Liana stretched as she woke up. It was the third time her alarm clock had gone off, but it was not was the third time she was going to hit snooze. Today was finally the day of her camping trip with her friends. And finally away from her family, she thought. That was plenty to finally get her out of bed. It was a great way to celebrate before they went to university. She threw her blanket off, keeping her eyes off her body. Her appointment for HRT was soon, but this was something that definitely kept her mind off it. She picked out her favourite clothes: a sanguine crop top and same colour sweatpants. It was the most feminine her parents had allowed her to get, and they still gave her weird looks about it.
Case in point, when she went downstairs. Her mom was the first to greet her, albeit with her deadname. It’s been a year.
“It’s Liana now,” she said, attempting to use her voice training.
“Right. Sorry. Are you ready?”
“It’ll be the first time in a while without us,” her dad chimed in, not looking up from his newspaper. “Have some breakfast before you go running out.”
Liana sat down at the table and started eating. It didn’t take long for her to finish her meal, and she excused herself. In her room, she collected her bag with all her clothes and all the other supplies they would need. Some might consider her an overpacking, but she just considered herself prepared. Though the summer morning was chilly, she didn’t need much more than her black zip-up hoodie. Swinging the bag over her back, she left with a quick goodbye to her parents.
Outside her house, her partner was already waiting for her.
“Jennifer!” Liana said, greeting her with a kiss. Liana’s blue eyes held her partner’s hazel eyes for a moment. For that moment, it was almost everything she had wanted in the world.
“Glad you could make it, love,” Jennifer said.
Jennifer’s skin was much darker than Liana’s tan skin, but they had similar hair types. Instead of Liana’s short, curly, black ringlets around her head, Jennifer wore her curly, black hair in a side-parted bob. They had both managed to dye their hair, to both their parents’ dismay. Liana had dark pink ombre at the end of each ringlet. Jennifer had her side-part died light bluish-gray. Jennifer was slightly taller than Liana, and was the latter’s guide to getting HRT for herself. Jennifer’s HRT’s effects weren’t physically visible yet, but Liana could see that Jennifer was much happier.
“Come on,” Jennifer said, walking to the car. “Let’s get going so we can pick up the others.”
Liana followed her and sat in the passenger seat at the front. The car ride was full of pleasant conversation, and plans for once they got there. Once or twice, the conversation did steer into risqué territory, but they decided to leave that for when they were alone. Or, alone enough. Eventually, they did pull into a driveway, where they greeted two more people with hugs.
The first one was Kaylee. Their skin was lighter than even Liana’s, and they had blonde hair with hazel eyes. They were slightly shorter than Liana, and their hair was styled much like Jennifer’s, but not nearly as curly. Then, there was Kaylee’s partner, Eden. He was guided by Jennifer just as much to get HRT, but he had been as successful as Liana. It was scheduled. His skin was in between Liana’s and Kaylee’s, with his naturally-straight black hair curved into a mane-ish shape. He was shorter than even Kaylee, which did make Liana want to pick him up at times. She had never done it, and was too scared to ask for his permission.
“Let’s go!” Jennifer said, getting in the car. “Lia gets shotgun!”
Liana laughed, and got back into her seat. The ride was quite fun by itself, where for once, she didn’t feel she had to hide herself. Everyone in the car was super accepting. They chattered, played road-games, and told stories. All this made it somewhat disappointing when the campground rolled around.
As Liana took a once-over at the campground, she noticed something strange. It was empty. Eden looked out his window behind her. “Is it usually this empty?”
“I guess we missed the prime time for camping,” Kaylee said. “But whatever. Our cabins are up there.”
This was one of those fancy camping sites, where the campers didn’t use tents, but cabins. Liana was 90% sure it was just because Jennifer would never live in a tent.
“You lucked out this time, Jen,” she teased.
“Hey!” Jennifer protested. Her stomach growled. “Well. Let’s get our stuff to our cabin, then get lunch.”
And so they did. They unpacked at the cabin, sleeping bags on the ground, and started pulling out their lunch. Starting a fire, they sat around it, telling more stories. These stories might have been true, they might have been scary, or they might have been plain wacky. Anything went, with the group having a great time. They were roasting chicken, then marshmallows. And, they had finished dinner for the day. It was time to take a shower.
They walked over to the showers, and they weren’t separated into genders. Everyone was relieved at that prospect. But when Liana peeked inside, she could only see two. And they looked like big showers. Bigger than she had ever seen, at least. At the front, there was a placard. It was engraved in fancy writing that almost seemed to glow.
If one enters here
Stripped of that which they wear
It best to beware
The changes that may occur
“That’s…strange,” Eden said. “What does that mean?”
“Good question,” Kaylee agreed. “I’ll go first.”
She walked into the shower. The other three sat around, waiting, then when they came out, Liana noticed something different immediately.
“Your hair!” she said. It was much longer than when they had went in.
“Yeah…” Kaylee replied. “I was rinsing my hair and thinking how I would like it to be longer. Then it was!”
“Well, that explains the placard,” Jennifer said.
“What do you mean?” Kaylee asked.
“These are transformative showers. Somehow.”
“Does that mean….?” Eden started. The question hung in the air.
“It might.”