It wasn’t across the world. There were no reports of anything happening in several places typically considered “enemies of the western world”. It just up and happened. 1% of the male population woke up no longer male.

For a girl like me… it was something I could’ve dreamed up. 1% of the people I couldn’t stand to be around suddenly became people I was explicitly interested in. But… I was soon to find out that it was just a dream, because the new girls were different.

~~~

The day it happened.

I pulled on my boots, applied my eyeliner, and pulled back my hair. I had appearances to keep up after all. I was lucky enough to be able to drive myself to school, but not lucky enough to be blessed with a good car.

My rickety old Nissan Altima sputtered its way to campus without much excitement. The steering wheel vibrated whenever the car was stationary, and I was pretty sure the airbags were fried… but it got me from A to B so who was I to complain.

I parked in the deck, walked to the bus stop, and caught the bus to north campus where my class was. It wasn’t until I got off the bus that the email was placed in my inbox and not until I poked my head into an empty classroom that I thought to check it. The email read:

“Attention students. The campus is under a soft lockdown due to a staggering amount of missing and displaced students. Classes are canceled until 12:30. Please stay in your residences. If you require aid, contact the office of emergency services.”

That was it. It was honestly pretty vague, to the point of causing more harm than it was good. Students were being displaced? We were on some kind of lockdown, that only happened when there was an imminent threat to our safety like a tornado or active shooter. What the hell was going on?

I hadn’t noticed anyone missing or displaced. I guess the best course of action was to head home since my only classes for the day were all before 12:30.

I caught the bus back to the parking deck, this time observing the faces of those around me. Everyone either seemed as equally confused as me, with the exception of one girl who was absolutely panicked.

“Is this the route that will take me to the health center?” she asked, her voice wavering.

“Well, I stop at east dining commons which is close,” the driver responded.

“Please, I need to get there now!”

“Just calm down. We’re only a few stops away.”

“Calm down! I can’t calm down when I’m like… like this!”

I just wrote the girl off as some poor srat girl who needed to take some plan B or something after a regrettable night downtown. It was most definitely internalized sexism on my part, but I’d seen her type before. Wearing nothing but an oversized hoodie and either guy’s boxers or short shorts… she was just on an exaggerated walk of shame… right?

We passed by the stop closest to the health center and the girl got off, which put her out of my mind.

I got back to the parking deck and started the drive home. It was a pretty short drive when I wasn’t battling traffic. I felt a buzz from my phone going off in my pocket but wasn’t the type to text and drive so I just ignored it.

Then I felt the buzz a second time. Then a third. After the third ring went to voicemail, I was beginning to get worried. Someone was trying to get in contact with me. I was very nearly home though, so I finished out my drive, pulled into my apartment complex, and found the closest spot within reason.

I pulled out my phone to see three missed calls from Aaron. Aaron was perhaps my closest friend. I… wasn’t the kind of person that was easy to be friends with. I was probably a bit too combative, definitely too judgy and arrogant, and I didn’t have much tolerance for… people. I knew all of that made me hard to get along with, and probably some internalized anxieties helped that manifest as the girl who never fully grew out of her emo phase. I never left my boots, used heavy amounts of severe makeup as a shield, and covered myself in clothes that told people to stay away.

One of the few exceptions was Aaron. He was funny and positive and a bit chubby, but that’s why we got along so well. I was a socially adept outcast who refused to try, and he was a socially adept outcast who tried too hard. We were a perfect match. In fact, we matched so well that he’d asked me out on more than one occasion. I’d turned him, and he knew why…

I didn’t swing that way.

But that didn’t stop Aaron from bringing up his feelings for me every once in a while. I didn’t really mind. Sure it could get a bit annoying to keep reminding him that I wasn’t able to be interested in him even if I tried (and I had), but if that was the price of keeping around someone who genuinely made my life better, then so be it. I was sure things could have been worse.

But now they were worse. He’d just called me three times. I returned his call. He picked up after the first ring.

“Hey!” responded a voice I was very unfamiliar with.

“Hey… Is something wrong?” I immediately jumped to my worst fears. Three calls missed calls and the voice that responded was not one I recognized. This had to be related to that cryptic email from the school. Was Aaron okay? Why wasn’t he the one calling me? Who was this girl that answered?

“Zoe…”

“That’s me,” I responded tentatively.

“I… something happened.”

“Well I can assume as much. Is Aaron okay? Can you put me on the phone with him?”

“This… This is… I am Aaron.”

I was silent.

“Bullshit.”

“Freshman year, second semester. We walked to the lake and looked at the stars. There was a shooting star. Then we were going to walk all the way to the 24-hour dining hall, but the night bus happened to be on the way so we caught a ride. And then on the way back it showed up again, so the trip was shortened.”

What…? I’d told a few other people about that trip but… I can’t remember if I’d ever mentioned the shooting star. That was special. Maybe Aaron had told someone, but this random girl I didn’t know existed?

“Who—”

“You only drink pink Moscato, you had a crush on our R.A., and I swear its really me. How else could I know all this?”

I… All of this information was knowable. But for a stranger to know it… unlikely. Highly unlikely.

“Aaron?”

“Yup, now you’re up to speed.”

“Why do you sound so—”

“—Just wait till you see me.”

“What’s going on?”

The girl sighed. “You never check the news, do you?”

I pulled up the news then and there… and was floored.

“Did this…? Are you?” I didn’t know how to phrase what I wanted to say.

“Yeah, I’m a uh… girl now.”