Here's yet another immigrant from TG Storytime, this one is still ongoing, though. It'll come here in blocks of three chapters every couple weeks (people who aren't an American Idiot like me would call this a "fortnight"). It's a slow change, almost painfully so. At the moment, the whole story is 30,000 words, but that may change depending on how much more I write. The length is still surprising me because I expected it to be 10,000 words at maximum.

Either way, let's begin!

~o~O~o~

1.

What was I doing there? Was I really that stupid? If Steve hadn’t asked me to be there, I wouldn’t be, so, it was his fault, right? Gah…

This was the first time in the history of history that two guys were breaking into a house to rectify a panty raid. Steve was tasked, by his sister, to break into Dean Garnet’s house and steal back all the panties that Dean and his buddies had taken, which included Stephanie’s (Stephanie being Steve’s twin sister) and my own sister’s (whose name was Melanie, by the way).

How did I let Steve talk me into helping him do this? Stephanie only told him to do this, no mention of me, and Melanie hadn’t cared whether she got her panties back or not, she’d actually thought it was kind of funny that Dean and his boys had decided to do a panty raid on their last week of school. I was a totally neutral country in all of this, so why was I involved?

Worse yet, why was I the one standing on top of Steve’s shoulders, doing my best to climb in a second story window?

“Hold still,” I said to him, trying to be quiet enough not to get caught and loud enough for him to hear at the same time. It wasn’t easy.

“Stop makin’ me sway, then! Just get in the damn house!”

I would have kicked him in the face if that wouldn’t have made me fall on my ass and probably wake up Dean’s parents, or something. As it stood, I did manage to hit him in the forehead with the tip of my left shoe as I made my way into Dean’s room.

2.

Dean was surprisingly well-read for a jock. The guy had more books than I did, and I was a damn bookworm. I nearly tripped on a half-dozen stacks of books on my way from the window to Dean’s dresser. I don’t know why I thought the panties would be in Dean’s dresser, but that was my first idea.

Come to think of it, why had Dean kept the panties? Don’t people who do panty raids dump them the first chance they got, so as not to get caught? Ah, what the hell do I know? I’ve never done a panty raid.

“Jesus!” I whispered, stumbling over another stack of books. How the hell did he maneuver through his room with all these books? I have three bookshelves, all of them full, no books on the floor.

I managed to make my way to the dresser without alerting Dean’s parents and opened the top drawers. Nothing. Middle drawers, nothing. Bottom drawers, nothing. All his own clothes, no panties. Crap. I’d have to look somewhere else. I tried as carefully as possible not to stumble over anymore books and got to his closet. I opened it and nearly had a heart attack as a plastic skeleton fell out and tried to grab me.

“Adam?” Steve’s voice called up, loud enough for me to hear through the open window, but not loud enough to wake anybody. “You okay?”

I poked my head out the window. “Yeah. Skeleton in his closet, that’s all.”

“A real one?”

“No, dumbass, it’s fake.”

“Well, hurry up.”

“Get your own ass up here and help, and maybe I’ll actually find these damn panties.”

“How am I gonna get up there, I go up the stairs? You want me to go inside and go up the stairs, Adam?”

I groaned. “Shut up, asshole, just - “

I was cut off by a flashlight coming on and shining on Steve. I followed the beam of the flashlight and saw that the woman that lived next door to Dean was standing on her lawn, her dog on a leash, not even trying to bark.

“Oh, shit…” I breathed.

The woman said, “Come down here, young man. That’s not your house.”

3.

I climbed out the window, hung over the side, and then let go. Landing hurt, but I was sturdy enough not to break anything. It wasn’t the first time I slipped out a second story window.

The woman motioned for us to follow her, and like we were under some sort of trance, we followed her. My heart was practically leaping out of my chest in fear, because I didn’t know what the hell this woman was going to do. We entered her house through the back door and she pointed at two chairs on one side of the kitchen table, while she sat on the other side. It felt like some sort of interrogation, almost. The dog just sat beside the woman.

“Now, what were you boys doing inside the Garnet house? They’re not home right now.” Great. I didn’t even have to be quiet, now I feel like a retard.

I answered, “We were looking for something that didn’t belong to Dean.”

“Does it belong to you?”

“Our sisters.”

“And what was that?”

“Panties.”

She looked like she was about to laugh. Granted, if I were hearing about two guys breaking into the house of the school’s basketball star looking for panties, I might laugh. Then again, I’m in this situation.

“And why would young Dean have girls’ panties in his room?”

“Because he and a bunch of his friends did a panty raid at school the other day and stole them out of the locker room.”

“And does the school know about this?”

“Yeah.”

“And do the parents know about this?”

“Well, mine do and Steve’s do.”

“And why are you two taking up the responsibility of retrieving these panties? Shouldn’t your parents be solving this problem?”

I sighed. “Steve’s sister asked us to do this.”

“I see. And because your sisters were among those robbed, you believed you had the right to break into someone’s house?”

I planted my hands on the table. “I’m not sayin’ it’s right, but, c’mon, you’re not seriously defending a panty raid, are you?”

She shook her head. “No, but two wrongs don’t make a right. You two need to be punished for what you’ve done, and young Dean needs to be punished for what he’s done.”

I leaned back in the chair and said, “Okay, so call the cops on us, already.”

She shook her head again. “No, no, no… The police needn’t be involved in this. I have ways of settling this matter myself.”

Steve finally asked, “You do?”

The woman nodded now. “Yes. You’re Steve, correct?”

He nodded.

“And your sister is Stephanie?”

He nodded again.

She turned to me. “And you?”

I answered, “Adam.”

“And your sister?”

“Melanie.”

“Adam… It’s a nice name.” She walked over to the shelf above the refrigerator and pulled a small book out. She set it down on the table and took out a pen. “How do you like the name Amanda?”

Where the hell was this going? “It’s a nice name for a girl, why?”

She wrote something in that book and then slammed it shut again before I could see what it was. I traded glances with Steve, then focused on her again.

She looked up from the book and smiled. “In seven days, Adam, you will be Amanda.”

4.

“What the hell are you talking about?!” I practically screamed. This woman was nuts, pure and simple.

She nodded her head. “It’s true. Seven days from now, you’ll be an Amanda, one hundred percent female. This is your punishment.”

“What?!” This was starting to piss me off. I considered calling the cops, but they’d never believe this. Hell, I barely believed it. “Punishment for getting dragged along and forced to break into somebody’s house?”

She shook her head. “You weren’t forced. You could have easily said no.”

“I didn’t even know why I was here before I got here!” I pointed at Steve. “This asshole made me come here!”

“You were the one who entered the house. Steven here stayed outside, on the yard. He was simply trespassing, you were breaking and entering.”

It was time for me to shake my head. “No, I don’t believe you. You can’t turn me into a girl, you’re not… like… a witch or anything.”

She nodded. “That’s right, I’m not a witch.” She stood, and as if somebody turned on a wind machine, a breeze kicked up, despite there being no windows open. A strange glow seeped out of her, and in place of the old woman Steve and I had been looking at, there was now a stunningly beautiful young woman, no older than twenty. “I’m a sorceress.”

The sheer absurdity of that should have made me wake up, but I wasn’t dreaming, I wasn’t asleep… This was happening. I was sitting in a house, next to my best friend, and we were sitting across the table from a sorceress. And on the heels of that realization, I had another.

I was gonna be a girl in seven days.

Oh shit…

5.

No. No. No. No. No. No. “I don’t…” I started.

She finished for me. “Believe me? No, I imagine your human brain is still struggling to comprehend me. It’s not uncommon, after all.” She waved her hand and the table was suddenly a bowl of fruit on the floor. I shot up from my chair and nearly broke something as I tripped over it on my way to the door. “Not so fast, Amanda,” she said. When my hand reached the doorknob, I pulled back in pain.

The doorknob was on fire.

“Now do you understand?”

I turned to face her again. “Why?!”

She sat back down in her own chair. “I feel it’s a fitting punishment. You chose to break into a house to retrieve panties, now you’ll have a reason to get your own.”

Steve asked, “I don’t get punished, do I?”

She nodded. “Of course you do, but your punishment will be different.”

I walked over to her and grabbed her by the collar of her dress. “And what about Dean? What punishment does he get?”

She closed her eyes a moment, and then I was suddenly sitting back down, the table between us, and she was the old woman again. What the hell?!

“Young Dean will suffer his own punishment, don’t worry.” She waved her hand again. “All the girls whose panties were stolen will now find them in their dresser drawers again. You two may go home now, and accept the thanks from your sisters.”

I was about to stand up again, but with another wave of the witch’s hand, Steve and I were standing on the street outside school, a good mile and a half away from Dean’s house.

6.

I fell back, against the fence on the edge of school property, and took a deep breath. Steve sat beside me. “So... “ he said, and I already wanted to punch him. “You wanna go out on a date when you’re done turning into a girl?”

That made me punch him.

“Shut up!” I shouted. “This is happening because of you! I wouldn’t be turning into a girl if it weren’t for you!”

He covered his face to avoid another punch. “What? I didn’t know we were gonna get caught!”

“I didn’t even want to do this! Melanie didn’t care! If it weren’t for you and your stupid ass sister, I’d still be a guy next week!”

“I’m sorry, man!”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to hear it. “Fuck you,” I said, “I’m goin’ home.”

I didn’t even give him one last glance before I walked away.

~o~O~o~

1.

I shut the front door behind me and was instantly greeted by Melanie’s face. I couldn’t quite make out the specific look she had, but I’m sure it would be one I’d eventually wear on my own, a week from now.

“How did you get them back in my dresser without me noticing?”

I shook my head. “I’m tired, sis, lemme go to sleep.”

“And I thought you weren’t going to get caught up in another one of Steve’s stupid schemes?”

“I said I’m tired.”

“Adam, what’s going on with you?”

I sighed, then I took a good long look at my sister. Melanie was a year and a half older than I was, which made her just about seventeen, but she’d been mistaken for older before. Not in a bad way, like drug abuse, but people just seemed to believe she held herself more like an adult and less like a teenager, which was in stark contrast to me, who nobody believed would ever really grow up because of how I acted. Her face looked like an exact teenage duplicate of our mom’s, with wide brown eyes, a small nose and full lips. The one thing she didn’t get from Mom was her hair color. Mom was a brunette, while Dad was pure red. Melanie got Dad’s red hair, while I got what seemed like a natural combination of the two that could be mistaken for either one depending on the light.

“Okay, why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

I shook my head again. “No reason. Hope you’re glad you’ve got your panties back.” I pushed past her and made for the stairs.

2.

I locked my bedroom door, picked up my tablet and flopped down onto my bed. I tapped on the internet icon and did a search for witches. I mostly got tabloid trash and incoherent forum babel, which didn’t help things. I’ve ignored tabloids forever, and the forum crap was just that - crap. Nobody was making any sense.

The door opened and Melanie stood in the doorway. “You clearly forgot I have a key to the bedroom doors.”

I groaned this time. “I’m really not in the mood, sis.”

“And I’m not in the mood for this junk. Dad put me in charge while he and Mom are second honeymooning, remember?”

I can’t for the life of me figure out why she felt the need to remind me of this every time I left the house, but I said, “So what?”

“You’re supposed to tell me when it is you’re leaving the house, remember?”

I set my tablet on my pillow and sat up. “I swear to God, if you say remember one more time, I’m gonna jump out the window. Why the hell are you pressing me, Melanie?”

“Because you’re acting weird, and for you, that’s saying something.”

“It’s not important.”

“Yeah, it kinda is. What’s going on?”

“You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

“Fine. The woman that lives next door to Dean is a witch and she told me I’m gonna be a girl in a week.”

For about two seconds, it looked like Melanie was taking me seriously, then she doubled over and laughed about as loudly as a full theater at a Paul Blart movie. I wanted to push her out of my room, put boards on the door and enjoy what little time I had left as a guy doing guy stuff, like masturbating or watching basketball on TV.

Finally, she tired her best to stop laughing and asked, “So… really, what happened?”

I stood up and walked over to the window. “I’m not joking.”

“Yeah, you kinda have to be.”

“I’m not. Call Steve up, he’ll tell you.”

“No, he’ll tell me what you two cooked up.”

“How do you explain your underwear getting in your dresser drawer all by itself? She did it, the witch.” Why was I still calling her a witch? She clearly told me she was a sorceress.

“Or you climbed through my window and slipped it in while I was downstairs. Witches don’t exist, Adam, and there’s no way boys just spontaneously turn into girls.”

I sighed again. “I don’t actually know if it will be spontaneous. For all I know, I’ll start turning into a girl tomorrow.”

“You’re not turning into a girl!”

I was getting angry again. “Look, Melanie, she turned a frikkin’ table into a bowl of fruits! She made a doorknob feel like it was covered in fire! She was goddamn magic, I’m telling you!” I sat back down again and tried to calm myself. “I didn’t... “ My heart was pounding. “I didn’t want to believe it either, but the proof was right there. It seemed stupid to keep denying what I was seeing happen in front of me.”

She sat down beside me. “You do realize you sound like a maniac, right? Nobody can just turn somebody into a girl.”

I let out a laugh. “Yeah, I would have said the same thing if I hadn’t watched her do all the shit she did.”

Melanie sighed. “Okay, entertaining the idea that this is possible and that you’ll be my little sister in a week’s time, what are you going to do about it? You can’t tell the cops, they’ll think you’re crazy. And how do we even know we’ll remember this in a week? How do we know we’ll retain memories of you being a boy after you’re a girl?”

“I don’t know!” Why did I suddenly want to cry? Why did crying suddenly seem like a viable option for me right now? I needed Melanie out of my room, and fast. “Look, Mel… Just... Get out of my room, okay? It’s been a long day and I wanna go to sleep.”

She stood up and nodded. “Yeah, okay, but tomorrow, we talk about this, understand?”

Tomorrow. Tomorrow was Saturday, no school for three whole days (I can’t for the life of me remember why we had Monday off) and then we went back for final exams. Great. By next Friday, I may be shopping for a dress for the end-of-semester dance.

“Fine,” I said, “just get out.”

After she left, I moved my tablet from my pillow to somewhere else. Yeah, I wasn’t gonna find anything related to that stupid sorceress. Dammit. I turned my light off, laid down and felt myself drifting off to sleep almost instantly.

3.

“You know how this will end.”

What?

“You know how this will end. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”

Who are you and what are you talking about?

“You know what I’m talking about.”

What’s going on?!

“You know what I’m talking about. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”

A light came on. I held my hand up to shield my eyes from it, then took a step closer to whatever was causing it. Why was I moving closer to it? What the hell was going on?

“You know what you have to do.”

Who’s talking? Why did I hear this person? God, my arms were kind of cold. I rubbed at my arms to get warmer.

Wait a minute… I don’t own any sleeveless tops.

“You know what to do. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”

Great, now my legs were cold. I stopped for a second to tug at my skirt, but it was too short to actually provide me any warmth.

Wait… Skirt?

“You know how this will end.”

The bright light died down, and I finally saw its source: a mirror. I took a step closer to it and suddenly that chill that overtook my legs and arms decided to run up my spine. What the hell?

The girl in the mirror was wearing a light pink top with spaghetti straps and a simple white skirt. On her feet were a pair sandals with a two inch heel. Her face looked an awful lot like Melanie’s, just younger. In fact, Like Melanie but younger described this girl to a T, except for one simple feature. Her hair wasn’t Melanie’s pure red, but a mixture between red and brown that looked too much like...

“You know how this will end. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, that wasn’t me! That girl in the mirror wasn’t me!

4.

I sat up and felt sweat breaking out on my neck. What the hell had I just dreamed? No, seriously, what? I couldn’t remember any of it, I just knew that it terrified me.

I rubbed at my forehead. I had a throbbing headache. Was it because of last night? Wait, was last night even real? Some sorceress casting a spell on me didn’t seem real, it seemed like a dream. Was that my dream?

I shook my head and got up from the bed. I walked downstairs to get my breakfast. There was a note on refrigerator. I removed the magnet and read it.

Had to go to the grocery store to grab some food, bro. We’ll have our talk later.

Talk? Oh, yeah… Last night. Crap… I guess all that stuff was real. So, what was my dream, then? Dammit… if that wasn’t my dream…

My headache kicked up again. Why did I have a headache? I’ve never woken up with a headache. Jesus, this is getting weird. I needed to understand this.

Time for an internet search!

I plopped my ass down in the desk chair and something felt weird. My ass felt… different. I stood up and then sat back down again, and everything felt normal again. Weird. What caused that? Was I actually changing physically over time? Great. If that was the case, then I might already be at least thirty-three percent girl by the time I went back to school on Tuesday.

Or it could just be that I’m freaked because I could be turning into a girl. Or I’m just nuts. Great, now that bitch has me considering possibilities to something crazy. Shit.

After two hours of meaningless Google searches, I came up with absolutely nothing. There didn’t seem to be anything, save for the occasional person who would have sounded like a nut a day before. They still seemed nuts to me now, even though I had a story that would make me sound equally nuts.

Would any of these take me seriously if I decided to take them seriously?

~o~O~o~

1.

I sat on the couch, changing channels. There wasn’t much of anything on, but that wasn’t uncommon for a Saturday. After a little bit, I just put it on something and left it there, then laid down. I was tired, for some reason, something I couldn’t figure out.

My eyelids felt heavy, causing me to close them. I felt myself curl into the fetal position, and then the warm embrace of sleep took hold of me.

2.

Why was I standing in front of a mirror? What was I doing there? I looked at my reflection and, for some reason, wondered why I was dressed the same in this dream as I was in real life. I turned away from the mirror and looked at the room I was in.

Although, room was stretching it.

Where I was had no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Everything melded with everything else. The place was dizzying, to say the least. In fact, the mirror was the only landmark. I took a step away from it and, to my surprise, I was actually a step away from it. I continued my trip away from the mirror, always making sure to check back for it every now and again, but I stopped about sixty steps away from it.

The mirror was right behind me again.

What the hell? How did that happen? I looked around the room again and nothing looked any different, except that I was now right beside the mirror again. What was going on?

The door opened. Wait, door? Where was a door? I looked around and saw a glowing rectangle with a human silhouette standing in it. “Good, you’re home,” the silhouette said. The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite peg it. “What happened to you?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, but the voice wasn’t mine. I looked in the mirror again and saw my reflection, but I didn’t see any differences. I was still wearing the same boxer shorts and solid black tee shirt I’d been wearing before. What was the silhouette talking about?

That was when I saw it.

The reflection in the mirror was mine, yes, but it wasn’t me. It was a girl, wearing my clothes. She looked ridiculously cute, like a younger version of Melanie. Why did I look like that? What was happening to me?!

“Adam?” the silhouette asked. I looked at him - I realized it was a him after a few seconds - and discovered that it was Steve. He had a look of concern on his face, and for some reason, I started to tear up. I fell to my knees and he reached down and scooped me up and held me. “It’s okay, man, it’s okay…”

I was worried now. I felt comfortable in his arms, comfortable and warm. Part of me hated this feeling, but another part of me loved it. He patted the back of my head, his fingers getting a little tangled in my hair.

“Amanda?” he asked now, and…

3.

I woke up to Steve standing over by the TV, hooking up my PS3. He had a relieved look on his face. “Damn, man, I’ve been here two hours, and you’ve been asleep the whole time.”

I rubbed at my eyes and sat up. “What are you doing here? I coulda sworn I yelled at you last night.”

“Well, you did, but, c’mon, you can’t still be angry at me, can you?”

“I got cursed because of you.”

He blew a raspberry. “Ah, bullshit, that lady was just crazy. We were both tired and scared last night, we probably just dreamed everything we think she did.”

I stood up. “Oh yeah? Did you dream about her turning a table into a bowl of fruit?”

“Yeah.”

“Her turning from an old lady into a hot babe sixty years younger?”

“Yeah.”

“Her telling me I’d be turned into a girl named Amanda?”

“Yeeeeaaaah?”

“How did we have the same dreams, dumbass?!”

“Magic?”

“So she has magic dream powers, but she can’t turn me into a girl, that right?”

He shrugged. “If she could turn you into a girl, why didn’t she do it there, last night? Why are you still Adam now? She was bullshitting us, pure and simple.”

I ran my hand through my hair. It seemed a little longer than it had been before. I looked at my reflection in the glass of the coffee table, but nothing looked different. Great, just like with my ass before, I’m starting to think things. That sorceress probably was bullshitting us.

But that wouldn’t explain that dream I just had.

4.

“What are you doin’ here, anyway?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It’s Saturday, and I’m bored. Where’s your sister? I wanna try it again.”

I sighed. Steve had been trying to get Melanie to say Yes to him for awhile now. I guess being two years younger than her didn’t mean anything to him, because he still wanted to date her and thought she’d want to date him. It didn’t take a genius to realize that they weren’t compatible.

It didn’t help that Steve always looked like a damn slob. Maybe if he cleaned himself up a bit, combed his hair a little, wore better clothes… Maybe then a girl would want to date him. As he was now, his only options for love were cybersex or prostitutes. I’d told him that before, even pretended to be a girl on a chatroom once just to fuck around with him.

“She’s not here,” I answered. “She said she’d be back later.”

“Dammit! This time she’s gonna say yes, man, I can feel it.”

Hell, I wouldn’t even date him. If I were a girl, that is. He was just too hopeless. I was just as hopeless, but I didn’t even try to date girls. I’d gone out on one date with Stephanie, and she’d told me I was more like a girlfriend than a boyfriend, because all I wanted to do was talk. I didn’t want to do couple stuff. I kinda thought “couple stuff” included talking.

“I’ll believe that when I see it. Whadda you wanna play?” I asked, pointing to the PS3.

He shrugged. “I dunno. Skyrim?”

I shook my head. “You know that shit bores me now.”

“Okay, Resident Evil?”

“Fine, but we do co-op.”

“Of course.”

“Which one?”

“I vote for Six.”

I sighed. He always wanted to play Resident Evil 6. It was his favorite game in the series, for some reason. I preferred Revelations 2, but he never wanted to play it. “Fine. Go get it.”

I sat there, waiting for him to go upstairs and get the game, and something just seemed wrong to me. I couldn’t figure out what it was, but… something. I rubbed at my forehead, but that didn’t seem to help. I didn’t have a headache, anymore. Did it have something to do with Steve? I may get pissed off at the guy, but he was still my best friend.

Four minutes later, one PlayStation Network sign-in, and a quick campaign selection later, and Steve and I were slogging through the sewers of the fictional city of Tall Oaks as Leon Kennedy and Helena Harper. Steve was Leon, and that stuck me with Helena.

Except that wasn’t really true. I was player one, so I got to pick my character, and I picked Helena. I could have easily picked Leon, but I didn’t, even though I usually do.

“You okay, dude?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” I said, but I wasn’t even sure if I was telling the truth.

5.

Steve and I were still playing Resident Evil 6 when Melanie came home, about a dozen grocery bags hanging off each hand. “Are you guys gonna help me, or what?” she asked. I pretty much dumped my controller on the couch and jumped up to help her. Steve struggled for a second to kill a zombie before he helped.

Ten minutes later, all the groceries were put away, and Melanie and I were seated across from one another at the kitchen table. I felt nervous, she looked nervous, Steve wasn’t doing shit.

“So…” Steve, hilariously enough, was the first one to speak. “Why isn’t anyone talking?”

Melanie cleared her throat. “Okay, Adam, it’s time to talk about that lady you guys met last night.”

“What about her? She’s a sorceress, and she said she cursed me.”

“Okay, but why?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t care. She had to be lying, otherwise I’d be a girl now, right?”

“She said it would be in a week, so that’s Friday. Let’s say you’re going to be a girl on Friday, why that specific date?”

“I dunno. Just because it’s a week later?” I sighed. “I really don’t know, sis. I just… She should have been able to do it right away, but she didn’t, so I don’t believe she can do it all.”

“Let’s say she can, though… What do we do about it?”

“If she can do it, what can we do? Who’s gonna believe that a sorceress cursed me into a girl?”

“You’ve got a birth certificate stating your gender,” Steve said, probably the smartest thing he’d said all day.

I had to voice the one concern I had: “But, what if this supposed curse changes everything, like, nobody remembers Adam and everybody remembers Amanda?”

No one said anything to that. I think Steve and Melanie were just as afraid of that possiblity as I was.

6.

I laid on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. Steve had gone home hours before, and Melanie was on the phone, ordering pizza. I didn’t really have anything to do except lay there and think about what might happen. Everything seemed so crazy.

Would I start turning into a girl? Or would I just suddenly be one on Friday? Would I start to like guys? Would I fall in love with Steve? The idea of that made me want to puke. Dammit. And what about my parents? They wouldn’t get home until Thursday. It was either, “Hi, Mom and Dad… Yeah… I know I look a little like Melanie when she was younger, but I’m really Adam,” or “Mom, Dad, don’t freak out, but I might wake up a girl tomorrow.” Neither option was, in any way, a good option.

And then there was school. Sure, this was finals week, but if I was changing over the course of the week, then people would see me. They’d all watch me turn into a girl. If I just changed on Friday, then I’d show up as a completely different person for the last day of school. None of this seemed to work out in my favor at all.

My chest was starting to itch. I reached under my shirt and scratched at the irritating sensation.

Here's the next set of three chapters. If I leave you with a cliffhanger, I hope you don't mind.

~o~O~o~

1.

“So,” Steve said, taking hold of my hand. Why was he holding my hand and why was I letting him? “What do we do now?”

I shook my head. “I don’t get it.”

He grabbed my other hand now. Were we about to do the Ring Around the Rosie thing? I didn’t want to do that. “Amanda, c’mon, we’re just sitting around.” No, we’re not. We’re clearly standing.

“So what?”

He let go of my hands and grabbed me by the shoulders. “C’mon! We never do anything fun anymore.”

“We do plenty of stuff.”

“Not really.”

Why was he making a big deal out of this?

“We do lots of stuff!”

“We haven’t really hung out since you finished changing. You barely talk to me anymore.”

I looked away from him. He wasn’t right, was he? Was there even a chance that he was right? No. No, there wasn’t. Steve was my best friend, and I’ve clearly hung out with him more than a few times since…

2.

I sat upright and started coughing. What the hell?! What was with that dream? What caused me to dream that?

I scratched my itchy chest again. It was mild irritation, but it was constant. What the hell caused that? I sighed. Itchy chest, weird dreams, were these signs of that curse, or just me being freaked?

I stood up and grabbed a shirt. I slipped my arms through the sleeves, then pulled the shirt down over my head. As it brushed against my chest, I felt something odd, but I couldn’t quite place what it was. I glanced at myself in my mirror and realized that nothing looked any different than it had yesterday. Great. Either I’m going nuts, or these changes are going to happen so slowly that I don’t notice them.

As I kept looking at my reflection, I could have sworn my hair was a little longer. I didn’t really have short hair, but I didn’t remember it completely covering my ears. Had it? Dammit… I’m going nuts again.

I sat at my desk and just stared out the window for a minute. What was I going to do with my Sunday? I didn’t really have anything to do. Sunday was a lazy day for me, always had been.

There was a knock on my door. “Come in, Melanie,” I said. It was obvious who it was. She opened the door and tossed me a pair of pants. “What’s this for?”

“Put those on.”

“Why?”

“I’m curious.”

I looked the pants over. “These are your pants.”

“And you’re going to put them on, this isn’t rocket science.”

“Why?”

“Suppose you’re turning into a girl slowly, then at some point soon, you should be able to fit in those pants.”

“Why soon?”

“Because you only have five days before you’re officially supposed to be a girl.”

I sighed. Why was I even entertaining this idea? I slipped my legs into the pants and then struggled, only a little, to get them over my hips. I tried zipping them up, but that was futile, and the button was nothing but a lost cause. “There, you happy?” I asked, certain I looked like an idiot.

Much to my surprise, there was a look of shock on her face. “You… uh… shouldn’t have been able to get that far.”

“Why?”

“Remember my old boyfriend, Billy? He was smaller than you, and he couldn’t get my pants on that far.”

The only question that ran through my mind was, “Why was Billy wearing your pants?”

She rubbed at her arm. “Well… He kinda liked to wear my clothes...“ She shook her head. “That’s not important, what’s important is that you’re smaller now than you used to be.”

I looked at myself in the mirror again, but I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t look any smaller, I didn’t feel any smaller, but the pants barely looked out of place on me, aside from not being zipped or buttoned. Was Melanie right? Come to think of it, my shirt seemed a little bigger than it used to be, now.

I rapidly stripped the pants off and tossed them back to Melanie. “Get these pants away from me,” I said, and even I could hear the fear in my voice.

She folded them up and came closer to me. “Your hair’s different,” she said, reaching out and touching it. I jerked back. “It’s okay, jeez. It’s just a little longer, is all. That’s not something to worry about, right?”

I threw my arms up. “I don’t know! Has it ever been noticeably longer before?”

She shook her head. “Not really.”

I collapsed into my chair. “Great. So, what, I’m turning slowly?”

She sighed, then sat down on my bed. “I dunno, little bro. I think it’s time we called Mom and Dad.”

I shook my head. “No. We wait this out, and if I’m more girl than guy on Tuesday, we call them then. I don’t want to rob them of their second honeymoon just because I’m turning into a girl.”

3.

She didn’t look happy, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t calling Mom and Dad. How would they even react? Would Mom be happy to have another daughter to poke and prod and dress up? Would Dad be sad that he was losing his one and only son? Now that I thought about it, would Melanie be happy that she had a little sister? Would both her and Mom be happy that there was only one person left to leave the seat up?

I slumped in my chair. “Mel…”

“Yeah?”

“How do you feel with all of this?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“How are you gonna feel when Mom starts mixing your panties and mine up when she does the laundry?”

She looked away from me for a second, then looked back at me. “Well, I dunno. You’re not the worst brother out there, and I don’t mind you the way you are. I can’t say it won’t be nice having a sister, but I don’t really want to lose you.” She put on a nervous smirk. “Plus, it’s gonna be tough teaching you all the new feminine stuff you’re going to have to learn.”

I don’t think she meant for that to be frightening, but the idea of what I’d have to put up with scared me. Even if I were to be a simple girl like Melanie, she still woke up about an hour before school started to get ready, and she didn’t wear much make-up or even outrageously fancy clothes. It just seemed to be something girls did, no matter what. And what if I had periods? Could I have periods? How would I deal with that?

“What?” she asked. “What is it?”

“All that new feminine stuff I’m gonna havta learn, that’s what.”

The smirk came back, this time far less nervous. “Oh. Hey, it’s not that hard. A little bit of fashion knowledge and use a tampon every month, it’s not as hard to deal with as guys think it is.”

I raised an eyebrow. “It’s not?”

She shook her head. “No. Probably the worst part for you will be shaving your legs.”

I looked at my legs. Even that probably wouldn’t be as hard as she thought it would be. I didn’t exactly grow a lot of hair. Then again, I’ve never shaved my legs. Maybe it would be the biggest pain in the ass in my life.

“And your armpits.”

“Wha?”

“What? Girls shave their armpits, because guys think it’s disgusting for girls to have pit hair. You trying to tell me you’ve never noticed?”

I shrugged. “I’ve never paid that much attention to a girl’s armpits before.”

“You’ve never seen me do it?”

“Not really.”

“I do.”

“And I’ll have to?”

“Well, if you want a boyfriend who’s not from Europe.”

Why was the idea of having a boyfriend not the most disturbing thing I’d heard all day?

4.

“What are we doing here?” Steve asked. “And why are you wearing your sister’s pants?”

“They fit better than mine do,” I answered. “And we’re here to see how people react to… well… me.”

He looked around at everyone, which wasn’t hard, considering how packed the gym was. Neither he nor I were regular attendees at a school basketball game, but this was the last one of the year, and it would be a less cliched public place to be in than the mall.

“What are they supposed to see? A kinda skinny guy wearing girl pants? That’s not exactly uncommon, y’know.”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you telling me that you can’t tell that I look a little different? Melanie and I could.”

“Like I said. Kinda skinny. You don’t look that much different.”

“But I look different.”

“I still recognized you when I spotted you outside, remember?”

He had a point. We hadn’t even tried to meet up, I was coming to the basketball game all by myself. He’d just been outside walking his dog. It was one of exactly three times he’d said he was happy to live half a block away from the school. I’d simply asked him to come because I really didn’t want to be seen at a basketball game alone.

The seats weren’t that great, but we had a decent view of the court. The opposing team came out first, much to the boos of one side of the gym and the cheers of the other. After that, our team came out, which incited cheers from our side of the gym and boos from the other.

It was then that I saw him. Dean Garnet, the very reason I was in this situation. He didn’t look like he was suffering from any punishment. I sat back in my seat and sighed. Dammit. If it weren’t for him and then Steve, I’d still be male on Friday. Hell, I wouldn’t be changing today.

It was about thirty minutes into the game that I saw something. The ball was passed to Dean, he made it to the shot line, tried for his shot - and the throw came up wrong. He was shooting like a girl. And he was shooting like a girl who’s never played basketball before.

“Do you see that?” I asked Steve, pointing to Dean.

“Yeah. Jock’s off his A-Game tonight.”

“Steve, what if that’s his punishment?”

“To suck at basketball? Not really much of a punishment considering you havta turn into a girl. Why would the punishments be so completely different? Especially since I don’t even know what mine is yet?”

I shrugged. “I dunno, but Dean’s a billion times better than this all the time. I find it hard to believe that tonight, two days after we were cursed, he suddenly has a random bad day.”

The entire game, Dean’s shots came up short, he was suddenly the weakest link in the team as opposed to his usual role as the team point winner. I even saw Max Caulfield purposefully knock him down once. Max was his best friend, and now he was practically beating him to death.

Okay, so my punishment was turning into a girl, Dean’s was being humiliated at sports, what would Steve’s be?

~o~O~o~

1.

“So, how’d the basketball game go?” Melanie asked me when I got home.

I plopped down on the couch. “Well, our team won. Barely.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“Dean wasn’t playing all that well.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Dean? Dean the guy who’s house you broke into Dean?”

I nodded. “The very same. It was like he didn’t know how to play basketball. I could play better than he could, and I’m crappy at basketball.”

She scratched at her chin. “Did that sorceress say anything about Dean being punished?”

I nodded again. “She did, and I was thinking the same thing. I’m just confused about what’s going to happen to Steve.”

“If he was turning into a girl, we would have noticed it by now.” She sat down beside me. For some reason, she grabbed my arm and took a very close examination of my hand.

“What the hell?” I asked.

“I’m looking at your hand.”

“I can see that.”

“No, look at your hand.”

I pulled my hand away from her and took a good long look at it. There was something different about it, but I couldn’t place it. Was it my fingers? Was it my fingernails? What was it? “I don’t get it.”

She held her own hand out and put mine right up against it. “Look.”

That was creepy. Our hands looked identical. If somebody was looking at our hands, the only difference being that Melanie had painted fingernails.

2.

I sat on my bed and looked at my hands for awhile. It was weird how much they looked like Melanie’s. My nails looked a little different, but that was about it. When had that happened? Why hadn’t I noticed it before Melanie pointed it out?

I got up and grabbed my tablet, then returned to my bed. I tapped on the internet icon and stared at the Google homepage for awhile. What would I look up? I set the tablet back down on my night stand and laid down.

I felt myself drifting off to sleep, and the last thing that crossed my mind before sleep overtook me was how my fingernails would look with nail polish on them.

3.

“C’mon!” I said, trying to draw Steve’s attention. He wasn’t really talking to me. “You said you wanted to hang out more, so why are you the one who doesn’t want to hang out now?”

He shook his head. “I just… How is it gonna be fun sitting around watching you do your stuff?”

“‘Do my stuff’? What? That doesn’t even make sense.”

He sighed. “Y’know, like when you try on clothes or paint your nails, that sort of stuff. Girl stuff.”

Ugh! Really? “How often do I do ‘girl stuff’ around you? Huh? Last time we hung out, all we did was watch movies.” I plopped down on the couch beside him. I was happy I was wearing shorts. If I was wearing as skirt, I couldn’t just plop down. “Most of the time all we do is play video games. How has anything really changed?”

He looked away from me. “How can you say that? Everything has changed, and I think you’re the only one who doesn’t notice it.”

How could he say that? Of course I noticed what was changing, but how has our relationship changed?

“I… I’ve noticed,” I said, though my voice sounded weaker than I thought it should. “But… We’re still friends, right?”

He turned back to me and said, “Wake up, bro, Mom and Dad are on the phone.”

4.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw Melanie standing there holding the phone. I reached out, grabbed it, and then pulled the covers back up over my head. “Hello?”

Mom’s voice came over the phone. “Melanie, put your brother on the phone, seriously.”

What? What?! “What?!” I asked. I sat up and brushed my bangs away from my face. Wait, my bangs? I don’t have bangs. What the hell?

“I asked you to put Adam on the phone, remember?”

“Mom, this is Adam!”

“Sweetie, please, this got annoying when you two were little.”

Melanie grabbed the phone from my hands and pressed a button. “Mom, he’s not joking, that was Adam. I put us on speaker.”

Mom asked, “Adam? Honey? Say something.”

For some stupid reason, the only thing that popped into my head was: “Can you hear me now?” That was when I heard it. I didn’t exactly sound like Melanie, but I didn’t sound like a boy anymore.

“What’s going on? Why do you sound so strange?”

Melanie sighed. “I was gonna call you guys and tell you later. Adam’s kinda… Well… He’s…”

“He’s what?” Mom asked. “You’re what, Adam?”

I really didn’t want to answer that question. I knew I’d need to eventually, but that didn’t make this any easier. How do you tell your parents that you’re turning from boy to girl? How do you explain to them that a sorceress cursed you because you broke into a dumbass’s house to steal something back from him? How? How?

A part of my brain told me that this shouldn’t be hard at all. Tell the truth, that part of my brain told me. They’ll understand. Except that they won’t, obviously. The whole thing sounded so damned fantastical that if somebody really understood it, they should be committed to a nut house.

“Adam?” Mom asked again. Every time she asked, I wanted to hang up the phone, but I knew that’d scare her even more. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

“I’m… Turning into a girl, Mom.” Was that so hard? Was that so hard? Yes. Yes, it was. That was ridiculously painful. I felt like I’d just told her that I was dying. I almost felt like I was dying. Well, technically, I was. Male Adam was dying, so very slowly, while Female Amanda was just as slowly being born.

Except it didn’t feel like I was changing so slowly. I reached under my shirt and scratched at my itchy chest. That was when I felt a strange puffiness to my chest. Oh. Great. I knew what was coming next. What’s that one thing a boy notices about a girl? Every boy I came into contact with was now going to start noticing me.

Well, that’s not true. They weren’t big enough to even be noticed under my shirt. For at least a little while, I’d still be able to somewhat pass for a boy.

“What did you say?” Mom asked, bringing me out of my boob daze and back into the current situation.

“I said I’m turning into a girl, Mom. It’s… A whole weird story, but it’s happening. By Friday, I’m not gonna be Adam anymore.”

“Honey, that’s impossible.”

Melanie shook her head, like Mom could see her. “He’s not lying, Mom. He looks more like a girl than he does a boy, now.”

That wasn’t a good thing to hear. I was only three days into this curse and already I looked more female than male? Crap. How much more female would I get in the next four days? Or would I be done on day six? Crap, crap, crappity, crap, crap.

5.

“Does anyone else know about this?” Dad asked. I could hear the concern in his voice.

“Just Steve, since he was there.”

“The Garnet boy doesn’t know anything?”

“I dunno. I don’t think he’d try to play last night if did know about the curse.”

“Why didn’t you call straight away?”

I laughed. ‘Would you have really believed me? This doesn’t sound crazy to you?”

“I didn’t say that, kiddo, but you still should have told us.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see that. “I know. I was just… Scared.”

I hoped he would understand that. I’ve never seen my dad scared of anything, but I assumed he’d been scared of something before. Hell, maybe he was scared now. I didn’t know.

“Dad… What’s gonna happen to me?” I asked. My fear was asking the question, really.

He didn’t say anything at first, then, “I dunno, kiddo. I dunno.”

6.

I walked into Melanie’s room and sat down at her vanity. She wasn’t home, so she wouldn’t see me. Not that I cared, it would probably be a good thing if Melanie were here. She was taking this all very well, and I was pleased about that. I don’t know if I could stand teasing from her while I’m turning into a girl.

I looked at all the make-up she had just sitting around on her vanity. She didn’t have too much, but it looked like a lot to me. Mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, blush, lipstick, four or five different shades of each. How did she keep track of all this?

I took a breath, then reached for one of the lipstick tubes. Why was I even considering this? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid… I pulled the cap off and found a weird dark purple shade. Do girls really like weird colors like this on their lips? It looked goofy as hell to me. I took another breath and put the tube to my lips.

What was I doing? Why was I doing this? What if Melanie used this the last time she had the flu? I could be giving myself the flu. I’m an idiot. I drew the lipstick across my upper lip, then my lower lip, then put the cap back on the tube.

I puckered my lips and looked at myself in the mirror. I did a surprisingly adequate job, just a little mistake on my lower lip.

I took stock of my face for the first time in the last two days. Overall, I didn’t look too different. My eyes a little wider, my lips a little fuller (though that could have been because of the lipstick), I swear my cheeks were a little puffier. I reached up and touched the barrettes that Melanie had given me to clip my bangs back. That was the closest she’d come to making fun of me, but she’d apologized for it straight away. These are pink, but that shouldn’t bother you, too much, she’d said, sorry, bro… I didn’t mean it like that.

I sighed. Time to wash off the lipstick. I stood up and made my way for the door, then stopped. Melanie’s closet was right there, right beside the door. I sighed again. Yet another thing that I really shouldn’t be doing, but since I’d be wearing stuff like that soon enough…

I reached inside and grabbed a tank top and a pair of shorts that were easy to get to. I took off my own shorts and shirt and then my own morbid curiosity made me take my underwear off. I’d already promised to do the laundry today, Melanie wouldn’t get too mad, would she? I reached into her underwear drawer and laughed as loudly as I could. Right on top was the pair of panties that had been involved in the event that had caused this whole sad affair in the first place.

I pulled the panties out of the drawer and unfolded them. They were pink with an orange waistband. They looked so tiny, like they’d never fit any girl that ever wore them. Again, I asked myself why I was doing this. I sat down on the edge of Melanie’s bed, slipped one leg in one hole, and the other leg in the other hole, then pulled the panties up. After getting them over my hips, I took another breath and looked at myself in her wall mirror.

I started to sweat some. I didn’t look goofy at all. The bulge in the front of the panties wasn’t even that big. I’d never say I was the biggest guy around anyway, but I wasn’t that small before.

I put my shrunken “head” out of my mind and reached for the shorts. They were tighter than the jeans I’d worn the night before, but still not painful, or even awkward. Another look in the mirror, and I’d almost swear I was a girl from the waist down. What little hair I had on my legs didn’t even hinder the image.

I grabbed the shirt and pulled it down over my head. As the shirt touched my nipples, I felt something… Odd. Was this feeling just the shirt rubbing against my nipples? I pulled the shirt back off and looked at my chest in the mirror. Were my nipples a little more puffy? I looked down and saw, for the first time, the slight curve of my breasts. They were actually starting to pop out, as opposed to how they were even this morning.

The reality of the situation was hitting me hard, now. I couldn’t wear any of Melanie’s shirts with my nipples - no, let’s just say it, my breasts - this sensitive, and wearing one of my own shirts would be completely against what this little curiosity experiment was all about. I knew exactly what I’d need to do, and the idea of it was embarrassing. Almost as embarrassing as I knew it would eventually be to go into a store and get the measuring done. I pulled open the drawer underneath Melanie’s panty drawer and found them. Something compelled me to actually try and match tops to bottoms, so I found the bra that went with the panties I was wearing.

Dammit, this was awkward. Not trying to put one on, just the idea that I would need to put one on. I slipped my arms through the straps and struggled to reach behind me and get the hooks together in the back. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to do it after a little trial and error. Then I adjusted it on my chest, made it feel a little more comfortable. Yet another look in the mirror and the image of me wearing a bra and girl shorts was just creepy. I pulled the tank top on yet again and the image was complete.

Amanda didn’t actually look too out of place. Really, she looked very natural, very real.

I sat down on Melanie’s bed, my eyes never leaving that reflection. I wasn’t even Adam anymore, was I?

~o~O~o~

1.

The doorbell rang, pulling me out of my horrified daze. Oh, for God’s sake, was Steve here? He really wanted to hang out a lot.

Did that have anything to do with my dreams?

I left Melanie’s room and made my way downstairs. I made it to the door just as Steve was about to ring the doorbell again, and watched his eyes widen in surprise. “What?” I asked, then realized that he hadn’t heard my voice all day. “Look, I know I sound a little different, but that’s all that’s changed, okay?”

He shook his head slowly. “No… No it ain’t…”

I raised an eyebrow, then I realized what he was looking at. Me. His eyes were tracing my body from head to toe and back again. Suddenly, I felt a little chilly, and rubbed at my exposed arms. “Are you gonna hurry up and come inside, I’m kinda cold.”

“Um… Yeah,” he said, nervousness in his voice.

He came in and sat down on the couch, and I sat down beside him. “So… What’s going on?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Well, I’m kinda bored, so I came over here. You’re wearing short shorts and a tank top. And we’re not really doing much of anything.”

Dammit, dammit, dammit… Why had I decided now would be a good time to try on Melanie’s clothes? I finish doing that and suddenly my best friend arrived, I was just stupid.

Before I could suggest anything, Steve said, “You look nice, by the way.”

I blushed. I blushed! He complimented me, and I blushed! What the hell was wrong with me? “Thanks,” I said. Stupid goosebumps, causing me to to be nervous now. “Wow… It’s funny how something so minor as clothes can cause so much awkward between us, huh?”

He let out a chuckle. “Yeah.”

“Do you wanna do something?”

“Like what?”

“I dunno. We never finished playing Resident Evil Six the other day.”

He shook his head. “Nah. Let’s find something else to play.”

“Okay. I don’t have a whole lot more co-op games, though.”

He shrugged. “We don’t have to play a co-op game. You could play a game while I watch, I could play a game while you watch.”

I nodded. “Okay. Go pick something.”

He nodded, then got up and walked up the stairs. I just sat there, hugging my knees to my chest. Wait, what?! That is so something that girls do! Why was I doing it?! I uncurled and let my feet touch the floor again. I didn’t like what I’d just done. Why had I hugged my knees to my chest? Was I… Scared? Was I… Concerned?

Was I happy to be around Steve?

He came back down the stairs with a stack of games and set them down on the coffee table. “Well… Here’s our options.”

“How many of my games didn’t you grab?”

He flashed a weak smile and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Um… Two?”

I rolled my eyes. “Alright, let’s do process of elimination, then.”

2.

I sighed. Twenty minutes of going through all my games, and we couldn’t think of anything to play. I just sat back and propped my feet up on the coffee table. “For the love of God, just pick at random!” I said. It brought attention back to my voice, because it sounded even more feminine than it had before.

He sat back down on the couch beside me. “Hell, let’s just watch a movie.”

I shrugged. “Okay with me.” I picked up the TV remote, flipped to a Starz channel and caught the tail end of the credits of Iron Man 3. “Ugh, they’re still showing this? Aren’t there better movies they could show?”

Steve laughed. “You’ve never told me why you don’t like Iron Man. What’s wrong with ‘em?”

I shook my head. I dunno. I’ve just never liked them that much. I liked Thor better.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I wonder why.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He lightly poked me in the arm. “Look at how you’re dressed!”

“What? I’m gonna havta wear this stuff eventually!” I was trying to justify this. Why was I trying to justify this? “Besides, at least I’m not wearing the same ratty jeans I wore yesterday, like you are!”

He burst into laughter, which surprised me. “You are such a girl now! You’re trying to ‘fix’ me already!”

I blushed again. “No I’m not! You’re just… y’know… You have other pants, right?”

He nodded through his laughter. “I can’t believe this. You’re wearing your sister’s clothes, and you’re trying to fix me, how are you not a girl right now?”

“I’m just… I’m not!” I was lying to myself and I knew that.

“You’re even wearing lipstick, man!”

Oh, crap, I forgot about that. I brought my hand up to my lips, like covering them up would erase the purple stuff on them. Why had I forgot about that? Why hadn’t I washed this stuff off while he was looking through all my games?

“Um… Yeah?” I said, with obvious embarrassment in my voice.

He patted me on my exposed shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. I think it looks good on you.”

I swear my face had to be beet-red with how much I was blushing, and I could almost feel my masculinity draining away as I asked, “Really?” Why had I asked that? What possible reason could I have for asking that? Steve was my best friend, and the very reason I got into this situation, not a potential boyfriend!

“What?” he asked, taking close observation of my face. I must have had a disturbed look, or something.

“I think you should leave,” I said, and I meant it. This was getting out of hand. Steve wasn’t just looking like my best friend anymore, and that scared me. “Please, please leave.”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “What is it?”

“I just… I want you to leave, okay?”

He took a deep breath. “I have something to tell you. I’ve been having these weird dreams, ever since we met that old witch. One of them had me walking into your house and finding you standing there, but you weren’t a guy. There was another one where I was complaining about how we don’t spend much time together anymore, and another one - “

I cut him off. “Where I’m the one complaining because you don’t want to spend time with me?”

He nodded. “Yeah. We were in here, and you were all bouncy and girly and… I think I realized that my punishment would be us drifting apart. I don’t want that to happen, because you’re my best friend, y’know?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“So, please, Amanda, don’t ask me to leave again.”

Suddenly, I felt something welling up inside me, and it was anger. He just called me Amanda. He just called me that goddamn name! No! “Get out!” I said, my voice firm.

“But, after I just - “

I cut him off again. “I said get out!” I yelled this time. Even with my more feminine voice, there was a bit of the authority that I’d felt as a boy.

Steve got up off the couch, nodded, and left, just like that. No muss, no fuss, no protest. He was there and then he was just gone. I just sat there on the couch, shaking, shuddering, shivering…

Angry.

3.

It took me at least an hour to stand up from the couch. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to do anything. I was angry. Angry at Steve, angry at that sorceress, even angry at Melanie for no reason whatsoever, just because I was wearing her clothes. I didn’t have any reason to be angry at Melanie, or Steve (really), I should have just been angry at the sorceress.

I walked upstairs to my room and practically dropped onto my bed. My tablet was still on my nightstand, so I grabbed it, tapped the camera icon, flipped the camera to the front lens and looked at myself, really looked at myself. My face in particular. It was obvious why Steve had called me Amanda, because I didn’t look like Adam at all anymore. If somebody was just looking at my face, they’d wonder how I could have ever been Adam. I still had three days of this, how much more changing could I do? Well, aside from Little Adam shrinking inside me completely, and my breasts growing more.

I tapped out of the camera and got to the internet, where I searched for all those nutjobs I’d read about before. I quickly registered at the forum and started a new thread.

My name is Amanda, and I used to be Adam.

4.

I sat on my bed, hugging my knees to my chest, and waited for Melanie to come home. I didn’t have much else to do. I had the TV on, but I wasn’t watching anything. The thread I’d started had taken off, with over sixty different people saying things ranging from absolutely believing me to thinking I’m, and I quote, “Some dumb cunt who wants people to think she’s nuts.” I rolled my eyes at that guy.

I heard the front door open and Melanie did something downstairs, then she climbed the stairs. “Adam? You still here?”

“Yeah,” I said, “in my room.”

She walked into the room and stopped dead in her tracks. It probably looked odd to her to see her younger brother wearing her clothes - not to mention her lipstick - and not looking strange in any way. “Um… Is there anything wrong?” she asked.

I stood up. “Look at this.”

“Yeah, you managed to pick clothes I don’t wear anymore, what about it?”

“No! Look at this!”

“Bro, I don’t - “

“Mel! I’m… I’m not Adam anymore!”

She sighed. “Look, bro, I hate to tell you this, but you really haven’t been Adam for a little while now. Pretty much since I woke you up this morning.”

“And you didn’t say anything?”

She walked over to me and sat down on my bed. “What would you have said if it was me or Steve that was changing? I wasn’t trying to make you feel worse. I already felt bad making you talk to Mom and Dad this morning.”

I sat down beside her. “What’s this mean for school tomorrow? How is anybody gonna recognize me?”

“We’ll see the principal tomorrow morning, it’s that simple.”

I laughed. “Yeah, what’s the principal gonna say about this? What are we going to tell him? ‘Hi, Mr. Malski, a sorceress cursed me and I’m turning into a girl during this last week of school’?”

She put an arm around me. It felt comforting, to have my sister hugging me. “We’ll think of something. Don’t worry.”

I put my head on her shoulder as she put her other arm around me. This wasn’t the same type of brother/sister hug that I’d experienced before, this was a hug between sisters, a knowing, loving hug that siblings of opposite genders just don’t understand. It was a feeling I’d never had before.

I felt a tear drip down my cheek. Adam was gone. He was gone, he was dead, he was never coming back.

I wasn’t crying because he was gone, I wasn’t crying because I was happy, I wasn’t crying for any reason that made sense.

I was crying because I accepted what had happened.

Okay, as the story is nearing its end over on TG Storytime, I've decided to just cut down to one week between chapter bundles here. This way, you guys will likely get the story's final chapter at the same time the TG Storytime folks do! Yay!

1.

There was a knock on my bedroom door. I opened it to see Steve standing there, which surprised me. “Didn’t I scare you off yesterday?”

He shrugged. “You’re my friend, why wouldn’t I come back?”

“Because I was rude to you?”

“So what? You’re my friend, remember?”

“You mean you’re not mad at me?”

He took me by the hand and pulled me a little closer. “Of course not. You’re just… Going through a rough time. Nobody can blame you for how you’re feeling.”

I blushed. “Thanks.”

He smiled. “You’re wearing that lipstick again.”

I nodded. “Turns out I like it. Do you?”

He patted me on the shoulder. “On you, I like anything.”

I giggled. “Really?” He was buttering me up, clearly, but I was enjoying it.

“Yeah.” He brushed his hand against my cheek. “You look pretty no matter what.”

I was turning so red, it was embarrassing. “So… You ready for school?”

He shook his head. “Not just yet.”

“Steve?”

“I just… Please, just this once?”

“Just this once what?”

He shook his head. “Fuck it.” He leaned down and put his lips right to mine, and his arms around me. I rested my hands on his chest and I could feel his heartbeat. The world faded around us, and I just let him kiss me. It felt so wonderful, and I didn’t want it to end.

His hand slipped from my hip to my chest, and I felt him squeezing my breast through my shirt. I moved one of my hands to cover his, to make him squeeze harder. It felt so wonderful.

“Adam? Adam! Wake up!” someone said from somewhere, and I felt Steve fading away from me…

2.

Mom was gently shaking me awake. I groaned and turned over onto my side. “I don’t wanna get up…” I said. Wait, when did Mom get here? I didn’t care, I just wanted to sleep.

She smacked me on the butt. “I said get up, young lady.”

“Ugh…” I groaned. I turned back onto my back. “Did you just call me young lady?”

“You look more like a young lady.”

I turned back onto my side. “What time is it?”

“It’s seven forty-five, you’ve got about an hour before school.”

“Why’d you wake me up?”

She walked around to sit down on the side of the bed I was facing. “Because you were moaning, and rubbing your chest.”

Now I was awake. “Um… I was?”

She smiled. “I was a fifteen year old girl once, and you’ve got an older sister. If you think I don’t know what a wet dream is, you’re very wrong about that.”

I sat up and scratched at my left breast. Must have been the one I was rubbing, because it felt kinda weird now. “Do most girls have wet dreams that just involve kissing?”

“Is that all your’s was?”

“Uh-huh.”

“All it was?”

“Well, and Steve was… um... “

She ruffled my hair a little. “Dreaming about a boy counts.”

I hugged my knees to my chest, and I could already tell my breasts were a little bigger. “When did you and Dad get home?”

“Early this morning. Your dad came in here to see you and nearly blew his top when he saw you wearing one of your sister’s nighties.” She tugged at the shoulder strap of the nightie I was wearing. “He’s a little worried about you.”

“You mean because I’m not really Adam anymore?”

She smirked. “No, he’s worried because you didn’t take self-defense classes like your sister did.” She hugged me closer. “He’s actually happier that you’re a girl now than I am.”

“How come?”

“He wanted only daughters. When your dad and I got married, he told me his dream was to be the kind of dad who scares his daughter’s boyfriend into submission by showing off his gun collection.”

I giggled. “That’s funny.”

“I wanted all boys, so that I wouldn’t have to help anybody out with feminine needs. My mother was horrible at teaching me, I was worried I’d be just as bad.”

I smiled at that, then my smiled dropped. I wondered how long it was going to be before I had my first period.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Just thinking about periods.”

“They’re nothing to worry about, sweetie, just a part of life.”

“That’s what Melanie said, too.”

“And we’re here to help. Just don’t ask your dad, because he’s clueless.”

3.

I stood in the shower and enjoyed the feeling of the water hitting my breasts. I was right, they were bigger than they had been when I went to sleep. It amazed me just how different a shower could feel when you had breasts for the water to drip off of.

I rubbed shampoo in my hair and sighed in frustration. I had way too much hair! How did girls deal with this? Rinsing it was a nightmare. I grabbed the body wash that Dad and I used, then set it back down. It just didn’t smell right, now. Instead, I grabbed the stuff that Mom and Melanie used and decided to use that. It smelled a lot better. I guess my tastes were becoming more feminine, too. Great. Stupid sorceress. Couldn’t I just be a tomboy?

There was a knock on the door, then the door opened, somebody walked in, and then Melanie pulled the shower curtain open. “Hey!” I shouted, then hurried to cover my breasts and what was left of my privates.

She smirked. “Calm down, okay? It’s not like I haven’t seen a pair of boobs, or something that looks somewhat similar to a penis.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you’ve seen mine!”

“Like I said, calm down. I’m here to teach you how to shave.” She held up shaving cream and a pack of pink ladies’ razors. “It’s about time you learn how hard it is to stay pretty for boys.”

I blushed. “I’m not trying to look pretty!”

“You smell like you’re trying to be pretty.”

“It’s just body wash!”

“Hey, take it easy. I’m only teasing a little bit.” She sprayed some shaving cream onto one palm. “You can’t expect me not to tease my little sister a little.”

“What are you doing now?”

She started rubbing the cream onto my legs. “Putting shaving cream on your legs, obviously.”

“Do we need to do this now?”

“We do if you’re gonna wear those shorts I picked out for you.”

“Why can’t I wear pants?”

“Because all my pants are in the laundry that you forgot to do last night.”

I rolled my eyes. “I was a little busy almost flirting with Steve, it was a busy night!”

She smiled. “It’s okay. You didn’t have a problem wearing shorts last night.”

“Well, no, but that was just practice.”

She opened up the package of razors and handed me one. “Okay, we’re gonna start with the right leg first, understand? If you knick yourself, don’t worry, nobody gets it right the first time.”

I nodded, then took a deep breath. I knelt down and started down by my ankle, then brought the razor up. I was about to pull the razor away quickly, but Melanie put her hand on mine and made me pull away slowly. I nodded, then began back down by my ankle again. I finished that straight line, then continued on right beside it. Shaving your legs wasn’t too difficult, just tedious. I knicked myself once on my right leg, right on the area right where my sock would end. After that, we moved onto my left leg, and I made a couple more cuts. None too big that a band-aid wouldn’t cover them up, though.

Next we moved onto my armpits. I didn’t really understand why, considering I wasn’t going to be wearing a tank top this time, but Melanie said I needed the experience. I didn’t cut myself there at all. I toweled off, and then wrapped the towel around my chest, the way Mel taught me, then she blow dried and showed me how to style my hair into something that stopped my bangs from blocking my view.

“There, look? You look a lot better now, huh?” she asked, pointing out my reflection. I wasn’t really looking at my hair, though, I was looking at Amanda. This was her first public outing, her first time going to school. The one and only thing I found lucky was that this was the last four days of the school year. By next school year, everybody will likely have forgotten Adam. “Hey, didn’t you get the band-aids on good enough?” she asked, drawing my attention back to the real world.

“Huh?”

“Fresh blood, on the floor there,” she said, pointing to the floor. I checked out my band-aids, but they were on well.

“Um… It’s not from my legs.”

I saw a look of confusion on her face, then a look of recognition. “Uh… Time for you to be introduced to Ms. Playtex.”

I felt my eyes widen. “Huh?”

She straightened up a little, put a hand on my shoulder, then put on this goofy voice. “Amanda Richards, you have now become a woman.”

I gulped. “No…”

“Yep.”

“Un-uh.”

“Yeah.”

“But, I’m not done changing!”

She shrugged. “So? Maybe your periods aren’t connected to your physical progress, but your mental acceptance? You did kinda accept being Amanda last night, y’know.”

“I don’t even know what bathroom to use at school!”

She put on an annoyed look. “You’re a girl, you use the girl’s restroom, it’s that simple. Everybody who looks at you is gonna see a girl, so don’t worry about it.” She patted me on the back. Either way, time to show you where Mom keeps the pads.”

“You mean you and Mom don’t use tampons?”

“No, we do, but you can’t exactly use one. And Mom keeps pads in reserve in case we run out of tampons.”

“Oh.”

“It’s nothing to worry about. It means you’re a healthy young woman, remember?”

I sighed.

4.

The girl in Melanie’s mirror was me. No doubt about it, no way I was hiding it, I didn’t even want to hide it. I was Amanda now, and Amanda didn’t have any clothes of her own, so she was borrowing her sister’s.

Except that wasn’t really true. Melanie gave me that bra and panties I’d worn last night, and the shorts and tank top, but only because she was going to throw those out at some point in the near future. Now she had a little sister to pass stuff down onto. Yay.

I was still wearing shorts, but these were a little longer than the ones I wore the night before, they came to almost my knees. One of the band-aids on my left leg was covered up. The shirt I was wearing was a very plain shirt, even if it was almost skin-tight. Boys were definitely going to be staring at a certain place on me with this shirt.

Melanie grabbed me by the arm and practically tossed me into her vanity chair. “Hey!” I shouted.

She held up her index finger. “No ‘heys’, young lady. Today, you’re introduced to nail polish.”

“Why?”

“Why not? You were wearing lipstick last night.”

“Lipstick is easier to put on.”

“And you did a very good job, considering it was your first time. But that doesn’t matter. We’ve got twenty minutes before Mom takes us to school, and I’m painting your fingernails, got it?”

“You’re sure we have time?”

“Yeah, the stuff I’m putting on you dries pretty quick.”

I sighed. “Fine.”

“How’s that same purple as the lipstick work for you?”

I shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess.”

“Good, because that’s what I’m using, since you’re also gonna wear lipstick.”

“This is the first time I’m going to school as a girl! Why are you trying to make me uber-girly on my first day?”

She shook her head. “I’m not trying to make you ‘uber-girly’, even though you should really understand that saying ‘uber-girly’ makes you seem a bit more girly than you probably think you are, I’m trying to make you fit in.”

Dammit, she was making sense. Dammit, dammit, dammit. “Fine. Just hurry up with the nail polish.”

She smirked. “It’s not that simple. I’ve gotta shape your nails, too. They look too much like boy’s nails right now.”

I sighed. “Okay. Do it.”

“You’ve gotta pay attention to what I do, because I don’t wanna have to give you a manicure every time you wanna change your nail polish.”

Dammit!

5.

Dad was laughing at me from behind his newspaper. “Stop!” I implored.

“You’re fitting into your new role pretty well, Amy.”

Amy actually sounded pretty good as a shortened form of Amanda. Huh. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, wait, because I’d only decided to accept the name ‘Amanda’ last night. Silly me. “But that doesn’t mean you have to laugh at me!”

He put the paper down, reached over to me and squeezed my shoulder. “Somebody has to tease you, kiddo, and since it hasn’t been your mother or your sister, I’ll do it for them.”

“I thought you were the one who wanted only daughters.”

Mom walked into the room, phone to her ear. “No, I told you, we’re changing Adam to Amanda, and gender from male to female. How can this be this difficult? What? It was a sudden and surprising life decision, but we’ve decided to accept it, okay?” She hung up the phone and nearly slammed it down on the kitchen table. “God! Why is it so hard to help someone along after a ‘sudden and surprising life decision’?” She pointed at me. “This wouldn’t be so difficult if you hadn’t gotten yourself cursed.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” I knew she was joking, why did I screech like that? Actually, my voice seemed a little higher. Not a noticeable degree, but it seemed higher than it was yesterday. Then again, I wasn’t screeching yesterday, I was mostly yelling at Steve.

“Sweetie, your mother’s not blaming you,” Dad said.

Mom sighed. “No, I’m not blaming you. But you do have to be ready for school.”

“I am. And I know you weren’t blaming me, I don’t know why I said that.”

“Still, it’s gonna take me all day trying to get this straightened out. It’s amazing how difficult it is to get someone’s social security information changed. When you go and get a job, it’ll be a damn nightmare for you.” She picked up her car keys from the small basket they were kept in on the center of the table. “Okay, girls, let’s get going.”

6.

It was time to do this. To talk to the principal and get this dealt with. I took a deep breath, and tried my damndest to keep my butt bolted to the seat of the car while Melanie pulled me out. “It’s gonna be okay, Amy, don’t worry.”

I shook my head. “That’s what you think. We’re gonna walk in there, tell him some bullshit story about me getting a sex change, or something, and he’s gonna laugh at me.”

“No he won’t! Mr. Malski’s a cool guy. Remember when you egged that restroom last year and all he did was make you clean it up without putting it on your record?”

“And do you really think he’s going to believe that the boy who did that had some deep desire to be a girl?”

She shrugged. “Let’s go find out.”

I sighed. Game time, day-of-reckoning time. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

We walked into the building, and nobody seemed to notice me. Nobody pointed at me and laughed, or whispered to themselves some weird gossip that they thought up in twenty seconds, they just kept on doing what they were doing before I walked into the building. It was like I was invisible. That was a good thing.

We got to the principal’s office, the door was open, we walked inside and sat down at the chairs across the desk from his chair, which was turned to face away from us. Was he sitting in it? I doubted it, Mr. Malski was a big guy, we’d likely be able to see his shoulders at least.

The chair swiveled around and my heart felt like it was falling through a black hole.

It was her! It was the sorceress!

“Nice to meet you again, Amanda,” she said, a wicked smile on her face.

~o~O~o~

1.

I wanted to run. I wanted to run back home, lock myself in my room, and never come to school again. Why was she here?! Why?! What did she want to do to me now? I almost felt like I was going to pee myself.

“Are you the witch that cursed Amy?” Melanie asked.

The sorceress looked over at me. “Amy? It’s a nice way to shorten Amanda. I like it.”

Melanie slammed her fist on the desk. “Answer the question!”

The sorceress made a tsk noise over and over again. “A witch? Is that what she told you I was? I’m a sorceress, young lady.”

“Why are you here?”

“It just so happens that when Mr. Malski retires at the end of the year, I’m taking over. I’m familiarizing myself with the office today.”

I finally found my voice. “Did you do this just to watch me, Steve and Dean?”

She was still smirking, but she shook her head. “Not at all, Amy. I was selected for a few specific reasons. I’m qualified, I’m a hard worker, and Mr. Malski happens to be my father.”

That was confusing. When I first met this woman, she looked like she was eighty. “A-what?”

“If you thought the old woman who greeted you and Steve last Friday was what I really looked like, you’re mistaken. It’s just a form I take whenever I see people doing something illegal. They generally find it amusing to be caught by a frail old woman. You should have seen young Mr. Garnet when he was greeted by an elderly woman he never knew lived next door to him.”

“What all did you do to him as a punishment?”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “You still believe these to be punishments? That’s a very false belief, Ms. Richards.”

“Then what is this? What’s the point behind changing me into a girl or taking away Dean’s basketball skills or doing nothing to Steve?”

“Your life was written on your face the moment I met you. You had little drive for yourself, you liked to please your friends and family, you didn’t want, like a normal human being. Steve didn’t think anything for anyone, and mostly cared for himself, he wouldn’t have cared if he was left alone by everyone around him. Dean was a jock who believed he had the right do whatever he wanted, such as when he and his friends committed the panty raid. You think this is a curse, Amanda, but you’re wrong.”

“Whaddya mean?” I asked.

“These are challenges.”

2.

I sat there feeling a little dumbfounded. Challenges? Seriously? Was this woman as out of her mind as I felt she was? “What are you talking about?”

“This all sounds crazy,” Melanie said, folding her arms under her breasts. “How could these be challenges?”

The sorceress - Ms. Malski, I guess - sat back further in her seat. Her smile didn’t leave her face, and I wanted to punch it. “Dean needs to overcome his belief that a ‘sissy’ is just a weakling. When you see him out in the hallway a little later, you’ll see he’s done nothing to accept that idea at all.”

How would Dean look now? He was just playing basketball poorly when I saw him on Sunday, was he visibly feminine now?

She continued, “Steve needs to overcome his selfishness. I’m all but certain that had he told you what you were getting into that night, you would have stayed at home. Instead, he held that information back from you and forced you to help him.”

Overcome his selfishness? Steve wasn’t overly selfish, at least no more than any other teenager. And I really could say no, even when he doesn’t tell me what we’re doing. I just don’t, because he’s my friend.

The bell rang, we had five minutes to get to class. “Alright, girls, time for you to get to your classes.”

I stood up. “Wait, what’s my challenge?”

She ignored my question. “Amanda, you’ll find that your teachers have been told about your situation. They believe you’ve had gender reassignment surgery, but you’re allowed to use the girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. I imagine there’ll be a little bit of gossip about you over the next few days, but don’t worry too much about it.”

“What’s my challenge?” I asked again, but she stood up and walked past us. Melanie and I stared at one another for a second, then followed her out into the hallway.

3.

My first class of my last week of school with at least a little masculinity. Granted, I was also having my first period at the same time, but even though Little Adam was tiny, he was still there for a little bit longer. Didn’t give me a bulge, I noticed. Sigh…

My first class was algebra. Mrs. Williams was the teacher, and she gave me a somewhat disgusted look when I walked into the room. Nobody else seemed to care that where Adam Richards was, Amanda Richards replaced him. How are girls who used to be boys referred to? Trans-girls? You’d think a trans-girl showing up out of the blue would be at least noteworthy to them.

I walked my desk and sat down, waited for Mrs. Williams to take role call. I heard somebody behind me whispering to somebody else, which actually relieved me. Better to be the subject of whispers than of silence.

Much to my surprise, nothing about class changed. I don’t know why I thought it would, considering I was just as decent at algebra as I was when I was a boy. I almost fell asleep in the middle of class, which could have been related to my change, I wasn’t sure.

When the bell rang, I gathered up my stuff like I always did. Something about this all just felt too normal. Why wasn’t somebody jumping up and shouting “Adam’s a crossdresser!” or something like that?

As I went to stand up, I nearly collided with Jake Matthews. “Whoa,” he said, quickly stepping out of the way. “You okay?”

I flashed a slight smirk. “Yeah, just… Today’s been weird.”

He nodded. “Um… Adam, right?”

I shook my head. “Not so much anymore.”

“What name did you pick?”

I didn’t pick it, but… “Amanda.”

He chuckled. “That about makes sense. People have been talking about you all day.”

This was the first class of the day, man. “Really? Nobody’s said a whole lot to me.”

“I bet a lot of people got it out of the systems on Sunday. That’s when I noticed you.”

Really? People saw me on Sunday at that basketball game? Holy shit, and I thought I was being really low profile. Who noticed me?! “You saw me at the game?”

“Yeah. You were hanging on to Steve’s arm, I noticed.”

What?! “Huh? I wasn’t hanging onto his arm.”

“Not literally, but you two were sitting together, and he had his arm around you a few times.”

Did he? Had I let him put his arm around me? Why would I have let him do that? Then again, I do kinda remember asking him to move his arm at least once. Crap, was I basically flirting with him on Sunday? “Did I look like I enjoyed it?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. You didn’t seem to mind. Why?”

I shook my head. “Not important. I’m just… It’s been a busy weekend.”

I walked out into the hallway and was immediately struck by a surprising sight, and I knew exactly why nobody had laughed at me since I got to school. Dean Garnet, standing at his locker, wearing a light blue blouse and a flower print skirt and a pair of sandals. His buddies were snickering at him from a couple lockers away, and he looked very red-faced.

Wow, when Ms. Malski said he’d be a sissy, she wasn’t kidding. He was even holding his books like a girl did - like I was doing, actually - and he’d done an even better job shaving his legs than I had. What in the moist barrel of fucks?!

4.

My next class was a test. A big test. It’s the same test that I’m sure every transgender person has to go through (though not in the same way that I do), especially if they’re a teenager. I took a deep breath, then took the plunge…

...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the girls’ locker room looked exactly like the boys’ locker room. Exactly the same, except that there were no urinals in the restroom that was off to the side. It smelled a little different, because the boys’ locker room smelled like boy sweat, while the girls’ locker room seemed to smell more like hair spray.

I walked into the locker room like someone about to walk on hot coals. How would they react to me? Clearly my “transition” was well-known, or at least known enough. How would this go? How would this work? Crap, crap, crap, crap...

“So, did you really get a sex change, or are you just good at crossdressing?” Emily Clarke asked. I spun around and saw her standing there, topless, no bra whatsoever, just wearing a pair of tiny, tiny gym shorts. Four days ago, I’d be staring at her breasts because they were a pair of naked breasts in front of me. Now, I was comparing them to my breasts. “Hey, Richards, my eyes are up here.”

Dammit! Dammit! “Sorry, I was just…”

“Staring at my boobs? Yeah, I noticed.”

I sighed. “Not the way you think.”

“Whatever. You’re still a boy, obviously.”

Shake your head, shake your head, shake your head, shake your head, shake your head

I folded my arms under my breasts. “No, I’m not. I wasn’t staring at your boobs because I like looking at them, I was staring at your boobs because you’re bigger than me, and I was comparing myself to you.”

“Yeah, right. I’ll believe that when I see it.” She poked me in the left breast. Then again. Then again. It was hurting already because my breasts were really tender, but three pokes later, it was getting annoying. Then she suddenly grabbed me by the breast, and I kinda screeched and pulled back.

“What the hell?!” I screamed, my face turning red. Everyone was suddenly surrounding us.

“Okay, those feel really real. How the hell did you do that?”

“They are real!”

“How?”

Oh God, oh crap, oh nonononononononono… Why would I need to explain this on my first day? Why? What mean, rude, ridiculous God would make me explain this?! And on my first day!

“It’s obviously hormones,” someone said from behind me. I turned around and saw Shanna Duggan making her way through the crowd of other girls. “There’s a bunch of different kinds of hormones that doctors can prescribe that can cause that much growth in a few days.” She folded her arms under her breasts. “She’s obviously not finished her transition, right, Amy?”

I reached under my shirt and rubbed at my breast, but like I said, I was tender. “Yeah. Almost, but not done.”

Shanna glared at Emily. “See? She’s a girl, just like you and me. Just because she was born a boy doesn’t change anything.”

Emily shook her head. “Whatever.” She looked at me. “You wanna play dress-up and pretend you’re as much of a woman as the rest of us, go ahead. I don’t care. Maybe we’ll even go shopping together some day, since you don’t have too bad a taste in clothes, but don’t stare at my boobs again, understand?”

“Yeah,” I said. I breathed a sigh of relief. Yay! I could get changed now!

“Here,” Shanna said, holding something out for me. It was a sports bra.

“Huh?”

“I already know that Melanie doesn’t have any because I’ve had to loan her one before, so take it.”

“I didn’t even know you knew Melanie.”

“We used to be in the same grade, but I was held back this year. I didn’t need to take gym, I just like to.”

I took it and blushed, again. “Um… Thanks.”

She shook her head. “No prob. It’s a lot more comfortable than just letting your girls flop around while running the track.”

I shook my head. “No, I meant… With Emily.”

She flashed me a smirk. “Hey, my older sister went through this, it’s okay.”

“Your older sister?”

“Yeah, Kristin. She was born Kristopher, but she wasn’t right that way.”

Shanna had only moved to town a couple years ago, and I didn’t know she had a sister, let alone a sister who used to be a brother.

“Kinda like you,” she said.

“Huh?”

She gave me a look. “Seriously? You hadn’t noticed?”

“Noticed what?”

“Melanie told me you’ve never had a girlfriend, and that you always hang around your friend Steve. You do everything with him, and when he asks you to do something, you don’t have a problem doing it. Amy, even when you were Adam, you’ve always been Amy. Now, you’re just becoming who you should have been in the first place, as opposed to who life chose for you to be.”

I sat down on the cement bench in front of the lockers and thought about what she’d said. I looked back on my life as Adam, and I realized one very difficult, very obvious truth.

I really shouldn’t have been Adam.

5.

When I walked out of the locker room, a little self-conscious because of the stupid gym outfit we all had to wear. Boys had it easy, because they got a basic tee-shirt and looser shorts. Girls, on the other hand, got a pair of skimpy shorts and a tank top. It was like boys got to dress athletically, while girls had to dress more provocatively.

Okay, not provocatively, but less athletically than the boys do.

Wow, I think I’m turning into a feminist.

I glanced over at the boys standing around on their half of the gym. The gym attendance was set up so that boys were on one side of the gym (closest to their locker room door) and girls were on the other side of the gym (closer to our locker room door; wow, I’ve used it once and I’m already saying I belong to the girls’ locker room). At first, we were asked to sit down, but eventually, Coach Walker stopped caring and just told us to sound off when he took role call. For the most part, we didn’t even stick to the preset “sides” anymore.

This was no more apparent than when all the boys decided to walk over to our side of the gym and engage in conversations with their friends or girlfriends.

But nobody walked up to me.

I stayed mostly to myself, off to the side. I talked to Shanna a little bit, but she had her own friends to talk to, and I was kinda shy. I mainly just sat there, thinking about my life as Adam. Shanna said that I was the wrong person when I was Adam. Had I really been wrong? I didn’t feel like I’d been wrong. I mean, yeah, I’d never found a girl to date, and I did hang around Steve all the time, but Steve was my friend. And so what if I’d never dated a girl? Not everybody has to go through high school dating, do they?

I sat down on the floor and hugged my knees to my chest. I was doing a lot of that now, but then again, I don’t think I could do that as a boy. Was I the wrong person as Adam?

“Hey, Adam,” someone said. I looked up and saw Steve standing there, looking nervous. “Can we talk, or… Do you want me to go?”

I shook my head. “No. Sit down.”

He nodded, then sat down. “So… How ar - “

I cut him off. “Amanda.”

“Huh?”

“Amanda. My name’s Amanda. Or, Amy, if you want.”

He nodded. “I like Amy. What, uh… What changed?”

Wasn’t right that way, kinda like you

“Was I… Wrong... As Adam?”

He raised an eyebrow. “What?”

~o~O~o~

1.

“What are you talking about?” Steve asked.

I said, “Shanna told me that it was obvious to her that I was wrong as Adam, that I’m finally the way I was supposed to be as Amanda.”

“Do you think you are?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve never really given much thought to it. Until now, anyway. I didn’t really do much when I was Adam, did I?”

He shrugged, this time. “How can you really measure that?”

“I mean with my life. I haven’t done much with my life, have I?”

He lightly smacked me on the back of the head. “You’re fifteen! What could you have done?”

That made more sense than I was willing to admit, but I still felt conflicted about everything. Everything. Was that part of being a girl, or was I just torn between a new friend telling me that I’m better off as Amanda and my best friend telling me there was nothing wrong with Adam? I hated not knowing. I hated this whole thing. Shanna was nice, and she’d helped me out, but she put that thought into my head, and now I was going crazy.

“Yo! Studs and studdettes!” Coach Walker shouted as he walked into the gym. “Attendance time!” He rattled off the names one by one. I had to prod Steve into answering, because he was busy staring at me with a worried look on his face. “Richards!” He finally came to me.

“Here,” I said, “over here.”

“C’mon up here, Richards.”

I gulped audibly. “Good luck,” Steve said, patting me on the back. I nodded to him.

I walked up to Coach Walker and then waited for what he was going to say. He marked off a few things on the clipboard, then turned to me and said, “Were there any problems in the locker room?”

I shook my head. “Just a little thing, but it’s okay now.”

“A little thing?”

“Just a little mix-up with me and Emily.”

“Little?”

“Nothing too bad. We solved it pretty easy.”

He nodded. “Good. Change like this can often cause some major problems, I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

You don’t know the half of it, Coach… I wanted to say that. Wanted to. I couldn’t, though.

2.

The best part of the last few days of school was that gym class was pretty much an open social period. You didn’t have to do anything, or you could do anything athletic that you wanted. If you wanted to stand around the basketball hoops and talk, you could. If you wanted to run the track outside, you could. If you wanted to do some mixture of the two, dammit, you could!

Most people, however, just wanted to stand around and talk. Nobody had a problem that they had to do it in their gym clothes. Me, I just wanted to sit off to the side. I didn’t feel like doing anything athletic. Probably had something to do with menstruating. Steve sat beside me. I could tell this was getting awkward.

“I’m sorry,” I said, nudging the conversation forward.

“For what?” he asked.

“For yesterday. When you called me Amanda. I… I shouldn’t have been so mean to you. I was just… I didn’t know how easy it was gonna be to be Amanda.”

“Whaddya mean? This,” he pointed at how I was dressed, “was easy for you?”

I shook my head. “No. Yesterday when we were together I… Felt different. I didn’t feel like Adam, and I shouldn’t have tried to be.”

“Wait, are you saying you accepted being Amanda because of us making fun of each other on your couch?”

“Does it sound too stupid to you, too?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m just… Just going through a lot of different changes.”

“I know.” He sighed. “I’ve been going through a few myself.”

Wait, what? “Huh?”

“Well… Ever since Friday, I’ve felt… Different… About you.”

“Um… Are you saying you have a crush on me? Because that would be weird.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know if it goes that far, or if I’m just trying to cling to you so that we stay friends.” He shook his head. “No, really, I kinda do have a crush on you. You’re too cute not to have a crush on you, and I know the person underneath all the cute, too, so that’s a plus.”

I blushed. He really thought I was cute? I should have smacked myself for that. Stupid, stupid Amanda. He’s your best friend! Best friend! Don’t give in to the idea of crushing all over your best friend!

“I like your nail polish,” he said. I looked down at my hands and felt a little stupid for forgetting that I’d let Melanie paint my nails this morning. What the hell was wrong with me?

“Thanks,” I said. “It doesn’t look… Wrong?”

He smiled. “No. It looks cute on you.”

Stop calling me cute!!!!! Did he want me to go nutty? I was already plenty screwed up from what Ms. Malski had told me - and she hadn’t told me my challenge, either - and now he was calling me cute, and complimenting me. It wasn’t helping my fragile state of mind.

“Um… Can you…” I started.

“Stop saying stuff like that?” he finished.

“Yeah.”

He smiled. “No. Because it’s true. You’re cute, and I want you to know it.”

I sighed inwardly. This wasn’t gonna be easy, obviously.

3.

Everybody junior and under and was assembled into auditorium. The seniors were all leaving in a few days, so they weren’t invited (nyeh, nyeh!).

(Wow, that sounded ridiculous. If I wasn’t undergoing some magical gender transmorphication, I’d actually care.)

“Hey!” Melanie called, trying to get my attention. I waved back to her and then ran up to her. “So how’s your first day goin’, little sis?”

I folded my arms under my breasts. “Little sis?”

She tapped me on the nose. “I’ve wanted to call somebody that for fifteen years, you should count yourself lucky I didn’t call you that when you were Adam.” She looked past me at Steve and then smiled. “So, you two make up?”

“If you’re asking if he’s my boyfriend, the answer is no, he’s still my friend. Just because I like boys doesn’t mean I’m gonna go gaga for my best friend.”

Steve asked. “When did you start liking guys?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I just do. It just happened.”

Melanie just shook her head. “Whatever, let’s get in here,” she jerked her thumb to the auditorium doors, “there’s some sort of announcement going on.”

We walked into the auditorium, found some seats near the back, away from everybody. I always did that when I went to see a movie or anything. I didn’t like to sit by anybody. Today, I wanted to stay away from people even more, just because I didn’t want to hear people whispering about me. There was plenty of room left over since there were enough seats for the school’s maximum student capacity, and the seniors were left out of whatever was going on here.

Mr. Malski walked onto the stage and grabbed the microphone and stand. “Hope you’re enjoying your last week of the school year, everyone. I know it’s just started today, but hopefully it’s at least some fun already.” This got him a laugh from a few parts of the auditorium. I chuckled a little. “I know a few of you have heard already, but along with this year’s seniors, I’m also leaving this Friday.”

“Ah, he’s leaving?” Steve asked. Oh crap… Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, I forgot to tell him. Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap…

“Oh crap,” Melanie said. Clearly she and I were on the same wavelength.

“What?” Steve asked.

I wanted to bash my head against the back wall. “You’re gonna be in for a surprise in a little bit,” I answered.

“What kind of surprise?”

Mr. Malski continued: “It’s not easy for a principal to have such a good rapport with the students under his charge, but I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you, getting to know you. I’d like you to know, however, that you’ll be in quite capable hands. She’s risen up the ranks quickly, was vice principal at a nearby junior high. Nepotism doesn’t have anything to do with this, I’d like you all to meet my daughter, Samantha Malski.”

Ms. Malski walked onto the stage, all smiles. I looked over at Steve, who looked like he was about to scream. I quickly clamped my hand over his mouth and said, “Nothing here, I’ll talk to you after we’re out of here, okay? Please nod, because I really wanna take my hand away from your mouth.” He nodded. “Good.” I took my hand away from his mouth, then wiped it on his pants. “Use a breath mint every now and again.”

Ms. Malski took the microphone from her father. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said to her father. She then turned to us and said, “Yes, even women in their late twenties still call their fathers ‘Daddy’.” There were laughs. “My father’s told me a lot about you, and I hope that we can have that same relationship. I don’t officially take over as principal until next school year, but I can be found in my father’s office all week long, so if you’d like to stop in and talk, I’d love to talk to you.” She smiled, that same disturbing smile that I saw earlier. It made me shiver.

4.

“That was her!” Steve almost shouted. I motioned for him to keep it down, but it obviously wasn’t that easy for him. “Amy, that was the witch! Tell me you saw her!”

I nodded. “I saw her. I… Um… Actually saw her this morning.”

“You what?”

Melanie piped in, “We both did, when we got here to explain Amy to Mr. Malski.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” That question was directed at me. Steve didn’t have any classes with Melanie, after all, and I’d spent most of gym class just talking to him. Stupid me. Stupid stupid stupid me.

I sighed. “I’m sorry, I really should have told you, but... “ You have no excuse Amanda, so just shut your stupid mouth. You have no excuse. Don’t even try to give him one, don’t you even try - “I didn’t think about it?” Why did you have to talk?! Why why why why why why why?!?!

(Now that I think about it, why am I having a conversation with myself? What is wrong with me?)

I shook my head. “Okay, I really don’t have an excuse, I just forgot to say something.” Was that so hard? Was that so hard? I need therapy. I really need therapy.

Steve shook his head. “It’s… It’s okay, you’ve been going through a lot. So, why is she here? To keep tabs on us?”

“No. She’s really here because she’s taking over for Mr. Malski. She’s really his daughter.”

“But she was like six billion years old on Friday.”

“She said that’s just a form she takes to scare people occasionally. I didn’t wanna believe it either, but it seems like her being our new principal next year has nothing to do with the challenges.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Challenges?”

Dammit! Something else I didn’t tell him. I’m a retard, obviously. “Yeah, that’s what she told us, that this wasn’t a curse, it’s a challenge.”

“So what’s mine?”

“She said it has something to do with you overcoming selfishness.”

He scratched at his head. “Am I that selfish?”

Melanie said, “Well, if it wasn’t for you, Amy would still be Adam right now.”

“Hey, that was Stephanie who made me go after the panties!”

I sighed. “It’s not important who made us get the panties back, or whether or not I’d still be Adam right now, I’m Amanda and I don’t mind it all that much, despite the fact that using the restroom is a little awkward when you’re on your period, but that’s not all that - “

Steve cut me off. “You can have periods?”

Melanie hit him in the arm. “Girls only when it comes to menstruating, understand?” Then she hit me in the arm. “Don’t mention girl stuff to boys!”

“He has a twin sister and he’s my best friend, why would this be taboo around him?” I asked. I looked around. “Hey, where is Stephanie, anyway?”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Well… Last night I sorta cooked dinner after leaving your place. I may have given her food poisoning, as a result of a bad enchilada.”

“You can’t cook.”

“That’s exactly what Stephanie said when I started cooking.”

Melanie said, “That’s exactly what I said when we were in home ec last year, remember?”

He scratched at his chin. “Am I the only one who didn’t know that?”

I just rolled my eyes.

And here's the next three chapters of The Curse of Womanhood. Sorry, I don't actually have much to say. Actually, that's not true, as I'm fidgeting around with another story, the next part will have to go up in two weeks time. The chapters for part 5 (13-15) are up on TG Storytime, but the final two/three chapters aren't, so I'm giving myself enough time to finish the story. If all goes well, the final part here will go up the same day as the final chapter over on TGS.

~o~O~o~

1.

The next class after the big auditorium session was chemistry. It was another class I shared with Steve, and we’d always been lab partners. Today was no different, except that I was wearing denim shorts that made my butt look bigger than it was (and it was mighty big, now, thanks to turning into a girl; okay, so it looked big to me, shut up, this is new to me) and a shirt that was paper thin and made me feel chilly all day long. Nothing was different.

It may seem strange that I was explaining my clothes, but there’s a reason. That reason is that today we were on a field trip to the local college chem lab, and we had to wear lab coats. Naturally, anybody dressed like me would look silly in a lab coat, and I wasn’t the only one wearing short shorts.

“Why did we need to come here when we have the exact same stuff in our chem lab?” I asked Steve.

“Couldn’t tell ya on a bet.”

Mr. Simms tapped a ruler against the chalkboard at the front of the room. “Now, you’re all probably wondering why we’re here, especially considering this was only a ten minute trip from our building.” Oh my God, he’s a mind reader! “Certainly, you see some differences between this lab and ours, right?” Well… No. It looked like a very basic school chem lab. This one looked more like the one at middle school than ours did, but still. “This lab is a bit more like the ones you’ll see if you decide to go into a chemistry-related career. As such, I thought we’d take this opportunity to get you acquainted with this type of lab.”

Really? This looks more like an actually chemical lab somewhere? You mean they look different from a high school chem lab? Wow. I’m so very - Nope. Nope. Can’t even think that with a straight face.

“Mister Rich - Ah, excuse me, Miss Richards, do you have something to add?”

I hate you, my brain. “No, Mr. Simms,” I said, completely red-faced. More than one of my fellow classmates laughed at me.

2.

“How was your day?” Dad asked when I walked through the front door.

I set my book bag down on the floor beside the front door, then sat down on the floor, my back against the door. “Well, I’m the only transgender girl in the locker room. There are two teachers who gave me awkward stares, I think Steve likes me, and the sorceress who did this to me is the new principal next year.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You serious?”

“According to the woman at the administration office, Ms. Malski - the sorceress - has been ready to take over since last semester, but Mr. Malski wanted to finish out the school year. Her being the new principal and my being cursed seem to have absolutely nothing to do with one another.” I sighed. “It’s a little too coincidental, I know, but unless she’s changing school records magically, it’s legit.”

“So, how do you feel about this?”

I laughed. “How can I feel about this, Dad? The woman who took my manhood away is gonna be running my school next year, I’m only three days away from getting confused for Melanie more easily, and… I’m not sure how I should feel about who I’m becoming.”

Dad sat down beside me. “Amanda, when your mother told me what you’d said, that you were becoming a young woman because of a sorceress cursing you, I wanted to tell her to stop joking. My boy, turning into a girl? I couldn’t accept it. I didn’t accept it. Even when she handed me the phone, and I started talking to you, I didn’t want to believe that this scared girl was my son. I wanted so very badly to believe it was Melanie trying to play a joke on me, and your mother was in on it.”

“I thought Mom said you wanted all girls.”

He smiled. “I did. Then I got a son, and I felt proud of that boy. And as he grew up, I wanted to see this boy through everything he wanted to do. I didn’t want to push him, I didn’t want to prod him, I wanted him to be his own man, as my father did for me. Nothing that you did disappointed me - Well, that’s not entirely true, that ‘F’ in English class last semester made me want to punch you through a wall.” I smiled. I felt a tear hit my cheek.

“So, am I a disappointment now?”

“Of course not. Do I miss my son? Of course. I raised that boy for fifteen years, I watched him grow, I watched him stumble and fall and pick himself back up. Every time I look at pictures of that boy, I’m going to miss him.”

I hugged my knees to my chest. Great. I’m not a disappointment, but I’m going to be a reminder to him of the son he lost.

He put his hand on my shoulder. “And every time I look at you, I’m going to see another beautiful daughter who’s going do the right things with her life.” Wait, what? I’m what? “Amanda, you’re not Adam. I don’t know what happened to Adam, but if I keep believing that you’re Adam, then I’ll lose you. I need you, sweetheart. You’re not a replacement for Adam, but I’d lose it if I lost both of you.” He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. I reached forward and hugged him.

I wasn’t a replacement.

3.

Mom had been busy in my room. All of my Adam clothes were gone, replaced by feminine equivalents. No dresses or skirts or anything, but skinny jeans, shorts, tank tops, crop tops, spaghetti strap tops, camisoles, etc, etc…

(I thank Melanie for telling me names for certain types of tops, because as far as I’m concerned “shirt” should apply to everything.)

There were bras and panties in my dresser drawers, new socks, a couple new pairs of shoes (Yay, I don’t have to wear Melanie’s anymore!). There were a couple of nighties, but as I discovered last night, those were very comfortable to sleep in. I picked up one of the bras and looked at the tag on it. 34B. Was that how big I was? Was that big for a fifteen year old girl? Would I get…

No, no, no, no no no no no no no no! I would not ask myself that question! That’s the wrong question to ask and I’m not going to ask it! I don’t care how big my boobs get! I won’t consider that a concern in my life at all!

I plopped down on my bed and hugged the bra to my chest. I was already thinking about it. If I was a B cup, would I be stuck as a B cup? Or would I grow some more?

“What’s up with you?” Melanie asked. I didn’t even realize she was standing in my doorway.

“Don’t ask. Really, really, don’t ask.”

She looked at my dresser and pulled out another one of my new bras. “I wish Mom hadn’t done this.”

“Why?”

“Because! Clothes shopping is fun! And now you don’t get to learn that for yourself until you grow some more.”

I laid on my back and stared at the ceiling. “You mean I’m not done?”

“What do you expect? Even if you didn’t have three more days of transitioning from male to female, you’re still going through puberty. I’m not even done growing!”

I almost wanted to cry. Great. The odds that my breasts would get bigger and make boys look at me more were greatly enhanced. Just because I liked boys didn’t mean I wanted to be stared at all the time.

Now that I thought about it, why did I like boys? Shouldn’t I at least have some attraction to girls still? Just because I could look down my own shirt and see a pair of boobs shouldn’t stop me from looking at another girl’s chest. But, no, I had no attraction to girls, and… I liked staring at guys.

“What’re ya thinkin’ ‘bout?” Melanie asked.

“I’m trying to figure out why I like boys.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s weird.”

“No, it’s not. Take it from somebody with double x chromosomes her whole life, there is nothing weird about wanting to date a boy.” She sat down at my desk. “Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting to date a girl, either. After all, my friend Britney likes girls.” She wheeled the chair over to me and then rolled onto my bed beside me. “But, why would anything be weird about liking boys? Boys are big and strong and have that one organ that can go anywhere and - “

I smacked her in the face. “Stop that. I really don’t want to hear about ‘organs’, okay?”

She giggled. “I’m joking, obviously. You really think I like boys just because they’re ‘big, strong and have an organ’?”

“So, why do you like boys?”

She shrugged. “I like boys because I like boys. There’s no real reason for it, just like there’s no real reason for liking whatever you like. Why does everybody care about why you fall in love with a specific gender? You like boys, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Does it really matter why? Is knowing why you like boys gonna change why you like boys?”

I rolled over onto my stomach. “I dunno. I guess… I guess I just wanna know when I started to like boys. I mean, I liked girls before, and now I suddenly like boys. It’s like it just happened and I didn’t notice.”

Melanie rolled over onto her stomach now. I swear, we looked like we were having a sleepover. “I guess it’s good to know my little brother liked girls after all. Shanna always thought you were gay.”

“That’s what she said at gym today, too.”

“Were you?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I just… I really don’t think I wanted to date anyone.”

“But were you attracted to girls?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, really. I didn’t find girls unattractive, that’s for sure.”

“You never had a girlfriend.”

Why was that the only evidence being thrown up in my face about this? “You’ve only had one boyfriend.”

She stuck her tongue out at me. “That you know about.” She put her arm around me. “Little sister, I’ve probably had more boyfriends in the last two years than you had morning wood when you were a boy.”

“Uh, that’s gross.”

“What? Having a lot of boyfriends? No, it’s awesome.”

“No, the analogy.”

“Oh. Sorry, it was just the funniest thing I could think of.”

“It was horrible.”

“Still. I go through lots of boyfriends that nobody knows about.”

“Why?”

“Well, for one, I’m exaggerating. I’ve had probably five boyfriends in the past couple years. Two, I like having boyfriends. If I’ve got a boyfriend, the gross guys aren’t hitting on me.” She ruffled my hair a bit. “That’s probably something you’ll find out about pretty soon.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You wouldn’t imagine all the talk I heard about you in the cafeteria today. A lot of it was boys talking about ‘that weird shemale Richards turned himself into’.”

“Shemale? Really?”

“More than a few of them were talking about how hot they thought you were.”

“They thought I was hot?”

“I’m pretty sure I heard ‘hot shemale’ more than once.”

“They thought I was a shemale?”

She flicked me on the nose. “Well, ya kinda are, for now. Little Adam is little, but he’s not gone just yet.”

I sighed. “Yeah.” I brushed some hair away from my eyes. Was it longer already? Wait a minute, did it change? “Hey, is my hair longer?”

Melanie sat up then sat me up and took a very close examination of my face. “Yeah, yeah it is. And your face is a little different.”

“How different?”

“Just a little softer. Your lips are a little fuller, too. That lipstick didn’t look out of place before, but it looks perfect on you now.”

I was actually relieved that I looked more feminine. Maybe it was just because I was over the hump, into the last few days. Little Adam only had until Friday before he was gone.

Though, honestly, it already felt like he was.

4.

“Girls! Time for dinner!” Mom called up to us, but I was already downstairs, practically right behind her. The upstairs bathroom toilet didn’t work, so I’d been downstairs having a diarrhea attack. I didn’t feel bad or anything, which made me wonder if it was just another part of this stupid curse. Mom turned around and saw me. “Good God, Amy, how long were you standing there?”

“A couple minutes. I was in the bathroom.”

“Go make sure your sister heard me, okay?”

I nodded. “Yup.”

I walked upstairs and was about to knock on Melanie’s door when I heard her talking. She must have been on Skype, or something. “I love Amy, but it’s getting a little tiring, y’know? She’s worried about everything, when she should just be enjoying her life.” Huh, I didn’t think I was worrying too much. After yesterday, I actually thought I was doing good. “Well, I should get going. Dinner should be soon, so I’ll talk to you later.”

I knocked on the door now. “Mel! Dinner!”

“Just a second!”

“It’s lasagna, so hurry up!”

I wondered who she was talking to about me. Did she really think I should just throw Adam away and enjoy being Amanda? Wasn’t I already kinda doing that? Or did she think I should start being uber-girly, because that I wasn’t doing. I could be a normal girl, not some perpetually pink wearing girly girl.

Hrm… I think I’d ask her about that after dinner.

~o~O~o~

1.

“I swear, getting a person’s gender legally changed is far more difficult than it should be,” Mom dumped some mashed potatoes on my plate. I had to admit, I was hungrier than I thought I was. “And then they expect you to explain that particular name. Adam very easily translates to Amanda, I don’t understand how hard it is to understand!” She sighed. “So, how was everyone else’s day?” She looked directly at me. “Amy?”

I finished chewing some lasagna. “It was pretty easy. I told Dad about it earlier.”

“And?”

“And nothing. Today was easy. I got through my first day in public as Amanda. And while on my first period, too.”

Dad laughed. “Sweetie, please, keep that kind of talk to a minimum.”

I blushed. “Sorry, Dad.”

“No, it’s okay. Just, to a minimum.”

Mom changed the subject. “Melanie? How was your day?”

Mel shrugged. “About the same as Amy. There were a lot of people talking about her.”

“Good talk or bad talk?”

“Not really either. There were a few people who pretty much called her a monster for being transgender, but the indifferent far outweighed the negative.”

“Some people called me a monster?” I asked, my voice tiny.

“Like, two.”

“How am I a monster?”

“Well, the two I know about were those really macho type guys who think being female is a disease.”

“Still, Mr. Malski should have been told about these people,” Mom said.

“As much as I’m sure he’d like to help me out,” I responded, “I’m sure he’s too busy helping his daughter transition into the principal’s office.”

“I didn’t know Mr. Malski had a daughter.”

“She’s the sorceress who did this to me!” I coughed out a laugh at the end.

Mom did a double take. “What?!”

“Oh… Sorry… I kinda thought Dad would have told you about that by now…”

“No, I didn’t know anything about this. When did you find this out?”

Melanie answered for me. “This morning when we went to tell Mr. Malski about Amy. She was there, already.”

“Was she there to keep an eye on you?”

I shook my head. “No. She’s genuinely the next principal, it’s all just a weird coincidence.”

“Are you sure?”

I sighed. “I dunno. It’s just... I dunno.”

2.

“Aw, c’mon!” I shouted at my TV. Stupid barnacles. What idiot at Valve decided they’d be a good thing to bring back in Half-Life 2? I hated those things in the first game! I never paid attention to them, and I almost always got killed by them. Stupid, stupid, stupid barnacles.

I laid back on my bed and sighed. This was like the fourth time I’d started Half-Life 2, and I was still getting stuck at the same place. It didn’t help that I’d owned the damn game since Orange Box came out, it just made me feel worse for getting stuck all the damn time. Steve’s beaten the game like four times, but he’s never helped me, and I wanted to punch him for that.

I pressed the Xbox logo in the middle of the controller and dropped back out to the home screen. I wondered if Steve was on. I could just call him, but I didn’t really want to talk to him. Not for any bad reason, or anything, there were just certain times of the day when I didn’t want to talk to people on the phone.

As if to test my feelings, Melanie walked in. “Okay, little sis, get dressed.”

I sighed. “Why? What is it you want me to do that requires me to leave my bed and cover my underwear?”

“Well, don’t you have to get off your bed to change the game?”

“Yeah, but I don’t have to leave my room and thus I don’t have to put anything on over my underwear.”

“Is parading around in your underwear that important?”

“I don’t wanna get dressed, okay?! Jeez, can’t I just stay home?”

She shook her head. “No. I have a little sister now, and I want to hang out at the mall with her.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t hang out at the mall with your own friends, why do you suddenly want to with me?”

She rested her hands on her hips. “I just told you, because I finally have a little sister.”

I shook my head. “Not really that fantastic a reason, if you ask me. What happened to missing your little brother?”

“What? I still miss Adam, but is he really gone? You’re chromosomes are different, that’s about it.”

Well, and I liked boys, and I had somehow grown a minor fashion sense - that part I can’t figure out - but other than that, I wasn’t too different.

She smiled. “Besides, I still wanna enjoy having a sister, is that really so hard to understand?”

“What if I just don’t feel like leaving the house?”

“And why wouldn’t you? And don’t say because you’re on your period, because that’s not gonna work.” Shit! That was exactly what I was gonna say. How had she predicted me so well? “So, are you gonna get dressed and go?”

I gave it about two seconds of thought, then said, “Nope.”

Melanie faced the doorway. “Mom! Amy won’t go to the mall with me!”

Dad answered, “Shut up, Melanie!”

I just burst into laughter.

3.

There was a loud knock on my door. Had I fallen asleep? I sat up and looked around. My TV was still on, but there was a weird light coming from my window. Oh, great, I was dreaming again, wasn’t I? It was either that, or aliens were coming to dissect me. ‘Oh, Glorbfop, look! A human!’ ‘Look at her, Breelfrop, she was obviously a male.’

I’m stupid.

I stood up and reached down to tug at my skirt. Wait, I was wearing a skirt? I looked down at myself and saw I wasn’t wearing a skirt at all, I was wearing a dress. Great. Was this Melanie’s dream, or something?

Somebody was still knocking at the door. Loudly, too. “Hold on,” I said. I nearly stumbled on my way there. Why? I was better at walking than this. I looked down at my feet and saw a pair of high heels. Yep, this had to be Melanie’s dream. “Be there in a sec,” I told the person on the other side of the door.

I made it to the door eventually, and opened it to see a weird silhouette standing there. Great. It was an alien. The silhouette stepped forward and I nearly did a double take. That was Dean, and he looked so… So… Tiny. He was thinner than me, and just looked so wrong.

He grabbed me by the arms. “What did you do, Richards?! What the hell did you do to me?!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“I’m a frikkin’ pansy, you stupid cunt! I can’t play ball, I can’t understand anything my friends say, I can’t even grow a damn beard!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

He fell onto his knees in front of me. “I don’t even remember how to play basketball! I don’t remember what it feels like to wear guy jeans! I dream about boys and if anything I own isn’t frilly or girly, I hate it! Why would you do this to me?!”

“But, I didn’t! It was the sorceress!”

“You ruined me… You ruined my life…”

“I didn’t do anything…”

4.

I woke up and nearly tossed my blanket across the room. I was sweating, my hair practically stuck to my skin. What the hell was that? What the hell was that?! That wasn’t anything like any of the other dreams I’d had since the curse started. Holy shit…

My phone was ringing. I reached over and picked it up. “Hello?”

“What’s wrong with you?” Steve asked.

“I had a weird dream.”

“Oh. Like, bad weird or just weird weird?”

“You know you talk more like a valley girl than I do, right?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“You say ‘like’ more than I do. It’s kinda a valley girl thing.” I laid back down. “So, whaddya want?”

“I just wanted to talk before we get to school. And to ask you if you’d unlock your door.”

“Huh?”

“I’m outside right now. I tried doing that whole throw pebbles at your window thing to get your attention, but that didn’t work. That’s why I called you.”

I considered getting up and looking out the window, but I didn’t want to give him a look of me in a nightie, so I just remained on the bed. “Ringing the doorbell wasn’t an option?”

“I didn’t want to wake everybody up.”

“Ugh… Gimme a minute, okay?” I hung up the phone and walked over to my closet, where a pair of leggings were sitting in a corner. I didn’t really wanna get dressed yet, so I just pulled those on so that Steve wouldn’t be gawking at my legs. I looked ridiculous wearing a blue nightie and black leggings, but I really didn’t care as much as I should have. I was tired.

I felt somewhat lighter than I had the day before. Probably had to do with all that diarrhea I’d had. When I opened the door, Steve took one look at me and it looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his skull. “What?” I asked.

“You uh… Um… Ah…”

I looked down at myself but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. (Okay, nothing other than I was looking at a girl’s body when I’d had a boy’s body for most of my life. That’s not what I meant, though.) What the hell was he getting at? “My what?” I asked, looking back up at him. He looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure how to say it. “Just say something!”

After another five minutes of nothing, he finally said, “Is it okay if I say you’re hot?”

“Um… Yeah? You said I was cute yesterday, why is it so strange today?”

He shook his head. “No, you’re not just cute today. You’re… hot. Like Melanie, but… y’know, a little younger.”

“Huh?”

“Well, yesterday, you still looked a little like a guy. Not a lot, but you could still see Adam in you. Now, you… Don’t.”

I rubbed at my arm. “Am I still… Y’know… Recognizable?”

He nodded. “Yeah, you’re obviously still Amy, but… I don’t think anybody’s gonna call you a ‘shemale’ anymore.”

I sighed. “You mean you heard people call me a shemale, too?”

“Whaddya expect? You were in the girl’s locker room, I was in the guy’s locker room. Guys talk about girls, y’know?”

I nodded. “Yeah. So, um, wanna come in?”

He smiled.

5.

“Can you wait out here for a second?” I asked, stopping him from walking into my room. “I’ve gotta get dressed.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll wait.”

“‘Kay, thanks.” I mentally facepalmed. I said that. I really said that. Why did I say that? I’m a damned idiot. I shut the door between us and locked it. I didn’t think he’d come in without asking me, but for some reason, I just needed to lock the door. Maybe it was because of something that I never expected once.

Steve was handsome.

Was I feeling this way because of the curse? Steve’s challenge was to get over being selfish, did that have to do with me? Was this my challenge? Being attracted to Steve? Was I attracted to other boys? I picked up my phone again, tapped the internet icon and went to Google Images. I typed in ‘naked bodybuilders’ and the first four images were naked women. The fifth was a disturbingly veiny Asian man. I zoomed in on it and started to feel kinda… How do I explain it… Hot? I kinda felt like I was sweating, but I wasn’t.

I clicked out of the tab and set my phone down on my dresser. Good, at least I was turned on by any guy, not just Steve. That would have scared me. I tried thinking other thoughts to rid myself of that image, because I really didn’t want to feel so awkward all day long. Get dressed, Amy, just get dressed.

I pulled the leggings and my nightie off and then walked over to my mirror. I made a very close examination of my boobs, for the first time in my life. (Well, the first time that didn’t involve a shower, that is.) It didn’t feel odd that I had breasts anymore, they were just kinda there. I turned sideways to look at myself in profile, checking to see if they’d grown anymore. It was hard to tell, because as far as I was concerned, they looked big enough. They ached, a little, but not uncomfortably so.

I reached into my now-dedicated bra drawer (I’m not gonna lie, Mom went a little overboard on how many bras she bought me; she’s not gonna be happy if I suddenly outgrow them all) and slipped into it. I was getting better at putting bras on, but I still wasn’t as fluid at it as Mel was. The bra still fit, but it was kinda snug, unlike yesterday, when it fit comfortably.

I guess I shouldn’t have been confused. Even if I weren’t slowly sliding from male to female, assuming I was born a girl, my breasts would still be growing. Puberty would be kicking my ass for a couple more years now.

I pulled on a different pair of panties, after I secured a pad in. I noticed that my crotch area looked a little different. Little Adam had slipped inside a little more. I didn’t mind as much as I should have, though. I guess it was getting easier and easier to say goodbye to Adam entirely. Either way, I actually looked somewhat like I had a vagina now. Not much more left to change.

I rubbed my hand up one of my legs. A little fuzz, already. Man, how often do girls need to shave their legs? Oh well, I’d decided to wear pants anyway. I grabbed a pair of jeans and wiggled my way into them. Man, if girls can barely get these things on, how do boys do it? There were quite a few boys who wore girls’ jeans.

Next I grabbed a long-sleeved shirt and pulled it on. Pulling it down over my boobs was still slightly awkward, but when I had it on, and saw myself in the mirror, I smiled at my reflection. I looked pretty good, actually.

Oh, crap… This is what Steve was talking about. I actually looked pretty hot. And now I’m getting ridiculously vain, good work, Amanda! Apparently, I’m turning into every other teenage girl in southern California.

I put on a pair of sandals and grabbed my book bag. Walk to school with Steve, just get through the day, that’s all I had to do.

I opened my door and Steve was waiting there, smiling. “You look good,” he said, which made me blush. Damn me for turning into a girl!

6.

“So, where’d you get the new clothes?” Steve asked when we got outside. He had his hands in his pockets, and just looked laid back. He wasn’t as nervous around me as I was around him right now.

“My mom bought them for me yesterday, while we were at school.”

“You look really nice.”

I brushed some hair behind my ear. “You said that before.”

“And I meant it.”

“You look good yourself,” and I meant that. He looked better than he had the day before. He didn’t look as much like a slob as he used to. Was this a real change, or just in how I perceived him? He was still wearing the same kinds of clothes that he always wore, but he just looked different.

“Thanks. Stephanie said the same thing.” He chuckled. “She asked where her ‘slobby twin’ went.”

“So, what’s with the change?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. I just felt like it was time. What about you? What’s with your changes?”

“You mean besides being cursed and turned into a girl?”

“Well, yeah, but… Y’know… You’re different.”

“How?”

“You’re… Different.”

Why didn’t I want to answer that question? Why couldn’t I answer that question?

~o~O~o~

1.

The rest of the trip (about three more minutes, honestly) until we got to school was silent. His words had cut me pretty deep. I really didn’t feel any different. I mean, I acted a little bit more feminine, but how could I really help that? I’m sure Steve would have acted more feminine if this was happening to him, seeing as Stephanie probably would have done her damnedest to make him act that way.

My problem was that Melanie wasn’t explicitly making me act this way. She wasn’t helping in any way, especially after that phone call I overheard half of last night, but she wasn’t trying to turn me into her little sister, she was just enjoying having a little sister.

As I made my way to my locker, I heard laughter echoing down the halls. I looked around and nearly burst into laughter myself as Dean turned a corner. I wouldn’t actually have recognized him, if not for the fact that his absolute cleavage dress showed absolutely no cleavage. He didn’t seem uncomfortable in those high heels he was wearing, either. He did however, look very angry.

He went up to his locker, quickly grabbed his stuff, then silently made his way into homeroom. He was thinner than he had been the day before, a lot more… Well, to be honest, he looked girlier than I did, except that I had boobs. What the hell? How far was Ms. Malski going to go with him?

“He’s shaping up quite well,” the bitch said, right behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. She was standing there, smiling, arms folded under her breasts. “He’ll be finished tomorrow, just like you and Steve.”

“Tomorrow? I thought you said Friday?”

“I said you’d be Amanda by Friday, and you are, really, you’ll just be finished physically tomorrow.” She nodded toward Dean. “So will he.”

“Are you getting a kick out of this? Do you enjoy screwing with our lives the way you are?”

She shook her head. “I’m not screwing with you, Amy. There’s more than one reason why you are the way you are.”

I had to know. “What’s my challenge?”

She smiled again. “Bell’s about to ring, Ms. Richards, you’d better get to homeroom.” With that, she walked away, and I was alone in the hallway as the bell rang.

2.

Homeroom was boring, as always. Homeroom was used pretty much for homework, but I rarely had homework. Every class had a period of time for doing whatever work there was at the end of the class, and most of the time, I finished my work in class. As such, I spent most of my homeroom time drawing, something I’d been doing since I was little.

I didn’t know if it was my state of mind, my current situation, or just because, but I drew a picture that showed a small boy growing into a young woman - in other words, me - and the boy started out happy, then as he grew he got sadder, and sadder, and then finally when he was somewhat female, he was a little happier, then sad again.

“That looks like you,” someone said. I looked up to see Dean standing there, a strange look on his face. “Can I talk to you in the hallway?” I nodded, then followed him out into the hallway, where we stood by the lockers. We didn’t say anything for the longest time, then he finally said, “Did that bitch do this to you, too?”

“Huh?”

“You weren’t a closet girl last week, and now you’re suddenly so feminine that I thought you were a different person. When I saw you at the game on Sunday, I could tell that something was up with you. You had longer hair, and you were wearing girl’s clothes, which I knew was something you never did before.”

“Um… Girl’s jeans. I was still wearing one of my old boy’s shirts.”

“Whatever,” he said, sounding ridiculously valley girl. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. That just pops out every now and again. I’m starting to sound like my cousin.” He rubbed at his exposed - and hairless - arms. “Adam, just because I’m a jock doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. Up until this happened, I was on my way to being the valedictorian this year. Why were you involved in this?”

“Amanda.”

“What?”

“My name’s Amanda. And I’m involved because I was in your room, getting all those panties you stole in that panty raid.” I sat down on the floor, against the lockers. “She caught me.”

“And, what, decided that you should be wearing the panties instead of getting them back for everybody?”

“I don’t know. She just… She cursed me, and you, and Steve, and I - “

He cut me off. “That dipshit Steve is involved, too?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“And now the bitch is gonna be our principal? That’s not a coincidence.”

“Actually, it is.”

He shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”

I looked up at him. “So, none of this has affected you at all? You’re still as much of hard ass as you were before? All this has happened to you, and you don’t think it has anything to do with how you acted before this?”

He shrugged. “I’m still me, whether I’m the way I used to be or a pansy.”

I hugged my knees to my chest and sighed.

3.

The lunch lady dumped a pile of what looked like peas down on my tray. I looked up from the tray and asked, “Do you have anything that doesn’t look like prison food?”

She glared at me and said, “Look, tranny, if they didn’t want prison food here, they wouldn’t have hired me. Now, get the rest of your grub and sit down.”

Tranny had become a common nickname for me among people who weren’t particularly happy with what I’d become. I didn’t like it, but at least nobody was calling me shemale, like Melanie said. That just sucked. After all, I wasn’t a girl with boy parts between my legs.

I finished getting my food and then promptly scraped it off my tray and left the tray on the conveyor to get washed. I could see I wasn’t the only person who’d done that. Looked like I was gonna be eating vending machine food again. Wednesday and Friday lunch ladies were the worst. They served the worst food, and they were the rudest.

I walked over to the table I normally sat at and laid my head down. Lunch was gonna be boring if I didn’t eat cafeteria food. Nobody I knew was in my lunch period, for whatever reason. It made lunch boring, but I only had to sit there for a half an hour, so that wasn’t too bad.

I thought about what Dean had said. He clearly hadn’t changed personality-wise, and neither had Steve, so why had I? Did people who go from one gender to the other do that, or was there some funky magic sorceress thing going on? Was this a part of my challenge, whatever the hell that was? And why wouldn’t that bitch answer me when I asked her about my challenge? Why is she so adamant about keeping it from me, when she’d tell me Steve and Dean’s?

Nothing seemed to be making much sense.

4.

“Now, remember,” Mr. Pendergast said as he did a quick freehand drawing on the whiteboard, “the human face is neither easy nor hard to draw, the difficulty lies purely in the way you interpret your subject.”

Steve sat beside me, grinning like an idiot while Kimberly Shale sketched his face. I just sat there with a neutral expression on my face while Johnny… um… I forget his last name, drew my face. Every so often, I’d catch a glimpse of his drawing and saw that he either was shit at art class or had some odd outlook on everything. I appeared to be a cartoon poodle. No joke. My drawing of him was practically a black and white photograph, but no, he draws me as a cartoon poodle!

“Why do I look like a dog?” I asked.

He smiled. “It builds character.”

“Being drawn as a dog?”

“It makes you look cute.”

Steve said, “She already looks cute.”

Urghguggleurgh, why’d he have to say that? Doesn’t he know I’m conflicted about everything? Stupid, stupid Steve.

Kimberly chuckled. “Yeah, she looks cute for a crossdressing boy.”

I folded my arms under my breasts. “I’m not a boy, and I’m not crossdressing.”

She poked her pencil tip in my direction. “Show me what’s under that top, and maybe I’ll believe you. I’ve seen more convincing trannies than you, Richards.”

“I’m seriously not crossdressing. I made my choice and chose to be a girl, is that really so hard to understand?”

“And made the transition in a weekend?”

More people caught on to that than I thought. “My mom knows a really good surgeon,” was the closest thing to a reply I could give. Clearly I haven’t thought this through.

Johnny said, “She’s hotter than a couple of the skanks I dated last year, just leave her alone.”

Wow, the class casanova was sticking up for me. He probably wanted in my pants. Either that, or I was turning more into a stereotypical girl than I thought. I was seriously starting to sound like Melanie now, and not just because our voices sound similar.

“So why’d you choose to be a girl?” Kimberly asked.

I gave it a second, then said, “Because I never felt right as a boy.” That was pretty much exactly what Shanna had told me. That I wasn’t right, whatever the hell that meant. Was there a “right” or “wrong” when it came to who you were? Was it really that black and white? It couldn’t be. It really couldn’t be. “Because… Something about me felt wrong when I was a boy.”

“And you thought that being a girl would solve all your problems? Be lucky you can’t have periods, then.”

Oh, how wrong you are! Come to think of it, I should probably change my pad when class is over, these things start to feel weird after awhile. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure there’s a medical warning on the box that says you should change them after a certain amount of time.

Johnny set his sketch pad down and said, “Okay, ignoring this talk of female bodily functions, if my drawing of you is so bad, what’s your drawing of me look like?”

“Like this,” I said, flipping my sketch pad over to show him what he looked like. “Which is a lot better than your drawing.”

He took a long look at the sketch pad and finally said, “Yeah, but you’re a girl. Girls are better artists.”

For a brief second I wondered if that was true, then I remembered that I was just as good an artist when I was a boy, so it really didn’t matter.

5.

“Open your books to page forty-nine, children!” Mr. Greene shouted. He had a habit of doing that. He also had a habit of carrying around the handle of an axe without the axe part on it anymore. He used it to hit people when they said something stupid. Never hard, always lightly, and never girls, only boys. I prayed that I qualified as a girl to him, because even if he didn’t hurt anybody with that axe handle, it was still annoying as hell to get hit in the head with that thing.

I opened my textbook to the page he told us to go to and found, plastered in big red, white and blue letters, The American Civil War. I raised my hand. “Didn’t we learn about this already? Like, in elementary school?” Somebody chuckled.

Mr. Greene nodded. “There’s not much about the Civil War I can teach you that you don’t already know, but I’d like to take this time to have a discussion about why we do or do not leave things in the past.”

Why did I have this odd feeling that this lesson for some reason had to do with me, whether anybody other than me knew it or not? Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.

"The Confederate flag, the symbol of the South, is still flown in many places today, either in tribute of the past, or by those who still believe in its ideals, misguided though they may be. This flag is one hundred and fifty years old, and it lost the last domestic war ever fought in this nation, but it is still flown today."

"Why?" Somebody asked.

Mr. Greene nodded. "Why indeed? What values does it still hold? We don't condone slavery, or racism, or any sort of segregation any more, so why is this flag still flown? Is it flown because of a need to remember the past, because it's still a viable symbol, or simply because of the pretty colors?" More than a few people giggled at that.

I raised my hand. "Does it really matter?"

"Why do you say that, Ms. Richards?"

"It's a flag, people put their own meanings behind it. I mean... Does it matter what the reasons are?"

Somebody else just stated, "It's a dead flag, whether the reasons matter or not, what reasons really are there for keeping it around? Nobody flies the Nazi flag anymore."

A girl on the other side of the room said, "Except for Neo Nazis. They kinda do."

I asked, "But, who cares if they keep flying an old flag? Even if it was just the pretty colors, it's not like anybody needs to explain to anybody else why they fly a flag."

"If they've got a good enough reason to fly a dead flag, why can't they explain it to everybody else? People are less likely to question somebody's motivations if the person flying the flag is willing to tell everyone."

Somebody else asked, "And what if people like the looks of a dead flag, or even a flag that isn't dead? Fly a Nazi flag in Germany, you get arrested. Fly an ISIS flag here, and the FBI raids your house. Is it okay for people to fly these flags just because they like them?"

Mr. Greene was smiling at the front of the room. "So, what have we figured out? Is the flag more important than the ideals placed behind it, or are the ideals more important than the flag? We seem to be pretty divided on this issue, and it raises another important point, whether the ideals are more important or not, do others need to know them to understand why you're flying that flag?

"Your final assignment of this year is to perform a speech to this class on Friday. It can't be long, so we can get through all of you, but you need to choose a flag, and present for us the ideals behind why you chose that flag." As if on cue, the bell rang. "That'll be all, children!"

I just sat there for a moment while everybody else around me got up and left, eager to get back home and out of the building.

Great. I just knew what most people were probably expecting. Amanda, why did you choose to be a girl? Dammit, dammit, dammit.

~o~O~o~

Just a quick end not here, I totally forgot this (chapter 12) was the chapter where I wrote in all that flag stuff. That's based on a conversation I had with a friend of mine, but neither one of our viewpoints is expressly told within the chapter.

This is actually going up a day early because I just finished the final chapter about an hour ago. Instead of being three chapters, this is the final five. Ready to see how Amanda's story ends?

1.

"Amy!" Steve called out to me. He shook me out of whatever daze I was in just in time to stop me from running into the exterior wall of the gym. Ugh... Why had I done that? Oh, yeah, because I'm a damn moron. And I'm a moron because of a speech I've got to give in class because of flags. I should really get my priorities straight.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Are you okay?"

I shrugged. "Kinda."

"What does that mean?"

"Well... I'm just... Screwed up. I feel bummed out because I have to give a speech in History class on Friday."

"A speech? That's all you have to do?"

"Well..." I rubbed at my arm. "I haven't given speeches in front of everybody since this happened."

"You'll do fine!"

I sighed. "Yeah. I'm... Sure..."

He rubbed at the back of his neck. "Um... You wanna come over to my place for dinner tonight?"

"Huh?"

"Well, my mom said last night it's been awhile since you came over, and... Well... She kinda wants to meet you."

"You mean she wants to see me as Amy for the first time?"

"Yeah."

"I... Um..."

He waved his hands in a sort of stop motion. "Don't feel like you have to, I just..."

"No! I'll come!" I was blushing. Pure, full-on, red-faced, I-clearly-wanted-him-to-like-me blushing. Why was I acting like I had a crush on him? "Getting away from my place and the school would probably help me a little bit. I'm still a little nervous about being outside my house." And there I was justifying my decision! Why was I acting like I had a crush on him?!

Steve smiled. "Thanks." Stop smiling! Stop being cute with me! Transitioning from male to female is bad enough without your best friend being endearing!

"Yep. I'm gonna head home first, I'll be there around five, okay?"

"Perfect!" He's enjoying this too much. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. "See ya later!"

As he ran off to his house, I sighed. What was I getting myself into?

2.

Five. I had just under two hours to get ready for...

A) Dinner at a friend's place.
B) My friend's mom meeting me and probably treating me like some girl her son is dating.
C) My friend treating this like it's probably a date.
D) How I might feel because my friend will treat this like it's probably a date!

I shut the front door behind me and heard Melanie yelp in surprise. Oops! Why'd I do that? Why, why, why? I opened the door again. "Sorry. A lot on my mind."

"Yeah, and my nose clearly isn't. Look, little sister, you may not care about how you look, but that doesn't mean I don't care how I look."

"Who said I didn't care how I look?"

"Didn't you?"

"I mean... I'm not like uber-fashion oriented, but... I mean... I... I dunno, okay? I'm just really concerned."

"You mean because Steve asked you out?"

"He didn't ask me out!"

Mom walked into the living room, a cup of coffee in her hand. "Who asked who out?"

Before I could say anything, Melanie said, "Steve asked Amanda out."

"No he didn't!" I squealed. I needed to calm down and stop sounding like some nervous girl about to go on her first date - which, granted, I probably was, but still - and sound more like a confident girl about to go hang out with her best friend. That's all I wanted to be.

Why couldn't I just be that?

"Calm down, sweetie," Mom said, voicing my internal instructions. "If I were you, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a date, from his point of view."

I plopped down on the couch. "I know. I'm worried about that. I mean... He's my friend, and I don't wanna stop being friends with him. That would all change if we started dating."

"Why?" Melanie asked.

"Because it like always does."

"You two have been friends since forever, you're not gonna stop just because you're suddenly dating. Besides, dating your best friend is a great way to experience dating from the female perspective without having to meet somebody new."

"And if we ever break up, that means I lose a best friend."

Mom sat down beside me and put her arm around me. "Amanda, you need to make your decision before you set foot in Steve's house. Will he eventually be your boyfriend, or will he stay your best friend."

Oh, for chrissakes, why did I need to make this decision now?! Why can't this just be dinner at a friend's house?! Fuck!

3.

"Can I borrow some make-up?" I asked. Melanie looked surprised. "What? I don't mind make-up."

"Yeah, but for somebody who doesn't want to date her best friend, I'm surprised you're asking."

"I still wanna look presentable. I'm not going all out with like mascara and eye shadow and all that."

"So, what's your plan?" she asked, a big wide smile on her face. She was enjoying this. Aw, my little sister wants to wear make-up to her flirst date! Yeah, shut up Head-Melanie. Great. I have a Head-Melanie. This is starting to get annoying.

"My plan is to hang out with Steve, but I still look like I just got out of bed, so... I wanna look more presentable."

She shoved me into the chair at her vanity. "And what if this turns into more than just hanging out?"

I groaned. "Can't we just get off of that? This isn't a date, as far as I'm concerned, okay?"

"Look, Amy, I've gone on more than one 'not-a-date', and when you and a guy have a strong connection, it's hard to avoid the eventual moment when you're sitting next to one another and suddenly your lips are touching his and you wonder if you're wearing the lipstick he likes on you and this and that and all this other stuff that runs through your head because you're kissing a guy you like." She handed me a tube of lipstick. "Hope he likes dark purple."

I sighed. "Are you just handing me this because it's the lipstick I wore on Sunday?"

"Duh."

"And because I told you that Steve likes it?"

"Double duh."

"And because you're having fun with this?"

"Triple duh." She sat down on her bed. "How would you even deal with having a boyfriend, anyway?"

I turned toward her. "Whaddya mean?"

"You never had a girlfriend. Never. Have you even gone on a first date?"

I blushed. "Yeah!"

"With who?"

I rubbed at my arm. "Um... Nobody..."

"See? This isn't just new to you because you're a girl, dating is new to you in general."

"No, it's not. I've watched TV, I've just never actually been on a date."

"So how are you gonna deal with this? You could be coming home tonight with a totally different relationship with Steve, something that'll change your lives forever. How is this going to affect you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you basically telling me to go out with him earlier?"

"Kinda, but that's not important. The important thing is your emotional state."

"How does my emotional state come into this now?"

"Because it's pretty obvious that even if you're not head-over-heels for him, you like Steve simply because he's your friend. You're gonna be emotional around him no matter what because you're an emotional person, you have been even when you were Adam."

"I'm not that emotional."

"When you were six, you cried when you couldn't spell 'Spaghetti-Os' with your Spaghetti-Os."

"I was six! I cried when an episode of Barney was over!"

"And I never did, that's my point. About the biggest difference between Adam and Amanda are boobs and a vagina, and you've always been emotional. Even if you don't start dating Steve today, you're gonna feel different about him. How are you going to deal with that?"

I leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath. "So, you're kinda saying that if I don't start dating Steve today, I probably will at some point just because he and I are friends and I like him?"

Melanie shrugged. "I'm just saying that it's a good possiblity that your relationship with your best friend will change tonight, and you need to be ready for that, because if it changes one way, that raises the chances that it'll change for the worse later on." She stood up and reached into a dresser drawer. "Now that that's out of the way, I have something I want you to do." I nearly shivered at the smile on her face.

4.

Don't think about, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about...

I rang the doorbell at Steve's place and stood there, nervously. Neither Steve's mom or his sister had seen me since this whole thing started, and that scared me. That actually scared me more than whether or not Steve considered this a date. How would I act around the family of the boy who potentially wants to date me?

The door opened and Stephanie stood there, looking like she was ready to laugh. "What?" I asked.

"I seriously thought Steve was lying when he told me you were a girl."

"Really?"

"Yeah! I thought he was just bullshitting me because I was sick."

Oh, thank Christ... At least I'm okay around Stephanie. "And when he told you I was coming over for dinner?"

"I was gonna tease you guys about being gay, but I guess if you're a girl, Steve's not gay."

"Can I come in now?"

Stephanie moved out of the way and I walked in and immediately felt even more nervous. And now I was thinking about it! Why, why, why, why did I let Melanie talk me into this? Why did I let myself let Melanie talk me into wearing a frickin skirt to this dinner? I've never worn one before, but now I was, and now I felt awkward as hell.

"Hey, Steve! Your boyfriend's here!" Stephanie shouted. I shot a glare at her. "What? It's my last chance, okay? Just lemme treat him like he's gay one more day, please?"

"But he's not."

"I know, as weird as that sounds. I've been teasing him about it for awhile, because he only hangs out with you."

"I think TV Tropes calls that heterosexual life partners."

She shook her head. "I don't care what the internet calls it, I just like teasing him for it."

I sighed. "Just don't tease me."

She held up her hand in a Boy Scout's salute. "Promise between women, I'll leave you alone."

"I'm holding you to that."

"You know there's no promise between women, right?"

"I don't care. You promised, I'm holding you to it."

"Fine."

"Seriously."

"I get it."

I sighed again. This might be a long night.

5.

"So, Amanda, how has your transition been?" Mrs. Burke (Steve's mom) asked. The question kinda caught me off guard. Was she talking about my actual change, or my lie at school that I was transgender? (Now that I think of it, is that really a lie? Ah, determining that isn't important right now.) Did she know about the curse?

I gulped down the bite of tomato I had in my mouth and said, "I'm doing fine. It's not easy, but, I'm managing. I get a lot of mean looks, but not too many insults or anything." I took another bite. "Well, not when I'm in the room, anyway."

Steve looked a great deal more nervous than I felt right now. He seriously looked like he was going to pee his pants.

"You're an amazing young woman, Amy," Mrs. Burke said, "it takes a lot of courage to come out and admit to the world that you were born wrong." Okay, so Steve likely told her the lie. Good, now I can bumble through it here, in my best friend's house. "And to embrace it so fully. I'm sure there are quite a few transgender people who wouldn't wear a skirt less than a week into their transition."

Yay, she noticed... Ugh... "I didn't actually want to. Melanie tricked me into it." I blushed. "I feel really awkward wearing a skirt."

Stephanie leaned over the table. "It gets way, way easier. Trust me. Leg freedom over tight jeans any day, sister."

I smiled. It wasn't getting any easier so far, but, this was also my first time wearing a skirt. I kinda hoped it wouldn't, but I was already getting very used to wearing bras after only four days.

"You're being awfully quiet, big brother," Stephanie said to Steve. "What's up?"

He shrugged. "I'm just... Y'know..."

"It's okay to be nervous, honey," Mrs. Burke said. "It's not every day you invite a pretty girl over for dinner." She said that with a smile. Great. He probably told everybody but me that this was likely a date.

"Mom!" Steve nearly shouted. He was beet red.

His mom was laughing. "Honey, I'm just joking." She turned to me. "Amanda, before you came over, Steven expressly stated more than once that this wasn't a date between you two, I'd just like you to know that. His sister and I are just teasing him about this whole thing."

"I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing if Melanie actually had a friend come over," I said, then I looked over at Steve and said, "Sorry."

He shook his head. "No. I guess I deserve this for asking a girl to dinner. Even if she's been my best friend for years."

Stephanie smiled. "It's not every day your boyfriend becomes your girlfriend, though."

"Steph!"

"What? Adam was a boy, right? Was your friend, right? Amanda's a girl, right? And she's your friend, right? Adam, boyfriend. Amanda, girlfriend. Just because I'm saying girlfriend doesn't mean I'm saying she's your 'girlfriend', in the dating sense."

Oh, dear Christ, this conversation is getting embarrassing. And I'm not even the one being teased!

"Besides, I kinda think you're an idiot for not asking Amy out."

Was he? I'm still semi-male (for, like, six more hours, anyway), so, I could easily understand why he'd be uncomfortable asking me out, plus there was that stigma of all the people at school who still think I'm a crossdresser pretending I'm a real girl.

Wow. This almost seems like I'm just watching this event, as opposed to quietly eating my steak right beside it.

And then she said this: "And when I was talking to Melanie on the phone last night, she said the same thing."

Whoa, now I'm interested. "What?" I asked.

"Yep, Melanie thinks that you two would make the perfect couple."

~o~O~o~

1.

I didn't feel too good, not after that conversation. Steve and I, the perfect couple? No, no way. I don't see it at all.

So, while Steve was busy trying to decide what DVD to watch, I just sat there and, well, took stock of my best friend for the first time in our friendship. The first thing I noticed was all the differences in him, that had to come as a result of the curse. His room was generally a mess, as opposed to mine which was (and still is, actually) only a little messy. My room usually just had some clothes on the floor, although now that involved bras and panties as opposed to plain white shirts and boxers.

Now, his room was actually cleaner than mine, and was ridiculoulsy organized. I could remember a time when his Xbox was sitting on top of half the games he played in it, and now they were all alphabetized on a shelf with the Xbox sitting nicely beside his DVD player. It was... Well... weird.

Was this his challenge? To be a better put together kid, rather than the slob he used to be? Hadn't I considered that a few days ago?

"So... What's with the cleanliness kick?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, the room. I was just... Y'know... Bored one day, decided to clean it up. It'll probably be a mess again in a couple days, I bet."

"It's not just the room, Steve. You're cleaner."

"Whaddya mean?"

"You combed your hair. I've never seen you comb your hair. Or dress nice, or... Just... You look like you probably would have asked me out on a date."

He stopped looking at his DVDs (which were also alphabetized and neatly placed on a shelf) and sat down on his bed beside me. I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly what he was gonna say, so I just braced myself for it. "Can I confess something to you?"

"You really did want this to be a date, didn't you?"

"What? No. I wanted to ask you out, yeah, but I didn't want this to be a date."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I felt like it'd be too soon to ask you out earlier, and I still feel that way, but since you brought it up..."

"You wanna ask me out now?"

He smiled, nervously. "I'm still kinda scared to, actually."

"Good, because I don't know if I wanna date you."

"Would you know tomorrow?"

"Are you serious?"

He shook his head. "No. Truth be told, I don't know if I'll ever not be nervous about asking you out, so I'm just gonna do it now, okay? Can we go see a movie tomorrow, or something?"

And thus our friendship had taken a turn I'd been warned about.

2.

After he asked me that question, time stood so still I could see every particle in the air. My friend - my best friend - had just asked me out on a date. This wasn't somebody who'd just met me and thought I was cute, this was a guy who had known me for most of my life, who knew I'd been a boy, and who had absolutely no problems with that.

And he wanted to date me.

Could I ever find that again? Somebody who knew I'd been male for fifteen years and just didn't care about it? Steve was a great trial run, wasn't he? I mean, that was a cruel way to think about it, but it was sorta/kinda true.

Should I say yes? Would I hurt him if I said no? Steve's my friend, after all, and I don't wanna stop being friends with him. Was I, in a way, obligated to say yes?

I kind of felt that way. I felt like if I didn't say yes, that Steve would cut all ties off with me, and then I'd have almost no ties to my old life as Adam other than my family, who were all accepting me as Amanda, so they didn't count.

But, even more important, did I want to date Steve?

3.

"Amy?" Steve asked, drawing me back out into real time. It was amazing how many thoughts could run through your head in less than a second.

"Sorry," I said, my face turning red.

"So you won't?"

"No! I didn't mean... No! Yeah, I'd love to go out with you!" Stupid, stupid, stupid words. "Just... If this doesn't work out, we're still gonna be friends, right?"

"Well, yeah. Amy, we've been friends our whole lives, we're gonna stay friends even if dating ends up being a giant fucking mistake." He nervously chuckled. "So... Whaddya wanna go see?"

4.

I shut the front door behind me and found a very curious Melanie waiting for me. She was standing there, arms folded under her breasts, a downright scary look on her face that basically said You will tell me everything! and almost made me wet myself. "Talk," she said. One word. That's it.

"What?"

"I want to know details. Every detail."

"There's not much to tell. It was dinner and then we watched a crappy movie in his room."

"And did he try to make a move on you?"

"No." I walked past her to the stairs, and smiled. "Not to say I didn't try to make a move on him." It was a lie, but it was time I had fun with Melanie, as opposed to the other way around.

"Wait, what?!"

I ignored her and walked up the stairs. She followed me, very eager to hear what she wanted me to say, but I just wasn't gonna talk. I was having way too much fun with this. I walked into my room, closed my door, then quickly took that skirt off, opened the door again and handed it to a very angry Melanie, shut my door again and locked it. Yeah, just take that Mel. Just think about what I'd said.

I just sat on my bed wearing pajama pants and a tee-shirt, watching TV for a couple hours before there was a knock on my door.

"Amy, can I come in?" Mom asked. I hopped off the bed and unlocked the door, then looked down either side of the hallway. "Melanie's in her room, so you don't have to worry about her."

"Okay. Whaddya want?"

She sat down on my bed and patted the spot beside her, so I sat down there. I had a feeling it was time for one of those 'mother/daughter talks' Melanie always talked about. "How was dinner at the Burke's?"

"It was fine."

"And how did Steve react around you?"

"Stephanie was making fun of him during dinner a lot, then we just watched Pacific Rim in his room."

"And did you..."

"Did I what?"

"Sweetie, you were alone in a boy's bedroom with said boy, and, it was a boy who you've got a strong connection with."

"I didn't kiss him, if that's what you and Melanie are asking."

Mom gave me a look. "How'd you know?"

"Because it's pretty obvious that Melanie had you come in here after I didn't tell her anything."

"And you were willing to answer me?"

"Only because messin' around with Melanie is fun."

Mom sighed. "So, how did it go?"

"It was the most harmless date I've ever seen."

"So it was a date?"

"No, that's tomorrow night."

From the other side of my door, I heard a very over-excited "I knew it!"

My turn to sigh. "I didn't know she was hanging out right outside the door."

Mom put her arm around me. "Me neither. Listen, baby, take this slow."

"I know. Tomorrow's just a movie, nothing special."

"Good." She stood up and walked over to the door. "Your sister already scared the shit out of me when she started dating, I don't wanna go through that again."

I just smiled.

5.

"Hello, Amanda," the sorceress - Ms. Malski - said. We were in the principal's office. When did I get here? "Don't worry, you're just dreaming."

"Then why doesn't this feel like a dream?" I asked.

She was working on papers, grading, or something. This really didn't feel like a dream.

"Mostly because it's not so much a dream as a telepathic communication between us."

"You can read people's minds?"

She looked up at me. "No. I just knew that would get your attention."

I rolled my eyes. "So, what is this really?"

"Just a magical conversation we're having. Your body is sleeping, your mind is here."

"What do you want?"

"Mainly to tell you what your challenge was, now that you've gotten past it."

"What?!" I've been asking for, like, four days and now she tells me?! "What was it?"

"When I first met you, last Friday, I sensed a void in your life, one that you - "

"Oh, for God's sake, please don't tell me that turning me into a girl is 'fixing' me!"

Ms. Malski glared at me. "If you'd let me finish?" She did a little bit of paper signing for a second, then continued, "No, this doesn't fix you as a whole. In fact, I introduced a number of other problems into your life, but no more than any other fifteen year old girl."

"You mean aside from half the people I know thinking I'm a crossdresser, another half thinking I'm a freaky tranny and the only people who actually know being Steve, Dean and my family?"

"Keep interupting me and you'll spend the rest of your life not knowing what your challenge was."

I crossed my arms under my breasts and waited for her to keep talking.

"Good. As I was saying, I sensed a void in your life. I'm sure you've noticed your strengthened interactions with young Mr. Burke?"

"Wait, this whole thing has been about Steve?"

"Not entirely. It's been about the two of you. You, as the one who loves him, and him as the one who loves you."

"So, what, I'm a girl because it makes us as a couple look less awkward?"

"Again, not entirely. I'm certain you've noticed your preferences slide more toward men, but Steve's, unfortunately, don't."

"So, I was... I guess gay, but Steve wasn't?"

"Exactly. In order for the two of you to even be a couple in the first place, one of you needed to be female."

"Why was it so important that Steve and I be a couple?"

She set her pen down, then looked me straight in the eye. "Amanda, I need you to understand that what I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room."

"You mean this dream?"

"Yes."

"I can't tell Steve?"

"No."

I groaned. "Fine."

"I was asked to get the two of you together."

"By who?"

"Melanie and Stephanie."

The fuck?!

6.

My sister and my best friend's sister had conspired to get me and Steve together? Why? "Why?" Holy shit, I actually asked it.

"I can't tell you that, because I don't know it."

"So, what, they just asked you said yes, without even asking why?"

"Do you know how many people know about my power, Amanda? Until the unfortunate incident of the panty raid, it was simply Stephanie and Melanie. When I discovered that I could use magic and make reality my plaything, I never even told my father or my step-mother."

"So, how did Melanie find out?"

"A few months ago, they were in a city alleyway late at night. Had I not been on a date at that exact time, you and Steve might not have sisters any longer."

"What happened?"

"Three boys, members of another high school's cross country team. One of them pulled a knife when the girls told them they wouldn't submit themselves. The boys don't know what hit them, even to this day. They wake up each morning, get dressed for school, and wonder why they went to sleep as future regional cross country champions one night and awoke the next day as nerdy girls who the school eggheads wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole."

I almost lost my older sister because she wouldn't let herself be raped and I'd had no idea before now. Holy shit. "What happened next?"

She continued, "I told the girls about my power. They were much too curious and too thankful to accept that the entire situation just ended."

"So, did they conspire to get Steve and I together then, or did this just come about recently?"

"I imagine they probably had the idea in their heads some time ago, but it was only last week that they asked me to do this."

"Why'd you do it? You saved them, not the other way around. You weren't indebted to them in any way."

"In a way, I was. They kept my secret. They could have gone to the news and told everyone about the sorceress who saved their lives from filthy rapists, but they didn't. I chose to honor their request because I honor our friendship."

"So, why are you telling me this? Why not just throw up some bullshit and call that my challenge? Why tell me the real thing if I can't tell Steve?"

She smiled. "I only told you that to get you to shut up and listen. Considering Melanie and Stephanie are both involved, you would have found out about it at some point anyway."

I rolled my eyes again. "So I can tell Steve?"

"Of course."

"And what about Dean?"

"Of course not."

"What's his whole place in this, anyway?"

"His challenge is a genuine punishment. That you all three were affected at the same time is a mere coincidence. Even if you hadn't broken into his house that night, I'd have found out about the panty raid and dealt with it accordingly."

"Giant coincidence?"

"Yep."

"I don't believe it."

"I don't care."

"So, now what? I just wake up, tell Steve that this whole thing was a giant set-up to get him and me dating, and, what?"

"You live your lives. Stephanie called me earlier and told me Steve was taking you to a movie tonight."

"Yeah, he is."

"If you two are as compatible as the girls and I think, then you should enjoy yourself."

"And if we're not?"

"Then you find another boy who catches your fancy, it's that simple. Your friendship with Steve is eternal, there'll never be a time when the two of you aren't together in some way or another. Whether you take the next step is up to the two of you."

7.

I woke up and slowly sat up. Things were... Different now. Now that I knew why this whole week had happened, I just... Things were different, it was that simple.

I took a shower, shaved my legs and my pits (no knicks this time!), dried off, got dressed and walked all the way to school without talking to anybody. Actually, without really seeing anybody. Mom was on the phone in the kitchen when I left, Dad was probably still asleep, and Melanie took her shower a couple minutes after I got out of the bathroom.

I sat on the front steps and waited for Steve. I was almost an hour early, so I had time to think before he got there. Everything I thought kept going back to that dream conversation, kept going back to the truth. Maybe it was too much for me. Maybe Ms. Malski shouldn't have told me.

"Hey," Steve said as he walked up to me, "what's the matter?"

~o~O~o~

1.

"What's the matter?" Steve asked a second time. I wasn't entirely sure how to answer him. He looked concerned, and I didn't want him to feel that way. It wasn't his fault this had happened to us. It wasn't his fault...

...That I liked him.

I stood up and sighed. I had to tell him. I'd be a bitch if I didn't tell him, that's for sure. "I... Had a dream last night that wasn't really a dream."

"If it wasn't a dream, what was it?"

"It was her, Ms. Malski. She told me what my challenge was."

He took my hand. It felt nice. It felt nice, for a boy to hold hands with me. No, not just for a boy to hold hands with me, for Steve to hold hands with me. "So, what was it? Aside from turning into a girl for a week, that is."

I shook my head. "That wasn't part of it. That was for something else."

"She turned you into a girl for something else?"

"Yeah."

"What?"

"Us."

"Huh?"

I looked him in the eyes. "Melanie and Stephanie."

"You're not making any sense."

"Mel and Stephanie know Ms. Malski, they're the reason I'm a girl. And I'm a girl because... Because the two of them couldn't..."

"Are you saying they used the sorceress to get us together? Even though you were a guy and neither one of us was - "

I cut him off. "I... Think I was."

"Really?"

"It's complicated. I'm not sure, I just know I've transitioned way too easily considering I still like the same things. I shouldn't be jumping on the I like boys bandwagon so instantly if I didn't already, y'know?"

He nodded. "Okay, let's say you were gay when you were Adam, why throw me into the mix?"

"Stephanie probably told Ms. Malski that you needed a girlfriend, and turning me into that girlfriend must have seemed like the best idea."

"So, this whole thing was just an extremely complicated way of hooking us up?"

"Basically."

"And what about Dean?"

"Legit punishment for the panty raid."

"And how did you feel about all this?"

I sighed. "I wasn't as angry as I probably should have been."

"How come? Our sisters basically perpetrated this whole thing to turn you into my girlfriend. What are you getting out of this?"

I didn't answer him with words, right away, anyway. Instead, I did something that just plain surprised me. Shocked me. Scared me. Horrified me. Excited me.

I kissed him.

2.

When we broke the kiss off, I said, "I get you."

Steve put his hands on my waist and said, "Is that all? Me?"

"Well, c'mon, I haven't changed that much. I still like all the same stuff, I just have to deal with bras and panties now. Oh, and periods. That's a little annoying, but manageable. Or, at least it better be, since I'm gonna havta deal with 'em until menopause."

"Or until you get pregnant."

"Whoa, that's a little too much to be talking about right now."

He smiled. "You're right. So, does this make us boyfriend and girlfriend now? Because you were a little hesitant to say that yesterday."

I nodded. "Yeah. And... That was my challenge."

"What was?"

"Accepting this."

3.

"Spill it, sister," Melanie said to me when she finally found me at my locker. She looked either furious or curious, and I'm not sure which one I'd rather her be.

"Why did you say that like it's the Seventies?"

"Stop avoiding the question and answer the question."

"What question? All you said was 'spill it'."

"Exactly, now do so."

"Spill what? You were listening at my door last night when I talked to Mom and this whole thing was yours and Stephanie's idea in the first place, so what do I really need to spill?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "How do you know about that?"

"Ms. Malski told me in a dream last night."

"Are you... Angry, with us?"

I shut my locker and then leaned up against it. "No. And, to be honest, if you'd told me, I probably would have laughed in your face." I brushed my hair back behind my ears. "You didn't do the wrong thing, Mel, though I honestly would have liked to know sooner."

"Sorry. I swear, the next time Stephanie and I have Ms. Malski do anything to you, we'll tell you first."

I rolled my eyes. "If you ever have her do anything to me again, it'd better be because I stop growing," I pointed to my boobs, "and you don't."

She smiled. "Getting a little envious already, are you?"

"You know I'm joking."

"Yeah."

"Besides, I'm bigger than you already."

4.

"Somebody's a lot less anxious than she was a couple days ago," Shanna said as we changed for gym. Sports bras were much more comfortable when they were the right size. Not that I wasn't grateful that Shanna had let me borrow one the other day, but I knew I couldn't get through gym class next year without some of my own.

I smiled and slipped my shirt over my head. "Just some deep, deep soul searching."

"Soul searching, huh? What'dya figure out?"

I pulled my shorts on and then sat down on the bench in front of the lockers to lace up my shoes. "Just... Something. Something important."

"I thought you'd decided to be a girl awhile ago."

"That wasn't what I was talking about."

"Oh. So... Is there... Somebody?"

"That's privilaged information between me and my boyfriend." I tied my hair into a ponytail. "And I'm not telling you."

Shanna was smiling now. "Oh, don't worry, I won't pry. Hey, Amy?"

"Yeah?"

"Welcome to the fairer sex."

I smiled again. "Thanks."

5.

"You look realy happy," Steve said after the gym teacher finished off roll call. "Is it on account of that kiss earlier?"

"No," I said, hitting him on the arm lightly. "I'm just... Accepting for the first time, and I love it."

"When were you ever not accepting?"

"That's not what I mean, and you know it. I mean of me."

He smiled. "I know. I'm happy that you're happy."

"Thanks. Now," I picked up a basketball and tossed it to him, "you think you can take me now? Because I used to kick your ass at basketball when I was a boy."

He dribbled the ball a little. "I'd like to see you try."

6.

"Ms. Richards, do you have something to add?" Mrs. Zucker, the Creative Writing teacher, asked me, because I'd been yawning, and raised my arms above my head. Oops. Me be dumb. I shook my head, but I was sure I was red-faced. "Then keep your yawning to yourself. Now, which of you will actually come up here and read your essay?"

Melanie raised her hand, and I had a sinking feeling her essay had something to do with me. Why'd I have this feeling, you ask? Well, because now that I knew that Mel and Stephanie were behind this whole thing, the odds that this essay - which was assigned to us at the beginning of the semester, I might add - involved me in one way or another were very good.

"Okay," Melanie said as she got to the front of the class, "I wasn't actually gonna do this essay, and just take the failing grade, but a couple of days ago, my little sister took a big step in her life and, well, it inspired me." See? I knew this'd be about me. Goddamnit, Melanie... "Amy came out to me and our parents last Friday, after having dealt with her problems for awhile on her own." Seriously? This is actually a good essay? Damn, my sister might actually graduate high school after all. "Amy had kept up appearances as Adam for awhile, but she just couldn't anymore. I was the first person she told, even over our parents. At first I didn't know how to feel about it.

"Here was my little brother, the dweeb I teased every so often because - I thought - he was gay." That's a complete, unadulterated lie. She's never teased me about that. Hell, I didn't even know I was gay until I wasn't anymore. Wait, am I technically still gay? I mean, I'm a girl, and girls like bo - Aw, the hell with it. "It turned out it was much more than that, because Adam didn't want to be Adam, he wanted to be Amanda, felt free as Amanda. Adam was technically gay, he just wasn't Adam.

"And so, my little sister finally became my little sister last Friday, and there isn't one member of my family that isn't happy for her, because she's finally the person she truly is."

Mrs. Zucker started clapping, and then so did other people, which surprised me. They were clapping at an essay - a short one, at that - about me. I was almost dumbfounded. When Mel sat back down, I didn't even say anything, I just hugged her. My big sister wrote that about me. I felt like I was on top of the goddamn world.

7.

I felt like I was gonna throw up.

I made it to the bathroom just in time to avoid a mess all over the living room floor. I clutched the toilet and puked what was probably half my body weight out. By the time I was done, I sure felt like half my body weight was gone. It was a lot of puke. I instantly felt better, but that didn't make it any less disgusting.

"Honey? You okay?" Mom asked from the other side of the bathroom door.

"No."

"What's the matter?"

"Bad..." Oh, God, I was gonna do it again, wasn't I? Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! "Hot dog..." I tried to calm my stomach down. I didn't want to puke again. I heard her talking to Melanie. Thank you, so much, Melanie!

It took a few minutes, but I started to feel better. Whew! Thank God... I was starting to think I'd have to call Steve and tell him our date was ooooooooooglrughph.

And I puked. Again.

Oh man, what was going on? Was I getting cold feet? No, that couldn't be it. We were going to see Jurassic World for fuck's sake, in no way a cuddle movie or anything. Even if we are boyfriend and girlfriend, this wasn't a date movie, it was just a movie that happened to be while we're dating, so why was I so sick if it wasn't that hot dog I had at lunch?!

"Amy?" Melanie asked. "I'm coming in there, so you better not be covered in puke."

"I'm not," I gasped out.

I heard the door open, then close, then Mel sat down on the laundry hamper in the corner. "So... How ya doin'?"

"How do you think? I'm puking here!"

"I see that. Why are you puking?"

"I've been trying to figure that out myself." I calmed my stomach some more. Hopefully I wouldn't puke again. I put the toilet seat and lit back down and sat down. "I... Kinda... Um..."

"Your date tonight?" I nodded. "Well, it's not uncommon for a girl to get sick when she's about to go on her first date, but this is a little extreme. Besides, from what I hear, boys are way worse than girls when it comes to getting cold feet on a date."

"I wouldn't know."

"I know. You sure it wasn't that hot dog you ate at lunch? You looked kinda green after you ate it."

"It's probably a combination of the two."

"Ah."

"Should I go?"

"Duh."

"But I'm sick."

"And if you don't go tonight, you'll be sick next time. Go tonight, you'll never be sick again."

"You sure?"

"Just don't eat any popcorn."

I glared at her. "That's your advice?"

"What? I've never dated my best friend, so this is probably a thousand times worse than it should be for you. Just, go, and if you feel sick during the movie, excuse yourself to the ladies' room real quick. You're going to see a dinosaur movie, so odds are good you'll get sick just watching the dinos eat people."

"Hey, I think I can take that."

"Still. Go. I'll push you all the way to the movie theater myself if I have to."

I sighed. "Okay, okay. Who knows, maybe I'll feel better after this, y'know?"

"There ya go!"

Melanie stood up and walked to the door. Before she left the bathroom, I said, "Hey, Mel, thanks for writing that essay."

She smiled. "Anything for my baby sister."

~o~O~o~

1.

About twenty minutes after my big bathroom puke session, I was up in my room, switching out of the clothes I wore to school (since they smelled like puke) and getting ready to take a shower. I slipped into a pair of shorts and a tank top so that I wouldn't be running between bedroom and bathroom in just my bra and panties. Melanie had done that a few times and caught some absolutely hilarious hell for it from Dad.

As I was washing my legs (no shaving tonight, because I did that this morning), I came upon what was once Little Adam, and was now Ms. Amanda. It was done, totally, completely, I didn't have boy parts anymore. I couldn't believe it. It was done. I touched my... Deep breath here... Vagina lips (and that was weird to say to myself) for the first time and it felt super weird.

I shuddered. The internet can only teach you so much. Should I take my first plunge and discover what masturbating as a girl felt like, or save it for later? Would it feel squicky? Dammit, dammit, dammit...

I finished my shower, dried off, and got dressed. A simple pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt, nothing too fancy considering I was just going to see a movie with my best friend.

Best friend who was now my boyfriend, that is.

2.

"Two for Jurassic World, please," Steve said when we got up to the ticket counter. He looked at me and smiled for whatever reason (maybe because he was the one asking this time, when it was usually me), and I smiled back. He was happy about something. If I was lucky, it wouldn't be that he was secretly planning on kissing me at some big semi-romantic moment (because, let's face it, most action movies have semi-romantic parts).

We got our drinks, our popcorn (popcorn, yeah!), and then made our way to theater 12, where our showing was. Luckily, the place wasn't packed, and we picked a spot in the back, away from everybod - and I know where this is going.

"Did you bring me back here so you could cop a feel with nobody looking?" I asked.

"No!"

"Really?"

"Really. Tell me one time I've copped a feel on you back here before. We sit back here all the time."

"Tell me one time I was your girlfriend all the other times we've come here."

He sighed. "Okay, good point, but, seriously, we've always sat back here. Why should us as boyfriend and girlfriend be any different?"

"You mean other than the fact that it's not gonna look weird if you reach over and kiss me?"

"Good point, again. Look, it's a date, but not a date date, okay?" He gave me a light peck on the cheek. "We're just here to enjoy a movie as boyfriend and girlfriend for the first time, that's all."

"Stop it."

"What?"

I slouched in my seat. "Stop being cute. It makes it harder not to kiss you."

He smiled. "I wouldn't mind."

Somebody shouted, "Shut up back there!" I sighed.

3.

"Eh... The first one was better," Steve said as we left the theater. He was holding my hand, and I was enjoying it.

"I liked the second one better."

"Why?"

I hit the crosswalk button when we got to 3rd and Perez. "Because I don't care how ridiculous it is, a T-Rex rampaging through San Diego is awesome. After all, Sea World gets boring after awhile."

"How would you know? You've never been to Sea World."

"Because fish bore me, no matter how big, that's how."

He smiled. "Fine. So, you want me to take you home, or wanna hang out some more?"

"Nah, walk me home. I need to finish my homework for History tomorrow."

"Oh, your flag thing?"

"Uh-huh. I still don't know which flag to go with."

"Want me to help?"

I shook my head. "No, I gotta do this myself. It's a feeling, y'know?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure you'll do great on it, though."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem."

4.

Melanie was waiting for me at the front door when Steve dropped me off and walked to his place. “Nope,” was all I said to her when I passed her and walked inside. She looked like she was gonna burst. It was adorable.

“Why not?” she asked, following me into my room. I unzipped my pants and wiggled them off me. “If I were dating your best friend’s brother, I’d tell you everything.”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “I’m not you, sis.”

“Hey, you should so be playing by my rules, seeing as you wouldn’t even be dating Steve if it weren’t for me.”

“For you and Stephanie. You’re just lucky I’m no worse off this way than I was as Adam, otherwise I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad would disown you for ruining their child’s life.”

“So, are you saying you’re better off than you were as Adam?”

I shook my head. “Um, periods, bras, people calling me tranny or shemale, not to mention shaving my legs and armpits. No, I’m not better off, I’m just a girl when I used to be a boy. It’s different, but neither one is better.”

“But, you’re happy now.”

“I wasn’t unhappy before. Granted, apparently I was closet gay and didn’t know it, and I’ve been transitioning pretty well despite the enhanced crazy around me. I’m not saying I was right as Adam, but I wasn’t wrong, either.”

“Well, that’s good.” She turned around to leave the room, then stopped and shut the door. Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t realize that the door was open when I was taking my pants off. Um… Wow. “Hey, Amy, can I tell you something?”

“Yeah, of course you can.” I pulled on the shorts I’d worn earlier when I took my shower. I would put a nightie on, but I still had homework to do.

“This whole thing, changing you and setting you and Steve up together, most of it was Stephanie’s idea.”

“So what?”

“Well… The two of us were…”

“Mel, so what?”

“Huh?”

I plopped down on my bed and grabbed my tablet. “Is it really gonna change my life if I know which one of you decided to do this to me first? I’m Amanda now, I love being Amanda now, as much as I loved being Adam before, nothing about anything is different. You have a little sister instead of a little brother, it’s no big deal, I’m still the same person with the same likes and dislikes, so stop worrying about owning up to a mistake you didn’t make. The only mistake you did make was not telling me sooner.” I laid down. “Now lemme do my homework, okay?”

She smiled. “Yeah.”

5.

I woke up, sat up, stretched, and yawned. I was halfway through my shower when I realized I’d had no dreams the night before. Well, no curse-induced dreams, that is. I had a normal dream, which involved me running naked through a forest and then riding on a polar bear, but nothing involving me and Steve, or me and Dean, or me and Ms. Malski.

I was finally free.

Granted, I’d been free the whole time, considering there was little I could actually do and nothing was hurting me physically, but the curse was over now.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Come in!” I said.

In came Melanie, pulling open the shower curtain and holding out two dresses. One was pink with little hearts all over it, the other was yellow with flowers. She was smiling way too much. “Pink or yellow?” she asked.

“Um… I’m not wearing a dress to school.”

She laughed. “No, stupid, it’s for the year end dance after school. Or did you forget we have a year end dance?”

Oh, goddamnit… “Do I have to wear a dress?”

“What’s the big deal? You wear nighties to bed, this isn’t really any different.”

“Except that I’d be wearing it around people!”

“That’s no big deal. Dresses are nothing to be scared of. So, pick one.”

“No.”

“If you don’t, then I’m just gonna hand you one after school and not let you leave the restroom until you change.”

“Nope.”

“Steve would like to see you in one, I bet.”

“Actually, Steve says I’m cute no matter what I wear.”

“Amanda Richards, you’re wearing a dress and that’s final!”

“You’re not Mom.”

“Mom! Amy won’t wear a dress to the dance today!”

“Shut up, Melanie!” Dad shouted back.

“I said ‘Mom’, not ‘Dad’!”

“And I said shut up!”

I started giggling. This was hilarious. “Will you get outta here and let me finish my shower, please? If you’re gonna force me into a dress I guess I’ll take the yellow one.”

“Great! I have the perfect pair of heels to go with that!”

Oh, for fuck’s sake! “Seriously? It’s bad enough I’m wearing a dress, now you’re gonna force me into heels?”

“You can’t wear tennis shoes with a dress, silly.” With that, she turned around, left the bathroom and shut the door. Oh, Christ, today was gonna be annoying.

6.

“She’s making me wear a dress,” I said as I doodled a picture in Homeroom.

Unfortunately, the only one I had to talk to in Homeroom was Dean, who was busy filing his nails. “At least it’s just your sister making you wear stuff, something you can actually persuade otherwise. I make me wear stuff, and it’s all because of that witch.”

I sighed. “You don’t know Melanie that well.”

“I should, she and I have a similar taste in clothes.”

“Either way. She’s not the most persuadable person.”

“That’s not a word.”

“Yes, it is. Pay attention in class one of these days.” I looked up from my picture. “So, why are you even talking to me? I figured you’d blame this whole thing on me.”

He shook his head. “It’s not your fault that, it’s the witch’s fault.”

“Seriously? You don’t find at least a little blame in what you did?”

“You mean a harmless prank? Panty raids don’t hurt anyone, Richards.”

“You’re wearing panties right now, you sure you still believe that?”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine, you’ve got a point.” He looked like he had something else to say after that, but he didn’t.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously, what? Don’t forget, I’m like the only person who’ll talk to you anymore.”

“It’s not important.”

I sighed. “Fine. If you say so.”

“I do.”

“Fine.”

“Stop it, Richards.”

“I’m not trying to guilt trip you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I really wasn’t, even though it sounded like I was. It was kinda funny, actually.

“Did you want to be a girl before you were cursed?”

What?! “What?”

“I know you tell everybody that, since it’s easier than telling the truth, but did you actually want to be a girl?”

I shook my head. “It really doesn’t matter whether I did or not. I am now, and I don’t mind it.”

He hugged his knees to his chest. “That just means you were gay.”

I sighed. “I’m actually pretty sure now that I was, but that’s beside the point.”

“You, too, huh?”

That caught my attention. “Wha?”

His face turned redder than it already was (he was wearing way too much blush) and then he looked away. “Nothing. Just forget I said that.”

Something seemed very off about that…

7.

“Your final assignment of the year is to draw anything,” Mr. Pendergast said, writing the word ANYTHING on the board. “Anything at all. You have the entire class to get as far along as you can, but I want it to be as detailed as you possibly can, shoot for nothing less than the best you can do.”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Johnny said when Mr. Pendergast walked back into his office. “Anything?! I can barely draw anything!” He looked over at me. “What are you drawing, Richards, lemme copy off you.”

I covered up my paper with my arms and glared at him. “No.” Steve started laughing. “How would you even copy me anyway? The only thing you could do is trace me, and Mr. Pendergast would know.”

“C’mon! I’m gonna flunk if I don’t!”

“No.”

He turned to Steve. “Burke, tell your girlfriend to let me trace her drawing.”

Kimberly nearly spit out her drink. “No way, those two are dating?!”

I nodded. “We haven’t exactly telegraphed it, or anything, but yeah.”

Steve said, “Well, she doesn’t telegraph it. I had her name tattooed on me.”

I smacked him in the back of the head. “No you didn’t.”

“Wait,” Johnny said, “you two really are dating? Shit, man, I just guessed.” He held up his hand for a high five. “Good job scorin’ the trannie, man, that’s just awesome.”

Kimberly elbowed him. “Shut up, dumbass. Amy’s not a trophy, even if she is still somewhat a boy.”

“Um, I’m not, actually,” I said, sheepishly.

“You mean you had the surgery?”

“Yeah,” I lied. “I had that done awhile ago. I just started the hormones recently to get the rest of me caught up.”

“But, genetically, you’re still a boy, right?”

“Um… Yeah.” Not really.

“See, so you’re still somewhat a boy, like I said.”

I groaned. “Fine.”

Johnny said, “Look, none of this settles the problem of Richards letting me copy off of her drawing.”

Steve responded, “She said no, so I’d take that as your final answer.”

Johnny slammed his head down on the table, making my pencils go flying. “Dammit! I’m gonna fail this class!”

I sighed. “See that wall behind me?” I asked, pointing to the very basic wall behind me. “Draw that.”

He looked up at the wall and then his eyes lit up like he’d finally found religion, or something like that. “Richards! You’re a goddamn genius!”

I just rolled my eyes.

~o~O~o~

1.

It was time. My History grade depended on it. I needed to do this right. Very, very right. Very, very right. Yeah, okay, I really do have weird thoughts and put too much emphasis on certain things.

Anyway, in order to do this right, I had to wait for everybody else. Kenny Williams picked the Canadian flag, because he was from Canada and because he liked their sense of peace and universal healthcare. Sarah Williams (no relation to him, apparently) picked the Swedish flag, for some reason I wasn’t really paying attention to because she also dove straight into her dating profile for any single boys who want a hot summer date (I hope I’m never like that). Billy Kerrigan chose the New Zealand flag for yet another reason I wasn’t really paying attention to because every other sentence involved The Hobbit trilogy. Some people picked weird things for what a flag “meant” to them.

“Ms. Richards?” Mr. Greene called my name. It was time. I had to do this. My entire History grade was cou -

Shut up, Amanda, and get to it!

I hated my brain.

I sighed, stood up, and walked to the front of the classroom. Deep breath, Amanda, deep breath. I put my little printed out Rainbow Flag on the whiteboard with a magnet. “This is the Rainbow Flag,” I started. Some people were already trying to hide laughter. “It’s the symbol of the LGBT community, and I picked this flag because, as a transgender girl, well, it means a lot to me that people in my community are treated equally.” Everything I said sounded like it was stolen from a thousand different speeches from people who actually meant their words. I took another breath.

I continued, “When I was a boy, I didn’t mind my life. I got up, went to school, hung out with my friends, went to bed, rinse, repeat. It was a normal life, it was okay.” Some people were still disguising their laughter. Yay. “Then, one day, I realized that Adam Richards wasn’t right. I got up every day and went though my life exactly like I said: Rinse and repeat. Everything was so basic and so nothing that I felt like I wasn’t really living so much as going through the motions of somebody else’s life.” Did I suddenly sound more confident? I think I did. People were still laughing lightly, but I didn’t care. “I decided that day that I’d stop being Adam and be who I really felt like I was, and that’s who I am now.”

Jenny Gunther raised her hand. “How did you know you’d feel better as a girl?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t, at first. It took me a little while to realize that it was my... “ I expected the laughs for this one, “...Boy parts…” and there they were, “...Were the cause.” I could have said penis, but people would have laughed equally as hard, so I just said boy parts. I felt no shame. “But when I did, I went to my sister, and together, we went to our parents. I owe my sister a lot of thanks for what she did to help me.” I chuckled. “She’s the best sister ever, and I’m not just saying that.”

That sounded a lot more real than it was.

2.

Steve grabbed me around the waist and held onto me while I was cleaning out my locker. “You look like you just won a gold medal, how ya doin’?” he asked.

“I did great on my speech. A+.”

“That’s great, Amy!”

I lightly elbowed him to get him off of me. He took the hint. “Yeah, it is. I’m also the only one that got an A+. A lot of other people got A’s, but I’m the only one that got an A+.”

“You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not. I just don’t get why I’m the only one that got an A+. A lot of other people did that good, too.”

“Mr. Greene just thought you were the best, that’s all.” He turned me around and pushed me back against the locker, gently. “Amy, just because you’re the school’s only transgender girl doesn’t mean you can’t also be the coolest, greatest student.”

“I’m not, though. Dean’s supposedly the valedictorian this year.”

“Yeah, I heard about that.”

“He… Kinda said something weird to me during Homeroom.”

Steve looked surprised. “You mean Dean Garnet was capable of talking to you like a normal human being?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what to make of it.”

“What’d he say?”

I shrugged. “That’s just it, I don’t really know. It was mostly his tone, he kinda sounded like he was gonna tell me he was gay before he was cursed.”

“Considering how many girls he’s dated, that would surprise me. Stephanie said he was one of her better boyfriends.”

I sighed. “I dunno. Maybe I was just reading too much into it.”

Steve smiled. “Hey, don’t worry about it.” He quickly changed the subject. “So, are you going to that stupid dance in a little bit?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Melanie’s making me go. She says I need to wear a dress.”

“You? In a dress? You looked so uncomfortable in a skirt the other day at my house that I thought you were gonna go nuts.”

“I get nervous wearing that stuff in public, y’know? I mean, I wear nighties to bed, and dresses are pretty much the same, but that’s to bed. I don’t wear them with all my friends around.” I sighed again. “I dunno. Do you think I’d look cute in one?”

He kissed me on the cheek. “I think you look cute all the time, so I’m not one to ask about that.”

I smiled now. “You’re just sayin’ that because you’re my boyfriend.”

“No, I woulda said that if we weren’t dating. I’m mainly saying it because it’s true, but I’m also saying it because I’m your best friend.” He grabbed me by the waist again. “If you’re going, I guess I’ll go, too. I don’t want you dancing with any other guys, after all.”

“Jealous much?”

“A little. You are the hottest transgender girl I’ve ever dated.”

“I’m the only transgender girl you’ve ever dated.”

“Point taken. See ya then.” He gave me another kiss on the cheek and then left me to go to his locker. I sighed. At least he’d be there to make me feel better if I made a total ass of myself.

3.

“You look relieved,” Melanie said when she caught up to me after History class.

“I feel relieved. Nobody laughed loudly at my speech. I’m never doing one again for as long as I live, but at least it wasn’t as painful as I thought it’d be.” I sat down on a bench in the school lobby. Only twenty minutes before the school dance started. Urgh…

“So,” she said, holding up her book bag, “you ready to get changed?”

“You’re really gonna force me to do this, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am.”

I sighed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

4.

Melanie was smiling like a lunatic. She grabbed me by the arm, dragged me to the nearest restroom and blocked the exit. She really couldn’t wait for this. I could, but then again, I’d never worn a dress or heels before.

Actually, the heels scared me more than the dress.

I took off my shirt, my shorts and my socks, then pulled the dress on. It felt so weird to be wearing it. Luckily, it wasn’t backless or strapless or anything, so I got to keep my bra on. I don’t know if I could deal with wearing a dress and letting my boobs flop around underneath. It’d probably feel weirder than simply wearing the dress.

Next, I used the door of a stall to balance myself as I put the heels on. I needed to take a deep breath before and after each one, goddamn nervousness… I took a few practice steps in them so that I could get the hang of walking in them. Thankfully, Melanie picked low heels, because I don’t know if I could have handled the ones I saw her putting on. Hilariously, the only benefit here for her (other than seeing her little sister in a dress and heels), was that she was now one inch taller than me. Even as a girl, I was still taller than her.

“Ready for your make-up?” Mel asked. She was really having fun with this.

“C’mon, I’m already wearin’ the dress and the heels, make-up, too?”

“I thought you liked make-up?”

“I don’t hate it, but I’m already wearing lipstick, isn’t that enough?”

She was smiling like a demon again. “Nope. If my baby sister is going to her first dance, she’s going there looking the best she possibly can.”

I was going to regret this day for the rest of my life, I was sure.

5.

This was it.

My moment of absolute total fear and horror.

The moment my fate as a member of the female sex would be decided.

All of this past weird week was leading up to this moment.

And nobody was paying me any more attention than anyone else.

The gym was crowded as hell, lots of people dancing to whatever was playing (I think it was Imagine Dragons, but I wasn’t quite sure, because a few of their songs sounded like deeper Linkin Park songs), others over by the punch bowl just talking (and probably spiking it with liquor, knowing our football team). I caught sight of Dean off in a corner by himself. His compulsions thanks to his curse had gotten him into a dress, too, though his was a lot more revealing than mine, and his heels were higher.

Melanie was having a ball just dancing by herself, so I sort of drifted off toward the punch bowl. Pretty much every girl was in a dress, and pretty much every guy was wearing plain clothes. I was one of the few girls who was wearing heels, though, so Melanie was full of shit when she told me I couldn’t wear tennis shoes with a dress. At one point, I glanced over at the corner Dean was in, but he wasn’t there anymore. Maybe he found somebody to dance with.

Maybe he just left.

I was sipping on my fifth cup of liquor-spiked punch (I was a little tipsy, I don’t think they put as much into this bowl as they usually did) when somebody tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and nearly drowned on some punch when I saw Steve standing there wearing a tuxedo. “Tell me, cutie pie, have any guys tried to dance with you yet?” he asked. He looked so damned good, it was amazing.

“You rented a tuxedo for this? Did Melanie tell you to do this?”

He shook his head. “Nope. And I didn’t rent this, it was my dad’s prom tux. It still smells like the 80s.”

“You wore that for me?”

“I brought it in case you were going, whether you were wearing a dress or not. I gotta say, though, you look gorgeous in that. Melanie was right about that much, at least.”

I blushed - well, if you could tell, anyway. “Thanks.”

“So?” He held out his hand and almost immediately, slow dance music came on. “May I have this dance, Ms. Richards?”

I smiled. “You certainly may, Mr. Burke.” I took his hand and pulled closer to him. This may sound like the sappiest romance story ever, and it kinda felt that way, too, but I didn’t care. I was dancing with my boyfriend, and even if I was wearing a ridiculous dress and he was wearing a tuxedo that really did smell like it crawled out of 1985, I was loving every second of it.

When the song ended and Steve kissed me, I finally felt like this whole weird week, this whole outrageous journey, this whole learning experience of becoming female, was finally over.

And off to the side was Melanie and Stephanie, high-fiving themselves.