Chapter 3
I assumed that my daily routine would be almost identical, and that seemed to be the case. I went into the bathroom, and had a shower, which was familiar, yet a bit different! One difference was the fact that I needed to keep my long hair dry. The other was than my body had extra bits, and was missing other bits! After my shower, I took the opportunity to look in the bathroom mirror at my silver smile again.... yeah, nice... and was about to brush my teeth when I realised it would be a bit of a waste of time, as I'd soon be eating breakfast.
I dried myself off, then knocked on my brother Mike's door, to tell him that the bathroom was free.
Back in my room, I grabbed my dirty socks and pants (actually, I guess that should actually be 'panties'... they are definitely smaller than a guy's underpants!) and put them in the linen hamper, and got some clean ones from my drawer. My bra was on my chair, so that was easy. Then I had a slight issue: what sort of clothes did I wear, as Andi? There was a pair of jeans on the chair, so I picked them up, to see what might be underneath... there was a used top, and that was it. Well, that helped a bit, I was wondering if there might be a skirt or tights underneath. I went to my dresser, and found a clean top - a pink one of course, and some socks, which I put on, followed by the jeans. I put my trainers on my feet: ah, no change there then!
Ok, but what about makeup? I'm a girl, and we girls wear makeup! I had inspiration: back on my phone, I looked at the pictures: BINGO! Selfies! I looked carefully. Oh, good, the clothes I had put on looked fairly typical, and I can see I wear a bit of makeup, but not a lot: OK, I can do this!
It's strange, but I picked up the eye-shadow without even thinking about it, and seemed to be able to apply it quite well without thinking. Same for the mascara and lip gloss. Then I had to brush my long hair: as a guy, with short hair, that had never been an issue for me, but it did take a bit longer to do than I was used to. Hmm, it feels strange having long hair, but it DOES look good on me! Maybe I'll be able to cope as a girl after all!
Ok, need to pack up the books I need for today.... I looked on my phone for my timetable: ah, good, I was still studying Maths, Extra Maths and Law, so my timetable was unchanged.
As Andy, I tended to have cereals and juice for breakfast, and when I got downstairs, mum had put out a dish and a glass for me: it seemed that Andi had the same breakfast as I did. Next to the dish was a small pile of envelopes: birthday cards! There was one from mum and dad. Two from my two lots of grandparents, and another from my auntie. I opened them between mouthfuls of cereals: they were all fairly 'normal' 18th cards
"Happy 18th Birthday, Andi!" said dad, who came over and gave me a nice hug, and a kiss on my cheek. Whilst I was looking at my cards now, we had agreed that we would do presents tonight, then we would all go to the pub, so I can have a LEGAL drink!!
"Thanks, dad!"
"Hey, sis, happy 18th!" said Mike as he walked in to the kitchen a few minutes later, giving me a card.
"Thanks, Mike!". I opened his card and smiled: it said '-18- You can now legally do everything you've been doing since you were 15'. "I like it!" I added.
I ate my breakfast, which took a little longer than it used to because of my braces, then of course I had to go brush my teeth: it seemed that I was lucky because, as well as my electric toothbrush, it seemed I had a waterpic, so cleaning my teeth and braces wasn't as hard as I thought it might be, and didn't take very long.
"Bye mum, dad, see you later" I said as I came downstairs again, ready to leave. Mike was also about to leave, although he walked to school.
I grabbed my coat, and went out to catch the bus to college - all of that was easy, as it's what I normally did: I checked the time... good, I was a couple of minutes early for a change! Interestingly, I met the same people on the bus that I did as Andy, and interacted with them in a very similar way. In fact, it was the same at college, although I seemed to interact with the guys and other girls in a slightly different way to when I was Andy, if only because I'm now a girl. Pleasantly, noone seemed at all worried about my braces or the fact that I lisped.
For lunch, I joined several friends in the college cafeteria: it was pretty cheap, and the food was ok too. Of course, I had to leave everyone a few minutes early, so I could go brush my teeth... or rather my braces. This took a bit longer than at breakfast, as I don't carry a water-pic around with me! Before leaving the loo, I checked myself in the mirror: whilst my teeth and braces looked clean, I could see that I needed to touch up my lip-gloss.Oh, the problems that girls seem to have that we guys don't have. As I thought that, I thought something else too: what if I never change back to being me? I mean Andy, the guy. Could I actually cope living as a girl?
My last class ended just before 4, and I met up with a few of my friends, and we all walked into town. We had agreed ages ago not to give each other birthday cards, because all of us were turning 18 this year sometime, so that would be a lot of cards to have to buy! Had we all been 18, we could have gone to the pub, but it was still early in the year, and only a few of us were legal so far, and most pubs were strict on doing age-checks. So we went into a coffee place, where we got coffees, and then sat together around a table.
"Hey, Andi, Happy Birthday!" said Jenny, a girl in the same year as me who studied music. In her hand she had a cupcake, with a candle on it. She gave me a birthday kiss, then gave me the cupcake.
"Thanks, Jenny!". As Andy, I quite fancied Jenny.... but strangely, as Andi, I was getting very similar feelings when I looked at her, feelings that I wasn't getting when I looked at the guys in the group. Interesting.
Several selfies later, it was time to go home, where I had dinner (including a proper, full-sized, birthday cake) with my family, and then I opened my presents. Mum and dad had bought me a very nice new phone (which I needed, my phone was getting a bit old!), plus a rather nice gold bracelet with my name inscribed on it, which I put on. Mike had bought me a pair of wireless earbuds - he had clearly seen me using my tatty wired earbuds too many times!
I was going to have a party at the weekend, with friends and family coming along, so I would no doubt get more presents then, so I was very happy with what I'd been given.
After that, we all went to the pub. Mike is 16, so there was no problem with him joining us, although clearly he wouldn't be able to drink any booze. Whilst I have drunk beer on many occasions (some legal - in England I'm allowed to drink beer or wine with a meal when I'm with my family.... and some not so legal), and I've occasionally had a glass of liqueur at family occasions, I'd never really tried any of the main spirits (like whisky, gin, vodka etc). Dad bought me a double whisky: wow, it had a kick to it! He then bought me a rather more sedate pint of lager.
Back home some time later, it was time to go to bed. I was sitting at my dressing table, having just removed my makeup, ready to go to bed, and thought I'd have a look in the drawers, to see what Andi kept there. I noticed a diary, so I took it out, and opened it. It felt a bit odd, opening someone else's diary, but then I realised that, for as long as I was Andi, it was actually MY diary. It was full of her thoughts and comments.
Two things stood out for me: first, Andi seemed to worry about her sexuality - it was very clear that she had a massive crush on Jenny, but she wasn't really sure if Jenny felt the same way. The way people had interacted with me today, either everyone KNEW that Andi liked girls, and it really wasn't a big deal, or it was a massive secret, and no-one else knew. To be honest, I don't think it mattered that much.
The second thing I picked up on was her love-hate relationship with her braces. It seemed that she had got her braces a year ago, just before her 17th birthday. I read of her frustrations of having had to wait so long to get the braces in the first place. It was clear that initially she had felt very frustrated at having the bite plane, or more specifically the lisp it gave her, but more recently she seemed to have accepted it. And the frustrations at having to brush her teeth all the time. What I did notice though was how she actually LIKED the silver smile that her all-metal brackets gave her.
I decided to write an entry in the diary for today:
"Hi Andi! Happy 18th Birthday! It has been really strange, yet very pleasant being you today. You are a very lucky girl, your family and friends love you a lot. You're good looking too, and I do like your braces: I wish I had braces like yours! Last night, mum showed me the pictures of you and me for the first time: you looked so tiny, but so cute.. I guess, from your perspective, mum showed you the pictures and I was the tiny frail one? I really wish I had actually got to meet you, I'm sure it would have been fun to have a twin sister!"
I wasn't sure what else to add, so I just signed off: "Lots of love from Andy, your brother (or maybe you think of me as Oliver?) xxxx". I gave the book a kiss, then closed it, and put it back into my drawer.
As I closed my eyes, I did wonder who I would wake up as in the morning: would I still be Andi, or would I be Andy once more?