A pair of twins cause headaches at Hayfield Hall.

An unauthorised story set in the SPA Universe created by Karen Page. These events are intended to take place one year after the events described in “A New Style of Education.” Reading that story first is essential to understanding the events in Double Trouble.

Chapter 1

“Come in please, Alice, and take a seat.”

Alice perched on the edge of the seat in the small office and looked nervously at the man sitting opposite her. He gave a gentle smile and the girl forced herself to relax a little. Her hands ran down the seems of her school trousers and checked that her blazer was sitting properly then they folded in her lap. With her spine straight and her chin up, Alice looked back at the man and waited for him to speak.

“Hello Alice, my name is Keith Thompson and I’m here to discuss the possibility of you attending our school.” The man had a calm, confident tone of voice.

“Before we start, I want to be clear about one thing. Do you understand that Hayfield Hall is a boarding school which you would be attending 365 days per year? If you join us, you would not be leaving until you graduate. No holiday breaks, no trips home, no family visits.”

Alice nodded, her curly hair bouncing on her head.

“I get that. It was explained at the assembly. But I’m not going unless Peter’s going too. Either we both go or neither of us do.”

Keith smiled. “We understand that. After these interviews we will either offer both of you a position or neither of you.”

“Oh!” said Alice. “That’s okay!” She shrugged. “If we’re both there, there really wouldn’t be anybody we’d want to visit. I mean, our foster parents are nice but we wouldn’t miss them and they wouldn’t miss us.”

Alice was quiet for a moment, looking down at her knees, then she shrugged and looked back up at Keith. He had been watching her silently. When she returned her attention to him, he quietly cleared his throat and began reading from the file in front of him.

“Let’s start with some basics. Your parents were Henry Arthur Fallow and Melissa Joan Fallow nee Harper, both sadly deceased. The name on your birth certificate is Jordan Brodie Fallow though for the past five years you have been using the name Alice Fallow. You are thirteen years old and your birthday is on the eighteenth of March. You have a twin brother Jason Arthur Fallow who has been using the name Peter Fallow for the same length of time. How am I doing so far?”

Alice had gone slightly pale as Keith talked. She blinked a couple of times, swallowed and then gave a small nod.

Keith then went on to read some other details about Alice’s life, pausing every so often to get a nod from Alice. Finally Keith put his notes down and leaned back in his chair.

“One thing puzzles me, and I would love for you to help me understand this. Here you are, sitting in front of me. You are obviously a very pretty and delightful young girl. Your school, your foster parents, your case worker, the welfare agency, even your current doctor appears to be completely convinced that you are female. Yet, your birth certificate clearly identifies you as a male. Can you explain that to me?”

Keith watched the girl with his calm eyes and a patient expression on his face.

Alice glared at Keith. “The hospital made a mistake filling out their forms. I’m a girl. Do you want me to prove it?”

She jumped out of her chair and stood in front of Keith, her eyes flashing with anger. She undid the button and zip on her trousers and started pushing them down.

Keith held his hands up in surrender and called out “Stop!! That isn’t necessary!”

Alice sniffed in disgust and refastened her trousers. Then she flounced back into her chair, tossed her head to send her curly hair flying and crossed her arms. She sat there glaring at Keith and waited for him to make the next move.

Keith sat back in his chair, quite relaxed, and watched her for a moment. After a moment, Alice uncrossed her arms, sat up straight, checked the seam on her trousers and adjusted her blazer then folded her hands back in her lap.

“I’m guessing you’ve done that a few times before, haven’t you?” said Keith.

Alice shrugged.

“Aren’t you worried that sooner or later someone will call your bluff and let you go all the way?”

“It’s not a bluff.”

“We spoke to a Dr Albert Morlin. He was your G.P. when you were living with your parents. He has very clear memories of treating the Fallow twins. He assured me that both of you were definitely boys. His files support his memory. You were born male.”

Alice went white as a sheet and her mouth gaped open.

“Alice you are not in trouble,” Keith said firmly. “I am not going to out you to your foster parents or your school. This will not prevent you from being accepted into Hayfield Hall. I repeat, you are not in trouble. Do you understand me?”

Alice snapped her mouth closed and managed a nod. She still looked frightened.

“Before we can accept you into Hayfield Hall, we need you to be honest with us — completely honest. So, I’d like to try this again. I’m trying to ease my way into the big questions by asking little ones first, okay?”

Alice gulped and nodded.

“Do you know what the word transgendered means? Or gender dysphoria?”

Alice shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

“Are you seeing any doctor or counsellor about your gender issues?”

Alice shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

“Then how did you convince the welfare agency that you are female?”

Alice stared back at Keith with a stubborn expression frozen on her face. Keith sat patiently and waited. Finally, Alice sighed and looked down.

“Jordan Brodie is the kind of name that could be either a boy or a girl. Our first case worker was really busy and frantic. That first day, we were standing right next to her while she was typing our file into the computer. Then she saw the M on my birth certificate and asked me about it. I did the same thing to her that I just did to you. It was a crowded office. I was standing there in a dress. The last thing she wanted was a hysterical seven year old girl stripping off in front of everyone. Like you, she stopped me before anybody saw anything. She just typed the F into the computer and that was it. I told her I preferred to be called Alice so she typed that in, too. From then on, they all thought I was a girl because that’s what their computer said.”

“Didn’t they have copies of your medical files?”

“I was just lucky she didn’t check those. They were sitting right there on her desk but she was too busy to check them. Five minutes later she left us beside her desk while she went off to the loo. I dropped a couple of drips of her coffee onto their copy of my birth certificate so that the M got all smudged in case anybody else checked it. I hid my medical file in my bag and got rid of it later. She just assumed she’d lost it in all of the mess. Since then, all of my case workers and foster parents knew I was a girl because the agency said I was. We told the receptionist for our new doctor that I’d had all the same illnesses and injections and stuff as Peter so she just made a new file and copied the information across.”

Keith sat quietly and watched while Alice kept staring at the floor. A couple of small wet circles appeared on the leg of her trousers, directly under her face.

“I know what I did was wrong. I’m sure it broke a whole bunch of laws. I was desperate! I saw a chance and I took it. I’m sorry.”

She was quiet for a moment longer.

“So what happens now? Are you going to report me? Do I get arrested?”

“No, Alice. I’m not going to report you. I’m pleased that you’ve been honest with me. That helps me a great deal. None of our research could reveal how the change happened. We had to be careful not to ask questions that would cause you problems if we didn’t accept you. That meant we couldn’t ask anyone else the questions we needed to ask so I had to ask you.”

Keith handed over a box of tissues. “Here! Clean your face and let’s get back to the interview.”