Parents - Part One

Believe it or not, setting the date to get married was was the easy part.

Morgan gets paid, meets a new friend and takes a vacation with her.

Morgan finds a job that inches him closer to the gender line.

Morgan has his 18th birthday, leaves foster care, and begins his adult life. Already often mistaken for a girl, circumstances and his personality move him ever closer to the gender boundary.

Chapter 3.15

May 30th, 2023

8:27 PM

Marcia was out riding Tigger when Darryl phoned her.

“Hi, Foxy,” he said when she answered. “Can you come up to the house? We need to talk about something.”

“Do you want to meet me at the stable?” she asked him.

“No, I think we need to talk in the house about this,” He told her.

“What’s this about?” she asked. “You’re sounding kinda cryptic.”

“Nothing bad, Foxy. I promise that.”

“Okay, now I’m getting suspicious,” she said as she steered the horse toward the barn.

Simon slept poorly that night. He tossed and turned all night. He never felt this way about Stacy. What was wrong with him? He was a monster. He used his money and power to trick men into acting and living as women. Was he some sort of demented wannabe Dr. Frankenstein?

Chapter 3.14

May 23^rd, 2023

12:34PM

Bruce sat on a log bench that was sitting near the barn. It was facing out towards the water and Pioneer Peak, and he was enjoying the view. He had his eye on a golden eagle circling something below. He supposed it was a rabbit, and he watched to see if it would dive for its prey.

Chet exited the house, looking for the older man, and when he spotted him, he followed Bruce’s gaze and saw the eagle just as it dived. A moment later, it was heading back up, a wiggling mass of brown and white fur in its talons. He hoped it was a rabbit.

Walking up to Bruce, Chet observed that the man was munching on a sandwich. “Well, did the police mess up your camper?” He asked.

KAI

For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

I stared blankly at the GCSE exam past paper on the desk in front of me, then at my watch for perhaps the fiftieth time this lesson, then out of the window where the sun was streaming down onto the tarmacked playground below. Only a few minutes to go now, a couple of hours to kill at the library, and I could go home and escape. For a few hours anyway. I’d been planning it for weeks. My stomach had been turning butterflies all afternoon in anticipation.

Chapter 19 - High School

And so I continued to grow up. The usual things that happen to teenage girls happened to me. For the most part, my life as a transgendered girl wasn't too different from that of any schoolgirl, but I'll hit some of the highlights.

Chapter 14 - The Birthday Party

Have you ever gotten so busy that you forget some important stuff? By the middle of February I was settling in to my new school and new friends and identity. If I wasn't doing homework or thinking about school I was thinking about the upcoming play, learning the songs and dialog and wondering who was going to be playing Colin and Dickon.

Chapter 3.13

Wednesday, May 22^nd 2023

It had been several days since French and Brandy had told them what happened to Gerald Parks.

Marcia had hoped they would find that the saw cuts had been made after death – maybe the killer initially planned to dispose of the body in different locations? That wouldn’t be great, but at least it wouldn’t be torture. But no, there was clear evidence that the sawing was done while the poor man was alive.

She found it hard to conceive that people could do things like that to each other. She wished she'd never found out about this case, but she desperately wanted to prove that Bruce had nothing to do with it.

Chapter 10 - A New School and A New Show

Ursuline Academy was everything I hoped it would be. Eventually. Of course I had to get through being the new girl, which I thought wouldn't be too hard. After all, I was able to stand up in front of a few hundred complete strangers and convince them I was a cute little orphan for several nights. Stage fright? Me?

December 1966. I was determined to make this the best month of my life so far. My new life, which began that summer. The first summer of my girlhood.

Chapter 8 - Ursuline Academy

"And to what do we owe the pleasure of your company this morning, Annie?" asked Dad at breakfast.

"Why Dad, isn't my presence always a pleasure?"

"I refuse to answer because I might have to tell the truth."

"Chip, be nice to your daughter."

"He's never nice to me," grumped Kate.

"I guess that means you don't want a lift to the mall?" snarked Dad.

"I'll just have my boyfriend take me."

"Joanna! Where's my baseball bat?"

“Umf,” Sophie grunted as her eyes slowly opened and she found herself in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar room. “He- hello?”

“Ah, bonjour!” The familiar voice of Sophie’s roommate replied with an excited squeak that made Sophie wince.

“Not so loud, please!” Sophie groaned as the throbbing in her head intensified. “What time is it, anyway?”

“Time for you to be getting out of bed,” Francine replied in an authoritative voice. “Today is a big day!”

Chapter 4 - Annie And The Angel

I wore my new print dress home at Kate's insistence - she thinks that having a sister could be fun. Dad and Sam did some silly grunting and chest pounding thing when we got home to prove how great their men's night out was, but we sophisticated women just ignored the gorillas in the living room. We women had better things to do, like finish my homework and go to bed; after all it was a school night. Looking back as an adult having to go to bed so early shocks me, but back then I really did need the sleep. That school bus came awful early.

Chapter 3 - Outfitting Annie

School on Wednesday took forever.

I was really looking forward to going out with Mom and Kate, and the idea of being Annie for the outing had moved from yeah, OK to this is going to be fun! Something had clicked when I saw myself as the girl version of me. On stage, Annie was a character, a role I was playing; off stage, the Annie I saw in the mirror was me as a different person.

Chapter 2 - Annie Off The Stage

Annie was a great success, which made me want to spend more time on the stage. I was hooked on the bright lights and the greasepaint, just like my parents. The hardest part of the whole thing was the my name in the program.

Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other childern, when the supper things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you…Don't… Watch…Out!

"Little Orphant Annie"
James Whitcomb Riley
1885

“Morning!” beamed my Mum, as we saw each other on the landing, both making our ways towards the top of the stairs. She was far too cheery for this time of the morning, if you were to ask me.

“Mornin’,” I mumbled back, as I started to head down the stairs, my Mum a few paces behind.

“This is very early for you,” commented my Mum, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, fine, thanks,” I continued to mumble, as my Mum followed me into the kitchen.