Jess Stone had breasts. He had been like this his entire teen life not quite fitting in anywhere that he had lived and at the same time he hadn’t really had the chance to. His folks moved around a lot with his dad being a hydrological engineer but they were slightly afraid of what might happen to Jess if he attended school. Some people just didn’t get it or wanted too. Jess was now attending a new school when he decided to change things...

Only it was everyone else that was getting changed!

Squires-25

 

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Image Credit: anime couple

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*Jessie…………

Honey’s house was the main thing for the morning. It was one of those nice middle class older houses that needed work when her mother and father bought it. White picket fence and the big porch deck with the posts and the shutters. A modest from yard and a garage with a big back yard and it was the kind of home a family would’ve been great in and he could see Honey’s dad’s idea here of days off just working away at the place enjoying making it just right for his wife and little girl.

But like a lot of soldiers and police Honey’s dad was a firefighter and he died doing what he was made, called to do and that was giving his life for another.

A heartbroken single mom and daughter struggling with payments and just getting by just doesn’t have the time to get every little thing, and the little things add up.

When him and Donnie left with Honey and her mom. Nick was getting the paint steamer set up, Brian and Kenyon were setting up the pressure washer while Sam was setting his brothers to work trimming things with shears and he was getting out the two mowers they’d brought.

When they came back he and Donnie started taking up the picket fencing and the younger boys were raking and filing bags for the trash and recycling. They used some hand sanders to get the fences cleaned up and used the electric sprayers to re-paint then a nice double coat of white.

He smiled and waved at the nosy neighbors, especially this of that actually looked angry that there was stuff being done here.

Actually he switched out with Sam and went over to her with a cool can of soda.

“Ginger ale ma’am?”

She stared at him and looked confused. “Uhm…thank you young lady.”

She took the soda and he let the mistake go. “What is going on?”

“We’re paying back a debt.”

“A debt?”

“Yes Ma’am, I’m friends with Honey but they’ve been having a rough time of it.”

“If it’s so hard then they should move, it’d be cheaper in and around her own folks.” She had that look and sound like she was being racist while trying to sound like she’s not being racist.

“They are ma’am; this house is special to them.”

She was frowning. “But this isn’t they’re home.”

Jessie cracked his own soda and took a drink. “This is a great country right?”

“Excuse me?”

“America, it’s a great place right?”

“Yes, it’s the greatest country in the world why?”

“Land of the Free home of the Brave right?”

“Yes…”

“Then someone who died here saving the lives of people in this country should get a pass right?”

She looked at him. “Yes, but….” The gears were turning to say something to justify her bias.

“Give us the poor tired and huddled masses…I think that someone dying with flames around them, fires burning, scared of being burned alive is definitely the definition of huddles masses.”

“Yes…But…” She was faltering trying vainly to find a retort that still would hide her attitudes.

Jessie took another drink…breathe, lower the lance…be true.

“Roaring flames, and just water and some really heavy but still not safe gear a mask and a bottle of air…and time after time these people walk into hell itself to save people they don’t know. I guess it’s just that…I can’t help but to respect the man…respect the house and home that he chose to build a life with his wife and child.”

“Yes…I guess…” She wasn’t drinking now but looking at him.

“And Honey’s mom…working all kinds of shifts just to try to keep her daughter in a good school, to keep her husbands dream alive.”

“I…When you say it like that…when…”

Jessie reached out and put his hand on her wrist and smiled at her. “It’s scary right? People talk and say stuff about people not from here and some people just say things just to be mean because it makes it less scary. We hide because the news sucks; we’re shown terrorism and gang stuff and are told over and over to be afraid when we should be the other way around…”

“Other way around?”

“New people come here didn’t we used to welcome them? Hot apple pies, block parties and barbeques and neighborhoods where the kids could play, the people just lived instead of survived. Where you’re newly made American neighbor came here because of the promise of all of that. Will bend over backwards to return the fair shake.”

“But people…”

“We have a choice, like nurses that stay and don’t get the OT because of the budgets, or a cop strapping of their vest every shift…” He nodded at the Honey’s house. “Or walking into fire knowing you might not come out and you do it anyways.”

She turned and stared at Jessie and she looked like she was going to throw a fit to get out of there. “We don’t want them here.”

“Why?”

“This isn’t Mexico.”

“No it’s America.”

“What’s your point?” She said angrily.

“Ma’am that’s my point.”

He headed off letting his tilt sink in but stopped halfway back. “Ma’am?”

“What?” She sounded upset, angry but tears or close to it.

“Look around and see what you need being done around your place too.”

“Why? Why would you bother after…after what was said?”

“Because Honey’s my friend, and you’re her neighbor, because we’re here and just because it’s right Ma’am.”

He walked back to get back to work and waved again at the other neighbors that had definitely been listening in.

He went over and started helping Danny taking off the shutters to repaint them and the siding after the pressure washing looked nice and clean. They taped off the windows to paint the frames and Brian and Kenyon were with the rest of the boys tearing up the porch to replace the older boards and Sam’s little brothers were done the front yard and doing the back.

A man came over in his sixties with a ladder. “Need some help boys?”

Jessie extended his arms and hand. “Gladly sir, gladly.”

“Tom, Tom Murphy. And miss I haven’t heard someone your age remind me of why I served in a long time.”

Jessie blushed and grinned but shook his hand then Danny did the same saying. “Jessie lived out of country sir, he takes the hype seriously.”

“He?” Tom looked at Jessie and Danny and shrugged. It took all kinds these days.

Jessie looked at Danny. “I just don’t think its hype Danny, it’s a promise.”

Tom nodded. “You’re right son, ‘Bout time we try and keep it.”

Danny grinned. “Damned Skippy sir.”

They started working a little harder and another man in his fifties showed with a table saw and told Sam’s little brothers he had some spare wood. Then another neighbor in his thirties came and helped with the front fence.

Nick put on some music. And Bob Seger’s *Like a Rock* started playing as a woman came with a couple of little kids and a red wagon full of started garden plants. Little flowers and everyone was sort of showing up after that.

A little push, a little bit of getting that shadow off of people and a bit of work and people will surprise as often as they can disappoint. It doesn’t take anything more than to do it to get people to shine.

It was Kenyon that actually came out as this rescue van came out to the house and a couple of fire fighters got out and shook hands with him.

Jessie watched and hugged himself as he watched them and Kenyon put up a Chicago City Fire Department Flag up with the house number at the corner of the porch and there was a bunch of tears and a lot of clapping when it was finally there.

Jessie went over and slipped an arm around Kenyon’s waist and leaned. “That was really cool and so definitely sweet.”

“I got the idea at Yasmine’s place. Maybe it’s a good thing people don’t forget right?”

“Yeah…Y’know I’m really glad we’re going out tonight.”

“You are?”

“Yeah, my first date with a guy and he’s this awesome?”

“I did good.”

“Yeah, really good.” Jessie smiled and leaned on him just smiling. He wasn’t sure about the date before the idea had been like…a good kind of way of just being open to what was possible. But this, today…this. Dating a good guy…that made a difference.

And then they were done.

Jessie looked around and saw the woman again sitting on her steps and he walked over and Kenyon went with him slipping from the hug and lean to holding hands.

“Hi…” Jessie said softly but kindly.

(Sniffle.) “Hello…again.”

“You have some things you need help with Ma’am?”

“I don’t deserve the help.” (Sniffle.)

Jessie knelt in front of her. “I think you do, you look pretty huddled right now.”

She stared at Jessie and teared up. Kenyon leaned over and pecked Jessie’s cheek. “I’ll get the crew.”

Jessie nodded and then he helped her up and took her hand and waked with her. “Come on and show us what you need Ma’am.”

………………………………........The others in the neighborhood still helped out and Jessie and the guys did the yard work the lawn guys her son hired wouldn’t touch. Carried out the garbage and the papers. There were some spots where the wall paper fell some from age or just wear they reglued and Kenyon and Brian fixed her tub and shower by just a bit of cleaning and soaking out the shower head and fan filter and a tube of caulking from one of the neighbors.

That and power washing the years of city air off the brick and such of the house went a long way.

And they went to the next house and the next house and the last one that needed some TLC on the street and just…It was what they needed.

There were some hugs and a lot of handshakes and Jessie and Nick and others collected a few numbers and gave out numbers to them and they headed out as Tom Murphy was taking another page from Jessie and the rest and announced a big barbeque at his house.

*Nick…………

It wasn’t like anything he’d ever done before in his life. He never took shop, he couldn’t not with the kind of assholes that the place seemed to be filled with and his father while a collector of tools and guy things didn’t really work with his hands.

Brian and Kenyon were both really versed in this stuff though and the entire morning it had been this whole thing of helping their friends and others and getting things done for people because with so many hands it was just so fast and easy.

And he learned things today. How to do things that, well that a guy should know how to do at least a little, how to use tools and work with paint. Brian showed him how to use a hammer.

He had no idea that he had to learn that. He didn’t know you just didn’t tap away but that you slid your hand back and the way to swing so that two, three hits would do it.

Both Brian and Kenyon usually put a nail in with two hits, Kenyon a contractor’s kid actually could start a nail with his hand gripping the nail and somehow using his palm to do it.

But this was something that he could just take in, something that he wouldn’t have learned with his family or likely at school. Heck he’d even taken his shirt off with some of the others and he got a sunburn.

But he took pictures, lots of pictures to post up on their face book pages.

He’d leave this off the his main page though it was all really good stuff it’d point to them too much if he did that.

But one of the best days after so great a night.

He left his shirt off, and there was some paint stains here and there too. He wanted to see the look on his parents faces when he showed up like this at the party.

*Yasmine…………

The guys had left and their house was done up so well and soon they had gone back into the kitchen to cook and make up some things with Honey and her mother.

Aside from the way that some Mexican food uses pork there was a whole lot of stuff that just fit their own way of eating though.

Salsa…both Honey and her mom did a lot explaining. Salsa was very different and Tex-Mex wasn’t Mexican and some of the spicy stuff wasn’t spicy. There was a lot in common too with lots of cumin and cilantro.

Learning to make tortillas was really fun both the regular flour but the masa made ones Honey’s mother made with some melted butter in there and a kiss of sugar just to bring out the corn’s flavor. Actually a fresh one off the stone was really good, she grinned sharing one with her mother as they nodded they’d just discovered something good and something new.

That was one thing that they never really had any exposure to when she had lived overseas. They used corn a whole lot differently than the ways that they did here in North America and while she still really liked pasta and polenta she was pretty sure she liked these tortilla’s made from corn and the tamales too.

Actually Honey’s mother did those in what she said was a more South American way like you’d find in Chile or Peru with the tamale filling having olives in it and a quarter of a boiled egg as well as shredded chicken and some cooked down peppers and some thyme?

She looked at her mother who smiled and blushed in turn because they had been sampling Honey’s mom’s wares.

Though with a distinctive diet finding a whole new thing that you can adapt to your diet was a really good thing.

They packed all the foods up and they all shared smiles as Jessie and the guys all loaded everything that they were taking to the BBQ to the cars and settled everything as the mom’s were ordering and she hugged herself and smiled.

Second party in almost less that tow days and getting to watch the guys being real gentlemen and doing the kind of stuff that guys were supposed to do was sort of finding this space in her heart.

And someplace else too as she couldn’t help but to watch Donnie.

Something had happened while they were gone this morning and he was sort of keyed up and tired at the start of the morning but now there was just something in him that glowed?

Actually there was this vibe that came off them all that came back from fixing up Honey’s place that had that vibe.

And then…

Then there was his butt.

Oh she knew that she shouldn’t go there but Donnie was just so…enticing. He had these curvy parts…not full on girl curves but more than he should have as a normal guy. But then it sort of balanced out with the set of his shoulders and his arms. It’s not that Donnie was built but it was that in that way he was a boy for sure.

It was actually all good, she wasn’t sure what that meant really…that he was so different but different wasn’t always a bad thing.

She was actually mulling that over when he opened the door for her and her mother of Jessie’s car and he smiled at her.

It was that kind of smile that she’d dream about in idle times. Even Arabic girls thought about that. That way it would feel when a boy that you liked smiled at you.

Oh it made her breath go all shaky in a good way.

*Donnie…………

It was a really good morning.

He’d done so much with Jessie and the others in such a little amount of time and it felt good. There was something very visceral in doing work with your hands and it wasn’t something that he got to really do outside of shop class.

The joys of growing up in apartment life.

But it was more than just the work that he’d done it was going around with Jessie. He could swear that that guy had this way with people sometimes. It was like that way he told people stuff straight out if they wanted to hear it or not got in those dark little crevassey places in some peoples hearts.

Like him and that nasty old lady who was so obviously one of those people that didn’t like non-white people all that much.

He had to admit he thought that Jessie was just barking up the wrong tree with her but he got her moved around and he said all this stuff that…it was all true and stuff but what teenager comes up with stuff like that or talks like that?

Jessie did.

And seeing what his family had done for him he could see the drive, that kind of way of thinking that….

Well actually it was that kind of thing that had them living in Africa and doing work there with wells with people that didn’t have any and did like conservation work and all that kind of stuff.

And that was the thing.

Jessie was American but he never grew up here he hadn’t lived through things as they changed her and got worse.

But he was still American enough to believe in the people here and the promise of it all and what that meant and he’d been around the world and he had seen real shitholes and that’s what powered Jessie he thought.

He been through stuff and seen stuff and he was actually brave enough to call people on it.

He tilted.

Even if it wasn’t an easy thing or a popular thing he didn’t swerve or give up.

And…

And today neither did any of them.

He wasn’t a real big church goer he wasn’t with the way that he was and the way that some people would treat him it wore thin really fast. Especially in a colored church, he’d been bullied a few times when it all started to happen and looking girly meant fag.

And that meant someone was going to hit him.

Sometimes his brothers even.

There was a really nasty streak he’d found in his own people. Especially if they thought you were gay, or even worse like Johnny.

But there were a few times when the minister would get going on something that was actually moving and uplifting and spiritual that had him feel this happy feeling, like he was worth something and part of something bigger than himself.

All the stuff they did today and helping everyone felt like that.

And now they were going to have this whole get-together and a BBQ and still get something going with the parents about dealing with all the crap that was going on in the school.

He wasn’t even sleepy just…well charged up.

And Yasmine and her mother and the girls and stuff all getting together and cooking and getting things ready it was like one of those things that you see on TV. It was so kind of cool that they were all so different and still doing that and that he was getting this look from Yasmine.

He liked that look.

Girls that knew what he looked like without the baggy skater stuff never gave him that look.

He smiled as he was done loading stuff for them and opened the door for Yasmine and her mother.

It was actually very, very cool to help both of the girls into the back seat and hold their hands and everything. Then the others were doing the same and he got in with Jessie and they started up the cars and drove off all together almost in a posse.

*Johnny…………

It was a really good morning and she had done stuff with people, with girls sort of in Home Ec. But this was different. There when she had taken the class she had been either ignored or she’d been quietly femme bullied.

Femme bullying is pretty nasty stuff. Girl’s especially teen ones seem to like to have their little cliques and if you’re not part of the collective then they can really be mean. Even if it’s not the mean girls it’s the others shunning you.

It hurts.

It really hurts when you’re purposely left to be alone by the others and the mean ones use you to make the point they’re better than you…all the time.

Going to Yasmine’s house and helping out there and doing the cleaning and the work felt amazing.

She was a post 9/11 child she was just a little kid that never got it when it happened like most of the kids their age and she had never really fell into that whole Muslims are bad thing.

Or that black people were or Jewish people or anything else like that really. There were a lot of kids like that and there were a lot of kids raised in the fires of post 9/11 racism. And it was like the shift in politics as the people went ever more toward not just being conservative but it was like all the bigots out there had this whole rallying cry to be as bad as they wanted because of fear.

She really tried to stay out of that stuff…it was hard to sometimes since there was a lot of gender issues that came out too and transgendered stuff and gay and lesbian rights.

Johnny tried to stay out of it because it could really drag you down at what the world was so much of the time and just how hard it’s be for someone like her to even get to transitioning.

It was hard for everyone who was growing up under that cloud.

Today, wow today felt like sunshine. Like when you got to do something and seeing the difference that it made.

And then when all the girls and women gathered in Yasmine’s kitchen and talked and cooked and laughed like women had been doing together for thousands of years it really did feel like she was accepted, that she was part of something so just innately woman that it literally did go right through race and faiths…with everyone in the kitchen talking and cooking and sharing recipes.

And she had a ball learning too. Between the real Mexican stuff honey’s mom had been making minus the pork but there was lots of stuff you could do with beef and chicken and learning more about the stuff that Yasmine ate.

The Hebrew national hotdogs they packed up had surprised her the most.

She had looked at Yasmine. “Hot dogs?”

“Kosher.”

“But you’re Muslim you oh…no pork in them.”

Yasmine smiled. “Well there is that but kosher food is often mostly treated in the same way as halal is so there is a lot of the same things that we can eat. We just have to be careful in what we buy but while we do have stuff that we’ve brought over we eat pretty much the same things as everyone else.”

“Okay that’s just cool, so how do you eat your hot dogs?”

She giggled as Yasmine blushed and hit her arm a little and snickered herself.

“Actually I’ve only had them with good mustard or plain but in baked beans.”

“Baked beans you eat baked beans?”

“Yes I do, my dad loved them and my mom makes really good ones.”

“Oh I’m going to get so stuff try all this stuff between you guys and Honey and Jessie.”

“Jessie?”

“Yeah they lived in Japan and Africa and down in South America so they like have to know all sorts of cool stuff too right?”

Yasmine nodded. “Though there are some things I want to try too here.”

“Like?”

“I’m hoping that they’ll have the things for a Chicago dog?”

Johnny grinned and hugged her. “Done!”

They got ready and she went with Brian to his car and he opened the door for her and she caught this whiff of him. Guy smell…sweat but there was cleaner and house paint and the smells of grass and sunscreen there too on him and she smiled.

He’d been working and he had that sort of color to him like he’d really did a lot of work and had been in the sun and it was kind of really, really an attractive thing.

She had to admit there was something just so nice about a guy being a guy but not being the neanderthal or swaggering ego type of guy. He’d done all of that and he still was all nice enough to do all the nice mannerly thing and he’d gone with the others and they actually went out and not just helped their friends with things but helped other people too.

He was smiling when he got into his car.

“You look amazing Brian.”

He blinked caught off guard. “Huh? Uhm isn’t that my line?”

“Yeah, but you do. You look happy.”

He started the car. “God I am y’know…I did things today that I haven’t done since I was spending summers over at my grandparents.”

“They were big into helping people?”

“Still are. Grandpa has a farm and it was his dad’s before that and it’s not like huge but at the same time it’s really cool and I know that him and grandma helped out a lot of folks around where they are when stuff went south and people were losing their jobs and their homes.”

“That actually sounds like you.”

“Not with Brit it wasn’t. God she’d…I’m so glad that we did this today y’know. Not hobnobbing with people I can’t stand not kissing butt or showing up so she…we could be seen.”

“Wow there’s a lot of work to being popular.”

“Not work…scheming and butt kissing and stuff but not work…though I am so sick of it and those people.”

“Well today definitely agreed with you like I said happy agrees with you.”

He blushed. “Thanks…you had a good time too?”

“I did, I really did it felt so good to actually just be accepted for who I really am.”

“You and me both.” He smiled and when they hit a red light he took a minute to kiss her. It was light and it was sweet and it was still a kiss and she could tell that he meant it.

He broke the kiss and she sort of hugged herself and smiled.

“What are you okay?”

“Oh yeah definitely, I’m just savoring being kissed like that.”

“Like that…it was that good?”

“You were being honest Bri; you just leaned over and kissed me because it just felt right…?”

He nodded but blushed some more. “Yeah…it just, it just really felt right…God Johnny I feel like I’m more connected to you than other girls I’ve been with.”

“Well you make me feel pretty amazing too you know.”

He nodded and started driving again. “Actually that’s one of the best things Johnny…I do know. You just tell me, and I…I…it feels like I don’t have to work at you liking me.”

She looked at him. “Working at being someone you’re really not is exhausting Brian. I lived that for too long and I’d never make someone else do that.”

They looked at each other a few times and she was just about to lean on his side when she remembered.

“D’uh-oh! I forgot we need to stop at Trader Joes!”

“Uhm okay Waffor?”

“Yasmine’s never had a Chicago dog before.”

“Me neither.”

*Brian…………

He laughed at the look on her face as she went all drop jawed.

“What! You’re from the city how can you not have ever had a Chicago dog!?”

“I just figured that I would at some point and just never got around to it.”

She adjusted her seat and her arms and looked at him in this mock pout. “You know that’s almost sacrilege right?”

He smiled and couldn’t help it she was just…she was just genuine right down to that little semi-freaked squeak she had let out when he had told her that.

“Actually there’s a lot of stuff I never did that I would want to do that Brit never would get of go for?’

“Like?”

He shrugged sort of embarrassed. “Well like going to do the Sears tower thing from Ferris Bueller.”

“What with the windows scene?”

“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“Done!”

“What!?” she actually caught him so flatfooted with that.

“Done, there we have our second date planned.”

“Really?” he pulled into the parking lot of the Trader Joes and looked at her.

Johnny looked at him and there was just this…impact…soft blonde hair but sort of with that punk-cute color thing a lot of girls had and the comfy yet really cute stuff she was wearing and the way that she looked at him. And she said “Really…I’d love to do that.”

His heart squeezed a little and beat really fast. Like what she said about his kiss. It was the same just now and with just the way she took what he wanted seriously.

Didn’t say it was stupid.

He almost, almost got teary eyed because it felt that good really.

This time it was her that slid over and kissed him.

And it was a lot longer and better than the kiss that he had done with her at the lights. God she smelled so damned good…girl smells like soap and perfume but there was her own smell and it didn’t matter what part of transition she was on he still liked the smell of her skin. And there was the whole thing of those cooking smells lingering in her clothes…his mom smelled like that sometimes and his grams and some of his aunts.

He wouldn’t want to be sexist but that was just a sort of thing that he thought of just now.

“You smell really good Johnny.”

“Uhm…thanks?” She really blushed and so did he. He’d never actually said that to a girl before and wasn’t actually sure that you did.

“Real…you smell real.”

“And real is kinda kitchen sweaty?”

“Real is real it’s not smelling like a department store make-up counter.”

“Really? Brit wore that much stuff?”

He nodded. “Lotions and spray on stuff so she’d never sweat and all that other stuff.”

She grinned and nodded. “I completely get the and I’m not surprised.”

“Oh you smelled her too?”

“Eeew, no…but everyone knows the undead need many layers of stuff all over them so they can be out in the sunlight.”

She did this little faux innocent batting on her lashes and he burst out laughing.

She said again just as innocently. “Concealer make-up to cover up her Sith tattoos?”

He laughed some more and pretty hard and then kissed her again. She kissed him back and they soooo could have started to make out in the car when she broke the kiss. She was flushed and he was definitely aroused and he found he had his hands on her side and one on her leg.

They stared at each other pretty hard for a few really intense minutes before she said. “We should get the things for the dogs before we’re late.”

He nodded and got out of the car and helped her out too and they were walking towards the entrance when the idea came to him.

“Johnny?”

She turned and looked at him biting a little at her lower lip….her hair did that thing that girls hair does that’s just so…in the breeze. “Yes?”

“Has anyone ever pushed you around while shopping with a cart?”

Her eyes widened and he could see the smile there before it was on her face. “No, never.”

He pulled a shopping cart out from the outside return area. “Done?”

She walked up to him all just pretty, really pretty and it was that pretty that’s always better than hot or beautiful…he’d been around those people and there was always just something he felt wasn’t there.

Johnny…it was part of the transgendered thing he thought…it’s that sort of thing where it’s all about making the outside match the inside so…so she kind of glowed that way from inside out.

It was the single most romantic moment he’d ever really had when she wrapped her fingers in the mesh at the front of the cart and stepped on that bar part at the front wheels.

He smiled and they pushed her into the store.

*Kenyon…………

He headed home and took the serving counter that he had got from Johnny’s dad into the kid den and that would with a little work be a pretty decent “bar” for the place. He went up and took a shower and smiled as the hot water washed over him.

He had a really great morning with everything that he had gotten done with everyone else and his boyfriend had been impressed and impressive.

Really impressive.

God there was something just breathtaking about watching Jessie with people and just the way that he talked to people.

And kissed.

Oh yeah the kissing.

He lathered himself up and he reached down and…oh Jessie.

“Jess…” He really couldn’t help these feelings…the way that Jessie had looked at him and the way they had talked to each other and kissed and then there was watching Jessie working…watching that damned near perfect bottom and the so hard to hide other side.

Yes, yes he had crotch watched his boyfriend and he bit his lip thinking about that…about Jessie joining him here in the shower…touching and kissing and Jessie’s hand in place of his own soaping…

He was glad the drain worked really well in the shower.

And dreaming and thinking about Jessie was so new to him that he was still shocked at how fast he found release. He’d done this before and he’d done it thinking about girls or tried to all the times before and it seemed…now…it seemed mechanical compared to this.

He blushed though all the way through betting dried off and changed because he still felt like more but tow totally different kinds of more and wanting those was embarrassing still even in private.

But at the same time it was kind of fun?

He shook his head at the time he spent getting ready…he primped. He just had to admit it because there was just this want to look good for Jessie.

Desirable?

Yeah…if he was being honest yes, he wanted Jessie to definitely notice him.

He went down and met up with his folks and they grabbed the coolers and drove over to Jessie place and there was a line up of cars there already and more than he thought. Jessie’s father he thought was there and he was meeting people as they were coming up to the house and he thought that Nick’s dad was there too.

There were a few of the neighbors looking from their own places not too many but there was a few he thought he recognized from Jessie stories about the neighborhood association troll people that had tried to give Jessie and his family a hard time.

The house itself was actually impressive. It was one of those three and a half big old school houses with the porch and the pillars and those old school window turrets that they used to build house like way back. There was a small garage at the end of the driveway with a gable styled roof and the place was definitely something they bought to fix up but it was still a really expensive home at the same time.

There must be a lot of money in doing water engineering stuff.

He carried some of the stuff and he looked at Jessie’s dad. “Uhm Mr. Stone? Where do you want this stuff?”

“Just around to the backyard that’s where we’re doing everything.”

“Okay sir.”

“Sir…You must be Kenyon yes?”

“Yes sir.”

Oh now he was getting the fatherly once over. Was it because Jessie had breasts and there might be a daughterly thing or was this something that other gay kinds went through meeting the parents?

There was a smile there and Kenyon could so see Jessie had that same smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you young man. Are these your parents?”

His manners caught up with him and he introduced his parents which he think pleased his dad and mom with the manners and stuff and he took the things from them and Sam and Nick came over to help him before things ended up getting stacked so high that he’d muff it up or something.

He smiled though at Nick. He could see nick’s dad a guy he sort of heard was kind of over protective and critical most of the time looking at Nick with that kind of look that was sort of surprised still at what he was seeing and proud too.

And you could see it in Nick that it made a difference too.

They went around the house to the back and a very big back yard with a tall privacy fence that was being repaired and Danny and the others were pulling off old boards and sanding them and Sam’s brothers were putting on that red wood colored stain on them and they were passing them to Jessie and Donnie who were using drills to put them back on with screws.

He stopped and stared at Jessie.

Jessie was wearing these black knee length cut off sweats that hugged his really nice butt and he was in sandals and a bikini top.

Bikini top…and while they were definitely boobs they were really nice boobs and at the same time they really didn’t look too off scale for jess’s upper body…in fact they were perky and pretty erotic.

He was jogged out of staring at Jessie by Sam doing that full on deaf laugh at him. “Dude you have it bad.”

He grinned and blushed. “Yeah but can you blame me?” he made sure that Sam could read his lips and there was some more grinning from some of the others as people were doing stuff around the back yard getting things ready.

“No, I think Jessie is pretty hot for a guy.”

Nick nodded. “Mmm…me too…or…or a Girl if he ww..wanted.”

Jessie was there and taking one of the coolers from Kenyon and kissing him with a light peck on the cheek. “Only on Halloween guys…maybe.”

He gulped and blushed really red and he…gay…? Was he?...he could not help but to stare at the way that Jessie held the cooler and the way his arms made his boobs do this thing.

But the thought of Jessie in a dress.

He lowered the styrofoam cooler he still had in his hands to cover the very sudden boner he got from that image.

Images…

Jessie’s long black hair…those eyes…Neve Campbell…?

“Leia…” Jessie turned and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Oh shit he said that out loud!

Jessie set the cooler on a counter that was built into their patio for the house all actually built around this really big stainless steel grill. He smiled at Kenyon and it was playful and sexy.

“Well I’m not sure that I could pull off the bottom of the slave girl thing but I’d go with something else anyway if I was going to get dressed up for Halloween as a girl.”

Kenyon’s mouth went dry and Jessie slipped past. “Inara Serra…”

Oh…oh…Jessie with his hair up and in the whole companion dress…Oh…

Johnny yelled out from where she was helping pot some geraniums “Done!”

And Brian started laughing out loud.

Then several people yelled at him and pointed “Jayne!”

Brian sank to the grass laughing. “Oh God I have the hat!”

They all were laughing pretty hard and shouting out things about the show and Lindsey even said she’d be River Tam.

Then they all could hear Danny.

*Danny…………

He could not help it.

Right after Donnie shouted that he wasn’t playing Zoe he came out with. “Yes. Yes, this is a fertile land, and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... "This Land.".

“I think we should call it "your grave!".

“Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”

“Har har har! Mine is an evil laugh! Now die!”

“Oh, no, God! Oh, dear God in heaven!”

Everyone laughed pretty hard and he did too until his ribs twinged a bit and he stopped but kept grinning.

“That might actually be a good idea guys.” He looked around and there were a few nods and he grinned. “Dad might actually like me getting the blue dye out.”

Lindsey nodded. “Yeah I can imagine the blue has really gone over well.”

Danny shrugged a little. “I think he’s used to it now even if it’s really not his thing.”

He looked at her and she blushed. She looked really good today even if she wasn’t trying to look good it was just Lindsey. Cut off jeans shorts and a Greenday tee-shirt and her hair was just sort of held back by bobby-pins and it worked…it really worked with the cut offs.

Lindsey might ne thin and skinnier than most of the girls here but she had legs for miles.

He knew she was self conscious about it too, the look she was wearing still sort of said Johnny.

He couldn’t help but to look.

They locked eyes and she blushed some more.

“Dan…stop it.”

“They’re nice.”

“They’re like spaghetti sticks.”

“I like pasta.”

“Danny!”

Then there was Penn there beside her telling her she looked really good. And he nodded but kind of left them to talk since Lindsey had this look on her face like she was kind of pissed at her.

Roberta was there too and some of the other members of the schools LGBT group and some of their parent too and he saw some people from Pflag there that might be parents too.

It looked like some of the people from the party had invites too most of them from the school and there was refreshments getting started to get set out from the house and the kitchen as the girls were helping out with things and the guys were starting to move in picnic tables and stuff.

He grabbed a table with Donnie and started to carry it. “Why not Zoe, you’d look good like that.”

“I really don’t think that Yasmine would be into me dressing like a girl.”

“You could ask her.”

“I don’t even know if she’d do something Halloween or if she could.”

“Oh…good point and it’d be hard for her to do a costume with the whole covering her head thing.”

Johnny slipped past them. “Pfeiffer…cat woman, and her head would be covered.”

Donnie lost his grip on his end of the table.

Yasmine looked at him and was going atomic red and Johnny snagged her and took her into the house and there was definite giggling erupting out of there.

Dan snickered at Donnie. “Well I mean if you really wanted to spice things up you could…and that would be hawt.”

“Shaddup Danny.”

He snickered again. “Maybe I should change my hair for that.”

“I don’t know I like it.”

Andy’s voice.

He turned to look as did some of the others and Andy was standing there in jeans and sneakers but he was wearing a skin tight white t-shirt. And it’s Andy and he was just so…big that he couldn’t help but notice the size and the muscle on muscle there but also the way that he said that he liked his hair the way that it was.

Softly…and looking at him like.

Wow…uhm…he was having a hard time getting his mind going into gear because people just didn’t look at him like that in his experience…Johnny…Lindsey…both sort of but Andy’s was this whole other thing.

He blushed and tucked some hair behind his ear and Donnie was giving him this WTF look.

*Lindsey…………

She’d been fine until they had all gotten together to get changed in Jessie’s parents room loaned out to the girls by Jessie mom. Of course Johnny had a plan. It almost hadn’t been too bad either.

But it had been a long time since she had worn shorts.

Spaghetti girl was a thing that she was called well before dishwater girl. She started her growth spurt just after her eleventh birth day and she’s shot up like a weed in weight but she’d really barely put on any weight or curve.

It wasn’t as bad as she had really thought helping out here at Jessie’s place they were really expecting a yard full once Jessie’s mom had explained who else was coming and things and there was tables to get set up and refreshments to make and while she wasn’t a cook like some of them she did have a good time helping to make the salads up and slicing veg for going on things or with things.

Foil packs of mushrooms and onions she could definitely do and wrap baked potatoes in foil.

Her legs that bare was so hard to get used too and she really got self conscious when people where giving her compliments on her legs.

Legs were such a girly thing too and she was still so unsure about that still…of all of that except.

It was different when Danny did it; she liked it when he said it and they were kind of getting the whole rapport thing going that they had last night when she heard Penn’s voice.

“Wow…Lindsey you look great.”

She’d turned because she was kind of pissed. Penn had kind of came on pretty strong last night and really cocky too. She didn’t like guys that were like that and not using it as a joke but honestly thought they were the shit.

She was definitely sure that she didn’t like that cockiness in girls that had come onto her too.

She turned and looked at Penn and she was actually looking down?

“Uhm thanks you look good too.”

She wasn’t lying Penn was one of the better looking girls in school with this really short hair cut and the bunch of piercings she had sort of threw that off for the regular crowds….and the popular people.

An eyebrow ring and three studs at the tops of her ears and today she was wearing something like green garnet or something that went with her hazel eyes.

Busty but not too much and in great shape Penn was a looker only one a lot of people at school discounted because she was a pretty hardcore lesbian.

She was actually dressed in….green cammo track pants and sandals and a Harry potter tee-shirt. The kicker and it was a kicker was Penn was wearing those round rimmed Harry Potter glasses.

It made her really kind of look like a guy…a cute guy that had taken the shapechange potion to be a girl and yet still sort of looked like a boy.

And surprisingly sexy.

“You think? Bobbi almost had a cow.”

“Well she would she’s kinda lesbichique.”

Penn smiled and shrugged. “She can be somewhat aggressively fashionable.”

They both heard Bobbi shout something from where she was talking with Selena. “There’s nothing wrong with liking clothes and make-up and still being a dyke instead of a femme!”

Lindsey grinned and looked at Penn. “Hey sorry for just well last night okay. I’m just really, really not used to that kind of stuff. I felt like a piece of meat.”

Penn nodded. “Yeah I was being really out of line and I needed the reality check actually.”

“Yeah you did.”

Penn blushed in a kind of cute embarrassed way but smiled a little too. “You don’t pull your punches do you?”

“Nope, what you see is what you get.”

“What if I lik…sorry…reflex.”

Lindsey laughed. “It’s okay actually…If it’s just flirting like for fun I think that’s okay it’s just like the serious stuff that gets me. I’m not ready for that…dishwater girl remember?”

Penn looked at her. “You’re definitely not that Lindsey.”

“Maybe, maybe not…but it’s been me a long time and I’m used to being the wallflower y’know.”

“Yeah…can we start over and stuff? I’d love to get the taste of my foot out of my mouth before the food’s ready…I’m gamey.”

Penn extended her hand.

Lindsey smiled and shook it. “Definitely, besides I kinda want to know more about the whole lesbian thing?’

“Really?” Penn gave her a sexy look but she could tell it was more joking than a come on.

“Yeah, I have no idea where I’m at like with guys and girls and stuff…I just think that I’m weird.”

“Weird’s good Linds, it’s not boring.”

“Well I’d just like to get the perspective and stuff. I don’t really know any lesbians that closely.”

Penn motioned her head over to where Selena had drifted over to honey and Honey was looking like that was a good thing by the smile that was on her face.

“Actually Linds I think that you might.”

*Honey…………

Everything was looking great and this was the second party that she had been a big part of this weekend and for the school year.

It was a lot of fun too doing all the stuff that they had needed to make and bring and cooking with Yasmine and her mom and the other girls was awesome. And it made her smile too because as much as she and her mom were Catholics they weren’t regular church goers mostly because of her mom’s work and school.

But still Catholics and Muslims talking and joking and having fun like there was no divide at all was something that she honestly thought was special.

And she knew that her mom thought so too.

Actually she was really happy they were doing all of this. Johnny had this whole buzz of just being one of the girls and Lindsey showed them she could do a few things but also that she ate like a guy.

Why was it always the stick thin girls that could pack away the food?

But she was happy for her mom too.

Yeah they were here to talk about stuff with the things going on at the school and everything but for her mom and maybe even Yasmine’s mom this was a chance to get out of the house outside of work and to socialize with other adults. She knew her mom was into it because they weren’t patients and she’d been talking up a storm all day long so far.

And once things were just about ready they had all retreated to Jessie’s parent’s room to use their shower and to get changed.

Johnny had brought war supplies and she had been all happy and giggly and talked about the time she just had with Brian in the car and at Trader Joes.

Yasmine had gotten changed into a plain black hijab with a kind of neat looking braided band and she was wearing slacks and sandals and one of those long sleeved tees for the Cubbies and some sunglasses and she actually looked pretty cool.

“You should wear that to school sometime.” She told her.

“Oh…no, I couldn’t…it’s…I…” She was blushing and Johnny actually nodded. “Right now with the asses out there Yasmine looks way too good for them not to harass her about that.”

And that got the mom’s that were there talking already about the attitudes and the bullying.

Johnny went really summer like hot with a denim short skirt and instead of a bathing suit top she had her breast forms all fixed up and looking like really nice cleavage in a sexy bra and then she had this really small denim vest that actually acted like a sort of bathing suit top when she buttoned the two buttons holding it together.

“Wow…that’s really cool where’d you get the top?”

Johnny beamed. “Made it I’m actually pretty good at sewing and making things and adjusting stuff.”

“You look really nice, Brian’s going to drool.”

“Really!?...cool…” Johnny grinned and they got ready getting Lindsey into her outfit for the BBQ and then Honey herself into hers.

She went actually a little like Yasmine since she really didn’t feel comfortable with showing her midriff off to people. She was so not in the shape for that so she went with a pink v-necked tee and she had it tucked into her own black denim skirt that she wasn’t going to wear until Johnny wheedled her into wearing it to show off her hips and her curves.

She knew it was a friendly party and stuff but it still took some doing with the girls and the mom’s and her mom actually going out in a bikini top had given her the confidence that she needed to wear it.

Actually her mom took pictures once Johnny had finished with her make up and Yasmine’s mom had done her hair. She had given her this Eva Mendes kind of tumbled hair style that had her stunned with that whole that’s me thing.

Apparently it was and she was really feeling happy and pretty when she had gone downstairs and started helping to set out all the food.

“Okay this is w really nice spread.”

She looked up to see Selena there and she smiled. “Thanks we kinda out our all into this, everyone did.”

Selena smiled. “I brought noodle salad.”

“I’ll have to try it, you look good.”

And she did too. She was really down to earth looking in a simple flower print dress with spaghetti straps that really just hung on her like it was just so delicately hanging there and it was really sexy and shyly sweet looking on her…and it when with her bleached out hair and made her look really exotic and yet approachable too.

It was really hard not to get fixed on her eyes made up to almost compliment everything without being too much and the soft simple pink lipstick was doing the same thing.

Selena smiled and picked at one of the salads to steal a bit of romaine. “Thank you I …I really wasn’t sure about what to wear. I used to kind of go with the in your face hoochie kind of clothes but that’s not me anymore so I kind of thought suburbs and barbeque.”

“It really, really works for you. You look beautiful.” She blushed at saying that to another girl…she’d said it before but it just came out more like the truth than telling a friend that in supportful truth.

“Thanks…you’re not used to this are you?”

“No…not at all, I’m kind of not sure what to say really.”

“Why? I’m just me Honey I’m not all that different than anyone else.”

“Is it okay if I think that you are?”

Selena looked at her. “Yes…and thanks, I kind of feel the same way.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, you’re a nice girl Honey…that’s a good thing.”

“I am? It is?”

“Definitely but I’m really not used to even just talking to interesting nice girls. I kind of wasn’t too picky before…I mean after I went away and stuff.”

Honey smiled. “The past is the past?”

“Hopefully.”

They ended up looking at each other in little bits and then Selena looked at her. “This was good…I liked having the chance to talk to you again but I think I’m holding you up from helping and Bobbi’s motioning for me to go over for something.”

“Oh…uhm…okay…”

“Talk later?”

“Sure, I’d like that.”

“So would I.” Selena turned and she went to the LGBT girl and Honey just kind of watched her go and she sighed and pulled the tray to her tummy and went back inside.

She…Selena, she seemed really nice…and she was pretty but there was just something else there too.

Her mom slid over to her and they put stuff on trays to take out to the tables together.

“She seems nice.”

“Uhm…yeah…she’s a really great singer too.”

“She get to use the karaoke machine last night?”

“Yes she was awesome.”

“So are you friends?”

“We just met last night actually.” Honey could feel her face getting flushed a little.

“Well invite her over sometime and you and the girls can have a sleepover.”

“Uhm…” Honey’s mind went blank a few seconds.

“Honey…uhm…hello...”

“Okay…yeah I’ll have to do that mom…thanks.”

She slipped out with her tray just needing some air for a minute…did her mom know, suspect? Just…how could she suspect she wasn’t sure how she was feeling but…maybe?

**………… The food started up shortly after that and the men were grilling and having a good time and the boys were eating well like the boys and people were just having a good time until Nick’s dad took out a laptop with some of the stuff from the real things going on at the school and then they started talking about the things that were going on the site and some of the things that the kids were going through.

It actually didn’t take the kids there to actually start talking about stuff that was going on and what was being done to them.

The music got turned down and it got pretty serious as Johnny who had come at the end of last years semester had her stories and Brian who had come there at the start of that year talked about some of the things that he’d seen the Alpha kids do to other kids.

It turned into almost a group therapy session for a lot of the kids that were there. There was a lot of stuff that well just couldn’t be proven but it was ranging from painful to really painful and included a lot of names and some of the groups that weren’t just the Alpha kids but were the kids like…

“The wholesomes…” Those were the churchy kids that were part of “Students for a wholesome life.” They preached family values but were like a min-tea party crossed with a lynch mob and were trying to rally to get the rights of the LGBT kids taken off the school charter because it was stuff like special treatment.

Then there was “The young patriots.” Another bunch that wore cammo and army clothes and talked about terror threats and had a hate on for any Hajji or Hajji Lover.

And there were The Jocks who were still more or less part of “The Alpha kids” who perpetrated the whole pecking order of the school.

A lot came out and it went on for a couple of hours before the parents sort of all gathered on the patio with Nick’s dad and Jessie’s mom kind of going over some other things.

Like the law against using cell phones to take peoples pictures in the school and how to treat fighting that.

The law that was actually put into action as an anti-big brother law in the schools by the ACLU of all bunches to protect the privacy of the students but the privacy was also putting the children at obvious risk.

Some of the kids left thanking Jessie and the parents and others but Saturday night was calling and even Jessie and the gang started to clean everything up and pack things away for people to take home and it was close to seven before they bowed out of the go round discussion with the parents.

*Jessie………… He looked at the other kids in the group and he looked at Kenyon and Johnny and Brian. “This kind of hit everyone hard, maybe if we’re going out we all go out as a group?”

Kenyon nodded. “It’s okay with me. That was pretty intense.”

Sam shook his head. “I have to babysit my brother’s sorry guys but thanks.”

Nick nodded. “I…I..I’m gonna ssts..stay here.” He looked at Jessie and they both kind of nodded.

Selena looked at the group. “Well as much as I really appreciate the offer Jess I think most of us really don’t want to horn in on you’re guy’s dates.”

Jessie smiled and looked at the others and there were some nods. Donnie looked at him. “I’m going to stick around too and just hang out with Yasmine until she has to go home.”

Yasmine smiled and nodded. “You guys go we’re good.”

Lindsey nodded besides. “Some of us have other plans.” She looked over to where Danny was sitting at one of the picnic tables talking to Andy.

There were some more nods and Jessie looked at Kenyon and Brian and went over and leaned on Johnny side to side.

“So…guys where are you taking us?”