Chapter 26

Thursday, I swapped back with Morgan, as A had a bunch of things he needed to do with Antonio. So I welcomed the swap.

I informed him of Ella’s reply. He told me I was doing a good job, and to keep checking on them. They’d come around eventually.

I spent a good portion of my day while in class looking for the next swap of my trial. I knew it was too late to be Gabriel, so that was an automatic no. 

I was worried about being Jasmine so soon. One, I didn’t want to take Jasmine away from G, and two, I was worried about introducing Lauren and Kaylee. I know Lauren has a history of jealousy with Jasmine’s female relationships. I have no idea how I could rationalize introducing Lauren to Kaylee who didn’t even go to our school.

There was Daniel, but I honestly wasn’t ready to be him again so soon. 

All that was left was Sydney but she didn’t count for this trial since she’s where the relationship started.

I sighed. This trial is proving harder than I thought it would be. Half of the Guild is in committed relationships. A part of me wondered whether this was the point A and M were trying to make.

Being Morgan wasn’t all bad. I’d never seen Kaylee as thrilled as she was after we discovered Morgan’s drawer of toys, and got to demonstrate that she knew exactly how to use them. 

On Friday, I got a text from Chloe. I was confused for a moment, thinking she was texting me, D. But then I read her message.

“Hey Morgan, I was wondering if you were free this weekend?” the message read.

I didn’t respond right away, but I checked to see if there was any past correspondence, and yes, there was. It seemed that Morgan and Chloe had been talking for the past week. Some of it was very explicit. 

Good for them. Of course, I had no desire to spend time with Chloe when I could be spending it with Kaylee. But I was the one who set them up and didn’t want to get in their way. So, I made weekend plans with Chloe, and then on Friday I swapped with Morgan to be Sydney again. 

My trial seemed to have unceremoniously ground to a halt. I needed to find a way to be Jasmine, Daniel, and Gabriel soon, and each of them were proving to be challenging.

As the week gave way to the weekend I wondered when I was going to get the next opportunity.

Still nothing from Aiden and Ella.

* * *

“Hey, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?” Kaylee asked me during our nightly phone call.

“I have no plans,” I replied. 

“Well, I was wondering if I could bring you home to meet my family.”

My heart fluttered. This was such a big important step. Of course, this in and of itself presents complications. “I’d love to meet your family. But who do you want to bring home?”

“I thought about that,” she admitted. “If I bring you home as one of the guys, my parents would certainly give us the talk.”

“The sex talk? Isn’t it a little late for that?”

“No, you’ve never brought a boy home. They’ll grill you. Ask you about long term plans, marriage, kids, everything. My dad will say and do boomer shit like showing off his gun.”

“Yikes- I never had that experience from the guys’ side either.”

“Yeah, they’ve been pestering me about one day bringing home a guy. But introducing you as my boyfriend feels like a lie and I don’t want you to feel like you have to lie to be with me.”

“Yeah.”

“I could ask you to come as one of the girls and introduce you as a friend. Sure, that’s a lie too, but then I don’t have to have… the other talk. 

“The bi talk?”

“Yeeeah.”

“That sounds uncomfortable as well.”

“I’m not sure which talk I’m least looking forward to. The one where I tell them I’m dating a guy. Or the one where I’m dating a girl.”

“I’m OK with however you want to play it. Including introducing me as your… boyfriend.”

“Well, it’s not fair to you to ask you to come as one of the guys. I want you to be yourself. I want to be truthful and introduce you as my girlfriend. Because you are. I think I want to bring you home as Sydney. Can you be Sydney?”

“Well, I’m Sydney now,” I chuckled. It’s a weird feeling. She wants me to be me. She wants me to be Sydney. But I don’t own Sydney. R does. But R will likely have no objection to me taking Sydney to Kaylee’s home. Which isn’t a problem now, but I could see this being a problem long term. The same problem I was trying to avoid when I asked the Guild to date Kaylee as D. Am I already failing this trial? 

“Are you - or I mean is Sydney - available for Thanksgiving? Aren’t you going home to her parents?”

“Yeah, Sydney is available. No, her and her parents aren't really that close; and the last message she got was that they were doing their own plans for Thanksgiving anyway that don’t involve her. They’re expecting her for Christmas, though.”

“Then you can come home with me? My parents don’t live that far away.”

“I’d love to.”

* * *

“Old Business?” Antonio announced. “What’s going on with Aiden and Ella?”

I raised my hand.

“Syd, you have the floor,” he said.

I stood up. “Well, after last week’s meeting, I sent them both emails from an anonymous email account I created.” I handed out printouts of our email correspondence. “They weren’t happy. In fact, they didn’t believe I was trying to help. They thought I was trying to prank them. My last correspondence with them was Wednesday night, where Ella ordered me to leave them alone.” I sat back down.

“So that’s it?” Jasmine asked, holding up the paper I gave her. “We leave them alone?”

“That’s it,” Antonio said. “They know how to contact us if they change their minds.”

I snickered at Antonio’s choice of words. “I don’t actually believe this is over,” I said. “They dismissed me as if it was a prank. I believe they’ll contact me when they’re ready.”

“It’s been over three weeks,” Gabriel pointed out. “Maybe they want to stay this way.”

“Then they should’ve just said, ‘Nah, we’re good,’” Daniel added. “Sounds like they went out of their way to lash out instead of fix things.”

“They’re angry, and think they’re punishing me by not giving me a straight answer,” I replied.

“Fuck ‘em!” Jasmine spat. “We’ve already spent too much time on them. They were handed a lifeline and they-” she looked at the paper, “told you to go to hell.” She finished addressing the room. “They don’t deserve our attention or pity.”

A silence hung over the room before Antonio looked at me. “Keep checking your inbox in case they come to their senses.”

“OK,” I replied.

“Next up - D’s dating trial. How’s that coming?”

“I’ve successfully pulled off dates as Morgan and Antonio,” I replied.

“James had nothing but glowing things to say about Kaylee,” Antonio added.

“Two down, three more to go, huh?” Morgan asked.

“Yeah. I’m finding it’s hard to do with everyone’s schedule. Gabe is single and therefore should be the next easiest but it requires a week-long commitment.”

“And obviously it’ll be hard to do with this upcoming week being Thanksgiving,” Gabriel pointed out.

“Yeah, so I may have to pause and resume it next week.”

“Speaking of Thanksgiving,” Antonio segued, “New Business. When do we want to do our Thanksgiving reset?”

As others shifted uncomfortably in their seats, I asked, “Thanksgiving reset?”

“Typically, on holidays where we go home, we do a reset so we can go home to our real families.”

“Can we not reset this time?” Jasmine asked.

“Yeah,” Gabriel agreed. “Let’s not reset.”

Antonio looked surprised. “You… don’t want to go home?” 

“Oh, we’re going home,” Jasmine said. “Just not to our original homes.”

“I mean, I have a big game Saturday,” Gabriel reminded Antonio. “Rivalry game.”

“I’m actually looking forward to meeting my parents,” Daniel said. “If that’s OK with you D?”

“That’s fine with me,” I replied, even if it did sound a little weird.

“So if Jaz, Gabe, and Daniel aren’t resetting, what are Morgan, Sydney, and I going to do?” Antonio asked.

“You guys should swap too,” Jasmine suggested. “It’s just Thanksgiving. Savor another family’s food. Watch some football. Talk politics with someone’s conservative uncle.”

Antonio rolled his eyes. “I don’t have a crazy conservative uncle.”

“See, you’re missing out,” Gabriel laughed.

“Antonio, why haven’t you swapped since D’s punishment was up?” Jasmine asked.

“I swapped with D for a day. Twice. Besides, that was my punishment too,” Antonio replied.

“It’s up. It’s over. You can swap again.”

“It’s something James and I talked about. I worry that I’m putting my pressure on your lives.”

“What?” Morgan questioned. “That’s nonsense. Swap with me or Syd for Thanksgiving. Let go of whatever’s been eating you these past two weeks.”

"Well, if everyone else is celebrating Thanksgiving as someone else, I guess I can too," he smiled.

“Who do you want to be?”

Antonio was lost in thought. “I’ve been spending too much time as Morgan.”

“So?” Jasmine said. “Be Morgan.”

“Yeah, let’s swap, A,” Morgan offered. “I spend a lot of time as you, too. It’s not a big deal. I know you have fun as me. As I do as you. Besides, your mom makes the best pecan pie.”

“What does your mom make for Thanksgiving?” Antonio asked.

“I guess you’ll just have to find out,” Morgan teased.

“What about you, Syd?” Jasmine asked.

“Oh, well, I already have plans as Sydney,” I replied. “Kaylee is bringing me home to meet her parents.”

There was a chorus of, “Awws.”

“Have fun then,” Jasmine said with a wink.

“Since that’s all settled,” Gabriel said, “let’s adjourn the meeting.”

“Hey!” Antonio retorted. “I’m still the chair.”

I giggled and handed Morgan the stone. 

Morgan took the stone, stood up, and giggled too, “Not for long.”

“This is mutiny!” Antonio laughed as he let Morgan take his hand.

Five seconds later, the new Antonio banged the gavel. “Meeting adjourned everyone. Have a lovely Thanksgiving. Don’t eat too much. Sydney, good luck meeting the parents. Don't do anything that I wouldn’t do.”

* * *

The first half of the week went by in a blur. Classes were light, so I spent afternoons and evenings either with Kaylee or reading.

On Wednesday morning, it was time to go to Kaylee’s parents for Thanksgiving. I was going to ride with her so she came to pick me up at my apartment. 

She knocked on my door and came in. “It’s me!”

“I just finished packing,” I yelled out from my bedroom. I had spent all morning packing, struggling to decide what to bring to wear. I’ve never “met the parents” as a guy before, so I was equally confused at what to wear as a girl. I may have overpacked, making sure I had both casual outfits and dresses for whatever occasion should break out.

“No rush,” she said, walking into the room with a frown.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Ugh,” Kaylee said, throwing herself dramatically onto my bed. “I’m not looking forward to this weekend.”

“Why not?” I asked. “You’ll be spending it with me. Would you rather I be Morgan? There might still be time for me to swap.”

“No, no - Sydney is fine. I wish I could just spend it with you - and only you. It’s spending it with my family that’s the problem.”

“What's so bad about them?” I sat down next to her.

“Expectations of family time. How family holidays have to always be perfect. Except I’m not perfect.”

“I have a hard time believing that. You are perfect to me.”

“Not to my parents. It's the constant comparison to my twin. Miss Perfect. It’s almost as if they blame me for not having enough money to send both of us to college. It’s always Alyssa this, Alyssa that. Alyssa is dating a law student. Alyssa got great grades this semester. Never anything about poor Kaylee. The invisible twin.”

“I’m sorry, it sounds like that gives you a lot of anxiety.”

“What’s your family like?”

“Sydney’s family, or Daniel’s?”

“Whichever. Your real parents. Daniel’s.”

“There’s not much to tell. I was a single child. My parents worked most of the time. I always had the feeling that I was a mistake. They’d often wax poetic about how things used to be in their 20s - AKA - before me. They’d traveled the world, done excursions, found the time for hundreds of hobbies. Growing up, they were often lost in their nostalgia of days gone by. We hardly did anything. We never went anywhere. It’s almost as if they were counting down the days until I left for college so they could resume their lives.”

“That’s awful. So, what is Daniel doing for Thanksgiving?”

“Oh, he’s said he’s going home. He’s actually looking forward to meeting them. I should’ve told him that my parents converted my bedroom to a guest bedroom.”

“Who is Daniel right now?”

“R.”

“Well, that makes sense then,” she said. “R kinda gave away his family.”

“Yeah, good point.”

“Well, I think I’d take either of those scenarios over my family.” She rolled onto her stomach.

“I doubt that.” I rubbed my girlfriend’s back, “I’m kinda looking forward to meeting your family. Especially your twin… Alyssa?”

“Why would you want to meet her?”

“Because there happens to be two of my girlfriend in the world. I think that’s kinda cool.”

“But she’s nothing like me.”

“I suppose I’ll be the judge of that.” I nudged her playfully.

Kaylee sighed again. “I just wish I could spend the weekend with you and not have to face the ire of my family. Let’s just skip Thanksgiving. Stay here. Or at my place. We’ll order a turkey from DoorDash and have sex all weekend.”

“Hmmm… That does sound tempting…” My voice trailed off as the gears in my head started turning. I laughed. “I have a crazy idea.”

“We DoorDash a ham instead?”

“No, we can swap,” I laughed, dismissing the whole idea. “I can deal with your family, and you can be the cute girlfriend.”

Kaylee rolled over and sat up, eyes wide. “Are you serious?"

“Maybe… kinda?”

“What if we did, though?”

I shrugged my shoulders. I hadn’t run it by the Guild. I certainly wasn’t eager to break another rule, especially considering that I’m still facing the consequences from the previous time. “I dunno.”

“You would be me and I would be you?” she clarified, pointing at each of us.

“I mean… hypothetically that would work.” I noticed how excited Kaylee got at the mention of us swapping. I didn’t want to disappoint her. So I followed my crazy idea to its conclusion. “That would mean I would face their critical attitudes. It’ll be fine. Them judging me would be more attention then I get from my actual parents. I’ve never had a sister, let alone a twin.” Wait, that made it seem too tempting.

“You really mean it?”

I’d really put my foot into my mouth this time. I should tell her no. I should reiterate that I was just joking. But the smile on her face. The eagerness. I was putty in her hands. “Uh… yeah, sure.”

“That would be awesome! I’ve been meaning to ask you if we could swap again. That was so thrilling when we did that. And then I can face my family not as Kaylee. That would be amaze-balls!”

Back to reality. “The only problem is I don’t have the stone. I think Morgan has it.”

“Oh.” Kaylee looked disappointed and her enthusiasm deflated.

Oh, no. I just ruined her weekend. Maybe Morgan’s still here. If I run I can catch her. “It’s fine. Stay right here,” I said. “Don’t leave without me.”

“I wouldn’t think of it.”

I dashed out of my apartment and jogged to the next complex over where Jasmine and Morgan’s apartment is. I knocked on the door.

Jasmine opened it. “Syd! Hey, what's going on?”

I walked in and realized we weren’t alone. Lauren was there. They both looked like they were ready to leave. “Oh, hi Lauren.” 

“Have we met?” Lauren asked, looking at me, a total stranger. Oops.

“Oh, no - sorry!” I said. “I’m Sydney. Jasmine has said so much about you.”

“Sydney is one of my friends from the Guild I talk about,” Jasmine awkwardly introduced us.

I looked at Jasmine in surprise. She told Lauren about the Guild?

“It’s nice to meet you,” Lauren said stiffly. “So you’re one of her role-play friends?”

“Yeah,” I awkwardly replied.

“I never got into D&D, and I don’t understand any of it. Dice and character sheets. It's just too much for me.”

Oh - that’s what she thinks we do. I exhaled a sigh of relief.

“We’re about to head out,” Jasmine said. “We’re going to my mom’s-”

“You’re going to your mom’s?” I echoed in surprise. “And you’re bringing Lauren?”

“I’m not sure it's a good idea either,” Lauren chimed in. “She’s going to kick us out. We’re totally gonna be eating Thanksgiving dinner at McDonalds.”

“No, we’re doing this,” Jasmine said. “My mom is going to accept both of us with open arms - or else.”

I held up my arms. “Good luck to both of you.”

“Did you need something?” Jasmine asked.

“Yeah. Morgan was going to let me borrow something before I headed out.”

“Morgan already left for the weekend.”

“Oh,” I said, my hopes momentarily dashed. 

“Oh, right,” Jasmine realized. “I think she mentioned something about that. It’s in her room.”

My hope returned. “Can I grab it quickly?”

“Go for it.”

I walked into Morgan's room and searched her desk drawer and found it. I also needed to have something else in my hand so Lauren doesn’t see me walk out with a magic stone. I grabbed a curling iron I found in one of her drawers. I returned to the door, holding the curling iron up for the girls to see. 

“Is that for Kaylee?” Jasmine gushed.

“It is,” I admitted. “I’ll bring it right back.”

“Take your time. We won’t be leaving for another hour,” Jasmine said. “I want to keep my mother off balance.”

It occurred to me that Jasmine is currently G. And I’ve been putting off talking to G about my thoughts about my gender. I paused at the door. “Hey, umm, Jaz?”

“Yeah?”

“I know it’s not the time. But there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”

“What about?”

“Something about me.”

She tilted her head quizzically, and then gave me a warm smile. “Sure, Syd. I think I already know what it is. My door’s always open to talk.”

I returned her smile. “Thanks. Maybe when we come back.”

“Have a good weekend, Syd!” she said.

As I left I heard Lauren ask, “But I thought she was going to be right back?”

I jogged back to my apartment holding the stone and curling iron. Kaylee was right where I left her. 

“We just need to give it back to Jasmine,” I explained. “It can’t leave campus.”

“Sure,” Kaylee replied. “What’s the curling iron for?”

“Jasmine’s girlfriend was there. I needed to pretend to borrow something.”

“Good idea.”

I held out my palm holding the stone.

“Before we swap, I need to do something,” Kaylee said. She walked up to me, put her hands on my shoulders and pulled me in for a long passionate kiss. Her tongue was a welcome distraction from everything. As she nibbled on my lips I considered revisiting that whole “sex weekend” plan. She disengaged from the kiss. “Sorry. I don’t think we’ll get any other opportunity for that after right now.”

I nodded. I then remembered that she avoided intimacy with me when I was Kaylee last time. I sighed, knowing that it’ll likely be a chaste weekend.

“There’s um… something else you should know before you do this,” she cautioned.

“What is it?”

She looked at me guiltily. “I didn’t tell them I’m bi like I planned to. I told them I’m bringing a friend. Not a girlfriend.”

“Oh,” I said. I felt hurt and disappointed. I was looking forward to being introduced as the girlfriend. Of course with the stone I won’t be the girlfriend anyway. But it still stung. “Sure. That won’t be a problem.”

“OK,” she said, rubbing her hands together. “Are we still going to go through with this?”

She gave me an out. I could change my mind right here. But I think the moment I ran to get the stone I was fully committed. “We are.”

“I’m getting chills. This is so exciting!” 

I held up the stone. “Grab this hand—”

She took my hand before I could finish the sentence.

Five seconds later, I was Kaylee and I had to brace Sydney with both hands as she stumbled, off-balance from the temporary vertigo. I took the stone from her before she dropped it.

“I’m sorry,” I said to her. “I forgot that you’re a newb at this. It’s best to close your eyes while swapping.”

Sydney held out her arms, turning her hands inwards and outwards. “The first time felt like a dream. But now it feels so real. I can’t believe this is your life and you get to do this whenever you want.”

“It is,” I echoed with a smile. “Although, I could use some stability after all of the chaos.”

She didn’t say anything and stood there admiring her new form.

“We should get the stone back to Jasmine.”

“Shouldn’t we curl your hair, as part of our cover story?” she asked. “I think you’ll look really cute.”

“I… guess,” I replied. “I’ve never actually curled my hair. Do we have time?”

“My mom is expecting us for lunch, but we’ve got some time. I’ll show you how.” She picked up the curling iron and led me to the bathroom where she plugged it in.

“OK, where do we start?” I asked.

She grabbed a lock of my strawberry blonde hair. “You separate a small section of your hair. Then you clamp down with the curling iron, pull it down, then curl it around the iron like so.” She demonstrated it. “Now you try.”

I repeated the same steps she showed me for another section of hair. “Like that?”

“Perfect.”

“So a few rules for this weekend.” I said, curling another chunk of hair. “You call me Kaylee, I’ll call you Sydney. We can call each other D and K in private, but we should avoid it as best as we can. I imagine we won’t have much private time anyway.”

“We won’t. I’m sure of it.”

“You should tell me about your family so I don’t stand there dumbfounded when I meet them.”

“I can give you the crash course on the drive over.”

A half hour later I had a head full of bouncy red curls. I had to admit I looked pretty cute like this.

“Next,” I said, walking back to the door. “You - Sydney - need to put the stone and the curling iron back in Morgan’s room.” I handed her the stone and the curling iron.

“OK. It’s the next complex over to the right?”

“Right.”

“OK,” she said, leaving my - her - apartment.

While Sydney was gone, I walked into the bedroom to check out my new body in the mirror.

I saw Kaylee’s reflection looking back at me. I smiled a big smile and watched as the reflection mimicked me. I posed and twirled in front of the mirror. I bounced my newly-curled hair. It felt like my heart rate was beating millions of beats a minute. I was enjoying this more than I thought. 

Being Kaylee felt different than being Sydney or the other girls. I couldn’t pinpoint why, but I couldn’t stop smiling. 

I stuck my tongue out at the reflection and giggled.

Sydney returned a few minutes later with an eager smile. “I put the stone and curling iron back in Morgan’s room. I think Jasmine knew it was me. She called me K.”

“Yeah, I kinda hinted at who I was using the stone with.”

“And I kinda roped us into a double date next week.”

“A double date?”

“Well you were telling me and Jasmine how you needed to find a way to both be Jasmine and hang out with me. A double date. It was her idea and she was excited to tell me.”

“That sounds great.”

“So,” Sydney said, pausing, “the stone is out of our possession now. I’m guessing we’re stuck like this for the entire weekend?”

“Yup,” I replied.

She smiled. “How exciting! Ready to get this weekend started, Kaylee?”