Dr. Elizabeth Pratt’s Office,
Piper looks at the older woman who sat across from her in a leather chair. Dr. Pratt was a psychologist who specialized in gender dysphoria. The thing was, Piper wasn’t having problems identifying who she was, but with the requirements she was forced to follow.

Dr. Pratt looked at the Piper as she sat across from her on the sofa. According to Freddy, over at the boy’s group home. Piper was biologically male, according to her birth certificate, but physically looks female. The thing is, Dr. Pratt could see for herself that there wasn’t anything male about Piper, except maybe between her legs.

“Piper, why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?” Dr. Pratt prepares herself to make notes.

“What do you want to know?” Piper felt uncomfortable sitting in the office.

It wasn’t the first time she had seen a psychologist about how she looked and was treated. The only reason she didn’t blow off this appointment was because of Freddy. He noticed that her attitude lately has been antisocial.

She wasn’t taking part in any of the holiday celebrations. Her teachers at school had informed Freddy that she wasn’t participating in class either. She wasn’t rude to the people around her; she didn’t care about the subject matter or the class.

“Well, tell me about what you like to do when you’re not in school.”

“The only thing I do when I’m not in school is ride my bicycle. Other than working and pretty much keeping to myself, because of the way I look. I don’t have a social life.”

“What do you mean, because of the way you look?” Dr. Pratt was curious about that.

“Dr. Pratt, how can I socialize with anyone when I live at a boy’s home? I look like a girl, but I have to disguise myself so I look like a damn boy. The morons of this state have made my dam life difficult, all because of their stupid beliefs and fear mongering of governmental politicians.”

Dr. Pratt writes this information down on her notepad. She looks at Piper, “When did you notice you were developing like a girl?”

“When my testicles were removed due to cancer. The doctor who operated on me discovered I was born with both a female and a male reproductive system. The doctor who did the removal of my testes told my foster parents at the time. That I had a uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, when they removed my testes, the ovaries started to do their job when I hit puberty, even though I still have a puny penis. And since this damn state bases your gender on what is between your legs. I am treated like a male, instead of the female I am developing into.” There was anger in Piper’s voice when she spoke.

For the rest of the session, Piper and Dr. Pratt talk. Piper informs Dr. Pratt that she has recently been experiencing periods. She informs Dr. Pratt that she discovered blood coming out of her penis and never told Freddy about it. She has kept this secret from everyone until now.

When Piper leaves Dr. Pratt’s office, it is cold outside, and there is a slight breeze as well. She shivers as some of the cold December air manages to find its way past her heavy jacket and the heavy sweater she is wearing underneath her coat. She had on her thermal underwear underneath the cargo pants she wore to school.

Piper mounts her bicycle and pedals back towards the group home. Tonight, she was supposed to help out in the kitchen again. It seemed that Freddy liked the way she did things in the kitchen. Tonight, they were having homemade pizza. Normally, they bought frozen pizzas and dressed them up a bit, but Joe and Owen knew how to make pizza from scratch.

They were in charge of making and baking the pizzas. Her job was to set out the premade salads and plates. When she arrives back at the group home, Piper changes out of her clothes. After changing her clothes, she heads to the old hotel's restaurant and helps out in the kitchen, doing whatever she needs to.

The smell of the pizza cooking made her mouth water. She was surprised that Joe and Owen were good at making pizza from scratch. They had all the fixings to make different styles of pizza. Joe and Owen sometimes made a half-and-half pizza, so everyone got what they liked.

After dinner, Piper heads back upstairs to her room and starts on her homework. She doesn’t socialize that much with the other guys at the home. She wasn’t into what they were into.

Over the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, Piper works as many hours as she can. She buys small gifts for some of the younger boys at the group home. She may not want to get to know them that much, but some boys didn’t have much.

She sees Dr. Pratt once a week and is informed that she has a group that meets on the third Saturday at the local free clinic to talk and support one another. The next meeting they were going to have won’t take place until after the holidays. She might want to come and meet a few others like her.

On Christmas Day, Piper spends it in her room. She wasn’t interested in celebrating the holiday with anyone at the group home. She sleeps in and wakes up when she has to go to work. When she opens the door, she discovers a few gifts that were left for her. She sets them on her bed and pedals to work on her bicycle.

The restaurant was already open by the time we arrived. She secures her bicycle in the back storage room and puts on her apron. She helps the chiefs who decided to come in to work with fixing some of the food and chopping up ingredients they needed.

Throughout the night, she stays busy doing the dishes and helping to clean off the tables. Piper couldn’t believe how busy they were. She figured most people would spend the holiday with their families or with friends.

By the time the restaurant closed, Piper was tired. The owner of the place gave everyone who worked a small Christmas bonus. It wasn’t much, but it was the thought behind the gift that counted. She pedals slowly and carefully back to the group home.

Piper stops and gives a homeless veteran some of the tip money she earned tonight while she was working. She has seen him out on the streets, sleeping on the ground behind the gas station. Sometimes he went to the men’s shelter down at Dawn and Sunset Ave. She didn’t know what his problems were, but she felt sorry for him.

By the time she made it back to the group home, she was tired and cold. She makes her way to her room and enters with her bicycle. Once her bicycle was secured and she had stripped out of her weather clothes. She sits down on the bed and opens the gifts that were left for her.

One of the younger boys whom she had given a gift to made her a necklace made of plastic beads. There was another gift from another younger boy; she helped with his reading and math. He made her some sugar cookies and frosted cookies.

Piper knew Mrs. Collins liked showing the younger kids how to cook and make things. As for the other four gifts, they were from the staff and were the standard things you give a teenage boy. A personal grooming kit, a sewing kit, and from Freddy, his gift actually contained something she could use. Two new packages of girls’ underwear in her size, plus some socks as well.

She puts the gifts she was given away and takes a nice, relaxing, hot shower before lying down on her bed. She was still too energized to fall asleep and didn’t have kitchen duty tomorrow morning. She pulls her laptop out and watches one of her favorite anime shows.

She ends up watching six episodes of her favorite anime before finally drifting off to sleep. Piper doesn’t hear Mr. Deir knock on her door in the morning.

Mr. Deir didn’t see Piper at breakfast that morning and knew she had come back last night. She had checked in with the night guard on duty. He uses his pass key to unlock Piper’s room door and finds Piper sound asleep, with his laptop near him.

He shuts the door quietly and heads back downstairs to the common room to check on the other boys. He had to agree with Freddy and the other counselors at the group home, Piper does look like a girl when he isn’t covered up.

Piper wakes up at one in the afternoon. She glances at her clock and notices she slept past lunch. She didn’t care because she kept emergency food supplies in her room. She leans over her bed and reaches under it with her fingertips. Her fingers touch the lip of the plastic storage container she keeps under her bed and pull it out.

She pulls out a cup of noodles that she can eat. She closes the container and slides it back under her bed. She gets out of bed and walks into the bathroom to run the water until it is hot and fill the cup of noodles. She lets it sit while she uses the toilet.

She knew her period was going to start in a few weeks. She still hasn’t told Freddy about having a period. Who would believe a girl with a penis could have a period like a normal girl? She never knew it was possible because it wasn’t covered in health class.

She had to look up the information on the web about guys having periods. It seemed that she had everything a girl does, except a vaginal opening. The menstrual blood from her period passes through the urethra that is connected to her penis.

She was lucky that when it first started, it happened here in her room. If she had been at school, it would have been bad. There would have been no way she could have hidden it.

Piper wanted to go and get birth control pills, but how do you explain to a doctor that, as a male, you have a female reproductive system and a dick? Plus, the doctor would have to inform Freddy or Mr. Wilkerson about what she was doing.

Once Piper was done doing her business and washing her hands afterward. She grabs the cup of noodles, sits down on her bed, and watches one of her favorite shows currently playing. She was still hungry after finishing the noodles. She eats some of the cookies Charlie had made for her.

Some of the cookies had crispy edges and brunt bottoms. However, they were still edible. She enjoys a few of them and puts the rest away for later.

By dinner time, Piper goes to enjoy dinner with the other boys at the group home. Tonight, they had turkey and ham subs with potato chips. They came premade, so there wasn’t much prep to do.

After dinner, Piper plays a few games with Charlie and Arnold. She doesn’t mind playing games with them and enjoys it.