Timothy ‘Tim’ McGrother is practicing for the first day of eighth grade. The plan begins now, six days before the start of the school year and works toward who Tim really is: Lily Jo McGrother. Today, while her family is out of the house, she starts her practice by selecting a pretty red dress and slipping it on. She feels conflicted because “it feels good to be finally doing this [but] the other half—where other people’s voices jam together in [her] brain—is terrified” (3).

When Lily heads out to help her dad unload groceries, she hopes her “Dad understands how much this means to [her]” (5), but he yells that she can’t be outside dressed like that. Despite her dad’s concern that classmates will see and make fun of her, Lily doesn’t go inside when a teenage boy with a Dunkin Donuts bag approaches, making her dad visibly angry and panicked. As the boy approaches, Lily gathers her courage and waves, wondering whether the boy “thinks [she’s] a girl”, which she is even if “not everyone understands that yet” (8). The boy smiles and waves back, and Lily walks back into the house feeling like her first practice was a success, even if her dad is still upset.