I can't believe how this feels.

Although its actually not legal I was curled up in moms lap for the ride home. Imagine my surprise when we did not stop at home but at the local tv station. I was sorta fuzzy asleep and warm in mom's lap and did not want to move at all.

"Come on sweetie we have a surprise for you."

"mfpfhtt" I said while my face was implanted into moms chest. I really didn't want to move. But she pushed me up where I felt my hair brush the sun-visor.

"This isn't home." I looked around with some confusion. I reluctantly got out of the car with some trepidation. And yes I would have flashed someone if they had been standing next to the car and got a look. I hate skirts!

I was still waking up, crying takes a lot of energy, and I believe so was mom as we walked to the station. She held my hand the entire time just like she used to when I was much younger. I don't know why we ever stopped. Still it gave me a feeling of her loving me and kept me calm.

Once inside the front glass doors mom went to the ladies room with Sam to freshen up while I walked right into the men's room for the same thing. I know that girls have to sit on toilet seats to pee and felt a little guilty as I let go in the urinal. Not really guilty as I'm really a guy I just happen to look like a girl at the moment. And judging by the mirror a really really bedraggled one. I unzipped the skirt to put my blouse back in when the door to the bathroom opened.

"Oh sorry young lady my mistake!" and some guy shuts the door. I waited for it and sure enough he opens the door again.

"uhm miss this is the mens room the ladies is next door." I waited again."Miss did you hear me?" and the door shuts again. I finish tucking in the blouse and redo up the zipper. I check in the mirror and I don't really look that bad. A quick one two on my hair without hairspray doesn't do wonders for it but it looks somewhat better. I wash my hands again, I washed them a sec ago before I tried to fix myself, and pull down more towel to wipe myself. With a quick twirl to make sure nothing is sticking up in the back I head to the door. Outside I can hear mom and that guys voice. With a grin I listen in.

"Ma'am I don't care if your daughter is a boy. She looks like a young lady to me and should be using the ladies room. Kinda remove her from the men's room please." Oh oh trouble. I open the door and walk out calmly right to mom. She looks better than a few minutes ago. Agitated but better. She grabs my hand again and pulls me towards the waiting room. The guy has to get a word in though.

"Young lady I hope you learn your lesson." and disappears into the men's room. I guess he really needed to go. I can't help but smile a bit which mom notices and gives me a look. Alrighty then I'm still in trouble with mom, sigh. Dad is with Sam who looks a lot better than I do at the moment. How does she do that? It's like she disappears into a girls room a total mess and 4 minutes later comes out looking like she is perfect. That is so not fair!

To my surprise Nathan Peters, the father of Bethany and the man that has made my life very difficult greets mom and dad. There is a few words exchanged by way of greeting. The nice to see you and whatnot before he turns his gaze to me. I don't know why but I flinched back for some reason.

"You young lady, or should I say man? It's really hard to tell when you look so much like a young woman of maturity in your uniform."

"uhm it's not a uniform." I mumble out.

"What did you say?"

"It's not a uniform" I say louder.

"Certainly have me fooled. Still my daughter could not stop talking about how much she has enjoyed seeing Belle at the hospital. I can't thank you enough for how much it has helped her..."

"Nathan we are not hear for you to thank my SON for HIS actions at the hospital." dad cuts in with some force.

"What? Oh right sorry. It would seem that I owe you a rather large apology young lady...errr man. I received some erroneous information regarding you and am guilty of not checking the facts before I announced it over the airwaves." He takes a breath. I give him a nod to let him know I follow him so far.

"As such I'm really sorry for any inconvenience it has caused you thus far. I intend to use tonight's broadcast to tell our viewers of my mistake. That is if your willing to allow me to do so?"

"Uhhhh" I'm speachless. I was only expecting maybe a good handshake and be a sport thing but this. Wow!

"We are also having our station manager sign a statement, via our legal department, stating the error was entirely our fault." Blink blink. He looks to me for an answer and seems a little nervous when I do not reply right away.

"I can also bring you on tonight's show to apologize over the airwaves to you."

Me on Tv! Oh wow and I'm not even in trouble for it! "Yes!" I shout out before my brain fully processes what that means.

"Excellent! I'll get Judy to give you a quick makeover for the camera and we will be all set!" What? Wait a minute! Makeover? Oh no! I got too. No don't walk away! And before I can open my mouth he is gone behind a door that says Station personnel only. I turn to mom with a worried look on my face.

"Mom what did I just agree too?"

"Oh Belle!" She sighs and puts a hand over her face. Samantha is jumping up and down in her chair in excitement and Dad is trying very hard to not laugh. Why me?

Judy it turns out is the station makeup artist who fetches me rather quickly and shakes her head. Before I know it I'm wisked off to a small makeup room that smells really weird. There is a long counter with two mirrors with lights screwed into sockets all around them. There is a barber's chair at one of them and along one wall is racks of different outfits from mens suits to womens formal gowns and all the accessories one would need tucked into every available space in the room. The counter has so many small bottles, brushes, powder buffs, cans of various hair products that I can not even identify half of them, some wigs on stands and hair pieces. Even the ceiling has small hooks for some latex looking item.

Once the door is closed Judy has me remove my skirt and blouse so she can quickly iron them on a board that folds down from a wall. While the iron is heating she sits me in a chair and starts to apply various cosmetics to my face.

"Sit still honey this is stage makeup so you don't look like the walking dead behind the camera." I try to sit still but its really hard and start to bounce my leg up and down. She doesn't take all that long with the makeup then she turns me round in the chair and attacks my hair with brushes and two different hair irons. She is really good at this as in no time my hair is pronounced done. She comes from behind me and goes to work on the skirt and blouse with the iron. This gives me a chance to use my tip toes to turn the chair around so I can see myself in the mirror. Do I look like Bill? Not a farting chance in hell. I look very much like I did the night of the performance in the poofy dress. Belle yes but a very very pretty Belle if a touch sharp on some of the colors. I didn't even notice the lipstick being put on.

"Her Belle put on your blouse and skirt."Wow is she ever fast." If I remember right St Mary's uniform requires a sweater and blazer. We don't have time to find yours and I think..hmm." I barely have the blouse buttoned up and she is diving into the racks for something. I only get to see her butt sticking out of the rack. It's like it swallowed her. "The Rack from Planet X" Film at 11. Okay that was a bad idea as it causes me to laugh a bit. I did not giggle. The blouse is done so I work the skirt up my legs as she returns. She grabs the skirt from me and has it zipped up in seconds while at the same time stuffing me into a sweater of some sort that is a bit on the tight side and a school blazer. She turns me around and works at fixing the hair mess that is really not messed up but it does give me a chance to see myself in the mirror.

The sweater and blazer are the real thing from the school and there is no way anyone will not see that. Ms Bain is gonna kill me for sure come Friday! Judy pushes me out the door once she is satisfied everything looks correct. I walk slowly down a hall that has an orange line on the floor. While I do this I mentally rehearse everything in my mind of the "proper lady" things I have so so learned in deportment class as it's my only hope of not being stuck in that class till I'm old and wrinkly, you know like 45 or so.

I pull my shoulders back just a little and try to walk with my back straight and move the hips, which are doing a good number of making my thighs raw. One of the station personnel with these big grey ear muffs comes and grabs my hand in a tight grip. Is this person a Key Grip? The grip part is right I feel like my hand is getting squeezed to death as he/she drags me into a room that has this framed light saying on air but isn't lit.

The room I'm lead into has tons of electronic equipment on one wall. There is 4 or 5 of the camera's that mount on the shoulders in some sort of charging rack. The floor is occupied by two camera's that look a lot like those Dalek things from the old Dr Who. The one wall is painted a blue. I guess this is a blue screen of some sort and off to the side is a mass of cables going through a wall into another room that is separated by a glass wall. In there is more electronic junk and more computers than a store has. From this viewpoint it looks like some of that is older than Grandma and has never moved.

As I try to stay out of the way of people running back and forth with pages of paper, drinks, cue card blanks, and other stuff I cannot even recognize there is people on their knees with rolls of duct tape covering yet more cables on the floor so they don't get moved or people trip on them. There is a few folding tables along one wall where there is a few people, Nathan being one of them, using a marker on the cue cards while on another a person is fiddling with some sort of light thing. The ceiling is a mass of steel girders lights and there is even a moving crane of some sort. All in all it looks very much like organized chaos.

Now if you have ever watched the news you can see that Nathan and Wilma have these nice balzers on with little tiny microphones on them. They sit behind wide desk and in the background you can see the city moving behind them through a window. Well the Desk is only about 3 inches wide max. Their seats are metal stools and the mics are totally fake as the big old foam things are hovering over them instead. The background is apparently done by a computer. Same goes for when she walks away for the weather report it's not a tan wall it's jsut the computer and there is no weather map thing. She does this all while looking into this flat screen off to the side of the camera.

Nathan does not have a new desk it's the same desk as before you just see one side of it with a different background. I get to see this all being done live. The news broadcast is actually being broadcast as you watch it. There is no retakes or redos or anything. I'm really impressed and I'm positive I'll make a complete fool of myself when I do go on. There is Judy beside me make me sip water as I watch all this go down. I don't even notice that 20 minutes has gone by when I'm pulled off to the side and told to walk calmly to Nathan for my introduction.

I manage to walk to him, as a proper young lady, without tripping over anything and landing flat on my face. My legs are freezing cold but my arms are soaking my blouse and blazer. I smile like I have seen in deportment class as he introduces me. I even shake his hand and try to not look at what is apparently going on behind me. From what I can see the view has changed, for viewers, of a brief history of my accomplishments, even the little singing thing on Saturday.

I know the next part to come is for Nathan to apologize to everyone and me for the mistake he made as soon as the video cuts out. While standing there out of the corner of my eye I see someone come through the doors where it is painted in big bold letters. Do NOT open this door while filming. The receptionist from the front hurries to us tripping over a cable in the process but catches herself as she hurries to us. I can see some pissed off looks from the camera men as she grabs his ear and starts to talk to him.

I watch as his probbaly patented smile totally vanishes in a moment and is replaced by anguish of the worst kind. He drops everything in his hands and puts his hands to his face ruining his makeup. It takes me a moment to realize that he is crying as his shoulders start heaving. Three of the grip people come and take him on his rolling stool off to the side. The receptionist turns to me.

"Belle a terrible thing has happened. Stand right here please I'll get Mason." and she walks to the one guy in the room whose face was red as a tomato. I see her whispering to him and his face goes very pale. He motions over another person and talks to them but I can't make out what they say from where I'm standing. Wilma is also informed of whatever just happened and she bursts into tears. Mason shakes his head and look around finally focusing on me. He raises and eyebrow and comes to speak to me.

"Your an actress right Belle?"

"Well yes but its Bill and actor of a sort..."

"Fine whatever. I need you to help us out of a spot as our two anchors are not in any shape to help. I need you to read from these cue cards that I'm going to hold up. Can you do that for us? I'll make it worth your wild."

"Yeah I suppose." Sounds simple enough. I'm already toast as it is nothing is gonna save me from deportment class anyways.

"Good girl. We are on in 10 seconds. Good luck." He steps back and is handed some cue cards which he reads and shuffles really fast. The camera man helper motions to me and displays his hand with fingers. Show time.

"Welcome back ladies and gentlemen. Due to unforeseen circumstances I Belle Thorne"mental groan" Have an unfortunate announcement to make. Bethany Margarette Anne Peters, Daughter of Nathan and Denise Peters passed away from respiratory failure 25 minutes ago."NOOOOO..

"Tonight's movie will begin shorty after these service announcements." I finish as I can feel the tears fall silently down my cheeks. The lights go off and I stand there still. I do not hear anything at all. It's like all the sound in the world has ceased.

Authors note: Bethany is not based on a real person however I felt that this chapter should be dedicated to her anyways. Thank you for reading.