by Paula Dillon

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Chapter 30
 
 
Angel turned to Sierra and asked her to follow Lisa for a bit, “Call me if she heads back this way. Nevada and I are going to take Janice to the ladies room and get her fixed up.”

Sierra took off as Angel and Nevada helped get up and head to the ladies room. Once they were there Angel just held Janice till she stopped crying.

“Pull yourself together, Janice,” Angel whispered into her ear. “You aren’t the only girl who is different and you won’t be the last.”

“Why are you helping me? Didn’t you hear, I am a freak.”

“You look alright to me. Now clean up your face.”

Janice wiped her face, and Nevada helped her with her makeup. Sierra called Angel and said that Lisa was coming back with security. They hurried up and were back at their table before security got there. The three of them were all acting natural when security arrived and walked past us.

“There is the pervert,” Lisa shouted to security.

They stopped and looked incredulously at Angel, Nevada and Janice.

“You are kidding Ma’am. It is a crime to make a false report.”

“The brown haired thing there is a boy and a pervert.”

“I only see three girls sitting there and having a meal. Just what was she doing that could be considered offensive?”

“It just being here is offensive to me.”

“Ma’am I am going to have to ask you to come with us.”

Janice started to get up, but the security team took Lisa by the arm and began to escort her away.

Another of the security team approached the girls and said, “I want to apologize for our intrusion. We have had problems with perverts in the past and we take all such reports seriously. The Mall doesn’t care if people are transgendered or otherwise as long as they act appropriately and I am not about to ask if anybody is transgendered, so please accept our apologies.”

Ten minutes later Sierra joined them. “They took Lisa to the security office and after about five minutes they escorted her out of the Mall. I heard them tell her not to come back to the Mall for six months or they would file trespassing charges on her. She was cussing and bitching all the way,” She said giggling.

Angel filled in Sierra on what had happened here.

“You mean you guys don’t care that I may not be a girl.”

“Why should we?” Sierra said. “You look like a girl to me, and even if you are, what did you say Angel, transgendered, you have a right to be who you are or should be. You are certainly a better girl than that Lisa Caldwell.”

“You are our friend, Janice,” Angel said to her, holding her hand.

“Yeah and now you are on the top of the list of our friends,” Nevada said giggling. “I would have paid big bucks to see that Lisa kicked in the pants.”

“Unfortunately they just escorted her to the door. I wanted to kick her ass,” Sierra said.

“And yo… you… don’t care.”

“Why should we? Are you going to attack us or something?” Angel asked.

“No… no… you are my friends.”

“Ok, let’s go play,” Angel said.

There was a big crowd waiting at Leo’s that day. Word about Angel had spread like wild fire.

“Damn, I am going to have to get permission from the mall to move this jam session to the stage we have in the mall next week. The Mall manager loves our sessions. She said that the other stores have reported that before and after our jam sessions, sales at the mall go up.”

The mall had a stage area next to the food court, where they held community plays and free concerts.

Angel sold seven guitars that day, one after she had just tuned it up. Angel had to revert to her own guitar, when Dave asked for that guitar; Angel looked crossly at him and said, “Not on your life, Dave. This is my guitar. Death to anyone who tries to take it,” hugging her guitar to her chest. Dave walked away shaking, her look had really scared him and left the band laughing.

They did a few easy songs and Janice joined in on them, along with several other people. They even had someone join them on a keyboard, another played a trumpet and the twins played their castanets. Angel played a few more of her Spanish pieces than usual. The twins did their dancing at the back, which got the crowd clapping.

After they finished playing, the girls found Carmine and Rita waiting for them at the front of the store. Angel told Janet not to say anything about what had happened yet, as they went to greet them.

“Wow, all of you really are as talented as my daughter has told me,” Rita said, as the girls got to the front.

“Oh Mrs. Fletcher, hello,” Angel said. “Aunt Carmine, this is Rita Fletcher. Mrs. Fletcher, this is my Aunt Carmine Santiago and the twins Mother.”

“Hello Mrs. Santiago, it is so nice meeting you. You have such a talented family.”

“Please call me Carmine, yes they are talented, especially Angel.”

The adults talked about the show that was put on and Leo joined them. He handed Angel a check for two thousand dollars, after telling everybody about the guitars and things they had sold.

“I set a sales record today and not just for the guitars you sold Angel. Seriously, the mall manager wants us to play on the stage the week after next.”

“I can’t Leo,” Angel said. “I am going to have to visit the school I am starting this fall. I have to take exams and such. I don’t know when the next time I will be able to play.”

“Dang it,” Leo said laughing. “Well, give me a call, a week or two in advance and I will try to set something up.”

On the way home, the trio told Aunt Carmine what had happened at the Mall. She was surprised that Janice was like Angel, happy that Angel had not outed herself, incensed at what Lisa had done and she agreed with the girls about not making a scene at the music store.

“Please Angel, talk it over with your Mom or me before you tell anybody about yourself. I need to talk to Rita, do you have her number.”

Angel gave Aunt Carmine the Fletcher’s telephone number when they got home. She went to her bedroom and made a call.

Angel, with her cousins’ assistance, began to fix dinner.
 
 
Chapter 31
 
 
Friday evening, Angel had another lesson with Joyce Drummond. Joyce handed her a stack of new music to learn, none of the new sheets had chording. Joyce asked Angel to try not to manually chord them and to try to play them later. She wanted Angel to try to read and play the music. She then handed Angel another piece of music.

It was an untitled piece; Angel saw that it was written for guitar and piano. This sheet did have chording. Angel read the whole sheet of music before she picked up the guitar. It had the same feel as the classical music she loved. She played the line she would play in her head before she began to play her guitar. The piece had a short piano entry, but Angel just started with her part.

Joyce let her play it through a couple of times before she joined Angel in playing. There were several places where they played together, the guitar played a solo and where the piano soloed. They went through the piece three times. Angel and Joyce made some alterations at various points. The fingering was very complex for Angel and she found that she liked it. When Angel and Joyce were satisfied, Joyce added a mike to her workstation/keyboard for the guitar. After she played with the levels a bit, she recorded their music.

They played and recorded the piece twice. Stopping to listen to the tracks they had just recorded before playing it again.

“Well how did you like it, Angel?”

“I like it very much. You wrote this, didn’t you?”

“Yes I did. I got the idea from listening to you play. I wrote it to be especially challenging for you.”

“It wasn’t easy, and I know I can improve the way I play it, but I really like it. It’s a very good piece of music. I would give you an A+,” Angel said, teasing Mrs. Drummond.

“Well this is the first time that I have been graded by a student and I think it is an honor.” She said smiling at Angel. “I have copied several tracks on this CD. Track one is just the piano, so you can play the guitar to it. Tracks two and three are what we recorded today. Use that to practice your guitar part. You can keep that sheet music, but don’t publish it. It is a work in progress and yet to be copyrighted, although I did send a copy to myself by registered mail.”

“I really liked the way the guitar and keyboard worked together to compliment and challenge each other.”

Joyce handed the CD to Angel.

Angel and Joyce worked together for about a half an hour more, before they called it quits. Angel told her about her having to go to her new school for tests. Joyce made some notes on her PDA.

The next morning, the last day of June, the house was a bee hive of activity. Today was the day Margarita would be coming home. Uncle Javier and Grandfather Fernando were already here. They were expecting Rolando shortly and a few other cousins would soon be here. Margarita wasn’t expected till about three in the afternoon.

Carmine and Esmeralda Cortez, a third, or fourth cousin, (Angel would really need a family tree to figure it out) were in the kitchen preparing a feast. When those two were busy in the kitchen, there wasn’t a man alive that would get in their way.

Uncle Rolando, with several other cousins, arrived with two cases of Spanish wine. Sierra, Nevada and Angel had the kids (eleven kids, between three and twelve, at last count) corralled in the backyard and kept them busy and out of everybody else’s hair. Soon there were about thirty people counting the children.

Javier and Fernando had all the cars moved around the corner and out of the way. This was really going to be one big surprise party.

Finally Sierra and Nevada were told to get all the kids out of sight of the door. All of the adults went back into the bedrooms and garage. Angel sat in the recliner, reading a magazine and was told to react coolly to her mother, while Sierra and Nevada were playing with a ball in the back yard. Carmine was in the kitchen cooking.

The front door opened and Margarita entered the house.

“Hello everybody, I am home,” Margarita said.

“Oh hi Mom,” Angel said, barley looking up from the magazine. “Aunt Carmine, Mom is here.”

“Gee, has everybody forgotten about me,” Margarita said, somewhat dejectedly.

Carmine stuck her head around the door and said, “Oh, hi Sis, dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes.”

“Gee, don’t anyone break a sweat welcoming me.”

Margarita barely got the word me out of her mouth, when people came flooding in shouting,“ Congratulations!”. Angel jumped up and ran to her Mom and hugged her.

Margarita jumped in surprise and almost broke down in tears as everybody came over to give her hugs and kisses. The fiesta then began in earnest. There was food, wine, music and dancing till almost ten pm, when things quieted down a bit, but the last of the people didn’t leave till almost midnight. Javier, Rolando and Fernando took a taxi to the hotel Carmine worked, as they would be in town for another week. There had been quite a few that had taken taxis to nearby hotels, because they were unfit to drive.

Angel had to help her Mom get to Aunt Carmine’s room, while the twins helped their Mom.

Sierra and Nevada wanted to head for bed, but Angel enlisted their help to clean up a bit. It was close to two in the morning when they all got to bed.
 
 
Chapter 32
 
 
Angel was the first up on Sunday, at about seven that morning. The sound of heavy snoring reverberated the walls. She dressed in her robes and went to the kitchen. She was glad that she and the twins had spent the extra time cleaning last night. She unloaded the dishwasher, finished cleaning up and taking out the trash.

The twins didn’t stir till about eight thirty; they drug themselves into the kitchen. Angel made them breakfast and they seemed to perk up as they were eating.

Carmine and Margarita both got up at about eleven thirty, mostly out of necessity. Angel made them both a Virgin Mary mixed with a raw egg (tomato juice, salt, pepper, lemon juice, celery stalk, dash of tobasco). Both of the adults came into the kitchen and sat gingerly.

“Oh God, how much did I drink yesterday,” Margarita asked.

“About as much as I did.” Carmine said.

“Remind me not to let Uncle Javier be in charge of filling our glasses next time.”

“You got it, Sis.”

Margarita almost choked on her drink, “God Angel, what did you put in these drinks.”

Angel told them what they were made of, “Now just drink them up and don’t complain. You did this to yourselves,” she said, giggling as she gave them each a couple of extra strength acetaminophen, a couple of chewable vitamin C, and a couple of ginseng capsules. She then made them each a cup of green tea.

The girls kept the hot tea flowing for about an hour and a half. Angel tended to her Mom, as the twins helped their Mom. About two that afternoon, the two women began to perk up a bit.

“Angel, where did you learn to make that horrid concoction?” Margarita asked.

“On the internet. I looked it up this morning,” she said, a little too cheerfully. “It is supposed to help you recover from your hangover. I didn’t get a chance to say it yesterday, but it is so good seeing you, again.”

“I was beginning to wonder, after I walked in the door, yesterday.”

“It was all Uncle Javier’s idea, Mom.”

“Yeah and he also got me drunk.”

“You just need to loosen up a bit, every now and then.”

“We missed church today?”

“Yep, but don’t worry too much about it, I don’t think anybody from the party made it.”
 

*          *          *
 
About five that afternoon there was a small group of people, much more subdued than the previous day, assembled in Carmine’s house. They were the ‘Old Men’ and a few of the other family musicians. They were putting Angel through the paces. One or another of them would call out the name of a piece of music and Angel would play it for them while they critiqued her.

Finally she said, “I have a piece that I want you all to hear. It doesn’t have a name yet. Mrs. Drummond wrote it.” Angel said, inserting a CD into the stereo.

Javier explained who Mrs. Drummond was, while Angel set things up. When she was ready she nodded to Sierra, who hit the play button on the CD player.

Angel waited for her cue and began to play. The whole piece lasted for five minutes and twenty three seconds. She was lost in the music, and had a wonderful smile on her face. The music faded to nothing and the people sat in silence for several seconds, before they erupted in applause.

“That piece has several rough spots, but overall, I think it is a marvelous piece of music,” Julio Dominguez said.

“Yes it is Julio, I think we made a good choice with Mrs. Drummond, did we not Angel?”

“Yes, I like her. She is still working on that music, Uncle Javier.”

“How often do you practice and for how long?” Rita Dominguez, Julio’s wife asked.

“Everyday for an hour and a half, to two hours. I also play every Tuesday with Leo Granger; he has a jam session at his music store. It helps him sell his Music instruments. I have helped him sell about forty-five thousand in guitars this month.”

“Just you and Leo playing?” Uncle Rolando asked.

“No, Leo plays the drums. Jeffery Wilkins, plays an electric guitar and Wee Willy Jenkins, plays an electric bass. The girls have also danced and played their castanets there too.”

“That is where you have stored your guitar, is it not?” Uncle Javier asked.

“Yes sir. I love playing with those guys. The Mall wants me to play a mini concert there for them, but I won’t have time after Friday.”

“Is the shop open on Sunday?” Uncle Javier asked.

“Yes sir, for about an hour more,” Angel said, checking her watch.

“Call him and let me talk to him.”
 

*          *          *
 
Monday, Angel had her nails worked on at the Mall, Susan did them like Angel requested, without question this time. She rewrapped the nails on the right hand and just filled in the nails on her left.

Tuesday, she and the girls dressed in their costumes, as their Mom’s did. Carmine drove them to the Mall, where they met the rest of the family. They caused quite a stir as they walked in the mall carrying their instruments into Leo’s.

Leo Granger was all smiles as he saw Angel come in. “Welcome to my store,” Leo said.

Angel made all of the introductions to Leo and told him what instrument they would be playing. Julio played the trumpet, Rita played the keyboard and Carlos played the violin.

They all checked the store out. They were pleased with the quality of the instruments they found. There were your basic starter instruments to some very high end instruments.

“Angel, you never told me that Leo knew Pedro Aguilar,” Uncle Rolando said.

“I didn’t know he did.”

“Look at the picture here.”

“I didn’t notice the picture before,” Angel said, as she looked. “Is that Jerry Garcia he is standing next to?”

“Yes it is,” Leo said. “We did some set work with the Grateful Dead back in Nashville.”

“We would like to get the Torres guitar out, Leo,” Javier said. “Angel will be playing that today and thank you for your good eyes. It made us all check out our instruments. Rolando and I are both playing Jose Ramirez guitars and didn’t know their value.”

Leo, Angel and Carmine all went to the vault and retrieved the guitar. Leo also called security for an escort.

Leo introduced the act as the Ramos family and Angel was tasked with introducing the individuals on stage. They did two sets of about an hour and a half each. Angel, against her wishes, was solo for about half the first show. The twins and their Moms danced at various times during the show. The first half of the show featured a lot of their Spanish music and classical pieces.

After a short break, Angel did the second set with Leo, Jeffery and Wee Willy. It consisted of a lot of the oldies rock she knew. Angel just had to finish with ‘Little Willy’, she surprised them, but after they heard Angel sing ‘North side, East side, Little Willy, Willy wears the crown,” they knew what to expect. Willy, playing the bass, acted and danced, wearing a silly grin. Angel had the crowd singing the last three choruses with her.

The applause was deafening, as the crowd cheered them on. Angel had never played for such a large crowd, but she loved every minute of it.

The crowd had started out pretty thin, only about fifty people, but it didn’t take very long for the crowd to grow. By the end of the show, it was standing room only, about seven hundred people. The Old Men were very pleased with the show.

The first person to greet her when she left the stage was Janice and Rita. Janice almost leapt into her arms and the two of them hugged.

“Wow Angel, that was magnificent, marvelous, wonderful, like the best,” she said, jumping up and down.

“Calm down girl, it wasn’t that great.”

Janice put both hands on her hips and leaned toward her friend, “Oh yes it was and I won’t hear it from you that it wasn’t.”

“Alright I give up.”

Angel introduced Janice to the rest of her family. Each one got a hug from this rambunctious young lady. She then introduced her mother.

Their little get together was interrupted by a Lady in a business suit and Leo.

“Hello, I am Adele Williams; I am the manager for West View Mall. I want to thank you Angel for agreeing to play for us today. I only wished we had a couple of weeks notice.”

“I am sorry, everything was so spur of the moment, this was all Uncle Javier’s idea.”

“Well thank him for me and here is your check.”

“Check, what check?”

“The check for your performance, silly.” Ms Williams said, handing Angel a check.

“TWO THOUSAND five hundred dollars,” Angel said mouth open, eyes as big as half dollars. “Mom, we need to split this with everybody,”

“You will do no such thing,” Uncle Rolando said, from behind her. “Put that money in the bank, my little girl.”

“Leo?”

“Don’t look at us, we loved playing with you. Put it in the bank like a good girl. I’ll take care of Jeffery and Willey.”

“You better; you owe each of us a case of Schlenkerla Urbock, pay up old man.” Jeffery said.

“I feel bad keeping it all.”

“They didn’t come to see us Angel,” Wee Willy said. “They can see us any Tuesday at Leo’s. These people came to see you. You are the star girl, so put the money in the bank.”

“Ok, Mom I need to put up the guitar.”

Rolando and Javier, who had gotten keys, handed Angel and Leo their guitars. Angel then placed all three of them into her locker. She turned to her Mom and said, “Mom, Janice is just like me, only she doesn’t know about me.”

“You’re kidding, that girl…”

“Yes, she is…”

“Well, don’t tell her for now.”

“Okay, why don’t you invite them to our home?”

“Good idea.”

Margarita went to talk to Rita and Janice, “Would you two like to come over to our house for dinner tonight?”

“Please Mom,” Janice said excitedly.

“Well…”

“Is there a Mr. Fletcher?”

“Yes but he is away rough necking on some oil rig, or another, eight or nine months a year. Summer is their busiest time of the year. Alright, we can come over for a bit.”

At Carmine’s home, the kids all went to the twins’ room and the ladies went to the kitchen.

“Gee, I just love your room,” Janice said. “Do all three of you stay in this room?”

“I have another room, but I prefer sleeping with my cousins. I am an only child and never knew what I was missing not having a brother or sister. Sierra and Nevada treat me like a sister.”

“I have an older brother, his name is Timothy, but he went away to college and got married.”

“If you don’t mind us asking, how long have you known you were different?” Sierra asked.

“No, I don’t mind, I consider you guys my friends. I have always been fascinated by girls clothing. When I was ten I started to ask Mom a lot of questions about girls. She was a little embarrassed at first, then opened up and we had some serious talks about boys and girls. Mom first asked me if I wanted to be a girl. I had to think about it for a couple of weeks. It all started to make sense to me; I did wish that I had been born a girl. Mom found a friend who knew more about it, he’s a psychologist. Together we talked it over. He suggested I experiment with it when I was eleven. I live as a girl right now all the time, except when Dad is around, but he is away most of the time now.”

“Your dad doesn’t like you dressing as a girl?” Angel asked.

“No he doesn’t. I think Mom would leave him if he didn’t send most of his checks home. I think he is fooling around when he is away.”

“Did he ever hit you?” Nevada asked.

“No, but he can scare the hell out of you with out touching you. My brother knows about me, but he just ignores me, which is kinda ok. He is ten years older than I am and I am thirteen now. I never played with, or talked with him much growing up. He was already out of the house when I started dressing as a girl.”
 

*          *          *
 
In the kitchen, a similar conversation was taking place.

“Rita, would you mind if I tell my sister what happened the other day at the mall?”

Rita looked a little frightened, but if Carmine and Angel accepted her daughter, she supposed that Margarita might accept her. “No, I guess I don’t mind.”

Carmine told her sister what happened at the mall. The girls didn’t tell her till they were on their way home. She had called Rita when she got home and they talked a bit about the situation.

“Who is that bitch, Lisa Caldwell?”

“She goes to my church, Sis. Her parents are big supporters at the church, but they are not well liked. They are all very opinionated and prejudiced. They almost left when some blacks and Hispanics joined our church. They probably consider us to be Mexicans.”

“You’re not Latin American?” Rita asked.

“No, we are Castilian, our roots come from OLD Spain. Mom and Dad came from the area around Madrid,” Margarita said.

“When did they come over?”

“Grandfather immigrated to the US around 1949; they lived there through the Spanish civil war and much of the recovery after WWII. In a way, Spain was punished worse for not choosing sides than Germany. Germany was well on its way to recovery by 1950, Spain didn’t begin to recover till 1953,”

“I didn’t know Spain had a civil war in the 1900’s.”

“Yes for two and half years beginning in 1936. It isn’t taught too much in the US.”

“So you don’t really mind about… You know about my Daughter.”

“Why should we? She is happy, I can tell that. She isn’t hurting anyone, is she? Angel and the mountain girls seem to like her,”

“Mountain Girls?”

“Yes Sierra and Nevada,” Carmine said.

“Oh that’s cute, I hadn’t thought about the Sierra Nevada Mountains.”

“Yeah it was cute; I hurt like hell having those two babies.”

“You love them, don’t you?”

“Of course I do, but it still hurt like hell.”
 
 
Chapter 33
 
 
The next few days went by in a whirl, that found Angel and her cousins getting ready to head to Sarah Adam’s Academy for Girls.

The Fourth of July had been fun for them Janice and her Mom had joined them for a barbecue; there had been games and other festivities that culminated in a spectacular fireworks display.

The next day the girls had to go shopping for some odds and ends for their stay at school the next week. You know what type things they needed, travel supplies of shampoo, conditioner, bath soap and such, along with some snacks in case they got hungry. They bought some new towels, bedding and pillows, the girls coordinated what they bought to what Angel had already bought.

Saturday the girls all packed their bags for the week. Angel was surprised at all of the luggage that three girls required for just a weeks stay. They would need to take both Carmine’s and Margarita’s cars to carry everything.

It was decided that the kids would ride with Margarita and Carmine would haul most of the stuff. They would leave after soon after the early Mass. They loaded the bulk of their luggage into Carmine’s station wagon that night.

It was hard for everyone to get up and look respectable leaving the house at seven am to catch the early Mass, but the girls did it. The sermon that day was living the righteous life, and was about how Christians should live their everyday lives. How can a Christian be a beacon in the darkness, when they treat sinners with hate? They can’t. Jesus didn’t rebuke the woman at the well. He didn’t cast the stone at the woman caught in adultery. The people he rebuked the hardest were the religious people who cheated and lorded themselves over the masses. He loved the humble spirit, the teachable soul and the downtrodden.

After church they picked up Carmine’s Car and headed out. It took about an hour and a half to get to Sarah Adam’s Academy for Girls, mostly due to all the twists and turns on country roads and due to the fact, that they had never been there before.

They were directed to park outside of the Admin bldg, where other older girls directed them to the Headmistress’s office.

The pack sat out in the waiting room for about ten minutes. Another family exited the office and two minutes later they were all invited in. A matronly woman of about fifty greeted them as they entered.

“Hello, I am Ethel Beckman, Headmistress of Sarah Adam’s Academy for girls. I want to welcome you all here today.”

“It’s nice to meet you Ms. Beckman,” Margarita said. “I am Margarita Delores Ramos-Marquez; this is my daughter Angel Louisa Marquez, my sister Carmine Estella Ramos-Santiago and her daughters Sierra Isabelle Santiago and Nevada Anita Santiago.”

“Well it is nice to meet all of you. All of you look so nice today. Please take a seat.”

They all sat in an area of the office that looked a lot like a living room rather than an office. There were two couches on either long side of a coffee table and a large comfy looking high back chair at either end.

“Would any of you like some coffee or tea?”

Carmine opted for coffee and the rest of them opted for tea. Ethel pushed a button on a remote and a senior student entered.

“Two coffees and four teas please Barbra.”

“Yes ma’am, Headmistress.”

Mrs. Beckman and the adults talked about the weather and such till, Barbra knocked and entered. She set a tray down on the coffee table and began dispensing the beverages. She then smiled before making her exit.

“Angel I was impressed by what all of your teachers have said about you, especially by what your Uncles and Grandfather have said about your musical abilities.”

“Thank you Ma’am, I try to keep them pleased with my progress.”

“I am sure you do, and listening to the recordings of you playing, I don’t think they exaggerated one thing about you.”

Angel didn’t recall anybody recording her except for Joyce.

“I also look forward to seeing how well your daughters do too, Mrs. Santiago. From what I heard from their teachers, they may be a couple of underachievers.”

Carmine looked at her daughters with only that look that mothers disappointed with their children seem to use.

“I have always suspected that they could do better than what they were accomplishing.”

The girls wilted a bit under their Mom’s gaze.

“We will get a better understanding of what they are capable of for you Mrs. Santiago. They are a year younger than what we accept, but we hope that they might be able to join us in the next class.”

“If I can work out the financial aspect, I may just enroll them here.”

“We have a lot of flexibility in that department and there may be scholarships available if they do well at their school this year.”

“We will test all three girls very thoroughly, I expect each of you to do your utmost to excel,” Ethel said, in a manner that sent chills up the girls’ spines.

They talked a bit more about the school and what would be happening over the next few days. Carmine and Margarita would then pick up their girls on Saturday after a luncheon and show.

The mothers were then given a map and directed to the cottage the girls would be staying. The caravan then drove around the campus to the indicated cottage. There were several senior girls there who assisted them in carrying their luggage to their cottage.

The cottages looked more like large homes rather than small dorms. The common room was an oversized living room that had an upright piano, four couches, a big screen TV, a stereo, a large kitchen and dinning room to one side and a laundry area to the other and five doors leading to rooms. One was the housemothers room the rest dorm rooms.

The girls and their mothers were greeted by Mrs. Sandra Westfall who appeared to be a cross of Marine DI and a younger grandmother.

“Hi I am Sandra Westfall, the girls will address me as Mrs. Westfall, but you parents may call me Sarah.”

“I am Margarita Marquez and this is my daughter Angel.”

“I am Carmine Santiago and these two are Sierra and Nevada Santiago. You can tell them apart by having them sign their names. Sierra is right handed and Nevada is left handed.”

“That is good to know,” Sandra said, as she gave the girls a ‘busted’ look. “I am sure that we shall have no problems from any of the girls at all.”

“Angel, Sierra and Nevada you will all share Room number two. If you should need to call home, just tell me and I may or may not approve. Just being home sick is not really a reason. Cell phones, if you have any, must be kept in your locked drawer in your rooms. Feel free to use them after dinner and before eight at night. Here are the keys to your rooms and drawers.”

“You will eat breakfast here at seven sharp and dinner here at six sharp. Lunch is in the cafeteria on campus, except on weekends. You are each expected to keep your rooms immaculate and beds will be made before breakfast. Skirts on campus, will be no more than two inches above the knee. If you need to check, just kneel next to that board,” Sandra said, indicating the board on the floor near the door. “If it doesn’t touch the board you need to fix it, or change. If a teacher has to ask you to check it in school, you are already busted. Skirt length is two demerits, ten demerits is a work punishment. Things from there get worse. Around the cottages, you can wear shorter skirts or shorts in the common room that we are in. You will be dressed when you leave your room, no robes only, out here.”

“No medications will be stored in the girls’ rooms, not even aspirin or Midol, except for certain asthma, or emergency meds. I will need to be notified first. Girls requiring regular meds will get them from me or from the nurse on campus, during the day.”

“You each have a hard wired connection to a desk top computer that we provide and a Wi-Fi connection to a laptop that you may provide, but all connections will go through my server. I control the content that passes through. If you need to search content that is not allowed through, I will check on it each time. Any software you want to add to our computer has to be approved by me. I have a list of pre-approved software and I can check out other software. Students can receive email; I will set up an account for each of you. This will be the only approved email account you may use while you are here. Again I will be responsible for the content.”

Margarita handed over a bottle of pills to Sandra and explained about them to her. She read the label and then logged them in.

Sandra went over a long list of rules before she let the girls go to their rooms.

The rooms were set up for four girls and were larger than they expected. There were four desks in room, four beds on one wall, four closets and a bathroom with two toilets, two showers a bathtub and two sinks.

The girls then began to put their room in order, while their mother talked to Sandra.

“Mom did have to squeal on us, Sierra,” she said.

“Yeah, why couldn’t we have been regular identical twins?”

“These rooms are nice,” Angel said. “I was expecting something plain and stark.”

“They are even better than a summer camp we went to,” Nevada said.

After about an hour and a half they had their beds made up and their room set up. Angel had her plushie guitar on her bed and her guitar next to her nightstand. Sierra and Nevada had their areas looking nice. They invited their mom’s in and Sandra came in too.

“Now this is how a room should look,” Sandra said.

“Mrs. Westfall, I’m not worried about it now, but when school starts, what about my guitar? It is very expensive.”

“Well, if you are concerned about it this fall, I can store it in my room. How expensive is it?”

“I am just guessing, my uncles didn’t tell me, but it is probably worth more than twelve thousand dollars.”

“Oh my, that is expensive. You may certainly store it in my room. Do you play well?” Sandra asked.

“She plays very well,” Margarita said.

“Well you can play while I fix dinner. You are staying for dinner?” Sandra asked Margarita and Carmine.

A couple of senior girls helped Sandra as she started on dinner. They took over as Sandra had to stop and welcome other girls and parents.

Angel just sat on a stool and played a whole range of melodies on her guitar to everyone’s appreciation.

“We appreciate our girls using their own talent to entertain, rather than TV or stereo, but we know they can’t do that everyday. So we have TV and a stereo.” Sandra said, as she worked in the kitchen. “Also we want our girls to keep up with current events on the news.”

“The girls are permitted to watch TV from after dinner till nine on from Sunday to Thursday and eleven on Friday and Saturday, if they spend the weekend on the grounds.”

There were eleven girls in the dorm and they were all there for testing. Five other parents were there for dinner. The seniors helped serve and ate their meals, before retiring to their own cottages.

After they said all their goodbyes, some tearful others not, the parents left. The kids gathered with Mrs. Westfall’s encouragement and introduced themselves to each other. All of the girls were either thirteen and going to be fourteen before school started, or fourteen, except for the twins. Sierra and Nevada were twelve, yet they held their own with the other girls. When it became Angel’s time to talk the girls that had heard her play all got very excited.

Angel gave her age and told them a little about herself. Afterwards, she was deluged with questions about her skills, how pretty her guitar was and could she teach them to play like that. Several also wanted to know more about her manga collection, as they also collected manga.

At about eight thirty, Mrs. Westfall broke in and said. “You will be in your rooms at nine pm, lights out at nine-thirty. Wake up alarm is at six in the morning. Breakfast will be at seven. Beds will be made up before breakfast and your rooms clean. You may have two room checks a week. A couple of senior girls will be by the dorm at eight, to pick you up and take you to where your tests will be held. Testing will be from eight-thirty to eleven thirty for scholastic classes and from one to five for other courses, including PE.”

A few minutes before nine, all the girls headed to their respective rooms. Angel and her cousins were in bed by nine-fifteen and talked for a few minutes before going to sleep in their own beds. Even the twins slept apart, because the beds were twin and too narrow to sleep two comfortably.
 
 
Chapter 34
 
 
At six in the morning sharp, the alarm went off. Angel rolled out of bed looking for the clock that rang for one minute. Apparently the alarm was integral to the bldg. The twins were slower waking, but they were awake before the alarm finished. Angel let them hit the toilets first and she went when Sierra finished. The girls took a quick shower and hurried to get dressed. They were all ready and had their beds made and their room sorted by seven. Breakfast was nice; they had a variety of choices, except for sugary cereals, much to the displeasure of many of the girls.

At seven fifty, the girls had an inspection. Mrs. Westfall found a few faults and had the girls correct it. When she got to Angel, she said. “You need to lose the fingernail polish.”

“I have to wear it. I have fiberglass wraps on my fingernails, because I keep breaking nails playing the guitar. Without the polish my nails look really funky,” she said, turning her nails over so Mrs. Westfall could inspect them.

“Oh dear, I need to talk to the head,” she said. “I will give you a temporary pass till I hear from Mrs. Beckman.”

A couple of senior girls appeared at eight and led the troop to the academic classroom they needed to be at. There was a computer keyboard and mouse at each seat. Ms Albertson entered the class room and introduced herself. She took roll and then passed out a sheet of paper with the girls’ name on it.

“These sheets of paper have our login procedure and your password. Your password changes on a daily basis. You will log on and begin taking the first test, when I say begin. You have one hour to take the test. All of the questions are multiple choice questions. Don’t worry, you won’t finish the test and don’t worry about how well you are doing. You may be getting quite a few wrong answers. Keep working till I say stop.”

She waited a few minutes and checked to see that everyone had logged on, before saying, “Begin.”

The first test was English, the first five questions were very easy, the second five were a little harder and the third five were harder yet. If a student answered only three correctly, the next set of questions were a little easier. It went back and forth when the student reached the level where they were fairly competent at. The computer encouraged the students to work as fast as they could. The more questions the students answered, the better idea the school would have of their skill.

Despite being told not to worry, most of the students were pretty frantic when the teacher called time. The students were given a raw score immediately and an estimate of their grade level. That eased the anxiety of some of the students and added to it for others.

Angel scored well above her grade level and she just smiled.

“Don’t worry about your scores; you wouldn’t be here if there was a question of your qualifications. This just gives us an idea of where you are in the subject. The next test will be math and it will begin in ten minutes. You may take a break, use the rest room, but be back in your seats in ten minutes. You may go now.”

The girls left the room and headed in several different directions, but they were all back in time. After math came the science test, and then lunch.

The girls were led to the cafeteria. The food looked and smelled better than the usual school cafeteria fare. Many students were disappointed though in that there was an absence of any high fat, high salt or high sugar foods.

While she was eating with her cousins and some girls they met, they talked about the tests and how they did on them. Angel had done better than the other girls at her table and the twins had done better than they thought they would.

Angel heard her name called by a girl. She stood and looked around and saw one of their escorts, calling her name. The girl smiled, approached her asking, “You are Angel Marquez right?”

“Yes I am.”

“Good, I am Mandy Coleman. Please come with me, the headmistress wants to see you.”

“Ok, Mandy, lead the way.”

In Mrs. Beckman’s office, Angel met the headmistress and a couple of other ladies.

“Miss Marquez, this is Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Delray. Mrs. Westfall called me and informed me about your fingernails. We need to see them, if you would please.”

“I had to get these fiberglass wraps,” Angel said. “My nails were constantly breaking. Since I have had these nails, my play has improved quite a bit. I can stop using polish, but my nails would look so bad.”

The ladies inspected both sides of Angel’s fingernails and agreed that her fingernails would look worse without the polish. They sent Angel outside so they could talk for a few minutes. When they called her back in they told her that they would reserve their judgment till they heard from her music teachers.

Mandy was waiting for her when she got out and said, “I understand that you have music next right.”

“Yes, but I need to go to the dorm to get my music and my guitar.”

The girls left and hurried to the dorm. Angle had three boxes on a dolly, which she grabbed and her guitar. Mandy then led her to the music bldg.

Angel first met with three teachers, Mrs. Cartwright, Mrs. Bloomington, and Ms Grogan, who played ‘hundred questions’ with her. They asked what she played, could she read music, did she play any other instruments besides the guitar, did she have her music with her and many other questions.

After they finished their questions, Angel was led to the rehearsal hall. They asked her to play five of her best pieces. Angel found a stool and sat down with her guitar. A girl came on stage and set up a mike for the guitar. There were five people she noted, before the stage lights came up and the house lights went down. She tuned up and warmed up a bit, before she began to play. She played Pachelbel Canon in D, Recuerdos de la Alhambra, Cavatina, Romance d’Amour and Paganini Caprice no. 24.

When she finished, she looked up, not seeing the audience. As the last notes faded away she was shocked by the applause. The house lights came up and she saw about forty five students and teachers in the rehearsal hall. She stood and bowed to the audience.

“Please play about ten more pieces, now and show us a variety of styles.” Angel heard from somewhere in the audience.
The house lights went down again as Angel sat down. She decided to play the pieces she loved the best. She sang with a couple of the songs, Hotel California, Green Sleeves and Scarborough Fair. She also played Bohemian Rhapsody, Classical Gas, Ave Maria, California Dreaming, Dock of the Bay, Minuet in G, Fur Elise, Bach Prelude BWV 997, Mediterranean Beauty, Stairway to Heaven, Fandangos and Malaqueňa. She got carried away and lost count of the songs she played.
When she finished this time she stood and bowed. The applause was deafening this time. The hall was full of students and teachers. About a hundred and fifty people were there. Angel had to bow three more times before she went over to her guitar case. The teacher and administrators came on stage as she was detuning her guitar and wiping it down. The administrators checked her nails again and saw the damage to the polish. They guessed that without the wraps her ability to play would be lessened and without the polish her nails would look bad.

One music teacher wanted to see her guitar. She opened the case and handed it to her. “My, this is a nice guitar. I never heard of Amara Verdad Cantu before, but your guitar has a wonderful voice,” Mrs. Cartwright said.

“She is a master luthier from Barcelona, Spain.”

“Is it new?”

“Yes it is, my uncles bought if for me this summer.”

“It must be a step up from your other guitar then.”

“Actually it was a step down for me. My other guitar is an Antonio de Torres guitar. The insurance was too expensive to bring it here. I had it appraised for many, many times what this guitar is worth. It is stored a vault now.”

Nobody there had actually heard of Antonio de Torres either at the time, but they soon would.

“Well there is no denying she has talent,” Ms Grogan said, to her colleagues. “We will also have her take voice this fall, I think. She sang very well, but she could use some training there.”

“Just as long as it doesn’t take away from her instrument, practice,” Mrs. Bloomington said.

“Yes, as good as her voice is, she is a maestro at the guitar,” Mrs. Cartwright said.

“We need to get her reading music and maybe get her into piano,” Ms Grogan said.

“It would be hard to get her into all those classes at the same time,” Mrs. Bloomington said.

Angel just stood there listening to the teachers talk as she put her guitar away again.

“I would like to see how well she plays with an orchestra and the choir.”

The teachers escorted Angel to a classroom and asked her to look at a piece of music.

“May I write on the sheet of music?” She asked

“Yes you may.” Ms Grogan said.

It wasn’t written for a guitar. She went through the piece and first found her chords. The second time through she began to formulate the notes that she would play. She went over to the keyboard in the classroom and began to pick it out on the keyboard.

“I thought you said that you couldn’t play any other instruments.”

“I can’t, this is as good as I get on a keyboard, but I do know all of the keys and frequencies of the keys.”

After about thirty minutes, Angel then picked up her guitar, tuned it and began picking out the song on the guitar. She went through it several times making several changes, before she was ready to play it.

She then played the music three times before she was satisfied with her efforts.

“I can have it down better in a couple of days, with practice.”

“You did well Angel. If you would let us have the sheet music, we would like to study what you did in more detail and seeing that it is so late, you may head back to your cottage.”

When Angel left the classroom, she was surprised to see a group of girls that were apparently waiting for her. One girl took her dolly and another tried to take her guitar.

”Ah no thank you, I am sorry but I will carry my guitar.”

“You were wonderful, Angel,” one girl said.

“We loved what you were doing,” another said.

“Which cottage are you staying in?”

“Mrs. Westfall’s”

“This way,”

Angel knew where her cottage was, but saw that these girls were determined to go with her. The girls were asking her all sorts of questions, from where she learned to play that well, did she have a boyfriend, what she thought of the school, was she really going to start here in the fall, how come she was wearing nail polish, to did she know any modern music.

Amy Spencer, a senior, got the girls to calm down a bit as they walked Angel to her dorm. Angel answered their questions as best she could, and got the girls talking to. She found out that when she went into the rehearsal hall a girl heard her playing and spread the word. In the music department, students are encouraged to attend the rehearsals of other students and they need no invitation.

Angel saw her cousins dressed in running shorts and t-shirts, with a pack of girls from their cottage, heading toward the cottage. She waved at them. They started to cross the grass but were stopped by the senior girl they were with.

“They have to use the sidewalk Angel. That is a major rule here; students can’t cut across the lawns,” Amy said.

They all met up at the cottage Angel and the twins went ahead in, but the rest of the girls rang the doorbell. Mrs. Westfall came to the door and said, “Well hello girls. What can I do for you today?”

“Hello Mrs. Westfall, the girls and I were wondering if we could come over after dinner?” Amy Spencer asked.

“Why certainly, it will be nice if you could join us after dinner.”

“Thank you, ma’am. See ya later Angel,” Amy said smiling and giving her a finger wave.

“What was that all about Angel,” Mrs. Westfall asked.

“I don’t know, I think they like my playing.”

“Ok get cleaned up for dinner Angel, and you two need to take a shower,” Mrs. Westfall said wrinkling her nose at the twins.

The girls were a little rowdy sitting around the dinner table. Mrs. Westfall gently, but firmly reined them in. She served her girls and then blessed the food. Several of the girls were famished, including the twins and started to eat with too much ‘Gusto’ Mrs. Westfall told the girls, “We eat like Ladies here. None of you are starving enough that you have to wolf down your food.”

She got them to slow down by getting them to talk with each other. They talked about the tests that they had taken that day. Many of the girls had a lot to say about their Coach, very little of it was complimentary.

“I have never exercised as hard as I did today,” one girl named Darla said.

“Yeah the coach drove us all too hard,” another girl name Gina said.

“Now girls, Coach Butler just wants to see what you are capable of, and to help you see what your potential is.”

“Yeah, but I am sore in places, I never knew I had,” Sierra said.

Mrs. Westfall smiled and said. “Well maybe it is good that you know you have those places and that they need exercise.”

The girls were all tasked helping with clean up, some washed dishes, some helped clean the kitchen, while the others cleaned the dinning room.

The girls had a few minutes to sit and relax before the door bell rang. Mrs. Westfall admitted Amy Spencer and six other girls. Many of the girls carried cases that held their instruments.

Angel greeted Amy, who introduced the girls with her to the girls in this cottage. The girls of the cottage introduced themselves.

“I suppose you want play your instruments,” Angel said.

“Yes, we heard you do some of the music we know, and thought we could have some fun playing together.”

“Let me get my guitar” Angel said. As she came back she said, “What songs do you know, that I play.”

“Well, I can play Classical Gas on my violin?” Amy said.

“Really, I never heard that before.”

The girls all tuned up together, with the assistance of a girl at the piano.

“Let me hear your version, Amy.”

Amy then put the violin up to her chin and began to play. Angel moved her fingers up and down the neck of her guitar in time to Amy’s play. When she finished, the two girls talked over how they would play together. They then began to play together, complimenting each other. Amy played a few measures and then Angel played a few, some parts they played together, each had identical solos and they had a big finish together.

The girls in the cottage applauded as the two finished. Amy and Angel gave each other a hug.

“What else do you know?”

“Well, we have a string quartet that does Bohemian Rhapsody. Everybody is here except the Cello player.”

“You girls lead and I will try to keep up with you.”

Two other girls stood, one with another violin and the other had a viola that was a little larger than a violin. This piece of music was a little harder for Angel to match up with, as there were a few differences between the arrangements they all knew. They gave it a second run through, which was much better. Again Angel was surprised at the way the music sounded with the different instruments.

They then did Pachelbel Canon in D, Minuet in G, a few other classical pieces that they were all familiar with. Angel then asked if any of the girls played piano. One girl volunteered, saying she did. Angel ran to her room and retrieved all the sheet music that her instructor had given her.

“This is a piece that was written for a string quartet. I adapted it to a classical guitar,” she said.

Amy and the two other girls crowded together to look at it. Amy took her violin and began playing it.

“I wish I could make copies, but it isn’t copyrighted yet. Mrs. Drummond sent herself a registered copy through the mail, but she is still working on it.”

“I like it, I can see where it needs work,” Amy said.

“Here is a piece she wrote for the piano and guitar.”

Amanda sat at the piano and began to play it slowly. Amy corrected her a time or two as she played. After a third play through, Angel joined Amanda.

“She is a good writer,” Amy said.

“Yes, she wants me to be able to read music better. I just can’t pick up a piece and play it on the guitar. I have to work it out.”

“That is why the page is all marked up, right Angel.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Tell her to get it copyrighted, I want copies.”

The students then sat down and talked with the girls in testing. The girls in this cottage had all kinds of questions about the testing and what school was like here.

Mrs. Westfall smiled at the girls. Having the older students visit with and talking to the girls looked like a good idea. She would have to talk to the administration about.

Amy checked her watch at about eight fifteen and said, “Come girls, it is time for us to head back to our cottages. Thank you Mrs. Westfall, for letting us come visit.
 
 
Chapter 35
 
 
The next day, testing went on in the morning, with three new subjects. There was less anxiety in the room now that the girls had a taste of the process.

In the afternoon, most of the girls returned to PE, where they were stretched and did some calisthenics, but instead of running this day, the Coach set part of them playing soccer and part of them playing softball.

The first day the Coach also spotted her key to tell the twins apart, she noted the birthmarks on their shoulders. The one identified as Sierra had a birthmark on her left and Nevada on her right.

Sierra and Nevada were separated by design. Sierra was sent to the soccer field while Nevada went to the softball field. They knew that twins usually spent a lot of time together and they wanted to see how they were apart from each other.

Sierra was good at some aspects of soccer, she could handle passes, pass and kick the ball well, she looked across the field for her teammates, but she didn’t have the stamina to be really good at the game, at this time.

Nevada did well in softball; she played first base, short stop and pitched a couple of innings. She was 2 for four, with 2 singles and scored once.

Both girls got along and played well with the other girls. They had 48 girls and eleven were like Sierra and Nevada, future prospects. Physically they were about even with the older girls.

Angel faced the music instructors again. They dissected her playlist, first narrowing it down to forty pieces, they considered master class and then they spent thirty minutes selecting twenty songs they wanted to hear Angel play.

“Angel,” Mrs. Cartwright said. “We want to record and video tape you playing these twenty pieces. Do you have any nice clothes suitable for a concert?”

“I have an Andalusian Curro Romero Skirt, Jacket and Vest in black,” Angel said. Then she spent a few minutes describing the individual pieces.

“That will have to do. Tomorrow and Thursday dress in that at lunch and then come here. In the meantime we want you to practice these pieces. We want you to play at your absolute best. Tomorrow you will play pieces one through ten and Thursday you will play eleven through twenty.”

One of the instructors sat down and asked her, “Which pieces, do you really need to work on?”

Angel looked at her list and was surprised to see Hotel California, Bohemian Rhapsody and Classical gas. She marked five of the pieces she hadn’t recently played. Two were on Wednesday’s list and three on Thursday’s list. Angel worked on them while Ms Grogan gave her advice and criticism. The pieces were hard, but Angel could do them, she just didn’t like them as much as some of her other pieces. Because she didn’t play them as much, she had to work hard on them.

Angel liked working with Ms Grogan. She may not have been a guitar teacher, but it was obvious that she knew her music. She pointed out the rough sections to Angel, who played them over and over till she got them right.

Angel played all five songs several times, after she had worked on them. Ms. Grogan began to smile brightly.

“Very good Angel, now play your list for tomorrow as listed, from first to last. Wait about ten seconds between pieces.”

Angel put the list up on the easel and began. It took forty two minutes and some seconds to play all ten.

“Very Good Angel, if you can play those two that you had problems with tonight a couple of times it will be great. It is about four thirty go ahead and head back to your cottage.”

“Thank you, Ms Grogan.”

Angel detuned the guitar, wiped it down and put it back in her case. She then headed back to her room. This time she didn’t have anybody waiting for her. She got back to her cottage first this day and went ahead and took her shower. She was drying off when the twins rushed in to take their showers.

At dinner, the girls talked about their days. There wasn’t as much grumbling about what they did this day. Angel was surprised that the twins had been separated in different games today. Both happily described what they had done. Angel told the girls what she did and was going to do.

“Today they went over my playlist and selected twenty of my most challenging pieces. There were five that I don’t play much because they aren’t my favorites. Wednesday and Thursday they are going to do a digital audio and video recording. I am going to have to come back here after lunch and change into my Andalusian Costume, before hurrying to the music department.”

“You must show us your costume after dinner,” Mrs. Westfall said.

“Do you mean for me to get dressed?”

“Heavens no, just show it to us on its hangers.”

After dinner, Angel went in her room and took her skirt, Jacket, vest and blouse, out of the garment bag. She then took them to the common room. All the girls made a fuss over the jacket and vest. They were both heavily embroidered. Mrs. Westfall raised an eyebrow in surprise and kept the girls back, so there would be no chance of them getting it dirty.

With a careful eye, she inspected Angel’s costume. It was made of superior material and the stitching and embroidering were first class. “What shoes are you wearing with this outfit Angel?”

“I have my Flamenco shoes.”

“With taps?”

“Yes,”

“Do you have any black pumps with heels?”

“With me no.”

“What size do you wear?”

“Sevens.”

“I will see what I can do? You don’t want the sharp sound of taps on a recording.”

Angel then said, with a giggle, “You reckon the skirt is long enough.”

Mrs. Westfall looked at the ankle length skirt, and with half a giggle said, “If there is any question, you can always kneel and check it. You do have pantyhose right.”

“Yes ma’am,”

“Good.”

Angel then took everything back to her room. She took her guitar and went out to the patio to play the pieces she had to work on. A couple of girls, besides her cousins, followed her out.

She played each piece three times, working hard to get them right. She then played the pieces for Wednesday again. The girls listened quietly as she practiced and didn’t applaud till she was putting her guitar away, which startled her.

“That was wonderful Angel,” a girl, whose name Angel thought was Debby said.

“Yeah, it was kinda cool for old music,” another, that had to be Grace, said.

“Old, two of the pieces were from the 70’s and 80’s,” Angel said.

“Like we said, old music,” Debby said.

Angel went back inside and Mrs. Westfall was waiting for her. “Thank you for taking your guitar outside Angel. I know the girls liked your music, but some missed their TV shows, last night.”

“I am sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about, Angel. I like them to be touched by culture rather than the regurgitated pabulum from the TV, just not every day. I understand that each person has their own taste in entertainment. It is apparent that you love music.”
 
 
Chapter 36
 
 
Angel hurried through lunch and almost ran back to her cottage. Running on school grounds, she was reminded, that runing was reserved only for real emergencies and P.E. In her room, she tried to do something with her hair, as she changed. Mrs. Westfall had handed her a pair of black three inch stiletto pumps. When Angel came out, Mrs. Westfall stopped her and worked on her hair a bit, before letting her go.

It took a while longer to walk to the music department in the stilettos, but she got there none the less. In the music hall she was taken to a dressing room, where a senior student did her makeup, with moderate false eyelashes. The girl used a heavier stage makeup, but Angel didn’t look gaudy.

Another girl worked a bit on her hair, spraying it heavily with hair spray.

On stage, she came out, did mike checks and video checks. There was just one mike in front of a lone stool. Angel tuned up her guitar.

“Angel,” Mrs. Cartwright said. “Before you start your first piece and after you finish a piece, you will see a red light. Don’t start the next piece till you see the green light in the control booth,” she said pointing to the booth.

There was a red, a green and a yellow light showing.

“If you see a yellow light, start the previous song over again.”

Then she said to the few people not in the control booth. “The rehearsal hall is under silence till all three lights come back on. Place your guitar in the stand, and walk off stage right. Enter when the stage director indicates it is time.”

Angel walked off stage right. The stage director had a pair of headphones on and smiled at her. Angel waited till the stage director whispered,“Break a leg,” to her and motioned for her to go out.

Angel walked to the stool, took her guitar and sat down looking up at the control booth. On a green light, she brought the neck of her guitar to her shoulder and began to play.

It was cool in the rehearsal hall, but by the eighth piece she began to sweat a bit. For some reason she was a little nervous, but she steeled herself and didn’t let it adversely affect her. After she finished her last piece, it was about twenty seconds before the three lights flashed on together, and she breathed again. She had gone straight through with no do overs.

The teachers met her on stage and drooled over her costume a bit. She had told them what she was going to wear, but her words were not enough.

“Very nicely done Angel,” Mrs. Cartwright said. “It isn’t the first time someone played straight through, but it is rare.”

“We are proud of you,” Ms Grogan said. “Your description of your outfit was sorely deficient. It is wonderful.”

“I have a Sevillano hat, that goes with it, but I didn’t bring it.”

“Well, bring it to school with you. You look magnificent.”

“Thank you,”

“Good, now let’s rehearse tomorrow’s music,”

Angel played the three pieces that needed the most work, again Ms. Grogan helped by making corrections and suggestions. She had Angel go over the rough spots, smoothing them out and then replaying the pieces.

When Angel played the pieces well, Ms Grogan had her play the playlist from first to last. It took Angel thirty nine minutes to play all the songs.

“Very good Angel, try playing the pieces again once or twice tonight. It is a little after four. Get Sylvia to take off your makeup and then you may head back to your cottage.
 

*          *          *
 
At the P.E. facility, the Coach had the girls switch sports today, “Girls, those of you who played soccer yesterday, will play softball, and those of you who played softball, will play soccer.”

“Sierra, the softball field is that way, Nevada, the soccer field is the other way.” The coach smiled, as the girls realized they had been busted.

Both girls played well at what they were doing, but not as well as their sibling had done. Nevada had more trouble keeping up with the flow of the game on the soccer field, but she was decent handling the ball, just not as well as her sister. Her stamina was maybe a smidge better, but not much. They both needed to get into a running program. Sierra played softball well, but made a few more errors than Nevada did fielding and she didn’t hit as well as her sister.

All of this was noted by the coach. The girls were opposite handed and footed. They also had different skill sets.
 

*          *          *
 
Back at the dorm, Angel found Mrs. Westfall waiting. “Go ahead and change. If you bring me your costume, I will wash your blouse and steam your jacket, vest and skirt, to freshen them up for tomorrow.

Angel changed into a pair of shorts and T-shirt. She took her costume out to Mrs. Westfall. The house mother hung the skirt, jacket and vest separately and placed the blouse in the washing machine. She used a steam wand on the jacket. The wrinkles began to smooth out and afterwards the jacket had lost its body odor, Angel noted. Mrs. Westfall did know what she was doing.

Angel went to her room and took a shower. Sierra and Nevada came in as she was rinsing off. Nevada traded places with her as she stepped out to dry.
 

*          *          *
 
Thursday, the costume smelled fresh, as Angel dressed. Her hair was more manageable today; it must have been the humidity yesterday. Today the air was a little drier, but not too dry.

Today she had been requested to play one of the pieces over again. It was one of the pieces that she had to work on. She had made a mistake in one of the chord progressions, but on the second pass she knew that she had nailed it.

She again met with the teachers on the stage after she had finished.

“Angel, tomorrow you can relax, no more playing for us, but we want you to come back dressed as you are now. We want to take some photographs of you. Bring your guitar too; it will be a prop in some of the photographs.”
 

*          *          *
 
Angel was met again by Mrs. Westfall and again she changed and handed off her costume, although she didn’t wait around to see what was being done.

She was already dressed and in the common room when all the girls came in from P.E.
 

*          *          *
 
The final day, the girls received their test results and received individual counseling from the teaching staff. Sierra and Nevada knew they were in deep poo poo as they saw their results. They had both done well, better than their results at their school, and wondered how they would explain it to their mom tomorrow. Angel was very pleased with her tests. She had performed up to and better than her old school.

The twins were told how they could not work harder at their subjects, but to work smarter. They could make better use of their study time and to come up with better results.

At ten, they were given the rest of the day as free time, except for Angel, who had an appointment. Back at the dorm, Mrs. Westfall sat Angel down and rolled her hair up. She sat under a dryer for about half an hour and then she dressed. The rollers were then removed; her hair combed out and sprayed heavily. Mrs. Westfall was careful not to gunk up the hair. She just wanted it to look just right. Mrs. Westfall and the twins went with Angel.

Sylvia gave Angel a more normal glamour makeup job. Emphasizing the eyes, which she thought were Angel’s best features.

The Photo shoot consisted of three girls, who were from the schools own photo class. They had lights and a backdrop set up on the stage. For the next hour and a half, the three girls’ took about a hundred and seventy five shots of Angel, each.

Mrs. Westfall explained to the twins, that each girl was doing this for an assignment and for the school.

The girls would stop at times and dump the pictures into a laptop, before taking some more. The pictures were moved from the laptop to the schools server and into each girl’s partition, on that server, the music department’s partition and a partition for Angel.

The girls took shots of Angel, Angel with her guitar and some of her guitar alone. All the shots were tastefully done of course.

After all the pictures were taken, Angel walked her guitar back to her room and went with her cousins to explore the campus.

Angel had only seen the campus in passing before. She loved all the trees that surrounded the campus. Academics was built on a Quad, with a student center on its west end. The Music hall was south of the student center/cafeteria and Physical Education was west of the Music hall. The Admin bldg was to the east end of the quad. The Math and Sciences were on the north side of the quad. Languages, Geography, History, Social Sciences and such, were on the south side. The library was south of the Admin. Bldg. The cottages were north and south of the quad.

Still dressed in her costume, and wearing her makeup, Angel got a lot of looks from all the students. The girls found the library, which was more than adequate and quite modern.

The twins took their cousin to the gym, where a lot of the girls were playing various games. Coach Butler was in the gym to keep everything going smoothly.

“Those are the same girls that were complaining about exercising?” Angel asked.

“Yes, but Coach Butler was pushing us harder than that,” Nevada said.

From the gym, the girls headed to the student center. There were many more girls there, where the cafeteria, bookstore and other recreational pursuits took place.

They were all back at the cottage after diner, the girls sat around and traded email addressed and phone numbers. There were some tears shed, as the girls realized that some of them would probably not be back.
 

*          *          *
 
The next morning, the children and parents met with the admin staff. Angel and her cousins were among the last ones called to the office. They met with Mrs. Beckman, in the headmistress’ office. Again they sat at the couches.

“Well Mrs. Marquez, it is good seeing you again.”

“It’s good being here, Mrs. Beckman.”

“Let me get the suspense out of the way. Angel, we are accepting you at our Academy. Here are her test results.” Mrs. Beckman said, handing Margarita a sheet of paper. “She tested out at a Sophomore and Junior levels in all of the subjects we tested, but we want her to enter as a freshman. Her music performance skills are very advanced and slightly beyond basic in her knowledge of music theory. She needs a lot of work. She has good social skills and gets along well with the other girls. NOBODY noticed that she wasn’t what she appears to be. ”

“So let me welcome you to our Academy, Angel.”

“Thank you Mrs. Beckman,” Angel smiled.

“Now, Mrs. Santiago, here are the test results for your two girls. Sierra did very good in English, History and Social Studies; we put her in the top fifteen percentile in those subjects. Her Math, Science and Geography we place her at slightly above her grade level. She needs work on her Spanish grammar.”

“Nevada was just the opposite of Sierra, almost subject by subject, except for Spanish; she needs to work on her Spanish grammar.”

“So how does what they did here dovetail into what they did at their school?”

“They seem to be performing below their abilities.”

Carmine looked crossly at her daughters and had a short conversation in Spanish that made them blush a bit.

“I see both girls as potential leaders; they get along very well with other girls, and have very good organizational skills.”

“I always thought they were always plotting something, but that fits with what I believe.”

“All in all I would like to do anything we can to have your daughters attend our Academy, Mrs. Santiago. We don’t take girls their age but we would love having them next year.”

“I can’t afford two tuitions,”

“We may be able to work something out, please give us a chance. Anyways, we have a year to think about and work on it. Please keep in touch.”

The luncheon took place in the Student Center. There were three projections screens set up at the head table. On the screens were pictures of school activities being projected. The girls recognized that they were pictures of the group of girls that were being tested. Occasionally there were some of the pictures of Angel on them.

There was also music playing over the sound system. A few of the pieces were of Angel playing her guitar. When her music was playing, her pictures were on the two wing screens and on the center screen was the video of her playing.
Carmine and Margarita were enjoying the show and Angel was embarrassed. The other girls in the cafeteria were pointing at Angel’s table during the show.

As the luncheon came to an end many of the parents stopped by and chatted with Margarita and Angel, complimenting her for her play.

On the trip home Carmine turned to her girls and asked, “Girls tell me why you have been performing below your level?”

“We don’t know Mom. Maybe it is the way we were tested,” Sierra said.

“Yeah, the way the computers tested us, kind of pushed us harder,” Nevada said.

“I ought to leave you with Aunt Rita and go with Angel myself.”

“Go.” Sierra said.

“Where?” Nevada asked.

“What?” Angel asked.

Margarita and Carmine giggled. Margarita then said, “Well it was supposed to be a surprise, and I guess it kinda was. We are all going to take a trip.”

There was a pregnant pause as the girls waited for Margarita to continue. The adults just enjoyed the torment they imagined was going on in the girls’ minds.

Finally Angel asked the big question, “Where?”

“Girls, Wednesday, we are flying to Madrid. Carmine and I got together with the Old Men and discussed it. It would mean so much to Carmelita.”

“Wow,” “Oh my,” “Yeah,” All three of the girls shouted.

“One thing though Angel. You will have to travel in pants, without your breast forms, but you can change when we get in country.”

“Why?” Angel asked in an indignant manner.

“Passport,”

“Oh, alright, I guess I can do that,” she said, understanding the problem.

“Yes, you can’t change your gender on the passport till you have had GRS surgery, and you can’t get that till you are 18.”

The rest of the trip home, they discussed the upcoming trip. The Old Men had already left on Friday and would pick them up in Madrid. They would leave Carmine’s home and head to Margarita’s home on Tuesday. An airport limousine would pick them up and take them to JFK from there at midnight.

---

 
To Be Continued...