Chapter 1: Not a Girl (Age 5)
Mira and Ephraim Bridger sat around their kitchen table, secretly going over what to talk about in their next broadcast. They had just about finished when their five year old daughter, Debora came out of her room.
"Mommy, Daddy, can I ask you something?" she asked fiddling with the skirt of her dress.
"Sure sweetie, what is it?" Mira asked.
"Can I stop wearing dresses?" Debora asked.
"Yeah, of course we can buy you some different clothes sweetheart." Ephraim responded. "But is there a reason why?"
Debora had trouble meeting their eyes.
"I feel like I'm a boy, and boys don't really wear dresses." Debora said.
"What?" Mira asked in disbelief.
"Mommy, I don't want to be a girl. I'm not a girl. I'm a boy." Debora said.
Mira and Ephraim grew very much afraid. They were in no way transphobic, but the Empire, especially on Lothal, was. Mira lost her brother, cause he was the same as Debora, a boy born in a girl's body.
"Okay," Mira said softly, bending down to meet her daughter, no her son's eyes. "You can call yourself a boy if that is what you say you are. We will treat you as such. But, you can never let anyone know that you were born a girl."
"Why?" Debora asked.
"The Empire doesn't like people who say they are boy when they were born a girl, or when they say they are a girl but was born a boy." Ephraim explained lightly.
"Why?" Debora asked, sorely confused.
"We don't know, it's just the way they are." Ephraim admitted sadly.
"Do you have a name picked out sweetie?" Mira asked.
Mira and Ephraim waited patiently as their son picked out his name.
"Ezra," was his response. "I want to be called Ezra."
"Then we'll call you Ezra." Mira smiled. "First things first." She picked at her son's pigtails. "Let me cut your hair so it better suits you. You aren't a girl after all."
Ezra gave his mother a big smile. He knew they would understand.