Chapter 3

I was still half asleep in the early morning as I made my way to the bathroom, but remembering just in time that I would now be expected to sit when doing my business, I hitched up my nightie sat, and relieved myself. I gave my hair a quick brush to smooth out the overnight knots but realised that I would need Cassie’s help with her magic hair wand to give it the body and style that she had done yesterday. I put on a clean pair of knickers and bra, inserted my enhancers and dressed in my blouse and skirt and went down the stairs to get some breakfast, passing the time until I heard Cassie up and about.

“ Morning Carla, did you sleep well?” Mum was being matter-of-fact about the way I was dressed, as if it was just a normal day. “I didn’t think that you would want a full breakfast this morning, so I have just put out a banana and yoghurt for you, like Cassie has.”

I was actually desperate for my normal cooked breakfast but did not want to give her the satisfaction of asking for it. “That will be fine Mum.”

I quickly finished it and went back upstairs to Cassie’s room, knocked, and went in, only to find her sitting in her underwear, brushing her hair. Normally I would be met with screams of “ Get out, you can’t come in while I am not dressed.” but this time she just smiled and waved me in.

“Hi Carla, come on in, what can I do for you?”

“Have you got time to do my hair like yesterday, I gave it a good brush, but couldn’t get any body to it like you managed to give it?”

“ We will have to be quick I am running a bit late. Watch what I do, you will have to do it yourself from now on, I can’t do it for you every morning. She used the styling wand to give it a bit more body on the top and crown and to curl it under around my ears, brushed and patted it into place and gave a quick spray to hold it. It had only taken a few minutes but made a massive difference in my appearance. i went back to my room, put on the clear lip gloss, packed my bag and was ready to face another day at school.

As we got to the school gates, Cassie saw some friends and went off with them., I saw Sam coming up the road and waited for him, but he gave me a ’keep away’ look and snapped at me ”Why not wait for some of the other girls, since you seem to want to be one of them. Just leave me alone, I am already getting some stick for having been your friend before, if I am seen with you now, it will get even worse.” and hurried past me. We had been friends for many years and it hurt that he no longer wanted to know me just because I was wearing a skirt.

As he hurried away Amy and Lucy, a couple of girls in most of my classes had overheard what he had said and came over to me.

“Just ignore him, he is an idiot, he didn’t deserve you as a friend all that time. Come on and walk in with Lucy and me , we don’t mind, we think what you are doing is very brave, and so do a lot of the other girls.” Amy said as they walked either side of me, holding my hands to reassure me.

“So Carla, are you keeping up with this then?” Lucy asked.

“ Yes of course, at least until they change the rules , so a few weeks yet.”

“ Don’t let the fact that your friend Sam just blanked you, get to you, if that is the way the boys are treating you feel free to join me, Amy, and our friends at lunch time, you will be more than welcome. To be honest, the way you look you will fit in better with us than with the boys, and you might enjoy the company.”

“ Thanks Lucy, I’ll see you then.”

What classes do you have today Carla?”

“ I don’t really know what the school are going to throw at me today. First period is scheduled as Gym. They say that they will be treating me as a girl, but whether that includes gym remains to be seen, they are trying to embarrass me and make me feel ashamed.”

After registration in my homeroom, feeling very nervous, I picked up my gym gear, I had brought both boys’ and girls’ stuff just in case, and made my way to the changing rooms. There was no teacher about to ask what I was supposed to do and was just standing there when Lucy grabbed me and pulled me into the girls’ changing room.

“ It’s ok, i have had a word with the others, they are quite happy for you to get dressed in here and play netball with us, as long as you promise not to look at anyone when they are changing. We can’t let you go into the boys’ changing room looking like that, at best you will get assaulted, at worst you could even get raped, and we wouldn’t want that to happen.”

I sort of hid myself in a corner while I changed into my netball kit as discreetly as I could, including changing into the sports bra that Zoë had given me and refitting my enhancers, but I was sure that the girls were watching me out of the corners of their eyes. I went out with the others to make our way out to the netball court, when I was called back.

“ Duggan come here, what do you think you are doing?” growled the football coach who was on his way out with the boys.

“ I don’t know what you mean Sir, I was told by the headmistress that I had to attend all classes as a girl, and to make her point she had me transferred into needlework and cookery classes, so I assumed that would apply to gym classes too and that I would have to join in with the girls.”

“ Don’t you be so cocky with me, or you won’t know what hit you.”

Before he could say any more, we were interrupted by Miss Carter, who as well as teaching craftwork, when she could she acted as a netball coach too. I had been told that when she was younger she was very good, played for the county, and even had trials for England.

“ I think that is enough, don’t you, threatening a pupil like that? Carla, go and join the others while we have words here. Tell them to pick their teams and I will be over to start you off in a few minutes.

Zoë had been right there was only just enough of us to get two teams and as players were selected, I was the last one chosen.

“ Don’t worry about it, it is not a judgement on you personally, it is just that you have never played before and don’t know the rules.”

“ I’m used to it, I was usually the last one picked at football and rugby too with the boys, I was always too small and light and easily brushed aside by the others.”

You are Goalkeeper for the moment and your main job is to jump to block the Goal Shooter of the other team getting a clear shot at the net. You have to stay in the shooting circle or your first third of the court, you cannot go further forward to our attack areas and if you have the ball you are not allowed to walk with it. Just watch how we play and you will soon pick it up.”

In the first quarter I was more of a hindrance than a help, I was penalised several times by Miss carter for being too close to my opponents or taking too many steps with the ball, although I did make a few blocks and good passes, and at the end of the first quarter we were well behind.

In the short break, the girls were very supportive, if I had been that bad in matches with the boys I would have been getting shouted at and called all sorts of names. Instead the team gave me tips on how to improve my game and let me change position to Wing Attack so that I could be more involved.

I enjoyed this much more , being much more active, passing the ball around and was soon comfortable that I was making the right moves. Thanks partly to a couple of my assist passes we were soon level. the game went back and fro, and at the end we just won by one goal. It was only a school games session, but from the celebrations at the end it was as if we had won a major competition. There was a team hug and cheer, before we went back to get showered and changed. I was really worried about showering with the girls and was about to not bother and just get dressed, but the showers were individual closed cubicles, so I was able to clean myself up and dry off without any problems before going back into the changing area.

When we were dressed again, I walked with the girls for a quick soft drink in the canteen before our next classes. We sat chatting about the game and about life in general, and they just treated me as one of them, pulling me into their conversations, even about which boys they fancied, they seemed to have totally forgot who I really was, or chose to ignore it so as not to make me feel uncomfortable.

“ Carla, a few of us are going to hang out for a while down at the mall after school, do you want to join us.”

I gave a quick look to Zoë who nodded back at me before answering. “I’d love to Lucy, thank you for asking me. Are we just going as we are or are we going home first to get changed?”

“ Today will just go as we are, in uniform, but on Saturday when we go again, we will put our own clothes on.”

“ Spoken just like a girl, ‘what should I wear?’ you are definitely coming over to the fair side.” whispered Zoë in my ear.

After afternoon classes we all made our way to the local mall, sat and had a coffee, people watching, well really boy-watching for the others.

“ You know what i have just noticed,” said Emma to the group,” Carla is the only one of us not wearing ear studs. I think we should take her to get pierced and fitted, what do you all think?”

I wasn’t too sure about this, I though that it might be the last straw for Mum, but they all talked me into it and I soon had a pair of small pearl studs, with my hair pushed behind my ears to show them off.

“ Are you coming back to mine to do our homework together again Carla,” asked Zoë, with big pleading eyes, “ you really helped me last night and my grades today were the best I have had for ages. Mum won’t mind and I can get us some tea and cakes.”

“ Sounds good to me, as long as you help me with my French Grammar paper, I have never really got to grips with the rules on conjugation.”

“ Before you go, we are having a sleepover at Lucy’s on Saturday, do you want to come?” Amy asked us both.

Before I had a chance to think about it Zoë, replied “ Of course , thanks for asking, we would love to.”

“ Hi Mum, I’m home. Carla is with me, we are going up to study together, can we raid the cupboard for some cake and biscuits?”

“ Of course, help yourselves. You are looking much smarter today in your uniform Carla, much better than that ridiculously short skirt you wore yesterday.”

“ Don’t mind her, she is always going on at me that my skirts are too short, it is what Mums do.” Zoë told me as we walked up to her room

While we are having our tea, tell me what you thought about the netball match today.”

“ I really enjoyed it. it was a lot more energetic and tiring than I thought it would be. I have never really enjoyed playing football or rugby, I have never been particularly good at them and tend to get battered and clattered a bit, being smaller than most of the others. I fitted in better with the girls, where I was taller than most except the Shooters, and with no contact allowed it was much more fun. Were the girls all comfortable with me playing? If it is ok with them, I will like to do it again next week, maybe by then I might understand the rules a bit better.”

“ Yes, they were all quite happy for you to join and nobody objected about you being in the changing room either. they just sort of looked on you as one of us.”

“ I was glad that Amy and Lucy invited us to sit with them at lunchtime, none of the boys seem to want to speak to me or be seen with me now, whereas the girls don’t seem so worked up about me.”

“ That’s their loss Carla, if that is how they want to be, just ignore them, you have plenty of friends amongst the girls anyway. The boys will soon come round when they realise that if they are nasty to you they will have no chance with any of us.”

“ Tell me about this sleepover, what will be happening and will I be ok there.”

“ Don’t worry, it will all be just girly stuff, gossiping, doing each others hair, playing with make up and things like that, you should enjoy it, and they are all a friendly bunch. You will be ok, if they didn’t like you or think you would fit in you wouldn’t have got an invite.”

“Right, let’s get our work done now, that’s why we are here.” It was good to work together, we both had strong points and weak points in the different subjects and were able to clear up a lot of the problems we had been having. and we soon had it all finished.”

“ I better be off now, I have things to do at home, I’ll see you tomorrow and we can try to get our dresses finished.”

“ Don’t go yet. To save time tomorrow I picked up our dresses from the craft room. we can put them on and pin them up , so tomorrow it will just be a matter of running them through the machines.

Zoë turned the dresses inside out so the seams were on the outside, and changed into hers telling me to do the same, she didn’t seem to mind stripping out of her uniform in front of me so I just dropped my skirt, pulled off my blouse and followed her lead.

“ They seem a bit baggy, are you sure that we measured up correctly?”

“ I told you Carla, that this is just the first stage to hold it all together. What we do now is pull it all tighter and pin it where we want the seams to follow the line of your figure so that it is a nice shape, not too tight but still fitted. I’ll do you first, tell you what I am doing and then you can do the same to me. As I am still growing up top I am going to leave a little spare material on the seams around the bust line so I can let it out when I develop a little bit more, but we don’t need to do that with yours as you will only be wearing it for a few weeks, and you won’t be growing any bigger anyway.”

When we were finished the dresses hung much better on both of us and when we turned them the right way round they looked perfect and all it would need the following day would be to run them through the machines, and do the hems of the skirt, sleeves and collar.

“ We should wizz through that tomorrow and then you can take it home to show your mum and Cassie.”

“ Zoë”, her Mum called out “ i need to go down to the supermarket , do you want to come with me and we can give Carla a lift home on the way.”

As we pulled up outside my house, Mum came down the drive to meet us.

“ Hello, I’m Sarah, pleased to meet you, Carla has been spending so much time with Zoë lately that I thought that it was about time we met, do you want to come in for a few minutes to get to know each other?”

To my relief Zoë’s Mum, Margaret, said she was in a bit of a rush to get some shopping but that she would be glad to get together another time.

“If you want, Zoë can stay here and I can have a chat with her, and you can pick her up on the way back, is that ok?”

“Actually that will save time, she always dawdles around the shops, I will see you in about a half-hour.”

Mum sat us down in the kitchen and I was dreading how she was going to take the conversation, but she just stayed calm and cool.

‘ Carla has been telling me about you doing homework together and how you have been helping her with her summer dress, you seem to be becoming good friends.”

“ Yea, she is a lot of fun and a big help. We have been working on the dresses this afternoon after school, pinning them to shape. we should get them sewn up and finished tomorrow and she can bring hers home to show you.”

“ I look forward to it, this is the first dress she has made for herself, so I hope it comes out ok. If it is good, I can dig out my old machine and she can make some summer stuff for Cassie and me. How is school going for you?”

“ Actually it is a lot better now I am working together with Carla, we help each other out. We had a good time today with the girls, playing netball, she did alright for her first time .”

It was freaking me out a bit, them both referring to me as ‘she’ and ‘her’ and talking about me as if it was normal, when they both know that I was really a boy.

“ Oh, I suppose that means Carla that your games kit will need washing, we’ll put it in the machine later with anything else of yours that needs done.”

I was glad when Mrs Marshall came back to pick up Zoë, Mum had been skirting around the subject a lot and I was frightened that she was going to say something to Zoë that would embarrass us all.

“ That wasn’t so bad was it Carla, she seems a nice girl, you and her have a lot in common. Tell me more about this netball game, where did you get your kit from?”

“ Zoë gave me some spare stuff of hers, which fitted me quite well. When we had got changed, I did not look much different from the other girls and they all thought that I blended in well with them.”

“ Did you change in the same room with them?’

“ i could hardly go in with the boys could I, do you want me to get attacked?”

“ Of course not, it was probably a sensible thing to do, as long as the other girls did not mind.”

“ Mum, you and the Head both told me that If I was going to continue with this that I was to act as and be treated as a girl, I am trying to fit in as best as I can.”

“Ok dear, go and get changed out of your uniform and then come and help me in the kitchen.”

“ Do I have to, I was just going to have a bit of time playing video games.”

“ Video games are for boys, girls help their mothers, you know I expect Cassie to keep the house tidy and help me in the kitchen, I expect you to now do the same. When you come down bring your sports kit and other dirty washing with you to put in the machine.

To be continued.