Falofhan Academy, said to be one of the most prestigious boarding schools of all time. At least that’s what was stated all over the computer that a certain boy and his mother were studying. Everywhere they looked online they’d find more positive reception of the school, extremely successful individuals stating their own testimonies. Afraid it was a scam, the mother had a phone conversation with those she could get reach. Everyone who answered only sang praises of the courses and the friendly environment.

  This was to the hope of the young boy, Quinton Young. After just finishing his eighth-grade year in middle school, with the torment of the public school still fresh on his mind, he was eager for a change. His high school experience had just started up and was already building to be more of the same. With bullies from his previous schools being conglomerated into one place, it was shaping up to be a rough four years of his life.

  Luckily for him, the email was sent to his mother about her only child having the credentials to receive free schooling at the private academy Falofhan due to an opening. It was quite far away in a small, isolated town, meaning Quinton would need to go out of state. While a tough change for him, he was desperate to not relive his past school experiences for the next four years. Mrs. Young was skeptical of a free schooling scholarship. When she called, I did my best to secure her trust, soon arranging for the pick-up from the local bus station. She wanted to see him off, but due to work obligations the best she could do was drop him off at the station. After hugging and saying their goodbyes the two had parted ways, leaving Quinton Young alone in his thoughts.

  Quinton had been sitting at the almost empty station. He had short dark brown hair which had been combed to make a good first impression. He wore a button-up T-shirt, the nicest shirt he had, and some nice dark blue jeans that looked as if they had hardly been worn. Quinton heard the typing of the one person in the station with him, the receptionist. Other than that, he was left alone with his thoughts, something he was used to. With his single mother always busy and lack of a healthy social life, it was better to have his thoughts than the constant harassment of his peers. Quinton was determined. He held his breath envisioning the whole thing. He was going to get on that bus as confident as he could be, build a whole new Quinton where his past self was left behind. He just had to fake his confidence until it became a reality, right?

  Quinton’s mind kept up with this cycle of brief confidence followed by worry. As time passed, his anxiety began to take control. He stood up with his suitcase in hand and his backpack strapped behind him. The meeting time was seven, right? His mind continued to worry and race, he looked out the large windows of the bus station, no school buses coming in sight.

  A school bus? That’s what the person on the phone said would come, right? His mind envisioned the standard yellow bus with a red stop sign coming in. That was the only school bus he’d ever seen. He looked around the station, anxiety pumping, only to catch a strange small multicolored bus pulling into the intersection. Quinton couldn’t help but step out of the station, worried it wasn’t for him, and just as worried if it was.

  “This was a school bus?” Quinton questioned to himself, “No way! It had no stop sign, and it wasn’t yellow. This had to be a bus for someone else, right?” He turned around to look through the wide windows of the bus station. Only the receptionist was left inhabiting the empty building.

  As the bus pulled in front of where he stood it grinded to a halt, he examined it closer. The paint job on the bus was awfully sloppy. It was clear the bus had started white but looked as if children had thrown different shades and colors of paint from paint cans all over it in a chaotic manner.

  The bus’s door soon opened, revealing an elderly old woman behind the wheel. She looked very active for her age, standing up straight, peppy with her movements, unlike any old person Quinton had seen. She wore a white vest with white tight-fitting jeans that squeezed to her frame. She leaned closer to the open door, “You wouldn’t happen to be Quinton Young, would you?”

  Quinton quickly cleared his throat, “Yeah that would be me.~” A squeak came from his voice, apparent puberty still in the works. It had caused him to cover his mouth and drain all that confidence he had summoned for this moment. His blush could immediately be seen for miles.

  The older woman gave a comforting smile and let out a small laugh. “Don’t worry, don’t worry. You don’t have to worry about squeaks in your voice where you’re going.”

  Quinton blinked a few times before slowly moving his hand from his mouth. “I, w-won’t?” He stammered out. The woman nodded confirming her own words.

  Quinton smiled to himself, his thoughts told him that this old lady must have meant everyone at the school wouldn’t care and would be very nice. He grabbed his suitcase, attempting to pull it up the stairs of the bus.

  “Not to worry, I have someone here who can help with that.”

  I sighed and stood from my seat in the back. “I suppose that’s my job?”

  I made my way to the front of the bus. As I took the steps down from the bus to the sidewalk, I came into Quinton’s view. I wore a light green button up long-sleeved office shirt, some loose-fitting jeans with a belt to take the term “loose” away from the waist. I had light brown hair spiked up with some thin sideburns ending just above my jawbone.

  “If you would please, Beau.” the driver responded back in her same kindly manner.

  I grumbled and grabbed the kid’s suitcase from him, struggling a bit to hold it up, “Jeez kid, did you pack your rock collection with you?” I muttered, as I carried it onto the bus.

  Apparently, my joke helped the kid regain a bit of his composure as a small smile crept onto his face. “I-It’s just clothes,” he mumbled, barely audibly as he followed me on.

  I opened one of the compartments above the seats and placed the suitcase there. Once in securely, I shut the compartment and nodded to the driver as I headed back to my spot in the back of the bus.

  Quinton looked in awe at the inside of the bus. Each pair of seats were sitting across from another, a small table in between bolted to the floor. Each chair was for an individual and cushioned, had a spot to rest your head, and included individual arm rests.

  “Whoa… This is, sure something.” he muttered in disbelief as he looked for a place to sit on the empty bus.

  “Just sit behind me.” The bus driver said as she smiled at Quinton. “I want to hear everything about you while we drive.”

  Quinton nodded to the driver and sat across from the overhead mirror right behind the driver’s seat.

  “All right, everyone in a seat?” she asked, as she looked into the large mirror above her seat, which gave her a full view of everyone on the bus “You ready back there, Beau?”

  I responded by simply unenthusiastically raising a thumbs up into the air. The driver nodded in comprehension as she began to shift the gears getting the bus moving. “Next stop, Falofhan Academy.”

  Quinton looked out the window, watching the world he knew moving past him. He pulled out his old cheap flip phone from the side of his backpack, flipped it open and texted his mom saying he was safe on the bus. After a few moments, a response came, “Thank you for telling me! I love you, Quinton! I’ll be calling you the moment I can!”

  Quinton smiled as he looked at the text, before closing his phone and placing it back into the pocket of his backpack.

  “So, Quinton, I am Yu Ji,” the elderly bus driver said, as she looked into the mirror above her seat at Quinton’s reflection. “Tell me, what exactly do you look forward to at Falofhan?”

  Quinton blushed at the eye contact and shifted his eyes to stare out the nearby window. “I-I guess I look forward to the fresh start.”

  Yu Ji chuckled, “Oh yeah, this is the best school for you to start fresh. Don’t worry. Are you looking forward to the archery range?”

  “Oh yeah!” Quinton perked up immediately. It was true. On the website it talked about an archery range on the school grounds. It was something Quinton loved to do, escaping from reality by going to the local archery range. Just the mention of the range helped reignite the idea he would be able to build a new name for himself at this school.

  Yu Ji smiled at his reaction. “I just knew you’d like that.”

  That was… odd wording for Quinton. Perhaps the driver was one of the people who sent him the scholarship? How else would she know about his desire for archery? “S-So, not to sound ungrateful or anything, b-but do you know why I was picked for that scholarship? I-I mean, I was a nobody at my last school.” Calling himself a nobody was still giving him too much credit. He had been the victim of intense years of harassment, but that was less desirable to admit.

  Yu Ji nodded in the mirror giving a solemn look to Quinton. “I’ve seen plenty of kids like you Quinton, kids whose fun school years are ruined by both the nature of life and the nature of others.”

  The way she said that made Quinton feel uncomfortable. Did she actually know? And if she did, how? He looked back out the window watching the world go by. Confidence had been replaced with that ever-familiar feeling of anxiety.

  “I assure you Quinton, you will be having a fresh start at this new school. I give you a promise. You will make so many kind friends, you won’t know what to do.”

  Friends? Quinton thought to himself. He was too embarrassed to say he had never had one of those before. He’d read about them in books though. He always thought they sounded too good to be true.

  “Quinton, you will enjoy your new life at this school. Although I must warn you, it may take some getting used to.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Quinton nodded, “Oh yeah. I-I get it. I’m used to just being with my mom so not being able to see her much will be hard. But-” Quinton stopped, wasn’t the window he just looked out smaller a second ago?

  “But?” Yu Ji smiled looking at his reflection in the mirror.

  “S-Sorry I just noticed something o-ODD?” The way he said odd sounded even odder, a squeak in his voice like before? But it was so much more sudden and higher pitched than before. He began trying to clear his throat, but despite that, it felt like his voice was getting higher with each cough. Something was wrong.

  “Quinton, has anyone ever told you are the spitting image of your mother?”

  What? What was she talking about? Such thoughts ran through Quinton’s mind. How did Yu Ji know what her mom looked like, and better yet, how was he, her son a spitting image? If anything, he had been told he looked like his dad, back when he was-

  “This drive may take a while Quinty. You may want to take a nap. It’s not every day we drive so far in such a short time.”

  Something was very off, but just as Yu Ji said the word “nap” he could feel his eyes trying to shut on their own. No. Everything was off. He knew that window was smaller when he got in. The world outside wasn’t moving at regular speed anymore. It was as if they were speeding over a hundred miles per hour. Everything zoomed past too quickly.

  “I-I…” Quinton let out in a higher-pitched voice than he was used to as he felt something tickle his neck. He tried to reach for it, but he could feel his eyelids drooping. Every time he forced them back open, they wouldn’t go as high as the next.

  Something was very wrong. He couldn’t even breathe any faster. He wanted to panic, but he physically couldn’t. He thought of his mom. Did he make a mistake? Would he never see her again? He could hear some faint talking in the last moments he fought to stay awake.

  “Beau, I leave the rest in your capable hands.” He heard Yu Ji say.

  “I doubt they’re all that capable, but if you insist.”

  “Nonsense, I put a lot of work in you. I know you can do it.”

  As Quinton’s eyes closed everything went silent.

  I sit at the front of the bus waiting. It is about 12:30 now. When is Quinton supposed to wake up? I know I didn’t exactly introduce myself when I showed up, but I have perfect reasoning for that. Who am I? Why am I here? I only know what knowledge I am permitted.

  I peek over to Quinton, still fast asleep on the table. Her long dark brown hair stretches down her back. Her button up T-shirt now fits her new body perfectly, and she is wearing a knee length denim skirt instead of the jeans she was wearing. In case you think that above is a mistake, no, I did not use the incorrect pronouns for Quinton. She is, in fact, female now. I’ll explain, but it will be redundant if I do so now, so I’ll just make sure she’s awake for the explanation. Speaking of.

  I stand up from the front of the bus and I walk my way next to Quinton, “Hey. Hey kid?” No response. She’s out like a rock, I don’t know what in particular makes rocks so out, but whatever they do, she is that. “Kid?” I grab her shoulder and shake her slightly. She mumbles something in her sleep. “Kid? Kid, you have to wake up.” I sigh, take a quick look around my position. It doesn’t appear anyone is nearby or watching me. Not sure if I can get in trouble for this, I grab both her shoulders with my hands suddenly, “HEY! WAKE UP!”

  The girl is still out cold. “You have got to be kidding me kid.” I rub my temples. The sooner we start, the sooner I can get on with my job. I clap in front of the girl’s ears, repeating myself with each clap, “Kid. Kid. Kid. Kid.” Still nothing. I scratch the top of my head, looking at her confused. “This isn’t Yu Ji’s doing, right? She said she is going to wake up once we get back here.” I check the time, 12:32. I let out a long sigh.

  “Well, I guess she just told me to wake them up at 1:30.” I pull out a thin book from my back pocket, “Domains under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; after a long period of union, tends to divide. This has been so since antiquity.”

  What? Does this book want me to go to sleep also? What is this garbage? I look back at the clock, 12:33. You know what, yeah, that’s fine. I’ll set an alarm and wake her up at 1:30, like she said. It must be a sleeping spell thing.

  I wake up to the ring of my alarm, sleeping with my legs up on the bus dashboard in the bus driver seat, it isn’t exactly the most pleasing sleep. Now. Now it’s time this kid wakes up, right?

  I head back to her. She’s still in the same position. “Well, second try is the… something.” I put my hands on both the kid’s shoulders. “KID! WAKE UP! YOU’RE DYING BY THE HAND OF A VERY CRANKY BABOON!”

  “GAAH!” Quinton screams, looking around scared from the abrupt shake. “W-Wait, I’m alive?” She begins patting her face, “Whew. I was worried about- Wait, we can’t be there already?” She sits up looking out the window noticing the bus is no longer in motion. “Wasn’t this supposed to be states away?”

  “Well, in a way, we are in a different state.” I don’t know what she means about states, but I suppose being in a different state of reality can count.

  “W-Wait where’s the d-driver lady? A-And.” She grabs at her throat, “W-What on earth happened to my voice?” Her voice is certainly much higher pitched than she is probably used to.

  “About that, you had to have your body changed to a new one in order to participate in this academy.” I stretch, giving the information nonchalantly.

  “N-New body?” She squeaks before looking down at herself. “W-Wait, what am I wearing?! W-What are these?!” She points to her chest, more specifically the new growths on her chest.

  I turn around and sit back down in the front seat, “Didn’t they teach you biology at your old school?”

  “T-They did, w-well at my middle school…” She shakes her head quickly, “W-Wait, that’s beside the point! W-What are these doing on ME?!”

  “Well, let’s just say Yu Ji wasn’t a hundred percent honest with you about things. Yes, this is a boarding school. But it is an all-GIRLS boarding school. So, you fit right in now, right?”

  “Y-You have to be joking!” The girl shrieks, before looking down at herself. “I-I’m so much smaller now?! These can’t be-” She pokes at her chest before jumping back, “Eep! Y-Yeah, okay t-they’re real… b-but wait, I can’t be a girl!” She looks down past her chest, noticing she is wearing a denim skirt now. “M-My body can’t really have changed! This isn’t fantasy! This is real life!” She finally notices her hair and starts grabbing at it in disbelief.

  “Yu Ji left me to be your, guide of sorts? Protector? I don’t know the exact term she used. It was something like that. My name is Lei Bo.” I lean my head back in my hands as I close my eyes. Probably going to take her some time to adjust.

  The girl notices a glimmer in the back of the bus. In a bathroom there is a mirror reflecting the light. Needing to get a look at herself, she quickly stands and runs to look at her reflection. In her reflection, a girl stares back at her in terror. She looks like a picture of her own mom when she was younger. She shakes her head causing the unfamiliar sensation of hair waving around her to only make things worse in her mind. She slowly backs away from the mirror, afraid to look at her own reflection. She’s holding the sides of her head with her hands “T-This has to be a bad dream, right?” She pinches her now somewhat thinner arm, causing her to cringe in pain. “I-I… I felt that. I-I’m still here?”

  I let out a sigh, sick of having to listen to her bewilderment, “Look kid, I can explain most things, but you need to sit down and be willing to listen.”

  “T-This is just so unreal…” She heads over to me, before she sits down at her old spot in defeat, not sure what else to do.

  “All right, that wasn’t so tough, right?” I turn around in the seat to face her, “So, Quinton Young, that’s your name?”

  “Y-Yeah. T-That’s me…” she says quietly.

  “All right, well not anymore.” I stand up, “Quin Ton, could straight up be a full name. Not to mention the “Yung” part. What a mouthful.” I open the compartment where I put her suitcase. “Your new name should be on your new suitcase.”

  “M-My… M-My NEW suitcase?!”

  I pull it out placing it down. It is now the color pink, which causes Quinton to look at it in disgust. “Here it is.” I smile reading the name on the front, “Qu Yi. A much more presentable name if I do say so myself.”

  “Q-Qu Yi? B-But my name is Quinton!” Qu Yi exclaims.

  I roll my eyes as I sit back down. “Look kid, for someone who’s seen the results for yourself, you’re still acting in denial about the whole thing. You have to be willing to listen and I’ll explain to you everything I know.”

  “E-Everything?” She looks at her backpack, seeing it is also a matching pink. “W-What will my mom say…?” She sniffles, “S-She won’t even believe me. She’ll think I’m someone else and just playing a joke, a-and I’ll be o-orphaned and-”

  “Kid.” I turn my head to her, “You’re overreacting. Take. A. Breath. Just listen to what I say first.” I let out another sigh, didn’t know the kid is this much of a worrywart, but it sounds like I have my hands full. “So, we’re in another state of reality. This place, this entire plane of existence, was conjured up for you to fulfill your dream.”

  “I-I never dreamed of being a girl.” She pouts folding her arms at me.

  “Well, Yu Ji is like a genie. She’ll give you what you want, not in the way you ask for it. You know, I would also much rather live a happy lie than know the truth myself, but she made this school so you could get your wish granted. A new start to school, and what could be newer than a new gender along with it?” I shrug pausing for a moment, “Maybe death? How grim.”

  Qu Yi gains a quick surge of confidence, “W-W-Well I want to return to being a b-boy!” She shoots up standing above me, well, standing as above me as she could with her short frame.

  “Well lucky for you, Yu Ji has allowed for that to be an option. She’s set up a way for you to go back to your plane of existence with some of the friends you made here. They’ll think all your adventures were part of something at your old school, and everything will be hunky dory.”

  “F-Friends I made here…?” She sits down slowly looking into her lap. Something tells me she didn’t exactly have the best plan to make friends. “B-But I h-have no idea how to be a girl… W-Why can’t I just be a boy again…? I don’t even know how to talk to girls…”

  “From the sounds of things, you didn’t know much how to talk to boys either.” I shrug. “Kid, it’ll be simple. You meet some nice students, you exchange the dimensional currency you get from living your life, you go back with them, and the rest of us can enjoy our reality coming to an end.”

  “Y-Your reality coming to an end?! So, you’d all die?!”

  I shrug, “Not really, more like, we just poof.” I open my fingers for emphasis, “Back to Yu Ji’s head until she decides to make another dimensional plane for someone else.

  “W-Wait, h-how is this even all possible? Who is that ‘Yu Ji?”

  “Apparently some mystic from a long time ago, who had magical powers. Was killed by some guy prematurely. Now has afterlife powers and likes making people happy.” I lean back. “That’s as much as she has permitted me to know when making me.”

  “Y-You’re trying to tell me magic actually exists?”

  I stare at the girl blankly for a moment and then raise my eyebrow, before pointing to her body. “I mean, you’re the one talking to me in the high squeaky voice and shrunk a foot in height. So, you tell me.”

  “O-Okay, I-I guess that is true.” She averts her eyes and her hands push in from her lap to her knees awkwardly.

  “Back on topic. You come here, live your life, you earn currency.” I rub my thumb against my index and middle fingers. “You pay for what you want, and you go back to your old school with your new friends.”

  “So, by, ‘living life,’ you mean like getting good grades and stuff?” She sits up confidently, “t-this may be easier than I thought…”

  “Nah.” I respond bluntly, “Grades are worth very little, chump change. It’s about you interacting with people, making bonds and friendships, going out and doing stuff with your friends, participating in extra school activities, all the stuff you didn’t do at your last schools.”

  “S-So I live as a girl named, um, ‘Qu Yi,’ make friends. And I can return to normal?”

  “Pretty much.” I raise my finger, “And to answer your question, all your friends would remember you as a boy. So, there’s no embarrassment from that end either.”

  She begins thinking about all the info I told her. It is a lot to consider.

  I stand up, pick up her pink backpack and hand it to her. “Look, just give it a try, maybe you’ll actually like it.”

  She looks at it, not a fan of the color, but sighs in resignation and puts it on. I grab her suitcase and take it out of the bus, setting it on the ground. She follows after me slowly, almost afraid to step down from the bus, looking down to her feet.

  “Have to start somewhere kid, no better start than the beginning.”

  She closes her eyes and takes a jump off of the final step of the bus down to the concrete below. Not sure what the jump was about.

  “Yes, you’re still here. Now just open your eyes and look around.”

  She slowly peeks one eye open before both eyes shoot wide suddenly. She looks towards the school grounds in awe. Two extremely tall and large dormitories lay ahead of her on the right and left. Along the trail she sees another large building past the dormitory on the right. In the center lay a small fence, surrounding a wide building larger and bigger than any building she has ever seen. It takes up a vast majority of real estate. “T-This is… so big…” She manages to mutter out.

  I nod, “That it is. Welcome to Falofhan Academy.”