America's Sweetheart

Afterwards, we had fun putting on our new skirts and blazers before we went out to our favorite local restaurant, and a couple of kids came up to me and asked me for my autograph. I couldn't understand how they even recognized me until one of them showed us the cover of People Magazine. There I was, at yesterday's hearing, in my little black dress, heels and stockings, over a caption which read, "From Washout to Knockout". There was a story inside about our incredible softball team's undefeated season, and two more pictures of me in my uniform, fielding a grounder and celebrating a home run. The title of the article was, "Could America's Sweetheart Be a Boy?"

"You're famous!" Jan marveled, but all I could wonder was whether my parents read People Magazine.

* * *

On Saturday, the college band played a fight song for us as we gathered outside the athletic department for a bus to take us to the airport. The team looked sharp in our new skirts and blazers.

We were flying coach on Southwest Airlines, and Jan and I shared a row with our team captain Bess, the star pitcher who had been with Coach Heller that first day I met her, when she invited me to try out for the team. Now Bess was a known lesbian, as were a few others on the team, and she seemed totally indifferent to my transformation, but she was like a mama bear when it came to protecting her cubs on the team. During the flight she expressed her concern about possible threats from anti-trans extremists, urging me to stick close to her when we got to Oklahoma. Bess was a big girl, and I was grateful for her support, but I really didn't think it would be necessary.

Until we got off the plane. As soon as we passed through security, we were greeted by a throng of screaming protestors carrying signs like "BAN THE TRANNY" and "HOMO GO HOME". I suddenly felt very vulnerable walking through the concourse in my bare legs and pleated skirt. A few police officers were standing around, but when we tried to get outside to our waiting bus, a goon suddenly picked me out of the crowd and rushed me. I was bracing for a hit when Bess came out of nowhere and kicked him right in the balls. He went down like a ton of bricks, and I heard him howling as I scurried out of the terminal with the rest of the girls.

Things got worse when we approached our hotel. The bus driver had to fight his way through a crowd of irate, screaming fanatics who chased the team into the lobby, where armed security guards prevented them from assaulting us. Coach Heller had an ashen expression on her face as she hurried us though checkin and into our rooms.

Jan and I were sharing a double room. After our suitcases were brought up, we changed into casual skirts, tops and sandals (Jan had helped me go on a shopping spree before we left) and we were able to slip out of the hotel without me being recognized, thanks to large sunglasses and a floppy hat. We walked over to the stadium and watched the team from the University of Oklahoma working out on the field. Jan spied Coach Heller sitting my herself a few rows down, and we walked over to her and sat down. "They look pretty good," Jan said.

Coach Heller didn't take her eyes off the Sooners. "They've won this tournament the last two years. We'll be lucky if we can stay on the field with them."

"That doesn't sound like you, Coach."

"Let's quit kidding ourselves, guys. We wouldn't even be here if I hadn't talked a boy into joining the team. I just never thought about what it would be like bringing a trans kid to Oklahoma. You saw that reception at the airport and the hotel, we'll be lucky to get out of town alive. I'm so, so sorry that I got us into this mess."

I knew that I needed to step up. If Coach Heller lost her confidence in her ability to lead us, we might as well go home. "Coach, you got us here because we're good. Right now Bess is the best softball pitcher in the country, and your shortstop here has been playing over her head because you gave her the chance to play for you. You're the reason we're here, Coach, and all we want to do is play for you. So don't pay any attention to those yahoos holding up the signs. We're going to show them that people can do anything they set their minds to, and that includes a boy turning himself into a girl to play softball. We're counting on you, Coach."

She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and said, "I don't deserve you guys. I just don't want anybody to get hurt."

"So let's be smart about this and have our practices at dawn before the nutjobs wake up. See you at 5:00 tomorrow morning?"

"See you at 5:00 tomorrow morning," she said, already working on her cellphone to set it up

* * *

Our first game was on Tuesday against a team from Oregon. We got to the ballpark two hours before the game to avoid any confrontation with the protestors who were expected to mass outside the stadium, and once we got in uniform and took the field, we found the crowd to be surprisingly welcoming. Tournament officials did a good job of keeping out the rowdies, and things continued this way for the most part throughout the World Series.

Bess was absolutely brilliant on the mound, hurling a two hitter and striking out fifteen batters. I handled a few ground balls and beat out a scratch single, but the hero of the game was Jan, who blasted a two run home run to give us the win, 2-0.

The less said about our next game, the better: we were absolutely destroyed by the Oklahoma Sooners. Bess had to rest after pitching the first game, and her backup just didn't have it that day, yielding five runs in the first inning. I went 0-4 at the plate and we lost 12-0.

The College Softball World Series is a round robin tournament, meaning that a team continues to play until they've lost two games, and the surviving teams keep playing until the two teams with the best records are left standing. We bounced back from our loss to Oklahoma, winning a laugher against an Arizona team, 6-1. I went four for four including two doubles, raising my batting average for the tournament to.454, and I made two dazzling plays at shortstop that had the crowd buzzing.

Our next game was a different story, a nail-biter against a tough Tennessee team that was leading 2-1 when Jan got on base in the bottom of the seventh. I was batting cleanup, and I hit the first pitch high in the air towards right field, where the wind was blowing just enough to carry it over the fence for a walk off home run.

We were celebrating in the clubhouse when Coach Heller brought us down to earth. "Great game, guys. We've just earned a place in the championship game against Oklahoma." It was like somebody let the air out of a balloon, and most of us were sitting by our lockers when the coach came to tell me that I'd just been ordered to take a random drug test.

"This is bullshit!" I shouted.

"Now calm down. I immediately protested how this could not possibly be random, but it is what it is and we've got no choice. Have you been taking your hormones?"

"Every day."

"Then we should be okay."

"But what if I blow it?"

"Erin, there's nothing we can do about this. If your blood sample tests female, we play Oklahoma tomorrow for all the marbles. If your testosterone level has gone back up to male, you won't be allowed to play tomorrow, and we might even have to forfeit all the games we've won."

"This really sucks. When do I have to take the test?"

"Right now, the nurse is waiting. We'll have the results in a few hours."

* * *

Jan and I went back to our room after dinner, and we were going out of our minds when I got a text from the coach. "Testosterone is 9.7. Game time tomorrow is 2:00. Get some rest if Jan lets you"

We were over the moon! "Congratulations baby, you're a girl," Jan teased me as I started to lift up her skirt. She did the same to mine, we pulled off each other's panties, and I did my best to love her like I used to before the estrogen started to feminize me. Jan started to stroke me and I thought I could feel myself getting almost hard, and when Jan guided me inside her, I slipped out at first before she patiently eased me back in, and I bucked her gently until I knew that I was about to come, and when she came too we could feel each other's spasms as we both remained motionless and savored our love.

The next morning, we soaped each other up in the shower and took turns shaving each other's legs, before we went at it once again, a sweet 69 this time, which ended with spectacular orgasms for each of us, then we snuggled in bed, talking about our crazy life together, and imagining what the future might hold for us, until it was time for us to get ready for the slaughter.

The protestors were back outside the hotel, but this time a squad of police officers backed them off and we were able to board our bus without incident for the short drive to the stadium. There would be a sellout crowd today, and the seats would be full of Oklahoma fans rooting for the home team, but Jan and I felt totally relaxed after our glorious night of lovemaking. The rest of our team was tense, and Coach Heller did her best to psych us up before we took the field.

"When we started down this road back in February, we knew we were one player short of a great team. Then Erin joined us, and you embraced her as one of your own. Some people may think that Erin has made a sacrifice to join our team, but I see things a little differently. Because as Erin has become more like you, the rest of the team, myself included, have become a little more like Erin. She brought with her a desire to win which some of us were lacking, and in return we've given her the confidence in herself that she was lacking before she joined the team. All of this has nothing to do with hormones, or hairstyles, it has everything to do with what's in here (she pointed to her heart). We've proven that gender doesn't matter as much as courage, and that all of us can have the courage to do impossible things. In a few minutes you're going to take the field against Goliath. Well, we have our David, and thanks to you, a little bit of David has rubbed off on all of us, and David has been transformed into a better person in the process. Let's get out there and show the world what we can do!"

When we took the field, we were like avenging angels. Bess was on the mound, and she pitched a no-hitter which left the Sooners stunned, while I set a World Series record by hitting for the cycle: a single in the first inning, a double which drove in a run in the third, a triple in the fifth, and a home run in the seventh which put the game out of reach as we shocked Oklahoma 4-0 to become the national champions of women's college softball.

After the game, the media was finally allowed to have free access to me, as I sat next to my locker in my girl's softball uniform, which was stained with grass and dirt from my heroics on the field. The first question was the last: "Don't you feel guilty about pretending to be a girl?"

"Not at all," I replied. "I didn't need a blood test to tell me that I'm a girl, it's in my heart where it counts, and if I have to spend the rest of my life proving that to you, it sounds like a fun trip."

Author's Note: To make this work as a short story, it was necessary to compress the timelines for hormone therapy and fudge slightly the NCAA requirements for trans athletes, otherwise all of this could really happen...