Discovery

Mom backed the car into the garage and shut the engine off. I opened the door of the car and got out. Mom opened the back door and pulled the MacBook out. "Take the iMac in and set it up... You are the one that setup the entire network..." she smiled at me. I'll put the iPads in our bedroom, and put your stuff in your room." I nodded, and slid the box out of the back of the car and carried it into the living room. I looked around the living room, knowing that the iMac that sat on the desk now would have to move somewhere else while the data transfer occurred. Both computers would be on the network, which would be wired for which ever computer sat on the desk. I could hear mom talking to someone on the phone from the kitchen, but I didn't know who.

#
I was still working in the living room, working on setting up the iMac and mom's new MacBook when I heard the front door open and then slam. I heard foot steps coming go down the hall way, a thud, and then a few more foot steps.

"Mom!" I heard Heather shout. I looked up and slowly spun around to look at my sister. Heather's hair was tied back in a pony tail with a red ribbon. The ribbon matched the red shirt she wore and the black pants provided a nice contrast. Mom walked into the living room from the dining room.

"Yes, Heather?"

"Who is that?" Heather asked pointing at me.

"That would be your sister, Zoe." Mom said. Heather made some kind of a sputtering sound, and then looked from mom to me and back to mom, and then back to me. "Go on, she won't bite..."

"This is why dad asked me the questions a little bit ago..." Heather said, walking closer to me. "He was trying to gauge my response before you guys said anything. Stand up, let me get a look at you." I stood slowly and watched as my sister approached she paused, pushing the chair in and then walked all the way around me, stopping and looking at my face. She leaned forward and looked at my face really closely. "No makeup?"

"Nope." I said, cracking a smile for the first time since she had walked in the house.

"You weren't allowed to wear any makeup until you were fifteen, Heather. Zoe will be no different." Mom said. "Zoe, I called Dr. Francis. You have an appointment Wednesday at one thirty. It's on the calendar and there is a reminder set." I nodded. Heather looked at me and then at Mom.

"Dr. Francis?" Heather asked. "Who is this Doctor?"

"Dr. Francis is a specialist in gender issues." Mom said, glancing at me. "You missed the revelations that your sister gave your father and I this morning." Heather raised an eyebrow.

"Revelations?" Heather said.I nodded slowly. I was about to tell it again...

"Yeah. Lets sit down." I said. Heather and I sat opposite each other and that was when Heather finally noticed the new iMac.

"Where did that..." She let the thought trail off while pointing at the iMac

"There's a story to that, but I'll get there..." I said. Mom looked at the two of us.

"I'll be in the kitchen if you guys need me."

"Ok." Heather replied, not taking her eyes off of me. I smiled at her, knowing full well that my dimples would show. I had tried to hide them as much as possible. I had been ribbed by male classmates over my 'girlish dimples.' Now I didn't have to hide them...

"I've been feeling like I'm in the wrong body." I paused trying to think of how I wanted to phrase this. Heather opened her mouth to speak, and I held up my hand to stop her. "Last night, when I said that I would have been bored to tears to go dress shopping with you guys, I wasn't being truthful; I wouldn't have been bored to tears, I would have probably enjoyed it. For probably close to two years now, I've felt like a girl on the inside. I expected to get a lecture when I started to grow my hair out, but no one said anything. When I told mom this morning about it. I also told her that last night I put on the black top and the pink and black plaid skirt that you wore to school Thursday." Heather's eyes narrowed a bit. "Zoe was looking back at me. Her eyes sparkled and Allen's eyes hadn't done that for some time. I knew what I had to do and I did it this morning.

"Mom told me to go take a shower and that she would get me some clothes to wear. She did, and you can see what she picked out. Before you ask, yes this stuff is yours, but mom grabbed it, not me. Her and I went to breakfast this morning and talked about this a little bit more and then we video chatted with dad and told him. He pulled a list of doctors that specialize in gender issues and sent it to us. He also asked us to video call him again. We were on our way to Tanglewood when he sent us the list, so as soon as we got there, we headed for the Apple store, where we proceeded to take over a machine and called dad with it. He told us that he thought that the best way to tell you would be what happened: to let you discover Zoe.

"While we were at the Apple store, our use of face time helped them sell eight computers, and the manager, on authorization of Steve Jobs himself, gave us the iMac. The eight sales people also gave Mom their commissions. Mom has a new MacBook, and we have a new iMac. That brings us to here, and now." I concluded. Heather looked at me.

"You do seem happier right now. I also wondered how long it would take you to finally admit that something wasn't right." She said. "They just gave you an iMac?"

"Yep." Mom said, walking in from the kitchen with the smart covers for the iPads in her hands. "You girls will want these." Heather took the smart cover, looked at it, looked at me, and then looked at mom.

"We don't have iPads." Heather said. Mom handed each of us a box containing an iPad. I did a double take at the outside of the box.

"Mom, these are sixty four gig models..." I said. Mom blinked at me.

"I noticed. I bet that Mr. Jobs was very specific in what he told John to give us." I nodded and listened as the iMac rebooted. Well, that was one machine down, I still had mom's new laptop to work on.

#
Heather and I had moved to the kitchen where I was now working on mom's new laptop. I had grabbed a cup of coffee from the coffee pot and was slowly sipping it as I worked.

"You know that stuff will stunt your growth..." Heather said, plugging her iPad into her laptop. "So, how was your first day out in a skirt?"

"My growth was stunted long ago then... My first day out as Zoe was great. There were no problems to speak of, and mom and I enjoyed a nice quiet breakfast where we confused some poor old couple by referring to me as Allen with dad on the phone. The old woman said that I was not a boy... That felt nice." Heather looked up at me and smiled.

"I've always thought that you were a little cute to be a boy..." I smiled again, to me that was a compliment, even if it wasn't' intended as one. "You've always carried your self a little bit like a girl, now we know why. And those dimples scream girl to me."

"Thanks..." I said, Heather giggled.

"I'm serious. I wondered how long it was going to take before you tried on a skirt..." I looked at her.

"How do you figure?" I clicked on the button to make the laptops start transferring data and sat back, looking at Heather.

"Well, you've always been caring and compassionate, you seem to have a small knack for fashion." She paused like she had realized something. "You guys said you were at Tanglewood. Carly and I went there to see what dresses they had on sale. We didn't' see you guys."

"I know." Mom said, "We saw Carly's car and got the heck out of there as the mall wasn't the place for you to meet Zoe." Mom left out the bit about looking to see where Heather's phone was located. "I wasn't expecting you home until later. We were going to let you meet Zoe just the way you did. We figured that it would be easier than trying to hide it from you." Heather nodded. "Your dad is the one that came up with it. Looks like he was right once again."

"Dad is like that." Heather said, standing. "I'm going to go work on some homework. I'll be in my room." Mom nodded and then watched Heather go.

"Zoe, do you have homework to do?" I glanced at Mom.

"Some. You think I should go do that while this transfers?" Mom nodded.