When Timothy and Emma’s father arrived back at Emma’s home, Timothy felt like he was in a warm, nice haze. As a memento, Emma’s father had bought him a necklace with a butterfly hanging from it, which Timothy now wore proudly. He had slept throughout the car ride home and he relived some of the nice memories that he had made that day.

    “I’ll be in my room for a moment. Wanted to check something,” Timothy said as they stepped inside. 

    “Alright, Emma,” the father said as he planted himself on the couch, quite tired from the day.

    Timothy ascended the stairs, relatively confident now that he knew the way around this house. Now that they were home, there was something he felt he had to check. He just hoped that Emma’s laptop wasn’t password protected…

    Upon entering Emma’s room, he caught another glimpse of himself in the mirror. The fact that it was a girl that glanced back at him still sent chills of joy down his spine. It was as if a million helium balloons were released and painted the sky in all the colours of the rainbow. As if all of the Christmas trees in the whole city lit up all at once.

    And still he could not explain why he felt this way. However, that wasn’t what he should be focusing on right now! Hurriedly, he flipped open Emma’s laptop and turned it on. He let out a sigh of relief when it did not ask for a password at all. There were some files on the screen but he ignored those for now. Instead, he turned on the internet and started looking for his location, as well as the location of his old home. He smiled when he realized that it was only a ten minute walk between where he was now and his old neighbourhood.

    “Bingo,” Timothy mused to himself.

Timothy had surprised Emma’s father when he announced that he was going for a quick walk but he gave the excuse that it was just such a lovely day out that he didn’t wanna sit at home just yet.

    With that, Timothy was off. He took with him the keys to Emma’s house as well as Emma’s phone. He had to find out if the real Emma was in Timothy’s old body now or not!

    It actually surprised Timothy how close he actually was to his own neighbourhood as recognizable landmarks quickly came into view. There was the park he often went to whenever he had a fight with his parents. There was the pavilion where small bands would sometimes play in the summer. There was the house of the nice old lady that always handed out the most candy for halloween.

    And soon enough, Timothy found himself standing in his own street, in front of his own house. Everything seemed the same still. He could even see his own window with his own curtains.

    “So… it’s true…” Timothy mused to himself. However, he could not be certain just yet. He took in a deep breath and stepped towards his own front door where he rang the bell. It was strange, to say the least. Normally, he’d just come in through the backdoor using his own key but that would naturally freak out his family if a strange girl suddenly broke in like that. On top of that, he didn’t have his own key at all.

    Soon enough, Timothy’s mother opened the door and eyed him curiously. “Yes?” she asked.

    Timothy let out a soft gasp and blinked a few times. “H-hey mo-’am,” he blurted out. He just barely managed to correct himself there and hoped that his mom hadn’t noticed. “Is… Timothy home?” He felt even stranger about this whole situation now. He didn’t really have all that great a bond with his mother so his old habit of stammering and hesitating in front of her reared its ugly head. On top of that, it was the weirdest thing, asking to see, well, himself.

    Timothy’s mother eyed him for a moment longer. “And who are you?” she asked.

    “I’m Emma. Emma Hopkins,” Timothy said confidently. It was the first time that he had actually introduced himself as ‘Emma’ and it surprised him how easy it was for him to do so. 

    Timothy’s mother nodded and turned around to the stairs. “Tim! There’s somebody at the door for you!” she shouted.

    “A-ah!... Coming mom!” came a voice. It was a voice that Timothy was all too familiar with, for it was his own voice. He felt his heart beating in his chest. He was about to come face to face with himself.

    Sure enough, a figure started walking down the stairs. “Who is i-...” he spoke but the words died in his mouth as he came face to face with Timothy.

    “This is Emma. Do you know her?” Timothy’s mother asked.

    Emma, currently in Timothy’s body, blinked a few times. “Yeah… yeah! She’s my friend,” she said.

    There was a grin on the face of Timothy’s mother. “I’ll… leave you two alone then,” she said as she left for the living room.

    Timothy clutched his bag as he stared at the body he had been born in. The body he was intimately familiar with. Emma did the same with her own. It was Emma who took the first tentative steps forwards but it was Timothy who was the first to speak again.

    “... Emma…?” he asked softly.

    “... Timothy…” Emma responded.

    Once again, they fell silent for a moment. Both of them had to think about what to say and neither could truly believe that they felt as if they were talking to themselves.

    “Let’s… go for a walk?” Timothy proposed.

    Emma nodded. “Yeah… sounds good,” she said.

About five minutes later, the two had found a park bench to sit on. Timothy sat on it with his legs crossed and his arms folded. Emma sat next to him, leaning with her elbows on her knees and glancing around themselves. She had her legs spread a little as well.

    “So… nice weather today, huh?” Emma said. It was the first thing that either of them had said since leaving Timothy’s house.

    Timothy couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “This is all weird, right?” he said.

    “Crazy weird,” Emma agreed. She, too, started chuckling.

    “How did this happen? Why did we swap bodies?” Timothy asked.

    “I don’t know. I didn’t think I did anything out of the ordinary on the days leading up to this,” Emma muttered.

    “Me neither…” Timothy sighed. They had finally met but it didn’t look like they were any closer to solving this mystery. Who had done this to them? And why? Well, for now, there were other, arguably more important things to say, or so Timothy thought at least.

“I… want to apologize,” he said.

“For what?” Emma asked.

    Timothy looked away, uneasy. “I stole away your father-daughter bonding day. I went to the zoo with your father. That should have been with you…”

    “Ah… that,” Emma started. She looked down to the ground and closed her legs a little but decided against it shortly after. “I’m actually kinda glad that you did,” she admitted.

    “Wait… what?” Timothy gasped.

    “My dad’s been nagging me to come with him for ages. I know he means well and that he wants to drag me out of my shell but I don’t wanna do that his way. I kinda only agreed to it to make him stop,” Emma said. She sighed and it looked like she was ready to start crying. “I’m a bad daughter…” she muttered.

    Timothy looked at her. He hadn’t really expected that and he didn’t really know what to say to make her feel a little better. Well, there was one thing. “... I had a lot of fun today,” he said. “And your father did as well.”

    Emma looked up, her eyes slightly reddened. She chuckled. “I’m glad,” she said. “I actually had fun today as well, helping out your mom at her store and all.”

    Timothy had almost forgotten about what he was actually going to have to do today. “You… enjoyed that?” he asked, confused. He never particularly liked helping out at the store. He was mostly always put in charge of doing the heavy lifting because he was a guy. It had always bothered him which made him resent helping out at the store.

    “Yeah, it was fun. Hard work, but fun. And I liked hanging out with your mom,” Emma said.

    Timothy gave her a half smile. “I guess… we both had a better day than we would have had otherwise then,” he said.

    “Guess so, yeah,” Emma said with a grin. It seemed she was relaxing a little and, interestingly enough, was sitting a lot more like a regular guy would now. The complete opposite of the way Timothy was sitting now.

    Another realization hit him. “Oh… uhm… I uh… I’m sorry. I… I had to take a shower this morning. I… saw you naked…” he admitted, blushing madly now.

    Emma, bit her lip. “I mean… I showered too. Figured that was kind of inevitable,” she said. “Took me ages to build up the courage to do so though.”

    Timothy gulped and looked at her. “Really? I went as fast as I could. I didn’t want to intrude on your privacy…” he said.

    Emma laughed. “It’s your privacy now, you dingus,” she said.

    Timothy opened his mouth to protest but couldn’t really think of anything to say to that. It was true that this was his body now, and not Emma’s. “I guess so…” he finally muttered.

    “Peeing was an interesting experience…” Emma said.

    “It… was?” Timothy asked.

    “Yeah. I didn’t wanna, you know, miss, so I still sat down like I used to. It also kinda feels… strange to touch that thing, you know,” Emma said.

    Timothy started giggling as well now himself. “Same here,” he said. He remembered something he had found earlier that morning. “I found a bra in your closet… in pieces.”

    Emma shifted again and closed her legs slightly once more. “Oh that,” she muttered. “I don’t know why I did that. I just kinda felt like it…”

    Timothy tilted his head. “Really?” he asked.

    Emma nodded. “I remember it feeling cathartic,” she said.

    It seemed quite curious so Timothy decided to ask further. “And why do you have so many scarves?” he asked.

    “A scarf can hide what you don’t want people to see,” Emma replied.

    Timothy looked down at his body. Well, at Emma’s body. It didn’t look like there was anything there he would want to hide. To him, it made little sense to want to hide anything about this perfectly fine female body.

    “Isn’t that the same reason for why your clothes are all the same? Long jeans, black shirts, and vests, even though it’s warm?” Emma asked.

    Timothy was surprised by that as he looked over his old body. Indeed, she was wearing something akin to what he usually wore. It was true that that was the extent of his wardrobe. He began to think about why that was. “I guess… I wear that to try to hide my legs. They’re so hairy… I don’t really like them,” he admitted. Come to think of it, there were actually more things about his old body he had always tried to hide. He never wanted to take off his shirt in front of others because it always felt like he should be ashamed of that. Not to mention the fact that he really didn’t want anyone to see him in his underwear whereas other guys always appeared fine with that in the changing rooms.

    Emma grinned. “So what made you decide to wear that dress today, then?” she asked, completely catching Timothy off guard.

    Timothy blushed madly and shifted around a little again. He felt himself getting beet red too. “I… uhm… well…” he started but he couldn’t really answer that question.

    “It’s okay. You can tell me,” Emma said.

    Finally, Timothy gulped and readied himself for whatever was to come. “I… wanted to. I figured… I’m a girl now so… so I’d wear something girly… I wanted to… to know what it was like and… and I found this. It looked so cute and… and pretty… And I wanted to see… what it would feel like to… well, to flaunt myself a little. To not hide,” he admitted. He closed his eyes, expecting laughter.

    But laughter did not come. “It… does look good on you,” she said.

    Timothy opened his eyes and looked at her with confusion. “It… does?” he asked.

    “Yeah,” Emma said, a gentle smile on her face. “You pull it off a lot better than I ever did, that’s for sure!”

    Timothy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You don’t… think I’m weird?” he asked.

    Emma shook her head. “I’m actually kinda relieved. I thought I was the weird one for uh… the way I thought today,” he said.

    Timothy tilted his head and looked at her. “Like what?” he asked.

    “Well… having people refer to me as ‘he’ and ‘him’ was… nice. I liked not having to wear a stupid bra. I guess maybe that’s why I cut that one up. Heck, it was super relaxing to have nobody around me telling me I’m not ‘feminine enough’. I could finally do whatever I want and nobody really batted an eye at me. In fact, people batted an eye at me when I actually did act feminine,” Emma explained.

    “Wow,” Timothy mused.

    “That’s probably weird for a girl to say but… well, it’s the truth. I fully embraced masculinity in your body and… you know that feeling you get when you finally find the right puzzle piece and it fits nicely? That’s kinda how I felt. Like a part of me was telling me that this was… right somehow,” Emma explained.

    Timothy couldn’t believe his ears. They were the exact same thoughts he had been having throughout the day. “I… liked embracing femininity too. I felt comfortable and confident. I thought I was being childish but I really loved this,” he admitted. It was true too. He hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself out of fear but here, talking with Emma who was feeling the same way about the reverse, the truth was dragged out of him.

    The two smiled at each-other for a moment in stunned silence. It was Emma who broke it in the end. “So… I don’t know how but… do you want to switch back? ‘Cause I don’t think I want to anymore.”

    Timothy had his mouth agape. Many thoughts filled his mind but his heart spoke before he could really think about it. “I don’t want to either,” he said.

    The two sat in further silence once more. Of all the strange happenings going on that day, this might have been the strangest. Well, that is, until a few moments later.

    “Well, that’s got to be a new record,” came a sudden voice. Both Emma and Timothy gasped as they turned around, where they were faced by an older person standing behind the bench. They had both masculine and feminine traits, making it quite difficult to discern what to make of them.

    “What?” both Emma and Timothy said. There was something familiar about this person…

    “I believe I ran into both of you yesterday,” the old person said.

    Timothy gasped. “You… I do remember you! I helped you cross the street yesterday,” he said.

    “And I helped you pick up the groceries you dropped!” Emma said.

    The stranger just smiled at them mischievously.

    “You did this?” Timothy asked.

    “You swapped our bodies?” Emma asked.

    “Oh yes, I did,” the stranger said.

    Emma and Timothy looked to each other in confusion. “Why?” Timothy asked.

    “Because I saw that you both needed it. You could say I have an eye for these things,” the stranger said.

    “You did this for us? And not because you thought it’d be funny?” Emma asked.

    The stranger grinned. “Sometimes, peoples’ souls do not align with their bodies. I search for people like that and help them. People like you two. The downside to this is that you do not just swap bodies, but your lives as well. I am afraid I cannot change that,” they said.

    To think that somebody like this existed. That somebody could go around swapping bodies like this. And to think that Timothy and Emma had been picked out by them to undergo such a swap. Two people that had always felt that there was something off about them. Now, the answer to a lot of their questions were finally answered here, like a tidal wave slamming into a cliff.

    “But… isn’t that wrong? This isn’t my body,” Timothy said eventually.

    The stranger chuckled. “You think you do not deserve it? Dearie, everyone deserves their chance at joy. At comfort. It is not childish to want happiness. To want to be a different gender. You deserve it just as much as everybody else,” they said.

    “Why do this without asking us first?” Emma asked.

    “Would you have gone for it if given the chance? Even if you knew it would bring you such joy? Most would say no out of fear. And do not worry. What I did for you is temporary, lasting only a week. But it can be made permanent if you wish,” the stranger said.

    “Permanent…” Emma mused, repeating what they had said.

    “I’d… always be a girl,” Timothy said.

    “And I a guy…” Emma finished.

    “Indeed. Well, I can always reverse it again later the same way but you will not turn back on your own. And if I’m not much mistaken, I believe you two are ready to make your decision already,” the stranger laughed.

    Timothy looked at Emma. Emma looked at Timothy. Both of them nodded. “Do it,” they said simultaneously. This was it. This was going to be permanent. Timothy knew this was right. He… no… she wanted to stay this way. She wanted to stay being female. She could no longer deny the fact that she was a girl. Both inside and now, outside as well. Like a gear clicking into place finally allowing the clock to function, she realized that this was who she truly was. Who she had always been.

    “Then give me your hands, dearies,” the stranger said.

    Eagerly, both of them complied. The stranger took them both and closed their eyes. Soon after that, there was a warm glow emanating from them and enveloping both Emma and Timothy. It scared them at first but it relaxed them again soon after. It was warm, soft, and nice. Like a warm shower, both of them felt at ease with this development.

    And just as fast as it had come, the glow dissipated again and they knew that it was done. They turned to the stranger to thank them. Thank them for the wonderful gift that they had given. The key to happiness.

    But the stranger already turned around, choosing not to linger for much longer. They looked over their shoulder with one last glance. “What were your names again?” they asked.

    The two gender swapped teenagers looked at each other. It was the girl who spoke first. She smiled broadly and felt herself shaking slightly with excitement while she fidgeted around a little with the floral dress she wore. There was a spark of true joy in her eyes as she said her name. “I’m Emma Hopkins,” she said.

    Something similar was happening next to her. The boy grinned from ear to ear as he stood up from the bench proudly. “Timothy Black!” he said. He almost shouted it.

    The stranger smiled and nodded. “Have a nice evening then, you two,” they said. And with that, they were off, leaving Emma and Timothy all alone once more.

    Emma gasped. “Wait! Evening? Your… I mean… my father said to be back home by six for dinner!” she shouted. She was going to have to get used to a lot more things now.

    “Wait. Let’s exchange phone numbers first,” Timothy proposed.

    Emma looked at him and frowned. “How about we first exchange pincodes. How am I supposed to get into your… I mean… my phone without it?” she said.

    Timothy chuckled. “Right, fair enough,” he said. As they exchanged their details, the two agreed to talk to each other often from now on. Talk about their respective former lives. About who the people around them were. After all, Emma was supposed to know who her friends and family were and the same went for Timothy.

    With that, Emma jumped up from the bench. “I guess I’ll see you later, Tim!” she said.

    “Yeah. See you later, Em,” Timothy said in return.

    Emma smiled as butterflies flew around in her stomach. She couldn’t believe how good this all felt. How wonderful it was to finally embrace who she was. Her true gender identity. And she knew that Timothy likely felt similar about all of this. And so she walked back home. Her new life as Emma Hopkins had only just begun and it was off to a great start.