“I’m jealous of you now.” Carol looks at Ginger as Nora and Kelly walk in from coming back from the hospital.

“Why are you jealous, Carol?” Nora looks at her youngest daughter.

“Because Ginger finally has the vagina she’s been wanting. I still have a year or two before I can get my surgery.” Carol was jealous that Ginger finally got her surgery.

“Trust me, Carol. Having a vagina isn’t all fun and games.” Tiffany was standing nearby, holding the baby she gave birth too.

The baby her own father impregnated her with. It was a hard choice for her to decide to keep the baby. If it hadn’t been for Nora’s and Kelly’s support. She might have aborted the baby.

Now that she has had the baby. She couldn’t imagine her life without the baby. Nora and Kelly have been wonderful grandparents to her baby.
They help her take care of the baby and buy whatever the baby or she needs. Her own mother talked with Nora and decided that she would be better off with Nora and Kelly, instead of coming for her.

She was going to need time to get her life back in order. Tiffany’s mother trusted Nora with the most important person in her life. Nora and Kelly didn’t mind letting Tiffany stay with them.

When the baby was born, Tiffany named the baby girl, Nora Marie. She also made Nora and Kelly her godparents. She was sharing a bedroom with Ginger as well.

Carol and Melody were sleeping in the same room and bed. Nora and Kelly caught them making out and once they had a serious talk with them about their relationship. Nora and Kelly allow them to sleep and share a room together.

Carol’s name was changed, but she kept her surname. Guardianship was given to Nora and Kelly. Just as guardianship was given to them for Tiffany as well. Melody was adopted by Kelly and Nora. She had her last name changed to Nora’s.

Ginger makes it to the recliner in the den and sit down in it. She was still sore from her operation. Now that she had her SRS surgery.

Nora looks at her oldest “well, how do you feel, now that you have your very own vagina?”

“Like a real girl, mom. Thank you and momma Kelly.” Ginger looks at both her mothers.

She was thankful that both her mothers, allowed her to get her sex change on her sixteenth birthday. Her psychiatrist and counselor wrote
letters for her as well. Nora and Kelly thought it was a good idea as well. That way, when she goes to Marine boot camp. She’ll be going in as a female, instead of a male.

Ginger still planned to follow in her birth mother’s footsteps and become a drill instructor. She was already part of ROTC and her seventeen birthday was only a year away. Nora and Kelly said they would give their consent to allow her to enroll in the Marines.

Ginger takes the pain medicine the doctor prescribed to her. She couldn’t wait until she was fully healed. That way she could get back into shape, so she could pass the physical and PT training.

Ginger looks at Tiffany “if you like, I can hold Nora Marie for you.”

Tiffany hands Nora Marie to Ginger “thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Tiffany.” Ginger holds her little niece.

Ginger looks at the little girl in her arms. She was so adorable and looked just like her mother. She was going to be spoiled by all her aunts and godmothers. As for herself, she is just like Christina now. Maybe one day she might settle down with the right guy and adopt kids like Nora and Kelly have done.

The rest of the day Ginger gets some rest and is waited on by everyone in the house. During the week, she makes visits to her doctor, so he can see how she is doing. The embarrassing part of her recovery is the dilators she needs to use. Tiffany walked in on her a few times when she was in her bedroom using them.

The next few months Ginger slowly recover from her SRS surgery. Everyone in the house helps her. Her friends at school were curious about her surgery and wanted to see what she looked like now, that she has had it.

This was going to be her last year in school. She has been taking extra courses and a few summer classes so she could graduate early and go directly to boot camp. On her seventeenth birthday, Nora takes Ginger directly to the recruiter's office and let her sign up for the Marines.

The Day of Ginger’s Departure:
Ginger watches as she boards the plane to leave for boot camp. She was going to Parris Island for her training like her birth mother and father did. She didn’t want to become an officer, but enlisted personnel. She looks at all the other recruits on the plane with her.

She could tell some of the new recruits were excited and some of them were nervous. She pulls out a book and starts reading it. Her gear was packed with everything she was going to need for boot camp. The medication for her hormones and such had been submitted.

Nora and a friend of hers had prepared her for everything she will be experiencing her first four weeks of boot camp. She was woken up early every morning and made to jog with and without a full backpack. She was also taught how to strip and clean an M-16.

Ginger already knew how to swim, so she didn’t bother with that. Nora told her that if she couldn’t pass the swim test, then they wouldn’t advance her. There was a bus waiting to take her and all the new recruits to the recruit depot.

When the bus arrives, at the recruit depot. She and all the other recruits are rushed off the bus and made to wait. They are told to stand on the spot of a set of yellow footsteps, with their feet at forty-five-degree angles. They are given a lecture by the drill instructors, on what will be expected of them, what they are to say that they are no longer a single individual.

Afterward, after certain articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice are read to the recruits by the drill instructors. They are escorted inside the building. They fill out a name card and told what they are supposed to do with the paperwork they brought with them. When all that is done, they are taken to a room and put in line in front of a set of gray boxes. The instructor tells them they are to call their mother, father, sister, brother or if they can’t get anyone to answer. To call their recruiter and tell them they have arrived, and they will be writing them in two or three weeks. As they read the paper while they are the phone, they are supposed to yell it, so the instructors and other recruits can hear it.

They are taken to another room and the drill instructor goes through whatever they have in their green bag. Ginger didn’t bring much with her, except what she needed. The instructor does question her about her pill bottle.

Afterward, they go and get their gear and are separated. The men go and get their hair cut and the women are taken to their quarters. They are assigned their bunks, gun and the rest of their gear. Also, they are introduced to their drill instructors as well. One of her drill instructors was Latino.

The first-week fly’s by too quickly for Ginger. She knew some of what to expect, because of her mother allowing her to come and watched as she trained recruits. By the time they can sleep, Ginger was happy.

The second week of her training was Martial Arts. Ginger had to hold back some, so as not to undo what their instructors were telling them to do. She made sure to do as she is instructed. She notices two of her drill instructors were watching her closely.

“Recruit Midnight, why are you holding back during training?” Sgt. Miller waits for an answer from recruit Midnight.

“This recruit doesn’t want to embarrass their fellow recruit, Sir!” Ginger stood comely still before DI Miller.

“You think your that good, recruit, that we have nothing else to teach you, recruit?”

“No, sir. This recruit knows there’s always more to learn, Sir!” Ginger knew she could always learn more.

Nora told her that there was always someone better than you out there. So, you should always try to improve yourself. She hopes the DI doesn’t hold it against her for holding back.

DI Miller and SR. DI Foremore are going to need to watch recruit Midnight. She has been doing extremely well since she arrived. DI Miller just walks away from Ginger.

The rest of the day after the martial arts training. They start bayonet training. Ginger does pretty well with the fake bayonet training.

Between the drill training, martial arts training, bayonet training, and obstacle course training. Ginger starts feeling the effects of all of them. She is thankful when week four starts, which is the water training. The basic training aspect of it is easy, but then they start adding in swimming with full gear and recovering your gear.

Week Five they start rappelling training and gas mask training. They show them how to put the gas mask on and then line them up and send them inside a building. They are lined up along the wall, while one of the DI’s put chemicals in a container in the middle of the room. A smoke cloud forms and instructions are given to them.

By the time they are done, they are rushed out of the building. Everyone is coughing and taking their mask off. Ginger couldn’t train for this, but Nora did tell her everything she could expect.

They do more drills and move onto grass week, where they learn everything about how to handle a gun. They are given a manual to follow along with. They learn different sitting positions and such. The DI’s go over everything about the M16 from tearing it down to clean it, to put it back together.

They have weeks’ worth of training on how to fire the M16. Ginger notices the girl next to her was having a hard time.

“Brady, like this.” Ginger shows her how to properly hold the rifle and how to sight and such.

“Thanks, Midnight.” Brady didn’t like guns. She didn’t even like being around them, but she knew she needed to learn about them.

When they are taken down to the firing range. Among the soldiers that Ginger was among. There was at least a handful who were extremely good shooters. Among the men, that were there with her on the range. There was one guy Ginger was a little concerned about.

He seemed to enjoy shooting too much. It wasn’t like the joy you got from doing something you like. The joy she noticed was the type a predator gets when they go after prey. She has seen that type of joy.

The next week they are crawling through mud and rain. Ginger didn’t like it very much. Some of the mud manages to creep into her uniform. The rain wasn’t helping either.

When they get back to the barracks, all the women were tired. They head towards the showers and remove their uniforms.

“I’ll be glad when we finish boot camp.” Williams was standing next to Ginger.

“Oh, trust me. We still haven’t finished the rough stuff yet.

“What do you mean, Midnight?” Brandon looks over towards Ginger from across the showers.

“We still have the fitness test to pass and the obstacle course we have to finish. There are time limits on them and if you don’t finish under the time limit, you fail.” Ginger was going to pass those tests. She hasn’t come this far to fail.

“What are you going to do with your ten days off, Ginger?” Swan was curious.

“Go back to Memphis, with my family and spend time with them until I have to go where the Marines send me.” Ginger figures they might keep her in the States or maybe send her overseas.

“Well, I’m going to find a nice man to spend time with for those ten days. After being here among you ladies, I’ll need my kitty scratched.” Brandon has been getting hot and horny from all the men she has been seeing on base.

“To each their own.” Ginger couldn’t wait to see her boyfriend again.

William was attending college at the University of Tennessee and was playing Football for them. He was studying communications. He managed to earn a football scholarship.

She was going to do her college degree online after her Marine corps training. She would be attending the school of Infantry in North Carolina since she went to Parris Island. Afterward, she would attend her MOS school, for training since she wants to be a drill instructor.

Her second choice was Intelligence and her third choice of assignment is Military Police. Ginger pulls the letter William sent her out and start reading. He informs her that he had arrived and was sharing a room with a journalism student. He also informs her that his roommate spotted her picture and thinks she is hot.

Ginger smiles when she reads that part. She was proud of William and how hard he worked to earn the scholarship he got. She had to help him with some subjects that he had problems with. He managed to earn a B average grade in those subjects.

“Watch you doing?” Jones comes walking over to Ginger’s bunk.

“Reading a letter from my boyfriend.” Ginger looks up at Jones.

Her hair was almost as red as her own. She had been doing okay throughout the training. She was an interesting person. She had learned that the Jones family had a long line of family members that had served in Marines. Jones herself was the fourth generation of her family to serve.

“Oh! How are things going for him?” Jones didn’t have a boyfriend.

The guy she had been seeing and went to prom with, had cheated on her. He knocked up Betty Ronnie, the girl he cheated on her with. So, she was unattached and has decided not to go out with anyone, until she got all her Marine training out of the way.

“Fine, he is sharing a room with a journalism student.”

“Oh, that should be interesting. What is your boyfriend studying?” Jones was curious.

“Communications. That’s what he wants to do if he ever gets hurt playing football.” She and William had talked about it.

“Well, that is strange. So, why did you join the Marines?” Jones never did ask Ginger why she joined.

“I want to be like my birth mother. She was a drill instructor and she enjoyed it. My adopted mother is a former DSS agent and she teaches high school now.”

“Why didn’t you follow in your adopted mother’s footsteps.” Jones's figures being a DSS agent would be safer.

“Because I have always wanted to follow in my birth parents’ footsteps. I love my adopted mother a lot, but I don’t think I could be a DSS
agent. I don’t have the right personality for it.” Ginger thought about following in Nora’s footsteps, but after Nora informed her. What she would be doing. There was no way she could be a DSS agent.

The next few weeks are tough for all the women as they complete what was required of them. On graduation day everyone was happy that no one in their group failed to complete basic training. Ginger spots her family waiting for her.

She runs over to them and stops to give Nora and Kelly a salute. She knew she didn’t have too, but she wanted to honor her mother’s.
A smile forms on Nora’s face when Ginger gives her a salute. She returns the salute to Ginger.

“We’re so proud of you, Ginger.” Kelly hugs Ginger.

Kelly holds onto her oldest daughter for a while. She knew this is what Ginger has always wanted. She knew Ginger would finally get her to wish.

Sr. DI Foremore walks over towards Ginger and her family. He notices that the Hispanic looking woman was very observant of her surroundings. He could see it in the way she stood and how she was aware of the position of everyone.

“PFC Midnight, congratulations.”

“Thank you, Staff Sergeant.” Ginger saluted him first, before speaking.

“I take it, this your family, Private?”

“Yes, sir. I would like for you to meet my mothers, Kelly Midnight and Nora Midnight. My next oldest sister Tiffany, and her daughter Nora Marie. My other sisters, Melody and Carol Midnight.”

“Ladies, you should be very proud of PFC Midnight. She did a good job helping her fellow recruits make it through their training.” Staff Sergeant Foremore had observed how Ginger had helped her fellow recruits with whatever problem they had.

“We are very proud of our daughter, Staff Sergeant. This is what she has always wanted and has worked hard to achieved.” Nora looks proudly at Ginger.

Kelly had a smile on her face as well. She was very proud of Ginger and will miss her.

“We are too, sir.” Melody had managed to lose her shutter. The only time she shutters now is when she is nervous or upset.

“Well, good luck with your SOI training, PFC Midnight.”

“Thank you, sir.” Ginger smiles at him.

“Ladies.” Staff Sergeant Foremore walks off.

Nora was watching him as he walked away. She has a feeling that he was sizing Ginger up for something else. Maybe a special service or a
special team.

“Come, ladies, let’s go and celebrate your sister’s achievement.” Kelly wraps her arm around Ginger’s shoulder.

Ginger couldn’t believe her dream was coming true.