We hear Megan padding her way down the hall toward us. Aunt Scarlett stands up and pushes her chair back under the dining table.

Megan comes in and sleepily murmurs, “G’mornin’.”

“Morning, Sis,” I say with a huge smile.

She glances at me for a moment. “You’re sure in a good mood for so early in the morning.”

If you haven’t already figured it out, Megan is not a morning person. It usually takes her about an hour to rev up to her usual bubbly personality.

I laugh for a few moments and glance at the clock. “7:30 in the morning is not that early.”

She sticks her tongue out at me and mutters, “Says you.” Then she plops down in a seat and asks, “What’s for breakfast?”

“Poached eggs, sausage, and toast.”

Soon enough, Aunt Scarlett gives each of us a plate, then sits down with her own. After we eat, Megan and I are cleaning up and loading the dishwasher when I pause and look at Megan.

She glances at me, and a few moments later, she asks, “What?”

“I’m Jacqueline Annette Stetson,” I state adamantly.

She looks at me funny, then snorts and shakes her head. “I know that, Goofy.”

I giggle at her reaction. “No, listen to me… I am Jacqueline Annette Stetson.”

She simply stares at me with a confused expression, but then it finally dawns on her what I’m proclaiming with that simple statement.

Her face lights up as she asks, “Are you serious? You’re going to do it?”

I merely smile and nod in response, and just as I turn back to finish cleaning up, she suddenly glomps onto me and squeals happily. Releasing me, she dances around in a circle, saying, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Calming down a little, she looks at me. “You know, I knew it the very first night.”

“I wish I did then because it would have saved me a lot of confusion and apprehension.”

She smirks. “Oh, you knew. You’re just too stubborn to admit the obvious at times.”

It’s my turn to laugh at her statement, even though I believe that she’s probably right since I can be rather obstinate when I want to be. There isn’t much I can say. Most people are in certain circumstances. For me, that’s usually when I want or think things should be a certain way. Does that make me willful?

True to his word, Benny arrives shortly before 11:30 with Cary in the passenger seat. I squeal and waste little time in rushing out the door to literally leap into his arms as he’s walking up to the house. Immediately, my lips seek his to plant a big, wet kiss on them.

Once I break the kiss, I rest my head against his as I hold on tightly to him. He resumes his walk to the house with me still in his arms. “I missed you so~ much,” I murmur in his ear. I shouldn’t have to explain it, but the flutters returned with a vengeance the moment I saw him drive up.

It’s easy to hear the smile in his voice when he replies, “I missed you, too.”

“Good. I would hate to have to beat some sense into you.”

He chuckles as I look over his shoulder and see Cary hug and kiss Megan, then take her hand to follow us inside.

Walking into the living room where ‘Mom’ is, I smile at the thought, and Ben and Cary say, “Hello again, Ms. Ward.”

“Hi, boys. It’s good to see you again.” She looks at Megan and asks, “What time will you be home?”

“Midnight?” She asks hopefully.

She looks at the boys as she seems to consider it. “You two will watch out for my girls, right?”

Cary nods while Ben answers, “Of course,” for the both of them.

“Alright. Just make sure you do. You girls can stay out until midnight, but not a minute later, understood?”

We readily agree, say our goodbyes, and he takes my hand as we head out to his truck. We pause by the front door for me to pick up my swim bag and Rachel’s present, then continue on our way. He walks me around to the passenger side, opens the front door, and helps me in, then closes the door before walking around to the other side. Once everyone is in, he asks, “Where are we going?”

From the backseat, Megan asks, “Do you have navigation.”

He replies, “Yes,” and pulls it up.

She leans up and scrolls through the map until she finds the location and locks it in. He then backs out and heads down the road. Once on the road, he reaches across the console and takes my hand again. I shouldn’t have to say it, but I smile happily as I intertwine our fingers and we chatter away. You’d think that given how much we talk on the phone, we wouldn’t have much to say, but you’d be wrong.

The party was great and everyone had a lot of fun. I’m more than happy to report that after I change into my bikini, Ben can’t keep his eyes off of me. I find it amazing how good it makes me feel when the boy I like only has eyes for me, and that’s with a large number of very pretty girls here. I may just keep him around. Dunno why.

For lunch, we had burgers and hot dogs that Rachel’s parents made for everyone. After that, we sing Happy Birthday to her, and she opens her presents. My present got me a huge hug from her. I got her a silver locket with a picture of the seven of us together inside and had the store inscribe, “Friends are the siblings God forgot to give us,” on it.

For the remainder of the afternoon and evening, we swim, play volleyball and generally be the teens we are. As it begins to get dark, Rachel’s dad builds a bonfire for us. Ben gets a blanket out of his truck for us and spreads it out near the fire, then sits down. I climb in between his legs and lean back against him, then he slips his arms around my waist to hold me as we enjoy the fire, music, and company.

At some point, he makes me look at him over my shoulder and kisses me. I want more of them once he breaks our kiss, so I turn around and sit down in his lap, facing him. I don’t even mind when his hand makes its way down my back to cup and gently squeeze my butt.

It isn’t long before he has me hyped up, and my nipples are rock hard. Thankfully, while I enjoy this, I’m able to control my urges, and as much as he might want to take things further, he never pushes me for more than this.

On the way back home, he asks if I want to do something next weekend. I’d jump on him to kiss him if I could, but that wouldn’t be a very bright idea since we’re on the highway doing 65 mph. I immediately say yes. As an afterthought, I ask what we’re going to do, and he tells me that there’s a fireworks show at Lake Okeechobee that he wants to take me to. It isn’t as if I really care what he has planned, I was merely curious.

When we finally arrive home, he helps me out of the truck and walks me to the door. Even in my 3” heels, he towers over me since I’m barely 5’0” tall. That means that when I’m barefoot, he has about 10” on me. So, he picks me up, and I wrap my arms and legs around him to get my goodnight kisses.

Unfortunately, Megan and I don’t have much time left before midnight, and we have to stop long before I’m ready to end our makeout session.

When we finally break our last kiss, I murmur, “Set me down, please. We have to get inside.”

He does as I ask, gives me another short, soft kiss, and says, “Goodnight, Lil’ bird. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Good. Talk to you then.” I offer my lips for one final kiss, which he gladly gives me, and then Megan and I head inside.

Apparently, Mom trusts us enough that she didn’t wait up to make sure that we get home on time. Bending down, I unbuckle and slip off my sandals and make my way down the hall. I notice her bedroom light is on, so I tap on her door, and she says, “Come in.”

I open the door and softly close it behind me. “Hi, Mom,” I tell her as I walk over to her bed, set down my sandals, then crawl into bed with her and snuggle up as she wraps her arm around me.

“Hi, Sweetie. How was the party?”

“It was a lot of fun.”

“And Ben?”

“He had a good time as well, or are you asking if he was inappropriate with me?”

“That’s good and no, I wasn’t asking. I assume you would tell me if he was.”

“I would, but no, he wasn’t inappropriate. The most we did was kiss.”

“Good girl. Keep it that way, would you?”

“Okay, but you know very well that sex isn’t really an option for me.”

“Not yet anyway, but there are other kinds of sex that don’t involve vaginal penetration, Sweetie.”

“Don’t worry, my panties are staying on. I like Benny, but sex? Nuh-uh. Regardless of my little issue, I would say it’s far too soon to even think about sex. Even so, I’d rather die than allow him to see me like that. Cuddling and kissing are enough for now. If he pressures me for more, well, then he isn’t who I think he is.”

“You’re a smart little cookie, aren’t you?”

I shrug and smile. “I try to be.”

“Sweetie, I talked to your parents again this evening while you were out.”

I raise myself up on my elbow to look at her. “And?”

“And, they’ll be here on Monday to sign the power of attorney and shared custody papers. They want to see you too.”

“Megan and I have yoga in the morning and ballet class at noon on Monday.”

“I know your schedules. It shouldn’t be a problem since they probably won’t be here until the evening. You can visit with them for a while when they get here on Monday, and then on Tuesday, we’ll go see an attorney.”

“Do I have to go?”

“To see the attorney? No, but you can if you want to go.”

“Okay.”

“It’s late. You ought to go to bed, or do you plan to sleep with me tonight?”

“No. Anyway, I still have to clean my face and change into a nightgown.”

“Alright. Night, Sweetie.”

“Night, Mom.”

Sunday means church, so today I need to dress somewhat conservatively. Looking through my closet, I finally settle on a mint-green, knee-length, short-sleeve summer dress, nude stockings with a swirl pattern on them, and my taupe open-toe sandals with 3” heels.

I’m not going to say much about Monday through Wednesday when my mother and father were here. Suffice it to say while I enjoyed seeing my mother, it was merely painful for me to deal with my father. Regardless, something wasn’t quite right with how my mother and father were acting. Oh, Mother tried to make it seem like everything was perfectly normal, but there’s this little niggling feeling that I can’t ignore. I certainly hope I’m wrong and just reading too much into things.

Look, I’ve made my decision, and I unwaveringly stand by it. It’s the best thing for me, and I’m more than ready to be all-girl, even if the thought of surgery is a bit scary. But then, there’s my dad. Yes, he said he supported my plan for this summer and even said that he’d support my transition, but I saw the looks he’d give me.

It wasn’t hard to see the shadow behind his eyes during their visit. He barely spoke to me and even had a hard time looking at me for more than a moment or two. I put on a brave face in front of everyone, but I cried myself to sleep while Megan held me every night.

That’s not all that surprising, I guess. I love my mother and father, and I know Mother loves me, but Father? I get it, he wants his son and he simply can’t understand that I’m not his son and never have been. That is why I was never comfortable with myself, and why I pushed myself to be more of a boy than the other boys.

I fervently wish that he could accept me for who I am, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Why can’t he see things from my point of view and understand that my decision is the correct one since it’s the difference between me having a happy life as a girl, or trying to force myself to live as a boy and hating myself for it. The whole situation with my parents is making me heartsick.

As the days move on, thanks to the ballet, the gym, and the hormones, my figure continues to change as my waistline continues to shrink, my hips widen, and my breasts continue to develop. Even so, when you compare me to Megan, or any other girl my age, I’m still lagging well behind. I’ve grown another half-inch in height and have put on a few more pounds of weight, but I’m still tiny.

Mom, Megan, and I can only see me as a girl. Heck, we regularly see each other in nothing more than lingerie, and several times, I’ve even seen them nude, and thought nothing of it. Me, I never let anyone see me without at least panties on because of that tiny little annoyance between my legs. More than anything else, that’s been causing me to resent the remaining difference between us. I desperately want to be completely a girl. It’s frustrating and depressing to think about it.

Every Friday and Saturday evening, Benny and Cary come down and take me and Megan out on dates. As much as Benny and I make out during them, he’s never once tried to touch me inappropriately, well, other than grabbing my ‘Cute lil’ butt’ as he calls it. I always playfully slug his arm, and state, “I’m perfectly proportional, thank you very much,” which makes him chuckle. I can’t help being petite, and even with the hormones, I’ve already been warned not to expect a lot of growth where my height is concerned, though I’m hoping for at least a large B cup in the breast department.

During one of my normal appointments with Erina, she tells me something that excites me beyond words. “A law has been passed by Congress and signed into law a few days ago. It’s regarding gender reassignment surgery for teens. They have reduced the age from 16 to 13, and I think you’re ready.”

“More than ready,” I adamantly state.

She laughs and smiles at me. “Then I’ll consult with a colleague about your case. He’ll look it over, and if he agrees with me, I’ll refer you to a surgeon.”

I walk out of my appointment on cloud nine.