I looked in the mirror one more time, and I was quite happy with how I looked. The dress hung off my body perfectly, and my hair, which Mum and Chloe had spent almost the whole afternoon on, was amazing: instead of hanging down straight to my shoulders, it had been slightly curled, so it had quite a bit of volume.

Add to that the make-up Mom had carefully put on me, and the overall effect was just… perfect.

“Well, someone’s happy,” Mom said, looking at my reflection in the mirror. “Be careful, a bit more and your smile will split your face clean in half.”

I giggled a bit. “Thanks Mom.” I turned around and looked at her directly. “Seriously, I don’t know what I’d have done without you being here for me. And you too, Chloe.”

Mom smiled. “Don’t even mention it, Emily. That’s what family is for, isn’t it? And even if we weren’t here, I’m sure you’d have managed fine.” She leaned forward and hugged me. “You’re strong and tenacious. A fighter.”

“Even if she has a super soft side deep down,” Chloe added. “Just wait until she sees Josh, she’s gonna melt immediately.”

“Oh, you,” I said, sticking my tongue out at her.

My sister laughed. “Careful, or you’ll smudge your lipstick,” she said.

“Speaking of Josh, he should be here soon, right?” Mom asked, looking at her watch. “It’s just about time.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It’s just a short ride to school, and his uncle is driving us.”

Right then, as if on cue, the doorbell rang; from downstairs, I heard the front door open.

“Hi Josh!” I heard my brother Tony call out.

“Hello there, Tony. Good evening, sir,” Josh’s voice said.

“Josh, what did I tell you last time?” my father replied. “It’s not sir, it’s Brett.”

“Sorry, Brett,” Josh said. “Is Emily ready?”

“She should be.” Then, louder, Dad called: “Emily! Josh is here!”

“I’ll be right down!” I answered.

I looked at my mom and sister, and they smiled at me. “Well, time for the big reveal,” Mom said; she opened my bedroom’s door, and she and Chloe preceded me downstairs.

Chloe loudly cleared her throat, attracting Dad and Josh’s attention, and then announced: “Presenting… Miss Emily Wilson.”

That was my cue. Slowly and carefully, one step after the other, I descended the staircase.

Soon enough, my boyfriend – god, it felt amazing to even think about him that way – came into view. He was dressed up quite a bit, but he wasn’t quite wearing a tux: instead, he’d chosen a carefully-tailored dark blue suit, which offset his off-white shirt, and he had a red rose pinned to his lapel.

As soon as Josh saw me, his face just lit up; it was actually amazing, seeing his expression change immediately. His eyes widened, and a big smile crept almost all the way up to his ears.

“Emily,” he said when I reached him. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you,” I said, blushing. “You look great, too.”

His smile, if possible, became even wider. “Here, I brought you this,” he said, holding up a red rose, exactly like his one, which had the stem cut short and a safety pin run through it. “I know a corsage is more traditional, but I like this one better.”

I smiled at him. “Thank you,” I said again. “Would you pin it to my dress?”

“Of course,” he nodded. He looked at me for a moment, seemingly deciding where to put the rose, but then pinned it to my left shoulder. “Here.”

Again, I smiled, and nodded at him.

Off to the side, I heard a sob.

Startled, I turned to look at where it had come from, and my eyes widened in surprise: my dad was crying. Not a little bit, even, he was full-on weeping, tears running down his cheeks, and he was hiccoughing, clearly trying to hold back the sobs.

“Dad…” I began.

He waved a hand towards me, while he wiped his tears away with his other one. “No, I’m fine. Really,” he said. “It’s just…” He took a deep breath to calm himself down. “It’s just that you look so good, Emily,” he continued. “And I’m so goddamn proud of you. I just wish Luz could see you, I know she would feel the same.”

I blinked, and my eyes started filling with tears.

I knew that name very well – Luz was my mother’s name. Not Mom, Mom was Rebekah: instead, Luz was my birth mother.

“Dad…” I whispered.

“No, no, don’t cry, Emily,” he said quickly. “You’ll ruin your make-up.”

I took a deep breath, and nodded. “Thank you, Dad.”

He wiped away his tears once again, and nodded back.

There was a moment of silence, then Josh asked: “Well… Shall we go?”

“Well… Just one moment,” Mom said. “There’s something we want to talk to you about first.”

“Oh?” I said, my eyebrows rising in surprise. “What is it?”

Mom looked at Chloe. “Chloe, dear, could you take Tony to the other room? Play some games or something, he’s a bit too young for this.”

My sister nodded, and grabbed my brother, hoisting him over her shoulder. “Come on, you brat,” she said. “Let’s go.”

“But I wanna listen too!” Tony protested.

“When you’re older,” Chloe said; she carried him out of the living room, and closed the door behind her.

I looked at Mom and Dad, a suspicious look in my eyes. “Uh… This feels planned out,” I said, and they both nodded. “What’s this all about?”

“Take a seat, kids,” my dad said; we complied, sitting on the couch, while my mom took the armchair, and Dad sat down on the armrest next to her.

“Okay,” Mom breathed out. “We wanted to talk to you before prom, because…” She seemed to hesitate. “Oh, I had this speech all laid out in my mind, but I can’t remember any of it. Little help, Brett?”

Dad nodded. “Well… You see, kids. We know you’re a certain age, and this is a special moment in your lives, and… Well…”

I blanched. Were they going to say…?

“We’ve had a conversation not unlike this one with Emily a while back,” Dad continued. “But I don’t know about you, Josh, so I have to ask… You’ve been told about the birds and bees, right?”

“Dad!” I half shouted, my face blushing furiously under my make-up.

“Uh…” Josh said, then paused; he looked at Dad, then at Mom, and then hesitantly nodded. “Yes. Yes, I have.”

“Good,” Mom nodded. “This makes it easier. As Brett said, this is a special moment in your lives, and… Well, we’re not going to tell you not to, but we’d at least like you to be careful about it.”

On cue, Dad reached into his pocket, and pulled out a somewhat-squashed box of condoms. “We’d like you to bring this with you tonight. Even though the two of you can’t get pregnant, there’s nothing to lose in practising safe sex.”

My blush intensified: I was now a very deep shade of crimson. “I can’t believe you’re doing this,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry, what do you mean?” Josh asked.

“What do we mean? Well, that we would like you to use protection, obviously,” Mom said, frowning a bit.

“No, the thing before that. That we can’t get pregnant.”

“Well… Of course you can’t?” Dad half-said-half-asked. “I mean, there’s the whole insert tab A into slot B thing…”

“DAD!” I shrieked indignantly.

“…Sorry, Emily. But yeah, you both, um, kinda have the tab, but not the slot. So you can’t get pregnant. Of course.”

There was a prolonged moment of silence in the living room; then Josh slowly turned his head to face me.

“You haven’t told them,” he said.

I nodded. “No, I haven’t. Of course I haven’t,” I replied.

He smiled at me. “Thank you, Emily.”

“You’re welcome,” I smiled back.

“I’m sorry, you haven’t told us… What?” Mom asked.

I looked at my parents. “You see, Josh…” I began, then hesitated; I turned back to Josh, who nodded, and then back at my mom and dad. “Josh is trans, too. He’s a trans boy.”

Again, there was dead silence.

My parents’ faces went through a whole range of expressions: surprise at first, then shock, and then, finally, understanding.

“Oh, I see,” Dad murmured. “So that means…”

“…I do have the slot, yes,” Josh confirmed.

“…Okay,” Dad said.

“Well, all the more reason for you to be safe, right? Teen pregnancies aren’t fun,” Mom said.

“Yeah,” I agreed; I stood up from the couch, marched over to the armchair, and took the condoms from my dad, stuffing them into my purse. “There. Are you happy now?”

“Quite,” he replied; Mom nodded in agreement.

“Alright,” I continued. “Let’s never speak of this again then. The shit I put up with, I swear,” I added under my breath.

They both laughed at that. “Okay, now you can go,” Mom said. “Have fun at prom.”

“Thank you,” Josh said, standing up from the couch and offering me his hand. “Shall we, Emily?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Just one more moment,” Dad said; I looked at him quizzically, and he got up from the armchair, walked over to me, and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

“Have a good evening, Emily,” he said, smiling. “Call us if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Mom,” I answered. “See you later.”

Leaving the house, I followed Josh along the short path down the driveway, towards his uncle’s car. “Listen, about Uncle Kay,” Josh said, pausing halfway and turning to me. “He still doesn’t know you’re a girl.”

“He doesn’t?” I asked, my eyebrows rising in surprise; Josh nodded, and I continued, “I thought you’d have told him by now.”

“It never came up,” he replied. “He doesn’t know I’m going to prom with ‘Wilson,’ even, I just said we would be picking up my girlfriend and left it at that.”

“Okay,” I said. Then, after a short pause, I added: “Should I be worried?”

Josh waved his hand dismissively. “Nah, Uncle Kay’s good. He might be surprised at first, but he’ll be fine with it.”

I nodded, and followed Josh to the car; he opened the back door and motioned for me to sit down, then walked around the vehicle and entered through the other side.

“It took you quite a while,” Josh’s uncle said from the front seat when Josh had closed the door. “Everything good?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Josh replied. “Emily’s parents just wanted to talk to us for a moment, that’s all. No problem.”

Uncle Kay nodded, and looked at me through the rear-view mirror. “Well, I have to say you look very nice… Emily, was it?”

I nodded. “Yes. Emily Wilson. A pleasure, sir.”

“Emily Wilson, okay,” he said, nodding to himself. Then he blinked, and I saw his eyes go wide. “Wait, Wilson?” he asked, turning around to get a better look at me.

“Yes sir,” I said. “It’s nice to see you again.”

Uncle Kay looked at me bug-eyed for a moment, then burst out laughing. “I knew it! I fucking knew it! Ah, man, they owe me ten bucks!”

As he guffawed – quite loudly, in fact – Josh and I exchanged a glance. “Wait, what do you mean?” Josh asked. “Who owes you ten bucks?”

“Your cousins,” Kay replied, taking a deep breath to calm down, but with a wide smile still on his face. “You see, from how you spoke about… her… I was sure Wilson was a girl, but after actually meeting her I was starting to doubt it. Because you didn’t look like a girl when I first saw you, no offence,” he told me.

I nodded in acknowledgement.

“So I talked about it with the kids, and they said they’d met you too, and they were convinced you were a boy. One thing led to the other, and I ended up saying ‘bet you ten bucks Wilson’s a girl,’ and they accepted the bet.” He grinned. “Man, I can’t wait to tell them. The look on their faces will be priceless.” Then he paused, and took on a pensive look. “Sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet I guess. Kentigern Clark,” he said, extending a hand towards me, which I shook. “I know it’s a mouthful, you can call me Ken or Kay.”

I nodded. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Kay.”

“Oh, just Kay,” he said. “So you ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s,” Josh said.

It was a short drive to the school: prom would take place in the gym, so Kay took the car around the back, dropping us off at the secondary entrance to the school. We said goodbye to him – like my dad, he said to call him if we needed – and then made our way through the gate, which was guarded by a single, bored-looking teacher, who waved us through without a second look at us.

After that it was about a five minutes’ walk to the gym, through the wide open courtyard: the doors were wide open, and I could see the inside was illuminated.

Principal Carlson was standing beside the door, checking carefully each and every person who tried to enter. When we approached he looked up at us, and frowned.

“Mr. Woods, what are you doing here?” he asked. “Prom is only for junior and senior students, and you’re a sophomore.”

“I know, sir,” Josh answered. “But my date is a junior.”

Still frowning, the principal turned his gaze to me. “And you would be…?” he said, clearly trying to place where he’d seen me before.

“Oh, come on, Mr. Carlson, I’ve been sent to your office plenty of times over the years, you really don’t recognise me?” I said, in mock indignation.

My words – and my voice, which he’d heard once before when I’d come to him – made him realise who I was. “Miss Wilson?” he said, blinking in surprise, and I nodded in confirmation. “Oh, wow. I’m sorry, but I really didn’t recognise you at first.”

He gave me a long, hard, critical look, tilting his head this side and that, until I asked, “Mr. Carlson? Everything alright, sir?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” he said, with a nod. “I was just trying to remember what you usually look like, this is a far cry from jeans and a hoodie.”

“I’d say,” Josh replied, putting an arm around my waist and pulling me close. “But she looks nice, doesn’t she?”

I blushed a bit, and Principal Carlson nodded again. “Yes, she looks really good.” Then he paused, and cleared his throat. “Alright, Miss Wilson, as we’d agreed, I’ve told every teacher who’s on chaperone duty tonight about your… unusual situation. They’ll keep an eye out for trouble, and if you require assistance please feel free to ask us.”

“Thank you, Mr. Carlson,” I replied.

“You’re welcome,” he said with a smile. “Now in you go, kids. And behave.”

Josh and I nodded, and we walked into the gym.

As we walked into the building, I looked around and took in the scenery: even though I’d been having gym class in there (or, rather, sitting out gym class, because of my “medical condition”), I almost didn’t recognise the gym itself.

The whole room had been redecorated: a soft carpet had been rolled out, probably to protect the wooden flooring of the basketball and volleyball courts, and tables holding various types of refreshments – from drinks to snacks – had been set up a short distance from the walls, leaving a wide open space for dancing in the middle. There was a small stage at the far end of the gym, opposite the double doors we’d entered through, and plenty of chairs were lined along the walls, in case anyone wanted to sit down. Soft instrumental music – which I had no doubt would become louder and turn into something we could dance to later in the night – played through the loudspeakers hanging near the ceiling. There were even banners hanging from the rafters, which bore the school’s crest.

All in all, it was an amazing transformation; the room didn’t look like a gym at all, but a ballroom instead.

Beside me, I heard Josh let out a low whistle of appreciation. “Damn, this is impressive,” he commented.

“It is,” I said. “It must have been a lot of work. Do you know who did it?”

Josh shrugged. “Dunno. I think we have a prom committee here at school? But of course I’m not involved. And it can’t have been just students who did this.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, someone must have helped.”

I looked around again, focusing on the people instead of the environment. It was still early in the night, and probably only just around half the students had already shown up: prom was due to officially begin in about twenty minutes anyway – Josh and I had been early on purpose, to avoid getting caught in a crowd at the entrance. I saw some people from my class, whom I didn’t know very well though; Aggie wasn’t there yet, but I spotted Mark and Nick, standing beside one of the tables, talking animatedly to each other.

Most importantly, though, I didn’t see the person I most dreaded facing that night: Troy McPearson.

“Come on, let’s go mingle,” I told Josh. “I’ll introduce you to Nick and Mark… And introduce myself to them again, I guess.”