"I ask him, “Have you given any thought to your new name?”

“Yeah, I’m going in the same direction as you. You were named after your parents’ mothers. Well, I’m going with Sophia Marie. I believe my grandmothers will like that.”

Sara looks upset, so I ask, “Sara? Are you alright?”

She pouts and says, “Yes.”

I ask, “Really?”

She sniffles a little and replies, “Now that this is really happening, I’m really going to miss having a brother.”

I walk over to her and wrap my arm around her shoulders. “You aren’t losing Jack. Remember what I told you before? If he volunteered to change, you and Sophia would become even closer. You’ll be sisters, and that’s even better than having a brother. She’ll depend on you to help her learn to be a girl. You’re really lucky. You get to have a sister. Don’t get me wrong, I dearly love Lucas, but truthfully, I’d rather have a sister, who I could go shopping with, and all the other things we girls do. I’m kind of jealous.”

“You think so?”

“Oh, I know so. Mom had to teach me so much before I went back to school, or I’d have made a fool of myself.”

Sara hugs me and murmurs, “Thank you. I feel a lot better now.”

A few minutes after Jack’s father told the nurse, the doctor comes back and takes us to a room He has us wait there while he takes Jack to another room down the hall. A short time later, they come back with Jack wearing a gown. The nurse has him lay down in the bed and then begins inserting the IV ports into his arms while I distract him with talking. Before you know it, the IVs are in.

The doctor asks, “Ready?”

Jack merely nods and lays his head back on the pillow as the doctor starts the IV. Soon, Jack is having problems keeping his eyes open, then he finally closes them one last time, and he’s asleep. The doctor then tells us the same thing they told my parents and me: no visiting.

I have to say that everyone is very quiet when we leave the room and make our way down to the parking lot.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

Two and half weeks later, the hospital calls them to pick up Sophia. Mrs. Pauly texts me to inform me that they’re going to pick her up shortly. I tell her that I’ll come over after school. So, after school, I head directly to their house because I’m excited to see my new girlfriend. I ring the doorbell, and Mr. Pauly answers.

“Hi, Beth. Come on in. Jack’s in his room with his mother. They’re putting away his clothes.”

“It’s Sophia, not Jack, remember?”

He grimaces and says, “Sorry, a force of habit.”

“I understand, but you’ll make it harder for her to adjust to it if you keep calling her Jack.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later.”

In Sophia’s room, I hug her and welcome her home. Sophia is now a pretty little brunette with bright green eyes, and a slightly upturned, button nose. Her dad is going to have to beat the boys off her with a bat!

Looking around, I comment on how nice her room looks. Apparently, Mrs. Pauly had the idea to redecorate it while Sophia was in the hospital. Then, I help them hang and fold all of her new clothes while we continue to happily chatter away. I missed her a lot while she was in the hospital.

　◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇

That weekend, both sets of my grandparents came to visit. I was worried about it for the entire week after Mom and Dad told me that they were coming to visit because I wasn’t sure if they would accept me. Although, as it turns out, I was worried over nothing. My grandmothers cooed over me when they arrived. They also loved that I was named after them, and my grandfathers simply doted on me.

My grandmothers insisted on taking me shopping, too. Although, their idea of proper clothing for someone my age leaves much to be desired. Thankfully, after I gave Mom a pleading look, she stepped in and curtailed that. I’m 10, not a grandmother. I tend towards the more flashy side of dresses, skirts, and blouses, though I do own a few t-shirts. My grandmothers would probably freak out if they ever saw me in some of the half-shirts I have.

The next few months pass by almost unnoticed, except for the increasingly rude comments from Jeremey and those like him. Mrs. Lynn has asked me to help her talk to the kids’ parents when the time comes for their talk and testing. Kara, Sierra, and I have done our best to help the new girls when they come back to school. I believe we’ve done quite a good job.

Sam and I have grown much closer during this time. We’ve gone on many more group dates as well. I felt like I would simply melt into a puddle of goo the first time he kissed me. I had no idea that being held and kissed would feel so good. Not to mention, how safe being within his arms made me feel.

One thing of note: Sam beat the hell out of a guy from our school that started in on me when we were out playing mini-golf. I’m quite capable of standing up for myself, and I darn sure did so. It was all verbal up until I hit him with some real stinging retorts, which is when he grabbed me and almost completely tore my blouse off. It was one of my favorite blouses, too! Needless to say, Sam went all King Kong on his stupid ass. He beat on the guy until I forced him to stop. Sierra gave me her sweater to cover myself since my bra was exposed, and Kara called the police. As you can guess, the idiot was arrested for assaulting me. The nice policewoman said that he’ll end up in a ‘reeducation facility.’ I’d definitely say that it serves him right. When we got home, I told Mom and Dad what happened. Dad almost lost it. He was so mad that he literally said that the boy was lucky that he was arrested because he’d have done much worse to him.

Kimmy was disappointed when I told her that Sophia had volunteered to change, but when Sophia returned to school, they quickly became close friends. This year began as a nice little group of 4 girls and 3 boys hanging out together, has now expanded to 8 girls and 6 boys. The boys are fiercely protective of all of us, which we are all thankful for.

I did find out during one sleepover that Kimmy used to be called Arthur. When he volunteered and went back to school, it was really bad for her. So, her parents moved, and she enrolled here. I’m sorry that she had to go through that, but I’m still glad that she’s here.

We’ve had several sleepovers at various houses, although, more often than not, they are held at my house for some odd reason. When a new girl joins our group, we usually have a sleepover that weekend, but have them fairly often anyway.

Despite Lucas’s and Sam’s warnings, Jeremy was still up to his same old tricks with the sneers and nasty comments he shoots at all of us girls, but he mostly focused on me for some reason. Why, exactly, I have no idea. I believe most of this is coming from his father’s influence. Seriously, look at his role model. With that kind of influence, it’s no wonder that he acts the way he does.

I saw his father on the news one time, and in my opinion, he’s the most prejudiced person I’ve ever heard. If I were Jeremy, I’d think long and hard about following his father’s example. Mrs. Lynn has said several times now how bad things are for Jeremy, but I always thought she was exaggerating.

Now, I truly believe that she’s right when she said that if Jeremy told his father that he wanted to change, that he’d disown him and kick him out of the house. Thinking about it, she did say that she believes Jeremy acts the way he does because he wants to be a girl too, but… Well, I’m sure that you get it. She also asked me if I would talk to my parents about possibly taking him in if that happens. Personally, I want nothing to do with him, so why would she ask my family to take him in? I have no idea, but I did promise to talk to my parents about it after Thanksgiving.

The week of Thanksgiving finally rolls around. To say that I was excited would be an understatement. I’m so looking forward to being able to see my cousins on both sides of the family. We’ll go to my uncle Robert’s, although he prefers Bob, for dinner. Then, we’ll go to my grandma and grandpa Shae’s for dessert. By the way, Shae is my mom’s maiden name. Mom told me over breakfast that we’d be going shopping to get something special to wear, and so, after school, that’s what we’ll be doing.

When we get back from school, Mom tells me to hurry up and change clothes so that we can go. I waste no time in changing into a long dress, tights, and ankle boots.

At the mall, we first head into a store that primarily deals with coats. It takes half an hour to find one that she and I could agree on. It’s a white, double-breasted trench coat with a zip-in liner. We also got two pairs of gloves to go with it. One in white, and another in green.

Then, it’s on to a dress shop that deals in formal, and semi-formal dresses. Their selection was awesome. They have so many dresses that I’d love to have. Maybe later, though. I nixed a lot of what Mom wanted to get me, but we finally agreed on a grey, v-neck short-sleeved minidress with a lace overlay. It’s quite chic, in my opinion, and since I’m the one that will be wearing it, it’s the only opinion that matters. We also bought me some silver strappy sandals with 3” heels to go with them. I’m going to look so good come Thanksgiving!

We piled into the van for the hour-long trip to uncle Bob’s. Uncle Bob is divorced with two kids, Ben, and Phillip. Ben is 13, and Phillip is 9. Uncle Bob remarried 6 years ago to a woman named Sheila, but Mom calls her ‘The Bitch.’ She’s half Uncle Bob’s age, but it’s not all that surprising since he’s fairly wealthy.

After an hour, we arrive, get out of the car, and knock on the door. Uncle Bob answers it and sees us. “Welcome! Welcome! Wait, who’s this? Where’s James?”

My dad answers, “James opted for the change. This is Bethany Anne or Beth as she likes to be called.”

“What, did he choose to change? What was he? A closet faggot all of this time?”

Dad glares at him, and in a low menacing tone says, “I don’t like that kind of talk, Bob.”

“Well then, why don’t you fuck off and go back to where you belong! You might be alright with living with faggots, but I’m not! So, never darken my door again!”

“You’ll probably change your tune because Phillip has his test next year!”

“Phillip will never, and I say NEVER volunteer to become a girl, so why don’t you leave and let us have Thanksgiving in peace!”

Dad and Uncle Bob continue arguing for a while longer, then he slams the door in my dad’s face. At this point, Lucas takes my hand and leads me back to the van while muttering, “Prejudiced piece of shit!” No sooner do we get in than I begin to sob. He pulls me to him, and I bury my face against his chest and hold him tightly. I cry so hard that I eventually end up with a headache.

When Mom and Dad get into the van, Mom looks over to Dad, and says, “I’ll call my mom to see if she has room for us. She always makes too much.”

She pulls out her phone and calls. Grandmother answers a few moments later

“Hi, Mom… Yeah, to you as well. We were wondering if you had places for four more… Yes, we are there right now, but Bob showed how ignorant he is... No, we hadn’t told him, yet… Thanks, Mom. We’ll see you soon.” Mom ends the call and puts down her phone.

Once I finally settle down, Mom hands me some aspirin and makes Lucas move so that she can sit beside me and fix my makeup. Dad suddenly says, “Beth?” I look over at him, and he looks at me in the mirror. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about what ignorant people say. Never let their prejudices affect you. Phillip turned nine how long ago?”

I murmur, “Last April.”

“Then, they’re gonna have to choose in April cause I seriously doubt that he won’t pass the test. So, we’ll see them come crawling back to us on their hands and knees. You can bet on it!”

I lean forward so I can reach him, kiss him on his cheek, and say, “I love you.”

“That’s the great thing about having a daughter, the love.”

Soon, we reach grandmother’s house, and all troop up to the door. Dad rings the bell, and moments later, grandfather opens it and ushers us inside. Mom goes to join grandmother in the kitchen, and I follow along. She turns to me and says, “Sweetheart, we’ll handle this, so why don’t you go take a nap? I’ll come to get you when dinner is ready.”

I could use a nap after everything that’s happened.

While up there, I called Sophia. She wasn’t having a bad time with her relatives, but I could tell by her tone of voice that she wasn’t exactly being welcomed. She confirmed it when she said that she was mostly being ignored. The boys didn’t want her around them, although the girls were supportive. Some of the parents actually called her a freak under their breath. Though, not where anyone else could hear them, mind you. She also said that her parents weren’t dealing with things that much better. Sara remained glued to her side and was glaring at everyone. She said that they stayed long enough to eat, and finally had had enough of it and left without saying a word.

After we ended the call, it didn’t take me long to fall asleep. It’s amazing how tiring crying is. Grandma woke me up, then we all sat down to eat, and grandfather said a prayer. Then, we all dug in. We were all eating, but no one was talking.

My brother was cutting a piece of meat, and he must have hit a bone because he lost his grip, and the knife went flying. We both looked at each other for what seemed like forever, wondering if someone was going to yell at him. Our dad began laughing, Mom soon joined him, and then everyone was laughing. It lifted the weight off of me that I didn’t even know I had. After that, I began chattering away, which seems to have broken the ice because everyone began talking like they normally would. I had a wonderful dinner and would giggle whenever someone said something funny, which would usually set off others, too.