Chapter 1: One Shot

Sam was sitting alone in his room. His gaming chair rolled into his computer desk as he settled in for a night of watching YouTube videos. His fair skin was brightened by the computer monitor. His short dark brown hair slightly parted as he put on his headphones. Before he had anything to listen to though he heard a noise from downstairs. His door was open so he heard very clearly, after the front door slammed, high pitched screams of excitement. 

Sam’s sister Sarah yelled out, “Lydia, I’m so glad you could come!” as she led her friend up the stairs. Her shoulder length blonde hair bounced in waves as she ascended. The Brown family had hardwood floors upstairs and it was flush between the siblings’ rooms which were right across from one another. They were a nice family. Their single mother was out tonight at a charity dinner. Sarah ran an instagram beauty account that was moderately popular. She had invited her friend over to try out some new looks and have a shoot.

“I just picked up the Mikayla X Glamlite palette. We’re going to look soooo good! We’re going to get like a thousand new followers at least!” Lydia said as she followed Sarah up to her room/studio. Lydia was a tall girl with an olive complexion and black hair pulled back into a high ponytail. 

“You already look pretty girls.” Sam said as he turned around in his chair so they could hear him. He wasn’t trying to hit on anyone. He just wanted to give his sister and her friend a compliment. He was very kind to his sister and admired her. She repaid this by being very understanding of him. She could read his emotions and help him through them very well.

“Aww, thanks lil’ bro.” Sarah beamed. The girls were now standing just outside Sarah’s room and in the door frame of Sam’s. 

He had spun back around in his chair, and thinking he couldn’t be heard, made a self deprecating remark. “I mean, how much can makeup really do? It’s not like it could make me pretty.” He said defeatedly. 

“Is that so?” said Lydia, crossing her arms. She looked at Sarah from the side and acknowledged that they were both thinking the same thing. Sarah knew, as she often did, exactly what her brother needed right now. He needed to feel pretty. They began walking slowly towards Sam’s chair. Lydia on the left, Sarah on the right. 

Sarah popped over Sam’s right shoulder. “Honestly you have some potential. You’re already kinda cute.” Sarah beamed while flashing her teeth. What started as a loving touch on the arm turned into her pinning his right wrist down to the arm rest

Lydia, pinning on the left arm rest, asked, “Why not let us try?” The girls then wheeled the chair quickly out into the hallway and left into Sarah’s room/studio. 

“WHA-“ Sam screamed in surprise. He tried pressing his feet down for traction but his seat was too high up. He had very little time for resistance.

Sarah’s room was very much split in two, on the right wall was her closet, and dresser, on the right side of the back wall there was a large white vanity. In the right back corner there was a white desk. Taking up most of the bedroom portion of the room was a queen sized bed. The bed had a light pink Ugg blanket with tiny gold stars on it. At the head of the bed were half a dozen pillows of varying sizes with a few stuffed animals leaned up against them. Lastly, there was a night stand with a small lamp.

They set the chair right up in front of the vanity table. There was plenty of makeup on the white table and three mirrors that could be closed like shutters. On top of the mirror were bright studio lights. There were also strips of velcro on high on the mirror that could be used to position a camera. While Sarah organized the makeup she planned to use, Lydia shut the vanity mirrors. “No peeking!” she joked.

Knowing he couldn’t physically escape from what was about to happen, he tried to use his words. “Wait! Sis you really don’t have to do this.” Sam said exasperated. 

Sarah placed some liquid foundation on the back of her left hand and replied, “Oh I really think I do.” 

Sam still tried to explain, “I’ll still look ugly and --” Sarah put her left index finger up to his lips.

“Shh, let the artists work.” She said this confidently in a way that stopped Sam’s resistance for now. She dabbed a makeup sponge into the foundation and began to splotch across his jawline and chin. While working she said, “Our skin tones are the same so I’ll use my foundation on you.”

Lydia had begun preparing his left hand for a manicure. She filed the nails into a nice round shape and pushed away cuticle. She turned on a curing light and guided his hands under it. Sam was surrounded and being pampered on all sides.

Sarah put down her foundation before picking up some concealer. “I’m just going to put a little bit of this under your eyes to brighten them up.” she reassured before blending it into the foundation towards the nose and temples. She added, “This concealer is a nice lilac color. It’ll reflect light like a mirror so it’ll look suuuuper good under these lights.”

She picked her sponge back up and asked, “Could you suck in your lips?” Years of male socialization kicked back in and Sam refused. She smiled as she told him, “You have really nice lips and we don’t want to ruin that with the foundation.”

Deep inside Sam’s mind, a voice spoke out,”You know, she makes a good point. Why not just try it? What could it really hurt?” With that, Sam pursed his lips and Sarah smiled more as she dabbed lightly around his over and under lip areas.

After the base coat was cured, Lydia took out a sparkly crimson bottle of nail polish. Sam thought about moving but that same voice urged him to stay still as she carefully applied the first coat to each of his fingers.

Sarah had taken out a kit and showed it off as she would for her audience, “This is my kit of highlighters, and I’m going to use it to bring more color to your face.” She applied a dark color to a wide brush and applied it to his face as she explained what she was doing, “I’m going to apply this in sort of a three shape on the sides of your face. I’m starting up alongside your forehead, bringing it down and into your cheek area, and finishing right under the jaw.” She repeated this stroke. She learned so much from beauty vloggers she felt a need to pass on their knowledge.

Receiving this knowledge was that voice again. “You really should remember all that stuff she’s saying.” 

She then picked up a smaller brush putting it in a lighter color. She spoke as smoothly as the brush strokes that went across his face, “This is going to go on all the high points on your face, your cheekbone, your brow bone, and it’s going to make you look even cuter.” 

While Sarah blended all that in, Lydia had finished with the first coat of sparkly crimson and guided Sam’s hands under the curing light once again. Sarah spent this time opening up the new eyeshadow palette.

“I’m just gonna start with this color called iconic and just place this in the crease right about the back two thirds of your eye.” Sarah explained. Sam was so overwhelmed by the sensations he barely noticed that the eye shadow was pink, but for some reason he was starting not to care. Sarah now dipped her finger into a sparkling light pink shadow called simpin. “I’m just gonna dab this lighter shade. As you’ll see it’s this real beautiful color, and it looks great on you.” Sarah smiled. 

Sam never knew what colors he looked good in, he felt a creeping sense of comfort being in the talented hands of his sister and Lydia. 

After blending she picked up a liquid eyeliner pen. She reassured him, “We’re gonna do liquid eyeliner. I’m going to be very careful, but if you just stay still you’ll look fabulous.” She expertly curved all along his water line and then his tight line making a line weight gradient where the liner was thicker at the outside and thinner on the inside. 

Sam was focusing so much on what was happening to his eyes he didn’t even think about moving as Lydia began the second layer of nail polish. 

“I’m going to give your eyes a second to rest because you were very good for me,” Sarah piped in, “and I’m gonna do your eyebrows.” She measured the arch of his brows and said with surprise, “Your eyebrows are actually really good.” She picked up some tweezers and plucked as she spoke, “I just, gotta, take, out, a, few, stragglers.” Impressed by his stoic face through this, Sarah half joked, “You didn’t even flinch, good girl.” 

Sam blushed at this compliment, even if he felt like he shouldn’t resemble the last remark, it felt right and wonderful to hear. Sarah noticed the blush forming and said, “Ooo, I should give you blush.” She took the butt of her makeup sponge, dipped it in in a pink blush and dabbed it lightly on her sibling’s cheekbones.

Lydia had finished with the second coat and began the curing process again, however, this time she only needed to guide his left hand in as his right hand followed.

Sarah took a good look into Sam’s eyelashes and remarked, “Now I was thinking we might use false lashes, but yours are already pretty full. I’m just going to curl them and add mascara.” Sam felt a form of pride in this, but couldn’t explain why. After she finished he blinked a few times. Perhaps this was from eye strain, but he also kinda wanted to see his lashes fluttering.

Sarah turned back to the table and found a lip liner, then she said, “I’m just going to give a bit of a lip line so it looks a bit more full. Now I’m just going to finish off with some lip gloss.” Sarah stopped and admired the shimmery pinkish red lips she had given her brother. 

Sarah pulled back and admired all of her handiwork. Her brother looked beautiful, but there was still something that didn’t quite match up. She ran to her closet while Lydia applied a nice top coat to the nails. Sarah returned saying, “I want you to try this wig.”

“Wait, why?” remarked Sam, the last vestiges of masculinity barely hanging on.

I think it’ll really frame your face well.” The wig was a Natasha classic, straight chest length hair with bangs in a deep brown color. 

Sam couldn’t pretend anymore. He agreed with Sarah and nodded.

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Sarah put a wig cap on Sam before carefully securing the wig with the circular comb she had sewn into it. As she brushed the hair lightly with her hand to make sure it fell the right way. Lydia did not even need to direct the hands as they moved right under. She finally had a chance to look up and gawked in amazement at Sarah’s work. She looked up at Sarah and said, “I think this look needs one more thing.” 

Sam sat with his nails being cured. He couldn’t imagine what Lydia was looking for. From the closet he heard Lydia ask, “This one?”

Sarah agreed, “Yeah, that should fit.”

Sam turned to see Lydia wearing a pleading expression and holding up a black dress with a floral pattern and a shallow V-neckline. “Could you try this on?” Lydia asked. 

“What?” Sam replied in shock. “It’s beautiful, I couldn’t possibly—”

Sarah put her hand on his shoulder and said comfortingly, “It will fit you and you will look even prettier in it.” 

Staying still and letting this happen was one thing. When given the choice that was finally his to make, the voice in his head finally won out. He got up, pulled the dress over his head and adjusted the neckline before sitting back down. The dress sat just above his knees. 

Sarah then went behind the chair and put her hands in front of Sam’s eyes. “Lydia,” she sang “get the mirror.”

Two sounds of swinging hinges later and Sam’s eyes were uncovered. He was face to face with the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. It was him. The dreams of a thousand nights. The image that he had convinced himself could never be real. This was not a clown, this was not a drag queen. A hand touches the mirror and then touches the face.

*sniff* Sam began to bawl. It was a tremendous whaling of one life ending and another beginning. Cascades of tears eroded fresh makeup from her eyes and deposited it down her cheek. “I— I’m a girl!” She belted.

Lydia recoiled, “Did we go too far?”

Sarah knew better though, as she always did. She knew these were tears of joy. She went up and embraced her new sister. 

She looks into her younger sister’s tear filled eyes and calmly says “Sis, do you want me to fix your mascara.”

Hearing the word “sis” in reference to her filled her with a warmth that put pause to her tears. While she did want to continue crying, she wanted more to continue to be beautiful “*sniff* yes please*” she replied weakly.

“Okay sweetie.” Sarah whispered and began the process of removing the running makeup from her sister’s face and replacing it with something a little more water resistant. She spoke up after, “You know you can stay like this right?”

Sam had stopped crying and was able to think of some protest, “But -- but -- but what will mom think?”

Sarah turns her head and cocks her eyebrow, “Sis, why do you think mom kicked dad out? It’s because he was a bigotted ass. Have you ever seen mom say or do anything transphobic? Hasn’t she always been the first to stand up whenever someone attacks marginalized people?”

Lydia came up to the chair and caressed Sam’s arm. She added, “Remember that time you all got kicked out of that restaurant, that was because your mom defended a trans woman who was being harassed in the bathroom.”

Sam had no more arguments. She simply hugged the other girls and cried out, “thank you so much!”

After the hug, Sarah spoke up, “You look so good. We should all take a picture for Instagram.” She paused to check with her sister, “If you are up for it of course.”

Sam then got an idea. “Could you call me Rachel in it?” said Rachel.

“Aaaaaa” they both squealed in excitement.

Lydia remarked, “That’s so cute!”

Sarah beamed, “It suits you.”

“Okay, how about you lie down on my bed, while we do our makeup.” Sarah offered.

She got up and laid face up on the bed on top of the pink comforter. She felt around the soft plush blanket and ended up embracing a stuffed animal.

A few minutes later Sarah spoke up, “Sis, we’re ready.” They both had looks similar to her, but much to her surprise she was equally as pretty. Lydia had a light green color, the best color, on her inner eyes and a darker sparkly green, bonehead, outside. Sarah had two shades of purple, paht two and a darker sparkly portagee, on her inner and outer eyelids respectively. “Put your chair right between us.” Sarah said as she pointed to the spot. As she was setting up the camera she directed, “Okay everyone, form a table with your hands, rest your chin on it, tilt slightly, and smile!”

*click* went the phone’s sound effect.

“Perfect!” exclaimed Sarah. “Gonna post that right now.” She spoke as she typed out her caption. “Hey SarahBrownBeauties, my friend @LydiaSmith and I decided to try out the new  Mikayla X Glamlite eyeshadow palette. It turns out I have a new sister. Everyone, say hi to Rachel Brown.” Sarah finished and posted. 

Rachel had hardly stopped beaming before hearts and comments came flooding in. Their mom had apparently gotten the notification during her charity dinner and decided to respond. 

MommaMollyBrown

Love you both, and if anyone even thinks of making fun of you I’ll get the whole school shut down.

Rachel was thrilled, within seconds her mom was fully accepting her. She was not the only one. Comment after comment came flooding in.

OMG she’s so cute

Hi Rachel <3

I gotta try that palette

You are so pretty Rachel!

And she was. The affirmation was amazing and euphoric, but Rachel knew deep inside that this was her life now. No doubts could shake her, nor could whatever she was taught before in life. Rachel was a pretty girl.

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