CHAPTER 18: A Personally Guided Tour

 

The Story on Drew’s New Friends

Before twelve, Dr. Penny and Dr. Maia wrapped up today’s session and shooed me out. When I stepped outside, I heard my cellphone ping with a text message.

The texter wasn’t in my address book, but I still opened the message.

“Hey, Val,” the text said, “This is Rose. Dr. Penny gave me your number. Hope you don’t mind. Anyway, classes will be over in a while. Let’s meet outside in the parking lot in twenty minutes? Dr. Penny said we could use the white van, and then I could drive for us. You good with that?”

“Hey, Rose,” I texted back. “Sounds like a plan. See you in a while.”

I took my time walking back. Dr. Penny and Dr. Maia had given me a lot of food for thought and I rolled them around my head. I guess I am getting used to the idea of being a girl, and by July or August, my changes will be done. Ma will like that, I think.

The two doctors and I made a new plan, and I guess it was good that I was meeting up with the girls.

I got back to the school just in time, and all five of them were hanging out by the van.

“Val!” Ashanti exclaimed when she saw me. “Val mukundwa!” She rushed to me and wrapped her arms around me.

I grinned. “Good morning, Ashanti.”

“You are well? How goes things?”

“If you’re asking about my tests and such, it went well. I do have some news…”

“Well, come and tell us.” She pulled me to the others and another set of hugs.

“Cherie,” Arianne said. “How are things?”

“Later, Arianne,” I said, with a small grin and a little hug to take out the sting of my words. “Can we have some lunch first? Dr. Penny and Dr. Maia have had me in their clinic all morning.”

“Of course,” she grinned.

Rose drove us to a place called Decimal 81. On the outside, it was all new and fancy – black awnings and red doors. On the inside, though, peeling plaster with red brick showing in places was artfully preserved, and the place was festooned with strings of bright yellow lights, and bright red and yellow flowers in planters on the windowsills. I liked it.

Arianne said it was her treat and ordered for us. Arianne would do that all the time. That’s because she was filthy rich. Actually, her folks were rich – filthy rich in fact: their family owns several manufacturing companies and one aerospace company. So treating us out to all the time was nothing to her.

Arianne wasn’t supposed to go to Troy House for school - she was supposed to be tutored. But a family friend was able to convince her dad to let her go to one of the Aristotle Endowment schools because their academic reputation was unassailable, their class sizes were very small (and therefore all the kids in the school got quality education), and their schools’ in-campus security was considered the best. The family friend suggested Troy House because it was out of the way, and therefore his daughter would get all the benefits of an Aristotle school, yet not be in a high-visibility location. Just the kind of thing that would interest her dad.

The other girls in the group were no slouches, either. For example, in her home country, the gorgeous Ashanti had been doing fashion modeling since she was thirteen. When she became moderately successful and wanted to try her luck modeling in the States, she had a problem. A young teenager in the States would have a hard time getting modeling assignments, so she had to stop until she was older. Her family wasn’t rich, however – near destitute, in fact. Her fashion modeling was able to improve her family’s situation enough that her folks were able to go into business and put up a small store selling basics and foodstuffs to people in nearby villages.

Anyway, someone from an organization from Greece contacted them and offered Ashanti a school scholarship in Canada, plus a big enough of a stipend to keep her family afloat. This would allow her to go to school without burdening her family, and, once she was done with school, she could go back to modeling, but in the States this time, since she would be old enough by then. She preferred to go to the Endowment’s Cape Town school because it was nearby, but the offer was for Troy House in Canada.

As for Jasmine, or Jazz to her friends, she was just a regular Midwest beauty from the boonies. But she wanted to be more than just a housewife like her friends, and not just raise a family. She knew she had the smarts. All that she lacked was an opportunity. And that came from a man who came to their house and offered her a scholarship to the school at Saint John.

As for Momo-chan, she had heard of the Aristotle school in Kyoto. In the Minami-Ku section, and that they gave scholarships, and, if you maintained your grade, upon graduation, the school would give them scholarships allowing you to go to any college or university. Being the daughter of academics, this was important to her. So she took a “scholarship exam,” and wonder of wonders, she passed. But instead of being given a scholarship to the Kyoto school, it was to its sister school in Canada…

As for Rose, it was a lot more mundane. Just like many middle-class Americans, she was all set to go to college – her folks had taken a loan to allow her to go to college, and she was sweating out the application process. But as this was happening, she got a registered letter (very unusual in the age of the internet) for a scholarship to Troy House…

And when all of them arrived at Troy House, they became close friends. They were now in their third year, just a month away from the end of term, with grades that were some of the highest in their class. For some reason, this year, they were all assigned to adjacent rooms at the end of the women’s dormitory, and since they were juniors, they were on the second floor. And, since I was given the very last room on the floor, my room was adjacent to theirs.

When it was my turn, I told them my own story, although my story was a little different (and boring) in that because I thought of transferring and when I was offered a scholarship, I ended up in Delos High instead of Troy House, my school didn’t have a dormitory for its students, and I lived with my folks instead.

I felt my story a little dry… a little glib. So I opened up a little bit about my problems with my schoolmates, both my old ones and my new ones in Delos High, that they were either too friendly in that creepy way, or that they’d constantly be bullying me, and it was becoming more and more… intense over the years. Except for my Ma and my Dad, family and friends behaved that way, too. We thought my moving to Delos would be the answer. So far it has been fairly okay. But that remains to be seen. I still had a year to go before graduation, but I told them I thought I can manage one more year, and then I’d be off to college.

Ashanti gave me a small hug around the neck.

“I am sorry, Val,” she said.

But they were also interested in how my morning went. So I told them that they got lots of blood samples and did several tests, and Dr. Penny gave me a long interview for my family history.

“They did tell me, though, that they’re gonna operate on me tomorrow,” I said, telling them the lie that we agreed on

“That soon?” Rose asked.

I shrugged. “They told me that my operations weren’t going to be too difficult. It would be finished by the end of the day tomorrow, and I’d be up and about the following day.”

“That quick?” Momo-chan asked.

“Apparently so,” I said.

“My father stayed in the hospital longer than that, and he only had a tonsillectomy…”

I shrugged again. “What can I say? They even said that you guys can come fetch me on Friday.”

Seeing the Sights

After lunch, we went around the little city and saw the sights, although I couldn’t say I was all that interested since I didn’t know much about the city and its background and was only mildly interested in its architecture or its history.

Still, I was able to see the sights and buy a few trinkets and souvenirs, and the last place we went to was Shipyard Avenue, the locale of the First Riverbay Festival: according to Rose, the city government had cleaned up Shipyard Avenue, knocking down the old structures and made it a flat, green field to be used as a park. Shipyard Avenue’s name was a misnomer as it wasn’t a shipyard nor an avenue. It was rather one of the largest industrial districts of the city full of smokey cement and brick buildings where ship fittings and parts were manufactured for the city shipyards, but when shipbuilding waned, it became one of the worst rundown parts of the city.

To commemorate its cleanup, they organized the Riverbay Festival there, complete with a temporary open-air stage, temporary floodlights, transmission and audio & video equipment, and long benches. After which, they would be knocking down the temporary structures and making the square a permanent park. Whether they would put up the second Riverbay Festival there again next year was still being contemplated - Rose said it would depend on how successful this first one would be.

They were actually planning on watching the concert later on in the evening (Jazz was sure she could get us tickets), but I begged off: as we did our little walkabout that afternoon, I was feeling more and more ill-at-ease, because I felt I was becoming the center of the group, whereas they barely knew me. I felt like I didn’t deserve it. Of course, I knew they were feeling protective, given what they knew my situation was, and perhaps felt a bit proprietary towards me. I felt a bit like a fake.

But besides that, how our group was attracting attention was making me very uneasy. Other girls might actually like all the attention, as did Arianne, Jazz, and the others. I guess I need to get more used to it.

So, instead, we decided to go watch a movie – the latest Marvel adventure was on so that was what we decided to watch. I actually felt the whole Marvel Universe had played itself out, especially after the 32nd movie. Still, we had a nice time. And after dinner, again Arianne’s treat, we went back to the dorm.

It was only around ten or so, but Momo-chan convinced everyone to turn in early since I’d be having my operations the following day.

After visiting the bathroom to take my makeup off (strict instructions from Ma) and having a wash, I want to bed. I did examine my chest in the mirror before I changed, though, and I was a little shocked. They weren’t big but big enough for me. Comparing them to the pads I’ve been wearing, they were about the size of my medium-sized pair, which would make my budding boobies B-cups. Wow. So I decided not to stuff my bralettes anymore, and just go au naturelle starting tomorrow (not going braless lol – just no pads).

For sleeping that night, I put on a fresh and comfy bralette sans padding, of course, a nice comfy v-neck tee and another pair of lounge shorts. Before putting on my shirt, I checked myself again, and it seemed Dr. Maia was right – I seemed to have lost some weight, and noticed that my waist was somewhat curving inward now. The change was tiny, and I was actually not sure, but whatever…

Before sleeping I spent some time on the computer to talk with Carla and Michael, and then my folks. I told them about my day, and my new cover story of my operation being tomorrow. For their part, they told me about their day as well, but for some reason, I wasn’t feeling too interested – it was like I wasn’t in the same place, anymore. It was all probably in my head.

Connecting Doors

The morning was more or less the same as yesterday’s except I woke up early enough so I wouldn’t be rushing around.

I got to the bathroom early enough that I got first crack at the showers. And as I finished, dried, and had my robe on, the others came in.

Getting to my room, I dressed more simply, this time – a light-pastel green crewneck tee, a pair of faded skinny jeans, and my combat boots. The jeans were a trifle thin so I wore a pair of tights underneath. With my new leather jacket, I looked pretty good despite the simple outfit.

I then got out my wheelie, took out most of the stuff in it, and replaced them with outfits and stuff good enough for a couple of days’ stay at the lab.

I then noticed, on top of the bed some towels and a note on top from Theo. He said that Dr. Penny asked him to collect my laundry. I should just leave them on my bed and they would be washed, folded, and ironed by tomorrow. There wasn’t too much of it, and besides, I had lots of changes – Ma had overpacked. Over-overpacked! But since Dr. Penny said so, I guess I better.

I got out my laundry bag. But I also had my… underthings in there. I thought if I should take them out, but I thought again, never mind – this way, I won’t have to do them. Apparently, I hadn’t changed that much. Lol.

Since I was having my bathrobe washed, I better take the new towels Theo left and put them in my wheelie. Underneath, though, was a manila envelope. Inside were a couple of IDs: a DC “Real ID,” a Chicago Student Driver ID, a Social Security Card, a US Passport, an ATM card, and a Delos High ID, all made to “Faye Valentine Goodchilde.”

Wow.

Inside the envelope was a printed letter from Mr. Daimon, on school letterhead paper. In it, he explained that these were presently all the IDs they and my folks knew I had, but these were in the name of Faye Valentine instead of Val Edward. They all had the same details of my old cards, and the picture IDs used the one Dr. Maia took last Saturday.

I thoughtfully replaced my old IDs with the new ones, keeping the old ones in a zippered pouch inside my Picnic backpack.

The letter also said that I didn’t need to stand in front of any judge, and I would get all my other paperwork, like my birth certificate, and my old school records by next week. I imagined getting that done was not a small thing, but I guess the Endowment had connections everywhere. Goodbye, Val Edward…

I had breakfast with the girls again, and as they went to their classes, I walked to Archimedes with my backpack and wheelie.

I showed my Visitor’s ID to the guard and proceeded to the examination room I stayed in yesterday morning, and Dr. Penny and Dr. Maia were there.

“Okay,” I said, “I’m here.”

“Indeed you are,” Dr. Penny said, “beautiful and fashionable, as usual.”

“Stop it, Doc.”

She smiled. “Sorry for embarrassing you, dear.”

“Besides – beautiful? I don’t think so.”

“Whatever you say, dear.”

“So what’s on the agenda for today?”

“Nothing at all, actually,” she said. “This is all a cover for your transition. So that no one will know about the real thing, including the students and staff in Troy House, Delos, et cetera. Except for us, Theo and your Mr. Daimon.”

“Bit extreme…”

Dr. Penny shook her head. “It’s all necessary to keep the work of the Endowment safe, and to protect you against… a certain someone…”

“A certain someone?”

Dr. Penny looked a little chagrined. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to let that out. “That’s not important right now. Maia? Can you bring Val to her room, please?”

Dr. Maia nodded, and we went back out into the hall and started walking down the corridor.

“Val,” she said as we walked, “this is all necessary. Otherwise, the work we are doing might be jeopardized. Anyway, the plan for today is that you’ll be staying in your own room, the examination room, and the operating room, where you’re supposed to be undergoing your ‘minor procedure.’” She made the air quotes on “minor procedure.”

“No one else will be allowed in these rooms. You have to stay in these three rooms until tomorrow morning,” she continued. “That goes for myself and Penny, for most of the day at least, since we’re supposed to be operating on you.”

“Wouldn’t that be funny? Won’t people wonder where we are? And why aren’t there more people helping you?”

She shook her head. “We’ve told everyone that Penny and I are personally handling this minor procedure on you today, and not to disturb us. So everyone will just assume we’re busy working on you. As for why just the two of us? I’m sure no one will wonder that.”

She led me to a door four doors down from where we were.

“This will be your personal room until tomorrow. There’s your bed, a dresser, a fully stocked fridge, a forty-three inch TV, cable, internet, and through there’s your bathroom. Of course, I don’t need to tell you to not contact anyone until later tonight, otherwise you’ll give us away. And try not to let anyone see you through the window.”

There was also a writing table right underneath the TV that was mounted on the wall and a round table in the middle of the room with four chairs around it. It felt more like a reasonably-appointed hotel room. I suppose they use this room for visitors and guests.

“Okay, Doc,” I said. “Thanks.”

“Penny and I will bring lunch later, and we can chat.”

“About what?”

“About anything at all. Since you know everything already, feel free to ask anything you want. In the meantime, you have the run of these three rooms.”

“Well, I think I’d want to ask about that ‘certain someone’ that Dr. Penny mentioned… Can we talk about that?”

Dr. Maia sighed. “Penny shouldn’t have said anything. But since she already mentioned it, I guess so.”

“Good.”

“There are connecting doors to all three rooms,” she gestured to the door on the wall on the right. “Use these doors to move from room to room. Don’t go outside. Also, keep the door locked and don’t answer any knock.”

“Okay. What about that other door?” I pointed to the one on the left, beside the door to the bathroom.

“That’s another bedroom – Penny and I are going to share a room since there are no other rooms on this floor.”

“Sure,” I said. I couldn’t help but snicker a bit.

“Val…” Dr. Maia said a little irritated. I shrugged, smiling, and started to unpack, and she left via the hallway door.

The “Operation”

The whole morning was pretty boring, with nothing better to do than surf, so I surfed.

The sites that I used to visit all the time didn’t seem to interest me anymore. Then I thought of googling myself – I mean “Val Edward Goodchilde” and “Faye Valentine Goodchilde.” I couldn’t find any links and references to them except for a Val Goodchilde, a former student of Kennedy Science Junior High in Washington DC, who’s now studying at Delos High School in Chicago. I apparently stumbled onto my old identity.

I was curious so I checked myself out.

The data was a little sketchy, and there were no pictures. That was a lucky break. Also, there wasn’t much information, although I did find a write-up about me on the varsity website of KSH, also without a picture. I paged through the different writeups there, and all of them were pretty nice profiles (of course, since the school wrote them up, after all), but I did notice that all of them had pictures except mine. Anyway…

“’You may have noticed Val’s name, and yes Val’s namesake is very popular, especially among movie and cartoon aficionados. Aside from being part of the school’s volleyball team, Val’s interests include photography and writing, having some pictures and small short stories featured on the school paper’s website, and is very interested in art and sculpture. Val is not with the school anymore, having availed of a scholarship. She is one of the smartest in her year. Good work, Val! We are all rooting for you!”

What a cornball piece, I thought. But then, I stopped… I wasn’t part of the volleyball team – I was part of the basketball team!

I read it through again and noticed that the piece referred to me as a “she” – it was easily overlooked since it was just only one mention, after all. But it has obviously been doctored.

I checked other references. There were only a few, but all of them didn’t feature any pictures not referred to my gender. Mr. Daimon was pretty thorough!

I checked my family and my folks, and nothing seemed to have been changed, although… Nowadays, everyone – most professionals, at least had some sort of presence on the net, at least a LinkedIn or some similar professional profile, so I checked my folks’ profiles, and they seemed to be the same, except for the fact that it referred to their having one child – a daughter named Val…

Wow, again.

But what if they checked their own profiles? Won’t they find that… uncool? That someone could easily change their online information like that? And what about the family? Won’t they ask about why they don’t have a nephew anymore and why they now have a niece…

I called Dr. Maia via cell and asked if I could contact Mr. Daimon, and she said it wasn’t a problem since he was in on it, already. Before she could ask why, I hung up.

I rummaged through my backpack and found the card. I then called Mr. Daimon’s Viber number on my computer.

“Delos High, good morning.”

“Hi, Mr. Daimon! It’s me, Val Goodchilde, Junior Year, Class F.”

“Of course, Val! How’re you, ‘Ms. Faye Valentine Goodchilde?’” he smiled. “I sent your IDs last night. Did you get them?”

“Yes, sir, I did.”

“What do you think? I’m especially proud of them.”

“Ummm, very nice?”

His face fell at my lack of appreciation.

“All right, Val,” he said, his excitement at my call fading, “how can I help you?”

“Thank you for my new IDs, sir. But I didn’t know that you’d be making changes to reference data.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, my data files and documents from my old school, sir – you modified them.”

“How did you know… well, anyway, yes, I did. I thought you’d appreciate that. Less issues.”

“Well, yes. Unless someone from the school that knew me checks the records and spots the changes.”

He looked at me in surprise. “You’re right. We didn’t think of that. Damn! Why didn’t we think of that?”

“My dad says, if you’re too close to the problem, you sometimes miss the obvious.”

“He may be right. I’ll call my bosses, and see what we should do.”

“Also – you changed the data in my folks’ files as well.”

“Yes… I’ll ask about that, too.”

“I think you should allow them to change the information themselves. You know? If they find the changes, they’ll probably think something fishy’s going on.”

“Yeah. That’s probably the right idea. Is that it?”

“Well, yeah. Thanks so much.”

“No problem. So how’re you doing?”

“Pretty okay. But nothing much’s happening here.”

“That’s the plan – nothing unusual should be happening. It’s just a cover, after all.”

“Mr. Daimon? I understand the reason for the cover-up. But this seems too much.”

“Believe me, Val. This is necessary.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s necessary for the Endowment to do its important work…”

“Yes, dammit!”

“Mr. Daimon? Who are we hiding me from?”

He looked blankly at me. “Who said we’re hiding you?”

”Are you hiding me?”

“Where did you even get that idea?”

“I notice you’re not denying it. So I guess it’s true.”

“Val…”

“Well, anyway, that’s all I wanted to ask. Thanks so much, Mr. Daimon. Will you call me when something’s been decided regarding my IDs?”

“Right away. Talk to you later.”

I felt a little guilty talking to the vice-principal in that way, but all this cloak-and-dagger - I was starting to get fed up with it. I wasn’t saying that I don’t appreciate what everyone has done for me, but I had this strong feeling that they were not telling me the whole truth. They can keep their secrets, but not those that affect me. I sound very self-involved or narcissistic, but the point here is that the stuff they’re keeping from me might put me, specifically, in danger. At least it sounds like it.

After my extremely short conversation with Mr. Daimon, I thought I couldn’t do much. I was dependent on what they were willing to do, so I was hoping that when Mr. Daimon came back, I might get more info.

At about lunchtime, Dr. Penny knocked on the connecting door, and she came in with a trolly, similar to the kind used for room service in hotels, followed by Dr. Maia with a tray and a bag from a nearby Circle K (apparently, there are no 7-Elevens in Saint John).

“How about some lunch?” Dr. Penny said.

“Great, thanks.”

The two bustled around the table and laid out some food from the cafeteria downstairs.

“Theo smuggled all this inside,” Dr. Penny said.

“You know,” I said, “Theo also gave me my new IDs this morning. He left them in my dorm room.” I giggled. “Apparently, I’m now ‘Faye Valentine.’” There was a melancholy tinge to my laugh though.

“Sit down, and we can have some lunch,” Dr. Maia said, and we sat down. As we dished up some food onto disposable plates, Dr. Penny cleared her throat.

“Speaking of your IDs,” she said, “Mr. Daimon called me and he said you had concerns.”

“One of the bigger things that he mentioned,” Dr. Maia said, “was that he was very shocked that you were able to find out certain things that we never said anything about.”

I shrugged.

“Well, then, your concerns as to the changes in your documentation – I think you’re right. So we intend to undo the changes, and just change your name to ‘Val,’ totally side-stepping issues about your name. As to references regarding your gender, we’ll leave them blank, and just imply that they were clerical errors. As for your school friends, teachers and everyone, we’ll just allow them to discover the change on their own. I’m told you didn’t have too many friends back in Kennedy Science?”

“Not too many?” I said sarcastically. “How about none?”

“That’s too bad. How come?”

“Well, they usually start out okay friends, but eventually, they get weird.” I shrugged. “I don’t know why.”

“Well, how about in Delos? Seems to me, there are lots of people trying to get to know you.”

I shrugged. “I’ve only been in Delos for seven months. I’m hoping it’ll go well, but I’m scared it’ll just be like in elementary and in Kennedy, and it’ll all go weird, as usual.”

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t.”

“How about…?”

“… your parents?” she said. “I think you were right. We’ll leave their data alone, and let them fix it by themselves. We can then leave the rest of your family to them, and leave it to them if they want the rest of your family to know, or just let them find out about it on their own.”

I thought it over.

“Well,” I thought, “what if you offer to do the changing of my folks’ data, and tell them, that way, nothing is missed, and they won’t be surprised if they see any changes?”

They looked at each other. “Why don’t we think of these things on our own?” Dr. Penny said to Dr. Maia.

Maia shrugged.

“Let’s have Mr. Daimon contact Mr. and Mrs. Goodchilde,” Dr. Penny said, “and make the offer.”

“What’s the plan for the kids in Delos?” I asked.

“Well, we intended to make an announcement in your homeroom class, and allow the grapevine to do the spreading.”

“Oh… I’m not too happy with that. I don’t think it’ll go well…”

“Well, if it doesn’t go well, we can relocate you.”

I shrugged. “Guess that’s all that can be done.”

Dr. Penny and Dr. Maia looked at each other.

Dr. Penny sighed. “All right. I’ve decided. We’re gonna tell you about what happened several years ago.”

“I can only assume it’s about Erin?”

Dr. Penny looked at me with some respect. “I think we’ve been underestimating you, my dear. You’re correct – it’s about Erin.” And Dr. Penny and Dr. Maia took turns in telling me about Erin.

 

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