Almost as soon as James had walked through the door, his mother, Jackie, had started undressing him.

“Hang on mum!”, James cried. “I’ve only just got in from Uni for winter break. What’s the rush?”

“Lady Hazeltine is visiting”, Jackie said. “She’ll be here later today.”

“So? I’m tidy enough, aren’t I? What does she expect a student to look like?”

“She thinks she’s sponsoring a girl. You’re my daughter, Jemima, not my son…!”

“What!!”

“It was the only place I could get a grant for you in time”, Jackie said. “She thinks she’s sponsoring a ‘Young Woman in Industry’ grant. You, Jemima Harris.”

“Come on, mum, there’s no way that’s going to work”, said James, pushing his mother away. “There’s no way I’ll pass as a girl.”

“That’s sort of where you’re wrong”, said his mother. “Please hurry; I’ve got everything ready…”

Mystified, James followed his mother to the spare room at the end of the hall. A woman was waiting for them.

“Eve, this is James”, his mother said. “He’s got zero experience, and we need him changed over, fast.”

“You do love challenging me, don’t you?”, Eve said. James felt the jab of a needle…

As James slumped, Jackie caught him. “I’m so sorry, love…”

The two women stripped James completely, then carried the unconscious man into the shower. A quick spray, then a shower, and all his hair fell out. All of it, including on his head.

“She’s now hairless for the rest of her life”, said Eve. “That spray works really well and completely kills off the follicles. The old hair was way too short to style anyway.”

Eve felt James’ skin.

“The injection is working already. It’s a special mix of my own design, as well as a strong sedative. She’d be in agony if she wasn’t sedated, as the genes are literally rewriting themselves.”

Even as they watched, James’ skin was getting smoother. The hips were filling out, the waist was curving in, and a nice small pair of breasts was beginning to appear.

“They’ll probably stop at a ‘B’ cup, to start with”, Eve said. “She’ll have to wear a padded bra for a while, until they stabilise at a ‘D’.”

Eve turned to Jackie.

“My part of this is going well. Have you got her bedroom ready, and the clothes? Also, she’ll need a lot of talking to regarding ‘women’s things’, as her mind will still be male. Her first period is going to be a real shocker…”

Jackie just stroked James’ head. She was in a state of shock. She had never imagined that the change would be this complete. She just thought it was going to be cosmetic, and temporary.

“You mean James is a girl from now on?”, she asked, a quaver in her voice.

“James doesn’t exist anymore”, Eve said flatly. “This is Jemima. Now and forever.”

Jackie was devastated.

“I didn’t agree to that!”, she cried. “This was just supposed to be temporary!”

“What, and have you deceive Lady Hazeltine, a good friend of mine?”, said Eve. “I don’t think so. She thinks she’s sponsoring a woman, so James is now a woman. Problem solved.”

Jemima’s body had now stabilised; she was weakly trying to sit up.

“Easy, love”, said Eve. “We’re not finished yet. There’s the makeup and costume to attend to. Also, do you want to be a blonde, brunette or a redhead? Actually, your skin would go better with Chestnut Brown…”

Eve located the appropriate pageboy cut wig and sealed it on to Jemima’s head.

“There you go. It’s firmly bedded into you and won’t come off. You can style it just like normal hair; it will even grow a little and need cutting occasionally. I developed them the same time as the injection I gave you.”

Jemima was still dizzy, but she managed to look in the mirror on the dressing table.

“Who’s that?”, she said, dazed and not noticing her new voice. “She looks cute.”

“That’s you, sweetheart”, said Jackie. “I said you’d make an amazing girl…”

“No… It can’t be… I’m a boy…!”, Jemima squeaked, now noticing her voice. “Why do I sound like this, all high pitched…?”

“It’s how girls talk”, said Eve. “I think you look really cute. You now need to dress the part.”

Helping Jemima to stand, Eve and Jackie took her to her bedroom…

Jemima did her best not to scream, but she failed. With a shriek, she buried her face in her mum’s dress and wailed her head off.

All James’ things were gone. The games console, the posters, the jeans and leather jackets, everything. The room was just a sea of pink.

There was a TV, still, but there was now a small dressing table where his games and console used to be. The bed was soft pink, not black and grey. All his CDs had gone as well, replaced by books.

The wardrobe also was completely changed.

Gone were the jeans, t-shirts and leather jackets, as well as the boots. Instead, there was dresses, blouses, skirts and a selection of heels. Undies were replaced by delicate pairs of knickers, and there were some padded bras. There was some things in blue, mainly women’s knitted jumpers.

Jemima just sagged to her knees and cried.

“God, mum… What have you done! This isn’t me! I’m not a damn girl!”

“Have you looked at yourself?”, Eve asked. “You are now…”

Naked, Jemima stood in front of ‘her’ dressing table mirror, examining herself from all sides. She then started crying again…

The massive hormonal swings were really giving Jemima a rough ride. Unable to take any more, she just collapsed in a dead faint.

“I’m not at all surprised that happened”, said Eve, to Jackie. “We’ve been pushing her too hard, too fast. It’s ok; let me make a phone call…”

Eve picked up her mobile and dialled a number, which was answered straight away.

“Esme, it’s Eve. I’m with Jemima Harris. I’m afraid she’s been taken ill, Covid. We only found out when she got home.”

She carried on speaking for a minute or two, then hung up.

“Luckily, she hadn’t left yet. She’s quite happy to wait to hear from either of us before she visits; she said she’s been very impressed with Jemima’s work to date.”

Eve told Jackie that James had been enrolled at the university as Jemima; the staff had been told she was in the middle of transitioning. Lady Hazeltine had been even more interested at that; she felt transgender women deserved the same chances in education as ‘straight’ ones. Jemima was now exactly the candidate that Lady Hazeltine had been supporting all along…

Jemima slept for two days straight.

Eve stayed with her; Jackie even had shopping delivered, refusing to leave her daughter alone. She felt that she had let James down badly; she wasn’t going to do the same with Jemima.

Jemima finally stirred…

“Oh… my head. It must be really screwy. I had this horrible dream I was a…  girl…”

She stopped as she saw the twin mounds under the nightdress she was wearing.

“It wasn’t a dream, was it…?”, she said, quietly.

“Sorry, love, no”, said Eve. “You’re Jemima, now.”

Jemima looked under the quilt; there was no denying she was a girl.

“Ok, you quack, where do we go from here, seeing as this was all your doing?”

“Who are you calling a quack? The injection and the treatments did exactly what they were supposed to do, make you a girl. It’s your mother that got the wrong idea about what we were doing. Blame her, not me. I actually think you’re a very attractive girl.”

“Mum!”

Jackie came into the room, sorrow and guilt written all over her face. Jemima took one look at her and held out her arms for a hug…

Over the next few days, Jackie gave Jemima the talk about what she could expect as a girl. Lady Hazeltine also visited, now she had been assured that Jemima was no longer infectious (she never had been) and left extremely satisfied.

Jemima had got her grant; it just wasn’t in the way she would have ever expected…