“Come on Lindsey, give me ten more laps.” Coach Karr watches as Lindsey tries to keep up with the rest of the female and male swimmers.

Even though her knee had been injured, she was doing fine using the swim board and kicking. The brace she currently had on her injured leg.
Was made for the water. She still couldn’t get over the fact that Lindsey was a transgender girl.

Coach Karr knew that some of the girls had been a little nervous about Lindsey using the same shower and locker room with them. However, Lindsey acted like any other normal teenage girl would. She took her showers with her suit on to rinse the chlorine off the suit and off her body.
She had seen Lindsey nude once and you couldn’t tell she wasn’t a girl. When she asked Lindsey privately how she managed to hide it. She told her that her doctor knew a technique to hide it, so she could pass. He had used medical glue and a little tucking to hide her birth defect.

Lindsey takes it easy as she kicks the water. Her doctor told her the swim lessons she was taken was helping with keeping her muscles fit.
She would have to have physical therapy anyway to build the strength back up in her leg. He had recommended she get a second brace to wear while she was swimming.

“Alright, people hit the showers.”

Lindsey swims over towards the nearest ladder and slowly climb up it. She was in the deep end when coach Karr called it quits.

“Hey Lindsey, when are you going to stop milking your injury?”

“When you pass your math test, Harry.” Lindsey knew Harry wasn’t doing so well in math.

“Well, if you weren’t such a know it all, some of us normal kids could skate by.” Harry and a few other students hated the fact that Lindsey always set the grading scale.

There were only two other people in their advanced math class that were as good as Lindsey. Lindsey heads into the girl’s locker room and towards the showers. Some of the girls around her were already developing breast bigger than her grapes. She hopes she will be as big as some of them. She stops by her locker and grabs a towel as she heads towards the showers and rinses off. She’ll take a full shower when she gets home.

Courtney spots Lindsey and walks over towards her. She was curious about Jamie and wanted to know more about him.

“Hey Lindsey, how’s your knee doing?”

Courtney had gym class at the same time Lindsey did and had witnessed the attack from Christy. She had been bullied once by Christy when
she first came to the school.

“It’s doing better. The doctor told me I should be able to start walking around without my brace.” Lindsey looks down towards her knee and where they had cut into it. There was a slight scar from the stitches.

“Cool, hey I was wondering if you knew if Jamie is seeing someone?”

“Not that I know of. Jamie normally sticks with his cliques of friends when we're at school. You could always come to one of our gigs to speak
with him or talk to him in school.” Lindsey was drying off while she is talking with Courtney.

“Where do you guys play at?”

“Thursday and Friday, we play at The Airship. Friday and Saturday, we play at The Station.”

“What’s the Station?” Courtney was curious.

“It’s an old converted train station that was turned into a Steampunk style restaurant. Thursday and Friday, they have a jazz band there called Sapiman.They switch with us every other weekend.”

Lindsey liked the jazz players. She especially liked the piano player. He was an old African American guy in his late fifties. He suggested a few tricks to her playing on her synthesizer and sax. The type of jazz they played was like you would find in New Orleans.

“I’m surprised the restaurant owner doesn’t say anything about your age. Aren’t you like twelve or so?”

“Yep, but our manager is twenty-one and sometimes, one of our parents will be there with us. So, if we have someone that is 18 or older with us, everything is fine. We just can’t go near the bar. Plus, I fall under the entertainment clause of South Carolina work law. Since, I'm an entertainer, I have special permission to work at my age.”

“I’ll have to come and check you guys out.”

“Here’s one of our Cd’s.” Lindsey pulls out one of the several CD’s she carries with her and hands it to Courtney.

“Thanks, Lindsey.”

“You’re welcome.” Lindsey finishes getting dress and heads outside to see if Barbara had arrived to pick her up.

She spots Barbara waiting for her in the parking lot. Lindsey walks over carefully to the car and gets in.

“So, how was swim practice?”

“It was alright. My knee is throbbing some, but other than that, I had fun.” Lindsey digs through her purse for her aspirin. She didn’t like the pain pills her doctor prescribed.

She finds her Aleve bottle and pops two pills into her mouth. She doesn’t mind taking pills without water.

“Well, I hope you remembered to bring your towel and swimsuit with you. The last time you forgot, I had to rush your spare suit to you.”

“I got my swimsuit and towel this time, mom.”

Lindsey sits back and enjoys the ride back to the house. When they arrive home. Lindsey heads towards her bedroom and separates her clothes to wash. Once her laundry is going, she helps Barbara with dinner. She practices a few songs before heading to bed.

The next morning when she arrives at school, she is approached by the drama teacher Mrs. Carolann Whitney. They head towards her classroom to talk.

“Lindsey, I don’t know if you heard yet, but leading guy Kevin Swanson was in a car accident last night and we have no one to fill his role. I was wondering if maybe one of your band mates might consider filling the role.”

“Which of my band mates would you like for me to talk too?”

“Do you think your drummer Ian Smith and maybe Terry might be interested?” Mrs. Whitney could use both guys in the production.

“I know Terry won’t be able to help. He has a part-time job at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Jamie might be willing to do it and Dan doesn’t go to our school.”

“Can you speak to Ian and Jamie and see if they wouldn’t mind helping us out?”

“I’ll talk with them and see if they’ll be willing to help out.”

“Thanks, Lindsey.”

Lunch Time:
Lindsey walks into the cafeteria and spots Ian and Jamie in line. She sends a text message to them to meet her at the table she normally sits at. While she is waiting for them to show, she pulls her lunch out of her backpack and set it up. She brought a homemade cobb salad and leftover fried chicken Barbara made the other night.

“Hey Lindsey, what’s up?” Ian sits down across from Lindsey.

Jamie sits down next to him. Terry comes over and sits with them as well. He was curious about why Lindsey wanted to talk to Jamie and Ian.

“Hey guys, thank you for coming over here. I was approached by Mrs. Whitney this morning and she was wondering if the two of you wouldn’t mind helping the drama club out. Their leading guy Kevin Swansong was injured in a car accident.”

“Did she tell you which of us she wanted?” Jamie was curious.

“Originally she wanted Ian and Terry, but because you have your part-time job at O’Reilly, I suggested you, Jamie.”

“Who’s playing the leading lady?”

“Charlotte Winters. She’s the leading lady. I just play the piano for the performance.”

“What type of production is it?”

“A musical call The Music Man. You’ll both be playing characters in it.”

“But who is playing the main character?” Jamie looks at Ian for an answer.

“Well, we could ask Mrs. Whitney who she wants.”

“Now that is taken care of, how're the songs coming along?” Terry knew Lindsey’s been working hard on a special piece for them.

“It’s coming along well. The special piece I have been working on is missing something. It’s three-quarters of the way done, but it needs something special and I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Is it some instrument we don’t have or a vocal piece?”

“I think it’s an instrument we don’t have in our band. I was going to go to your work and look around.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you after class today.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

After school:
Dan shows up and picks up Ian, Jamie, and Terry and take them to the music store Jamie worked at. Jamie’s job was more flexible, then Terry’s job. O’Reilly’s was already giving Terry a hard time about the hours he was available to work.

The manager Andrew loved it when they came into the store. They always bought their supplies for their instruments and their instruments at the store. Lindsey walks around picking up random instruments they didn’t own. She comes to a Gretsch G9200 Boxcar Round-neck Resonator guitar.

“Hey Andrew, do you mind if I play this Gretsch?” Lindsey shows him which one she was talking about.

“No, I don’t mind. I have an amp and everything over in the corner sent up. Go ahead and plug in.”

“Thanks.” Lindsey walks over and plugs in and tunes the guitar.

She plays the tune she is working on and the resonator sounded wonderful. It was exactly what she was looking for. It had a nice deep mellow sound to it and it resonated nicely.

The guys listen to what Lindsey was playing and they were loving the sound the Gretsch was making as she played.

“You have to try this Dan.” Lindsey hands the Gretsch to Dan.

Dan plays the same tune Lindsey just played and he had to admit it sounded good. He tries a few tunes they wrote, and they sounded better on the Gretsch, then the guitar they played them on.

“Hey Andrew, how much is this Gretsch?” Lindsey walks over to pay for it.

“It’s $359.00, but with your bands discount. It comes to $287.20.”

“Cool.” Lindsey hands her personal debit card to pay for it. She could have used the band card, but this was going to be hers.

“Let me get the case and everything that goes with it for you Lindsey.”

“Okay.”

“Is your mother going to be cool about this, Lindsey?”

Ian was curious because he knew Lindsey already had four other instruments.

“My mom doesn’t mind. If I wasn’t spending my money on instruments or music, I would be spending it on fancy clothes and a bunch of shoes. You know how girls like to shop.” A playful smile appears on her face.

The guys just shake their heads as they look around some more and pick up items for their guitars or sheet music. They stop at The Hangar to have dinner since they were close to it. Dan drops everyone off. Ian gets out Lindsey’s place since his place was directly behind hers.

“Okay, spill. Did Mrs. Whitney really ask for me and Terry originally?”

“Yep, she really did. She asked for you and Terry first, but when I told her Terry couldn’t do it. I suggested Jamie. I think Jamie would be good
at acting and I think you would as well.”

"Thanks Lindsey."

“You're welcome Ian.” Lindsey places a kiss on his cheek before heading into the house.

Ian just watches as Lindsey walks into her house. Once she was inside, he cuts through her backyard and jumps the fence to his yard.