The pneumatic drills were better than any alarm and we were wide-awake. I looked at the clock and said, "It's about forty-five minutes before we were going to get up. If we're quick, we'll have enough time for a bike ride."

"That's not a bad idea," said Christopher. "Let's do it today as we never know what will happen tomorrow."

"Well?" asked Rachel as we sat down on the settee after our ride. We'd just had time for a quick shower before rushing to see Rachel.

"We still want to do it," confirmed Christopher. "We already chat a lot, but we will make sure that either of us is happy with what the other person's doing."

"David?"

"I agree."

"Then I will send you the details later. I will need to see you more often, once you're training gets underway. I know you are observant, so I will tell you now that I'll also be getting reports from your teachers. This is for your own protection so that I, or one of the other psychiatrists, can intervene if needed."

The smile on Christopher's face said it all. I was happy, but not ecstatic like she was. I was pleased that I might after all be the man I should have been. We hugged each other in glee, which got a cough from Rachel.

"Boys don't hug each other like that," she reminded us.

"Oh yeah," said Christopher and we gave each other a high-five.

"Oh, go and have breakfast," laughed Rachel. "You'll have a lot more to worry about than that, though it is the little things that often give a person away."

* * *

"So Christopher, are you going to tell us all what's going on?" asked Anna.

"Uh?"

"You've been like a cat sitting on a red hot roof. You can't keep still. You're also glowing."

"Well, I've been — no we've been-" started Christopher, but got all tongue-tied.

"We've been given permission to have the boy lessons," I said helping out Christopher.

"That's great news," said Paula. "When do you start?"

"We don't have the timetable yet," said Christopher, regaining his ability to speak coherently.

"If you need any more tips, then just ask," offered Lewis.

"Thanks," Christopher and I said together.

"I doubt anything will start today," I said. "Don't forget we have that practice for French speaking exam."

"Don't remind me," said Emma, shuddering at the thought.

"I thought we'd all come up with good ideas of what to say for each of our subjects," reassured Christopher. "We'll all do well."

Becky sat there, having finished her breakfast watching the conversation unfold. She wasn't saying anything, but I'm sure that the conversations would be discussed when all five of the psychiatrists had their morning meeting. I'd never been officially told they had daily meetings, or had ever seen them all together, but they each knew too much about the students for them not to.

Just as we were leaving the dining room, Julia came up to me and asked, "David, do you have anything planned for tomorrow?"

"No," I said, looking at my PDA. "I'm expecting some extra lessons, but Rachel hasn't notified me or Christopher of the dates or times."

"Excellent. Would you like to come with me tomorrow on a little excursion? I've already discussed it with Mr Hobson and Rachel and you're allowed to go. It's just up to you if you want to."

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to visit a company that provided some of the latest equipment in the school. We'd have to leave early and we'll be away for the whole day, possibly getting back after curfew."

"Can Christopher come?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm sorry to say that Christopher doesn't pass well enough. Even though you were born male, you will struggle after the habits you've gotten into."

"I've been told I didn't do well even before that," I said gravely. "I take it the company we are visiting doesn't know that the school has transsexual children."

"No, they just think it's a school with a different teaching method, to help children where other schools couldn't help. This is the same information that the children that take the tests are told."

"Yeah, that's what we were told. As long as Christopher doesn't mind, then I'll go. He's just starting to live as Christopher and I don't want to cause issues."

"Let me know by lunch."

"Yes, miss."

"What was that about?" Christopher asked as I caught up with him.

"Julia wants me to go on a trip with her tomorrow, but just me. It's to do with the school computer equipment. I'd be gone the whole day."

"I hope you said yes."

"I wanted to see how you felt first, since you wouldn't be coming with me."

"I'd be bored discussing computers and technical details all day. I'll have plenty to do all day."

"Are you sure?"

"Duh! I wouldn't have said so if I didn't mean it. We're always truthful with each other. Now send Julia a message agreeing to it before the lesson starts."

Was it lying because I didn't mention the reason Christopher couldn't go? Perhaps, but it was something Christopher already knew and didn't need rubbed in his face. As time went on there wouldn't be so much doubt for me, and hopefully Christopher will become passable. This is the second time that being Christopher has caused us to be apart.

I just managed to send the acceptance before the French lesson was brought to order. "For these practice discussions, would you like to do them in private, like the real exam, or would you like to do them in front of the class so we can learn how we each do it?"

The room then erupted in chatter as we discussed what we wanted.

"Perhaps that wasn't a good idea. Okay, let's have a show of hands. All those in favour of doing the discussions in front of the class please raise your hand."

We all raised our hands. I was nervous about it, but knew we would get the most out of it.

"Okay, I'm going to call you one by one. Once you have finished, I'll give a score to you privately and we can discuss it as a group. All I ask is that you be quiet during the test and you be constructive in the discussions."

There was a bowl on the teacher's desk with folded bits of paper in them. One was drawn and the test started. It took a while to go through all of us, but eventually we were finished. I was surprised when I was told my result; having got a score I'd never have thought possible. The surprise at the result was only passed by the surprise at how simple the French was that the questioning was done in.

"Well done all of you. You have all done extremely well and you all passed. In fact you all got the same result."

"Is the French used to question us really going to be that simple?" asked Lewis, echoing my thoughts.

"Yes, this is GCSE French. You have been engulfed in French for several weeks, and then lived in France for a week where you were able to travel without difficulty. However, I don't want you to slow down in your studies for the exam. You don't want to make silly mistakes which will grade you down."

This was the first evidence that the school did have a special teaching method. Or was it that the children that had been chosen, not only were transgendered, but also were very clever. So, perhaps that might be too difficult to say if we would have been able to excel at our old schools, if we'd not had pressure to fail.

Life didn't get any quieter. After the lesson, my PDA beeped and I wondered if it was one of the appointments to be a boy. I should have realised it wasn't, as Christopher's didn't register an appointment. It was from the vicar, wanting to meet with me before the Sunday service.

"I wonder what that's about?" pondered Christopher, when I showed him the appointment.

"I'm not sure," I replied, as I tapped away a response. "I'll ask."

The response was not that revealing, just to discuss how I was finding church. I'd been every Sunday since joining the school, apart from the time I was in France. Oh well, I'd find out the details in two days time.

The day slipped by, orchestra practice came and went without excitement, apart from the builders stopping their work so we could actually hear ourselves. Well that's what I thought, but it seems that the ground had been levelled and the base plumbing had been done.

On the Saturday the builders didn't wake us up, but the beep of my PDA. I groaned as I rubbed my eyes. It wasn't as light as it should have been.

"What's going on?" mumbled Christopher.

"Let me look," I said, grabbing the offending PDA.

'Rise and shine. I said today was a long day. Please leave your PDA in your room. See you in the entrance lobby in thirty minutes.' was the message, beaming out with unwanted happiness.

"I don't believe this," I groaned, letting my head flop back onto the pillow.

"What's going on?" demanded Christopher, now slightly more awake and a lot more upset at being disturbed. He'd obviously seen the time and wasn't happy.

"Seems I'm meeting Julia in thirty minutes for our trip out."

"Then get up and let me go back to sleep," said Christopher firmly, pushing me out of bed.

"Typical bloke," I retorted as I stumbled to my feet.

It was a good thing we'd slept in Christopher's room last night. I was able to get ready without disturbing him. Since I was going somewhere, I decided it might be a good idea to wear something smarter; not that there were any scruffy clothes in the wardrobe. I found a suit, which I tried on and quickly took it off; it wasn't something I liked the look of and it didn't feel right. Not having much time left, I found what I thought was acceptable and when I saw the image in the mirror and gave a small smile of satisfaction.

Before leaving, I went back to see Christopher, who was struggling to keep awake. I leaned across the bed and gave a goodbye kiss. Today would be the longest period of time that I'd been away from my darling and although I felt excited, I would rather have had Christopher with me.

"Hi David," greeted a rather chirpy Julia, as I walked into the entrance lobby. "You look very smart; excellent."

"Hi," I muttered, still not fully awake. The shower didn't seem to have helped too much. "Aren't we having breakfast?"

"Yes, but not here. We'll get some on the way."

"Yes, Ms Toms."

A small smile came on her face. "Well done. I'm afraid we will need to be formal today. You are young and it will be interesting when they realise you are so skilled for your age. Did you leave your PDA in your room?"

"Yes."

"Good, then you will need this," said Julia passing me one of the PDAs that we used outside of the school grounds.

I followed Julia to her car and we were soon driving in the moonlight morning out of the school. Once we were out of the gates, Julia turned on a CD and I sat back and relaxed as the miles disappeared. I'd prompted a few times for information where we were going, but Julia hadn't told me, so I decided to just wait and see.

After about fifteen minutes of driving, Julia said, "You'll need this."

I switched on the reading light, and examined the maroon booklet that she'd given me.

"A passport?" I gasped. "Are we going out of the country?"

"Out of England, but not Britain," laughed Julia at the shock in my voice. "We're going to a company just outside Edinburgh. Your passport will act as the required photo id."

"But that's Scotland."

"Yes it is," agreed Julia. "Have you ever flown before?"

"No," I said, looking through the passport. As I looked in the inside back cover I noticed it was for David Grant. So it seemed I had two passports, one for Jayne and one for David. I didn't think it was possible to have more than one passport.

"I have two passports? I didn't think that was possible."

"I once had a friend who did work in Israel and Arab countries. The home office issued her with two passports, as some Arab countries wouldn't let you in if there was a stamp in your passport from Israel."

"What about my situation?"

"I would rather you didn't ask."

"Okay. Sorry for asking, I'm just a bit nervous about flying and I'm rambling a bit."

"It's okay," Julia said. "Just relax, the flight is just a short hop and I'll be with you."

That didn't help much. When we went to France and I was with Helen, I'd wanted to fly, but now I was without my love, I was a lot more nervous. I couldn't really hold Julia's hand if I was frightened. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to remind myself that people flew every day. It didn't help that I remembered Rachel saying in the interview, that she'd helped someone who'd been trapped after a plane incident.

"Wow, I didn't expect it to be this busy," I said as we walked into the airport building. "It's not even six yet."

"At an airport, even one that isn't that big, flights get started early. The first flight from here was scheduled to leave twenty minutes ago. At an airport, check-in closes forty minutes before the flight leaves. So people would have had to be here before five. In fact, since check-in opens two hours before the flight, people will have been here since before four this morning."

"You've got to be kidding?" I said, thinking how hard it was to get up this morning.

"I'm afraid not. Just think about the international flights from somewhere like Heathrow. Some people would have travelled over two hours to get to the airport. Imagine what time they'd have to get up for an early flight."

That perked me up a bit. I couldn't imagine getting up at two in the morning just to get on a flight. I suppose my getup time wasn't too bad. Since I'd never travelled by plane before, it wasn't something I'd ever thought about.

After we'd checked in and made our way through the security gate and we settled down for a nice breakfast while we waited for our flight. I munched on the rather greasy fried bread as I thought about the flight and asked, "If check-in closes forty minutes before the flight, why were we here so early?"

"Several reasons. The first is that the traffic round this area can easily get congested. If there'd been an accident, we'd never have got here on time and we'd have missed the flight. Mr Hobson would have been quite upset. A minor reason, but still good, is that breakfast wouldn't have been served at the school and then there wouldn't have been time to have it here. You can always have a doze on the plane."

"I think I'm too nervous to fall asleep."

"I suppose you will be. At least you will be ready for the next school trip, which might require us to fly."

I was tempted to ask where the next concert would be, but I thought better of it. It wouldn't go down too well, and might be a black mark against my judgment. The trip seemed to be a bigger deal than the French one, with a sister school joining in. There was still no information where this school was, but I presume they had kids like us, as Mr Hobson wouldn't expose us to outsiders, especially year one.

My stomach started churning as we walked down the corridor to the departure gate. I began to wish that I'd not had a fried breakfast, but it was too late. However, my whole attitude changed when we arrived at the gate. Each ticket had a sequence number on it, and we stood in a queue based on the sequence number. The first sixty boarded first, then the next sixty, then the rest. It was bedlam as people jockeyed to make sure they would be first in their queue. Some even tried to get into the higher queue so they could board earlier than they should.

"In all the films I've seen, the check-in assigns the seats. This is just crazy," I pointed out to Julia.

"It sure is," she laughed. "If you think this is bad, just wait till we board."

Since we were one of the first to check-in, we were in the first group to climb the steps to the plane. The cool morning air hit me as we left the terminal building to walk across the tarmac to the plane. For a summer morning, the temperature still felt cool. I was glad I was wearing trousers and not a skirt like Julia. I must admit that Julia did look very professional in her ladies suit. I on the other hand, was just wearing a light pair of trousers, a short-sleeved shirt and a light jacket.

Since it was a Saturday, there weren't as many people in suits as I presume there would be during the week. I was again laughing to myself as I saw people buzzing around. Getting just the right seat seemed so ludicrous, as there wouldn't be much difference in time for them getting off.

"Would you like a window seat?" asked Julia.

"Please," I replied. I was still nervous, but now I could see the world and experience seeing the area like I'd never seen it before.

The plane journey was uneventful. I got to see great views of the countryside when taking off and great views of Edinburgh's suburbs as we were landing. However, I was a little sad that we were too high to see anything during the journey.

"So, how did you find your first flight?" asked Julia, as we walked through the terminal building.

"It wasn't that bad," I said. "I think the chaotic way things are run took my mind off things. I know it's a cheap, no frills airline, but —"

"If we fly abroad, it won't be with such a small company. You won't be flying business class as there are too many of you, but they are certainly more organised."

"You certainly seem to know where you're going," I commented as we weaved our way through the airport and out towards the taxi area.

"I've been here twice before. Though the last time was early January this year, I was called away with an emergency after only an hour."

"Let's hope we manage the whole day," I said. As we were driven to our destination, I sat and racked my brain. Something about the beginning of the year and Julia rang a bell, but I couldn't think of the details.

After forty minutes of driving, we arrived at our destination. I was expecting a factory, but this appeared to be an old Victorian house just near the city centre.

"Is this a house?" I asked as we climbed out of the taxi.

"It probably used to be, but all these buildings are now offices. Shall we go in and see Mr Burns?"

"Okay," I acknowledged, trying to get the picture of Mr Burns from the Simpsons out of my head. I was now expecting to see a thin old man and almost laughed when I eventually saw him. He was a balding man, with a slight beer belly and a greying beard.

"Ah Julia," he said in a thick American accent. "It is good to see you again."

"And you, Monty."

"Who's this charming, er," Mr Burns's eyes flickered over me, "person with you?"

"This is David. Don't let his age fool you. He knows nearly as much about computers as me."

"It's a pleasure meeting you David," said Mr Burns offering his hand. I took it and gently shook it.

"If you both follow me, I have a meeting room with some samples of upgrades. We then can discuss your requirements. You said on the phone that you needed some additional equipment."

"Yes, but let's wait till we are in the meeting room to discuss things in peace."

We went up a flight of narrow stairs and into a room. As we sat down, Mr Burns pressed a few buttons and said, "Okay, the room is now secured and we can discuss things privately."

I tried to hide the look of surprise on my face, but it must have shown as Julia said, "They specialise in supplying top of the range computer and electrical equipment to the government, military and large companies. The discussions therefore have to secure for security reasons."

On the table in front of us, was a plate of biscuits. On the separate table, to one side, were more biscuits, a coffee pot and a teapot.

"Can I offer you some drinks?" asked Mr Burns.

"Coffee please. White, no sugar," said Julia.

"I'm fine," I said, not really into tea or coffee.

"Would you prefer an orange?" Mr Burns asked. "We have some."

"If it's not too much trouble," I replied, slightly overwhelmed by the attention we were getting.

"Let me go and get a jug of orange," he said and disappeared.

"Relax," said Julia to me. "You'll be fine. I want you to remember that we are the customer and we are about to spend a lot of money with this company. They will bend over backwards for us."

"I didn't think companies like this opened on a Saturday?"

"They will open any time you want, when they think they will get a large order."

Mr Burns came back with a jug of fresh orange juice and several glasses. As he poured some out for me, he said to Julia. "How's your family doing? When you were here in January you had to leave quickly due to an accident. Are they all okay?"

Julia's face clouded over and looked rather sad. "My spouse died in the accident. My two children are doing fine. My youngest is now in one of the top youth orchestras in Europe. My eldest has been offered a place to train as a chef in one of the country's finest kitchens."

"I'm sorry to hear about your husband," said Mr Burns, the joviality removed from his face.

"You didn't know," placated Julia.

Julia's husband? Julia had a wife who died in the accident. I presume she didn't correct Mr Burns so not to arouse suspicion. What an awful web of lies she must have to spin to cover up her past. Is she that frightened at what others might think? I suppose it's valid. I was treated badly when others thought I was different, and others in my year were not allowed to be themselves. What an awful life.

There was then an awkward silence, as the conversation dried up.

"I take it this is the new design of PDA," I said trying to get things moving again.

"Ah yes," said Mr Burns. "They are slightly quicker and have longer battery life."

Julia picked one up and balanced it in the palm of her hand, as if she was trying to measure its weight.

"This feels about the same weight as our current model?"

"About the same," agreed Mr Burns. "It might be slightly lighter, but not much."

"Last time we visited, you mentioned to June that you were working on a lighter model."

"Yes, we were. That is due out next week. It is lighter, but it won't have the new longer battery life. In fact, battery life will be roughly the same as your current model."

"What about PDA groupings? Currently we have six different groupings, one for each year and another for the teachers. At the time that was the limit to the management software."

"With the new models due out next week, we have an upgrade for the backend management software. How many extra groupings do you want?"

"An extra nine groups. The visitors have eight years and then the teachers. It would be nice if we could give secondary groups, so the teachers and years can cross group."

After messing around with the PDA's when we went to France, I had a good idea what Julia was talking about. However, I was very surprised when she said that the visitors would have eight years. If they finished at the same time, then the youngest would be ten when they started school.

"Would you like to see a sample of the new lighter PDA? I have one in the testing labs. I'm sorry but I can't take you into the labs, as there are some confidential things being developed for another customer."

"I understand," said Julia. "If you can bring it in here, that should be fine."

The rest of the day went on, very much the same. We were shown new equipment and modified items. Julia was keeping a tally and seemed very happy how things were going. I was given free rein to test the equipment and found it a pleasure. Some of the glitches that currently existed were removed.

"Ms Toms," I said after playing with the new PDA for a while. "It looks like the scan and interlink function has been removed."

"You use that?" said Mr Burns, having heard my comment.

"Well how else can we find and download to the travel version?" queried Julia. "We use that facility a lot. If it isn't there, then I'm not sure if we can upgrade to your new models."

"Let me get one of the designers in here," said Mr Burns, suddenly worried, as he could see us not wanting to upgrade our current items.

"Well done David," smiled Julia.

The issue was resolved, but it took a while. The facility was still there, but had been hidden during testing. By late afternoon the discussions had turned from technical to financial. What items would be ordered, and in what quantities. This was less interesting to me, but I stuck with it. If June had been trusted to finish off the discussions seven months ago, then I wanted to make sure I had the same level of knowledge.

By six we were finished and were climbing in a taxi. I felt knackered. I'd had a lot of fun, but there was a serious side to today. I'd helped Julia just spend a fortune and she didn't seem fazed.

"Where can I take you ladies?" asked the taxi driver.

"The airport," said Julia, not correcting him that I was a boy.

As we got closer to the airport, the gloomier Julia got. Her happy face, when we set off had never been the same since Mr Burns had reminded her about her wife. As we approached the airport, the place where she'd rushed to get a plane home, what must have been going through her mind?

"Julia," I said, knowing it was breaking the rules, but I didn't want to sound formal at a time like this. "Will you be okay?"

"Of course," she replied, trying to put on a smile.

I wasn't convinced, especially when I saw her face as we drew up outside the airport. After checking in, things weren't getting any better. I tried to engage her in small talk regarding how Beth was doing, but only got monosyllabic responses.

"I'm just going to nip to the gents," I informed Julia. "I might be a while."

"Okay," she said absent-mindedly. I wonder if she'd have said anything different if I'd told her I was going to go to the moon. I doubt it.

The gents were one of the area's I knew that Julia couldn't follow and therefore I was able to make this call without her knowing.

"Hi, Rachel, it's David."

"David, what's wrong?" she asked sounding concerned.

"How did you know something was wrong?"

"Because you wouldn't be ringing me otherwise. You also sound a bit stressed."

"The person we went to see asked how Ms Toms family was. She had to explain that her 'husband' was dead."

"Oh," said Rachel, not really saying anything. "How did that go down?"

"She was upset, but coped during the day. However, since leaving the company she is getting worse. I think she keeps reliving that day in her mind. Especially at the moment, with the wait at Edinburgh airport for the plane to go home."

"Is there any way you can distract her?" asked Rachel.

"I've tried to talk to her, but she isn't really paying attention."

"What would happen if someone tried to attack the schools computers?"

"Her PDA would inform her and she'd fix it," I said. "Are you thinking that would distract her?"

"Yes, leave it with me. I know someone that would love to help."

"I think I know who you mean," I said. "She was a student last year and was helping with the building?"

"How did you guess," laughed Rachel and then soberly said, "I'll come and pick up Julia after your plane lands. Stacy will collect you, so I can have a private chat with Julia; see if we can keep this quiet."

"Thanks Rachel. See you tonight."

After talking with Rachel, I decided that I did need the toilet so was delayed even longer. By the time I'd finished Julia was hard at work blocking an attack against the school network. Julia had fished out her laptop and hooked it over the airport public wifi network to the school.

"Are you okay, Ms Toms?" I asked seeing her working away.

"Fending off a computer attack," she said.

For the next thirty minutes Julia beavered away, her mind no longer thinking about events she could do nothing about. Instead she seemed fully alert.

"David, there's a hack attack happening. I'm fending things off, and closing certain things down. Can you double check the second firewall security to make sure there aren't any security holes exposed. I'm not sure how they've managed to get past our primary firewall. I've blocked them for now, but until then I need you to act as rear guard."

"Okay," I said whipping out my PDA. It was awkward using that, rather than a full computer, but I managed and just before boarding commenced, Julia had established how they got in and sealed it.

"How did they manage to get in?" I asked as we took our seats on the plane.

"There was a security hole found a few hours ago which they exploited. They managed to get past the primary firewall, but wouldn't have got passed the secondary one, due to them being different firewalls, using different hardware and operating systems."

"So did you patch it?"

"There isn't an official patch out yet," sighed Julia. "But I've worked around the issue, so they should be secure till we're back at school."

The flight was uneventful. Julia made sure I was okay with the takeoff, but as the flight progressed she became more brooding. As we walked from the plane to the luggage carousal, I saw the first tear fall silently down her face.

"Julia," I hissed. "We're nearly there. Can you hold it in till we're at the car?"

Julia must have heard as she wiped the moisture away and said, "Come on, let's get you back to school."

"We need to sort out the network," I said, trying to distract her mind again.

"I'll sort it," she croaked. "It's half-ten now. You'll be going to bed."

"It'll be gone eleven when I'm home," I pondered slightly out loud.

"Do you feel the school is home?"

"Yes, I suppose so. I have done since the French trip. I'll be living there fulltime for the next five years. In some respects I feel like the others at the school are family."

We walked out of customs into the main arrivals area. There waiting was Rachel and Stacy.

"Julia," said Rachel. "After a hard day spending money, I thought you would like to go for a drink. Stacy offered to take David home."

I didn't say anything, but all the pubs would be closed at this time. Julia just nodded and went with Rachel.

"Come on kiddo," said Stacy to me.

"Thanks sis," I said, giving Stacy a hug.

"Sis?"

"You're like a big sister to me."

"Thanks," said Stacy, a small lump in her throat. We walked quickly through the night air to Stacy's car. Rachel would drive Julia's back to the school.

"Did anything happen today at the school?" I asked as the car ate up the miles.

"Not really, but be warned, Christopher was pining for you this evening."

"Pining?" I said. "Not just missing?"

"I might be wrong, so don't do anything silly."

"I won't dream of it. Anyway it's against the rules."

"That is one rule that nobody at the school has ever managed to keep. Thirteen is a bit young, but you two will know when the time is right for you. As a big sister, I'd tell you to wait."

"Thanks. Now I'm very nervous."

Stacy accompanied me to the room, as it was past curfew. I opened the bedroom door and there was Helen, not Christopher, waiting for me. She was sprawled across the settee, wearing not very much.

The next morning, a very tired Christopher accompanied me to breakfast. The others in the year said nothing, but from our smiles, I'm sure they knew what had happened. Keith certainly had, as he told us both in a very grave voice, to report to Rachel after breakfast.