Josh looks into the mirror and wonders what Ric has gotten him into. Standing, he looks once again in the mirror. Reflected back is a seven year old girl wearing a flowing red skirt that stops just above the knees. The top part is a red scrunchie like material that starts just below his armpits and stops just around his midriff. Two clear, thin straps keep the dress from coming off.
A pair of red, plastic shoes cover his feet and as he takes in the clothes, Josh thinks, "I look a little like Lisa Marie Simpson, only without the pearl necklace."
Lifting up the dress, he finds that he is wearing a pair of pink panties and from them is a peculiar bulge. Pulling the underwear down slightly, Josh sighs when he notices that he at least still has his penis and testicles. "So why am I dressed like a girl," he asks himself, letting the panties snap back in place and dropping the dress hem.
At first Josh thinks he's one of these perverts who dresses in his sisters clothes, but then he begins to notice things; the first being the earrings.
He thinks they might be clip-ons, but upon closer inspection, he notices that his ears are indeed pierced. The next being his hair. As he touched the studs of the earrings, he thought his hair was awfully short, but then he not only got a better look as well as felt something tickling his bare back.
Reaching behind, noticing his skin was softer, he grasped the item that was tickling him and brought it forward; only to discover that it was a braid of brown hair. "I'm one of those, what do you call 'em, male-to-female boys," Josh thinks, but is unable to come up with the name as he drops the braid and lets it swing back behind him.
Scared, he turns around and takes in the room. In his opinion it can be described as bright and feminine. Unable to decide on what the theme is, Josh walks over to the bed and with out really thinking about it, selects a doll and cradling it in the same way a little girl would, a motherly fashion, Josh heads for the bedroom door and opening, he steps out.
He gasps as he realizes that he's still in his own house, but upon opening Ric's room, he finds a guest room instead. Scared even more, he opens his mothers room and sighs when he finds that that is still there. Hugging the doll, he heads downstairs.
Josh has just reached the foot of the stairs, when a woman calls out, "Amelia, you're awake. Did you enjoy your nap?"
Recognizing his mother's voice, Josh heads toward it. As he steps into the kitchen, he looks at his mother and nods. In a voice that he realizes sounds like a little girl's, he tells her, "Yes mommy."
Josh's mother responds with, "Come eat you lunch sweetheart and don't forget to take you pills. If you're feeling up to it, I'll take you out for ice cream later," and then places a bowl of chicken soup, a spoon and glass of Seven-Up down on the table along with three pills.
Josh, who's starting to think of himself as Amelia, sits down at the table. As he takes the pills - two are hormones and the other one goes to works on his chemistry changing him at a genetic level, but no changes will be seen until the body hits puberty in another three to four years - he thinks to himself, "I really, really need to find that book."
Sipping the soup, Josh/Amelia suddenly remembers that she's been sick for the past three days and is only now starting to feel better. Outside it is a beautiful summer day and she wonders if mommy will let her go out and play.
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Ric's near panic; he'd tried the house were he and his brother first bought the book, only to find the book wasn't there. On top of all of this, when he'd returned home, Ric found that all the pictures of his brother were missing. Dashing up to his brother's room, Ric only found the guest room. "What the hell is going on here," he thought.
Downstairs, he got himself a snack and sitting at the table, he continuously reminds himself that at one time he had a brother named Josh, unaware that he's already forgotten about Francisco Mendes.