A/N: My second fic. Before anyone says anything I'd like to point out that the "Kenny as a girl" idea belongs to Okhsa, and I was inspired by her "Behind the hood" (read that too, you guys!). If she says she doesn't want me taking her idea, this story will be cancelled. So, if anyone cares, cross your fingers. Please review, or else this story will whither away and die.

Obviously I own nothing.

This is just the intro/backstory, things get started in the next chapter.

The Real Kenny McCormick

It was her little secret. The secret she'd never tell a living soul.

She hated it. It made her feel so... dirty. It was all a lie. This whole life was a lie.

She wasn't Kenny McCormick. That wasn't her name, that wasn't her family. It was all a lie.

Kenny wasn't even a "he".

Kenny was a girl. She'd lived a lie her entire life. It had been so long, she'd almost forgotten why she pretended she was Kenny McCormick, hiding behind the protection of an orange hood, speaking only when her voice would be too muffled for anyone else to discover it wasn't deep enough to belong to a teenage boy.

She almost forgot. Because it was impossible for her to forget, even after so many years.

Kenny... That wasn't her name. But then again, she had no name in the first place.

She was an orphan. She'd grown up in the town orphanage, secluded from the other children. She'd never liked being around other people. Until she'd met the real Kenny McCormick.

His mother had worked there for a few weeks, and each day she would see Kenny, stuffed in his orange parka. He'd approached her, and the two had immediately become friends.

After a few weeks, his mother had stopped working there... But Kenny had kept visiting her, day after day, for years.

Then, the unthinkable.

The switch.

It had been Kenny's idea at first. The two were eight years old at the time, and already he couldn't stand his family anymore. Also, he knew how much she wanted to get away from the crummy orphanage. So he'd proposed a switch. She would go to live with the McCormicks, and Kenny would take her place in the orphanage.

It was madness. And yet, the two really were quite similar. Blonde hair, blue eyes, roughly the same height, and with no telltale signs of being one gender or another other than the voice, which wouldn't be a problem for her and Kenny could easily imitate.

"We're going to go to the bathroom and exchange clothes. We'll stay here together a little while longer, then you'll leave when mom gets back. We meet back here next week at anytime and change back." Kenny had whispered.

The orphan had nodded gravely.

"Now... Are you sure you can handle it? My family's hard to bear..." he'd warned her.

"I'll be fine." she'd whispered back.

It was on.

Everything had gone as planned... They'd switched, and later the fake Kenny had gone to what was to be her home for a week.

But it wasn't only for a week. Her stay was destined to be much, much longer.

She'd come back to the orphanage the next week, having lived a happy yet short-lived life in the shoes of Kenny McCormick, with a real family and real friends.

Even though melancholic, she was ready to change back to her own modest and solitary life.

But Kenny hadn't been there to switch back. In that one, short week, the impossible had happened.

She'd been adopted.

Or better, Kenny had been adopted.

With no indications about where he'd gone and what his new name would be (my name, she thought), there had been little she could do about it.

She'd stolen his life. Kenny had been her only friend, and had always supported her... And she'd stolen everything he had. It tormented her.

And yet, even though the guilt drove her mad at first... She had become Kenny. Kenny's life was her life now. After so many years, she had a hard time believing her life had ever been different.

This was the worst part: she enjoyed every minute of it... And wouldn't have given it up for anything in the world.