“Hi Mom, hi Dad,” Jonchelle greeted her parents cheerfully. She could already tell that they were wearing each other's clothes. Dad was wearing a blouse and a pair of capris that she had seen Mom wear a couple of times, while Mom was wearing a polo shirt and a pair of trousers. They looked a little baggy on Mom, and Dad’s clothes were a little tight on him.
“Hi honey,” her mom replied, smiling at her. Jonchelle reached out for a hug, it wasn’t something that she normally did, but it already felt like a natural thing to do since she started being a girl. This allowed Mom to smell her shampoo.
“Did you use Zoe’s shampoo?” she asked.
Jonchelle nodded. “Zachary’s,” she reminded her. “Yeah, I want to go all in on this and I wanted to get started early. I tried some of Zachary’s makeup, but it’s too dark for the type of girl that I want to be.”
Linda seemed surprised at how much Jonchelle had already planned out, but she nodded anyway.
“Well, if you’d like, you can always borrow some of my makeup until we go shopping.”
Jonchelle beamed at her. “Really? Wow, thanks Mom...I mean, Dad.”
Linda laughed. “That reminds me, since you and Zo...excuse me, Zachary, have already come up with your alternative names for the year, your, um, mother and I were thinking about ours.”
“Ooh,” Jonchelle squealed excitedly, looking between her father and mother.
“I’m going to go as Liam from now on while your father will be Rose. Now, we’ll still be Dad and Mom respectively to you, but those will be our names if anyone asks. Alright?”
Jonchelle nodded as she sat down, eager to get started with the shopping. A few minutes later, they were joined by her younger siblings.
Zachary, to everyone’s surprise had got really into the idea and had already cut his hair short. It still looked like a girl's haircut, but Jonchelle figured that he’d get it styled at the mall. He was also wearing some of Jonchelle’s clothes; there wasn’t much difference in size between the two of them, so what he was wearing seemed to fit.
Mikey, on the other hand didn’t seem to be much different. With Jonchelle and Zachary sharing each other’s clothes, there wasn’t much left for him to work with and so as he entered the kitchen he appeared rather sullen.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Mom asked.
“I don't have anything girly to wear!” he whined.
“Oh,” Mom replied, looking thoughtful. “I know! I think that I still have some of Zoe’s old clothes back from before she went Goth that might fit you. How does that sound? At least until we go to the mall.”
That seemed to cheer Mikey up. “Yeah! That sounds great.”
Mom smiled. “I’ll help you get ready after breakfast.”
Mikey nodded as everyone dug into their cereal.
