Chapter 5

We had been on the A3 for a while and then turned off just before Guildford. He must have been reading my mind.

“It’s no good seeing where we go, Maxine. We have been using tonight’s venue for a few months and will find somewhere else for when we next meet. We don’t stay anywhere for more than six months.”

“Obviously nowhere that’s cheap, though.”

Chapter 4

The appointment was for nine on Tuesday, so I rang Hassam to book him from eight until twelve. He told me that he had his car back and it was now a lot quieter. Lena wanted to know how my weekend was, so I told her that I had been invited to the dinner on Saturday evening and met Barry Bishop, AKA DI Abbott, and had a frank discussion with him.

I was relieved when Larry and the head cheerleader drifted apart. I should have been concerned when Bob asked Larry for a date. The truth was that I was just too curious to see what would happen I just aided and abetted instead. Larry was even lovelier that night. They left and about a minute to midnight I heard Bob’s car drive up again. Of course I had prepared an unobtrusive view of the porch. Yes, there was a good-night kiss. Not a bad one. Really not a bad one.

The Manchester Early Summer Carnival 
A “How I Spent My Summer Vacation: I became a Girl” Gaiden
by
Rebecca Coleman

-1-
A Proposal

So Larry was without girlfriend. While I had not expected him to be single for long (what a change from the beginning of the year!) I had NOT expected Bob (the baseball captain) to be the next one to ring the bell and ask for Larry.

What it is to be a Queen

I am Banrigh, the most sucessful hive queen in our history on the planet, at least so far I am. My gratitude that our memories and awareness are passed on when we pass is beyond the comprehension of those of other species. Members of other species die and their descendants are left with what they remember of what they have seen and have been told. We remember as if we were the one experiencing what our entire line of direct ancestors remembered of their lives and experiences. For those of us with ancestors of influence, or ancestors who subsequently became to be recognised as major contributors to our current thinking, that puts us in a powerful position in society today.

I had expected Larry to get into trouble at the studio with his lilac tights. Just shows how clueless I am. The teacher loved that Larry wore lighter color tights. That allowed him to see better how Larry’s leg muscles worked. Black really isn’t a good color to wear in class but tell that to teen boys who already are body conscious. And, of course, the girls in his class loved it even more now that they got a better look at his quite nice legs. Good thing for Larry that he already had a girlfriend. Otherwise he’d have been under siege.

Cory gets drawn deeper and deeper into his role as Carrie at the Hotspot club, not realising the effect it would have on his life.

A Grumpy Old Man’s Tale 58 The Heller of All Hellers

Daphne said, “Most women I know, including me, have an awful lot of clothes. Not Stephen, but that skirt suit is genuine Harris tweed and cost a small fortune. All his clothes are the same, he doesn’t have wardrobes and wardrobes of them but what he does have is all the ultimate in quality. He should have been a woman because his dress sense is far better than mine. However, he’s a hundred percent man. He just likes dressing up in what other people call women’s clothes, but he doesn’t see it that way. He says, ‘I’m a man. They’re my clothes, so by definition they’re a man’s clothes.’ I suppose he does have a point.”

I proceeded to tell my parents everything that had happened in the last couple of weeks. Well, not everything, obviously. I deliberately omitted the specific details of flirting with the hunky Italian waiter (whose number was still tucked away in my jeans pocket) as well as having snogged Darnell at the nightclub. But I did tell all regarding becoming Tabitha and playing for the girls' football team.

The next day the same three girls invaded the house once more. There was one addition this time. Peter, the geekiest geek imaginable and the closest thing to friend that Larry had had before, had joined them. Peter also wore the very short lilac pleated skirt. And I noticed he had shaved legs. Very recently, and not expertly, shaved legs by all signs.

Chapter 2

I woke early from an uneventful night. I peeked out of the window and Mo Man had gone. I expect that when I went back out, there would be someone else waiting to follow me. If that was the case, they could follow me back to the town house.

I confess that I was worried when I sent Larry away to school for the first time in his new short lilac pleated skirt. I was concerned even if his big sister had confirmed everything he had said. Betty had the full inside story. It was really a senior social studies project. Bob, the captain of the baseball team had decided to write a paper on influencing and peer pressure. He had secretly roped in the rest of the team and some other to help him. Could he get the boys in the school to wear a short pleated lilac skirt?

Jack O' Lanterns, Moonlight, and Magic
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman
Chapter Three: The Next Move

Had I'd known I'd opened Pandora's Box at Spirit Halloween, I'd hasten to close it. But at the time I had no idea that I'd opened it. To me the costume was just a costume, but as so often the case with me, it was the first hint of things to come. After concluding my business there I turned toward home and around early afternoon I found myself turning into the driveway. The first thing I noticed was mom's car was gone and so was dad's truck.

Chapter 1

I’m a Private Investigator. My card reads ‘Max Force – whatever it is, we can move it for you. You have a problem; I make it go away. You need help, I can get it for you. You need protection, I can keep you safe.’ All you need is money to pay me for my services.

Masks XXVIII: Old School

by

Rodford Edmiston

Part Nine

Michelle walked past the bathroom, stopped, reversed and looked in through the open door. She saw her wife staring into the mirror over the sink.

"I didn't think you were the narcissistic type."

"My dad likes to joke that noses run in our family," said Vic, sadly. "Mine did look a lot like his, before; it's smaller, now, and a different shape."

"I think you have a cute nose," said Michelle.

Vic just sighed.

* * *

My alarm woke me up at 8am. The final wasn't due to kick off until 5pm, so I'd only need to be at Miss Snell's house to get ready 2pm at the earliest. That gave me 6 hours to kill before then.

I got up and did myself some breakfast. Then I decided to go for a little morning run. Nothing too strenuous before the big game later in the day, but something to get the blood flowing and the body active. I slipped on a pair of pants, a pair of shorts and an under armour t-shirt.

When my youngest, Lawrence (or more usually Larry), began high school I was not surprised that he had problems. Not scholastically. Larry is a bright boy. No, the thing about Larry is that he is “odd”. I can’t describe it better than that since I haven’t been able to pin it down better myself. There is nothing tangible. He doesn’t look funny in any way. No big nose or limp or anything like that. He’s not a macho boy but in no way girly (even if some would characterize his love for ballet as girly, which anybody that had seen him on stage would know is a mistake). He’s just “odd”.

Chapter 7

I woke with an insistent bladder on Monday morning. I felt a lot better and hummed a bit as I showered and dressed. I ate well and went down to the office to see if we had any new emails. Then went to open up the street door for Lena. When she came in, she put a large bag on my desk.

“That’s your outfit for when we go to Epsom on Thursday. They had your sizes still on file.”

I looked in the bag and saw a WPC uniform, identical to hers, except in one detail. Mine had a sergeants’ stripes.

It was a strange feeling that followed our semi-final. On the one hand, we had done brilliantly in reaching the cup final, which had always been our aim. On the other hand, we would have to play the final without our captain, Katie. I felt particularly bad: she'd only been sent off because she was acting to protect me. I did express this to her, but she wasn't having any of it.

"Don't be silly. It's my own fault, I act before thinking sometimes. But at least I made it a good one, wiped the stupid cow right off her feet."

We both shared a laugh and a hug.