Chapter 5 Settling in at Uni

To allow me to get professional business qualifications I enrolled at the University of Plymouth for a degree course in Hospitality Management which in addition to the basic operational skills covered Marketing, man-management, employment law, food hygiene and basic commercial cooking which would let me the able to discuss menus with our chefs. I also decided to do accountancy as a special subject, as bookkeeping, cash-flow, and annual returns would be part of my responsibility when I became full time with the Hotel group.

In the first year most students opt for living in one of the halls of residence as this lets them meet new friends and take a bigger part in the social life of the University, these are in great demand and the vacancies are soon filled. I had pre-booked an en-suite study/bedroom in a grouped flat sharing a common kitchen and small lounge with 5 others.

On arrival at the university I booked in and registered for my course, and went to the accommodation office to find out which block my flat was in and to get a welcome pack. As there were too many people arriving that day to deal with each individually, they had left out envelopes for everyone, so after picking up and signing for mine I made my way across the campus to find my flat and get settled in.

I went in, heard voices, and thought I better introduce myself. To my surprise, in the kitchen were three girls and I wondered if I had come to the wrong place as the policy is to group people of the same gender together.

“Hi, I’m Gino, I’m booked into bedroom 1.”

“Gino ? We were told to expect a Gina, there must be some mistake, this is a flat for six girls.”

“ I better go back to check with the accommodation office, do you mind if I leave my stuff here until I get this sorted”

I returned twenty minutes later, having been told that although my academic registration was correct, someone had mistyped my name as Gina onto the accommodation list and I had been allocated a flat with the girls. The accommodation was in much demand and they did not have anything else immediately available, but would try to get something sorted. I told the girls what had happened

“ So the bottom line is that, unless you have a problem with it, although they do not normally do mixed-sex flats, I’ve been told to stay here for the moment. I’ll go and get some lunch and leave you to talk about it for a while.”

I returned an hour later to find that another two girls had arrived, and they had obviously been filled in on my situation.

“Ok girls, if you are not happy I will pick up my bags and find a hotel or something until the university gets me somewhere else, otherwise I think that this place looks clean and comfortable, and you all look friendly, and we could probably make this work. What do you think?”

“Let’s start all over again Gina,” said one of the girls who introduced herself as Linda, “we’re quite happy for you to stay, but we need to establish some ground rules first. Put your bags in your room and get sorted then we can all sit down for a chat.”

Over coffee and biscuits the girls introduced themselves, Linda, Julie, Carol, Sue and Megan, and we all gave a brief potted history of ourselves, where we came from, the courses we were on, family, and how we seen our time at University.”

“Our rules:

#1 No coming into any of our bedrooms
#2 No trying it on with anyone, we can all be good friends, but no more
#3 Keep to your own en-suite, no using the common bathroom, it’s a boy-free zone
#4 No girls brought back to the flat, other than you, it is all a boy-free zone
#5 Normal rules about what in the kitchen is common use and what is personal
#6 If we are all going to live together it would be nice if we could socialise together so at least one night a week we all go out together.”

“They all seem ok. My rules, and don’t take this personally but I have 18 years experience living with my twin sister:

#1 No walking around the flat in your underwear
#2 No leaving washing, particularly underwear, lying around to dry
#3 Same rule about coming into my bedroom without knocking on the door
#4 No bringing boys back to the flat, at least not when you know I am here
#5 Finally, when you are on your monthlies, please do not take it out on me.”

The last rule brought an embarrassed giggle from the girls, but whilst Gina and I got on very well, she did try my patience sometimes when she was ‘on’ .

“One last rule.” chipped in Megan “This is the first time any of us have been away from home and we all have very worried parents, who may not be happy with us flat-sharing with a boy, so we are all telling our folks that Gina is sharing with us, and so that we do not let it accidentally slip that’s how we will refer to you around the flat. Is that ok.”

“ That shouldn’t be a problem, I don’t think that any of you will share classes with me, but try not to call me Gina when we are out anywhere.”

I called up the accommodation office and told them that it was agreed that I would stay in the flat and that they didn’t need to look for somewhere else for me. They changed my name on the records but we agreed that to save anyone asking questions that I would stay on the address register and on the flat nameplates as ‘Gina’.

We all took to university life, settling into our courses, forming new friendships and following our own social interests, but kept a very close group relationship with our flatmates, and Monday nights, which were otherwise quite socially bare became our group night out together.

One Monday a few weeks later, after a few drinks and in a lull in the general conversation,Megan, who seemed to be the one that spoke her mind most, turned to me with a querying look.

“You know what Gina, you have fitted in with us quite well, you enjoy our company, when you are out with us you drink wine with us, you seem to be interested in our conversations about girlie things, your voice and patterns in speech and gestures are a bit girly, and you never seem to react when we forget the rules and you see us in the flat in our underwear, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you gay?”

“ No I am not gay, but I am not too offended as you are right, I do have a bit of a feminine side. However I would appreciate it if you all stopped waltzing around the flat in just your bra and pants, it does often have an effect on me.”

Having had a few drinks, my tongue was a bit looser than it should have been and I told them all ( well, most ) about growing up with the girls, and dressing occasionally, and about my summer performing as Maria/Anni-Frid. They were enthralled, particularly about the Abba act and living as Maria for a few weeks, and nobody seemed particularly shocked or embarrassed by any of it.

“Don’t worry, you’re amongst friends, we’ll keep this to ourselves, right girls?” Linda was the first to respond “ But after telling us all that, I for one would like to meet the real Gina, or Maria, if you prefer.”

“I’m not too sure, i enjoyed my time as Maria, and to be honest I do like the feel and comfort of girl’s clothes, but I was getting to feel too comfortable with it all and was hoping to spend my time here as totally masculine.”

“ Come on it could be fun just to let us see, and after telling us a tale like that you can’t leave it up in the air”

I eventually gave in and phoned Gina to ask her to get a few of my things together, to send over, but as the Abba act was performing in Torquay later in the week she wanted to drop them off, and come up to see the flat and meet the girls. Gina would be doing shows on the Friday and Saturday, so we arranged for her to come over on the Thursday evening to meet up and bring my stuff. The others in the band would drive over separately on Friday and pick her up to prepare for the show, and we would all go over on Saturday to see the performance, with me going as Maria. As they had now met the real Gina to save any confusion I now became Maria to them all

We all went out for a meal on drink Thursday evening, Gina got on really well with the girls, but to my embarrassment filled in a lot of extra details that I hadn’t mentioned, particularly my reaction to getting chatted up and touched up.

I had no classes on Friday, and the flatmates were all at theirs, so I spent the day getting myself ready for the weekend. My hair was still holding its perm, so other than a quick wash, condition, blow-dry, and a bit of re-styling, it was soon sorted. Luckily I still didn’t grow much facial hair so after a very close shave, body and leg shave, nails shaped and painted, and fixing on my boobs all followed and there was no sign left of Gino. I obviously couldn’t put back on my boy’s clothes, so I dressed in leggings and a tunic top, put on a bit of foundation, mascara and lipstick, and took Gino’s stuff down to the basement laundry to give my shirts, underclothes and pyjamas their fortnightly wash and spin, and left them to run through the cycle.

When I went back upstairs, Carol, Sue and Megan had come back, and were surprised to see me already dressed.

“We weren’t expecting you to have changed today, we thought you would just leave it until tomorrow, but must say that the look suits you”

“ I had the time today and it will save rushing tomorrow, and besides a bit of extra time will get me more into Maria-mode. It’s a while since I did this and I just wanted to make sure I was ok with it again.”

When the others returned I had to go through the whole conversation again, and as we were all at a loose end we decided to go into town for a drink, rather than one of the pubs near the campus.

“We were all planning to just go casual tonight, so you can go as you are, or if you prefer we can all wear skirts for a change to help you feel more girly”

“ No I am quite happy like this, if you all go and get changed, I’ll just freshen up my make-up, change my shoes, grab my bag and see you all in about half an hour.”

“My God, you’ve only been a girl for next to no time and you are already acting like the rest of us.” giggled Linda, starting off similar comments from the others.

We had a pleasant night out, a Chinese meal, a few drinks in a music bar, a lot of cheesy attempted chat-ups and offers of a good night out, but it was made plain that we were having a girls’ night and men were off the menu. Although I had been out with them lots of times, it was somehow a different, more relaxed, atmosphere in the gang, and as far as they or anyone else was concerned I was just one of the girls.

We got back to the flat, all went to get changed and ready for bed before getting together for a coffee and chat, when I remembered that my pyjamas were downstairs in the wash with the rest of my washing. When I got there however, all my stuff had disappeared, someone had obviously thought that my stuff was better than theirs, so back upstairs I had no choice but to put on my satin nightie and a clean white pair of panties. When I went out into our little lounge, the girls were already sitting around, mostly in short cotton nighties or pyjamas, and I felt very overdressed.

When they had all got over the shock, Megan giggled “Wow Maria, you don’t do things by half, do you, you make us all look like we’ve got our nightwear down at the charity shop, and you are better endowed up top than most of us.” We had our coffees, had a chat about our night out and our plans for tomorrow. I told them about losing my laundry and Megan and Sue suggested I go out with them tomorrow to get some replacement stuff, as even boys could not survive without a change of underwear.

Saturday morning Megan Sue and Maria hit the shops, but as well as replacing Gino’s stuff they insisted that I needed some more stuff for Maria as they were sure that ‘she’ would be spending more time with them. I replaced my Gino clothes, but also got even more stuff for Maria especially several dressy bra and pantie sets, some more basic underwear, some warmer winter tops, a short cotton nightie and a pyjama set, and a few pairs of ear rings and studs to go with my newly-pierced ears.

To be continued