Transgender orphan meets new kid in town

I dropped the book back in my pack and zipped it closed. The girl finished coming over to me and extended her hand. I shook it. "I'm Vicky," she introduced herself.

"Paul," I replied. "Why are you limping?"

"Side effects of rickets when I was younger," Vicky grunted. "My parents... didn't have much money."

They must have been dead broke when you were a baby, I thought to myself. Rickets is a deficiency disease you find in Third World countries. But what I actually said was, "I'm very sorry to hear that."

Vicky grinned. "It's OK. I'm eating well now. You're the new kid in town, which is why no one will talk to you. I'm the cripple, so no one wants me around either. We should be friends."

"Agreed," I told Vicky. We settled ourselves in the shade on two more tree stumps and chatted for the rest of lunch. And we agreed that since no one else would talk to us, we would eat lunch under the trees together every day.

Vicky's birthday, I found out during our lunchtime conversation two days later, was exactly one week before mine. And like me, she was a senior and turning 18.

The next day, I brought up the subject. "Can I come to your birthday party?"

"I wasn't planning on a party," Vicky grumbled. "Until I met you, I didn't have anyone to invite."

"Well, it can be a small party," I told her. She promised to give me a reply soon..

Several days later, the response was yes. "My birthday falls on a Saturday this year," Vicky chuckled. "You are invited to my house at 2 p.m. But on the condition that the following Saturday, you have to invite me to your house for your 18th."

"I was already planning to," I assured her.

"You're a good friend, Paul," Vicky replied. She gave me a smile. She had a very pretty smile.

"Where is your house?" I asked.

Vicky gave me an address. "It's an orphanage. My parents both died when I was 8, and I have no other family of any kind."

My jaw dropped. "But... don't you have to leave when you turn 18?"

"I have a mysterious benefactor...