Reborn

I had been sitting at my desk, waiting on really slow web page to load, when I just happened to glance at the calendar that was hanging on the panel of cork behind my desk. The top half of the calendar showed a picture of a kitten chasing a ball of multicolored yarn on a hardwood floor, the bottom half showed the days of the month of April. As I looked at the calendar, I realized that the next day, the twenty fourth, would mark six months of Zoe being here. It would be six months since I had started down the road that had placed me where I was, sitting in my room, decorated in such a fashion that someone that casually glanced in would see nothing but the room of a girl. The only thing in the room that hadn't been replaced when it had morphed from a boys room to a girls room was the laptop and iPad. Neither seemed odd in a girls room now a days. Three months ago, the caterpillar had entered her cocoon, and she was staring to emerge, even more beautiful than she could have imagined. I briefly considered that I had two birthdays: one, my actual day of birth, on the twentieth day of July in the year 1998, and the second was the day that Zoe completely came into existence, the twenty fourth of October, in the year 2011. I considered October to be the real birthday, the day I was reborn. I briefly wondered if I could get away with two birthday parties... I gave up on this web page loading and shut down the computer, and went to bed.

#
On April twenty fourth, which just so happened to fall on a Saturday, I got out of bed and took a shower like I always did. What I didn't know was that by the time I had gotten back to my bedroom, something for me to wear would have already been laid out. I had walked back into the bedroom and saw the blue plaid skirt, blue beret, white short sleeved blouse, and black knee socks laying on my bed. I took a quick glance around, not knowing how this outfit had migrated out of the closet and onto the bed.

"Zoe," I heard mom's voice from the other side of the door. "I put the outfit I want you to wear on your bed." Ok, so that was how the outfit ended up there, but why was the more important question now. I shrugged and got dressed. It wasn't often that mom picked clothes out for me, even though she claimed the right to pick out my outfits for the first day of school, and for picture day until I graduated, but when she did, there was usually a reason for it. I got dressed and brushed my hair out. It had, ever since I had let it grow out, been in the style of a bowl cut when it was shorter, and now that it was longer, was more of a shoulder length bob. The beret looked perfect atop my head and I slid my feet into my black loafers. I opened the door and walked out into the hallway at the same time that Heather did. She was dressed just like me, except her beret and skirt were solid purple, a color that had always looked good on her. Purple didn't look as good on me, so I rarely wore it, although I wondered what the outfit I wore now would look like in a purple.

"Morning, Zoe." Heather said, looking at me. "You look nice. Did mom pick out your clothes too?" I nodded, now really trying to figure out mom's reasoning. I could see dressing Heather and I alike if we were twins, but we weren't. Riley and I were closer to twins than Heather and I. Riley's brown hair was longer than mine and was more often in a pony tail, braid or the occasional set of pigtails. I love to see Riley with her hair in a set of braided pigtails, even though that was rarer to see than her hair just flowing down her back. "I wonder what she's up too..." Heather said as she let me go down the steps first.

"It's hard saying. You know I really wish that I could actually sleep in on the weekend. I have no reason to be up this early." I said, hitting the bottom of the stairs as there was a knock on the door, which was odd at this early hour no matter what day it was.. I looked at Heather who shrugged and I opened the door to look at Riley, who was dressed like Heather and I, only she wore the matching outfit to mine in red. She seemed surprised to see that I was wearing my matching blue outfit today. "Come in." I said, stepping out of the way so that she could actually come in the house rather than us just standing there staring at each other.

"Do you know what's going on?" Riley asked after we had hugged. "Your mom called my mom last night and asked her to make sure that I was up and wearing this," She gestured to herself. "Your mom even asked my mom to make sure that my hair was in braided pigtails... My mom actually did my hair for me this morning." Her mom had even tied red ribbons around the ends of the pigtails, completing the look. I had some thoughts enter my head that a thirteen year old probably shouldn't have been thinking.

"Not a clue..." I said, closing the door and taking hold of Riley's hand as we went toward the kitchen. Mom was waiting in the kitchen for us.

"I still think that you and Riley could be twins, Zoe." Mom said with a smile. "Since I'm sure that you guys are trying to figure out what is going on, does any one know what today is?" Riley and I looked at each other, rather easy as we were both the same height. I had an idea of where mom was going with this, but only because I had actually looked at the calendar.

"Six months ago, Zoe came out to play, and three months ago, a caterpillar went into a cocoon and has started to turn into a butterfly..."Mom said, Heather and Riley looked at me. "Today we are going to have a sort of half year birthday party for Zoe. It's going to be girls only, thus the four of us for now, Riley, your mom and dad will be over tonight, and we have to pick up Zoe's dad from the airport around two thirty." Riley and I shared a look, and then smiled at each other. "Right now, I'd like to treat the three of you to breakfast." Mom smiled.

#
Riley and I were sitting on my bed, with the MacBook playing some music quietly in the background, when we heard mom holler up the stairs. I had heard the door open some time earlier and knew that Riley's parents were down stairs. When we had tried to go down stairs, and mom had turned both of us around at the bottom and sent us back upstairs.

"Zoe, Riley, close your eyes and come downstairs." Riley and I looked at each other, eyebrows raised. I slipped my hand in Riley's and we started to walk downstairs, each of us holding on to the handrail on either side of the stairwell. When we got to the bottom of the steps, mom took our joined hands and used them to lead us toward the kitchen.

"They look like they could be twins..." I heard Riley's dad say. Mom chuckled, turning to her right and led us toward the table

"Girls, have a seat." Riley and I sat, both of us smoothing our skirts.

"I would have never known that Zoe wasn't a girl if I hadn't known her before she transitioned." I smiled as Riley gave my hand a squeeze.

#
I'm not sure how long Riley and I sat there, our eyes closed before mom finally said, "Ok, girls, open your eyes." When I opened my eyes, I saw a cake with half a candle on it. I glanced at Riley, who looked as confused as I felt. I glanced at mom who smiled.

"Happy six month birthday, Zoe." Dad said with a smile on his face. His eyes sparkled like he was about to shed a tear or two.

"Happy birthday to you; happy birthday to you; happy birthday, dear Zoe; happy birthday to you..." My family and closest friends sang. I didn't know that you held a birthday party for a six month old, but hey, I wasn't your average six month old...

finis

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This story is finished (for now.) I plan on doing a rewrite at some point in the future, but I can tell you that time is not right now. I enjoyed writing this story, and I wish to thank everyone for their comments as well as helping me get the first few chapters fixed. If you are an author and want to change the voice of the story half way through, my advice to you is: don't... It's a lot harder than it looks.