Epilogue

It was a hot afternoon in August, and Alyssa and I walked through the door of my house after a very exhausting day at Lacrosse Camp. Well technically not “my” house, it’s Emma Kincade’s house. But seeing as I’m staying here for the summer, I suppose I could call it “my” house. Just like until Emma returns, this is “my” body.

We dropped our equipment bags at the door as Carmen came out of the kitchen with two glasses of ice-cold lemonade.

“Gracias, Carmen,” I said. “Eres chido.” Yeah, I’ve been learning some Spanish from Carmen. I loathe that she’s the family’s servant, but at the same time, she reminds me that she’s getting paid handsomely. So I at least try to show some respect for someone being paid to pick up after me. This wonderful lady even offered to throw me a quinceañera for Emma’s 15th birthday when I came home for the summer, but the idea just seemed too weird.

“Thank you,” Alyssa said.

“Cheers!” I toasted, tapping my lemonade glass with Alyssa’s.

After a big gulp I led Alyssa to my bedroom. She grabbed her backpack and followed me. The plan was to jump into our pool after camp. I put the lemonade on my nightstand, and shut the door behind us.

She opened her backpack and pulled out her bathing suit, when something on my dresser caught her eye. She walked over to it and picked up a book. “Is this your yearbook?”

“Yeah, it is,” I replied, pulling my sweat-drenched T-shirt off. My own bathing suit was neatly set out on the bed. An orange two-piece plus a pair of blue board shorts. Yeah, I'm not comfortable running around in bikini bottoms just yet. Speaking of comfort level, I wondered if I should retreat to the bathroom to exchange my sports bra for the bikini. I still avoid locker room type situations. It’s just too weird.

“Is this an all-girls school?” she asked. “I don’t see any boys.”

“There’s some boys in there,” I said.

“I’m sorry, girl. Dating must be rough.”

I acknowledged that with a grunt. It’s rough for three weeks, but I find my three days with Brittany more than makes up for it. 

“Emma, you don’t talk too much about school.”

“What’s to say? I go to class. I made some friends. I joined their lacrosse team.”

“You haven’t told me about any of them since you’ve been back. Hell, you never told me what happened with Jacob.”

“Trust me - the less you know about Jacob, the better.”

“OK. Your friends at school. Do you have a roommate?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I have a roommate - Sophia. She’s super peppy. She’s a year ahead of us.”

“And?”

“Well, I have a lot of friends.” I started listing them on my fingers. “There’s Sam, Lulu, and Brandi, Ashley, and Amanda, and… more than I can name. Some who even just graduated.”

“Boyfriend?” She giggled, removing her own T-shirt to reveal her sports bra. I turned away from her. Awkward locker room situation - even though her bikini covers less. 

“No,” I firmly dismissed it.

She looked at me and cocked her head inquisitively. “Girlfriend?”

I froze, not expecting her to ask that.

“Oh my God,” she gasped, taking my deer-in-headlights look to mean she stumbled onto something juicy. “Emma!” She whispered, “Are you… gay?” She said it like being gay is taboo in 2024. Or maybe it is for a 15-year-old. It's been so long since Jack was in high school, I have no idea what Normie school is like for Alyssa. Almost everyone I know at PAA is some form of queer, even if they’re in a hetero relationship.

Anyway, I’m not gay. I’m straight because I’m really a 43-year-old man underneath this teenage girl exterior. Sophia tells me this just makes me trans, but it’s only a technicality because I wasn’t born in this body. “Shh,” I said, making sure this conversation remained at low volume. “The ‘rents will flip if they find out.” Actually, I don’t know that. But I imagine that’s something a 15-year-old girl would say when her friend found out she’s into other girls. And the Kincades aren’t the most accepting people. Mr. Kincade goes off on some political rant at least once a week. “Honestly…It’s nothing serious. Very casual. I don't know. I'm still trying to figure myself out. But - yes - she's a girl."

“Who is she? What’s she like?”

I kinda didn’t really want to reveal those details to Alyssa. Sure, she’s been really cool since I got back here. She helped me not miss PAA as much. But the summer is almost over and at the end of the month, I’ll be back at school, where Alyssa will become a long-distance friendship again. Part of me really wanted to tell her the truth. My real name, for example. The real nature of PAA. Hell, I could even tell her that my quasi-girlfriend is a Weregirl, and only exists during the full moon. All other times, he’s my friend Brett, who comes around occasionally. “It’s not serious. But she’s hot,” is all that came out.

“Hot - like me? Or like Clara?”

I put my hand over my face and shook my head in embarrassment. “We’re not talking about this.” Sure - Alyssa is cute. So is Clara, another one of Emma’s friends. But I didn't want to admit that to them and have things turn awkward. It’s awkward enough getting changed together in my bedroom.

“Spill the details, girl!”

Fine. Some basics. “Well, she’s going to be a Sophomore too, like us. We met at a nightclub my second week at PAA.”

“A nightclub?” She looked at me like I was crazy.

“A teen club. They rent one out during the full- I mean once a month so students have somewhere to hang out.”

“Wow, your school sounds awesome already. I wish you’d let me come visit. What’s her name?”

“Brittany.”

“And? What else can you tell me about Brittany,” Allysa pressed, emphasizing my part-time girlfriend’s name with glee.

“Well… she swept me off my feet and she respects my boundaries and moves at my pace. That’s it!” 

“Do you…” she made scissor motions with her fingers.

I turned red. “Oh my God, Alyssa. I’m not talking about this with you!” I was never much of a kiss-and-tell kind of guy in my past life, and I wasn’t going to start now. Whatever happens between Brittany and I behind closed doors is between us. And I suppose Brett. But he knows what happens with Brittany, stays with Brittany, or else I’ll kick him so hard, he’ll be Brittany the other days of the month.

Suddenly my phone began to ring. Thank God, a way out of Alyssa’s interrogation. I checked the caller ID. It was Max. We hadn’t talked for a while, so I figured he was just checking in. I pressed Answer and greeted him, “Hey Max, how’s it going?”

“Who’s Max?” Alyssa whispered confusedly.

There was a hesitation on the line. “Cate, I’m calling because we found your body,” he said. “I mean, Jack’s body.”

I stood there shocked and excited. Finally! It’s only taken ten months.“That’s great! Where is he? I want to come down and see him. I have a lot of ques-”

“Cate,” Max interrupted me. There was a pregnant silence before he dropped the bomb on me. “He’s dead. Jack’s dead. I’m sorry.”

All color drained from my face as I dropped the phone.

“Emma?” Alyssa said, coming to my aid. “What happened?”

I was dizzy and fell onto my bed in shock. Alyssa kept pleading with me to answer her and tell her what’s wrong, but I couldn’t speak. Hell, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. This couldn’t be real. This had to be a dream, right? I am dead. Jack Baker is dead.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CATE FOX BOOK 2

Author's Notes and Acknowledgements 

Thank you for reading!

This story was voted on by my Discord server members. The idea was to create a boarding school made up of students who were themselves gender transformed by different genres and tropes commonly found in TG/TF fiction. It was partially inspired by Netflix’s Wednesday. After my previous story was a by-the-numbers movie remake, I knew I wanted to do a darker mystery next. I wanted to create a larger universe. I also wanted to return to the 1st person narrative. I hadn’t seen anyone do a “TG Noir”, so naturally I was up to the challenge. 

When drafting the story, I made the controversial decision to make the protagonist in the mold of the old alpha-male cop archetype that used to be popular but has since fallen out of favor. I know that turned a number of readers off almost immediately. I stood by that decision because I wanted to see this school and the student’s plight from an outsider’s point of view, and I wanted to reward the readers with a satisfying character arc. While her arc isn’t over, the Cate we know in Chapter 24 is not Jack from Chapter 1.

Thank you to my alpha readers - ETSD and Elron. Without them the story would likely have no focus and be a grammatical mess. I enjoyed bouncing ideas off of them to get their opinion and reaction. They put countless hours of volunteer work into making my Jersey dialect and Computer Programmer typing look and sound legible. To my Discord server members who provided a number of good ideas for students and their backstories. To the TG/TF authors whose stories provided the inspiration for several characters in this story. Of course I say this every story, but lastly I also want to thank all of the readers - especially those who interacted with me on the various fiction platforms during the course of the story. Without you, this wouldn’t be nearly as enjoyable and I likely wouldn't still be writing anymore.

You can leave a comment here or reach out to me via email (tfes8@yahoo.com) or my Discord Server (https://discord.gg/cTuZwYF4dT). You can find other free stories on my website (https://tfemily.com) and my pay stories on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/stores/T.F.-Emily-Sorrento/author/B0B5H54V1D).