The Letter

I had fallen into the habit of checking the mail each day when it came through the letter slot. Today's missive contained something different: a letter with FINAL NOTICE prominently printed on the envelope. Mom was three months behind on her electric bill.

Asked to join a sorority, life will not let Morgan just be. And What girl can resist her first romance?

I woke to the dawn chorus. The birds happy to have made it through another night were twice their normal volume. As I opened my eyes, I realised that I wasn’t in my bed. In my flat the sound of a motorbike or the squealing of the breaks on a bus normally woke me.

I saw through my blurry vision that it was still dark outside. I knew that it would be getting lighter by the minute. So, it must be about 6AM?
I could have reached for my phone, but I didn’t want to disturb Ray. That’s what I did last night I thought, I finally accepted his invitation to go home for a “coffee”.

New school year, new school!

To be honest it was quite daunting to come to the huge High School from our smallish Middle School. Fortunately there were two of us. Me and my fraternal twin sister. Why do people talk about “fraternal twin” when it’s about a girl? Anyway, there we were. Cary and Katherine against the world. Well, not really. Even if the big school scared us, which we’d NEVER admit to anyone else, we didn’t really have anything to fear. We usually found it easy to find new friends or at least gET along with people. We had very good grades without being pegged as nerds since we were good at sports as well. Both Sis and I had selected courses geared towards science and technology with future engineering degrees in mind.

As expected, there was a huge crowd milling around. Sis and I got lost at first and then we ran into an Audrey Hepburn look-alike. She really owned the style. Short hairstyle, black turtleneck, slim black trousers, and ballet flats. Body language was similar as well as far as I could see. Sis could hardly keep herself from laughing. As it happens, I’m a great fan of Audrey Hepburn. As it turned out “Audrey” both was heading to the same homeroom as Sis and I AND she’d been smart enough to print out a map before coming. We happily followed her lead. In my case very happily as I walked behind her and Sis.

“Auntie Stephie!” The tiny voice calls as I enter the dance studio, immediately bringing a smile to my face as she toddles over to me in her pink leotard and dance skirt.

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.