Gary and I went back to my house afterwards, where we talked through the other aspects of the act.

"So we're actually doing this," he said. "What do you want me to wear?"

I thought about it.

"We could find you a sparkly costume, but since we don't have too much time I have another idea. This is a school concert and we'll be doing the audition at school, so if we perform in school uniform I've got a girl's one that I've hardly ever worn. How do you feel about trying that on?"

The school uniform my parents bought me had been left ignored in my wardrobe ever since I'd been able to get hold of a boy's one to wear. Gary and I wore blazers over charcoal trousers, white shirts and school ties, the girls had fitted blazers too but mostly wore navy v-neck pullovers with grey pleated skirts and white blouses. I found a pair of tights in my drawer, showed Gary how to put them on and got him changed the rest of the way. The skirt fitted fairly well around his waist, the blouse was a little snug but the jumper hung well and  covered up the places where there was a stretch. Fully dressed, Gary looked just like a boyish schoolgirl with short hair, it was actually a pretty good look on him. He checked to see how well he could move in the outfit, which was easily enough to perform the illusion.

Pete gave us the boxes a few days later so we could start practising in earnest. We rehearsed in the back room of the shop after school, with Gary in costume so he could get the feel of doing the movements in a skirt. As the audition date approached, Mrs. Kemble agreed to let us rehearse in the hall when it wasn't in use, so we could check the sight  lines and get used to performing on the stage. We picked out some suitable music to use and ran it over as many times as we could in the time available. We were a bit worried about people coming in and seeing what we were doing, but as it was after school there weren't many around. One of the cleaners came in at one point, so we got her to watch the run through to check the sight lines for us. She thought it looked great and wished us luck in the auditions.

On the day, Gary wore his tights under his trousers so he could quickly change in secret just before we were due to go on. There wasn't that much noticeable difference between the blouse and his regular shirt, so all he had to do was slip out of his trousers and blazer and  put on the skirt and jumper. He then crawled through the bottom of the backstage curtains to get into position when all the props were set up.

The routine couldn't have gone more smoothly. The Victory Cartons  production involves unfolding, assembling and disassembling a set of  cardboard boxes, showing each to be empty before stacking them all inside each other so the assistant can jump up and out. I added a few smaller productions to bulk out the routine and misdirect from Gary's  movements. I started with some basic card fan productions, then introduced larger and larger boxes to produce scarves, a stuffed toy and then a ladder. From there we moved into the main routine; I showed the full oversize boxes to be empty, put them all together and perfectly on cue Gary leapt up and out, striking an over the top pose in his schoolgirl outfit.

The audience, consisting of Mrs. Kemble, a couple of other teachers and the other kids auditioning, gave us a massive round of applause. A lot said they had no idea I could do magic like that (only my close  friends knew before then) and they thought Gary's reveal was hilarious. Mrs. Kemble told us we were through to the main show and that she'd give us enough time to add in the second illusion.

I thanked Gary for everything he'd done, this was my first proper stage magic performance and I never would have got there without his  support, he was a true friend. He reminded me we weren't done yet and that we needed to add another illusion in time for the main show, but that he was really looking forward to getting it done.

When he went backstage to get his trousers and blazer he found someone had hidden them. It turned out to be our mate Jim, who'd been  wandering backstage and saw Gary slipping behind a curtain to get  changed. He let Gary stew for a little while, made him think he'd have  to walk home dressed like that, then came clean and gave him his clothes back.
"Sorry," he said, "I couldn't resist. Seriously, though, you guys were awesome."

After the audition word got around about our act. The music and drama kids who'd been there asked me to show them some magic, causing the other lads to muscle in with their own shonky tricks that they'd picked up from Christmas magic sets or learned from their Dads. I got to really appreciate what Pete had taught me watching these guys, there was no art or storytelling to anything they were doing, just clumsy party tricks to use in pissing contests. I watched politely and let them get on with it, it's not like I was trying to compete with them.

Gary's drag appearance had also caused a stir. No-one gave him a hard time over it – he was well liked, took jokes in good humour and everyone knew it was just a performance. One person who was particularly taken by it was Fi, a girl in the year above ours who played violin, was a keen and accomplished dancer and was always featured in school productions. She offered to do Gary's hair and make-up for the actual show; Gary was up for it and as I had no knowledge of or interest in girly make-up we agreed.

Then came the matter of what extra illusion we were going to do. Gary already knew what he wanted.
"Before I've finished being your magician's assistant, I'd like to be able to say I was sawn in half," he said. "Do you think you can do  that?"
I liked his enthusiasm. Sawing a Lady in Half is the most famous illusion people think of, so it made sense that he wanted it to complete the experience. There was a crude method in the Victory Cartons book, but I was pretty sure we could improve it with Pete's help.

As it turned out, Pete helped us a lot. He congratulated us on a successful debut performance, as a treat to celebrate he offered to lend us a proper professional sawing box. As a teenage boy, Gary was about the same height and build as standard assistants, so fit perfectly into the prop. The illusion had a pair of dummy feet that came into play right at the start, but Pete had trained me better than to just follow the instructions. Combining the stock illusion with some other methods I researched, we scripted out a routine where Gary's real feet would be visible while he was being sawn through, so he could wriggle them about and react, then go suddenly still when I'd finished sawing all the way  through. We then plotted out some business to cover switching the feet before inserting the blades and dividing the boxes. The whole routine required a lot of rehearsal to get right, but came together well. That  sawing routine ended up serving me well over the years, I taught and performed it many times, from inside and outside the box.

When Fi took more and more of an interest in what we were doing and asked if she could teach Gary to dance and move more like a girl, I got the sense that she was following him around. I didn't mind, Gary and I were never a couple – romantic attraction is complicated when you're  trapped in the wrong body, but I was never sexually attracted to him. I  didn't know whether Gary picked up on Fi's interest in him, but Pete, Gary and I all agreed that someone with actual dance expertise could only improve the act. We let her start coming to rehearsals where she  turned out to be an utter pro, so we added her as an extra assistant,  her school uniform meant she and Gary already had matching costumes. We developed the Victory Cartons production so both of them could appear in the box together, then having her onstage to help me saw Gary in half opened up a lot of opportunities to hide the dirty work and make everything run smoother.

Pete came to the school concert to see us perform, he was deeply proud of the work we'd put in and wanted to support me in my first full stage performance. He brought the sawing box in his van, helped us set  everything up and coached us backstage. Many of the parents and teachers  knew him from local events and birthday parties he'd performed at,  having him there as my mentor really made me proud. It also meant he finally got to meet my parents.

Mum and Dad never did fully support my choice of career, but they didn't stand in my way and it meant a lot that they came to see me perform. I was a bit worried about tension when they met Pete, if they'd think he was a bad influence that had stolen away their daughter to the dark side, but Pete was a professional people person and did all he could to put them at ease. He told them how hard I'd worked, how much he valued me as an employee and the prospects I had of making a good living from magic. He was careful to always refer to me by my given name when talking to them, but noted how much more confident I was presenting as a boy without pressing the issue too much. They would have preferred me to find a more conventional (and Christian) mentor, but at least they knew I was in good hands.

Later on, when I transitioned, my relationship with my parents became more and more strained before breaking down completely, they could never accept that I was no longer their daughter. But the happiest memory I ever had with them was at that concert, when I performed as myself and they said they were proud of what I had accomplished. I'll always be glad to have that.

The performance itself went even better than the audition. Fi brought exceptional stage confidence which energised Gary and I, she never tried to steal the spotlight and everything she did put the audience's focus exactly where we wanted it to be. Having her and Gary jump up together in identical girls' uniforms made his appearance even funnier, as I ran through the tricks leading up to their production I felt truly at home, everything just flowed. The audience reacted perfectly to every part of the routine, Gary gave a great performance of being sawn in half and when we put him back together and took our final bow we received a standing ovation. They even used a photo of us in the local  newspaper article about the concert, with Fi and I posing in between Gary's two halves after we separated the boxes.

Fi got what she wanted; she and Gary were officially an item soon  after the performance and remained boyfriend and girlfriend after they finished school. The three of us remained close friends; after I turned professional I hired them to help with my cabaret set, with Fi taking  onstage assistant duties and Gary providing technical support from the wings.

Ten years later they got married. I was at their wedding as a guest and gave a free performance in their honour, including a substitution illusion involving the bride and groom. Fi told the whole story of our school performance in her speech and said that she knew Gary was a keeper when she saw just how far he was willing to go to support and encourage a friend.

Fi privately admitted to me that she also liked dressing him up. He was never trans that I know of, he only dressed as a girl that time because of the deal we'd made, but I never got my girl's school uniform back. Not that I wanted it, he wore it way better than I ever would have.

Fi certainly thought so.