.

Marcy’s father and brothers came north for a visit and Marcy terrified of what would happen when they found out she is a girl is told by Pol to dress and look like a boy again and Pol masquerades as Marc’s girlfriend. Marcy’s mum goes along with it and despite the stress Marcy survives the ordeal.

Where necessary or possibly helpful to some, there are notes at the end on word usage.

Most of Marcy’s friends were girls. She enjoyed talking fashion and girly things with them, and had not had any difficulty persuading the school librarian, who insisted she was a librarienne which was her title on her office door name plate, into taking ‘Vogue’ and a couple of other quality magazines with an emphasis on fashion and style. Marcy was envied for having gone to Thulstone with Pol. Weeks later they’d still been talking of the event and sharing the glossy literature and photos with their friends. They’d put together a display in the library of photos and literature of the event which some of the staff considered to be provocative, but the head had said, “Young women modelling underwear? There’s stuff far more explicit than that in the national dailies and on the TV at all times of the day. We’re educators. Which means we’re here to help children to grow up, not just to learn. We’re not here to hold them back in a state of permanent childhood, even were it to be possible.”

Like most of their friends Marcy and Pol had chosen needlework, cookery and childcare as their year nine options. They enjoyed making clothes and were looking forward to learning more advanced techniques. Both were reasonably clever, and were successful at academic subjects, but didn’t really enjoy them. Marcy had always chosen to play badminton and similar games at school, rather than the rougher sporting activities, but they didn’t have to make their final choices for next year till the first week of term though she and Pol had decided on dance as one of their choices, which they thought was going to be exciting because it was one of the few mixed sex sports options in the upper school, and a lot of boys chose it because of that.

What her mum had telt(1) her brothers was a carefully edited and reconstructed part of a larger truth. That truth being that a small number of Marcy’s friends were boys, who admitted they admired her for her sheer nerve in being herself, and it was a surprise, even to herself, to find she enjoyed tramping the fells and poaching with them. She was considered to be reasonably skilled at setting snares for coneys and a genius at working out the best places to catch salmon and then catching them. Sean’s dad, a fanatic angler who fished all over the world, had a great deal of respect for her ability to ‘read the water’, by which he meant predict where the big fish were.

Julia and Lydia enjoyed shopping with Marcy and Pol when they went looking for clothes, and both mums had been with the girls when Marcy had bought some of the evening gowns she had referred to as ‘my own formal wear’. As a result both mums were dressing more fashionably and considered the ‘Wow factor’ of their lingerie had significantly gone up as a result of shopping with the girls.

Pol’s mum had said to the girls and Julia, “That new lingerie has taken years of me.”

Julia had agreed, but added, “Mine too, but it’s taken even more off Justin!”

“Yes. John too! I’m sure that was what persuaded him to go to the dance at Wildgeese.”

The Christmas ball at Wildgeese had been a huge success for the Munros, Marcy, her mum and Justin. The four ladies of the party had amongst them kept Pol’s dad on the dance floor for most of the evening after dinner and he’d afterwards admitted he’d enjoyed himself. Pol and Marcy had had no shortage of partners and had not sat a single dance out. The girls had both had a sip of Justin’s gin and tonic and John’s Laphroaig and declared both were disgusting. They’d enjoyed the sherry their mums were drinking though not enough to want one of their own. Pol decided that she preferred lime juice with soda, or Marcy’s favourite, Grenadine with freshly squeezed orange juice.

They’d stayed till the dance finished at half past two and taken a taxi back to their nearby hotel where they’d booked three rooms. The girls shared a room and that was the first time as far as any other was aware that Marcy’s mum and Justin had shared a bed. Marcy’s mum had told her a fortnight before the dance, “I wish to share a room with Justin after the dance, Love. I’ve told him, but added I wished to talk to you regarding the matter before we book the rooms. How do you feel concerning the matter, Marcy?”

“It’s none of my concern, Mum, and I don’t think I’m entitled to have a view. I always knew you would find someone to love who loves you, and if you’re going to sleep with a man I can’t think of a nicer man than Justin. I hope it all works out for you.”

Half way through year eight(2) Marcy’s mum and Justin were an item. Thirty-nine year old Justin and Julia spent occasional nights together at both of their homes and Marcy was hoping they would marry soon, so she could call Justin, Dad. He’d solemnly promised her that when the time came regardless of the state of her finances money was not going to be a sticking point for her medical procedures. He teased her mercilessly concerning the mismatch of her knife throwing, fishing and coneying with her girly behaviour and clothes, and like John Munro was more than happy to treat her and Pol as his daughters. Marcy and Pol thought he was wonderful.

Justin had proposed in April and Marcy had never seen her mum as happy as when she told her, “I’ve said yes, so we need to plan it all and sort out brides maids’ dresses for you and Pol. We want to get married just before the new university year, September probably.” Lydia hesitated before continuing, “Justin and I would like a family. He’s always envied his sisters for having children, and I enjoyed being pregnant and nursing the three of you, despite your dad’s lack of enthusiasm, so I’d like to have another two with a man who wants them as much as I. How do you feel regarding having much younger siblings, Love?”

“Brilliant! May I tell Pol? Or is it to be kept private for a while?”

“Tell whom you want. Justin has already told John I said yes and that we want more children. I’m going into town later to call in at Bride be Beautiful for their catalogue of bridal wear options. Would you like to come too? We can pick Pol up too if you like.”

“Please. Pol will enjoy that too. I’ll let her know.”

Towards the end of her second year at school, despite her poaching, all called her Marcy or Marce and knew she was trans. It was a long time since Marcy had considered she was possibly gay, she now knew beyond doubt she was a girl and understood a lot regarding trans issues. Pol had never said anything to any of Marcy’s other life in which she dressed as a girl, though the others from school who went to the ball at Wildgeese knew and had mentioned it. Some of them had danced with her and Pol too. Her friends knew but didn’t press her and eventually Marcy had gained the confidence to shew them the pictures and videos of herself at Thulstone and elsewhere dressed in frocks(3) or skirts. Pol’s video footage of her in evening gowns, especially dancing at the Wildgeese Christmas ball, really impressed their friends and with their encouragement Marcy had gone on a school trip wearing a frock and now had the confidence to go pretty much anywhere dressed however she wanted.

Marcy’s mum had told her the contents of the conversation with Mrs. Bleacher nearly a year ago, and as a result she was intending to wear a long skirt at school next year, and, though certain none would be bothered or say anything unpleasant, was wondering how much nerve it would take to wear a gymslip like some of the other girls and play netball. It was after Stella had asked her, “What you and Pol wearing to the cinema, Marce? Jeans or poshed up(4) in frocks? Cos I don’t want to look out of place wearing jeans if you’re getting dressed up,” that she decided to discuss the whole issue with the other girls.

Stella said, “A long skirt. That’s cool, but with your pins you should wear a really short mini, or even hotpants, cos they’re making a comeback. Show em off, Gal! The only thing I don’t understand is why do you want to play netball? You won’t enjoy it because you’re not tall enough. I hated it because it made me bounce and it hurt. If you don’t want to wear shorts and prefer girly sports stuff go for it, but come and play table tennis with the rest of us non-sporty types. At least you’ll enjoy it, and you’ll never get rained on. I hated the rain.”

The rest of the girls agreed with Stella, and Gemma, who at over six feet tall and of very slight build was the best netball player in their year added, “Marce, if you’re tall and don’t have boobs like Stella playing netball is great, but it’s just a game. Only games teachers take games seriously. I know I’ll never bother with it again once I leave school. The only reason I bother with it now is it gets me out of a few lessons. Other than that it’s pointless. Go for the easy life, Girl. Play ping pong.” The girls laught, and Marcy made her mind up, ping pong and a gymslip, life was looking better.

Instead of a gymslip, Marcy bought a couple of sets of white, pleated micro-skirts with matching, frilly ruffled knickers and polo shirts by Janet Reger off the internet because she’d seen players wearing them when a tennis tournament had been on TV and she’d thought they looked pretty. She took them to school on Friday to shew her friends. “What do you think?” she’d asked at break. “Ok for table tennis?”

Gemma was more than impressed. “Wow, Marce! Sen-bloody-sational! They’ll be taking the boys away in ambulances. Just like what I’ve seen top players wearing at Wimbledon on the box.(5) Want some. How much? And where did you get them?”

“Seventeen-ninety-nine a set on eBay. I wasted a bit of time searching, but in the end ‘Women’s tennis clothes frilly’ was what did it. I should have put that in first. It’s an online sports shop based somewhere down south, and they had loads of them in all sizes, colours and a few different designs too. I bought them on Tuesday after dinner, and Mum said they were delivered after I left for school yesterday. Each design is named after a tennis tournament. You got it right, these are called the Wimbledon set.”

“I’m going to get some too, Marce,” Stella said. “I’ve grown out of my kit and will need new for next year. My shorts are so tight over my bum I’m wearing M&S(6) granny knicks(7) with them in case they split. Mum’ll be really cool at that price. It’s way cheaper than a gymslip kit from the school uniform suppliers.”

“Better leave it till the end of the holidays, Stella,” Marcy smiled, “And get the matching sports bras too. You nearly fell out of yours the other day and you might get even bigger before September.”

Gemma laught and said, “Ha! That’s all you know, Marce. She did fall out of it in the gym this morning, and her girls were making a run for it.”

Stella laught and said, “Miss Jackson’s eyes nearly fell out too. She went on and on forever about what if there’d been any boys looking through the windows. She only shut up when I told her I’ve got four brothers, so my boobs being seen by boys was no big deal. She called me a hussy with no sense of shame. If that had been true I’d have risked showing everything by wearing my usual thong stead a(8) granny knicks.”

“Yeah, and then she gave you a detention for cheek when you told her you’d got nothing to be ashamed of,” Gemma added.

Stella shrugged, “She only teaches lower school so next year will be better. I hate that woman. I’m sure she picks on me cos my boobs are bigger than hers.”

“Wish mine were, Stella. Still, with the new law at least I’ll get the hormones when I’m sixteen, and not have to wait till I’m eighteen like I shall for the surgery. I won’t be sorry to be able to stop padding my bras and frocks or using breast forms to make them look ok.” Marcy sounded unhappy.

None of the girls were bothered talking to Marcy concerning anything that affected girls, for in their eyes she was as much a girl as they. Marcy had readily discussed with them the surgeries that lay on her path to womanhood, and they were aware her breasts and hips would arrive as a result of the same hormones as theirs, but considered it unfair she had to wait another two and a half years for them to be delivered artificially. However, only Pol was easy comforting Marcy when she became distressed as a result of that legally enforced wait. She was also the only one who would tease Marcy regarding her understandable obsession with looking like and becoming a girl and then a woman.

Stella drew a breath and changed the subject. “Even though like a lot of us you only wear trousers at school, you always look good, Marcy. I’d sell my soul for your hair and lashes, even if you are a ginger. I wish I could look as good as you. That outfit you wore to Mayalhurst(9) was ultra cool, the accessories were perfect with the frock, and those breast forms look so real. Must be pretty cool to be able to select your rack(10) to suit what you want to wear, but you know what bugs me?”

“What?”

“You always manage to find gorgeous stuff dirt cheap, and boys nearly screw their necks off turning to look when you go past. I thought I’d scored when that tall, dark, gorgeous hunk was chatting me up at the cinema, but all the two faced git wanted was your mobile number! Sometimes I hate you. How do you do it?”

Pol laught and replied for Marcy, “It’s the way she moves her hips when she walks and it makes her boobs bounce too. She spent two days trying different combinations of shoes, boobs, bra hook position and shoulder strap adjustments on her bras to get everything moving together when she walks so it hypnotises boys, specially when she’s wearing heels. But even my mum says Marce knows what she looks fabulous in. She never walks past a shop, especially charity shops, without looking at the stuff that’s just come in and has eBay and NU2U programmed to find stuff and email her when it does. Justin shewed her how to do it. I know for a fact that frock she wore to Ocean Life(11) was four-ninety-nine from Quidproquo(12) and the rest of the outfit she picked up one Saturday from four charity shops for next to nothing.

“The shoes and bag were fifty pence for the lot, and when we got home she found a pound coin in the bag! That skirt she had sprayed on to wear to the cinema was two quid from Oxfam, and the see through blouse was free when she bought some shoes in the nature reserve’s shop because the woman said they had it for over a year and Marce was the only person who’d ever looked at it. The only real money I’ve seen her spend in ages was on that wickedly sexy lace-up bustiere she wore under the blouse which cost her thirty quid!”

Marcy amended, “Actually it was on offer at twenty quid with matching knicks from Victoria’s Secret, but Pol’s forgetting the forty quid breast forms that went into it.”

“Yeah! And the night before we went to Mayalhurst you spent all evening deciding whether to wear a B or a C with it. And here’s me having to put up with an A and boosting it to a B with my forms.(13) Life’s tough at the top!”

Pol’s remark had cheered Marcy back to her usual good humour, so Stella asked, “So what size did you decide on in the the end, Marce, cos you looked great?”

Pol replied so quickly Marcy had no chance to answer, “After boring me to death for hours, I said go for the C, so naturally she decided on the B. She had all her clothes laid out before we went to bed. Then when we woke up and were dressed she said, ‘The hell with it,’ and swapped them for a D and a push up bra. That’s why she had such a good time chatting to those boys with the eyes on stalks in the coffee shop. Her boobs were bigger than her bum!”

“Well I’d never worn them in public before, and they’re no good in the drawer are they,” Marcy replied in reasonable tones. “But I’ve decided I’ll keep them for special occasions.”

“When? Like when there are any boys this side of the horizon?” Pol retorted.

Laughing the girls shook their heads in wonder, and Gemma said, “Seventy quid tops to break the necks on an entire army of boys in a coffee shop. Less than five quid a neck I reckon. Money well spent!”

Amidst the laughter, Stella added, “Now I really hate you, Gal. Those shoes. And they paid you fifty pence to wear em! It’s not decent.”

They were still laughing when Gemma said, “Come on. Time to go. Geography.”

Pol in the company of a dozen other girls, asked a few days before the end of their second year at school, “What are you going to do to get a boyfriend, Marce? It’s much easier for the rest of us I know, but you’re going to have to find one aren’t you? Cos you’ve been chatting boys up for ages. If you’re not careful one who doesn’t know you like the boys at school and in the village do will make you let him go too far. When he finds out you may get seriously hurt. You need to be careful unless there’s a load of us with you, Girl.”

Marcy took her time replying but eventually said, “I know, and I’ve thought and thought for ever concerning it. There’re some really scary stories on the internet, trans girls getting killed and worse. Justin and Mum are really worried for me, and they won’t let me go anywhere on my own on a bus. It’s really sweet of Justin to take me in the car, but I wish it weren’t necessary, cos when I’m out he should be with Mum. I know they don’t mind, but it’s not as if they get a lot of time together alone and they are engaged. I’d love to have a steady boyfriend, Pol, then I wouldn’t want to flirt with other boys, but it’s not easy. I don’t know any one who would want me as a girlfriend who’s any where near my age, and I’d like a bit of choice. I know I’m probably never going to get the amount of choice you are, probably not even after surgery, but I’d like some.”

Right then and there, the girls decided they were on a mission, a manhunt to find Marcy a boyfriend. They reasoned since every one at school knew she was trans and there were loads of boys at school who liked Marcy, and some seemed to like her a lot, she must be able to find a boy interested in her whom she already knew. They thought it was only a matter of a boy having the confidence to accept that the other pupils would be as understanding of him as they were of Marce. The girls had a plan and decided it would be a good idea to talk to some of the more mature boys.

They were surprised when Austin, a year eleven boy, who fished with Marcy said, “I’d no idea Marce was thinking about a boyfriend, Pol. You should have told me before, cos Davy Molyneux in year ten really fancies her seriously, but he’s a bit nerdy and has never had a girlfriend, so he’s scared of what people will say if he goes out with anyone. He’s bloody clever, builds computers for a hobby, and a decent bloke, but I suspect he’s scared of being blown out by Marcy, cos she’s so totally good looking and the coolest kid in the school, and he probably thinks she’s so completely out of his class she’d never even look at him.

“He lives near Sean in your year and is friends with his older brother, and I think Marce being so good at fishing and coneying intimidates him. I am sure he’s not bothered Marcy’s trans, cos it’s obvious from what he says and the way he looks at her that in his head Marce is totally a girl, but he’s got a lot of confidence issues that have nothing to do with Marce or any other girl and everything to do with nothing he ever does being good enough for his parents. There’s no one at school would give him a hard time if he went out with Marce, and there’d be more than a few lads rotten with jealousy wishing they’d had the balls to ask her first. She’s crazy for thinking no one is interested in her, she’ll have loads of choice if she’s interested, but Davy would treat her right.”

The other boys agreed and the girls were going to bring Davy and Marcy together on a four couple date to the travelling fun fair which had just arrived for its annual appearance on the town’s big car park. Pol thought Davy was nice, he was tall and good looking and she wouldn’t have minded being fancied by him, but she’d got her eye on Austin who had just broken up with Lucy for cheating on him, and thought a private chat with him regarding Marcy and Davy might prove beneficial to all four of them. Marcy had no idea that Davy fancied her, and Pol was planning on telling her that evening after school regarding Davy and the date she and Austin had organised that afternoon in between lessons. Austin was taking Pol and to her joy had already kissed her to seal the deal.

For Marcy that evening on Earth didn’t happen, and that was how things stood when she awoke on Castle freezing calt(14) in the middle of the night wearing her school trousers and a fitted blouse over a lingerie set containing breast forms.

As soon as she had awakened sufficiently to appreciate something of the situation she was in Marcy had removed her bra and breast forms in the dark and stuffed them in her trouser pockets. She’d not liekt(15) the taste of the leaf she’d been given, unknown to her the slight bitterth(16) was due to the calming herbs rather than the leaf itself, but she’d not drunk more than a mouthful. Prior to her endless seeming walk to the infirmary, she been given a heavy fur coat and hat and telt(17) they were hers permanently. She’d been aflait(18) and decided the less that was known of her till she found out a lot more of the situation she was in the better.

She removed her lacy knickers in the facility and they joined her bra and breast forms, now in her captious coat pockets. Tired from the caltth,(19) the mouthful of leaf she’d drunk was taking effect and she was vaguely aware of being helped to undress and hearing some one say in a surprised tone of voice, “She’s a boy!” The bath water was warm and she remembered naught else till she awoke. Her first act had been to check her coat pockets but none had removed her underwear.

That is the end of Marcy's life on Earth and the beginning of Beth's Life on Castle, but much else remains to be posted first if sense is to be made of Beth's Life.

Notes on Word Usage

1 Telt, told.
2 Year eight, 12-13 year olds.
3 Frock, dress as opposed to a skirt and blouse combination.
4 Poshed up in frocks, dressed up in dresses.
5 The box, vernacular for a television.
6 M&S, Marks and Spencer, a UK high street retail giant known especially for selling women’s and girl’s clothes including granny knickers of which they have a huge turnover.
7 Granny knicks, granny knickers or panties, usually white, plain and large knickers considered to be unattractive by the young and only suitable for elderly women: grannies.
8 Stead a, slang for in stead of.
9 Mayalhurst Hall, a fictitious theme park popular for school outings in the north-west of England.
10 Rack, an imported American term signifying bosom or breasts. In English English as spoken by children in the north there is no pornographic or sleazy connotation.
11 Ocean Life, a fictitious aquarium based entertainment centre popular with families.
12 Quidproquo, a fictitious local cheap store that sells near enough everything, but which carries large amounts of women’s and girls clothes.
13 Forms, breast forms.

The following terms are ‘uest’(20) because Marcy is now on Castle and they are the words uest there.

14 Calt, cold adjective
15 Telt, told
16 Liekt, liked
17 Bitterth, bitterness
18 Aflait, afraid or frightened
19 Caltth, coldness or cold noun
20 Uest, used