Excitement rushed through me as I looked up at the tall fifteen story building. At that moment, the possibilities seemed endless. It was always exciting for most people to be assigned their requested gender. I already knew what I would be requesting, but that didn't stop anticipating shivers from running down my spine.
"Leopold, calm down," I heard my mother scold gently, voicing my name to gather my wandering attention span. Looking back at her, I blinking my shining green eyes that looked as if they could be animated. I didn't like the color of my eyes, my older sister Evelyn always said they looked like the lime-flavored juice that you squeezed out of gummies.
Speaking of my older sister, Evelyn piped up, "I bet he's just glad to finally be able to have sex!"
Gently slapping the back of her head, my mother looked at Evelyn with a harsh gaze. "You were just as excited to receive your gender, I don't want to hear you talking bad like that."
Sticking my tongue out at my sister, she scoffed and turned away. She was only a year older than me, and if we were being honest, we both were extremely childish people. And what happens when you put two childish people together? You get petty arguments. Like the one that our mother had just defused.
My whole family, except for my father, was filled with red heads. We all had green eyes, except I was the only one whose eyes looked the color of Lima beans. My father, who couldn't be with us right now because of his untimely passing, had army green eyes that were dull but lively. He had shaggy brown hair styled into a mullet, and always had a smile on his face. My mother's hair looked like a tangerine, and it straight and silky, almost like the fabric itself. Her eyes were a deep, emerald green that looked like you were staring into a green ocean from above. Evelyn looked exactly like mom, eyes, hair, face, and everything else. And while I had my mom's hair color and unusual eyes, my face was shaped exactly like my dad's. Round and, because of our widow's peaks, heart-shaped. We were both on the shorter side, and I had reached to be the same height as him.
I wish he was here with me today, on my sixteenth birthday. He was there on my fourteenth birthday when my name was assigned, and he had been so happy to see my smile. But I'm sure he's having a happy time in heaven watching me. Maybe.
Walking inside the fifteen story building, I looked around, shocked and amazed. This is what I drove here for. And it was huge! I instantly had the urge to go check everything out and search every room.
"Me and Evelyn will be leaving to go check out the city," my mom tells me quickly, giving me a long kiss on my forehead as if she was stating I was still her little baby and always would be. I let her, controlling myself to not pull away like I usually did. I could tell she was grateful. "Be good," my mom warned.
"You have no faith in me," I threw back immaturely, before grinning widely at her. "Of course I'll be good! All I have to do is wait for the doctor to come and get me, no big deal. I'm a champ at being patient."
"That's not true," Evelyn sneered. "You're lucky I want to explore the city more than stand around here waiting on you."
We had a mini staring contest, but she turned away and began dragging my mom by the wrist towards the door. My mother took one last, long glance at me, before walking away with my sister. I knew she had wanted to stay with me, but she couldn't. It was against the rules for family members to wait with their children for their gender's to be assigned. Getting your gender assigned was like becoming an adult, and adults couldn't hang onto their parents for everything. So the child was left alone to deal with one of the most important check marks in their life.
I didn't like that very much. Maybe if I joined the government, I could change it. Smiling to myself at my stupidity, I knew that would never be possible. Everyone knew the government had to choose their next officials that would take their places, and I didn't know anyone who was part of the government. A silly idea indeed.
But Evelyn had been right. I wasn't good at waiting. After my mom dropped me off, I found myself sitting in the chair tapping my foot on the hard tile ground of the magnificent place. It's theme seemed to be navy blue, as the walls were the color. The tile floor was a silver-ish white, and when looking down into it, I could see my reflection.
"Woah, cool..." I trailed off, drowning in my own face's image. My hair was shaggy and was in the same haircut as my dad's used to be, mullet and all. My bangs were fluffy and stuck out in all directions, but I didn't mind. Keeping my hair tidy was too much work anyways.
And eventually, after around thirty minutes of waiting, I had an idea. Why not wander around a little bit? I mean, most of the doors would be locked anyways, since this was a government owned hotel, and hotel doors needed a key to be unlocked. Maybe I could at least explore a janitor's closet. You always find the weirdest stuff in there. I remember once I found half of my collection of rubber bouncing balls in a box at a different place's janitor's closet, and had stuffed as many into backpack as I could.
Standing up, I felt as if that decided it. I would go wander around.
I knew there would be cameras, so I had to choose wisely on which doors to try and enter. And then I came across the perfect one to at least try. Forget janitor's closets, this one was a no brainer. I would have to try this, despite it being most definitely locked. It was a large, black door, with, in big red lettering, the words DO NOT ENTER. I mean, what do you expect someone like me to do upon seeing those words? To not enter?
And that settled it for me. Placing my hand on the door knob after looking side to side to make sure no one was around, I tried to open it with as much force as possible without making a racket. And then it opened.
Confusion swarmed me for a moment. Why was a door that said DO NOT ENTER in big, bold, bright red lettering... unlocked? I should go and report it the people running the place. I really should. It was the smart and right thing to do. But then again, I wasn't that smart, so I found myself entering the room anyways.
It was dark when I walked in, and I realized it was one of those rooms that had a switch somewhere inside that turned the lights on instead of motion sensor light. It was odd, to say the least. I'd never been in one of those rooms before. So, feeling my hand on the wall for the switch, I found it and turned the light on.
And on a big white board, I couldn't believe what I found written there in red marker, almost like the color itself was warning me to not read what it said. But it was too late for that, as my lime-colored eyes were already registering what was there.
THE INGREDIENTS TO CHANGE SOMEONE'S GENDER: Frog eggs, rosemary, moss filled with swamp water, a blood sample, magic.