Don’t Drink The Gene Juice

"Are you ready to talk about this Seth?" Mom asked.

He nodded. Last night, they'd decided to let him, or her, go to bed. Now, the next morning, he felt so emotionally exhausted he couldn't really be upset anymore.

"I guess," he said. His parents were trying to brighten his spirits with waffles. It worked.

"So," Dad laced his fingers, sitting at the table, "what do you want to do about this exactly?"

"What do you mean?" Seth asked. He grumbled, pulling back his hair as strands of it drew dangerously close to touching his syrupy food.

"Well," Mom breathed deeply, "things... are going to be different from now on."

Seth gulped. "What kind of different?"

"Whatever different you want," Mom said. "But regardless of what you choose to do, you're going to have to cope with your new... body."

Seth's face scrunched up in pain. "You mean I'm... I'm going to have periods and stuff?"

Mom sighed. "That... is one thing that's unavoidable."

Seth dropped his fork, and sank down in his chair.

I'm going to have PERIODS.

"But...," Mom said, "you also are, physically, a girl."

"And for maybe years to come," Dad said sollemnly, "that isn't going to change."

Seth looked down, his hands in his lap. Right over his groin area. He quickly looked back up, trying to get away from those thoughts.

"So what should I do?"

"Like I said," Mom answered, "what you decide."

"You're asking...," Seth shook, "if I'm going to just accept this?"

Dad sighed. "Seth, this is a horrible situation. And it's going to be hard for you whatever route we decide to take. You could get your hair cut short, wear a chest binder, and continue living as a boy."

Seth felt a few tears leak out. "But I'm not a boy. I'm... a girl."

"No you're...," Mom trailed off.

"I mean," she tried again, "who you want to be is up to you."

"So," Seth said, "the other option is changing my name, and.... wearing girl's clothes, and pretty much just living like I've always been a girl?"

"That's... one choice," Dad said. "But if you want to wear girl clothes but still identify as a boy..."

"Want to wear girl clothes?" Seth questioned.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to," Mom said.

"No... I... I just haven't really given it much thought."

"We'll be with you whatever you decide," Dad said.

"I'm surprised you haven't chained me up for using transformational fluid."

Mom sighed. "We really, really aren't happy that you did this, but given the circumstances, we don't really think a punishment is necessary."

"The punishment is that my life is over."

Dad put his hand on Seth's arm. "Don't say that. Although it's not the body you wanted, you can still live a normal life. You could've accidentally turned into a bear permanently. Imagine how your life would've been then! We couldn't even keep you as a pet."

Seth's heart stilled. "I... I guess I hadn't thought of that."

"This is a really difficult situation," Mom said, "but at least, like your Dad said, you can live a normal life."

"Normal," Seth huffed. "I... I guess I'm feeling a bit better about this, thinking about how bad things could've gone. But I'm going to... I'm going to become a mermaid every time I go underwater."

Mom pursed her lips. "Yeah," she said. "That... will be hard."

"I'm never going swimming again."

"That's not going to make you feel good at all," Dad said. "You love swimming."

"Not anymore."

"Maybe you might like it," Mom suggested.

Seth pushed away his plate, with a quarter of a waffle still uneaten. "But it's... it's just so girly. The person who did this went out of their way to make it as pretty and feminine as possible. Honestly, with that thing, I may as well just swallow it all and act like a girl."

"We can take time with this," Mom said. "You can try out what you want to do."

"I'm afraid of doing that around my friends," Seth said. "Well, what used to be my friends."

"So fatalistic," Mom said. "Wyatt has called us several times the past few days. Zoey too."

"Oh," Seth said.

"What we could try," Mom said, "is during this week when you're not at school, you can live like a girl, and see how you feel about it."

That... was a weird idea to him. It wasn't like he had plans this week. Not anymore.

Seth shifted in his chair uncomfortably. "So, I'd dress like a girl, and you'd call me something other than Seth?"

"If you want to do that," Dad asked.

"I...," he swallowed. "I guess I can try that. I... I've always been curious about what it feels like to wear a dress."

"Oh," Mom said, a bit surprised. "I wasn't expecting you to wear much more than a skirt. But, you can trying wearing a dress if you want to."

Seth felt embarrassed. "Maybe... maybe this isn't the best idea."

"It's okay Seth," Dad said, "we won't push you to do anything you don't want. But I think it would be good for you to try it. You might find that you like it."

"And," Mom said, "I... I think you do make a pretty girl."

Seth blushed. "I... I do?"

Mom smiled. "Yes, I think you do."

"I... I guess I'll do it," Seth said.

"You don't have to be afraid of it Seth," Mom said, "just relax."

"And....," Seth said, "I guess... while I'm doing this... I've always like the name Jenna..."

"Do you want us to call you that?" Mom asked.

Seth nodded, hesitantly.

"Well Jenna," Mom smiled, hugging him, "this week, we're gonna show you how fun it is to be a girl."

Seth hugged back, with timidness in him.

I'm Jenna now, she switched gears in her mind. It felt so strange to think of herself as a girl, but combined with her new body, it actually kind of made her brain feel better.

"Now," Mom said, "If we're going to do this, let's start right now."

Jenna gulped. This... was going to painful.