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.

  Tabitha took pity on Jamie and coached him on what to expect next. Mike was seriously impressed with the gamer girl.

  “How is it your so good at this?” he wanted to know.

  “You’ve got to think like a game programmer. There are only so many possibilities of what’s coming next. The choice of just what that is, is determined by supposedly random chance. That random change is actually controlled by the player. Though most players are too wrapped up in the score or what weapons they can choose from or one of about a dozen other variables to notice the correlation between their choice and what happens in the game. Another factor is how long it takes to make the choice.”

  Mike and Jamie just looked at her for a long minute.

  “If you say so. If I think about it, I suppose that makes sense. But really, aren’t there too many variables to keep track of it all?”

  “On a conscious level there are, but the human brain is capable of receiving thousands of stimulesses a second, but most of the reaction reasoning takes place on the subconscious level. People call it intuition, or instinct. It’s a matter of trusting that subconscious prompt in the fraction of a second it takes for it to be formulated,” she explained.

  “Think of it like this. When you’re taking a test at school and you come to a multiple guess question that you don’t absolutely know the answer to, how do you choose the answer?”

  Mike and Jamie looked at each other for a minute, before Jamie answered.

  “I just scan the answers and mark one.”

  “When you get the test back to you ever checked to see if the answer was right?”

  “Yeah, sometimes.”

  “How often is it right?”

  “Most of the time it is. But it seems like when I try to reason out the answer they are almost always wrong.”

  “The reason for that is when you just answer the question without reasoning it out, you’re allowing your subconscious make the choice. You, know the answer, but you don’t know that you know it because it’s buried deep in your subconscious. It’s the same thing when gaming. Your subconscious has accumulated the results of your choices. So when you choose the weapon or the path to go down, if you let your subconscious make the choice more times than not, it’s the best choice.

  “After playing the game for a long time, people don’t realize it but, they finally make choices that way. They get better at the game without knowing why. The trick is to shortcut the process and make yourself trust that instinct born in the subconscious without needing a hundred repetitions.”

  “That’s a lot to chew on,” Mike observed.

  “Oh, look at the time,” Jamie said. “Didn’t your mother say she was coming to get you at five?”

  “Yeah, we’d better get going. We only have fifteen minutes to get to your place.

  “Love your game Mike, thanks for letting me come over.”

  “You’re welcome anytime. Too bad you’re busy next Saturday, but maybe the next week.”

  “I hope you’re making enough for one extra,” Julie’s mom said as she came out on the deck.

  “Should be enough, why?” Aaron wanted to know.

  “I just got off the phone with Tabitha’s mother. She was rearended by a 4x4 pickup. She called her insurance man and he told her to go to emergency to get checked out even if she felt OK. Anyway, she called from the hospital. Aside from a bruise on her forehead, from the air bag, she OK, but her car is totaled. She doesn’t know how long it will be before she can get here for Tabitha. I told her I’d feed Tabitha see that she got home; she has a key to let herself in.”

  “Oh wow. We’ve got plenty enough for one extra,” Julie told her. “So what’s this Tabitha like? Did you get a chance to talk with her before Jamie whisked her off to Mike’s?”

  “I did. Her mother came in and had coffee before the kids headed out to Mike’s. She stayed and we had a nice long conversation, so I got to know her a little as well. It seems she works in HR at her company, and is the chairman of the diversity committee. They’ve just finished updating the corporate harassment and equality policy to include gender identity and gender expression. She told me that Lucille has some similar ideas along that line. Her husband is a sales manager and is out of town this weekend at some kind of seminar, so he can’t come get Tabitha.”

  “I take it you like Tabitha?”

  “Megan was a nice girl and all, but I never did understand why she was interested in Jamie. You know what a computer nerd Jamie is, well Tabitha is every bit as much into computer games as Jamie is. Oh just before she left her mother confided in me that Tabitha is, and I quote, ‘quite taken’ with Jamie.”

  “The plot thickens. With Megan out of the picture, she’s lined up to get close to Jamie.”

  “I’m not sure that Jamie is aware that she’s interested, so let’s not say anything to Jamie about it.”

  “No prob, Mom. We’ll let nature take its course.”

  As they rode back to Jamie’s house they took their time and talked.

  “I hope you aren’t upset because I told Mike we had plans for next Saturday. I know we didn’t have any firm plans but we did kind of talk about it and when he asked about it, I guess I was in trust the subconscious mode and it jumped out that we had plans without considering other options.”

  “No, I think I’d like to do something besides go to Mike’s every Saturday. He should get a job or something. He’s way to sedentary. I don’t think he’d ever leave his room if there was a toilet there and his mother would bring his meals. I guess that’s why he’s so good at that game; he doesn’t do anything but play the game.”

  “So what do we want to do?”

  “I’m not too good at thinking of that myself. We’ll need to talk about that at work. Maybe something will come to mind.”

  They approached the house and the garage door was open and Jamie rode right in.

  “We’ll park the bike in here.”

  Jamie led the way in to the kitchen, noting they were right on time; 5:00 on the nose. Looking out to their covered deck, they noticed that Julie and his mother were out at the barbecue with a good-looking guy a couple of years older than Julie.

  “Hi Mom. What up? Are we having barbecue for dinner?”

  “Yes. Aaron is a barbecue whiz. He took over Julie’s idea of baked chicken and changed it to barbecue chicken. He whipped up a homemade barbecue sauce that’s really good.”

  Jamie looked Aaron over. He really didn’t look like Jamie imagined him. He was expecting some broad-shouldered football jock or something. But Aaron looked more like a swimmer or maybe a cross-country runner.

  Aaron looked over at Jamie and closed the grill. He walked over to him and put out his hand.

  “So you’re the infamous Jamie Julie’s always talking about. I’m Aaron.”

  Jamie remembered his manners and took his hand.

  “Good to meet you. Julie’s been kind of closed mouthed about you.”

  Aaron looked at Julie.

  “Are you ashamed of me?” he asked with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

  “If you remember, up until last weekend, you were a secret.”

  “But Jamie seems to have heard of me.”

  “It seems that Julie tells Jamie things she doesn’t tell her mother,” their mother admonished, looking at Julie.

  “Guilty as charged. I hope that amnesty you granted me extends to Jamie. I did tell him about going to the beach with Aaron. In his defense Jamie said he wouldn’t lie to cover for me, but I did talk him into keeping you busy that Saturday so I’d be free to do so.”

  “Well, this is news. I think there’s a little retribution due. We were going to spare you and not tell you what we got Jamie that day, but now, I’m tempted to have him do a fashion show so you can see it firsthand.”

  Julie didn’t mention that she suspected that would be the case and had seen the shopping bags in the recycle.

  “Did you get him some really nice stuff? I was so wrapped up in the drama that day I kind of put it of my mind. I’d love to see a fashion show.”

  “I’d love to see it too, only my mother will be here any minute to pick me up,” Tabitha put in.

  “Oh, Tabitha, I should have said something when you first got here. Your mother called and said she’d be late. Don’t worry, she’s alright, but she was rearended and the car is totaled. With your dad being out of town she’ll have to see about renting a car. So I offered to feed you dinner and see you got home OK. So you’re staying for dinner. I’m sure she won’t mind if you hang out after we eat and Jamie can do his fashion show before you go home.”

  “Are you sure she’s alright?” Tabitha asked, concerned.

  “Yes. When she called her insurance man he insisted she go to the ER and get check out. They said she’s just fine.”

  “OK, so long as Mom is OK, I’m good with that. That chicken smells great. I can’t wait.”

  “That was a great dinner, you two. You make a good team,” Julie’s mom told them. “Aaron, I hereby promote you from barbeque prince to barbeque king; at least in this realm. You’ll have to negotiate with your father about that when your home.”

  “It did turn out rather well,” Julie replied. “Aaron deserves most of the credit. It’s kind of tough to mess up baked potatoes and frozen vegies.”

  “Let’s take this party inside and Jamie can get on with his fashion show,” their mother said.

  Jamie rolled his eyes. He really wished that they wouldn’t make a big deal out of the girl’s clothes he was starting to prefer wearing. His latest acquisitions kind of cemented that feeling. He really liked the look of his latest skorts and the tops went well with them. He had become totally adept at working to buttons on the other side and never even thought about it whenever he put on a button up top.

  Nothing would do but he put on the show everyone seemed to want. So following the pattern established when he did it for his mother he went through the routine. He was still a bit self-conscious about the wide leg skorts. They were too much like skirts.

  “Grandma bought these first two for me. Do you really think they look OK,” he asked, as he modeled the second one.”

  “I like them,” Tabitha said.

  “You don’t think they look too much like a skirt?”

  “Well yeah, they do kinda, but that’s what a skorts is all about. Looking like a skirt but giving the modesty of shorts.”

  “Well still I don’t think I’ll be wearing them out of the house any time soon.

  “Get on with the show,” his mother told him. “You picked out the rest yourself,”

  As he modeled each one, even Aaron got in on the praise of his choices, which surprised him. If he’d had any say in the matter, he’d have not done the show with him present.

  “You know, Jamie, these last two both really do look good on you,” Aaron said. “They have just the right look for someone you age,” Aaron told him. Somehow, it really pleased him that Aaron liked the way they looked on him.

  “Yes, I agree,” Tabitha said. “Is the next one like them?”

  “No, it’s more of a skirt with shorts under it. I’m not sure I like it. I don’t know why I picked out.”

  “Go put it on and we’ll tell you what we think,” Julie said.

  A few minutes later, Jamie arrived wearing the last of his new clothes. He walked in and did a kind of runway turn in the middle of the room.

  “See,” he said, “a skirt with shorts underneath. He pulled the hem up just enough to reveal the bottom of the shorts.

  Tabitha studied him a moment.

  “I can see why you picked this one. All the others look good on you, but this one is your color and shows off your legs to their best advantage.”

  Tabitha’s opinion had become as important as Megan’s had been.

  “You think I have good looking legs?”

  “Well yeah. And that outfit really works for you. I’m totally jealous. My legs don’t look all that good.”

  “I think your legs look great,” Jamie blurted out and then clapped both hands over his mouth. He could feel is face begin to burn as his blush reach his ears.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. I …” he trailed off looking hopelessly lost.

  Tabitha smiled.

  “I’m flattered. I don’t think anyone has ever told me that my legs look good before.”

  Julie and his mother were really enjoying watching Jamie flounder and get embarrassed.

  “Do you really think they look good?” Tabitha asked sticking her right leg out.

  Jamie had no choice. He had to say something, but was embarrassed that he’d said anything out loud.

  “Yeah, even without hose. My legs don’t look good at all bare legged.”

  “Are you going to start wearing your new skorts to work?” Tabitha wanted to know.

  “You really should,” his mother said. She really wanted to gauge his reaction to the more girlie clothes.

  “Maybe the first two you bought me, but this one and the two that grandma bought are too much like skirts and I don’t think I’m ready to make that kind of fashion statement at work yet.”

  His mom smiled… ‘Yet’ was the key word. One day he might be. She’d have to see about him making that fashion statement elsewhere. At Tabitha’s suggestion, he changed back into the Pleated Woven Skorts.