Standing Up to Life

Chapter 24:

Part V: Journey of Change

I WOKE UP the next morning to the sounds of Mom getting ready. Though I tried to go back to sleep for a few minutes I was too excited so I got up and started doing what I could to get myself ready. Two hours later it was 4:30am and we were pulling up to the airport. Amy and her parents, and Ashley and her dad all arrived right behind us. We all took our bags to the airline counter and checked in.

Everyone had been given their tickets last week so that we could all check in separately as each family arrived. Our teachers were right behind us and we started forming up as a group. That day I had dressed in a pair of boy's shorts and a light blue girl's top that could have easily been a boy's shirt. I had done my hair today, but Mom wouldn't let me do my makeup. She said she'd let me once I got back from the trip. When Ashley was finally able to come over she said. "Tiffany I love your hair!"

I told her quietly, "Thanks Ashley. But I'm supposed to be Brandon on the trip, so you can call me Tiffany, but keep it to only when the six of us from the slumber party are around okay?"

"Sure... I wish you could be Tiffany the whole time, but at least that's something." She told me.

My family, the Hancocks, Ashley and her dad, and our two teachers walked into a restaurant in the airport to get something for breakfast. I ate just a standard fare of scrambled eggs and bacon. We then headed through the security checkpoint, heading towards our gate once our bags made it through the x-ray machine.

It was then that I started feeling it. I rushed for the bathroom and made it to a toilet just in time to throw up... When I got back outside Mom asked me quietly, "Tiffany are you okay?"

"I think so" I said groaning a bit, "I just needed to throw up all of a sudden."

She pulled something from her purse, "Here," she said handing me a small pill, "take this."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Dramamine, it's for motion sickness, but it's probably just your nerves. I know you're really excited and nervous, you should feel better once you get a drink and relax a little. Everything's going to be fine sweetie," she told me reassuringly. I just hoped I wasn't getting the flu!

"I hope you're right," I told her.

I swallowed the pill as I was directed and then went over to the waiting area by the gate. As time went on everyone in our group arrived in the same spot. The entire group from the sleepover gathered quickly into a spot in a corner. We were all talking in lower tones so no one else could hear what we were talking about. I had decided to fill them in quietly because at this point only Amy and Ashley knew the whole story. 'Besides,' I decided, 'if they wanted to rat me out they wouldn't need any more info than they already had to do it anyway.'

After we got to the part about the hair salon Lindsey said, "Speaking of that Tiffany, I love your hair!" Lindsey said. "Yours too Amy," she added.

"Thanks, please remember I'm supposed to be Brandon on this trip... unfortunately..." I said quietly.

"But you're going to be Tiffany after that right?" Amber asked.

"I hope so Amber." I replied.

"Well, I can kind of understand them making you hold off for now on it... But I think we can all agree that we will think of you as Tiffany on this trip," Nikki said.

"Thanks, I appreciate that." I told them.

"Hey why don't we just call you T when everyone else is within range? We won't tell any of the others what T stands for if they ask, but that way you can at least be called by your name." Amy suggested.