“Robin, have you any plans for today” asked my Mam.

“ No, I was just going to mess around on my computer, the weather is pretty awful, so the lads won’t be out playing football or on their bikes. Why are you asking, is there something you want me to do?

“I’ve just had a call from Robert who is supposed to be at the call centre today with Jennie and me, and he has a problem with his car and won’t be able to make it in. Do you fancy coming in with me and just generally helping out, running messages, making the tea, answering the door and things like that. It’s a holiday weekend and things often get busy and I expect that Jennie and I will be tied up on the phone most of the day.”

My Mam volunteers as a counsellor at the local office of ‘The Samaritans’, often taking very sad calls from people thinking about suicide or major self-harm, due to depression, stress, marital breakdown, abuse, life-threatening injuries or illness, and general thoughts about not being able to carry on. Where she can, she tries to calm the caller down and get them to think that their problems can be dealt with and overcome, and often pulls them back from the brink and refers them to appropriate counsellors or self-help groups, but unfortunately she is not always successful. It is a confidential service and unless someone has taken a drug overdose, or needs urgent medical attention, or is threatening to jump off a high building, the Samaritans try to deal with it on a confidential one-to-one basis which can involve long discussions with the caller.

I had nothing better to do and so I went in with her to the ‘office’, which really was nothing more than a converted semi-detached house on the edge of town. I had been in with her before and knew that there would be lots of quiet periods for me that I could fill playing games on my tablet and was looking forward to it.

At first I was left in peace to amuse myself, just making tea and coffee for Mam and Jennie who were being kept busy constantly taking and dealing with calls. It was a holiday weekend and this often emphasised feelings of loneliness and despair amongst people already suffering from emotional and mental stress, leading to thoughts of ending it all and leaving their cares and worries behind. Obviously I only knew what was going on in general terms, Mam was not allowed to discuss details of any of their calls with me, and as I was only 15 and had had no training I was not allowed to take or listen in to any of the calls.

After a couple of hours of doing not very much, I went out to get some sandwiches for us all for lunch and as I went back in Mam and Jennie were in the middle of what sounded like quite intense phone discussions, and signalled to me that they would be a long time with these callers.

The third phone, on Robert’s desk, rang out shrilly, but I ignored it as I was under strict instructions not to take calls. However it was left ringing for a minute or so and then cut off, immediately starting again, someone was obviously desperate to talk. Ignoring everything I had been told I answered the call, “Hello, Samaritans can I help you?”

“ I’m desperate, my life is a mess, nobody cares about me, and I am going to take lots of pills and kill myself” It sounded like a young girl, sobbing as she was talking to me.

I couldn’t get the attention of Jennie or Mam, they seemed to be having serious problems of their own, so I decided to try to keep the caller talking until they became free.

“My name is Robin, I’m not supposed to be talking to you, but you sound like you need a friendly voice to listen to you, and our trained counsellors are all busy at the moment. You sound very young, like me, I may be able to understand what you are going through if you want to talk to me.”

“Thank you Robin, you sound kind and caring, it may really be better talking to another young girl than to the adults, you can probably appreciate the problems better than they will, and grown-ups always talk down to you and tell you not to be silly.”

As she seemed to be a little bit calmer, I didn’t correct her impression that I was a girl, the problems may be about boyfriend troubles that a lot of teenage girls get depressed about and that she wouldn’t want to discuss with a boy. It sometimes annoyed me that, at 15 years old, puberty had not yet kicked in with me, my voice had not yet broken and I still sang in the choir as a soprano, I was shorter and more slightly built than all my friends and classmates and with my shaggy collar-length hair i was often mistaken for a girl, but Mam told me not to worry, some people just developed later than others. My name didn’t help either as Robin was becoming a fashionable name for girls as well as being traditional for boys

“Would you like to tell me your name, it will make it easier to talk with you, it doesn’t have to be your real name just something you would like me to call you.

“ Call me Josie, it’s not my proper name but that’s what I call myself, I prefer it to Josephine.”

“Ok Josie, can you tell me why you think nobody cares about you, I can’t believe that is true, you must have family or friends who you can talk to and who you get on with.”

“I get bullied by the girls at school, not in front of the teachers but usually when we are outside, and I am getting lots of horrible messages on Facebook and emails. My parents are not interested and tell me just to ignore them, but some of them are really spiteful.”

“ Do you know who is sending them to you and why they are picking on you?”

“They all come from addresses that I don’t recognise and don’t belong to any of my friends, although most of them are only Facebook “friends’ and don’t really have much to do with me in real life. Whoever it is seems to know a lot about me and what I am doing, I feel like they are following me. They tell me I am fat and ugly and have no personality, and that everybody would be happier if I just went away.”

“Look Josie, lots of people get bullied, it’s wrong but it happens. If you take the pills you are letting them win, is that really what you want, wouldn’t it be better to try to get things sorted out with them?”

“Can I meet you to talk about this, it’s not the same over the phone. I really think that talking face-to-face will be a lot better. I’ll be near the bandstand in the park in about half an hour.”

“I will have to speak to the people in charge here, as I said, I am only helping out and I think it is against the rules to meet callers, but I promise I will try to get there.”

When Mam got off the phone I told her about the call from Josie and that she had asked to meet me to talk, and that I was worried that if I did not turn up that she may take some pills.

“I told you not to answer the phone, it was to save you getting into situations like this. Do you think she was serious or is it just a cry for someone to help her.”

“ I don’t know, I think she just wanted to talk to another girl like her to tell about her problems. From the way our Karen behaved when she was my age, you should know how emotional girls can get.”

If you go to meet her, you have a couple of problems. Firstly she thinks you are a girl and if Robin the boy turns up you might frighten her and upset her. Secondly I am worried that if she panics and does anything stupid that you are not trained in dealing with the situation.”

“You know that I am often taken for a girl, I could go home and borrow some of the stuff Karen has left at home when she went off to university and I think I could get away with it. I think that if you turned up with me that she would run away, she did say that she felt that grown -ups would not understand and would just think she was being silly. What I could do is leave my mobile phone connected to you so you could listen in and if you were nearby you could come over if things were getting out of hand.”

“ It goes against all the rules I am suppose to follow, but it might be worth doing what you have said. Go home and get changed and I’ll be on a bench just along from the bandstand. I’ll give Robert another call and see if his car is fixed yet and if he can come into the office to cover for me.”

I made my way home and into Karen’s bedroom, where she had still left a load of clothes that she didn’t need at uni, and had a rummage in her wardrobe and drawers. I found a pair of skinny stretch jeans, and a long chunky wooly jumper that came down over my thighs, and a pair of her old trainers which just about fitted me. I gave my hair a brush and combed down and trimmed a fringe, added a couple of side combs to keep the sides tidy and look a bit more girly, found some lipstick and was ready to go. i thought that I looked like a typical casually-dressed teenage girl, not too feminine or over the top, but presentable and actually not bad looking. I dug out a small shoulder bag for somewhere to put my keys, phone, my wallet, some tissues, and a few other bits and pieces

When I arrived at the bandstand there was no sign of Josie, but I saw my Mam sitting on a bench about 50 yards away reading a magazine. I sat down and waited for Josie and five minutes later she came and sat down beside me, her eyes and cheeks were all red, she had obviously been crying.

“Are you Robin?”

“ I am, you must be Josie, I’m so glad you came and haven’t done anything silly. here’s a tissue, wipe your eyes and tell me more about this bullying and we’ll have a think about what to do. By the way, you are not fat or ugly, you are actually very pretty, so don’t let stupid comments worry you about that.”

“I’m not very popular at school, because I get good grades for my work, and am often asked to playtime piano in our music classes as I am told that i am quite good, everybody thinks I am a swot and a teacher’s pet. There is one group of girls who are always making spiteful remarks about me when nobody else can hear, and they are always accidentally-on-purpose bumping into me or tripping me up or stealing my things, they are horrid and make me so miserable. I can’t even get away from them out of school, they know my mobile phone number, email address and Facebook account and I’m sure that it is them that are leaving the horrible messages.”

“Have you told your teachers, most schools have a strict anti-bullying policy nowadays?”

“I can’t say too much, one of the girl’s is the Headmistress’s daughter and her and her friends are all the in-crowd at school, and are popular with everybody except me, I’m sure that they will believe her rather than me. And when I talked to my parents all they could say is stand up to them and they will go away, they so do not have a clue.”

“What about friends, is there nobody you can hang around with to keep an eye on you.”

“ Like i said, they are the in-crowd and people do not want to get on the wrong side of them.”

“In a way, your parents are right, if you let them see that they are upsetting you it will only encourage them to do it again, but if you just let it go or even laugh it off, they will soon get bored and go and pick on somebody else.”

“But I wouldn’t want them to pick on somebody else, I just want them to stop being nasty.”

“Right, the first thing to do is easy, why don’t you set up new email and social media accounts and only give the details to a very small group of people that you really really trust and need to keep in touch with, and leave the accounts you have now for the people you are not bothered about. At least that will mean you don’t have to look at nasty messages so much.”

“ You seem to know what you are talking about, will you help me, all my accounts were set up for me and I am not very good with computers. I know how to use the programs but not how to change them.”

“ If you promise that you will drop this idea of taking pills, I will be happy to help, and at least you will have one friend, me, to share your troubles with, agreed?”

“ Are you doing anything now, can you come round to my house and start me off?”

“Let me give my Mam a call, to let her know what I am doing, then we can go to yours.”

I took out my phone, which had been left on an open call to my Mam, pretended to dial and after a short pause spoke to her.

“ I’ve met up with a friend and am going round to her house for a bit, I will see you at home later, OK.”

“ I heard everything, you handled that very well, I’m proud of you. You go off with Josie and keep reassuring her, and don’t forget you are supposed to be a girl, don’t go all boy computer geek with her. Bye pet, take care, love you.”

We soon got to Josie’s home, which was much grander than I had imagined, it was a big house in its own walled grounds in a very affluent part of town with a big sweeping drive up to the front door. She let us in, introduced me to her mother and we went up to her room to sort out her social media accounts. It did not take long to set up her new accounts and send out emails giving her new email address and Facebook account, and transfer the trusted contacts from her address book to the new accounts. That was the easy bit, the next bit took a while longer. We deleted a lot of her contacts, many of whom were friends of friends of friends and were not really necessary which left only about 20 contacts, including the girls who were bullying her and their circle of friends.

“Ok, let’s leave it for a few days and see if you get any more messages, and if you do we will know that they are coming from the people we left on the list. Let’s post a reply on your old account to one of the nasty messages telling them to stop bothering you. If they come back with more comments we will know that it is one of the people still on your old list.”

“You’re brilliant Robin, I would never have thought of all that, I feel much more relaxed now that you are helping me.” We sat in her room and talked for a while, telling each other all about ourselves, although mine was obviously a variation of the truth. We were the same age but did not go to the same schools, I went to the local comprehensive/academy, whereas Josie went to a small fee-paying private girl’s school across town, so I did not know any of the people who were bothering her, but recognised some of the names from businesses in the town. My family and hers moved in very different social circles.

“Josie, Robin,” her Mum called up, “I’ve put out a few cakes and sandwiches, and some coffee, in the conservatory, do you want to come down for a chat.”

“ I’ve not seen you around here before Robin, how do you know Josie? Do you go to her school?”

“No, I knew her many years ago at First School, and we met in the park a few weeks ago, realised that we had known each other, and just started talking, and have seen each other a few times since.”

“ It’s good that she has found a friend, I am worried about her, she never seems to want to go out and is always shut away in her room, I hope to see you more often, she seems a bit happier today.”

“Do you know she has been getting bullied at school and getting nasty messages on social media, that is why she has been so worried about going out, as you know teenage girls can have a nasty bitchy streak if you are not in their clique. It is making her really depressed.” Josie glared at me challenging me not to get involved any further

“She did mention it but I thought it was just teenage angst, and that it would soon go away, I didn’t realise that it was so serious.” Turning to her daughter she said “I’m so sorry darling, what can I do to help?”

“I’m ok at the moment Mum, Robin is helping me with the nasty messages and it has helped having someone to talk to. Let’s just leave it for a few days and see what happens, and if there is anything you need to do, I’ll tell you and talk to you, if you promise to listen and take me seriously.”

“Robin, it’s getting late, let me drive you home.” Her Mum drove me the mile or so to my home and Mam’s car was already on the drive, she must have just got home. Mam had seen us arrive and came out to see who it was and invited Josie’s Mum in.

“Hello, I’m Julie Marshall, Robin has been with my Josie this afternoon and I thought I’d bring her back. You have a very caring daughter in Robin, I’ve not seen Josie so relaxed for weeks, she has been having problems, but talking with Robin seems to have helped her perk up.”

Without saying that she worked with the Samaritans, Mum told her that she was involved with counselling and that some of it must have rubbed off on me.

“No disrespect to Robin, but if you have some background and training, would you be prepared to come and meet Josie, as Robin’s Mum, not as a counsellor, and see if you think she needs proper support. If you can, why not come round for tea tomorrow and we can chat a bit more.”

“Yes that would be fine, I look forward to it, I’m Sarah Campbell by the way, we’ll be round at about three o’clock if that’s ok.”

When Mrs Marshall had left Mam grinned at me and said “Thats a fine mess you’ve got yourself into, you do realise that you will have to continue to be a girl while we are dealing with this, don’t you ? Sit down and you can tell me everything that has happened so that we get our stories straight tomorrow.” Mam had heard my talk in the park on her phone already, so I filled her in on what I had done to the social media accounts, and what we had talked about.

“ Right, luckily your father is away for a couple of weeks on business and we don’t have to worry about him, I’m not sure what he would think of you dressing as a girl. You didn’t do too bad today, just throwing a few casual clothes together, but we will have to make a bit more effort tomorrow. Get stripped off and let me have a look at you. Ok, you are not too bulky and we should be able to use some of Karen’s stuff, but you are beginning to get a bit of fuzz on your arms and legs, we’ll have to get rid of that. Go and have a shower and wash your hair, properly mind, and use conditioner afterwards and leave it on until I’m finished with you.”

I was all washed and scrubbed when Mum came into the shower room with a big tub of Veet hair removal cream, which she applied all over my body arms and legs. “Leave that on for five minutes and I will come back and check it has done its job.” Five minutes later she checked a test area to see that it had been effective and told me to wash it all off and rinse all the conditioner out of my hair. When I was clean and dry she rubbed a moisturiser all over my skin and told me to have a look in the mirror. I was surprised, I had been getting quite proud that I was at last beginning to get a bit of body hair, but now it had all gone and my skin was as smooth and clear as a girl’s.

“I’ve laid out some clothes for you to see how they fit, put on the knickers and I’ll help you with the bra, it takes a bit of getting used to before you will be able to do it easily yourself. Your sister was a late developer, if you know what I mean, and needed a bit of help up top for a while, so she had some enhancers, silicone gel pads, to give her a bit of shape, we’ll put these in the bra which should be enough for someone your build and age.”

“It’s still warm outside so we’ll not bother with tights, just put on the skirt and top and sandals and come downstairs and we’ll see how you look.” She had left me a short denim skirt which only went halfway down my thighs and a tight cotton stretch top with really clung to my breasts (my breasts?) and waist, and a pair of open-toed sling-back sandals with a 2” wedge heel. Not being used to the heels and the short skirt I gingerly made my way down to Mam in the kitchen. taking short careful steps.

“ Hey, you are looking quite good, you are actually a lot like Karen did at your age, let’s see what we can do with your hair and that should finish you off.” She brushed and combed and teased and cut and sprayed for a while and then showed me what she had done in a mirror. I couldn’t believe what she had done, my shaggy unkempt style was now sitting in a long pageboy style with centre-parted fringes and I looked really girly.

“ If you are going to be natural with Mrs Marshall tomorrow you need to practice moving, talking, sitting and generally behaving as a girl, so you will stay dressed like that for the rest of the day. Come on grab a coat, we are going to the supermarket, we need some groceries and toiletries and things.”

I thought she was joking, but she was insistent, and I was forced to make my first trip outside in girls clothes ( I didn’t really count the jeans and jumper I had worn earlier as real girl’s clothes, and I didn’t have boobs then either ).

I was terrified when we went into the supermarket, convinced that everyone would recognise me as a boy, but nobody said anything or gave me funny looks so I slowly relaxed and just got on with the shopping with Mam, until we ended up in the clothes section and she started picking out knickers and bras and asking me what I thought. “Come on, you need some of your own it’s not fair to use Karen’s stuff, what do you think of these?” It was the same at the cosmetics aisle, I had to have my own moisturiser, foundation, lipsticks (“you need several colours to go with different outfits”), eye liner and a shadow palette and mascara. I thought this was all a bit much for one visit to Josie’s but Mam was enjoying herself with all this and I didn’t have much choice.

Safely back home I was able to relax again, and collapsed onto the sofa. “Don’t sit down like that, I could see your knickers, stand up and do it again more slowly and keep your knees together this time and your back straight, you will have to be more ladylike Robin.”

These criticisms and lessons lasted all evening while we watched some soaps, and a couple of ‘chick-flicks’, ‘Four weddings and a funeral’, and ‘Bridget Jones Diary’. These were films she had tried to get me to watch previously but I always said that they were not my sort of thing, she was really trying to get me into a girly frame of mind. I found that I actually enjoyed the films and was checking out the outfits that the girls were wearing and the way they had their hair, and actually had to borrow a tissue for the weepy bits !

It’s almost time for bed, I have left you out a nightie, go and get changed, and so will I, and we’ll have our hot chocolate down here, A few minutes later I had taken off all my clothes, even managing to unhook the clasp of the bra, only keeping on the knickers, and changed into my nightie.

i woke up early with my mind buzzing about the events of yesterday and imagining what was going to happen today. I showered, wearing a cap so as not to ruin what Mam had done with my hair, patted myself dry and dusted myself with powder and went back to my room to get dressed.

Mam had suggested that, now that I was wearing a bra and the gel pads it looked like I had breasts, that I should just wear a light cotton sleeveless top that scooped down to just give a hint of a cleavage, the denim skirt I wore yesterday, but with tights to smooth my legs. I had picked out one of my matching bra and pantie sets that we had bought yesterday, and thought it was strange that I was now wearing my very own first bra, and feeling comfortable wearing girls’ panties.

When I was dressed and happy with how I looked, I took my makeup bag downstairs so that Mam could work her magic on me when she came down, and started getting a light breakfast of muesli, toast, and coffee, prepared while I was waiting.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Mam said smiling“I can’t remember the last time you made breakfast for me, you should dress as a girl more often.” I even cleared up and washed the dishes afterwards while she was getting herself ready.”

“Ok , young miss, let’s find out what we can do with you, sit down over by the window in the light so I can see better what am doing. Listen to what I am telling you so that you can do it yourself tomorrow. If you were going out somewhere special I would use foundation on you, but with your young skin it’s best not to use too much during the day, so the only thing I will do to your skin is a bit of light blusher to highlight your cheekbones. The same with your eyes, during the daytime less is best, most girls your age like eyeliner, I don’t know why, I think a touch of mascara is enough, that’s all we will do today. Let’s see how much makeup Josie uses and go with that next time.” I didn’t really mind what she did, although the mascara wand right next to my eyes was not a favourite for me.

Until it was time to go to Josie’s my day was filled with more ‘sit down, stand up, don’t slouch, keep your knees together or your legs crossed, don’t walk like that, put one foot directly in front of the other, take smaller portions of food and chew it slowly, and an endless stream of other girls’ habits, my brain was in overload.

We went out to the conservatory at Josie’s and sat getting to know each other for a while. Josie was dressed in much the same style as me, although she had on a light floral print skirt rather than the more casual denim one I was wearing, and she too wore very little makeup, although she had also used a touch of eyeliner, Mam had judged it about right.

“Do you two girls want to go down to the shops for an hour or so while we have a bit more of a chat?” Mam suggested, giving me a look that plainly said ‘Clear off, we want to talk about Josie,’

We wandered down to the local shopping centre, mainly looking in the clothes shops and each trying on a few skirts and dresses, it amazed me that we could try things on without any intention to buy them, girls just have a totally different attitude to what shopping means. Josie was in the changing room trying on a dress, and called out to me, “Robin please come and give me a hand the zip has stuck on my dress.” When I had sorted her out and went back into the shop I felt a touch on my arm and turned around to see Sara, one of the girls in my class.

“I thought it looked like you Robin, but I considered it just a coincidence until your friend called out your name, what are you doing dressed like that?”

“It’s a long story Sara, I haven’t got time to explain, Josie will be out in a minute, I’ll call you later but please just go along with it for the moment and pretend that I am just another girl in your school, and don’t tell anyone else or my life will be made hell. Please, pretty please !”

Luckily if I had to pick one person to recognise me without worrying too much it would be Sara, she was probably the pleasantest and kindest girl in our class, and I thought that before just now that she fancied me a bit, but that probably changed instantly.

“OK, I’ll trust you but you had better ring me to explain it all !”

At that moment Josie came out of the dressing room to show me another dress she had tried on. “Which do you prefer Robin.”

“ I like them both but I think the other one suits you better.” I was struggling to think of any detailed comments when Sara butted in. “I’ve not seen the other one but I don’t think that one is right for you, it’s too long and it bunches a bit around your waist, and it’s bit frumpy, let me have a look at the other one. Oh, I’m Sara. a schoolfriend of Robin, I hope you don’t mind me butting in like that.”

Josie seemed glad to have a sensible comment rather than my bland “very nice” or “no I don’t like that.” and went in to change into the first one.

“ Look Sara, Josie is having a difficult time and I’m trying to help her, she needs friends. can you stay with us for a while, I think it will do her good to have someone else to talk to.”

“What do you girls think of this one, any better?”

“ Oh that really suits you, it is a lovely dress and the colour is perfect for you, are you going to buy it or are you just window shopping? If you need a new dress I think you should go for it, have you got shoes to go with it or do you need some new ones to match?” Sara was so much better than me talking to Josie, girls always seem to value each others opinion whereas most boys would see comments like that as interfering.

Josie decided to not buy the dress as it was quite expensive and she said she would shop around later to see if she could get something similar at a better price.

We had a little time left before we had to go back to Josie’s, so the three of us went for a coffee and ice cream at a small cafe just outside the shopping centre. Josie and Sara got on really well and by the time we left the girls just about knew each other’s life history, even touching on Josie’s problems, but not going into detail.

Sara walked back with us as she lived not far from Josie, but in that upmarket neighbourhood, people kept themselves to themselves and only knew their next-door neighbours, so they had never met each other. As they lived so close they both promised to meet up again, with or without me, I was glad that Josie was coming out of her shell !

We told our mothers about the shopping trip and meeting Sara and how well we had all got on and her Mum looked really pleased that Josie now had another friend. On the way back I told Mam to stop just around the corner so that I could call Sara, Mum agreed that I needed to explain things to her, and after Sara agreed I was dropped off at her houses promising to call Mam for a lift home later.

After meeting her Mum Jacquie, Sara and I went up to her room to talk things through.

“I’ve been thinking about getting you up to my bedroom lately, but never thought it would be like this! Come on, spill the beans, what is all this about.”

“I’m telling you this is confidence and there are very few people i would trust with this, so please keep it to yourself.” I told her about the call to the Samaritans and Josie’s suicide threat, her mistaking my voice for a girl’s and how it all grew from there and I ended up dressing as a girl.

“I can’t believe that you did all that for someone you didn’t really know, that is so kind of you. You actually do come across well as a girl and I wouldn’t really have guessed if she hadn’t called out your name in the shop. While this is being sorted I would like to help and be a girl friend for you both. Afterwards we can think about changing that to being a girlfriend. I will give Josie a call tomorrow, if you give me her number, and go out with her for the day and have a good long chat, just the two of us if you don’t mind.”

Mam collected me from Sara’s and on the way back I told her about how we had met in the shop and how she had offered to help. Mam told me about her chat with Josie’s Mum and that she was now less concerned as Josie had a couple of new friends whose company she seemed to be enjoying, and that we should keep going for a while to see how it all progressed. She had told her the truth about the call to the samaritans and how I got involved by mistake, but didn’t mention the fact that I was really a boy.

A few days later, I was lounging around playing a video game, totally in boy mode of t-shirt and shorts, when the doorbell rang and I let Sara in.

“Even in those clothes and no makeup you could still pass as a girl, your hair is still girly and your arms and legs are still hairless. Anyway, I have had a long chat with Josie and she has told me all about the bullying and how you have helped, she is still getting the nasty messages by the way, and I have had an idea of how to stop all this. Get on your girl clothes we are going out to meet Josie.”

Sara helped me with the makeup, which I must admit looked more like a teenage girl’s rather than the more subtle style my Mam had done, and chose a selection of clothes from Karen’s wardrobe for me, a flowery summer peasant skirt and blouse and strappy sandals. She finished me off by painting my nails, I grabbed my bag, which now contained a few basic cosmetics and essentials as well as my wallet keys and phone, and we were off.

On the walk round to Josie’s, Sara told me that Josie had really opened up to her about her worries and how she just wanted it all to stop, and how I had been a big help and stopped her doing something stupid and that she would always grateful to me.

Before we went out from Josie’s I had a look at the messages that were still coming in and narrowed the obvious choices down to the main bullies, by looking at other messages that other people left in her contacts list had sent at the same time which proved that it couldn’t have been them. We sent a Facebook post, just to those three, saying that Josie was going out with some new friends for the day and that we would be at a well-known coffee bar in town. We didn’t go there but went to the shopping centre instead, which was mostly window shopping, but I did end up buying a couple of new tops and a pair of leggings mainly for lounging around the house.

Shortly a message alert tone buzzed on Josie’s phone and we all huddled around to read it.
“Didn’t see you at the coffee bar, or your imaginary friends, who would want to be friends with a fat ugly miserable girl like you?”

Rather than being upset as she would have been a few days ago, Josie was delighted that my ploy had worked, and that we now knew for certain that it was one of those three. We sent a couple of more posts individually to each of the three, with slightly different information, and from the replies we got we now knew who it was, the headmistress’s daughter Claire. The discovery had lifted our spirits and we enjoyed the rest of our day together, three girls having a good time, laughing and joking, chatting, coyly looking at all the good-looking boys that walked past ( at least Josie and Sara did, I just made the odd comment so not to be left out ).

Now we knew who it was I put most of Josie's contacts that she wanted to keep back into her address book and sent them the new contact details, but also kept them in the old account so that it didn’t look like all the “Friends” had gone from Facebook’

Now we knew for sure who we had to target we had to think of a plan for doing it. We got together with our mothers to see if we could find a way to prove the bullying to an extent where Claire’s mother, Josie’s headmistress, couldn’t protect her any more.

We all agreed that we needed to get somebody in Josie’s school to watch and record what was going on, but Josie said that there were none of the girls that she knew that could be trusted.
Sara was too well known at the school as she had several friends there, so I was elected by default.

Sara’s Dad, who was a professor at the University, was on the Board of Governors at Josie’s school and her mother felt that he could pull strings to get me enrolled as a new pupil, and she knew the headmaster of my school quite well socially, so between them they should be able to get me transferred without too much bother. It would mean me living totally, full-time, as a girl, in an all-girl’s school, taking part in all the school activities, including sports, gymnastics and aerobics and dancing. Sara’s Dad was happy to be brought on stream as, in his role as a governor, he was not happy with the way the school was being run, and there was no love lost between him and the headmistress

The need to do the physical activities was a big problem, I would have to change with the other girls, although the showers were individual cubicles not an open area, and would have to wear quite revealing sports clothes and dance-wear, so my body would need to be as realistic as possible. For the next two weeks while the transfer was being sorted, I was fitted with semi-permanent breast forms and learned how to tuck and fix my boys’ parts so that they would only be noticeable on a very close inspection, had my hair professionally styled and was coached on all things ‘girl’ by Sara and our mothers, and was as ready as I ever would be to start my new school. I was getting used to my new breasts now, at first I was a bit embarrassed that they jiggled about when I walked, but Sara told me that everybody’s did that and it would be more noticeable if they didn’t, and I actually got to find the bounce reassuring that I was convincing as a girl.

My Dad had returned home and was not too keen on what had happened while he was away, but accepted that is was all being done for the right reasons and agreed to go along with it, although he wanted no part in it at all.

My headmaster and Sara’s dad did their necessary duties to get my records modified and to get the transfer bureaucracy sorted and the day came when I was about to enter Abbey Girls High as a new temporary exchange student for the new term, as Josie’s cousin, using my real name of Robin Campbell to avoid confusion with records.

To be continued.