Be a girl

Another day, another year gone by. Turning seventeen is hardly a big milestone, and I knew today wasn’t really going to be anything special. Birthdays hadn’t really been something I’d been excited about for a long time now. Basically just another day to me. The only people who really cared about my birthdays were my family: my parents, and my younger brother. My brother, James, was definitely the most excited about birthdays. He was only ten and hadn’t quite yet lost the innocence of youth. Or perhaps I was just bitter. Probably both.

After dragging myself out of bed, I was greeted by my family in the lounge room. James came over to me first and gave me a hug, unable to contain his excitement for what should be a special day.

“Happy birthday! You’re gonna have the bestest birthday ever!” James exclaimed with a big toothy grin on his face. Part of me wished his excitement could be contagious, since it was hard for me to feel any sort of joy anymore for several reasons. Maybe one day my birthday could be the bestest ever, but I had a strong feeling that that wasn’t today.

I smiled down at him and ruffled his short dark hair a little. He immediately began to fix it up, despite me not really doing much to mess it up. Maybe it was the fact that he’d already spent time getting himself ready for school before I woke up, so he didn’t want his hair ruined. Though he did make a rather strange face not long after. Not sure what that was about. It was probably nothing. At least not anything to worry about.

My mum was next to give me a hug and wish me a happy birthday. When she broke away, she handed me an envelope; my sole birthday present. I already knew what it contained: a birthday card and some money. That was all I’d gotten for my birthdays the past few years. I opened the envelope up and took a look at the card. Just a generic card bought from a two dollar shop with a photo of a cute dog on it. I took the money out – two fifty dollar notes – and gave the card a quick read. The text wasn’t anything special, just the usual birthday wishes you always see on a birthday card.

I gave my mum another hug and thanked her for the gift. Once we broke off the hug, my mum said, “I wish I could give you more than just some money for your birthday, but you never know what you want.”

I sighed internally, trying my best not to show it. I knew what I wanted. There was only one thing I had ever wanted. I’d wanted it so badly, for so long, unable to want for anything else. Unfortunately, it was something that my mum couldn’t give, nor could anyone else. Out of everything in my life that hurt, this pained me the most. Even the bullies paled in comparison.

I gave mum a weak smile. “It’s fine. Money is a good gift because I can spend it on anything. If I figure out what I want, then I’ll use the money to buy it. It’s easier that way.” And I believed that, even if I could rarely ever find anything to spend said money on. But really, money was simply a practical present. Better than getting something I didn’t want or didn’t care for.

My dad came over to me next and pat me on the shoulder. “Happy birthday, Ben. I need to head to work now, but you have a good day today.” I smiled and thanked him before he left, though not before he ruffled my hair. Unlike James, I didn’t immediately try to fix it, since my hair was always a mess, and I didn’t care for it. It was at that awkward length where it was kind of long but looked positively awful. It was about as long as it could get before the teachers at school would hound me to get a haircut. School was very strict when it came to grooming. Hair must be kept short, and the face must be clean shaven. I didn’t mind that last one since I hated my facial hair anyway. I would have shaved it even if it weren’t required of me.

Now that all that birthday stuff was out of the way, I could get on with the rest of the day, hoping that it would be the most uneventful day of the year. It was a school day though, so I doubted it. Not with Jesse and his cronies prowling the schoolyard, looking for innocent victims to prey upon.

***

Thankfully, the first few lessons of the day went by smoothly. I doubted anyone else even realised it was my birthday. I certainly didn’t tell them, and I had no friends who would bother to remember such a date. There was only a few more weeks of school left before exams anyway. I was sure everyone had better things to worry about than some loner’s birthday.

I found my usual spot at lunchtime, far away from the everyone else in the school, and began slowly eating my lunch. It wasn’t anything special, just the fritz sandwich that mum usually packed me. I was quite content, eating my sandwich on my own, bathing in the early afternoon sun. It was November, which meant it was starting to heat up for summer, but not quite enough for it to become unbearable just yet. It was nice. At least it was, until Jesse and his goons came along. Just what I needed on a day like today.

I hadn’t really told anyone about these guys, mostly because I didn’t think it worth it. The teachers would likely be useless at stopping them. They were subtle, most of the time. They tended to shy away from physical abuse, focusing more on teasing and name calling. Although they would use physical force occasionally when they believed it possible to stay out of trouble, or they were particularly bored. When a teacher would come by, they would act all chummy with me, as if nothing were wrong, only to get back to their bullshit once the teacher was out of earshot.

I didn’t bother telling my parents either. I didn’t want them to worry about me. They had enough on their plates already. That, and, I always had difficulty getting the words out. Even if I wanted to tell them, some invisible force would hold me back. Frustrating, sure, but that was the way of things, and I had no clue what I could do about it.   

Jesse led the charge, with his two mates, Josh and Neil, trailing behind him. All three walked over to me with both hands in their pockets, trying to act all cool. Quite frankly, they looked like fuckbois in my opinion. Especially Jesse with his god awful haircut. Shaved on the back and sides, with the hair on top about six inches long and swept to the side. It was amazing that the teachers even allowed such a disgusting style.

Jesse stood out the most of the three, with his blond hair providing a stark contrast to the dark brown of the other two. All three of them were significantly larger than me, with the shortest, Josh, being around half a head taller than me. Jesse was the tallest – he had about half a foot on Josh, but only a couple inches on Neil. His build was quite average; not skinny, but certainly not fat. He had larger muscles than me (not that I really had any muscles), but nothing worth bragging about. 

Josh on the other hand, despite being the shortest of the bunch, was clearly the strongest. It was no surprise either; even I knew Josh played rugby, and it really showed. Neil’s build was similar to Jesse’s.

“What’s up faggot? Hiding away back here so that no one sees you watching your gay porn?” Jesse sneered, his mates howling with laughter at his apparent ‘joke’. They all had nasty looking grins on their faces. They were here to make me suffer and they were going to enjoy every moment of it.

“Go away.”

“Woah there, lil’ Benny”, he said, throwing his arms in the air, acting all defensive, as if I were the one attacking him. I hated when he called me that. He placed his right hand over his chest and continued, “I know you have the hots for me, and who can blame you. Guys wish they were as handsome as me. But I’m afraid to say I ain’t a fag like you.” He spoke as though he were a theatre actor purposely overacting.

He leant in close to me, the scary smile never leaving his face. I would have rolled my eyes at him after listening to his short soliloquy, but I was too busy eyeing him cautiously as he moved in closer to me. His face was only a few inches from mine at this point.

I started feeling claustrophobic with him right in my face. Especially since I could smell his terrible fuckboi deodorant, the kind that found its home inside high school changing rooms (of which I was glad to have finally been freed of this year).

Normally, I’d let him have his way with me. But today was my birthday, and I felt an extra burst of courage. I placed both my hands on his chest and pushed him away with as much force as I could muster, which, granted, wasn’t that much. “I said fuck off!” I yelled, glaring him down. I’d had enough of his bullshit over the years. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone?

As he stumbled backwards, his grin changed into a frown. Perhaps I had made a mistake. “Now now Benny boy, who gave you permission to touch me?” He stepped up to me again, except this time he slapped me on the face with the back of his hand. It wasn’t the hardest he’d ever hit me, but it still hurt. I rubbed my cheek to try and ease the pain.

“Aww does widdle baby poofta have a boo boo?” Josh interjected in a mocking tone. Him and his mates and laughed like it was the funniest joke they’d ever heard in their lives. And maybe it was. One could hardly expect these three goons to have a refined taste in comedy after all.

I began to stand up so that I could get away from these goons, but Josh pushed me back down. “You ain’t goin’ anywhere faggot,” he growled.

Jesse rubbed his hands together with a gleeful smile on his face. “Now then. It’s time to have some fun.” Like they weren’t already having fun.

Jesse’s eyes landed on my sandwich, and I had a strong suspicion of what he was now planning. I anticipated Jesse making a lunge for my half-eaten sandwich and pulled it away from his grasp before he could get close. Unfortunately, he was standing, I was sitting, and he was significantly taller than me. The trajectory of his hand adjusted to meet mine at its apex. His hand brushed past mine as he clasped onto the part of my lunch which dangled loosely and ripped it away from me.

He immediately dropped the part of my sandwich he’d stolen, not caring for it in the slightest, and looked at his hand like it was an alien object. The grin had been wiped off his face as he stared curiously at the hand. His focus had completely shifted. I couldn’t help but stare at his hand either, wondering why he had stopped going after me so suddenly. He started flexing his fingers and turning his hand around as if to get a better look at it. I heard him mumble something, but I couldn’t pick out what he had said.

And that’s when I noticed it. His hand was shrinking. He noticed it too as he started shaking his arm in an attempt to stop whatever the hell was going on. He stared at his hand again to see that it had stopped changing – now noticeably smaller. “What the fuck!?” he exclaimed with a hint of fear in his voice.

The changes didn’t stop at his hand either, as his entire arm quickly followed suit, shrinking in both in length and breadth. I could have sworn I saw his arm hair thin out, though it was hard to tell given how fair his hair was. The skin almost seemed softer than it had before, though I wasn’t sure if that was just my imagination. The arm looked almost comical now compared to the rest of his body, being very out of proportion.

Everyone was dumbfounded at what was happening to Jesse. All our eyes were glued to him wondering what on Earth was going on. Both his mates took a slow step away from him (and me) as if we were infectious or something.

It wasn’t long before the shrinking had moved all the way up Jesse’s arm and to the rest of his body. His shoulders caved in, and his other arm shrank down. He lost a several inches of height as both his legs and torso began shortening. So much for him being the tallest in his little goon squad; he was now the same height as Josh. His leg hair thinning out was much more obvious than his arm hair, since it was initially far thicker.

Then, his face began to change, though its changes were less pronounced. His jaw became less square, his cheeks softened, and his eyebrows thinned a little. Overall, his face became much more rounded. What was happening to him? Was he getting younger or something? He looked like a prepubescent boy at this point.

My question would immediately be answered when two small mounds started poking out underneath his shirt. Jesse looked down his now very baggy shirt and screamed like a girl. He started hyperventilating, the abject terror extremely evident on his face. He was legitimately terrified at this point, something I’d never seen from him before. Suddenly, he scrunched up his face as if he were eating a lemon. Eyes wide, muttering under his breath, he stuck a trembling hand down his pants.

It seemed his transformation had ended. And at this point it was obvious what had happened. I had no idea how, but the boy who had been bullying me throughout all of high school had suddenly transformed into a girl right before my eyes.

Zema

My first attempt at writing :) I hope you enjoy. Please be nice.