Fan Art Contest for Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Tsai

Read the excerpt:

Hana looked ravishing. Her red hair shone in a way it hadn’t before. She wore an ankle-length, blue pleated skirt, a green satin button-down blouse, and soft pink ballet flats made to look like pointe shoes with a box toe and thick straps across the front. Her lips were painted a sparkling mauve, and her jade drop earrings shone against the rapidly dissolving daylight. As usual, she took my breath away, but it was deeply reassuring to see her react to my transformation. Impulsively, Hana took one hand and rubbed it against the back of my neck. I sighed audibly as Hana beamed at me, a smile I’d never seen before, as though she were seeing me for the first time.

I picked Hana up in our family car the day of the play, wearing a deep purple waistcoat, a pink ruffled blouse with a high neck, and forest-green men’s trousers I had my father’s tailor alter for my shape. I went to the barber shop on the way. It was a Thursday night, a day I knew the one woman barber worked, and I asked her to give me a men’s cut with a tight fade. I can’t articulate how it felt to come into my own body, my own style, my own calalai. She knew that I was about to head to my first date, and so she sprinkled talcum powder against my neck and as she brushed it against my skin, I sighed with pleasure at my new self. And with my mother’s blessing. I only hoped Hana would approve.

I guess we both were.