is this time for not dressing out for gym. He walks over to her “Why aren’t you dressed out for gym?’

“Well,” Talia stands up off the floor.

“Well, what?” Mr. Stone watches as Talia stands up off the floor.

“Just as you and everyone else say girls shouldn’t be exposed to people like me. I don’t think it’s right that I should be exposed to boys my age when I’m developing breasts.” Talia looks up at Mr. Stone. He stood a good foot taller than her.

“What are you talking about? You’re not developing breasts, because you’re a boy. Unless your parent has been giving you drugs to make it possible.” Mr. Stone was getting tired of putting up with Talia’s nonsense.

“Wrong, my body is naturally developing breasts, Mr. Stone. I went to my doctor’s office two days ago and he discovered that my body is developing like a teenage girl’s body does, instead of a teenage boy’s body does.”

“Do you have a letter stating this?” Mr. Stone couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I sure do.” Talia reaches into her backpack and pulls out the doctor’s letter she was given for her gym class. She hands the letter to Mr. Stone.

Mr. Stone accepts the letter and starts reading it. He looked at Talia and couldn’t believe what he was reading. He didn’t know how he should handle this, because if the letter was true, he couldn’t in good conscience expose her to the other boys in the locker room and he couldn’t expose her to the girls, in the girl’s locker room.

“Take this letter to Principal Vernon and show him it.” Mr. Stone hands the letter back to Talia.

“Okay.” Talia puts the letter back in her backpack and leaves the gym.

Talia had a smug look on her face as she left the gym and walked towards the main office. She felt a little satisfaction showing the letter to Mr. Stone. He had always disliked her, now he had to swallow his pride and accept the fact that he and all the others were wrong about her.

Talia walks into the main office and looks at Mrs. Woods, the head office secretary.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Woods, is Principal Vernon available?”

Mrs. Woods looks at Talia and wonders what she wants. She didn’t have a problem with Talia, but she just didn’t agree to let Talia use the facilities for girls. If Talia wasn’t equipped like a boy, she wouldn’t have a problem.

“Let me check, Talia.” Mrs. Woods stands up and knocks on Mr. Vernon’s office door.

“Enter.” Mr. Vernon looks at his office door.

Mrs. Woods enters and looks directly toward Principal Vernon “Sorry for bothering you, Mr. Vernon. But Ms. Miller would like to speak to you.”

“Do you know what she wants this time, Mrs. Woods?” Principal Vernon wishes that Talia Miller was attending another high school. She’s been nothing, but a problem since she got here.

“No sir. She’s supposed to be in gym class right now.” Mrs. Woods was good at remembering all the schedules for every student in the building.

“Let’s get this over with. Show her in, Mrs. Woods.”

“Yes, sir.” Mrs. Woods turns and leaves Mr. Vernon’s office.

“He’ll speak to you now, Talia.” Mrs. Woods lets Talia behind the main counter.

“Thanks, Mrs. Woods.” Talia walks past the counter and heads toward Principal Vernon’s office.

Mrs. Woods opens the door for her. She looks at Talia “Good luck.” As she shuts the door behind Talia.

Principal Vernon looks up at Talia as she enters his office “What can I do for you, Ms. Miller?”

“I have a letter here from my doctor, that you need to read, Mr. Vernon.” Talia walks over to the chair sitting in front of Mr. Vernon’s desk and opens her backpack. She reaches inside and pulls out the letter she showed Mr. Stone during gym class and hands it to Mr. Vernon.

Mr. Vernon accepts the envelope and takes the letter out and starts reading the letter. He couldn’t believe what he was reading as he kept going. He had never in all his years of teaching heard of such a thing happening to anyone before.

Mr. Vernon looks up from the letter and looks at Talia “Why did you bring me this letter, this morning when you arrived?”

Talia looks at Mr. Vernon with a serious look on her face “I forgot. I didn’t remember I had it, until lunchtime.”

“I’m going to need to speak to your parents and get the superintendent of schools involved in this as well, Ms. Miller.”

“No problem, sir. Just let my parents know, so they can make arrangements.” Talia knew it wouldn’t be a problem for her father because he was the boss. However, her mother was a different story.

“You can go back to class, Ms. Miller.”

“Yes sir.” Talia gets up and leaves Mr. Vernon’s office.

She gets a hall pass from Mrs. Woods to go back to class. Talia looked at her watch and noticed she didn’t have much longer for class, so she took her time going back.

When Talia gets home from track practice after school. She was feeling exhausted and run down from the heat. She ran on the boy’s track team and held back during practice. Some of them teased and criticized her because she wasn’t putting out one hundred percent.

She strips out of her track clothes and takes a nice, long, cold shower. She had to change into her track clothes in the men’s bathroom, instead of the locker room. One, because she had breasts and didn’t feel like flashing them. Two, because she didn’t feel comfortable in eh men’s locker room with all the other guys in there.

She lathers up her body with her favorite body wash and scrubs her body. Talia makes sure to wash under her budding breasts. She even washes her groin area, as much as she hates feeling the birth defect she was born with.

She washes and conditions her hair several times before finishing her shower. She wraps a towel around her hair and her body as she walks across the hallway. Once Talia is in her bedroom, she blows dry her hair and brushes it out.

After Talia puts on a pair of shorts and an oversized t-shirt. She goes downstairs and to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. She didn’t mind preparing dinner, since her mother worked all day. She makes homemade spaghetti sauce. She knew how to make the noodles from scratch, but she was going to use already-made noodles instead.

While the sauce cooks, she slowly stirs it. She wasn’t going to put the noodles on until her parents got home. Talia lets the sauce simmer while she makes a salad to go with dinner. She also bakes some garlic bread to go with dinner.

While the garlic bread is baking, Talia makes a fresh pitcher of sweet tea to serve with dinner. After making the tea, and put it in the refrigerator to get cold. She pulls the garlic bread out of the oven and covers it to keep it warm.

Her mother arrives first, then her brothers and father. As they sit down at the dining room table to eat. Brenda looks over towards Talia, “How was school today, sweetie?”

Brenda knew their doctor had given a letter to Talia to give to the school officials. She hopes the contents of the letter will make things a little easier on Talia.

“Principal Vernon didn’t seem convinced about the letter. However, he wants to set up a meeting between you guys, himself, and the superintendent of schools.”

“Principal Vernon has always been a hard-headed person.” Tommy has had his share of run-ins with Mr. Vernon.

“I’m concerned about how this is going to affect Talia.” Connor looks at his daughter.

“I don’t think anything will happen at this meeting, Daddy. This state and the people on the city council have been trying to restrict LGBT rights for years, and now that they have passed the law about transgender people. They aren’t going to back down.” Talia knew not everyone thought like the jerks running the state.

“Well, we'd better let Mr. Wells know about this meeting.” Brenda figures their lawyer should be at the meeting.

“I agree. Mr. Wells should be at this meeting. Did Mr. Vernon say when this meeting is supposed to take place?”

“No ma’am. He just said that he needs to contact the superintendent of schools.”

“Which means he’ll arrange the meeting once he does. Let’s call Mr. Wells anyway and let him know, Connor.” Brenda looks towards her husband.

“Alright.” Connor makes a mental note to call Mr. Wells tomorrow.

“As for you boys, you have kitchen duty tonight, since your sister made dinner.” Brenda looks towards her older sons when she speaks.

“No problem, mom.” Tommy didn’t mind clearing the table after dinner.

If there was enough left over, he could make a plate to take to work with him. Money was a little tight this week. The rest of the meal goes quietly.

Tommy and his brother Ralph clear the table and wash the dishes. There was enough leftover for Tommy to make a plate to take to work tomorrow and have for lunch. Ralph was glad that Talia didn’t leave a lot of dirty dishes.

Talia heads upstairs and logs onto her computer. Her homework was already completed, so she could browse the internet for a while. She watches some of the YouTube videos that tell the stories of people who were special forces. The stories were about people who had either lost everyone in their unit, either to overwhelming odds or bad intelligence.

After Talia watches a few videos, she lies down on her bed and slowly drifts off to sleep. She wonders if she is going to be forced to quit the track team because she didn’t fit the description of either team. She slowly drifts off with that question bouncing around in her head.

Talia is woken up at 0500hrs by her alarm clock going off. She slowly opens her eyes and can hear it raining outside. She gets up and looks out her bedroom window and notices that it is raining pretty good outside.

“So, much for running this morning.” Talia turns around and crawls back in bed.

Talia sets her alarm to wake her so she can get up in time to get ready for school. She lies in bed thinking about what Mr. Vernon said yesterday. She had gym today and wondered what her gym teacher was going to do, because she couldn’t use either locker room.

Talia’s alarm clock goes off again, as she drags herself out of bed and changes her clothes. She didn’t feel like wearing anything fancy, so she put on a pair of leggings and a top that extended past her waist to cover her buttocks. The top was one that she silk-screened that had a political message on it, criticizing the new restrictions that the state government and local government had adopted.

Most of her teachers were used to her wearing articles of clothing that expressed how she felt about the current political environment. Some of her teachers tried to make her cover it up or make her change, but thanks to the Supreme Court saying that she had every right to express how she felt. There was nothing they could do.

“Talia, are you ready to go?” Brenda knocks on her daughter’s bedroom door.

“I’m ready, Momma.” Talia opens her bedroom door.

“Good, let’s go. I’ll stop at Circle K so you can grab something for lunch.” Brenda knew Talia loved taking her lunch to school.

“Okay.” Talia follows behind her mother out to the car and gets in on the passenger side.

The first part of the morning at school was quiet. Talia was having a hard time staying awake during her government class. Her teacher had a monotone type of voice that could put anyone to sleep.

After the bell rang, she headed towards her gym class. This week, they were in the classroom, so she didn’t have to worry about changing. She sits next to one of her friends and writes down everything her teacher writes on the board.

After gym class, she had English. She loved her English class, because the teacher she got this year was doing things differently from the curriculum described. The teacher she had was famous for going outside of what the state department of education for state wanted them to teach.

Sally looks at Talia as they are walking out of the classroom room “So, what are you doing this weekend?”

“I’m not sure. I have all my orders caught up, and I got some chores at home to do, but after that, I’m free.” Talia knew it was her week to cut the yard.

“How about we go to the mall and try out that new Spa place?” Sally heard about the new spa place that opened up at the mall.

“Sounds good to me. I’ll let my mother know when I get home.” Talia wouldn’t mind enjoying herself.

As Talia and Sally walk into the lunch room. They noticed Jacob, Daniel, and his friend Gavin in the lunch room, bothering a freshman. The terrible trio were known to pull stupid stunts and bully people in school.

Talia spotted Jacob plucking the ears of the freshman and the freshman trying to ignore him. She just shakes her head as she gets in line behind them. She grabs a juice as they move along in the line.

“Jacob, stop plucking that freshman’s earlobe.”

“Mind your own business, Talia.” Gavin turns around to glare at Talia.

“Make me, Gavin.” Talia has dealt with Gavin and the others before.

“You’re not worth the trouble.” Gavin turns back around to face forward.

“That’s because you and your goon squad got your butts handed to you.” Talia wasn’t trying to pick a fight, but she wanted them to stop what they were doing to the poor kid.

They go through the lunch line and when they exit the line. Jacob turns around and grabs Talia’s shirt and jerks it downward. The sound of it ripping echoed in the lunchroom. Everyone near the exit of the line could see the bra Talia was wearing.

Talia doesn’t scream or anything, but ball her fist and punch Jacob in the face. She put some strength behind her punch, and she broke Jacob’s nose, causing it to bleed. Gavin and Daniel turn around to attack Tali, but are stopped by a strong, loud voice.

“I wouldn’t do that, gentlemen.” Mr. Deacon had lunchroom monitoring duty and saw everything. He was too far away to stop Talia from reacting.

He walks over towards the four of them. “Talia, go and change your blouse. As for the three of you, you’re going to the office.”

Talia looks at Mr. Deacon, “Yes, sir.”

Talia walks out of the lunch room with her lunch and drink towards her locker. She had a spare shirt she kept in her locker, and when her teachers complained about the shirts she wore to school. She learned to keep a spare at school.

Afterwards, she heads back to the lunch room and locates Sally and sits down next to her.

“I can’t believe they did that to you.” Sally has never seen them do something so stupid.

“Trust me, it's not over yet. Wait until my father hears about this.” Talia starts eating her lunch.

After lunch, Talia goes to her next class and skips track practice. Until things get straightened out, she didn’t feel like going to practice. She walks home and heads upstairs to her bedroom to do her homework.

Tonight wasn’t her night to cook dinner, so she instead heads out to the garage in her work clothes. She starts silk screening some shirts and tank tops. She also does a few shorts, but changes the screen to a different one with different words.

She continues to work until he hears her mother calling her name over the intercom in the garage. She cleans up and washes her hands before heading into the house. When she walks into the kitchen, Talia notices her mother stopped at KFC on the way home.

“How was your day, sweetie?” Brenda looks towards Talia as she walks into the dining room.

“Not too bad, but I had some trouble at school, during lunch.” Talia helps set the table.

“What happened at lunch, sweetie?” Brenda stops setting the table to look at her daughter.

“Jacob grabbed the front of my blouse and tore it.”

“Why did he do that?”

“Who knows, but Mr. Deacon saw him do it. So, he’ll be expelled from school for a while.”

“Did you react in any way?” Brenda looks at her daughter.

“Yes, ma’am, I punched him as hard as I could and broke his nose.” Talia didn’t feel sorry about doing that.

“He was lucky your brothers didn’t see him do that.” Brenda knew how her sons would have reacted.

“Me too, mom.” Talia knew what her brothers would have done.

After the table was set, Talia’s father and brothers arrived home.

Talia, Brenda, Conner, Mr. Wells, Principal Vernon, Assassinate Principal Deacon, and Superintendent Johnson from the school board were all sitting around the meeting table in the conference room at Talia’s high school. Mr. Johnson had been emailed a copy of the medical report from Talia’s doctor. He had spoken with the mayor and several city council members about Talia’s condition, and unfortunately, they were sticking to how the law was written for their state.

Mr. Johnson looks towards Mr. and Mrs. Miller. He didn’t feel right about what he was about to say, but the mayor and the council members had made it clear, they weren’t going to make an exception, except for allowing Talia to use the handicap bathroom at school.

He looks at everyone and clears his throat before speaking, “Mr. And Mrs. Miller, I have spoken with our lawyer and the mayor about Talia’s situation, and as much as I would approve of her using the women’s locker room and bathroom, because of her unique genetic situation. I’m afraid that the only solution I can come up with is to allow her to use the handicap bathroom.”

“Are you fucking nuts?” Talia knew that the handicap bathroom was way out of the way of any of her classes.

Connor gives his daughter a look, letting her know he didn’t approve of her outburst. He looks back towards Mr. Johnson, “Surely, you’re not going to say she needs to keep on changing in the men’s locker room with her developing like she is.”

“Unfortunately, by law, she has to, because her birth certificate says she is male. But since that would expose the boys to how she looks, and the fact that it would make Talia uncomfortable. What we can do is excuse her from physical education when her class has gym.

“What would I be doing, instead?” Talia looks at Mr. Johnson when she asks that question.

“You’ll have a study hall instead. You’ll assist Mrs. Brighten in the library instead.”

“Are you going to inform her teachers of this, and how is this going to affect her grades?” Brenda was curious how this would affect Talia’s
grades, because she knew that if a student didn’t take part in gym. They would lose half their grade.

“Talia will get credit for helping Mrs. Brighten in the library.” Mr. Johnson knew they had to do something to replace the missing grades Talia would lose.

Talia didn’t mind helping Mrs. Brighten. She was a nice librarian and has always been nice to her.

“So, instead of having gym class for now on. Talia is going to be allowed to spend the time in the library instead? How about the track team? Will she be allowed to change teams again?” Connor wanted to know if Talia had to give up her dreams.

“Unfortunately, because of the law and such. She would still have to run on the boy’s team. I’m sorry, but because her birth certificate says male on it. There isn’t going to be any exceptions to allow her to rejoin the female team.”

Talia was getting pissed. She stands up and looks at Principal Vernon, Assistant Principal Deacon, and Superintendent Johnson. “THIS IS BULLSHIT! ALL BECAUSE I WAS BORN DIFFERENT, YOU JACKASSES HIDE BEHIND YOUR BELIEF AND FUCKING STUPID LAW!”

Talia turns and runs out of the conference room, crying. She runs for the front door and sprints out of the building. She didn’t care where she was going or give a dam about her safety.

All the adults sat stunned at Talia’s outburst, before Brenda recovered and ran after her daughter. Just as she reached the front door of the high school. She spotted Talia running down the street and barely missed being hit by a blue pickup truck.

She was just as angry as Talia about the situation. However, she felt sorry for her daughter about the way the matter was being handled. Talia has always done what she felt was right, but because of the current laws and sentiments towards non-genetic girls/women playing in girls' sports. It was causing problems for Talia. Now that they have found out that Talia is intersex. The school systems still weren’t allowing her to play on or use the girls’ locker room or bathroom.

Talia wipes the tears leaking from her eyes as she runs down the road. She was angry with herself and with the stupid school system. She hated the damn state and all the jackass that voted for the morons that passed the laws saying that if her birth certificate didn’t say female on it. That she couldn’t play on any team.

Talia kept on running, letting her anger feed her need to just escape. In no time, she arrives home and collapses on the ground, crying. She screams as loud as she can letting everyone in her neighborhood know how she felt.

Brenda tried to keep track of her daughter as she ran ahead. She couldn’t believe how fast Talia was running. She wonders if Talia was using her anger to fuel her. She knew she could overtake Talia, but she was just going to watch her daughter and make sure she didn’t get hurt.

When Brenda turned onto the street where they lived, she heard Talia scream and spotted Talia on the ground, crying. She pulls into the driveway and gets out. She helps Talia walk towards the house. She could tell Talia was still upset as they entered the house.

“How about I get a bubble bath going for you, sweetie.” Brenda escorts Talia to her bedroom and lets her get undressed.

Brenda walks across the hallway and starts filling the tub with hot water. She adds one of her bath balls to the water. Once the tub is filled, she goes and helps Talia into the tub.

Brenda stays and washes Talia’s hair and watches over her. She hears her husband when he gets home. Things must have gotten even worse, and, afraid, Talia ran out of the meeting.

Talia relaxes as her mother gently washes her body. She closes her eyes and just lets the hot water relax the muscles in her body. She was still crying some, but the tears were becoming less and less.

Once Talia was relaxed, the water in the tub started turning cold. Brenda helps Talia out of the tub and dries her off. Brenda escorts Talia back across the hallway to Talia’s bedroom. She helps Talia put on her night clothes and puts Talia to bed.

Brenda looks down into Talia’s sweet face. “I’ll check on you later, sweetie.” Brenda kisses Talia’s forehead and walks out of Talia’s bedroom.
When Conner spots his wife coming downstairs. He wonders how Talia is doing, “How is she?”

“She’s stopped crying, but I don’t think she wants anything to do with school anymore. How did things go after I left?” Brenda wonders what happened afterwards.

“Let’s just say if Mr. Wells wasn’t there to stop me. I would have punched all of them. Instead, I cussed all of them out.”

“What are we going to do if Talia doesn’t want to go back to school?” Brenda didn’t want Talia to drop out, but if Talia doesn’t want to go. She might have to let her.

“I don’t know. I asked Wells if the law applied to private schools in the state, and he said yes. Even the private schools aren’t allowed to let Talia join in any girls’ sports. All we can do is sue the state, and that will take time to do.” Conner knew that for something like this, it would take time to get things changed.

“Plus, we can’t afford to move either. You have your business, and the boys have their jobs. Plus, I have my job as well.” Brenda didn’t know what they could do.

“Well, I am suing the state about not being allowed to change the gender on Talia’s birth certificate.”

“I’m going to order out for us tonight. I’m too frustrated and tired to cook.” Brenda picks up the telephone and orders pizza for the family.

Several days go by after the meeting. Talia refused to go back to school, and she refused to do the assignments she missed because of it. She doesn’t answer her cell phone when her friends call her and doesn’t want to speak to any of them, either, when they come over to check on her.

Talia fell into a depressing state and thought about committing suicide. She hated her life and didn’t want to continue. Several times her mother and father tried to get her attention, but she refused to open her door to them.

Even her brothers tried to get her attention, but she wouldn’t answer them. She just buried herself in her bedroom and shut everyone and everything out. She wonders why she was being punished for wanting to have a life. She thought about hurting herself, but couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Brenda and Conner were worried about Talia and tried several times to enter her bedroom. They found it locked and barricaded. Brenda was concerned about her daughter and worried that she might try to take her own life.

“Conner, we have to do something. I’m worried about our daughter’s state of mind.” Brenda was getting concerned because Talia had never acted like this before.

“I know what you mean.” Conner was worried about his daughter’s state of mind. She has never acted like this before.

Conner walks upstairs and knocks on Talia’s bedroom door. “Talia Marie Miller, open this door right now before I kick it in.”

Conner got no response from his daughter. He turns the door handle and pushes on the door. He could feel that she barricaded the door. He pushes hard and manages to push the door enough to slip into the bedroom. He notices that the curtains that covered the windows were stapled to the window, blocking them.

The room itself looked like a hurricane had come through, because there were clothes, books, torn pictures, and trophies Talia had won scattered all over the floor. Two of her bedroom walls had large, cracked holes in them where she either punched them or threw stuff against them. He spots Talia passed out on the floor, holding her teddy bear.

He makes his way over to her and checks to make sure she is still alive. He checks her pulse and discovers she is fine. He could tell she had been crying from the raccoon look of her ruined makeup.

“How is she?” Brenda managed to make her way into Talia’s bedroom and saw how messy it was.

Brenda looks over towards her husband, as he knelt next to Talia’s unconscious body. She makes her way over to her husband and daughter, “Is she?”

Conner looks at his wife, “She’s just unconscious.” As he picks Talia up off the floor and carries her out of her bedroom and towards their bedroom.

Brenda looks around Talia’s bedroom, looking for her night clothes, but couldn’t find them. Her bedroom was torn to pieces and was going to take several days to straighten out. She leaves the bedroom and follows her husband to their bedroom.

“Here, let me clean her up before laying her down.” Brenda walks over to her vanity table and grabs some wipes to remove Talia’s ruined makeup.

She walks back over and removes the ruined makeup from Talia’s face. She tosses the wipes into the trash can and strips Talia out of the clothes she was wearing and puts one of her nightgowns on Talia. Conner lays Talia down on their bed and tucks her in.

“I’ll lie with her.” Brenda gets undressed and lies down on the bed, and holds her little girl.

Conner looks down at his wife, holding their little girl. He couldn’t blame Talia for how she felt. The thing was, if he could, he would pack everything up and move from this damn state. So, she could have a normal life and be herself.

Conner walks out of his bedroom and spots his sons in the hallway.

“How is she, Dad?” Tommy was worried about his little sister.

“She’s asleep, and I think she took her anger out on her bedroom.”

“I can’t say I blame her, Dad. What do you think she is going to do?” Ralph wonders what his sister is going to do.

“I don’t know, but whatever her decision is, your mom and I will support her.” Conner couldn’t believe how unfair life was being unfair to his little girl. If she wants to drop out of school and get her GED, he’ll support her.

“Well, whatever Talia wants to do, she can count on us for support.” Tommy was willing to support his sister.

Brenda holds her daughter as they sleep. She hated seeing her little girl like this. She doesn’t know what she could do to try and fix her daughter’s problem.

During the night, Brenda is woken up by Talia crying and clings to her. She holds her little girl against her and rubs her back. She wished there was something she could do to help her girl, but there wasn’t much they could do, even if they left the state. Talia’s birth certificate would always show her gender being male, unless they could find another state to issue her a new birth certificate.

She doesn’t know if that was possible, but it was worth looking into. Brenda manages to calm Talia down and get her to fall back asleep. She lies there with her and falls asleep herself.

Later during the night, Connor joins his wife and little girl. He holds her as well and wishes he could do something to protect his little girl. He didn’t know what he would be able to do. He called his lawyer and started the process of suing the state over its stupid law.