Girls didn't do that!

Jessica had always believed her brother got everything.

It wasn't because he worked harder for it. As far as she could tell, he barely had to ask. Their father adored him, and being the favoured child seemed to open doors that remained firmly shut to Jessica.

Whenever Dad announced a hunting trip, her brother was invited.

When the men went fishing, her brother went along.

When they packed the truck for a weekend of camping, Jessica was told the same thing she'd heard countless times before:

"Sorry, sweetheart. Boys only."

There was always something waiting for her at home instead.

Her mother would give her sewing to finish, chores to do, or some lesson about becoming a "proper young woman."

Jessica hated it.

More than that, she hated watching her brother return from another adventure muddy, sunburned, and grinning while Dad proudly told everyone how well he'd handled himself.

So, on her sixteenth birthday, when the cake came out and everyone gathered around her, Jessica closed her eyes before blowing out the candles.

She made a wish.

It wasn't a complicated wish.

She wished that her brother could become a girl.

Not for a day.

Not as a joke.

She wanted him to live the life Jessica had been forced to accept and discover for himself what it was like to be told that certain things were forbidden simply because you were female.

The next morning, the world had changed.

Everyone remembered things differently.

Everyone except Jessica and her brother.

To their parents, Jessica had apparently always been their handsome teenage son.

The boy who had always gone hunting with Dad.

The boy who played football.

The boy who could stay out late with his friends.

The boy who had never been expected to learn domestic skills simply because of his sex.

Jessica remembered the truth.

So did her brother.

And that was what made the transformation terrifying.

Her brother had become a girl.

Jessica had become the son.

For the first few days, Jessica couldn't decide whether to celebrate or feel guilty.

She finally had everything she'd wanted.

Dad invited her on the next hunting trip without hesitation.

She was given fishing gear for her birthday.

At School, she discovered that the rules seemed different now. She could spend afternoons playing football with the boys. Nobody questioned whether she belonged outside. Nobody reminded her that she ought to be learning housework instead.

Meanwhile, her brother was discovering the other side of the family.

Mum expected him to help around the house.

He was taught sewing.

He was told how to dress appropriately.

She reminded him that girls were supposed to be modest, well-behaved, and prepared for the responsibilities of adulthood.

At first, he protested.

"Why can't I go hunting?"

Their mother looked genuinely puzzled.

"Because you're a girl."

"Since when does that matter?"

"It always has."

That answer became the refrain of his new life.

Girls didn't do that.

Girls shouldn't behave like that.

Girls needed to learn this.

Girls were expected to think about marriage.

Girls had responsibilities at home.

Every restriction that had once sounded absurd to Jessica now surrounded her brother.

And slowly, Jessica began to understand something she hadn't considered when she made the wish.

Her brother hadn't deserved the privileges he'd received.

But Jessica hadn't deserved the restrictions she'd endured either.

They had simply been placed on opposite sides of a system neither of them had created.

Months passed.

Her brother changed in ways neither of them had expected.

His Body continued developing along an unfamiliar path, and the ordinary realities of adolescence became something he had to learn from scratch. Awkward conversations with their mother, unfamiliar routines, new expectations at School, and constant reminders that the world now saw him differently.

Jessica experienced the opposite.

The confidence she'd always wished for seemed to come naturally with the freedom she was suddenly given.

She grew stronger from football and outdoor activities. Dad taught her how to handle a rifle safely, read tracks, gut fish, build a campfire, and navigate through the woods.

Every time he praised her, something inside Jessica twisted.

She had spent years begging for exactly this.

Now she had it.

But across the dinner table sat the brother who remembered having it first.

And he was miserable.

One evening, after their parents had gone to bed, the two siblings sat together in the kitchen.

"This isn't what I expected," her brother admitted.

Jessica stared at him.

"What did you expect?"

"I thought being a girl would just mean looking different."

He laughed bitterly.

"I didn't realise everyone would suddenly have rules for me."

Jessica was silent.

She knew those rules.

She had lived under them for sixteen years.

Her brother looked at her.

"You're enjoying this."

Jessica hesitated.

"Yes."

The honesty seemed to hurt him.

"But I also understand now," she continued. "I used to think you were the problem. I thought you were getting everything because Dad loved you more."

"And now?"

"Now I think Dad just believed the world was supposed to work this way."

Her brother lowered his eyes.

For the first time, neither of them blamed the other.

The wish had given Jessica everything she'd wanted.

It had also given her something she had never asked for:

perspective.

And there was no undoing it.

Whatever happened next, the two of them would have to grow up on opposite sides of the same family—and somehow find a way to make sure neither of them became trapped by the roles they'd been assigned.