Princess For Hire: The Second Semester
Part 5
By Melanie Ezell

After too long of a hiatus, we again return to Beck's adventures as a private school Princess!

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Part 5: Portrait Of A Princess

-13-

"That's really me?"

"That's really you," Sandra said, smiling as she showed Sarah and I the final proofs from our first photo shoot the week before.

The pictures were, well, surprising. I had expected to see me in the pictures. By me, of course, I mean the old me, Daniel. Wearing a skirt, yes, but still the same person as I had always seen. The same person I thought I saw each morning in the mirror underneath the makeup and school uniform.

No. Sarah was Sarah, but the other person in the pictures was someone I didn't recognize. She, and I really cannot emphasize the "she" enough, was confident, and smiling, and so many other things that I just couldn't see in myself.

"What's the matter? Do you not like them?" Sandra asked me, concern in her voice as she drew the photos back and looked over them critically herself. "I thought they came out great."

I shook my head, trying to shake the sense that I had just looked into an alternate reality. "Oh, yeah, sorry. The pictures are great, really."

"You sure?" She asked, seeming to second guess her own handiwork. "I won't show them to your headmaster if you'd be upset by them being used."

"No, they're great. I just didn't expect what I saw, that was all."

Her eyes lit up. "I see," she said, with a knowing look. "You are a beautiful girl, Becky. It's nice to have that confirmed every now and again, though, isn't it?"

I forced myself to smile as I answered her, "Yeah, you're right." I mentally chastized myself for slipping up in how I had been viewing myself.

If I was going to do this right, not just being a Princess, but giving actually being a girl a shot, then I couldn't just settle for being one to the outside world. If this was going to work, and not drive me crazy, I needed to see myself the same way everyone else did. That would be harder than it sounded, though.

"You girls ready to take some more photographs?"

"Yup!" Sarah said next to me, full of energy and ready to begin.

As for me, I gave Sandra another smile as I stood and nodded.

This time around, it was almost like we were old pros, finishing our shots in record time, with the grin on Sandra's face growing with each successive shot. Under the large elm tree out front, sitting and reading, or in the hallways between classes, other students rushing past us as we stood outside this locker or that, searching for the perfect location for the pictures.

The biggest surprise, though, came when we were brought to stand outside the front of the school. There stood Leslie and Andrew, talking to Mr. Uchiha, who burst out into a large smile of his own as we walked toward the small group.

"Ah, Sandra, and our two lovely models. How is today's shoot going?"

"Absolutely fantastic, the girls have proven very easy to work with. And I've got proofs from the last shoot, if you want to take a look at them after we're done."

"Very well. As for right now, a little birdie told me you would be shooting the front of the main hall today, and I had a pair of young men volunteer to join the girls in the shoot, if you would allow it."

Leslie and Andrew were grinning widely as they stepped toward us. Sandra seemed surprised when Andrew wrapped his arms around me, but that quickly passed, and soon all four of us found ourselves posing for her as she took shot after shot.

I was more than a bit jealous of the boys. While Sarah and I were being ordered to stand like this, move like that, adjust this part of our posture, the guys were simply given a loose approximation of where to stand and told to hold it. I knew that the two of us were the real focuses of the shoot, but it still seemed unfair.

Soon enough, Sandra dropped her camera and gave us all a radiant smile. "Alright, people, that's all for today. You've done great."

It was a struggle to hold in my sigh of relief as we said our goodbyes to Sandra. Andrew looked down on me with concern as I leaned heavily on his arm.

"Is everything alright? Every time you do one of these print shoots you look like you're gonna collapse afterward."

I looked up at him, my mouth hanging open. "Did you SEE how much she had me and Sarah moving around out there, or how we were posing? I'm exhausted because it's hard work."

He winced at the acid in my tone, but nodded and continued walking with me.

"I... I'm sorry for snapping, Andrew," I said, hanging my head. "I'm just a little preoccupied today I guess."

He nodded again, then stopped, his face registering surprise. "Oh, yeah, I forgot! Stew said he wanted to talk to you when you had a chance. Something about his little sister?"

My initial confusion quickly disappeared as I recalled the little girl who had been so enamoured with my dress during the Parents' Day events. "Rosie? Oh, I bet he has my part of the pictures of the two of us together!"

"That could be it. He also said he had some more information on Professor Swift."

The grin that had begun to grow on my face at the mention of Rosie grew when I heard that information. The sooner that was worked out, the better.

Feeling in a really good mood for the first time in days, I gave Andrew's arm a squeeze as I snuggled up more closely next to him. "So, you got any other plans for today? It is Saturday, after all -- no classes tomorrow, we could stay up late and watch a movie?"

"Heh, that sounds good, sure. Do you wanna invite Leslie and Sarah again, too?"

"Of course!" I didn't think Sarah would forgive me if I had a 'date night' without her. Suddenly, a wicked thought crept into my head. "Does Jules like guys or girls?"

Andrew paused for a moment, his eyebrows knitted as he thought. "You know? I can't remember. He was dating a girl back home before coming out here, but I think they broke things off when he got accepted here."

"Too bad, I was going to say we should see if he wanted to bring a date too, but I don't want to say something that will offend him."

Andrew gave me a quick squeeze and laughed. "I dunno, knowing Jules he'd invite a guy just to be a smart ass and try to make the rest of us uncomfortable."

If my last idea had been wicked, then the one that was now bombarding me was pure evil. "Ooh, that could be perfect."

"I don't know if I like the sound of that," Andrew said worriedly as I started to quietly cackle to myself.

-14-

I knocked softly on the frame of the open door. At first it didn't seem he had even heard me, but after only a few seconds' delay Stewart looked up at me.

"So what's up? You wanted to see me."

He nodded, and without a word closed down his laptop and picked up a folder next to it, holding it out toward me.

I guess today he was a man of few words.

I felt like an intruder as I entered his room. Like most of the other guys, Stewart was bunked with another student, someone named Ronald something-or-other according to Andrew, and it was immediately obvious looking around the room which side was whose. While the side Stewart sat on was clean and neat, his books all shelved and organized by height and his clothes neatly put away, Supposedly-Ronald's laundry was strewn about, his school books haphazardly stacked in a corner on top of a small refrigerator that had seen better days. All in all, it was not a room I felt comfortable in.

The folder was one of the heavy manila types used in file cabinets, and was stuffed full of papers covered in text, with a stack of photographs on top of who I was guessing was a much younger Professor Swift. My eyes grew wide as I looked through the contents of the folder.

"Driving records? School records? Personal email correspondences... holy crap!"

"Just don't ask how I--"

"I don't wanna know."

"Good."

I almost felt bad for Ol' Swifty if his personal information was so easy to obtain a high schooler could do it, then again, from what I had heard there wasn't a whole lot that Stewart couldn't do with a computer.

"This is also yours," he said, handing me a smaller, white envelope with "Princess Becky" written on the outside in yellow crayon.

"Thanks."

Stewart grunted, then looked toward his laptop longingly. I fought back the urge to laugh as I turned around and left, closing his door behind me on the way out.

---

"What's that you got there?"

"Huh? Oh!" I looked down at the envelope laying next to me. "Something Stewart handed me. It's from Rosie."

"Who's Rosie?"

"The little girl I had my picture taken with on Parent's Day."

Sarah stopped working on her history homework and bounced over to sit next to me on the bed. "Well, open it!"

I grimaced. I had been wanting to open it when I had gotten back to my room, but Sarah had knocked before I could, wanting to get my help on her History assignment. Not wanting to open it until I was alone, I had set it aside and started reading her parts of her workbook as she asked for them. Now, though, she had seen the envelope, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get away with not sharing it with her.

Hiding my annoyance, I picked up the envelope and carefully broke the piece of scotch tape holding it closed. My annoyance quickly disappeared as I pulled out the four folded sheets of kindergarten-ruled paper inside, held together by one of those stapleless staplers in the shape of a flower.

"What's it say?"

With a smile I began to read.

"Dear Princess Becky."

"So cute!"

"Shh!" When Sarah was quiet I started over. "Dear Princess Becky. Thank you for the picture you took with me. I hope you are liking your school. My brother told me you were a boy but I told him you were not because you were too pretty to be a boy. When I grow up I want to be pretty like you. My mom is making me a dress like yours so that I can be a princess too. When I visit again I hope I see you and we can play games together. I have a new doll and she is named Becky. Love, Rosie."

After finishing the letter, we sat in silence while I simply stared at the paper in my hand.

"That has to be the most adorable thing I've ever seen," Sarah said, breaking the silence at last.

"...Yeah."

"You're going to write her back, right?"

"Of course," I said, not even having to think about it.

"Good. So, can I see the pictures?"

"What pictures?"

"Of you and her!"

"Oh! Yeah!" I had completely forgotten about the pictures. After a hasty shuffle I found the folder and flipped it open, pulling out the pictures of me and Rosie and shutting the folder before Sarah could see what else was inside, though apparently not fast enough.

"What was the rest of that?"

I sighed. "Information on Swift."

"Ah. Pictures!"

With a small laugh I handed her the stack of prints from our impromptu photo shoot back in November and watched as she looked through them. I had to admit, they were cute. Rosie just looked so happy, while her father was obviously fighting to hide his discomfort at having me sitting on his lap. I couldn't help but giggle when I noticed that there was also a candid shot of Rosie with my legs in a death-grip of a hug, me smiling down at her.

"You really did have fun with her, didn't you?" Sarah asked, a soft look in her eyes.

"You know what? I think I did."

"And she's right, you made a beautiful Princess, even in those pink monstrosities we were wearing."

I looked at the photographs again, and for what felt like the first time, I didn't feel that looking pretty was a bad thing at all.

-15-

After reading the letter it was almost unbearable to have to sit through the rest of Sarah's History before she finally bid me goodnight with a smile and a wink. As soon as she was out the door, I had a notebook and pencil in hand and began to work on my response letter to Rosie.

"Dear Rosie," I wrote slowly at the top of the page, in the most feminine script I could manage.

Now what?

I scowled as I tried to work out what to write to her. She was only six. What do you write to a six year old about? Dolls? Clothes? I didn't know. I wanted to write a letter she could understand, but I didn't want to talk down to her either. This was becoming more difficult than I had expected.

Whew. Okay. Come on, Beck, you can do this.

Then it hit me. Perhaps that was the problem? I was thinking of this from the viewpoint of Beck, the boy who was living as a girl and a private school Princess. Maybe I needed to think from a different direction to do this right.

Setting the pencil and notebook down next to me on my bed, I closed my eyes and leaned back, thinking.

Beck. No, this isn't a letter from Beck, it's a letter from Becky. Princess Becky, I thought with a smile, remembering how much she had loved my dress. Yes, that was the ticket. Who was Princess Becky, and what would she write to a little girl?

That was all it took to inspire me.

"Dear Rosie,

Thank you so much for the letter! It was wonderful to hear from you again, and you looked beautiful in the pictures you sent me.

I am very much enjoying school. Everyone here is always very nice to me, and treats me just like a Princess should be treated. I was even in our school play!

Me and my best friend Princess Sarah," I laughed, imagining the kick Sarah would get out of reading that, "are always having great adventures with our friends Leslie and Andrew. Do you have a best friend at your school? We do everything together, and when you come back to visit she would love to meet you. She is very pretty too, just like you. We even spent the Christmas holiday together with our parents.

Did you have a good Christmas? I bet you were given lots of wonderful presents.

Love,

Princess Becky"

I read over my letter to her one more time. It was a little cheesy, I guess, but I was trying to keep the wording as simple as I could so she might be able to read it on her own. Likely she would have to have her mom read it to her, but remembering how nice her parents had been it occurred to me that they would probably enjoy doing so.

With that out of the way, I checked the clock. Drat! Only an hour to prepare for my date tonight! I guess that's one of the hazards of being a girl, huh?

I was dressed and ready in record time, just finishing up the last of my makeup when I heard the knock at my door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Sarah!"

"And Jules!"

I checked myself over, and satisfied that I looked sufficiently girly for the evening's events, swung the door open.

Sure enough, there stood Sarah with Leslie's arm draped over her shoulder, and next to them was Jules in boy mode, with...

I fought back a snort at the panicked look on Ruby's face as she stood there in her dress, Jules' arm around her shoulders just like Leslie was holding Sarah.

"Going after the young ones, Jules?"

"Well, I couldn't let you guys have all the fun of a date night, could I?"

This wasn't working out exactly to plan, but with a little more preparation, it could be just as good.

"Well, you guys stay out here, I have something I need to talk to Sarah and Ruby about."

Without waiting for an answer I grabbed the two girls and dragged them into my room, shutting the door behind us.

Sarah started giggling to herself the second the door was closed -- after all, she was already in on the plan, since we had discussed it earlier.

"What's going on, you two?" Ruby asked us, nervously fiddling with the hem of her dress.

"We had a plan for tonight, but you being here kind of throws it off a bit," I told her, shaking my head in mock disappointment.

"I'm sorry! Jules asked, and I mean, I thought she'd be dressed as a girl too and it would all be Princesses, but when I showed up she was a he, I mean... I can go back to my room if--"

"No, that's alright," Sarah interrupted her, with a warm smile. "It'll just take a little rearranging of things. You might have a little fun with it too, if you wanna play along with us to wind Jules up a bit."

"What do I have to do?" She asked, suspicion in her eyes. It was immediately obvious that she had not planned on her evening morphing into a date, and she was not ready for it.

"Nothing you don't want to," I said, watching the relief flood her face, "but here's what we had in mind..."

As we filled her in on the plan in whispers, she began to nod excitedly, and I knew the evening would be a blast.

(End of Part 5)

NOTES:

Alright, here it is! Sorry this took so long, peeps! But, thanks to the ever-inspiring Angharad, I'm back on track, and with any luck I'll have the next part(s) out quicker than this :(

Read! Enjoy! Comment!

Melanie E.