Growing Up

To the average eye, I'm sure I look like your average cis teenage girl, but I haven't always been Rachel. In fact, I had been a boy until the age of twelve. I was hanging out in the garden, while my younger 10-year-old sister, Emily, and her best friend, Rachel were running around.

That's when Emily and Rachel found the magic stone buried in the back corner of the lot.

As soon as Emily saw the stone's glow, she grabbed Rachel's hand and pulled her along to where I was sitting. "Look what we found, Miles!" Emily exclaimed, holding up the glowing rock for me to see.

"Whoa," I turned the glowing rock around in my palm, "What the heck?"

"Can I see it again?" Rachel reached out and grabbed the stone from my hands.

Suddenly, the air grew thick around us, and the world seemed to spin.

When the dizziness passed, I realized that I was in Rachel's body. I looked down at my hands, which were now smaller and delicate with neatly manicured nails. I ran my fingers through Rachel's long blonde hair, now feeling how soft it was.

"Rachel?" Emily's voice sounded far away, but I turned and saw her standing in front of me, her eyes full of confusion, "What happened?"

"I'm...I'm fine," I managed to say, my voice sounding different in Rachel's body.

I could only assume Rachel was in my body now, as she stood and gaped at me.

"It's, uh... It's nothing," I pretended to shake it off, not wanting to worry Emily.

"Let's just go inside and get some snacks or something," I suggested, hoping to distract her.

We walked back into the house, trying to act as normal as possible. But it was hard to ignore the fact that I was now in someone else's body. Rachel's body.

As we sat down in front of the TV, I couldn't help but feel like a stranger in my own body. Rachel's body was smaller than mine and her movements felt more delicate. My balance was off and I had to constantly remind myself to stay calm.

I tried to focus on what was happening on the TV, but my mind kept wandering back to Rachel's body and how it felt so different compared to mine. I thought about how she must've been feeling in my own body, if she was feeling anything at all. 

We weren't able to switch back by the time Rachel was supposed to get picked up by her parents. So I ended up heading back to her place instead.

Rachel's parents didn't seem to notice anything different about me as I walked into their home. But as soon as dinner was over, I quickly retreated to her bedroom.

I shut the door behind me and sat down on the edge of Rachel's bed, letting out a deep sigh. This was all so surreal. How was I supposed to go back to my own body and my own life? I had so many questions, but no real answers.

As I looked around the room, I noticed a photo on Rachel's desk. It was a picture of her, smiling happily with a group of friends. I wondered if they would notice that I wasn't really her.

That was four years ago. Four years of living in Rachel's body, of trying to navigate her life while keeping up the facade that everything was normal. Rachel and I never told anyone. I kept it all to myself, living a double life.

It was hard at first, but eventually, I got used to it. I started to enjoy the perks of being a girl - the clothes, the makeup, the attention. It was a relief to not have to pretend to be someone I wasn't all the time.

Then I had to go through puberty all over again but as a girl. It was strange to experience the changes that I had already gone through as a boy, but from a completely different perspective. My hips widened, and my chest developed. I had to learn how to deal with periods, cramps, and other things that I had never had to deal with before. But slowly, I started to embrace my new body and all that came with it.

Now, I was living in a body not even the original Rachel ever got to experience. She would never get to experience her first period, swelling breasts, or reckoning with her sexual identity. I was experiencing it all for her.