Jamie

Author's note: Yes, I know I have several incomplete stories, but my muse sent me this one today, so I'm sharing it.

They say you always remember your first love, and I sure do.

Jamie.

We both lived in the same neighborhood, and became part of the group of kids who hung out together whenever the opportunity came up.

I guess we were lucky, in a way. We were part of the last generation of kids who were sent outside to play on their own, no adults hovering over us.

We were expected to handle everything short of drawing blood on our own, and we did.

Now, I know you probably means things were scary. We tend to think of kid justice as something closer to lord of the flies than lord of the manor, but the fact was we were all unconsciously aware of the fact that if things got too out of hand, the adults might Get Involved, and since we didnt want that, it kept things at a reasonable level.

I was drawn to Jamie because she became kind of an outsider among the girls about the same time I became one among the boys, and of course misery does love company.

Despite what I just said about the kids not going too far, both of us came to the conclusion that on the whole, we should leave the group alone as much as possible. It wasn’t “live and let live”, more like “hide and dont get hurt”.

So we ended up spending a lot of time together.

And both of us soon realized that part of the reason we were shunned was because we didn’t fit the boy/girl rules very well.

So maybe it was only natural that once we bonded over that, we started considering playing by a different set of rules entirely.

It was Jamie who came up with the idea of us swapping genders.

It started because I was at her place one day, and found myself admiring the petty dresses that had been stuffed into the back of her closet, never worn.

So when she realized I was drawn to them, she offered the opportunity for me to try them on.

I know it’s kinda cliche, but that first time in front of a mirror in a dress utterly rocked my world, and I realized I was looking at my true self.

Jamie’s transformation in the other direction was a bit more subtle, but before that weekend was out, I was quite comfortable in using the name James, and thinking of him as well, him.

It was a dicey time for a bit after that, as despite what I have said about my generation being lucky in one way, we were less lucky in another, in that the idea that someone could be something other than the gender they were assigned at birth hadn’t been discussed in the open yet.

However, as it turned out, Both sets of parents had dealt with having gay relatives, and that gave us a starting point to begin conversations with them. And as a result, while we couldn’t come “out” all the way, we spent more and more of our time away from school as our true selves.

Despite the support of our families, however, we still ended up moving to San Francisco to begin our lives fully “out”, although it was more that we simply showed up in our new roles and names, and didn’t mention our childhoods than being “trans and proud”, like the kids today are.

Through it all, we were a pair, James and I, and I guess we eventually fulfilled another cliche - marrying your high school sweetheart.

And now we’re celebrating twenty years together, and everybody we know is invited.

So R.S.V.P. us if you’re gonna come, okay?

End.