Angel Chapter 1

Lee Seymour, which had been her name then, had always felt a stronger kinship with girls, but had been rebuffed by those who knew him. Most girls of that age don't really like boys very much, at least most boys, and Lee did not appeal enough to them to be one of the exceptions.

Secondary school and the related sixth form were much worse, with the most dreadful part being the physical education classes, and the worst part of them being the showers afterward. Lee was terrified and incredibly embarrassed at crowding into the shower with a bunch of naked boys, although he would have been unable to explain why. He tried, with no success, to conceal his own nudity and avoid noticing that of the others. Finally, he had confided in his parents, with no benefit. They had chided him, saying "What's the matter? You're all just guys." Their reaction had done nothing to mollify his extreme discomfort.

A series of sessions with the psychologist on retainer with the school had helped much more. That doctor had suspected the reason fairly early and, after considerable research and discussion, had showed his patient case histories of female-to-male transsexuals or, as they often preferred to call themselves, T-girls. Reading those histories was an epiphany to Lee because he saw a great deal of himself in every one of them. After extensive physical and psychological testing, the doctor concluded that this truly was an example of a mistake of nature, a girl born into a boy's body.

That mistake could be corrected to a degree and, shortly after her sixteenth birthday, Angel Jones, using the name she had chosen, began her therapy, including ingesting very mild hormone capsules. Technically speaking, she should not have been provided with even those, because she was underage. However, the doctor was an independent thinker, who believed the treatments were necessary to counteract the heavy dosage of male hormones her body was giving itself, and provided them for her anyhow. She chose the surname because it was her mother's maiden name, and she had relatives who already used it, but it was sufficiently common that it would not be associated with her family. "Angel" seemed to be an obvious first name because of her fair complexion and because of the resemblance of her blonde hair to a halo.