Piper sits on the bleachers after school and watches the cheerleaders practice. Piper has always liked watching cheerleaders practice their routines and create new ones. He wishes he were back at his old high school, where people were used to how he looked and where his friends were.

He misses his old foster home and wishes that the couple he has been staying with since he was eleven could adopt him. But, for some reason, they couldn’t. It wasn’t that they didn’t want him, but that they didn’t meet some requirement.

He tries to concentrate on his homework, but his mind isn’t on it. Instead, he watches the cheerleaders as they practice. He loved watching them because they looked so athletic and beautiful.

He has watched many different cheerleaders before coming to this high school. He was even a cheerleader on a few local cheerleading teams when he was younger. He still had his uniforms packed away. He didn’t trust the boys in the group home where he was currently living.

Piper watches the cheerleaders until the end of their practice. He had asked the teacher in charge of the cheerleaders if he could try out, and a smirk had appeared on her face. She informed him that their cheer squad wasn’t coed.

He has run into this problem before and hated the answer each time. He had the training and skills to become a cheerleader. But ever since middle school, he had attended or asked to join a local cheerleading league, and they had turned him down.

The excuse they always used was that they weren’t coed. Every local league had said the same thing. Some places only wanted girls because of the stereotypical perception people had of cheerleaders.

Once Piper puts his books and pens away in his backpack, he leaves the bleachers and heads towards the front of the school, where his bicycle is chained up. His bicycle was made for a woman because of how women’s bodies were. It was pink and purple, like his backpack.

He puts his book bag in the saddle basket and secures it. The reason he rode a girl’s/woman’s bicycle was that men's bicycles were too big for him. He didn’t have the arm reach for the handlebars, and the handlebars were set too far apart as well. The seats on a male’s bicycle didn’t fit his ass when he sat down on it, and his feet were smaller, like women’s feet were. When he went shoe shopping, he always went to the women’s section to pick out his shoes.

He mounts his bicycle seat once he takes the chain off and drops it in the other saddle basket. Piper starts biking towards the all-boys homes he had been placed in. He wishes he were back at the foster home he had been in. The ride back to the house took 30 minutes, but since the weather was nice. Piper took a little longer to pedal to the group home.

He was careful on some of the busier streets and major roadways. Some of the drivers around the new town he was sent to were terrible. He almost got hit three times on his first ride to school. He didn’t like taking the school bus because two of the bullies he tried to avoid were on it.

By the time Piper arrived at the group home, dinner was being served. It was watered-down bean soup and ham again. The past three days, it has been the same thing for dinner and overcooked oatmeal for breakfast. He hated both of them, so he didn’t show up for dinner.

Instead, Piper heads to his bedroom on the second floor of the old hotel that had been converted into a boy’s home. The building still retained many of the same features as when it was a hotel, before being converted into a boy’s home. He was lucky he didn’t share a bedroom with another boy.

If he did, the other boy wouldn’t believe he was a male. Because when Piper took off his clothes, the body beneath the clothing concealed the fact that he had a girlish figure. His chest had two perfectly formed, round mounds.

His body started to develop breasts like a teenage girl when he was younger. Not only had he started to develop breasts, but his body started to develop like a female’s body does when they go through puberty. The foster parents he had at the time were surprised that his body was developing more like a girl than a boy. He wore a full-coverage bra under his shirts to hide the fact that he had breasts.

When he was younger, his foster parents at the time saw how he was behind in his development for a boy, but not for a girl. He never developed as he was supposed to, and his body never formed like a boy’s. There were a bunch of small things about him that didn’t make sense.

Piper takes off his panties and tosses them into the dirty clothes bag he keeps. He didn’t want the other boys at the group home to know he wore girl panties and bras. He walks into the bathroom and takes a shower.

When Piper comes out of the bathroom, he is wearing a clean pink pointelle tank set. His former foster mom bought it for him for his birthday. She figured it would feel better against his soft skin than pajamas made for a boy.

Piper takes a small blow dryer out of the top drawer of the dresser in the bedroom and dries his shoulder-length, red, wavy hair. Instead of blue eyes, he had bright emerald-green eyes with gold flecks.

Piper knew the room check would start around nine o’clock. The people assigned to monitor them always did room checks to make sure each boy was in their hotel room. Also, to see if they needed anything.

Once Piper was done tending to his hair, he put the hair dryer away and locked the drawers. In the past, Piper has come back to his room to find someone had gone through his stuff. That was before he went to his last foster home. When he came here, he asked permission to install a lock on his dresser.

Piper takes out his schoolbooks and starts working on his homework. He got most of it done while watching the cheerleaders practice, but needed to finish several more assignments. Around quarter to nine, Piper looks at the door to his room when he hears a knocking sound.

“Come in.” Piper puts his pencil down.

Freddy slowly opens the door to Piper Welch’s hotel room. He didn’t see Piper at dinner or breakfast this morning.

“I was wondering where you were hiding. You weren’t at breakfast or dinner tonight.” Freddy noticed how Piper was dressed.

He was so surprised to see Piper look so girly, dressed in the pajamas he was wearing. He could tell that Piper had breasts like any teenage girl his age would. At first, he and his supervisor thought Piper was taking hormones and puberty blockers to become a girl. But when they looked at
Piper’s medical file. Those suspensions were laid to rest. Piper was born with a rare genetic disorder where he was born with both organs. He had been born with testes and ovaries. After he had his testes removed when he was younger due to cancer, his body started developing like a girl at puberty, instead of a male.

According to Piper’s medical file, Piper was born with testes and a penis, but had to have his testes removed when he was four years old due to testicular cancer. That’s when the pediatric doctor, his first foster parents, took him to discover that Piper possessed female organs/ovaries.

Piper looks at Freddy, “Sorry, I was meeting up with my counselor at school this morning. As for dinner, I wasn’t hungry because I stopped and
had a hot dog and a bag of chips at Circle K on the way home.”

Piper was lying through his teeth. He knew if Freddy or Mr. Wilkerson found out he was skipping breakfast and dinner on purpose. They will insist that he comes home early to eat dinner and wake him up early to eat before he leaves for school.

They kept a record of every boy in the group home, so the funding didn’t get cut. For each boy sent to live at the group home, they got a certain amount of money. The only way the group home could account for the money, was by making sure each boy was accounted for.

Freddy still wonders why Piper was sent to live at the group home. Because he didn’t look like a boy at all, but a young teenage girl.

“I want to see you at breakfast and dinner tomorrow, Piper.” Freddy looks intensely at Piper when he spoke.

“Yes sir.” Piper didn’t want to eat the oatmeal. He missed the eggs, pancakes, sausage, and bacon his foster mother uses to make. Even the cereal he liked for breakfast.

“I’ll see you, then. Also, lights out at ten o’clock.” Freddy knew Piper was good at obeying the rules.

“Yes sir.” Piper goes back to finishing his school work.

Freddy closes the door and continues doing his bed check. By the time he was finished, it was quarter till ten. He stands on the balcony and watches as each rooms light is turned off. Most of the boys were good boys.

The next morning Piper shows up for breakfast, but barely eats the oatmeal. He knew the boy behind the table he was sitting out liked it.

“Hey Danny, I’m not really hungry this morning. Would you like some more?” Piper was keeping his voice low because Freddy and another supervisor was monitoring them.

Danny looks at Piper and in a low voice “are you sure?”

“Yes.” Piper was one hundred percent sure he didn’t want the food.

“Okay.” He hands his empty bowl to Piper, as Piper hands him his empty bowl.

“Thanks.” Piper sits there with the empty bowl and pretends he is eating. After a few minutes, he gets up and takes the empty bowl and spoon to the kitchen.

Piper notices Eddie, Calen, and Samual have kitchen duty. He wonders why the three of them had kitchen duty.

“Here you guys.” Piper hands over his dirty bowl.

“Wait until you have kitchen duty, Piper.” Calen looks at the red hair boy.

“You mean I have to work in the kitchen?” Piper didn’t know he had to work in the kitchen.

“Duh! Everyone here has chores he is assigned to do.” Calen was surprised Piper didn’t know about that one requirement.

“Okay. When are those chores assigned?” This was new to Piper.

“Next week, the new assignments are posted on the main board in the reception area. Check there to see what your assignment is.”

“Okay and thanks.” Piper leaves as quickly as he can and head back to his hotel room to grab his backpack.

By the time Piper leaves and pedals towards the high school he is attending. He has forty minutes to get there. He stops at the nearest convenience store and grabs a premade sausage croissant breakfast sandwich and a pint of milk.

He heads towards the cashier and pays for the items. Once everything was paid for, Piper mounts his bicycle and pedals to school. He eats the sausage croissant on the way to school. When he arrives, he still had a few minutes left and chugs down the milk.

As he dismounts and secure his bicycle, to the bike rack. He tosses the empty milk carton and sandwich wrapper away in the trash bin. He walks into school and heads for his first class, which was math. After math, he had Social Studies, then home room, which was on the other side of the building. After that, he had English. Then Spanish, after that. Piper heads to lunch after Spanish.

The lunch room was serving Classic Chef Salad w/Croutons, Assorted fruit cup, and he grabs a Chocolate milk to drink. That was selection Piper made for himself. There were other items, but Piper always tried to eat healthy, like the Cheerleaders did. He wanted to sit over near the cheerleaders, but the table near them were taken up by the basketball team and the football team.

He locates the table where the misfits in the school sat to eat. Since he didn’t currently have any friends here at the school. He sat by himself, instead.

As Piper is eating his lunch the bullies he tried to avoid came into the lunch room. He watches as they bullied their way into the lunch line and get their lunch. They head over to a table they claimed as theirs since the first day of school and sat down. He was just glad that he has managed to avoid the bullies as long as he has so far.

He eats his lunch in quiet and when the bell rings, he tosses his trash away and leave his tray stacked on top of the others. The next few classes were boring and he was trying very hard to stay awake in them. Between the teacher and the subject matter of the class, it was hard to take any interest in the classes.

The last class he had was physical education, but luckily, they were in the class room this week. Next week they would be in the gym and that is when the physical fitness test would start. He hated them and his teachers always made him live up to the male standards. His body didn’t have the upper body strength that a male body had.

The medical report that the foster agency had on him and given to the school said he had a female build, including his skeleton structure. When his body hit puberty, he developed like a girl, that included his hips and skeleton. The doctors that examined him, said that they had never seen anything like it before, but because he had been born with a penis at birth, instead of a vagina. He was classified as a boy, but developed like a girl.

His old school had him change in the single sex bathroom that had. But this school didn’t have one and he couldn’t change in front of other boys because of his chest. He had fully formed breasts and his groin area looked like a woman’s, with his tiny penis hidden from view.

After gym class, he heads outside to the bleachers to watch the cheerleader’s practice. He works on his classwork, while watching them. The teacher and even the girls knew he was there, but he couldn’t join them. He could easily do their cheers and moves, because of his background.
But ever since the state passed a law saying males can’t participate in any female sport. He was sidelined, along with his dreams.

When the girls leave to go home after practice. Piper puts away his books in his backpack and head towards his bicycle. It was to early to had home, so he goes for a long ride instead. As he is peddling down main street, he spots a diner that had a help wanted sign posted in the window.
Piper figures that he should apply for a job, since in three years he was going to be kicked out of foster care. Plus, it would mean he didn’t have to eat the terrible meals the group home made either. He stops his bicycle at the diner and chain it up, before going inside and filling out an
application.

He learns that the position that they were hiring for was for a dishwasher. It wasn’t what Piper wanted to do, but it was better then nothing. It paid minimum wage which was $7.25 an hour. Piper figures he it was better then nothing. He was told to show up after school tomorrow to be trained. The diner was open until ten o’clock.

Piper thanks the diner manager and peddles back to the group home. When he arrives, he informs the director and Freddy that he got a job at the Bluebird diner and that he would be working from when he got out of school until ten o’clock. He gives them the diner’s manager’s number to verify his employment.

Neither man liked that Piper would be returning after ten o’clock, but they wouldn’t stop Piper from working. They knew Piper was one of their better boys, even though he looked like a girl. Piper heads up to his room and finishes up on his school work before turning in for the night.

Piper wipes the sweat from his forehead as he washes the dishes. Ever since he started a few days ago, he has been pushing himself to increase his speed so the dishes don’t pile up as much. He finally found a groove that worked for him and kept up with the work. He learned he was one of three dishwashers the diner had.

There was Charlie, who worked as a dishwasher during the daytime. Then there was Joseph, who worked part-time like him. He was married and had a little boy and a little girl. Then there was Tracy, who worked as a dishwasher and as a waitress. She had been covering the afternoon shift until he was hired.

When Piper was bogged down with dirty dishes, he tried to help the cooks. He also took the trash out. The people in the back were surprised when Marty introduced him. He knew what people saw when they first saw him.

They saw a teenage girl with wavy red hair, a petite build, and lightly tanned skin. After Piper was introduced to everyone in the kitchen and trained, he got to know his coworkers better during the last few days. He even got to know the homeless people who lived in the alleyways behind the diner.

Marty didn’t mind him giving them the leftovers instead of throwing them away. He thought that was nice of Marty to do. Piper missed watching the cheerleaders practicing their cheers. The thing was, he wished he could have joined them.

Freddy had him check in with him before he went to bed. He wanted to make sure Piper had gotten home safely. Freddy understood when Piper didn’t show up for breakfast. He knew Piper wasn’t getting home until almost quarter till eleven during the week and a little after midnight on the weekend.

As for Piper’s homework, Piper normally worked on it during lunch and study hall. Since Piper didn’t have any classes during fifth period, he used that time to work on his homework. As for his paychecks, he deposited them into the same account he opened when he lived with his foster parents.

The bank he had his account with had a local branch here in Biscoe. He deposits his first paycheck into his account. Afterward, he took some money out and bought himself a small leather hand purse. A bunch of the women at the diner had asked him why he didn’t wear makeup or carry a purse. No one other than the manager knew he was equipped like a guy.

The first time he went into the women’s bathroom, he was nervous. At school, he couldn’t use any of the bathrooms or didn’t want to. The one bathroom he could use was in the teachers' lounge, and that would draw attention to himself—attention he didn’t want on him.

At work, he didn’t have a choice but to use the bathroom. There were times he either had to pee or do number two. Also, when he changed out of his school clothes and into the work clothes he bought. He didn’t want to get his school clothes dirty or smelling like food waste.

The bullies at school stopped him one day on the way to school. They had ambushed him by tossing a stick into his front wheel, causing him to flip over his handlebars and damage the spokes in his front wheel. At the same time, he was lying on his back. The leader of the bullies, Eric Pickles, pressed down onto his chest as hard as he could. Piper could feel the pressure and pain in his breasts.

“You thought I forgot about you, bitch. You might have the others fooled, but I know what you are. You’re just a pervert and pedophile. Now, give me all your money before you get a beating you’ll never forget.”

Piper looks up at Eric and his gang members. Most of them had their faces covered, wearing their sweat jackets backward with eye slits so they could see out of their hoods, or wearing their hoods with their eyes covered by dark sunglasses.

“Sorry, but I don’t have any money for you, bigfoot. Why don’t you go and fuck your friend Ralph there?” Piper points to another boy standing nearby.

“Why, you little bitch.” Ralph kicks Piper in his ribs as hard as he can.

Piper grits his teeth because he isn’t going to give these punks the satisfaction of screaming. He winces when Ralph kicks him on the side of his rib cage. He felt something break on his ribcage.

“Let’s teach this prick a lesson.” As all four guys start kicking and punching Piper.

Piper tried to protect himself as best he could, but was punched and kicked from different directions. The only thing keeping his head from being kicked hard was the helmet he was wearing. Just before he passes out from several blows to his chest, he hears police sirens and watches as Eric and his companions split and run off in different directions.

Officer Lupe Sterling spotted four hooded boys beating a young female with red hair and an overturned bicycle lying nearby. She blares her siren and flashes her lights. She watches as they scatter like cockroaches. Lupe calls for paramedics as she exits her patrol car and runs over to the young girl.

When she approaches the young girl, she kneels next to her and checks her over. She noticed the girl was unconscious and had blood coming from her mouth and a split lip. She also noticed the girl’s right arm was broken and the bone was sticking through the skin. Officer Sterling heard the sirens of the approaching ambulance as it drew closer.

She spots the girl's backpack and looks inside for an identity card. She spots a tag attached to the inside of the backpack and notices it lists the boys' group home as the address. She finds the girl’s purse and opens it. Inside, Officer Sterling sees the girl’s wallet and locates her state-issued identity card. It had the boys' group home address listed on it and said she was male.

Officer Sterling takes a second look at the girl, and there is no way this girl was male with the way she looked. This girl had real breasts, and her body was fully developed as a normal girl would be. The ambulance stops near the officer and the unconscious red-haired girl.

Officer Sterling locates an emergency number for the young girl among her things. She dials the number while the paramedics treat the girl. She still couldn’t bring herself to believe that the red-haired girl was a male.

“We've got to take her to the hospital, officer. She is bleeding internally.”

“Alright. I’ll meet you there.” Officer Sterling takes several pictures before she lets the paramedics remove the girl. She also takes several photos
for her report.

She puts the girl’s bicycle into the back of her squad car and the girl’s backpack in the car with her. Officer Sterling calls the emergency number that was listed on the tag inside the backpack. She informs them that Piper Welch has been attacked and is heading to First Health Montgomery Memorial Hospital.

Piper wakes up two days later feeling like crap. She had an oxygen tube going down her throat and was hooked up to several machines. She starts to panic and tries to pull the tube out of her mouth.

A nurse comes running into the room and manages to calm Piper down. She and another nurse removed the tube going down her throat. Piper notices her right arm was in one of those new casts the hospitals were switching to.

She felt pressure on her torso from the bandages wrapped around her chest. It hurt to move her body. Her face felt like someone had used it for a punching bag. She notices she was wearing a pink, floral paper gown.

Nurse King looks at the young red-haired teenage girl, and still couldn’t get over the fact that she had a tiny penis. Her fellow nurse, Nurse Jones, couldn’t believe that this teenage red-haired girl had a penis either. Dr. Cartwright had informed both nurses that the boy suffered from a rare genetic condition that caused him to develop like a girl.

Nurse King looks at Piper, “Would you like something to drink, sweetie?”

Piper nods her head yes to the question. Her throat was dry and sore from having the tube down her throat. Nurse Jones grabs the pitcher and
walks over to the sink to fill it with cold water. Once the pitcher was filled, she took it back over to the bed and filled a cup with the cold water.

“Easy, sweetie.” Nurse Jones hands the cup to Piper.

Piper accepts it and slowly sips it. He noticed the nurses were addressing him as if he were a girl, which he didn’t mind. He slowly sips the water and sighs in relief as his throat starts feeling better. He looks at the nurses, “Where am I?”

“You’re at First Health Montgomery Memorial Hospital, sweetie. The group home you are living at already knows that you’re here. Do you remember anything about your attackers?” Nurse King was informed to call Officer Sterling when Ms. Welch woke up.

“Yes, ma’am. I know who they are, even with their faces covered up. How long have I been out?” Piper remembered everything from the attack.

“I’ll let Officer Sterling know. She’s been coming by to check on you. As for how long you have been out. It’s been two days since you were attacked, sweetie.” Nurse King felt sorry for the poor girl. She couldn’t think of Ms. Welch as a boy.

“Thank you.” Piper knew she needed to let her work know what happened, and maybe Freddy at the group home.

The problem is, she didn’t know where her backpack was. It held her cell phone, her schoolbooks, and her work clothes. She rests against the bed and tries not to move.

The next few days are boring for Piper. Officer Sterling came by and questioned her about the attack and who attacked her. She asked if she knew who her attackers were, but she could only identify Ralph and Eric Pickles. The others, she didn’t know their names, but she did know what they looked like without their disguises. She tells Officer Sterling everything that happened.

Officer Sterling told her that she had taken her backpack and handed it to her. She also had her bicycle, and her uncle was fixing it.

“Thank you, Officer Sterling.”

“You’re welcome, sweetie. I’ll keep you updated about the case. You get better.” Officer Sterling smiles at Piper before she leaves.

Freddy stops by and informs Piper that social services was picking up her medical bill, since she was underage and under their care. He was going to take her home.

Piper’s doctor informs her that she could be discharged, but she’ll need to take it easy. Her ribs were still healing, and she’ll have to wear a cast on her right arm for at least three months. Piper was glad that she could get the new cast wet without having to cover it.

The following weeks are hell for her because of her injuries. The doctor said she was lucky she was wearing her helmet when she flipped over her handlebars. Officer Sterling’s uncle did a nice job fixing her bicycle. He informs her that when she picks it up, he can install an electric motor for her.

She thinks about it because she could get back and forth to work and school faster. She gives the okay and pays him in advance to do the work. Piper figures it would be a good investment for Eric and Ralph. Officer Sterling manages to capture them. Even though it is a he-said-she-said attack in court. Officer Sterling did witness them attacking her and had it on her dash cam. After enhancing the video, they obtained a clear image of the two boys.

Because they were under 18, the only place they were going was juvenile hall for punishment. They were going to get a nice stay for a while. Piper knew she would have to go to court, but she didn’t mind. As for the other two bullies, one was busted for stealing a car. The other boy picked on the wrong kid at school and got a royal beating from the kid’s older brother.

As for work, Piper had a hard time doing the dishes, but her boss understood and had one of the part-timers come in to help her. She worked hard, pushing herself while her ribs were healing. She found time to watch the cheerleaders and attended some of the home games.

She records the games, but mostly concentrates on the cheerleaders. She still wants to be one, but she knows she will never be on a cheer team. It would have to be a competitive cheer team for her to be on one, and she hopes she can wear a female cheerleading outfit instead of the ugly guy cheer outfits.

One day, while she was out at a major thrift bazaar. She comes across a woman selling old cheerleader uniforms. Some of them were from her high school, and she knew they would fit her well. She buys at least four of them from different high schools in the area. She also buys some proms and the shoes that go with each school.

Halloween was coming up, and her school always put on a Halloween dance for the high schoolers. She figures she could show up dressed like the singer Toni Basil from the music video Mickey. She had watched that music video over and over again. Plus, she had her own cheering moves she could perform.

On the night of the Halloween party, she got permission from her boss to go. Her arm was still in the new cast, and her ribs were still a little sore, but manageable. She got dressed in one of the cheerleading outfits and made sure she looked good. She grabbed her pom poms and took a cab to the party.

When Piper entered the gymnasium dressed as she was, she turned heads. Even the girls on her cheerleading squad saw how sexy and cute she looked dressed like one of them. Several of the girls couldn’t believe how she looked, and when she asked to perform a cheer for the school, the principal said yes.

Piper performed an outstanding cheer for everyone present and even impressed the cheerleaders and the cheer coach. No one knew she was a member of the school. When the girls of the cheerleading squad asked her where she learned to cheer the way she did, she told them by watching them and from the other schools where she had been a cheerleader.

The girls met with their coach to see if there was any way for Piper to join their group. Coach Garth said she would talk to Principal Hogan about it. Coach Garth already knew what the answer was going to be because of the state rules, unless they changed what type of cheering squad they were. But she had to admit that Piper Welch did an outstanding cheer for the school.

Piper has fun at the school party, and most of the cheerleaders hang out with her, with their dates. A few guys who don’t know she is a guy ask her to dance. By the time the dance ends, she is happy and catches a ride home with one of the guys she danced with. She makes sure he drops her off a block near the group home, so as not to give away that she was really a boy.

A few days later, Principal Hogan summons Piper to his office. She was surprised by the request as she walked into the office.

“Can I help you, Mr. Welch?” Mary looks at Piper as if she were a strange bug.

“Yes, ma’am. Principal Hogan summoned me.” Piper knew Mary didn’t like her very much. She doesn’t know why, because she has always tried to be nice to her.

“One minute.” Mary turns and goes back to her desk and dials Mr. Hogan’s extension.

After talking with Mr. Hogan for a few minutes, she puts the headset down and walks over to the door to let Piper behind the counter.

“Follow me, Mr. Welch.” Mary escorts Piper to Principal Hogan’s office.

Mary knocks on the door before opening it.

“Enter.”

Mary opened the door and allowed Piper to enter. She watches as Piper enters the office and closes the door behind him.

Mr. Hogan looks at Piper Welch and wishes he didn't have to tell her the bad news.

“Please have a seat, Ms. Welch.” Mr. Hogan motions to the chair in front of his desk.

“Thank you, sir.” Piper walks over and sits down on the chair.

She turns her attention to Mr. Hogan and watches as he sits down. She could tell he was concerned about something.

“How has your school year been so far, Ms. Welch?” Hogan couldn’t bring himself to address Piper as a boy, not the way she looked.

“Okay, I guess.” Well, all except that incident with Eric and his buddies. She was still recovering from the attack.

“I know you have been wanting to join the cheerleading squad, and as the cheer you did at the Halloween party was really good, you did this school proud. However, as you know, this state has a policy about boys interacting or joining teams that are just for girls. I know you don’t look like a boy, Ms. Welch, but because your birth certificate says male on it. The superintendent of schools isn’t willing to bend the rules for you, and it's too late for me and Coach Garth to change how the cheer squad is.”

Piper tries not to cry as she listens to Mr. Hogen speak. She looks at him, “Thank you, sir.”

“Maybe, there is another club or activity you can join instead. I know….”

Piper didn’t give Mr. Hogan a chance to finish his sentence as she grabbed her backpack and ran out of his office with tears streaming down her cheeks. She runs towards her bicycle and, through heavy tears, takes the chain off, shoves it and her backpack into the saddlebags, and pedals as fast as she can away from the school.

She nearly gets hit by four cars while pedaling as fast as she can. The tears just kept falling from her eyes as she pedaled as fast and as far as she could. By the time she wears herself out, she collapses onto some soft grass and passes out from exhaustion.

Why is she passed out? Her cellphone rings several times in her backpack. She sleeps throughout the night, where she collapsed without anyone harming her. She shivers throughout the night, but she didn’t care.

When morning arrives, Piper wakes up and rubs her eyes. She was still upset about everything, and her legs hurt like hell. She looks around and notices she is in someone’s flower garden. She sits on the ground, trying to remember how she got where she is. She slowly stands up and brushes the twigs and leaves off her body.

Her bicycle was lying nearby. She looks around the garden and spots a concrete bench she could sit down on. She picks up her bicycle, walks over to the bench, and sits down. She still hated what she was told and hated that she had been born the way she was.

She didn’t believe in God, because what God would put someone through what she was going through? She knew there were other people with bigger problems or who were dying from terrible diseases. She sits there brooding and being pissed, as she shivers. She tries to remember why she came here, but nothing comes to mind.

After about two hours, Piper stands up on sore, tired legs and makes her way out of the garden. She had no idea where she was. She pushes her bicycle down the lone highway, thinking about what she was going to do with the rest of her life, or should she take her life and end the way she feels.

By the time Piper arrived back at the boy’s group home, it was late in the afternoon. She was tired, sore, and thirsty. She had switched over to the motorized motor that Officer Sterling’s uncle installed on her bicycle. Her legs were cramping up from the long ride.

Piper knew she was going to have to face the music after running away as she did. The group home had strict rules. She secures her bicycle and heads inside, and towards Freddy’s office. She takes a breath and knocks on the door.

“Enter!” Piper braces herself as she enters the office.

Freddy looks up towards the door as it slowly opens. He has been trying to find out where Piper Welch disappeared to. Piper hasn’t been answering his cellphone.

He is surprised to see Piper walking into his office. He stands up and points towards the chair in front of his desk, “Sit!”

“Ye, sir.” Piper walks over, sits down in the chair, and watches as Freddy sits down.

Freddy looked at Piper and could tell he was tired. He wonders where Piper had been and why he didn’t come back.

“What happened to you yesterday, young man?” Freddy had gotten a phone call from Mr. Hogan over at Piper’s high school.

Piper looks at Freddy’s face, “I, I got mad and upset at what Mr. Hogan told me yesterday.”

“And what did he tell you?” Freddy knew it took a lot to upset Piper. He’s been observing the boy since the boy arrived at the home.

“He said that this moronic, backwater state wouldn’t allow me to join the cheerleaders, after I performed for them at the Halloween party.” Piper’s voice had some anger in it.

“So, it's about being a cheerleader, again? You need to realize, Piper, that you’re a boy and you have to follow the rules the state has establishfor you. Nothing you do is going to change that.”

“Do I look like a boy? Do I sound like a boy? No, I don’t. I have breasts that I have to cover up under my clothes. I have the body and the skeleton of a girl. Plus, the emotional state and temperament. I’m forced to live in this damn place because I have a useless piece of flesh that resembles a penis between my legs. Do you know how that affects me? How much of a lie I am living because of the stupid laws of this damn state and the morons who are running it?” Piper had let out how she was feeling.

Freddy could see how upset Piper was. True, Piper wasn't your typical boy. He and director Wilkerson had thought Piper was taking hormones to look like a girl. But after looking through Piper’s medical record, that theory had been proven wrong.

“Look, Piper, your birth certificate says male, so you have to follow the law in that aspect. As for hiding who or what you are. It’s for your safety here. Mr. Wilkerson and I have tried several times to get you transferred to a girl’s group home, but because of your congenital disability and your birth certificate. The agency isn’t going to budge or break state law. So, you're stuck here until either someone adopts you or you age out of the system.”

“It sounds like I would be better off dead. Because what you and the state are saying, you fucking don’t care how it affects me.”

Freddy tries to keep his cool. “Look, I do care about how it affects you, Piper. It’s that my hands are tied, and all I can do is try to protect you as much as I can while you are under my care here. I think it might be best if you see a counselor about how you are feeling and what happened to you. I’ll have Mrs. Chapman arrange a visit with a counselor to help you with how you are feeling. As for your punishment for last night and running away from your school. I’m grounding you for a week. You’ll be allowed to go to work, school, and come home; that’s it. I will check on you and make sure you are here. You’ll also have kitchen duty for a week every morning before going to work.”

“Fine.” Piper was still angry.

“Now, go and take a shower to cool down and be at dinner. By the way, we are having sloppy joes, French fries, and a chef salad for dinner tonight.” Freddy figures it might cheer up Piper. He knew Piper didn’t like the food served lately.

“Yes, sir.” Piper gets up and leaves Freddy’s office.

She goes upstairs to her hotel room and opens the door. She starts undressing and removes the tight sports bra that flattens her breasts so that she can look like a boy. She rubs under her breasts to relax them as she steps into the bathroom to take a shower.

After taking a shower, Piper dries off and checks her hair length in the mirror. She notices she’ll have to get her hair cut, so she doesn’t look so girly. She hates having short hair, but if she were going to pass as a boy while living in the group home and attending school. She needs to keep pretending to be a boy.

She takes a pair of scissors and trims her hair until she gets to a barber shop to get a real haircut. Her room phone starts ringing, signaling that it's time for dinner. She throws on a pair of sweats that will hide her breasts and hips.

She heads down to the dining room and gets in line to be served dinner. Piper looks at the sloppy joe being served and can already tell she doesn’t want it. The fries looked soggy and undercooked, and the salad was premade. It was just like the salads they served at school.

As hungry as she was feeling, she ate everything. She hadn’t had anything to eat since yesterday morning. After Piper finished eating, she went back to her room and checked her cell phone. She saw that several people tried to contact her yesterday, including her boss. She’ll have to explain to them tomorrow about why she didn’t show up for work.

Since she doesn’t know which assignments she missed today, she reads several chapters from the different classes she has and practices her French and Spanish. Since she doesn’t have anything to do after practicing her Spanish and French, she watches a few episodes of Yellowstone until she slowly falls asleep.

Freddy does his daily bed check, and when Piper doesn’t answer the door. He uses his master key to enter her room. He spots the television on and several of her schoolbooks open. He spots Piper, sound asleep, in the clothes she wore to dinner. He turns the television off and turns her overhead light off, leaving the lamp on the nightstand on for her.

He leaves the room and checks on the other boy’s room to make sure everyone is in their hotel room. Freddy makes his rounds and then heads to his own room after completing his room check. He looks at all the records he has to double-check and make sure they are in order.

Piper is woken the next morning and shows up to help prepare breakfast. Today it was scrambled eggs, bacon, frozen sausage patties, biscuits, and grits. She was put in charge of the dishes and cleaned the dishes that had been cooked in. During the morning rush hour, she helped out on the line, serving everyone. She was instructed on how much everyone was supposed to get.

After breakfast was served and the dishes were done. Piper heads up to her room and changes her clothes. She hurries to get ready for school. She rushes downstairs, mounts her bicycle, and pedals to school.

Even in November, she rides her bicycle to school. She still avoids riding the school bus. She prefers the freedom she has with her bicycle. She planned to ride her bicycle to school, even if there was snow on the ground.

Once Piper arrives at school, she goes to her classes and gets the work she missed the day before. She plans to work on it during her lunch hour and later in the evening after work. She avoids the cheerleaders and doesn’t want to attend the winter festival dance the school is planning. She plans to avoid anything that involves school pride or school spirit.

During her lunch hour, she hides in the library and works on her schoolwork. She wanted to get as much done as she could before she left for work. After lunch, Piper goes to her next class and does as much as she can.

By the time her classes end, she has most of her schoolwork caught up. Piper heads down to her bicycle and mounts it. She pedals towards work and thinks about everything she still needs to do.

Piper wasn’t looking forward to the holidays this year. Normally, she loved Christmas and Thanksgiving, but she has to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and maybe Christmas Day as well. The restaurant manager wasn’t sure whether they would be open all day as usual or just in the evening for Christmas dinner.

She went ahead and volunteered to work the day. Normally, she would fight to have it off, but living a lie in the group home has turned her off to the holidays. She didn’t blame her last foster parents, but she does blame being born and looking like a girl.

While Piper is riding to work, she receives a text informing her that she has an appointment with the counselor Freddy said he would set up for her. She adds it to her cellphone calendar. It was in two days, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Piper shivers as she peddles her bicycle in the November cold air. She was bundled up and wearing gloves. She makes it to school and chains her bicycle up. She covers it with a custom cover she made for it to keep it dry when it snows or rains.

When Piper enters the school and goes to her locker to change out her school books. Several folded pieces of paper fall out, asking her if she would go to the winter dance with them. She tosses the notes away because she doesn’t feel like going.

The first half of the morning goes without a hitch. Around lunch time, while Piper is getting her lunch. She spots one of the guys who bullied and attacked her that day in the lunchroom. She was sure the judge would throw the book at everyone. How did Mike get early release? How was he able to be at the school as well?

Piper made her lunch selection, which was tacos. She grabs a small salad, but nothing else. She had her sports jug with her, filled with a single packet of Cool-Aid.

Piper walks over to her normal table and sits down. She watches where Mike sits down and with whom. Some of the guys she knew, but the others she had no idea who they were.

Piper watches them as she eats her lunch. She wasn’t looking forward to gym this week. She’ll have to change in the gym teacher's office and put her clothes in the lockers near the office.

After lunch, she heads towards gym class. Piper heads into the men’s locker room without anyone seeing her. She makes her way to the gym teacher's office and changes into her gym uniform: shorts, a school t-shirt, and matching tennis shoes.

During gym class, after they did their warm-up exercises. The boys and girls separate into teams to play basketball. Piper is picked last for a team, which she doesn’t mind. She hates basketball.

During the game, she gets elbowed and tripped on purpose by a few of the girls on her team and by a few of the guys. Mike and two of his goons corner her and ram her into the bleachers, folded up. Another student trips Piper, and she lands on her knees.

Coach Lesser walks over and helps Piper up off the floor. She looks at Piper, “Are you okay, Piper?”

“I think so.” Piper looks at Coach Lesser when she answers.

She tries to put some weight on it, but winces when she feels pain. She grips Coach Lesser’s hand when she feels the pain.

“Let’s escort you to the nurse.” Coach Lesser motions to the male gym teacher to let him know she was escorting Piper to the nurse.

Piper spends some time with the nurse and is sent back to class. She makes it through the rest of the day. When school is over, she bundles up and rides her bicycle to her part-time job at the restaurant.

She spends the night popping aspirin for the pain she was feeling coming from her knee. She works through the pain, and when it was time to close for the night, she could barely stand anymore. Because of the weather, her knee pain, and the road conditions. She arrives back at the group home later than normal. She texts Freddy to let him know she arrived.

Instead of taking a shower, like he normally does. Piper fills the tub with hot water and soaks her leg. She popped two more aspirin into her mouth before lying down to sleep.

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 past 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, we 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.