The rest of the month moved along without major events. Routine was a powerful tool to help the days slip by. We had the same sorts of lessons we’d had in the first half, only more advanced and intense. Yet we’d also been building up endurance and strength, so everyone was able to keep up, even if they always pushed us to exhaustion, so that we slept like rocks each night. 

The most dramatic shift in lesson material was moving on to actual engine work, where I was a bit disappointed to find a couple of other girls were better at it than me.

The amount I was able to learn in those few short weeks amazed me, however. Whether it was the teaching of the instructors or the learning benefit of trying to explain the lessons to others who I was ahead of, I felt far more knowledgeable with my hands than I had been at the month’s start. (Though there would be, shall we say, ‘whole new ways’ of using my hands I would only learn afterwards... but that’s not for this story.)

Then, before I felt ready, the camp had reached its final day. The time for goodbyes always came too soon.

We ended our lessons before dinner, the instructor wearing a smile as she led us to the dining room. Stepping in, we found the table had actual tablecloths set up. One was set apart and covered with boxes of delivered pizzas, wedges, and wings, a few bowls of tortilla chips and salsa, and a very impressive range of beers.

“Well, troopers,” Cam said with a bit of a laugh, “time for your last lesson: beer tasting. We’ve got the rest of the night for everyone to try to learn.”

That got a cheer out of the crowd. We were quick to rush ahead, taking our pick of the spread. It was a genuine smorgasbord compared to what we’d gotten used to.

Grabbing some wings and a couple of meat-y pizza slices, I found myself beside Pat, who decided it was a perfect opportunity to inform me about the various beers available. Apparently she had a rather more encyclopedic knowledge of local breweries than I realised.

“Yeah, those ones are from Moose Jaw, they’re a good malt-y lager. My favourite... but we should probably have a few with more hops. I’ll bet bitter over sweet gets us some points from the coordinators.”

“I don’t think we’re being graded,” I offered, honestly not sure if I wanted any.

After that awful hangover I’d gotten on the failed escape attempt, I wasn’t sure I was in any hurry to drink. Plus, beer wasn’t really my favourite. Just because I was embracing my passion for physical skill didn’t mean I had to give up on drinks with actually decent flavours.

“We might not be getting graded, but I’m sure we’re being judged,” Pat said, studying the beers as we followed the flow towards them. “Grab one of the pale ales to make a good impression.”

“I’m only planning to have one beer tonight,” Hannah said. “Tomorrow’s going to be a long day with lots of driving. I don’t want to have any sort of a hangover to deal with.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. I’m driving all the way back to Manitoba,” Pat muttered.

“Ok, depending where you’re going, you might have me beat,” Hannah said.

“Wait, how far away are you?” I asked, realising we hadn’t actually discussed much about the outside world.

Our conversations had been fairly limited in general, after all. I knew she had a job at a grocery store and she knew I was in university, but somehow geography had never been a major topic.

“I’m up in Grande Prairie,” she replied.

“Oh, dang,” Pat said as she grabbed a bottle of beer. “I’m in Dauphin, but I’m not sure which is actually further.”

“Grande... Grande Prairie,” I mumbled.

I had never actually been that far north, but I was pretty sure it was as far from Edmonton as Edmont was from Calgary. That would mean, what... a six hour drive between us, once I was back at school in Calgary? And even further if my parents let me stay (though I knew that was unlikely).

Well, that was still doable for a long weekend, wasn’t it? Would that be enough?

Lost in those thoughts, I had been quiet as we walked over to a table to sit. Mags was already there and had waved us over.

“Someone seems oddly glum for graduation day,” she said to me.

I blinked, having not realised it was so blatantly upon my face. “Er... well, it means the real world is on the horizon. With its real world issues.”

“Your family?” Hannah asked in a quiet voice.

“Uh... yes, but other things too. I’ve got to ask my friend in Calgary if I can move in with her,” I explained.

“Calgary? You’re all the way down there? I thought you were in Edmonton,” she said, half to herself.

“Mhm, good ol’ Calgary U.”

“Oh man... I don’t think my parents would want me moving all the way down there,” Hannah mumbled. “They complain enough about me being down in Grande Prairie.”

“Right, you’re in your own apartment,” I said. “I’ll guess rents are cheaper there than the big cities.”

She scrunched her face for a moment or two, before giving a nod to herself. “Hey, what do you say you move up with me? We can test out living together for a few months, then you can swing back to visit on a few weekends. Or I can go down… and maybe you can transfer up to Edmonton?”

“I—that sounds very nice. Thank you,” I mumbled, slightly frazzled by the idea of moving in with my first girlfriend… then again, I needed a place and we’d been seeing each other daily for about a month. “I don’t know if a transfer doable though, but it is only three more years of university.

“Whatever the case, let’s worry about it later, guys,” Mags said. “Tonight is supposed to be a party.”

Hannah and I both gave nods and quick apologies for crashing the mood.

I definitely drank more than I’d planned that night. Not enough to have a horrible hangover, but I still had a noticeable one that next morning as I grabbed a small breakfast. The meal had the same dining companions I’d had last night, though Pat seemed barely functional.

“I’ll be better in a bit,” she mumbled. “Ready to give you back up.”

“Give me—you’re coming along? It’s the opposite direction for you?” I replied.

“They promised to drive me back after. I’m half using it as an excuse to nap and basically sleep in,” she explained with a grin and a thumbs up.

“And it’s on the way home for me,” Mags added. “My girlfriend will be happy to have a shorter drive to pick me up.”

“Meanwhile I don’t mind spending more time down here in the tropics,” Hannah added with a brief laugh. “Plus, need to protect my girlfriend. Only right as a fresh graduate of this school of butchery… wait, that’s probably not the right word...”

That got a few muted laughs, everyone just tired and hungover enough not to want to risk being louder.

“Very appreciated, everyone. Some help moving my stuff out will also be nice... going to want to rescue my car and computer at the very least,” I said.

We finished our small breakfast up a short while later, the four of us then heading over to Cam’s truck. As we loaded in, I thanked everyone again, before deciding to follow Pat’s lead and rest my eyes for a bit. 

When I woke back up we were on a familiar stretch of highway and my head was feeling much better. My nerves, on the other hand, were at least mildly shot. Even with three friends for support (and possibly Cam, if she decided we’d proven ourselves enough to not need more testing) it was still a rather stressful confrontation to make with my parents.

Plus, then there was a long drive ahead of us as Hannah and I went up to her place. That was also a daunting commitment for the day.

Trying to get my mind off of the stress, I did my best to figure out where exactly we were, and just how long we had left to go. A pair of metallic farm buildings rolled past and I knew we were only about fifteen minutes out. Close enough that it wasn’t doing anything to calm my nerves. Which was wonderful.

It also left me a fairly limited amount of time to figure out what to actually say to my parents. Those few minutes that were not nearly enough for me to pull anything decent together. Apparently I had improved my understanding of my sexuality and gender presentation ideals, but I’d not made any progress in knowing how to confront my parents. Which kind of stank, but made me all the more thankful for the friends who’d come along to support me.

All the same, my heart skipped a beat as we pulled onto the correct block and then came to a stop.

“Ready?” Cam asked.

“Uhh…”

“You’ve got this,” Hannah said, giving me an encouraging nudge on the upper arm.

I nodded slightly, then opened the door. Getting out of the truck and managing a few steps, I then nearly stumbled when I realised there were two SUVs parking behind us. Specifically: the SUVs from bootcamp. Both were also full and beginning to unload.

“I…I—is that everyone?” I mumbled, feeling deathly embarrassed.

“I said I’d ask around,” Cam said, getting out of the truck herself and giving me a wink. “They’re a good batch of graduates.”

Nodding silently, I then glanced over to Hannah. She gave me an encouraging nod and so I turned back to head towards my parents’ home. All while feeling certain that much back up made me feel more nervous, rather than being reassuring. It was so many more people to mess up in front of.

All the same, I rang the doorbell. A few moments later the door opened, my mother peeking out. She then said a name I was glad everyone was too far away to hear, and she’d said it with a sort of hopeful tone that stung.

“You messed up, mum,” I replied. “Well, either you did or dad did… or plural form of ‘you’, maybe? I—what I mean is… the camp wasn’t what you thought it was.”

Yeah, I was real smooth with my words.

“Wasn’t… you look like you’re back to normal though, dear?” she said. “Though, who are all those… folks.”

It seemed to be dawning on her then that the (embarrassingly large) group hanging out on the street were not the upstanding and well put together young men she may have initially thought.

“T—Thomas! Can you come here? Now?” 

I found myself making a rather unimpressed face, hearing how frightened she sounded of the simple idea that I’d befriended lesbians.Or, perhaps, the realisation that she and my father had sent me to them was the thing that spooked her so.

Either way, it didn’t take my father long to come into view from the living room. A look of smug satisfaction flashed briefly on his face, until he saw my mother’s expression.

“W—what’s going on?” he asked, a tentative tone to his voice.

“Your daughter’s a lesbian, pops,” I replied with a grin.

“Pardon?”

“There’s a whole—whole gang of them out there,” my mother added in a nervous whisper.

My father took a look out, over my shoulder, and paled. “There’s… there is rather a lot of them.”

”A whole bootcamp’s worth,” I replied.

“A—you mean th—the ad said it would help you no longer be feminine?” he muttered.

“Do they look feminine to you?” Before he could manage a reply I then continued. “There’s more than one way to be a woman… Anyway, just let me grab my stuff and my car. I don’t care to stay somewhere I’m not wanted, and I am an adult now.”

“Now listen up for just a moment,” my father replied, straightening up. “Just because you think you’re a lesbian after hanging out with a bunch of them doesn’t mean that’s actually right for you.”

I glared, and was then glad to notice the assembled support squad were beginning to move forward onto the yard. It seemed they’d picked up on my old man’s hostility and stubbornness. The scale of the support made my parents stumble. Especially as Hannah came up the stairs beside me.

She leaned forward, draping an arm over my shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ve tested it to make sure she’s a lesbian.”

Feeling her support at my back, I gave a nod. “It’s just what fits.”

”But… you’re almost back to being a guy?” my mother said.

”Oh, no. This is very different,” I replied.

”Trust me, I’ve never had any interest in guys, but butches, trans or cis,” Hannah added before waggling her eyes.

”You don’t have to worry about it, though,” I said, nudging my way past my now stunned parents. “I’m moving out.”

Hannah followed close behind me as I went down the hall towards my bedroom. I heard the thumping of feet behind us, revealing that a good chunk of the others were coming in to help. That was further reinforced by a chorus of ‘excuse me’s, ‘sorry’s, and ‘we’ll keep off the carpet’s.

I was able to assess what to leave or take over the course of the next few minutes, the latter category being rather small. While I was planning to dress more masc, I didn’t really want to keep the baggy old hoodies and other dysphoria era clothing. Which meant it was just a few books, my computer, and a few action figures. I then grabbed my car keys on the way out and stopped to say my goodbye to my parents, who were managing to look even more dumbfounded. 

“You have my number if you want to accept me,” I said, trying to keep a firm expression, regardless of how much all the emotions left me wanting to tear up.

Sure, they were partially going to be tears of relief, but they would still have ruined the impression I was trying to give. Instead, I turned to everyone gathered.

“Come on, let’s go to the next town over to grab some lunch. My treat for the help!”

That got some cheers from the crowd, before I remembered just how much they’d been feeding us at the camp… and therefore how much buying lunch for all twenty or so people would end up costing me.

Getting behind the wheel of my own car again after rather a while, I was able to assure myself that this was a once in a lifetime expense, so it was fair to splurge a little.

“We should stock up on some snacks,” Hannah said as she sat in the passenger seat. “It’s going to be a long drive.”

“There’s a couple grocery places over there, don’t worry… do we have to go get your car, though?”

“Oh, nah. I took the bus down,” Hannah said, as we pulled out of the driveway. “Way too far to drive on my own.”

I nodded, “I’m glad we can split the driving time today, then. Was not looking forward to driving all that way on my own.”

Checking, I kept moving slowly until the other vehicles began getting rolling.

“No, no… but I will say I’m looking forward to getting somewhere with privacy and a proper bed, though,” Hannah said with a smile.

“That does sound nice. I’m a bit tired of sleeping on those cots,” I replied, turning onto the highway with the others driving behind us.

We were going to head back towards the east, to get everyone closer to the camp again, if they had any cars to pick up.

“Oh, I wasn’t thinking about sleep,” Hannah said, her smile shifting more mischievous.

“You—oh. That—that’s one aspect of lesbianism the bootcamp didn’t teach, so I may need some lessons,” I mumbled.

”Hey, unless you’ve had bottom surgery already, we’re both going to be learning tonight. Should be fun,” she said, leaning in to give me a quick kiss on the cheek.

I felt myself blush, but nod. Bootcamp had got me started nicely on the ‘butch’ half of how to be a butch lesbian, but I definitely still had a lot to learn about the ‘lesbian’ side of things.

Hopefully I’d learn quickly.