This is an unauthorized continuation of Jeremy Chandler’s, “My Summer in Pantyhose,” last added to by Jeremy 04/07/2023. The story line and characters belong to Jeremy Chandler and are used without express permission. What follows is intended as fan fiction with the greatest of admiration for Jeremy and appreciation for the original work.

  The three of them were walking toward the bus stop after school. All things considered; it had been a good day. Homework had been assigned, but it was mostly reading in English.

  “I didn’t know that West-Central had a Pride Club. That’s pretty cool,” Tabitha said.

  “You going to join, Jamie?” Mike asked.

  “I think we all should,” Tabitha said as Julie and Samantha caught up to them.

  “We should all do what?” Julie wanted to know.

  “Join the Pride Club,” Tabitha told her.

  “What Pride Club?”

  “West-Central High has a Pride club,” Tabitha told her.

  “I think I heard about that our freshman year,” Samantha said. “One of the girls in my gym class was in love with one of the other girls and they talked about the Pride Club.”

  “Isn’t that for gay people?” Julie asked.

  “No, it’s for all the LGBT group. Larry Collins talked to Jamie after you guys left at lunch. He’s the membership chairman. Show her the brochure, Jamie,” Tabitha said.

  Jamie reached into his backpack and brought out the brochure. Julie took it and looked it over.

  “We welcome students from all disciplines, genders, sexualities, and identities and their supporters to be involved,” she read out loud. “That’s kind of nebulas. Where does Jamie fit in all of that?”

  “My mother explained it all to me when she was working on her company’s diversity policies. The way that’s worded, ‘genders’ must include male, female and transgender. When they throw in ‘identities’ that would include gender identity. Larry said that the school’s anti-bullying policy protected gender identity and gender expression. He said that meant that if Jamie wanted to he could wear a skirt to school and he’d be protected from bullying.”

  Samantha, ever the jokester, smiled. “There you go, Jamie. You wondered just where you’d wear your skirts. Looks like they’re school clothes.”

  Jamie rolled his eyes and said, “Not likely. I’m not about to push the boundaries on that score.”

  “Wait,” Mike said. “You have skirts? Wow; you’re going all the way.”

  “How did the first day of high school go?” Megan’s mother wanted to know when she got home.

  “I don’t want to think about it.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  Megan scowled at her.

  “If you must know, Jamie’s got a new girlfriend, Kim was all over me about cheerleading and Josh harassed me after school was out.”

  “I sure that Josh just wants you to go out with him again. And what about cheerleading? You haven’t said anything about it. In middle school, you lived and breathed cheerleading.”

  “I’m not doing cheerleading anymore and I don’t want to go out with Josh.”

  “You should feel honored to have someone as popular as he is interested in you. He’s everything I would expect a boyfriend of yours to be.”

  “You set low standard for my boyfriends. Honestly, mother he showed his true colors at the beach party. And after that, I’m steering clear of him and his friends.”

  “OK, but what about cheer? When are the tryouts? I’m sure you’ll make the squad.”

  “Try outs were last week.”

  “You didn’t go. I’m sure you’re not the only one to miss them. Surely they’ll have another.”

  “Yeah, sometime this week, but I’m not going.”

  “Why ever not?”

  “I don’t want to do cheerleading anymore.”

  “But…”

  “If I was a cheerleader, I’d have to be around Josh and I already told you I’m steering clear of him and his kind.”

  Megan turned and stomped up the stairs to her room.

  Jamie decided that he’d do better in high school than he had in middle school. Not that he had done that poorly. Learning came easy for him, and while his overall grade didn’t show it he’d always got poor marks for doing homework. He didn’t need it to learn the subject, so he saw it as a waste of time, but Julie warned him that in high school most classes would count homework as fifty-percent of the grade. Even if he aced all other aspects of the class the best grade he could expect would be a D. If he wanted to go to college, he’d need at least a 2.5 GPA, 3.5 if he wanted to go to any really good college.

  With that in mind, he had set up a workspace in his bedroom to do homework and though, he only had some reading for English, he went straight to his room and sat down and started reading. He had a list of required reading books and had stopped by the school library and checked out a book. Since he’d read, “Tom Sawyer,” in the eighth grade, he chose, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

  After putting on a pair of nude to the waist suntan pantyhose and a skirt and blouse he sat down to read. He had come to quite enjoy wearing a skirt. It was totally unlike anything else he had ever worn. He even had thoughts about getting a dress to see if that was the same kind feeling. With those thoughts running around in his head, he was buried in the second chapter when he heard his mother call upstairs.

  “Jamie; dinner.”

  He was surprised that he was hungry. Putting a book mark in place, he hurried down to the kitchen. Dinner was already on the table. His mother and Julie wear already at the table as well. He slipped into his seat and noticed a Silver iPhone X next to his plate.

  “What’s this?” he asked, picking it up.

  “Julie reminded me that she got a cell phone when she started high school; that’s your cell phone. Now you have no excuse for not calling me when you’re going to be late. Plus it’s internet capable so you can use it to do research for school.”

  “But an iPhone? Aren’t they expensive?”

  “It’s used, or as they say, ‘Pre-owned refurbished.’”

  “I’ll help you set it up after dinner,” Julie told him. “I'm jealous. It’s better than my Samsung. I may have to upgrade. How will it look if my freshman brother has a better phone than I do.”

  “You’ll do it on your own dime. I didn’t get a deal on your phone and we paid monthly for your phone. It’s paid off now. I paid cash for Jamie’s phone.”

  Tabitha’s mother poked her head into Tabitha’s room and found her on her computer. Remarkably not gaming, but at some math tutorial site.

  “Hi Hun, did your first day at high school go alright?”

  “Fine mom. Did you know that West-Central High had a Pride Club?”

  “No, can’t say as I did.”

  “A guy, Larry something, talked to Jamie about it at lunch today. I guess there’s been talk about him wearing pantyhose and Jamie was on a list of people this Larry guy wanted to recruit him for the Club. Larry is the membership chairman.”

  “Is Jamie going to join?”

  “I think so. I know I am. It’s open to supporters as well as any of the LGBT+ students. I think his friend Mike and probably his sister and maybe her friend Samantha will as well.”

  “What do you know about the club?”

  “Larry said they were sponsored by the local chapter of PFLAG. He gave Jamie a brochure about it.”

  “I know the folks there. I conferred with them about terminology when I wrote the diversity documents for the company. I’ll have to give them a call and find out about the West-Central High’s club.”

  “Jamie,” Julie said, “do you have that brochure for the Pride Club?”

  “I put in my back pack.”

  “What Pride Club is that?” their mom wanted to know.

  “The school has a Pride Club and the membership chairman approached Jamie today at lunch to invite him to join.”

  “Pride, as in LGBT pride?”

  “Yeah. I guess that some kids have been gossiping about Jamie and he, the membership chairman, heard about it and he thinks Jamie is transgender.”

  Their mother looked at Jamie.

  “You know Jamie, there may be something to that. I know that I’ve prodded you to wear more than just pantyhose, but you’ve never objected to the clothes themselves, but only that someone would see you and think badly of you. Judging by what you’re wearing right now, what you chose for yourself, that is likely the case.”

  “Larry Collins seems to think that the pantyhose by themselves is enough. He said I have a lot to learn and that the Pride Club is a good place to learn it.”

  “So, does that mean you’re going to join?”

  “I think so. He said that Julie, Samantha, Mike and Tabitha would be welcome as supporters would be welcome to join too. If at least one of them joins with me, I will.”

  Larry stood outside the door to the conference room. On a small table next to him was a stack of information packets. He had contacted ten prospective members, but he hoped that the posters on the many bulletin boards throughout the school would bring in more than that. One of those posters was on the bulletin board next to the door. He had added a bright yellow arrow pointing to the door with the word “HERE” under it.

  He smiled as Jamie and his entourage approached.

  “Jamie,” he said, “I see you brought your posse with you.”

  He handed each of them a packet.

  “Go on in, help yourself to the drinks and donuts on the table and have a seat. We’ll be starting in about ten minutes.”

  Jamie went in followed by Tabitha, Mike, Julie and Samantha. His group nearly doubled the number of people there. He and Mike each grabbed a donut before the group sat in the back row of chairs on the left. He noted that they had chairs for about forty people. There was dais with four chairs behind it at the far end of the room. Two of the chairs had people sitting in them. Behind them tacked up on the wall was a rainbow flag. Jamie knew there were several pride flags with slightly different connotations, but he was ignorant of what that flag meant other than it was a pride flag.

  As the minutes ticked by, the number of attendees doubled again. They mostly came in in ones and twos. All told, twenty-six people showed up. There was an eclectic mix. Some of them look like they belonged in the group, but most just looked like any other student. There was a couple of girls with short hair, wearing jeans, boots and denim vests. They had no makeup and the only jewelry was the nose stud that one of them sported. They sat holding hands. Most of the attendees were boys. With the three girls in his group making up a good third of the girls in the room.

  Larry came in and closed the door, but leaving it ajar. He walked up to the dais a spoke to the two others there. A teacher came in and walked up front. He too spoke with the group behind the dais. Finally, the teacher took the end seat and Larry stepped up to the dais.

  “Thank you all for coming. Welcome. For those who don’t know, my name is Larry Collins. I’m the membership chairman. I personally contacted a number of you. I would imagine the rest of you are here at the invitation of one of them or in response to the number of posters around the school.

  “Just out curiosity, how many of you are here in support of some else here for themselves?”

  Jamie’s four supporters and two others held up their hands.

  “Excellent,” Larry said, “I want to assure you that in joining our group, you are a vital part of the organization. There are no second-class members. You are free and are encouraged to become involved.

  “Our regular meeting is held in the staff lunchroom just off the main cafeteria on the third Monday of the month at three-thirty. That’s this coming Monday. I look forward to seeing you all there.”

  As he was speaking one last person slipped into the room and took a seat in the back row at the far right. Jamie caught the movement out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t think too much of it. he supposed that since a lot of the LGBTQ+ were in the closet, it just might be they needed to work up their courage to attend the meeting.

  “I’d like to introduce the officers of our club.” He turned and indicated a tall, obviously senior boy on the far left. “Our president Owen,” Owen waived. “Next to Owen, our vice president, Loren. Loren looked like a linebacker for a football team. Jamie learned later he was. “Last but not least, or faculty advisor, Mr. Jorgensen.

  “Mr. Jorgensen, would you like to make a few remarks?”

  Larry sat down and Mr. Jorgensen took his place.

  “I want you all to know that I’m just an advisor. These fine gentlemen are the ones who actually run the club. My job is to help make sure that the activities they, or more correctly, you all organize don’t run afoul of any rules or regulations.

  “I also want to assure you that the faculty here at West-Central High, have your back. We are all one-hundred percent dedicated to creating an inclusive, diverse learning environment in which each and every student can attend without concerns regarding the acceptance of who they are.

  “With that, I’ll turn the meeting over to the president.”

  The president and vice-president each gave a five-minute speech outlining the goals of the club and announcing the first couple of planned events. They both encouraged them to attend the monthly meeting and get involved helping at the events. They opened the floor to questions The last thing they did was encourage them to mix and get to know one another.

  The officers and advisor got up and mixed with the attendees. Jamie stood and looked around. It was then he noticed the late-comer was Megan. He froze as their eyes met. She looked sad, as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Jamie knew he had every right to be angry with her, but the look on her face softened his heart.

  Julie was the first to notice Jamie had ceased to move and was staring intently. She turned to see what he was looking at. Megan was dressed in plain black capris and a white top. She wore her hair straight and had no makeup on. Very unlike the fashion-conscious Megan from before.

  Jamie turned to Tabitha.

  “Ah, Megan showed up. I think I need to talk to her. Will you come with me for moral support?”

  Tabitha turned to look at where Jamie’s eyes went. She took Jamie’s hand.

  “She looks scared,” Tabitha said. “Why do you think she’s here?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I think I need to talk to her. I don’t want to talk to her alone, so will you come with?”