Snap! Alex heard the noise, but he hadn’t moved his fingers yet. His mother (or his mother in this reality) was standing in the doorway with an urgent look on her face.
“What has gotten into you? You look fine, let’s go.” she said before walking over and pulling him away from the mirror. The sudden intrusion startled him and he hesitated for a moment. “It’s not like you to be late,” she scolded. And he realized she was right, this Alex is always prepared and always on time. He hesitated a little more before turning to face her. Then he felt a new sense of obligation, or was it there from the start? Regardless, deep inside him now there was a need to be at this practice. He took one last hesitant look at the mirror before leaving his room.
As he passed his mother, the height difference really struck him. He knew his mother was around 5’6”, and yet now she was almost half a foot taller than him. He had lost around a foot of height from the last body the mirror gave him, and although he knew he had been this height at some point in the past, he couldn’t ever remember being so close to the ground. Even though this clearly was a different house, the top of the stairs seemed way further from the bottom than they were before. Then he remembered what he was wearing. Tugging at his skirt, he walked down the stairs. He began to consider turning around again and bolting back up to his room, where all he had to do was snap and he’d be out of this situation. But when he reached the bottom and walked into the kitchen, he saw his dad sitting at the table.
“Hey, there’s my girl!” he said as he got up. Alex was shocked to see his dad off work so early, and he must have been recently as he was dressed in his work clothes. His dad walked over and hugged him, and for a moment he melted into the feeling. As he’d stayed with his parents in his original life, his father had grown more distant, expecting him to contribute more. And ever since his mom had her accident, he almost never saw his dad anymore. He felt warm and safe inside, and he wasn’t sure how much of it was him or this girl. This girl was him though.
“Don’t worry, you’re going to do great!” his dad encouraged. Alex wondered for a moment what he was talking about before remembering that this was the first practice of the year, and his first attempt at practicing with the cheer team since making it. The nerves began to set in, and again he thought he might start crying. He pulled himself away and took a deep breath.
“I don’t know, but I will try my best” he said, using his new feminine voice, and he truly meant it. As he walked to the car with his mom, something small inside told him to turn and run back to the mirror and safety. A larger part of him urged him forward and reminded him how much he had wanted this, ever since he was a little girl. It was his shot to fit in, to be admired, and it was another activity to add to his growing résumé. His mom started up some small chat as they left the driveway, and as he tried his best to follow along, he marveled at this new relationship he had with her. Even stranger was that in this reality, his brother Paul no longer seemed to exist. Relative to before, his parents now gave him and his sister more attention. Speaking of which, he and Kate were now much closer as they were now only two years apart and both female. It was hard for him to wrap his head around, his family was completely different, but there were still traces of what he knew before. It was jumbled further by his new memories telling him this had been the way things always were. At first the absence of his brother really distressed him, but he was comforted by the fact that he wasn’t stuck in this reality and that this girl didn’t know or care about him anyway.
After around 10 minutes, his mother pulled up to the high school. It wasn’t the high school he had been to, which made since as he was now living in a completely different city. He told his mother goodbye, grabbed his bag, and followed his instincts into the school. He found the gym easily, and made his way over to the group of girls dressed similarly to him. As he followed along through the practice, again it spooked him how natural everything felt, and how he was actually enjoying most of it. He had made quick friends with two of the girls, one of which invited them over to a sleepover that evening. On one hand, the idea was terrifying to him. It was a completely foreign scenario, and it would keep him away from his mirror for longer. On the other, the prospect of getting to experience a girl’s sleepover was exciting, and he did want to fit in.
“Let me call my mom” he said to stall for time. Even though it was a Monday afternoon, he knew it probably would be fine, but he also wanted to think things through a little more.