After Jill’s mom drives her home she immediately runs up to her room and locks the room behind her.

 

She watched as her daughter ran up the stairs with a sad expression. She wanted to go after her and assure her that everything was going to be alright, but she knew that she couldn’t give her that guarantee without lying.

 

Jack just awkwardly yet slowly walked up to his room and closed the door as well.

 

She sighed and walked over to the couch in the living room to lie down.

 

Just as she did this her husband opened the front door as he arrived back from work.

 

“Honey, I'm home!” He said with a purposefully silly voice hoping to get a laugh or maybe an eye roll from his family.

 

After he saw his wife laying down on the couch he knew that something wasn’t right.

 

He walks over to the couch and sits right beside her.

 

“...So Janice…how was your day?”

 

“....Ugh…” She says as she slowly sits up and wipes her eyes.

 

“...So…not good…”

 

Janice shakes her head no.

 

“...Do…do you want to talk about it?”

 

She doesn’t immediately respond.

 

“...Is…is it about Jill?”

 

She looks to the side with a disappointed look on her face.

 

He starts to feel a bit worried.

 

“...Did…did something bad happen to our little girl…”

 

She nods yes.

 

“...Don’t worry Jeremy…she is fine…physically speaking at least…She’s just up in her room after a rough day…”

 

“...Did she tell you what happened to her?”

 

Janice shakes her head no.

 

“...I…I think we should go up and try to talk to her dear…We…we probably should have told her about…this…earlier…”

 

“...Yeah…I just didn’t want to be the one to break her little heart…”

 

Jeremy sighs.

 

“...I…I know things are hard for her right now…but…we can’t hide her from the real world forever…Don’t you think that she has a right to know?”

 

“...I wish we didn’t have to tell her this?”

 

Jeremy wraps his arms around his wife.

 

“...I know dear…I know…but unfortunately…this is for her own safety…She needs to know about these things whether she wants to or not…”

 

They break apart from their hug, but are still holding each other’s hands.

 

“...Let’s go talk to our daughter…”

Jill is curled up under the covers on her bed with tears streaming down her face as her sobs shook her entire body. Her face was almost completely covered with tears, snot, and smeared makeup.

 

A light knock is heard at the door of her room.

 

“...Go away…”

 

“...Jill…It’s just me and dad…can we come in?”

 

Jill got out from under her covers to look at the door.

 

She wipes the tears and snot from her face using one of her blankets.

 

“...Okay…”

 

Her parents slowly came into her room and sat at the edge of her bed.

 

“...So…” Jeremy said “...How was school today, pumpkin?”

 

“...I…I don’t…”

 

“...Hey…it’s okay…” Janice says as she and her husband both moved to sit on both sides of their daughter to hug her tight. “...You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to…”

 

“...No…I…I probably should…”

 

Her parents sat with bated breath waiting for Jill to tell them how her day went.

 

“...You…you remember my friends Terrance, Johnny, and the twins?”

 

They both nodded their heads.

 

“...They…they said…” Jill started to tear up again. “...They said that they didn’t want to be friends with me anymore!”

 

“...Oh honey, that’s awful…” Janice says as she strokes Jill’s hair to try to help her calm down.

 

“...Did they ever say why? Jeremy asks with his hand on Jill’s shoulder.

 

“...They…they said they didn’t want to be my friends anymore because I am a girl now!”

 

Jill burst into tears again after admitting this.

 

“...And…and…” Jill was trying to talk through her hiccups now. “...I noticed that a lot of other kids were…were laughing…I never asked them so I don’t really know why, but I felt like they were laughing AT ME!”

 

“...Those jerks…” Jeremy grumbled to himself. “...Just say the word Jill and I will…call their parents and give them a stern talk about how they are raising their children!”

 

“NO!” Jill immediately said. “...I’m…I’m sorry for yelling…but…but I don’t want them to hate me even more than they already do…”

 

Jeremy gives his daughter a serious expression.

 

“...Do you really still consider these kids to still be your friends Jill?”

 

“...I…I don’t know…I just don’t…know what I did wrong?”

 

She wipes some more tears from her eyes.

 

“...What did I do wrong?”

“...Honey no…” Janice says as she wraps her arms around her daughter again. “...You didn’t do anything wrong…It’s just that…hmm…”

 

She looks at her husband and he sighs and takes the reins of the conversation.

 

“...Jill…there is something me and your mother need to…tell you about…”

 

Jill sits there as she wipes some more tears from her eyes while she waits for her dad to explain what the heck is going on.

 

“...First…I just want to let you know that me and your mother love you with all of our hearts and that nothing you do will ever change that…but the reason why these people don’t want to be your friends anymore is…is because…”

 

He takes a deep breath before he says this next part.

 

“...Is because you used to be a boy, but are now a girl…”

 

Jill looks up at her dad with a shocked yet sad expression.

 

“...Why…why would people hate me because of that…”

 

“...Well…you see…”

 

Jeremy shoots a pleading glance over to his wife who takes over the conversation.

 

Janice thinks for a second about how she is going to phrase this.

 

‘Let’s just rip this band-aid off’. She thinks to herself before continuing.

 

“...Since…you were a boy, but now are a girl that means that you are transgender…”

 

“...I’ve never heard of that word before…What does it mean?”

 

“...It means that someone who was born…or more accurately assigned…as one gender actually thinks that they would prefer to be…or just are…the other…You can either have been born with the body of a boy and want to be a girl or be born with the body of a girl and want to be a boy…or sometimes you don’t want to be either…and that’s totally okay too…”

 

“...Oh…I think I get it…That means that I would be a transgender girl?” Jill says as she cocks her head to the side.

 

“...Yes…With that being said…there are people out there that don’t like it when other people decide that they are the opposite gender…”

 

“...Why?”

 

“...Because they were raised wrong…They just hate what they don’t understand and they don’t understand why someone would want to be a different gender than what they were born as…”

 

“...Well, that isn’t a very good reason…”

 

“...I know…but that is just how things are…I…” Janice starts to tear up. “...I know that this isn’t what you want to hear, but it is something that you need to hear…because we love you and we want to make sure you are aware of the challenges that people like you might face…”

 

“...But…but that’s not fair…”

 

“...I know baby…” Janice is hugging her daughter again with Jeremy quickly doing the same. “...I know…”

 

“...Now…I…I don’t want you to have to change who you are, but…but I also want you to be safe…”

 

A sad, yet scared expression suddenly appears on Jill’s face.

 

“...Does…does that mean that I…I can’t be a girl anymore?”

 

“...Of course not…I…I just want you to be aware of the challenges that you might have to face…I am going to leave the choice of what clothes you want to wear up to you still…”

 

“...Why didn’t you tell me this when I first told you guys that I wanted to be a girl…”

 

“...Because…that’s because…um…”

 

Jeremy takes over the conversation again.

 

“...It’s just that me and your mom didn’t want to hurt your feelings honey…”

 

“...Well…my feelings are hurt…”

 

“...We just…didn’t want to get in the way of this decision…of…of your decision…Me and your mom have been doing some research and some scientific studies that we were reading told us that it is better for us to just let you explore your gender freely…We also did email the school and tell them about you already…”

 

“...Yeah…about that…” Jill says as she rests her head on her crossed arms.

 

“...About what…” Janice responds as she waits for her daughter to explain.

 

“...My teacher only realized that I was a girl after I walked into class…She had to look at her computer to realize this after she already embarrassed me in front of my entire class…”

 

Janice makes a mental note to call Jill’s teacher and give her a stern talking to, but puts that on the back burner for now. This conversation with her daughter was much more important.

 

“...What did she say?”

“...She…she called me Jimmy…and that…didn’t feel good…”

“...That’s normal for people like you…That name can be referred to as your dead name, which means an older name that trans people no longer use…”

 

“...Oh…that makes a lot of sense…I never want to be called that ever again!”

 

“...And we won’t…You are Jill now…but…some other people aren’t as nice as us or your brother…”

 

“...So…is there anything else you guys want to tell me?”

 

“...Yeah…but we feel like that is probably enough for now…”

 

“...But…I…shouldn’t I…” Jill thinks to herself for a second. “...No…yeah…that’s probably for the best for now…”

 

The room was suddenly silent after that hard yet unfortunately necessary conversation.

 

“...So…what now?” Jill says to her parents.

 

“...I…hmm…” Janice thinks to herself as she is cut off by her husband.

 

“...I know what we could do…” Jeremy says with a soft smile on his face. “...Why don’t we have a family game night! I’ll order pizza and we could play board games and watch movies! That’ll surely make you feel better, right?”

 

Jill thinks to herself for a moment, before giving a small smile.

 

“...Yeah…I think that sounds like fun…”

 

Her parents hug her again before they both go down stairs and get their family game night ready.

Before she knew it Jill, her parents, and Jack were all having a blast! The pizza was delicious, the movie was…bad, but in a fun way that they could all laugh at, and the board games created a lot of friendly competition between the family.

 

After a while Jill wasn’t thinking about her worries at all and was just allowing herself to have fun and be in the moment.

 

As their party eventually died down their parents told them that they had to go to bed so that they can get enough sleep for school tomorrow.

 

“...Do I have to go to school tomorrow?” Jill pleads to her parents.

 

They look at each other before they turn back to their daughter as Janice responds.

 

“...You probably should…”

 

“...But mom…I…I don’t want the other kids to make fun of me again…”

 

Janice sighs before she continues talking.

 

“...You know what…let’s talk in the morning and see how you feel then…If you want to stay home tomorrow that’s…fine…we can just say that you were sick or something like that…but I think as a parent I should at least say that your education is important and that you should at least consider going to school tomorrow…is that okay?”

 

Jill looks down and sighs before she gives a small nod.

After brushing her teeth and going to bed she tosses and turns for what feels like eternity (even though it is only about an hour) before she grabs one of her blankets and walks towards her parent’s room.

 

She takes a deep breath and knocks on their door.

 

Two big sighs are heard from inside of the room.

 

“...Come in…” Janice says.

 

Jill opens the door.

 

“...Can’t sleep?”

 

Jill shakes her head no.

 

“...Want to sleep in our bed tonight?”

 

Jill nods.

 

Janice sighs.

 

“...Come here…” she says with a small smile despite the tired look on her face.

 

Jill squeezes between her parents under the covers and settles down for bed.

 

“...Good night mom…good night dad…”

 

“...Good night Jill…” Janice says as she gives Jill a kiss on the forehead.

 

“...Good night pumpkin…” Jeremy says as he does the same.

 

She immediately feels a lot more safe and relaxed and is able to quickly go to sleep.