"Wow, there's so much!" She said, her eyes wide.

"Sorry, it kind of gets everywhere." I shrugged.

She raised her hands to the side of her head and shook it before pointing at me. "Wait, no, sorry. Go back a bit. Did you say you were turning into a girl?"

I nodded.

"Zee... first of all that's not possible. Secondly, just having long hair doesn't make you a girl."

"Okay, but what about these?" I lifted up my hoodie.

"What about whaaaOOOH! Wow!" She stared at me, turned away, looked back, then turned away again. "Those, hoo... those sure are breasts. They look... good." She nodded her head stiffly.

Oh no, I must have embarrassed her! I quickly lowered my hoodie. For some reason my face felt really hot after doing that, and the moth was definitely beating up the gremlin inside me. "Thanks, I uh... I grew them myself."

She faced me once more. "Congrats. On that. You're a good... good grower." Her face grew steadily more red as she stared at my chest.

"So, uh... what should I do with them?"

Her eyes flicked up, then back down. "What do?" She sounded frazzled and seemed to have trouble looking me in the eye.

"The breasts that magically appeared on me overnight. I can't exactly hide this from my parents for very long and..." I sat back down. "I don't know what they're going to do if they find out." My voice wavered and cracked. "I don't know how much more I'm going to keep changing. I don't..." I don't know that I want it to stop. I began to sob.

"Oh my gosh, I didn't even think of that! Zee, this must be so awful for you. No guy wants to turn into a girl!"

Well that's dumb. Of course they do. Why else wou-

"Don't worry, we'll find some way to fix this and get you back to normal!" She grabbed my hand and looked me in the eyes, smiling softly.

"NO!" I tumbled backwards out of the chair.

"Zee?" She reached out and I shrank from her grasp. "Zee, what's wrong?"

"I'm wrong! I'm all wrong! I can't!" My breath came in ragged gasps. "I cant!" My lungs burned as I struggled on the floor. "Go back!" I tried to stand, but my legs refused to support me. "Can't! Breathe!" Twitching my head around, I searched for a way to escape.

"Zee, stay with me, Zee!" Her voice sounded so far away.

Light. I crawled towards it. Something grasped my wrists. Too strong. I was flipped over, laying on my back. A dark shape above me. My other wrist, held. Weight upon my hips, my chest. Sounds, smells, where...

"You can stay!" It almost sounded like Remy... "Where are you right now?"

"Wuh, wuh?"

"Tell me where you are!"

"Forest. Hideout."

"Good! Good!" Something wet was falling on my face. "What can you hear right now?"

I listened. "Breath. Voice. Birds. Wind."

"What can you see?"

I looked. "Chair. Door." The shape above me began to clear. "Girl?"

"Good!" She had Remy's voice. She sounded sad. "What's my name?"

My breath came stronger now. "R-remy."

"Good! Tell me your name, too."

"Faedra." I tensed in her grip. I told her too much!

"Faedra? Faedra, good!" Her face came closer. "It's okay, Faedra. You can stay here. You can stay a girl if you want."

"Really?" It was so hard to see. It was like being underwater.

"Really." She let go of my wrists and rolled off of me.

"I'm scared."

"You're going to be okay, Faedra." Strong arms wrapped around me and held me tight. She stroked my hair. "Tell me what happened."

I told her everything.

Every wish, every dream, every nightmare. I told her about the song we sang. I told her about the strange feelings in my guts. About the way I felt when I looked at girls. About Pokemon showing me my name. About waking up and feeling happy, but hating that I felt happy. About being afraid of what my parents would do.

When I had exhausted everything, all she said was, "Wow..."

I didn't dare look at her eyes. How could I? She hates me now, I just know it. She's gonna say-

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that for all those years, Faedra. I never knew you were keeping something like that locked up inside of you."

"You don't hate me?" I squeaked.

"No, I don't. It sounds to me like you've had the soul of a girl this whole time and were suffering because of that." She pulled her head back and looked into my eyes. "Can I tell you a secret too?"

What secret could she possibly have? "Of course. You can tell me anything."

She took a deep breath. "I like girls."

"Oh." The gremlin and the moth ceased their endless battle, holding their breaths as she spoke.

"And I had always thought I could hold that feeling down, as long as there was at least one boy I liked. A boy who was thoughtful and kind and friendly and who made me happy just by being there."

My heart sank. "Who is he?"

She gave me a strange look. "He's gone now. In his place is a beautiful girl. A girl who is maybe a little dense, but is still all those things that boy was and more. And now that I know that, I can't lie to myself anymore."

Something CLUNKED into place in my brain. "Wait, me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes you, you numbskull!" Then she kissed me. I kissed her back. We kissed each other. Kingdoms rose and fell, oceans turned to dust, and the very stars in the sky burned out during that kiss. Or maybe it only lasted a few minutes. It's hard to tell with things like that.

I pulled back and took a breath. "Wow."

She breathed as well. "Yeah."

We laid there and just stared at each other, neither apparently knowing what to say. I suddenly realized how dark it had gotten. "How long have we been here?

She shrugged. "I don't know, I don't have a watch."

"I want to stay here... more. But..."

"I understand. My parents are going to be wondering where I am as well." She stood and helped me to my feet. I swayed unsteadily. "Whoa there! You okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, just a little tired."

"Alright. You go home, get some rest. I'll meet you here tomorrow, around noon, okay?"

"Okay."

She hugged me again. "Good night, Faedra. Sweet dreams."

I hugged her back, just as hard. "Good night to you too, Remy! I hope your dreams are sweeter!"

She planted a kiss on my forehead. "Only because I'll be dreaming of you." Holy shit, she's good!

We parted ways and I made my way back through the dark forest. The lights of the farmhouse shone through the trees, leading me home. When I reached the tree line, I stopped. I took a deep breath, tucked my hair back in, and pulled up my hood. "Back to being Zee..." I walked along the rows of apple trees, plucking one off and biting into it. Sweet and tangy. By the time I made it back to the house, I was almost finished with it.

"Zee." I froze. It was my father's voice. "Come over here for a second."

I turned towards his voice. He was sitting out underneath the big walnut tree in the front yard. I hadn't even noticed him as I was walking up. Slowly, I walked towards him. "Yeah, Dad?"

"You're out wandering pretty late tonight." He didn't turn to face me, just kept staring up at the sky.

"I've just been walking through the woods. Thinking about things." I stood on his left, where he couldn't see me.

"I imagine you have." He took a deep breath and let it out. "I've noticed you've been acting a little odd, last couple of days." He shifted his head, just a bit, so that it was like he was staring into me with his empty socket. "Anything you want to get off your chest?"

My heart pounded like an octopus playing the drums. "Nope. Nothing on my chest I want to get off."

"Hrm." He turned back towards the starry sky. "Alright then. Your brothers made some of that mushroom and beef casserole if you're hungry." And with that, the conversation was over. I went back inside. All three of my brothers were there, Conner and Jay playing HORSE on Tony Hawk while Danny acted as the announcer, mocking any mistakes.

"Hey Zee!" Danny shouted. "There's some Dad's Special in there. You wanna play after these two are done?"

"No thanks, bud. I think I'm gonna head to bed. I'm getting kind of tired." I scooped up a bowl for myself and took it to my room. After I closed the door, I noticed a bright yellow bag on my bed. It looked like it was from the dollar store. I opened it up and looked inside.

It held a hairbrush, a pack of hairbands, a tube of lipstick, a clear plastic box that looked like a watercolor set, and a purple... shirt? I pulled it out and shook it. It unfolded into a dress, a scene of birds and flowers printed along the bottom of the fabric. I looked back at the bag. "No note..." There was something that had been hiding underneath the dress, though. A package containing... two sports bras.

Someone knew my secret... But who?

KristalMoonhand

Hey all. Remy here has not been trained in how to handle a panic attack, so this is not an approved method of bringing someone out of one. Though it worked out for her here, I'd recommend researching methods developed by experts. Check out the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise for starters. The basic gist is that you have the person name five things they can see, four things they can touch, three things they can hear, two things they can smell, and one thing they can taste. This gives them a concrete goal to search for and helps ground them.

Now it's time for the speculation! Who could Faedra's mysterious benefactor be? A true mystery for the ages, you will never see the answer coming!