Princess School I. Preliminary Interviewby Jennifer Brock Kayden Winne’s family is poor so when he gets a scholarship to a prestigious private high school, he is at first happy about it. Then he realizes he knows just enough French to translate the name of the school, L’École pour les Dauphines, to English: School for Princesses. (story squib by Erin)

In a luxury hotel suite, a woman is seated behind a desk. She appears to be somewhere in middle age, but her chestnut brown chignon shows no hint of gray, and her expertly applied makeup shows no sign of any wrinkle on her face, so her exact age is a mystery. A pair of tortoiseshell “cat’s eye” glasses frame her stern, hazel eyes. She is dressed in a tweed skirt and matching blazer over a high-collared lace blouse. A string of natural pearls around her neck matches a pair hanging from her ears. Two women flank her desk. To the left stands an athletically built brunette in her late twenties or early thirties. She wears a white shirtdress and white shoes with a low heel. To the right of the desk sits a petite Asian woman in a smart black pantsuit and high-heeled red pumps. She holds a red leather portfolio on her lap.

There is a soft knock at the door and the central woman nods to the woman in white, who crosses the room to open the door and admit their visitors. The first to enter is a sturdy middle-aged woman in a worn green dress. Her face looks tired and her ash brown hair is pulled back in a bun. She’s followed by a child, a skinny five-foot-tall tween in a button-down white shirt and black dress pants that aren’t quite long enough. Some sort of product has been used on the child’s chestnut brown hair to slick it straight back over the top of the head, and at the nape of the neck it extends nearly an inch past the shirt collar.

As her associate closes the door, the woman at the desk stands up and motions to the chairs set up facing her. “Mrs. Winne, and young Kayden, I presume? Please, take a seat.” When they did so, she sat down herself, and continued. “Allow me to introduce myself; I am Ms. Lillian Blackburn, Headmistress of L’École pour les Dauphines. Ms. Crawford here who let you in is our resident nurse.” The blonde resumed her position beside the desk. “And Ms. Li is our attorney.” The woman on the right nodded to the newcomers. “So, tell me, Mrs. Winne, what brought you to apply for your child’s admission to our school?”

Mrs. Winne clutched her handbag on her lap and took a nervous breath. “The public schools in our district are just horrible! And there were students who’d been bullying Kayden all through middle school, and the people in charge just wouldn’t do anything about it. With no one stopping them, those boys would likely continue in high school, where they’d be bigger and stronger and more dangerous! So I had to find a way to get Kayden into a private school. And one day I saw the Vanderhausens, that’s the family I work for, had some papers about your school; they were talking of sending their daughter Astrid, she’s Kayden’s age, there. And Mrs. Vanderhausen gave me some pages of the paperwork that she didn’t need, and asked me to recycle them, but I saw one of the pages said something about a ‘Disadvantaged Outreach Scholarship,’ so I saved them. I filled out that application and mailed it to you.”

Ms. Blackburn cracked half a smile. “So you knew nothing about L’École pour les Dauphines before you applied?”

“I just figured if the Vanderhausens thought it was good enough for Astrid, it should be a good place for Kayden.” She shrugged. “And you got back to me and had me fill out more forms and stuff, and said you’d give Kayden a shot at a full scholarship, so that was all I needed to know about your dolphin school.”

The headmistress cracked a bigger smile and was about to say something when she was interrupted by young Kayden speaking up. “Please don’t laugh at my mother’s ignorance, ma’am. I tried to tell her.” Ms. Blackburn nodded for the child to continue. “She showed me the paperwork, and that word ‘Dauphines’ seemed familiar. I remembered when we were studying Joan of Arc in history, and she was protecting the ‘Dauphin,’ who was the French crown prince. My teacher Mr. Bixby made this dumb joke about how France called their prince a dolphin, while England has the Prince of Whales. But ‘Dauphines’ isn’t quite ‘Dauphin,’ and adding an e at the end of a French word is one way to make it feminine, so the name of your place is French for ‘School for Princesses.’ I think it’s a girls’ school, and even though my Mom didn’t let me get a haircut before this meeting and I’ve met some girls named Kayden, I’m a boy, so we probably just wasted your time in making you come here.”

Ms. Blackburn laughed. “My dear, I was already aware of the status of your gender. Your mother has already provided us with a copy of your medical records. Also, don’t blame your mother; I asked her not to cut your hair. That was an impressive deduction, but you didn’t discover nearly the whole story. Tell me, what is the job of a princess?”

Kayden shrugged. “To sing and dance with her animal friends?”

“No, Dear, I don’t mean in popular fiction, but in history. The main duty of a princess is to provide a means for her family to forge alliances with other noble houses, by marrying the son of said house. And this is especially true for one who would become the Dauphine, the bride of the heir to the crown, so we aren’t merely a ‘School for Princesses,’ but a ‘School for Future Queens.’ Now here in America, we don’t officially have titled nobles or royalty, but we do have a ruling class, families of wealth and power. It was for the daughters of those families that our school was founded in 1872. When upper-class industrialists or financiers want to work toward common goals, they will often do as the royals would and wed their ‘princesses’ to the scions of the other families. And to increase the perceived value of these ‘princesses,’ they would be sent to finishing schools such as ours to improve the young lady’s poise and manners and charm.”

The headmistress continued her lecture. “Originally we were just another finishing school among many. But over the decades, our mission changed. We are now a fully-credited academic institution, providing a world-class secondary education. A majority of our graduates go on to enroll in some of the most prestigious colleges and universities. But our primary objective is still to groom the daughters of important families into lovely young ladies ready to shine. Among our peers, L’École pour les Dauphines has a reputation for handling the worst cases. Sometimes, the daughters of these families don’t want to fulfill their duties. These ‘reluctant princesses’ have become our specialty. Whether they are rebellious, or willful, or lazy, or merely have acquired too many bad habits, through our strict program of training and discipline we turn them into delightful young ladies ready to take their place in society.”

Mrs. Winne looked confused. “So if you are a girls’ school, why would you want Kayden?”

“A few years back, to convince potential clients of the power of our service, we created the Outreach Scholarship, where we’d give some lucky lower-class girl the Pygmalion treatment. Are you familiar with Shaw?” Seeing the blank stares on her audience, she explained, “it’s a play where a professor of elocution makes a wager with his friend the colonel that he could take a common girl off the street and through six months of his training be able to pass her off as a duchess at a society ball.”

Mrs. Winne smiled. “Oh! Like My Fair Lady! Why didn’t you say so?”

The headmistress continued. “Anyway, the parallel was that we’d give a girl of low birth a scholarship, run her through our program, and present her, usually at a Cotillion or Debutante Ball, as an exemplary young lady of quality, before revealing her true origins, with photographic proof of the Before and After. More recently, we’ve been documenting the whole process through a series of video recorded interviews with the girl, taken at intervals throughout her time with us. When your application was received, and we became aware of the child’s gender, it struck me as the ultimate version of the Pygmalion wager – what if, instead of turning a crude tomboy into a lovely young lady, I could demonstrate that our techniques could transform a crude boy into the quintessential dauphine? So, Mrs. Winne, my proposal to you is that you hand young Kayden over to my care, where the child will be given a superior secondary education at absolutely no cost to you, with the only caveat that for the duration of her attendance at L’École pour les Dauphines, she will have to live in a feminine guise. Is that acceptable?”

“Kayden would get the kind of education that I could never afford, that would probably get him into a good college and secure his future, and all he has to do is pretend to be a girl while he’s at school?” She turned to her son. “Honey, do you think you could do that? It’s a little weird, but it might be your best chance.”

Kayden shrugged and wrinkled his forehead. “If we do this and I mess up and get caught, will my Mom end up having to pay you guys?”

The headmistress shook her head. “We do have a clause in the contract your mother will be signing that says that should we need to release you before your education has completed, even if the reason for your termination is having been discovered, we will find an appropriate academic institution to transfer you to, and we will be assuming all financial responsibility for the duration of your time as a student. There is one exception. One of our missions is to preserve our students’ chastity; after a scandalous incident in the 80’s where one of the upperclassmen had a dalliance with one of the gardeners, we don’t even have any male employees on staff. We turn a blind eye to those girls who wish to engage in Sapphic exploration, since those trysts result in no tangible evidence. However, due to your situation, any romantic activity between you and another student (beyond friendly signs of affection) will be grounds for immediate expulsion.”

Kayden tried to laugh. “I’ve never even dated, so that seems like a sacrifice I can make.” He looked over at his mother. “This pretending to be a girl thing sounds crazy, but I kind of want to try it. Anything’s got to be better than going to high school with the Delaney brothers, right?”

Mrs. Winne frowned. “You’ve never shown any interest in girly things; are you sure you could handle going to a school where they teach girls to be wives? All those classes in cooking and sewing and cleaning, I suppose.”

Ms. Blackburn waved her index finger. “We are indeed training these young ladies in the necessary skills to improve their value as brides, but you have a middle-class concept of a wife’s role. Frankly, our students will have someone like you to do such daily drudgery. Our graduates leave the school having learned to appreciate art and culture and literature, and become skilled at beauty and poise and fashion. We are teaching them how to be the hostess for a fine meal, not how to prepare one.” She looked at Kayden. “If you’re curious about how you would look as a girl, Ms. Crawford can take you into the next room and help you into your uniform.” The nurse walked over and led the boy through the door to the suite’s adjoining room. “That will take them some time, so now would be a good time for Ms. Li to go over the details of the contract.”

The lawyer opened her case and handed Mrs. Winne copies of the contract they were offering her, and then proceeded to run through the important sections, explaining all the complex legalese. She had to repeat three times that Mrs. Winne would not be allowed to tell anyone what Kayden was up to, before graduating from L’École pour les Dauphines. And in any correspondence or other contact with Kayden while at school, she was to refer to her exclusively with feminine words, and never imply that she was ever anything else. Kayden was absolutely forbidden from telling anyone her true gender. Because of the way the contract was written, Mrs. Winne gradually joined the others in referring to Kayden as “she.”

After several minutes, Ms. Crawford returned. She was wearing latex gloves, and there was a damp spot on her dress near the left knee. “Ladies, allow me to present Miss Kayden Winne.” She beckoned behind her, and the teen slowly came through the door. Kayden was dressed in a white blouse under a navy blue blazer that bore the seal of the school, a bright red pleated skirt, white knee socks, and black patent leather Mary Janes with a slight heel. Instead of the slicked-back boyish style it arrived in, Kayden’s hair had been washed, blown out and rearranged so it was parted on the side, pinned back with a pair of silver barrettes. When this nervous schoolgirl stepped into the room, the others could see that she had mascara on her eyelashes and shiny pink lip gloss that matched the polish on her fingernails. Her eyebrows had been groomed into tapered arches, and her ears had been pierced with pearl studs. Ms. Crawford looked at the headmistress. “I’m sorry it took so long. Since I had to get her in the shower to wash the gel out of her hair, I showed her how to shave her legs, even though only a few inches of skin are visible between her skirt and socks.”

Kayden stood in front of his mother. “Do I look okay, Mom? Can we pull this off?”

“Honey, you’re adorable! I’ve wondered what it would be like if I’d had a girl, and now I know!” Mrs. Winne stood up and gave her new daughter a hug. “You even smell like a girl, Sweetie!” She then walked to the desk. “Ok, I guess we’re in. Where do I sign?” Ms. Li brought out the papers and indicated on each where her signature was required.

Kayden was looking around as though unsure what to do. Ms. Blackburn looked at her new student. “My dear Miss Winne, you may be seated.” Kayden breathed a sigh of relief and returned to her chair. The headmistress was displeased. “Miss Winne, especially when wearing a skirt, a proper young lady sits with her knees together. Also, don’t slouch - sit up straight, shoulders back and chest out. I know you’re not used to having a bust, but there’s nothing to be ashamed of; the padding we’ve chosen for you is small, but within the typical range for a girl your age. And lift your head up; don’t look at the floor, and you’re being given an incredible educational opportunity, so you may wish to smile and look happy about it.” Kayden made an effort to comply with each of these orders, and from her post beside the desk, Ms. Crawford mouthed, “Good girl!” and gave a discreet thumbs-up gesture, and Kayden’s smile brightened.

When the final papers were signed, Ms. Li collated them into three sets of identical documents, and put each set into a heavy paper folder with the school’s seal on the cover. She handed one to Mrs. Winne, one to the headmistress, and said that she’d file the third set with the court. Ms. Blackburn stood and shook Mrs. Winne’s hand. “Thank you for your cooperation. I’m sure this arrangement will be beneficial to all parties. We’ll give you a few minutes to say goodbye to your daughter, while Ms. Crawford goes to gather her old clothes for you.”

“Goodbye? What do you mean? I thought school didn’t start until September!”

The headmistress stood. “That is true, but we tell incoming freshmen to arrive two weeks before the beginning of the term, so that they can learn the rules of the school before their classes start, and to give us time to ensure that they all have the correct uniforms. We’d like to have young Miss Winne sorted out and settled before they arrive, so we plan to give her time for private tutoring from our teachers of speech, poise, and grooming, to give her time to adjust to her new role before being inundated with classmates. The other reason we want her early is so that we have time to see whether the injections Ms. Crawford will be giving her to retard her male puberty will have any major negative side effects.”

Mrs. Winne put her arm around her child. “You didn’t say anything about any injections! You can’t just give my child drugs without my permission.”

“Surely you’d realize that to maintain the ruse that Kayden here is and always has been female, we can’t allow her to develop a deep voice, broad shoulders, and a beard? The drugs we’ll be giving her have been approved for exactly this use to prevent transgender children from growing into adults of the wrong gender before they’ve matured enough to be approved for hormone therapies. The procedure does nothing permanent; should she decide to become a man after graduating, Kayden can stop the injections and let his body mature naturally. And regarding your permission, you’ve already given it. Amongst the forms you just signed was one granting me medical power of attorney over Kayden. It’s standard practice for schools like ours, where the parents might be hard to reach in an emergency. It also lets us do things like make an appointment for Kayden to see a cosmetic dentist next Monday, to see if orthodontia or whitening are recommended. Now give your daughter a hug and wish her luck at school. The plane we chartered is scheduled to leave in ninety minutes.”

The Winnes hugged and shared a tear or two. “That doesn’t even give us time to go home and pack a bag – do you have to leave so soon?”

“Since L’École pour les Dauphines specializes in difficult students who might not want to be there, we have rules which limit the things our girls can bring from home. Since Miss Winne has no appropriate clothing left at home, or jewelry or cosmetics or toiletries or grooming tools, there wouldn’t be anything to pack. You will be having regular telephone conversations, so if there is some prized keepsake or sentimental childhood toy that she misses, (assuming we approve it) you can mail it to her.” Ms. Blackburn stepped aside so Ms. Crawford could hand Ms. Winne a tote bag with the school crest on it, containing Kayden’s male clothes.

As her mother walked out of the hotel room, Kayden called out, “Goodbye, Mom! I’ll do my best to make you proud!”