Chapter 27:

TODAY WE WERE going to Epcot. It sounded kind of interesting, but I was a little afraid that they were going to be too focused on learning today, for us to be able to have a really good time. As I got up that morning and took a shower I put on another pair of panties and a pair of girl's shorts. I also decided what the heck and put on a shirt that was really a girl's shirt as well – it could have been a guy's shirt. It definitely wasn't though.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, I saw Amy's mom putting her hair into two pig tails with red and white ribbons in each side. Each ribbon had polka dots of the other color on it.

"Tiffany, do you want me to do yours like this too?" she asked me.

"Umm... I'd love to... but what about everyone else?" I asked.

"I think you'll be fine, but you can always say that I made you do it," Amy answered.

"Okay, twist my arm why don't you," I said. What I wasn't expecting was Amy to come over and do just that. I stuck my tongue out at her.

We dried my hair as best we could, and soon my hair was put up exactly like Amy's. I liked it. Really, we were all way too old for pig-tails to be cool... but still. I guess I missed that part of my life so I didn't mind it at this point.

When we got down to the breakfast area, I saw that all of the girls had their hair done in the exact same way. My mom came over to me and gave me a hug. "Your hair is cute sweetie. I think Melanie was right that it would look cute – and it should make it easier to find all of you later too."

"So there was an ulterior motive then huh?" I asked.

"Well yeah. But you like it don't you?" She added under her breath to me.

I blushed and nodded. She sent me off to get some breakfast and I sat down at a table with Amy and Nikki. A few moments later Brittany came over by herself, "Can I join you guys?"

"Sure," Amy and I chimed in.

Her hair had been done the same way too, I don't know if she thought it was as cute as I did though. "I see the adults have had fun with your hair too Brandon?" she asked me.

"Umm... yeah. I'm blaming Amy for my hair at the moment." I stuck my tongue out at her for show. "They may have had a little too much fun this morning?" I asked timidly trying to feel her out.

"Actually, it is pretty cute – especially on you," she replied back. "You know with your hair done that way you actually would make a really cute girl..." She told me. I just about choked on the orange juice I was drinking.

Amy looked a little worried when we exchanged glances.

Nikki had her wits about her though and said, "Yeah, he probably would make a pretty girl if he was in the right clothes... Would you have a problem with that?" She asked innocently. I think she was the only one – being so short and such – that could have pulled off that question.

I'm not sure if Brittany was actually thinking of this as a possible beginning to a nuclear war before – now she seemed taken a bit aback and looked at us a bit. Her face bore a really puzzled expression. After a moment though she laughed and replied, "No, I don't have a problem with that. If Brandon was wearing a dress that might be a little weird, but I wouldn't have a problem with it. Why are you all so touchy about this?" She asked.

'Houston, we have a problem.' At that moment I had a decision to make... Amy and Nikki wouldn't tell my secret – it was mine and mine alone to tell and they knew it. Brittany could pressure any of the others and could possibly get information. I didn't think they would tell, but you never knew. What it really boiled down to was the fact that...

"Wait a minute." She had the good sense to whisper and look around to see if anyone else was around (they weren't thankfully). "You're wearing some of Amy's clothes today aren't you?"

Moment of truth... "No actually I'm wearing my own clothes." I replied back to her.

"So... you want to be a girl?" Her face was an incredibly frightening thing to look at right then. She looked puzzled, horrified, shocked, and a whole lot of other things. The most disturbing bit was that she was smiling too.

Keep it simple stupid... "Sort of... it's complicated..." I paused, "Really I think that maybe I've always been one." I replied back to her in the same whisper.

She just sat there silent for a moment as she looked around a bit. "I'm the only girl here who didn't know?" She asked.

"At this point." I replied. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you already, but I don't really know you that well. 'The adults' decided it would be best if I still came as Brandon on this trip. But they're starting to recognize that it's causing more trouble than it is really worth."

She still looked stunned but was getting over it. "I guess I should have wondered when you had that one shirt on when we left. Jennifer has that same top..." She paused for a few moments.

I looked at her and asked, "So are you going to be okay with knowing this?"

"And keeping it a secret," Amy added fairly fiercely.

"As long as you'll consider letting me be your friend." She replied.

"That's easy," I replied with a smile.

"I'm assuming you don't go by Brandon when you are a girl?" She asked.

"No." I extended her my hand, "I'm Tiffany." She took it and shook it before extending her pinky to me and offering to let me swear her to secrecy without even me suggesting it.

With that our conversation lightened up a lot! Brittany was actually pretty nice. She had a lot of the same interests as we did – she just wasn't in our school so we didn't know her. That apparently was supposed to change next year – she said she was going to come over to our middle school. Of course, I wasn't even sure if I was going to be at that middle school after this summer...

Someone had suggested that I relocate to another school where people didn't know Brandon – they thought it would be easier to fit in. I didn't want to leave Amy and all of the rest of my friends though. I was honestly tempted to just show up as the 'new girl' at the beginning of the year and see what happened. Before too long we were herded back onto a bus to go to Epcot at Walt Disney World.

When we got there, we were met by a tour guide who took us around to the main attractions and helped us avoid being in any lines. My favorite stop on this tour was probably when we 'went inside the body.' It was a neat simulator ride – and honestly one of the most entertaining things that day. Also, really neat was the moving jets of water over a really pretty garden they had. With the plants sculpted into animals and Disney characters, it made a really neat place, and we took a lot of pictures there.

We finished our tour by riding up to the top of the big ball thing and seeing the different future possibilities inside of it. When we came down our tour guide left us and we broke up into some different groups. The group that I was in was definitely the largest. It was my parents, Amy's parents, Amy, Lindsey, Jennifer, Brittany, and myself.

Once we split up our groups Amy and I started leading our group to food. We were both starving.

We ended up at another one of the many places in the Disney parks that cater to American needs in food – another hamburger. I was getting really sick of the burgers, but at least for dinner Amy's parents had made arrangements for us to eat at a better restaurant. All I knew about it was that it was in the French Embassy area of the park.

After lunch we then started moving towards the other side of the park where all of the embassies were. We stopped in a store at the first stop and picked up 'passports' for each of us. We then started going from place to place hitting the attractions and finding souvenirs from the different countries. At one point we stopped at the restrooms and I went into the girls with everyone else. Well everyone else except our dads! I was really glad that all of the girls knew about me at this point – it made life a lot easier.

It was probably about 4pm when we went into a jewelry store in one of the sections. With the girls we walked through and were pointing out different necklaces and earrings to each other. A couple minutes later we came to the part of the counter that had different studs for piercing your ears.

"Tiffany, you should get your ears pierced." Lindsey said.

"My parents don't want me to do it till we get back." I said sadly.

"What don't we want you to do?" My mom came up behind me.

"Get my ears pierced before we get back." I replied to her. I managed to do it without too much attitude. There was certainly some bitterness present though.

She looked at me for a moment and then walked over to talk to my dad for a second. "Which ones do you want?" She asked pointing to the studs. I couldn't believe it – I figured there was no way that I was going to be allowed to do that yet.

The girls all had an opinion on which ones I should get, but I finally settled on a pair of gold studs that had a deep blue sapphire in each of them. I really wanted the pink – but if I was even going to maintain a half-hearted effort at this lie then pink would be the wrong color to get.

I have to admit that I was kind of a bit on the wimpy side with the earrings. I definitely flinched and nearly cried from nerves before it got done – but at least once it was done I didn't really feel that much. They gave us some stuff to clean my ears with – something Mom said I had to do every day. She wasn't going to pay to get them re-pierced just because they got infected.

Of course, once we had that done it opened up a whole new avenue of souvenirs to buy to take back home! I ended up with six additional pairs of earrings that I would be able to wear once my ears healed. Finally, we were all pulled away from the various attractions and shopping by Mr. Hancock to go to dinner.

When we walked into the restaurant that Mr. Hancock had made reservations at, I was suddenly concerned that we would be kicked out because of dress code. I mentioned that to Amy and she replied, "They're used to people coming in like this from the park. As long as you make reservations, they don't have a problem with it."

I knew Mr. Hancock had in fact called earlier to expand the number since we had more people than he had expected originally. We were actually seated rather quickly, and they didn't even give us a second glance for our clothing as far as I could tell. Our waitress came to the table soon after that.

"Bonjour! Je m'appele Elodie, your waitress for this evening. May I start you out with an appetizer?" She asked.

Mr. Hancock ordered several things for us all to share and then she came by for our drink orders. "Et vous, mademoiselle?" She asked me.

"Iced tea please?" I asked.

"Bien sur. By the way I love all of your hair," She said to all of us with a thick, authentic, Parisian accent. I know I blushed – I think Amy and Brittany did too. With that she was off to take care of our appetizers. The menu gave all of the stuff in both French and English. I was personally intrigued by the French stuff – maybe I'd have to study it when I got old enough.

We all took a stab at ordering something and she actually came back and interacted with us a lot. 'The girls,' as the adults had taken to calling us, all headed off for the bathroom before we got our food. It kind of amused me that I used to be someone that gave girls a hard time about 'flocking' to the bathroom.

For me it was more of a safety factor than most girls... I was so thankful that I was actually able to go in relative safety to the girl's room though. That's the way I had been doing things all day pretty much – and it made me far more comfortable. I didn't get any strange glances when I went into the girls' room. The day had been much better with that!

I really enjoyed the food that was waiting when we got back. It was so rich and tasty. We split some desserts, then after leaving the restaurant began going through the rest of the embassy section. Amy and I began racing each other to see who could get their 'passport' book finished quicker.

We were of course slowed down by our parents... couldn't they see we were racing? We actually ended up finishing about forty-five minutes before the fireworks show was supposed to begin.

My mom pulled us off inside a store real quick at that point. "Hey why don't we all go ahead and get one of these?" She asked holding up a yellow rain jacket.

"Do we have to Mom?" I asked her. Amy also looked like she wasn't real fond of it.

"Do you want to get soaked again?" Mom asked me in return.

I grumbled but took the jacket that she bought for me and put it in a bag of souvenirs. Hopefully we wouldn't have to wear them.

Before we split up, we had a predetermined time and location we were all supposed to meet before the fireworks show. Amber, Nikki, and Ashley showed up and we became a group of girls in a circle pretty quickly. Nikki was the first to notice my new earrings.

"Tiffany, those are pretty!" She said as she examined them.

I had forgotten all about them. 'I wonder what the guys are going to say?' I asked myself.

"Thanks," I replied to her. "Do you think it's going too far at this point?" I asked her quietly.

"No," I think you'll be fine. She pulled me aside and whispered to me, "I think Kyle has figured out something. He asked me if I knew of anything going on with you. I didn't say anything though," She added quickly.

"Maybe it would be better if I told him?" I asked her.

"I don't know. I think you should just wait and see what happens for now. I just wanted to let you know."

"Thanks Nikki, you're a really great friend." I gave her a brief friendly hug and we rejoined the group of girls that had now grown to all of the kids.

I stayed in between a couple of the girls to keep the guys from getting a good look at my ears. I really didn't want to have to deal with that quite yet. As the fireworks show began to start all of the lights dimmed around the water where they were shooting them off.

The show was really cool – I'm definitely a pyro, so that meant I would have done about anything to have been involved with it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching things explode! As the last volley of fireworks went off as a finale, I felt raindrops begin to fall onto my head. All of us began ripping open the packaging on our raincoats and putting them on.

I think, from later accounts, that the adults realized quickly they had a problem. Suddenly every one of us looked exactly the same! They all ordered us to hold each other's hands, and I ended up with Kyle holding my right hand.

That was strange. He looked at me kind of funny – and I realized he must have seen my earrings at that point. He kept hold of my hand still and I hung onto Amy's hand. It was at that moment that it really occurred to me that eventually I might have to or want to date a boy... that would be really strange.

Between all of the sheets of rain, and our long trek back to the buses holding hands, I didn't have a lot of time to ponder that much more. I knew I would have to think about it eventually though. As we got on the bus and I sat down in my seat Kyle stopped by my row and asked, "Can I sit next to you?"

"Umm... Sure." I replied

"So, are you enjoying the trip so far?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I'm having the time of my life. How about you?" I asked.

"It's great. I've never been east of New Mexico before. My parents have never wanted to go this way for some reason. Have you been here before?"

"No, my parents have never had the money for it. If not for the film we made I'd say they would never again... but hopefully that won't be as much the case now." I told him.

"Was that fun making that film?" He asked me.

That could be taken as a loaded question. Did I have fun playing with Barbies? Well might as well go for broke. "Yeah, it was a great time. And, it certainly turned out well for us."

"How so?"

"Well Mattel, the company that makes Barbies, bought the film. They paid us each a large sum of money and promised us a share of profits if they ever show it publicly. It sounds like they're at least going to pay for it to be entered into a film festival or two for us. So, if nothing else, we should have college paid for each of us." I told him.

"Wow that's cool. So Brandon, the guys and I have been kind of wondering something." I casually stood up for a second to stretch and look around to see who else was around. "Why haven't you been hanging out with us on this trip?"

Perhaps I could avoid the truth coming out for a little longer? "Well Amy and I have become really good friends this year. Really you never see us apart anymore, do you? It seems like I live at her house more than I live at mine." I paused for a second, "Her friends have become mine recently, so I just like to hang out with them. It's nothing against you guys."

"Good, I didn't really think it was." He paused for a second before lowering his voice, "Umm... Brandon... I've got a question besides that though... When they made us all hold hands earlier, I noticed that you had both your ears pierced... I also noticed that you looked like you had on some of Amy's clothes today?"

'Oh Crap'

"Also, I didn't think much of it the other day but when I saw Amy and your group, I didn't see you. I did see another girl with them. Is there something else going on? I mean I don't have a problem if there is, I just was curious..."

"Umm..." I was at a loss for words all of the sudden. This was the first time that I had to tell a boy my age that I wasn't really a boy – I was a girl... and to make it worse I didn't really know if I could trust him or not.

"Look Brandon, I know I haven't exactly gone out of my way to be your friend, but I haven't been your enemy either. Did you hear about the time I beat Matt up last year?"

"I heard something about it." I replied. I did remember it. Last year in fifth grade Kyle had beaten Matt to a pulp one day. Matt had been so badly beaten he didn't bother me for a solid month. At least that's what I thought had happened. No one had seemed to know why the two had gotten into it.

"Well the reason I beat him up was because one day he started bragging to me about all the stuff he'd been doing to you. I was tired of him giving you all of that crap. He needed to be knocked down a few notches." He told me. But why was he telling me?

"Well thanks, I do appreciate it." I replied.

"So, what's going on with you? You can trust me – I won't tell anyone else." He told me.

Nope, I wasn't going to get away without telling him something. And if I'm telling him something it might as well be the truth right?

"You promise?" I asked.

"Yes, I promise."

"Well... I've had kind of an interesting last year. Last week a doctor diagnosed me as having a 'gender-identity' issue." I couldn't say disorder that would make it sound like I was even more of a freak...

"What does that mean?" He asked me.

"Well it's a really long story, but to make it a short one, basically my body doesn't match up with my brain. On the inside of me I'm a girl – the only thing keeping me from being so is my body."

"That's strange..." Thankfully he didn't just jump up right then and scream 'you freak.'

"It's not something I picked or wanted, but it's something that I am dealing with." I replied back.

"So, does this mean that you're going to be a girl at school next year?" he asked me. He was taking this far better than I expected.

"I hope so. That's the plan at least." I replied back to him.

"Let me know if anyone gives you any trouble about it – I'll take care of them." He told me in a way I knew he meant it.

"You're... o... okay with this?" I asked him incredulously.

"Well the girls all seem to be fine with it. You're a nice person, and I have little doubt that when you actually dress completely as a girl are going to be at least as cute as all the others. How are they going to keep you from becoming a guy with a deep voice and all of that?"

"Well..." I explained some more of what was ahead for me. Or at least what I hoped was ahead for me.

"So eventually you'll be completely a girl?" He asked me.

"In every way except having kids." I replied back to him.

"Well that's not a bad thing. That has got to hurt more than it would be worth!" he told me laughing a little.

I nodded. Inside I wasn't as sure though. I might jump at the chance to have a baby of my own when I got older. Definitely not until I was much older! Unfortunately, I knew it would probably never happen.

"So, when are you going to tell everyone else?" He asked me.

"You think I need to?" I asked him. Strangely I did feel like I could trust him.

"Yeah, the rest of the guys are starting to ask questions – it's only a matter of time before someone does something stupid. More than anything the pierced ears are going to push it over the edge for most of them in figuring it out." He told me.

"Do you think I can hold off till tomorrow?" I asked him.

"Yeah. I'm the only one who has seen your ears so far, I think. Beyond that I don't think it'll hold off though." He told me.

About that time, we were pulling up to the hotel. "Kyle thanks for not freaking out on me."

"No problem." I had started to get out of my seat, but he motioned for me to stop for a second. "I didn't catch your new name though." He said.

"Tiffany, my name is Tiffany." I replied to him with a smile. He returned it and I went upstairs with my souvenirs from the day. When we got in the door Amy immediately started pestering me.

"What did Kyle want?" She asked me. Well at least that was the way you would interpret it.

I got her calmed down a bit and explained what had happened. "So you're going to have to tell tomorrow?" She asked me.

"I don't see any other way, do you?" I asked.

"No. I really don't, we should talk with Ms. Fitz and the adults about this tonight." She told me.

"You're right. I'll go down and talk to them and my parents real quick." I told her about the time that the door opened and Amy's parents, my parents, and indeed all of the adults.

"Well I guess I don't need to go find you guys?" I asked.

"You were already going to come find us?" Ms. Fitz asked.

"Well yeah... I think my 'secret' is basically out of the bag." I told them. Kyle's dad was in there too – I don't think he knew yet.

My dad nodded, while my mom and Melanie exchanged looks that they already knew what I was going to say. 'They must have already decided we couldn't hide it any more too.' I thought to myself.

"What's going on?" Kyle's dad asked.

"Umm..." I started to talk but Mr. Hancock took over here.

"I know Brandon's not our kid, but may I break it to them?" He asked my parents. They seemed relieved about that. One thing my mom and dad had commented to me some time ago that I couldn't have had a better person on my side than him. If I was ever to be able to return to my middle school as Tiffany instead of Brandon, he would be the one to make it possible.

"Yes," my mom said simply.

Mr. Hancock motioned for them to sit down in the seating spots around the room. "Look, this has been kind of a difficult year for Brandon. He's had a lot of events that have happened this year, and thankfully some of them have been good. Among probably the best events for both him, and Amy, have been their becoming best friends. The two of them have probably one of the strongest childhood friendships you could have."

I smiled at that and saw that Amy was doing the same.

"It's a long story that really doesn't matter – and it's not really my story to tell – but over the course of the past few months everyone around Brandon had been noticing some changes. After a few events in recent months it became clear to my wife, my daughter, and Brandon's mom that something was eating away at him. Everyone seemed to agree that it started about the time that Brandon started growing his hair out."

"At one-point Amy innocently dragged Brandon into playing with her Barbies a few months ago. They tried to keep it from us so we wouldn't find out, but my wife came home one day and found them playing with them. After that, if they weren't working on their homework, they always seemed to be doing something with her toys."

"From here things just slowly escalated till one day Amy dressed Brandon up in some of her clothes, and it came out that he really wanted to be Tiffany." The mushroom cloud from the bomb definitely hung in the air for Kyle's parents and Lindsey's Mom. I had forgotten she didn't know. There weren't any knee jerk reactions thankfully. I think a lot of that had to do with Mr. Hancock telling the story.

He continued on and explained the past couple weeks and how the psychiatrist had suggested that I come as Brandon still. Pieces were filled in on how that had ended up not really working out, and my parents finally gave in today to me getting my ears pierced.

Finally, we came to a part the rest of them didn't know. "I don't know what happened earlier, but I have a feeling Kyle found out about you?" Kyle's mom asked.

"He saw my earrings and asked me about some other stuff on the bus." I replied. "I was just getting ready to come find you guys to let you know I think I need to just tell the other four boys since everyone else knows already."

"Lindsey knows?" her mom asked.

"For a while, she was at the slumber party." I told her.

"She never told me." She said kind of talking off into space.

"All the girls that didn't know have put together the pieces and asked me over the past couple days."

Mrs. Manning spoke up at this point. "I think we are going to have to tell them something tomorrow. I don't think we have to do anything tonight, but we do need to take care of this before we leave for Magic Kingdom tomorrow." She announced.

"I think you're right," Kyle's mom said.

"My first question is will there be any problems from you all that we need to work out tonight?" Mr. Hancock asked. Have I mentioned how awesome he is? It's not that my dad is a bad guy. But he just tends to lack the will to really be aggressive a lot of times.

"It's weird, and I believe in all honesty religiously it's wrong," Kyle's dad started out, "but with all of the research that's coming out I don't really think that it's hi... er... her fault. As long as she's not trying to put our son into the same situation, we don't have a problem with it." He answered.

"If Lindsey's known about this for a couple weeks and hasn't said anything to me it means she's okay with this. I'm not going to get in the way. Besides I do have to say Tiffany is a lot cuter."

"You should see the pictures from last week," my mom added with large amount of pride. I knew that they would get broken out later. I was pretty proud of those though so I didn't mind.

"Well, how do you want to do this Tiffany?" Ms. Fitz asked.

"Well... why don't we just have a gathering at breakfast tomorrow and I'll tell all of the rest of them what's going on. I don't know if it'll make it easier or not, but I want to come as Tiffany with my hair done like last week."

"I don't think that can hurt." Amy's mom added.

"I'll come over and help you," My mom said. "For now I guess we all need to head back to our rooms and go to bed. Tomorrow will take care of itself."

They all started leaving the room and Amy and I dug through what clothing I had left, that was clean, to pick out an outfit for tomorrow. Her parents pushed us to bed sooner than we liked, and told us to be quiet more than once as the two of us talked about what we thought might happen tomorrow.

When we went to sleep, we were hugging our stuffed animals, thinking about the next day. I woke up the next morning and found that I had somehow become a replacement for her teddy bear. She had her arm tight around me just like I had my teddy bear. Actually, I woke to a camera flash taking a picture of us like that.

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