"How about it, Bright Eyes -- you ready to marry me?" asked Philip.

"No," answered Lizzie Jane. "That is why I wanted to talk with you. I don't think neither of us are ready for marriage. You will go off to some college, find some lady friend that you will fall in love with and the next thing you know, she will hook you."

 © 01.2008 by Daphne Laprov

Balthasar's Extract - Part IV   Evelyn Westcott's Turn of the Century Diary It was an age of new things — the automobile, the aero- plane, social consciousness, moving pictures, mental hygiene and ragtime. Women were dumping the corset and demanding the vote, kicking over the pedestals upon which Victorian Sensibility had placed them. A time of creativity and experimentation in the natural sciences, of rapidly growing comprehension of how 'internal secretions' regulated human physiology. Our heroine, Evelyn Westcott, born Edward Tucker, is now seventeen and in the full bloom of youth. She and her friends are awakening to social injustice and sensual pleasures, spreading their wings, setting forth to conquer the widening world.

"Get out now!"The house is on fire! I screamed.

"My brother Dan was on the other side of the locked bathroom door.

That was the last thing I said to him before the world went black.

I woke up three days later in the hospital.

"Mom? Where am I? I asked. Where is Dan?

“Glad you could make it Charlotte, I mean Christine,” said Mr King looking at his watch. Miss Daws looked at him and then at me in a very funny way, then she nodded.

“It is Charlotte, isn’t it?” she said.

“No, I’m Christine,” I felt myself visibly shrinking under her scrutiny.

Charlotte’s Tale 11.
by Angharad.

There are some things we tell ourselves to get through the hard times. Some may be true and some may not, but in the final analysis, The Heart Knows.

Chapter 1

She pointed, “There’s a bag in the living room for you. I’ve ordered a taxi and it should be here in about five minutes, so go and get it.”

I walked out of the kitchen and into the lounge. A small clutch bag was on the couch. Opening it I saw a small mirror the lipstick and nail polish she had used, a couple of make up brushes, a powder compact and a purse which had around  £100 in it.

Returning I said “What’s all the money for?”

“Spending money. A girl can’t go shopping without enough cash,” she replied.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you guys," I said. "Do either of you read any girls' magazines? You know, like Cosmo Girl or Elle Girl or—"

"Or Barf Girl," Carla interrupted. "Pull-eeze! Are you serious?"

Angelo, continuing his adventures into becoming a girl, faces frightening prospects and returns to his loving foster mother as high school years continue. The story ends in a surprise.

Angelo finds friendship and acceptance at high school, in spite of his girlish nature. His joy is short-lived as he finds Child Welfare Services has come to remove him from his foster mother's home, a prospect that horrifies him. He works out his own solution to this frightening event and finds a whole new world.

"I don't know how parents survive!" she exclaimed. "You've been with me for what — five or six weeks now, and I feel like I'm either going to have gray hair or a heart attack or both! And the thing is, you're just skipping along, tra la la, and — oh! I'm a girl! oh! I have a boyfriend! oh! I climbed the school building! oh! I have breasts!"

Angelo finds new joys and comforts as a girl, including admiring boys and impressing drama teachers with his acting abilities. The child welfare system, however, has other ideas and blames his foster mother for feminizing him. Is there any hope for this lovely teen to find happiness?

For my part, I kept looking down at my breasts. They weren't very big, but they were mine. Home grown. I grew them myself, I said to myself proudly, from all-natural ingredients. They were the same size as the little bags I used to use for padding, but these babies were real, and they wouldn't shift or fall out.

"Hon, the fact that you are so anxious may indicate that have never been on a real date. You may have been out with friends and may have received a kiss from a boy that you cared for very much, but dating a strange man that you don't know is a new and exciting experience. You have got to date and play the field if you ever expect to get married and have a happy home life."

Denise and I both stayed out of school on Friday. I had my tea with me, and made sure I didn't miss my daily cup. By now I had breasts like little half-apples, and no longer needed padding to fill my bra. They weren't big breasts, but they were mine, and I hoped the tea would keep them growing.

Angelo spends his first summer with his new foster mother, finally finding happiness in his life as she treats him as "Angela," a lovely teen girl. That happiness may end since the foster care agency feels he should be raised as a boy. But the foster mother and Angela's friends are ready for a fight to keep Angela as the girl she was meant to be.