Chapter 7

~o~O~o~

Davey could feel someone stroking his hair, it felt so soothing, just like his mother always did when he had been sick. Such a pleasant dream, he didn’t want wake up from it. Then he realized it wasn’t a dream, someone was sitting on the side of his bed stroking his hair just like his mother used to. But his hair was only that long in his dreams.

Having dreams of being a girl were not that uncommon for Davey, at least not for the past couple of years, ever since the doctors had finally discovered why he was not going through puberty like other boys his age. Originally these dreams were nightmares, nightmares where Davey found himself wearing dresses and his friends called him names.

The nightmares came so often and bothered Davey so much that his mother forced him to start seeing a psychiatrist. Eventually the nightmares came less often although he still found himself a girl in many of his dreams. Davey dreamed himself as a girl so much that it didn’t bother him when he felt the extra mass of breasts on his chest in his dream, it was a dream after all.

Mrs. Wiley sat on the edge of the hospital bed stroking the girl’s long tresses that lay in the bed asleep. She could see tears begin to form in the girl’s half closed eyes, “Mom,” the girl softly sobbed.

“I’m right here sweetheart,” Davey heard her mother’s voice. Realizing this wasn’t his imagination he rolled over to see his mother sitting behind her on the edge of the hospital bed.

”MOM!” The girl shouted springing up and hugging Davey’s mother tightly. Feeling her mother’s arms wrap around her made her feel that everything would be fine now. Her fears and tension faded in her mother’s loving arms and the girl had her first, no holds barred, gut wrenching, tear-fest.

Nearly ten minutes later the girl’s crying had mostly subsided, “Where, where is dad?” She sobbed.

“I asked him to let us have some girl time first,” Her mother said softly while continuing to stroke the girl’s hair.

Looking up into her mother’s eyes the girl began crying once again. “What wrong baby?” her mother cooed.

“I’m, I’m a girl!” and buried her face back into her mother’s bosom.

“Yes dear you are,” Her mother said while gently pulling the girl’s face up so she could see her new daughter, “and a very pretty one too!”

“You, you think I’m pretty?” David fought back her tears.

“I don’t think, I know.” Her mother smiled down at her, “You are a very beautiful young lady.”

David’s tried to look down but his mother’s hand kept them eye to eye as the girl blushed, “Mommm.”

Her mother giggled, “One look at you and your father will run straight to the sporting goods store and buy them out of every box of shotgun shells they have!”

“Mom!” David couldn’t help but giggle, knowing her father would do exactly that.

“There’s that smile I have been waiting to see!” Her mother’s eyes seemed to sparkle as she smiled at her daughter,” Now let’s dry those tears and get dressed so your father can have a heart attack when he sees how beautiful his daughter is.”

“Okay, but I don’t think my clothes will fit me now.”

“Not to worry honey, mommy has taken care of everything,” Getting up from where she sat on the edge of the bed, her mother waved the girl off the bed and gently guided her into the adjoining bathroom. Once done with the shower her mother helped Davey with her first bra, showing her the various and easiest ways one could be put on. Once out of the bathroom she saw her mother had laid out several dresses.

“Mom, I can’t wear one of those!”

“Why not?”

“Uh,” she could not think of a logical reason but was not about to give in so easily to her mother, “But it’s a dress!”

“And who wears dresses?” she watched her mother put both hands on her hips. A sure sign that the lawyer side of her mother was getting ready to appear and argue her case using her own form of logic.

Gazing down at her feet, knowing she had already lost, “Girls do.”

“And?” she didn’t even need to look up at her mother to known what the expected answer was.

“I’m a girl.”

“So the logical conclusion is?”

“Do I really have to say it mom?”

“Yes.”

“I wear dresses,” the girl sighed.

“Ok now that, that is out of the way,” her mother motioned at the dresses laid out on the bed, “Which one do you like the most?”

After helping the girl into the new dress, socks and Mary Janes, her mother began working on the dark black hair that hung down past her butt, “So have you thought of a name?”

“No.”

“Well I don’t think it would sound right if everyone went around calling you David now, would it?”

“I guess not.”

“You could use your middle name?” Her mother suggested, “Taylor can be a girl’s name. Or Diane, that is similar to David?”

David thought of the line of custom mech builds from the online MechWarrior game known as Angela’s Ashes, If he now had to have a girl’s name at least it could be one he thought of as cool, “Could I be named Angela?”

“I think it’s a wonderful name, and both your grandmother and grandfather would have liked it,” Her mother approved. “Taylor doesn’t go well with it though, so how about Nichole for your new middle name?”

“Okay, “the girl replied quickly, “Angela Nichole Wiley, it does sound better than Angela Taylor.”

“Now about this much hair,” Her mother grabbed a handful of it, “This will feel really heavy and could cause neck problems, I think we should cut it.”

“NO!” Angela jerked forward pulling her hair out of her mother's grasp. Not realizing why she felt it was so important to leave her hair alone.

“It was only a suggestion dear,” Her mother told her, “Ok so no cutting, how about I braid it for you?

“Okay.”

“Alright sit still while I do this,” Her mother began separating Angela’s hair into three equal sections while explaining what she was doing so the girl could do it herself later. “People think that braiding long hair is more trouble that it really is, you see once you get it going, long hair is actually easier because you can swing the braid in front of you,” Her mother demonstrated by swinging the braid over Angela’s shoulder and continuing to braid it in front of the girl so she could see what she was her mother was doing.

~o~O~o~

“Ten bucks says she comes out in a dress,” David’s father glanced over at Harry and Gunny.

“I’ll take that bet,” Harry chuckled. “While that boy’s mutation may have made him a girl, she’s still one hundred percent boy inside. No one’s going to put him in a dress that quickly.”

“I think First is right,” Gunny injected. “She isn’t the first kid to get her gender swapped when manifesting. Not many of them are ready for the girly stuff for some time.”

“You don’t know my wife!” Her father grinned, “She will not only have that her in a dress, her hair will be styled and be wearing makeup.”

“This is worth ten buck to see,” Gunny grinned. ”From what First told me about the three weeks he spent with the kids, that kid is one hundred and twenty present gadgeteer and possibly devisor too. That crowd doesn’t do pretty.”

“Did I hear my name mentioned?” Jericho followed the tap, tap of his cane into the waiting room, “Hi Gunny, Hi Mr. Langson. How’s our girl doing today Mr. Langson, shouldn’t she be getting out of this prison today?”

Angela’s father saw the cane so he realized this boy was blind, but damn he thought, how could even a blind man dress himself that badly without intentionally doing so? “I’m Mr. Wiley, I’m her father.”

“Nice to meet you Sir, I’m Jericho. I was one of the students that brought your daughter in during that medical rescue op.”

“You were part of a rescue team?” Mr. Wiley was confused.

“Yes I do emergency triage.” Sticking his chest out, “I performed triage on your daughter then had her evacuated to our medical facility here.”

“But you’re blind?”

“Oh crap your right!” Jericho dropped his cane and began stumbling around with his hands out in front of him. ”My eyes! My eyes!” he stumbled around and into a girl whose breasts he grabbed. One in each hand,” My eyes, My god… those are nice!”

Ducking under her swing as she tried to slap the boy, then twisting around to avoid a kick she tried to land against his shin,” Jericho moved with uncanny precision avoiding her attempted blows.

“Jericho!” She yelled, “I’m gonna break your neck!”

“Sorry guys got to run!” as he did a forward roll, avoiding another swing from the cute teen girl, retrieving his white cane in the roll and bolted around the corner away from the angry girl, in a dead run.

“Should we help him?” Mr. Wiley looked at Gunny Bardue.

“Nope, he got himself in that mess clowning around, he can get himself out of it.”

“But he is blind isn’t he?”

“Technically yes,” Gunny explained, “His eyes don’t work, but he sees better than us for the most part. Best way to describe it to you, is that he has 360 degree radar. He sees everything around him all at once. Completely impossible to sneak up on him.”

“So he’ll be ok?”

Gunny shrugged, “Most likely he’ll run for cover behind his roommate. No one wants to have that boy upset at them.”

~o~O~o~

Angela’s mother walked around the corner into the waiting room, “So Mr. Wiley,” She grinned at her husband, “Are you ready to meet your daughter?”

Leaning forward almost out of the chair he was in, “Where is Dav…” Looking up to his wife his expression completely clueless.

“Angela,” Mrs. Wiley motioned back toward the direction she had walked in, “come show your father the new you.”

A beautiful young woman walked into the room, her hourglass figure draped in a jade green knee length dress, Wide black belt around her waist that matched the black Mary Jane shoes. Her braided hair slung across her shoulder hung down to her belt at her waist. “Hi daddy,” Blushing and looking down at her shoes.

Both Mr. Wiley and Harry sat with their jaw agape. Finally Mr. Wiley broke the awkward silence, “Uh, Gunny are you armed?”

“Of course.”

“Good I may need to borrow your side arm to fend the boys off my daughter!”

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” Gunny laughed, “You don’t want to go shooting the boys around here. If you shoot one you may make him angry.”

“Why do I feel like my life has degraded into a Mel Brooks western?” Mr. Wiley groaned.

“Well folks I have a class to teach, so I need to get moving,” Gunny said getting out of the chair. Leaning over to whisper in Angela’s ear, “Don’t worry girl, I saw that video of your mech in action, you’ll fit in here just fine.” As the Gunny walked out they could hear him singing to himself.

“He rode a blazing saddle,
he wore a shining star,
His job to offer battle,
To bad men near and far.
He conquered fear and he conquered hate,
he turns our night into day…”

“So how long did it take your mother to get you talked into wearing a dress?” her father grinned.

“A couple minutes I guess.”

“That all?” he whispered, “I thought you would have held out longer than that?”

“Dad, she cheated!”

“Oh?”

“She went straight to her, ‘I’m the mom’ stance’, hit me with ‘lawyer mode’ and then trapped me in a circular logic loop.”

“Excuse me?” Turning her head to look at the Angela, “I do not have a ‘mom stance’!”

“Yes you do,” Both Angela and her father said in unison.

“Whatever,” Mrs. Wiley waved them off, “Our daughter has an issue we must take care of immediately.”

“Another one?”

“Yes dear, and you are going to drive us to Dunwich and maybe Berlin or Boston if need be, so we can take care of it.”

“What kind of problem can we fix in Dunwich and Boston?”

“The kind where she needs a new wardrobe,” Her mother grinned, “And from what everyone here tells me, the lady that runs Rogers' Fabric Boutique is second to none.”

“Sounds expensive,” Mr. Wiley looked up to the ceiling.

“Paul would you deny your child decent clothes?” tapping Angela in the small of the back as she spoke.

On cue Angela quietly lowered her head while looking her father directly in the eyes as she opened her eyes wide and stuck out her bottom lip ever so slightly.

The look from those big green eyes was almost hypnotic in the way they seemed to rip Paul’s heart out. Clearing his lump in his throat, “You taught her to do that.”

“Paul honey,” her mother tried to look surprised, “What are you talking about?”

“It’s not fair,” Paul muttered getting up from the waiting room chair and taking the duffel from his wife. “Okay, Let’s get this over with!” leading his family out of the clinic, “Can I at least stop somewhere and pick up a magazine to read while you two see how big of a dent you can put in my wallet?”

“Of course dear,” Mrs. Wiley said as she slowed herself and her daughter to get a little distance between them and Mr. Wiley before leaning down and whispering, “See how well that look did?” Angela nodded, realizing that being a girl did have some advantages.

~o~O~o~

Paul Wiley had grown up poor and that was the only reason he always contested spending any large sum of money especially since his wife set up Wiley enterprises. Actually he really did not even know how much money they did have as his wife Tonya took care of that. And Tonya was smart enough to hire competent people she could trust to run the various branches of the businesses many areas. All the money and the business was a direct result of their son’s, now their daughter’s intelligence, so it really did not bother him as he watched his wife work on getting their daughter excited about shopping. He actually enjoyed finally watching the two of them together having fun at something they both appeared to like doing.

As David, the two of them had almost nothing in common, but as Angela that had changed considerably. Of course he couldn’t let his wife know, she expected his reluctance at spending money so he put on the act. Peering over the top of the automotive magazine he picked up at the drugstore on their way to this clothing shop, he smiled as he snuck another glance at the two.

Paul had never seen his wife displaying this much energy and enthusiasm. If he had known a daughter would have brought this much happiness to his wife, he would have insisted on trying to have a second child a long time ago. Once his wife and daughter had done as much damage to their master card as they could, they stopped at a place called ‘Sally’s restaurant” to curb their hunger.

“Hello Angela,” An elderly lady spoke as she walked past their table.

“Um, Hello,” Angela looked up from the plate of food she was devouring to see the stranger.

“Hello,” Paul said, holding out his hand.” I’m—”

“Mr. Wiley,” The lady shook his hand, “I’m Mrs. Potter. Please to meet you and your family.”

“Do you know Angela madam?”

“Only by reputation sir,” The woman winked at Angela, “Have a wonderful stay in Dunwich.” She turned to leave, then looked back over her shoulder, “Oh Angela, don’t forget to pick up a new backup battery for your alarm clock before you go back to school.”

“That was strange,” Mrs. Wiley said.

“Yes it was.” Mr. Wiley agreed. “Have you met that woman before Angela?”

Already stuffing her mouth with food again, Angela shook her head no.

"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out Whateley Academy at (http://whateleyacademy.net)"

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