Hi, I'm Avery Patterson. I'm eighteen years old and I live in the Griffin Province, just a few miles east of the coastline. I live with my parents and brother, Sam. Tomorrow is going to be the biggest day of my life, and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. In my society, people have to (or get to, depending on how you look at it) pick whether they're going to be male, or female. I know, I've always thought it was a little off kilter too. But if I say anything regarding the gender system, I could easily be put in prison; or worse, killed! They're watching us very closely now, since the male Hunter tried to break into the laboratory and figure out the original story of the human race. We all wonder at some point, but no one wants to face the consequences of asking a scientist or official. One day I took a few moments and just thought about the whole situation. What if I don't want to pick a gender? I believe that it would be so much more natural if people were just born with a gender and females just had babies naturally. The world would be a better place. Another question I have is why they switched over to unnatural birth? I guess we’ll never know.
When I woke up, I could almost already feel the full weight of the day ahead. My gender surgery, the moment I’d been dreading since I was very little. Even then, when I was younger, I knew something wasn’t right with the whole thing. It had an artificial taste to it, like the candy you can buy at the corner store for a quarter. Pleasing to some, but disgusting to others. My mother then walked into my room, disrupting my train of thought.
“Avery, honey, you’ve got to get to school!” she screeched from the entryway.  I groaned and rolled out of bed to go find some food, meeting my brother Sam on the way down the stairs. He was nineteen, one year older than I was. He had already undergone his gender reconstruction surgery, and chose to indefinitely become male. It suited him, and from the beginning I knew that would be what he would choose. I had always leaned towards becoming female; partially because my parents had always told me I should be. I scarfed down a bowl of oatmeal and threw on a pair of dark boot cut jeans and my favorite sweatshirt. I rushed out to the door, almost forgetting my backpack. I was more nervous than the day I took The Test, which I never knew would happen. The Test is an assessment that students take when they are 14 years old. It basically tells you what the government thinks you should be. Most people just follow what The Test says, because it is pretty accurate. It told me to become a girl, and even though I don’t want to have to make a choice, that’s what I think I will become.
By the time I got to school, I was about to pee my pants because of how nervous I was. They started calling senior students, starting with last names A through F. A few of the people in my first period class stood up, looking a lot like how I felt, and staggered out the door. Watching them walk out only worsened my stomach ache, which started not too long ago. The minutes were flying by; not long after, students with last names G through L were called. I continued working on my AP Province History assignment, which took my mind of off the big moment. Next it was L through O. I knew that I was next, so I started preparing myself. I checked my hair (there wasn’t much to check because the rule was that we had to all keep it the same length until our surgery), and smoothed out my sweatshirt. Then, all of a sudden, I realized that no one would really know if I skipped my surgery unless someone in my class told the surgeon. I would just skip it. I thought of all the stress that would be relieved if I skipped. The only person I thought might tell would be Skylar, my arch-nemesis since the second grade. Any time I spoke, blinked, moved, or sometimes even breathed Skylar would find a way to get me in trouble. The thing is that I have no idea why Skylar has tried to kill me since second grade. Anyways, I considered my options again. I really didn’t want to get my surgery. I knew that it would be a life-altering decision, which fueled my fire even more. I want to know how and why there are gender choice surgery. Why aren’t people just born as girls or boys? Or, maybe, they used to be? I had to find out.
“Mr. Wiggins?’ I caught his attention. “I don’t feel so good. Can I go to the restroom?’ I knew the question could get me a detention later, but this was an important matter. It would take a lot of stealth not to get caught.
“Is it an emergency?” he asked. This was an age old question.
“Yes, Mr. Wiggins, it’s an emergency,” I stated unenthusiastically.
“Alright, Avery. But be quick, I wouldn’t want you to miss your surgery today.”
By the end, I was barely listening to what he was saying. I darted out of the room, almost forgetting my backpack again. I went directly to the front of the building and told the secretary that I was walking to my dentist appointment across the road. She let me go, but I could tell it was reluctantly. She didn’t want to get in trouble with the authorities if she let a student miss their surgery. Feeling the light breeze in my face felt amazing, like freedom. I wasn’t going to conform to their society rules anymore. I began my walk home, still not sure what I was going to tell my family. They were going to think that I had already been through the surgery. Sometimes they send students home early from school because they hyperventilate and get sick. I would have to get myself to look like look I was sick, and also like I was now a female. Looking female was the harder part. I made a run to the corner store and bought some makeup with my spare money. I had no idea how to even apply it, but it couldn’t be that hard. I checked out and then went to the nearest restroom that had a mirror. I put on mascara, blush, and lip gloss. The blush made me look like I was burnt to a crisp, but I guess it could be interpreted as sick. I then walked home, meeting my mother at the doorway.
“Avery! You look so, so different!” she stuttered. I just kind of looked down, almost embarrased.
“Why are you home so early?” she asked.
“I got sick right after the surgery. They were really worried about me passing out, so they sent me home.”
“Why didn’t they send anyone to walk you home?” she inquired. At this point, I was starting to freak out about her finding out about my secret.
“Um… everyone else was either recovering from the surgery or in the waiting room.”
“Oh… well, come inside and have a bowl of soup”.
I walked inside to find Sam and Dad relaxing on the couch. They were both watching an old survival movie while they sipped on the chicken noodle soup that Mom had made. I dumped my backpack on the couch and went into the kitchen to get a bowl of soup for myself. I was just about to sit down when I heard a knock on the door. I peeked feebly through the window and saw a government officer in a stiff, blue uniform with brass buckles. My stomach dropped as I walked over to open the door.
“Hello, folks. Does anyone by the name of Avery Patterson live here?” he said with authority.
“Yes, sir. Avery Patterson is my daughter,” she answered for me. I was grateful that I didn’t have to answer his question, for I feared that I would have dropped dead if I did.
“Yes, well I am on orders from the government to arrest her for not completing her gender reconstruction surgery,” he said. If the word dead had a noise, it would have been the noise that I made when he said that.
“I fear that I will have to take her with me now to the local prison. She will be there until we can find a time slot for a forced surgery,” he informed us. A forced surgery is basically when they strap you down for your surgery instead of letting you just lay there. It’s way less “fun” as they say, but it’s not that bad of a punishment. Now, I have to find a way to skip the forced surgery from prison. This is gonna be hard.
The officer gave me fifteen minutes to pack an extra set of clothes, toiletries for the night, and get a hug from Mom. I could tell she was upset, but not upset enough to yell at me. I shuffled out the door in handcuffs, with the officer by my side. He was silent, and led me along the sidewalk to the building they called the prison. Suddenly, he grabbed my arm and jerked me into the shadows behind the trees.
“Listen closely. I can get you out of this problem and your surgery forever if you can promise me something,” he said urgently. “I realize that you don’t like the gender system, and I agree with you. I am a part of an organization called the GSRO, or Gender Surgery Resistance Organization. We need to know what they do to you when they give you the ‘surgery’.  There’s a theory going around that nothing actually happens to you when they give you the surgery.” I was pretty shocked to begin with, that he was going against very strictly enforced rules. But, the fact that there was a possibility that I would never have to choose a gender is incredible. I had to hear more.
“If you can get me the files of scientist Dr. Carter, I can alter your records and you will never have to have the surgery or choose whether to be male or female,” he said with a small grin that matched mine. This meant that I would have to go to school tomorrow, but it was ok. I would make it through. I just hoped nobody would ask me about it.
“I can do that for you,” I said. “How long do I have?”
“One week.”
I swallowed a gulp of nervous air and nodded my head. He let go of my hand and ran away quickly. I was still dumbfounded that he had the courage to do that out in the open. I had to get home and tell my parents. I couldn’t just tell them about the Resistance, as that would be too much. I would say that the whole thing was a mistake and the officer decided to release me on false charges. Yes, that sounded believable. By this point in my thoughts, I was almost home. I knocked loudly on the door. My mother answered it.
“Avery! What happened?” she asked dumbfounded.
“He let me go on false charges. I’m ok!” I exclaimed using my best acting skills. She screamed a little and pulled me into a huge bear hug.
“I was so worried!” she told me very excitedly. I had no choice but to just go with it. She poured me another bowl of soup with a big smile on her face. I took it to my room and sipped it slowly. Eventually I fell asleep, when it got dark and I had nothing else to do. When I finally woke up, I realized it was early in the morning, and I had to get to school. I pulled on my usual outfit, but then realized that I couldn’t wear it anymore. I went outside and checked our front porch to find a stack of new clothing that was meant for a female. The officer followed through with his promise. He was going to back me up no matter what.
I walked into my first class unaware of what my actions had caused my classmates to think of me. There was an unwary vibe coming from all of them, even my good friends. The classroom seemed drained of the happiness and color my classmates usually provided for the room. There even seemed to be an offset in the smell of the room, which was dusty and unlively. As I soaked it all in, getting used to the way people viewed me at the time, the bell rang. Everyone shuffled to their seats, bored before the Mr. Wiggins even started teaching. As he passed out our assignment for the day (or rather had his robot teaching aid help him), I wondered if the rest of my life would be like this. Would I be viewed like an outsider for the rest of my life? I still had to break into the laboratory and find the files of Dr. Carter. I could do that tonight. It couldn’t be that hard, could it?
Once it was dark, I carefully snuck out of the house through my bedroom window. We’re usually prohibited to jump through windows unless it’s an emergency, but no one would ever find out I did. I raced over to the lab building (it wasn’t too far) and threw a tennis ball at the camera watching me. No alarm went off, so I continued to pick the lock to the front door. After a few minutes of progress, it swung open and I stepped inside. The walls were painted a familiar white; almost like the white of the walls at school, but not quite, These walls were brighter and more clear, almost like there was an artificialness to it. I tiptoed down the main hallway to find another hallway that was dark for a moment, but the lights came on when I stepped.
“Shoot!” I exclaimed in a whisper. I threw my trusty tennis ball at the nearest camera and when it bounced back I threw it at another camera facing my way. I was starting to doubt my mission and its importance when I remembered what the officer had said: “There’s a theory going around that nothing actually happens to you when they give you the surgery.” If this was true, I could expose the government and head scientists to the world, and they could be thrown out of the community. No more gender surgery. No one would have to choose anymore. I had to do it.
About twenty minutes later, I found a door that read “DR CARTER”. I assumed that it was his office, and walked right in. No one was there (thank goodness) but there was another camera. I hit it pretty hard with my tennis ball and the ball came bouncing back faster and harder than I was expecting it to. It bounced off of the floor and hit a gigantic manilla colored folder that looked like it could have the world’s biggest secret in it. I opened it carefully, and it turns out that it did have the world’s biggest secret in it. I had a little victory dance to celebrate my accomplishment. I grabbed the folder and ran out of the building as fast as I could, not even bothering to close any doors or turn off any lights behind me.
“I made it,” I whispered quietly to myself.
I took the folder back home with me and climbed through the window back into my bed, the folder snug under my shirt the whole night.
The next morning, I woke up still feeling the excitement of the night before. I also had a thought about possibly being able to read the files in the folder. I opened it carefully and read the title: HOW TO INJECT MEMORY DRUG. I kept reading and learned that participants of the surgical process were injected with a memory serum that made them forget what it felt like to be a neutered person. It also talked about the proper way to tattoo eyeliner and low pigment eyeshadow to make females look different from males. Males hair had to be shaved off to begin with, which explained Sam’s bare head that he kept for a while. Females were required to let it grow until it reached a certain length. I was almost finished reading the third page when I heard a knock at the door. Neither my parents nor Sam were ever home on the weekends, so I got up and answered the door. It was the officer from the day before, looking as official as ever in his navy uniform.
“Did you get it?” he asked impatiently.
“Yes,” I answered. “It wasn’t even that hard.”
“Did you get caught by any cameras?”
“No… I broke most of them.”
“Good. We could use someone like you on our team,” he said. I considered the request for a moment, and then decided that I probably should finish school first.
“I would love to , but my parents probably wouldn’t let me and I need to finish school before I do anything crazy.”
“I understand,” he said disappointed. “When you finish school, give us a call.” He handed me a small, white business card with the name and number of the company. And, in small lettering at the bottom of the card, was the name “David” and a personal number.
“That’s my number,” he said, pointing to the number at the bottom of the card. “In case you need anything.”
I smiled, and nodded. David couldn’t be more than a couple years out of high school, maybe around twenty years old. He left my doorstep with the folder and ran across the lawn until he was out of my sight. I walked back to my room and sat down on my bed. Now that the Resistance had the folder, they were going to expose the secrets behind gender reconstruction surgery. The lives of the rest of the world would be easier now, and I wouldn’t have to choose a gender. All because I stood up for what I believed in.

Epilogue
The warmth of the fireplace heated my face, feeling good against the harsh winter outside. It has been almost five years since I stole the files of Dr. Carter and turned them into the Resistance. David and I are now married, and both worked for the Resistance efforts until they were no longer needed. We have two children, a boy and a girl, who we are proud to say, don’t have to choose a gender, and don’t know any different. Everything is back to the way it used to be: natural.