Janice and her friends have their interview and try to get on with their lives.
She gets to work with another production group in her Journalism class and gets another paying job.

All seems to be going well... but is that too much to hope for.

by Paula Dillon

---

 
Morning came early for Janice; a dreary eyed Reggie had shaken her awake. She slowly got up and into a robe and was taken to Reggie’s shop. Reggie handed her a cup of coffee. She drank it and then Reggie got to work on her hair.

Anna got up as her watch beeped and started breakfast. By five ten everyone was up and eating or getting their hair done. They then quickly started helping each other get ready.

The other mothers showed up a little worse for the wear due to the early hour, but as the coffee flowed their spirits and their moods lifted.

The girls all got their makeup done and after a final inspection by the mothers, they headed to their respective vehicles for the drive to the station. They arrived at the station at ten minutes to seven.

The girls were all wired with mikes and earphones. The makeup girl gave them thumbs up on their hair and only adjusted the makeup a little. In the studio they did sound checks on all their mikes. Studio lighting was set and adjusted. Video links to New York were established and communication check, between the two sets.

The girls were told to watch the monitors as New York went live. Their story was to be the second one of this hour, so they sat back and watched.

Andrea Edwards, Timothy Niles and Albert Reese, the hosts, introduced the first story. They introduced their first story, welcomed their guests, showed some video and then interviewed them about their subject. During that time they had one commercial break and a blurb about what was coming up next. The girls were given a three-minute notice. Last minute checks were made of the girl’s appearance and the stage was set.

Andrea: “Now we go to a story that many of you have already seen, (Video in the background of the city council meeting ending with the street shots). Four young ladies went out to shoot a video for a class project, for their high school journalism class.

They had done a piece on an important city council meeting and were shooting some background pieces to emphasize the problem. They had just finished, when things began to happen and they were there to witness and record them (footage of the robbery attempt began). As you can see, when the shooting began they sprang into action, documenting and commenting on the action. For over forty minutes they continued to work the story. The robbery turned siege ended, with the swat team assaulting the would be robbers. I have to say Tim; I would be hard pressed to find better coverage of a live, ongoing news story than this.”

Tim: “I agree Andrea, they did a great job. They showed an insight and courage you hope to see in any journalist. On top of that, all four members of that production team are just sixteen years old. Now that is amazing.”

Albert: “Yes they were amazing, when most people would turn and run away, or find some place safe to hunker down, which is what I would hope most people would do at a scene like this. They stayed and faithfully recorded this event from the first shot till the last shot. Now we have a treat for the viewers, after this commercial break, we get to meet the four young ladies who shot this amazing footage.”

(One monitor showed the live feed and another showed the studio in New York. They were given a five count, at the end of the commercial and a return to the studio.)

Back in the studio Andrea said, “Welcome back, we are going live to our affiliate station where these four girls are waiting. Janice Davies, the brilliant on screen personality, is there waiting for us. (The light on the studio camera went green, showing a live feed.) Janice, will you please introduce yourself and your talented production team.”

Janice: “Hi, I am Janice Davies. These are the other members of my production team and my best friends. To my right is Margaret Bradford, audio, editing and producer, to my left is Vanessa Sebring, our editor, director and camera operator and behind me is Anna Givens, camera operator, makeup and lighting expert, together we are JD’s Productions.”

Tim: “Well it is good to meet all of you. How are all of you doing today?”

Janice: “We are doing very good considering how early we had to get up to get ready for today.”

Andrea: “That is understandable; the news never sleeps; some of us like to say. Tell us, how did you and your team come to be there to shoot that news story?”

Here goes nothing Janice thought. “Well, it started out like this. I really love Journalism. I look forward to one day being a TV journalist. My associates and I went out that day to see if I could make it.

You see I have a problem. I was born a male and due to a medical problem, I will never mature as a male. My body reacted violently when I was given a shot of male hormones to try to jumpstart my maturation. I was hospitalized and I had an immunological reaction to my own body’s male hormones. That left me unable to mature as a male. My body deprived of male hormones slowly began to feminize.

So I was stuck, I didn’t think an androgynous guy make it in the news industry. My friends wanted me to see if I could make it as a woman.”

(In her earpiece Janice heard: New York says to keep going, girl. One minute and then back to New York.)

“My friends here worked with me to help me learn how to act like a girl and taught me many of the things girls do naturally. I learned to do my hair, makeup, matching clothes and how to shop. That was fun. Then they got their heads together and thought that I should try to do a news shoot as a woman. We hunted in the newspapers for a news item we could do and found the city council meeting. We researched the story, learned what the sides and issues were. Then we made our plans and went out that day to shoot that story, with me in a feminine role. During our shoot, the robbery took place. The rest is history.”

Andrea smiled at the camera and said. “Well that really is an amazing story. Why are you coming out to the nation here live on TV?”

Janice: “I felt like I had to, Andrea. I recently had a run in with a scandal rag reporter. I knew I wouldn’t get a fair break from him. He would have sensationalized the story for the biggest shock factor. So I felt like I really had to come out.”

Albert: “So are you living as a woman now Janice?”

“Yes Albert, I am living full time as a woman and will continue to do so. I am now legally a female. I just hope I will have a chance to make it in my chosen field.”

Andrea: “Well, if you show such candor and poise as in the robbery and this interview, I see no reason that we might not be working together in the future. I want to thank you and your friends for being here with us today and good luck,”

“Thank You,” they all said.

Albert: “Coming up next…” (The live feed light turned off, the studio lights dim. A voice said, “Good job girls,”)

Jack Williams the station manager met them as they moved off set saying, “Good job girls, I clued New York in about that reporter. They were half expecting that you would come out. I think you did a good job of telling your story in a limited amount of time. If nobody else will hire you, you can always come back here. I need good people like all of you girls are.”

Sam came up and said, “I don’t care if you had an eye in the back of your head, you’re ok by me. Do come back after you graduate from college, we’ll hire you.”

A woman came up to Sam and handed him some paper. He looked at them. “You girls have three emails from Andrea, Tim and Albert,” he said, handing them the paper.

The girls and their mothers gathered around Janice as she read them out loud.

“Andrea says: I can’t imagine how difficult that was for you to do. I know how you must have agonized over it. You did a good job and I wish the best for you.”

“Tim says: I don’t care what anybody may say to you, I think you and your friends have what it takes. Good luck.”

“Albert says: If you do as good a job as you did today, forget the robbery, this was more difficult, I know you will make it. Good luck.”

Jack Williams was handed a note and said. “The switchboards really lit up during your interview. Eighty-four percent are favorable, and sixteen percent are negative. That is excellent given that people who are neutral wouldn’t even bother calling. We will be forwarding any mail or responses to Madeline Bradford, girls. So look forward to more mail and email.”

The girls and their families said their good byes and stepped outside.

“What’s next?” Vanessa asked.

“Well, You, Margaret and Anna go back to school,” Madeline said.

“Oh, do we hafto?” the girls said.

“Yes you have too.”

Angela turned to Janice and said, “You have two doctor’s appointments, a driving test and suit fittings. We need to move it.”

Janice drove to the state licensing office. She filled out the required forms, waited in a line, turned the paperwork in, waited in line and then took her driving test. She was very nervous as she drove, but she was reasonably certain she passed. The trooper looked cross at her for a few seconds and her heart sank.

“I hate to tell you this ma’am but you passed. Don’t let me catch you drinking and especially drinking and driving. You hear,” he said finally cracking a smile.

“Mom would kill me if I did. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Then I don’t want to investigate your death at the hands of your Mom. You did real good, the only problem you had was, you took too long to parallel park. Other than that, you were perfect. You scored a ninety four.”

Janice went inside to turn in her paperwork, have her picture taken and got her temporary driver’s license. The clerk didn’t even bat an eye as she was shown the paperwork to change the listed sex from male to female. She just looked up and continued typing.

Janice then went to see Dr. Spencer. They just took blood, blood pressure, temperature, weight, asked her if she had any problems, gave her another shot and a new prescription. They also had her make weekly appointments for the next two months, on Wednesdays, at four.

They then went to Dr. Godwin’s office. She was embarrassed a little, having to undress and dress in a paper examination gown. The doctor inspected the area of the incision and tuck.

“Everything is looking good, Janice. The bruising is starting to fade and you are healing well. Keep using you antiseptic cream, the panty liners for a week, and keep yourself dry there. Call me when you are ready for SRS, I do very good work. I think you will like it.”

Their last stop for the day was Monica’s Boutique. Monica smiled as they entered and greeted them warmly.

“Are you ready to choose your other suits Janice?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Good, just let Sharon mark that Armani for alteration. You have your DKNY to wear home and you can choose two more suits.”

Sharon got busy marking the suit. She marked to pull it in on the waist in both the skirt and jacket. She left room for Janice to grow in the bust and hips. Janice found a tan Versace suit that looked good on her and a Ralph Lauren jacket and skirt, in a saddle brown, that looked smashing on her. It looked so good; she insisted that her Mom try the same outfit on. Angela was led kicking and screaming into the fitting room, (not really, but she wanted too) and tried the clothes on. She started to protest as she modeled the clothes, but when she stood next to Janice and saw how they both looked, she gave in.

Janice then had to get purses and shoes for all her suits. She got a pair of Navy pumps, for the DKNY, saddle brown pumps, to match her Ralph Lauren and a pair of cream colored pumps, for her Versace. The pumps had heels of between three and four inches.

Monica was so happy to have sold five suits that she gave them some hosiery, matching broaches, for mother and daughter, and scarves to go with their outfits. She made out like a bandit in the end, but she really liked Janice.

The Versace and Ralph Lauren needed fitting. Angela and Janice took turns getting their outfits marked. Then Janice changed into her DKNY suit and pumps, while her Mom got dressed in the clothes she had worn there. Sharon told them to come back tomorrow and pick them up.

They stopped and ate at a restaurant before heading home.

Janice had to call the girls to get her homework. They only had a couple of things for her to do, so she was able to get that out of the way. She had also told Margaret that she had passed her driving test and would drive herself tomorrow.

**************

Janice drove carefully to school the next day. She got there early, so she could park her car near the gatehouse, which sat on the school property. The school locked down the parking lot to protect the student’s vehicles and to keep the students from slipping away without permission. They had very little crime on campus, but this was her first car. She didn’t want to take any chances.

She got her purse, camera case and her backpack, with her books and met her friends at their usual spot. The girls made her tell them all about what Janice and her Mom did, after they left. She had to describe in detail the outfits she chose.

At the bell they headed into school. She could still hear a buzz as they walked through the halls, but it didn’t seem malicious. She found that certain people still gave her a lot of room and she had a few more girls around her.

Her classes paid little attention to her, which was just fine. She didn’t want to be noticed anymore than necessary. Ms. Smart was just as ‘catty’ towards her as before, but she didn’t harass her openly.

The group around her at lunch was a little larger, again mostly girls. They wanted to know more about her. Janice tried to appease them with bits and pieces. She didn’t want to tell her whole life story, but she wanted as many people on her side as possible.

In Journalism, she met with the four students of Payne’s World. They batted ideas around a bit, till Janice had a brilliant idea.

“What if Ginny and Rebecca were dressed in swimsuits and other appropriate clothing. We could get Tom and one of the girls in a boat, another in a canoe, climbing the rock wall they have, a camping scene and a hiking scene,” Janice said.

“That is a great idea,” Tom said. “We could cover just about all the areas that we are interested in. We might need to run that by Mrs. Elaine Smith, she is the one that approved us coming in for the shoot.”

Rebecca got her cell phone out and called Mrs. Smith. She ran the idea by her as best she could, but got frustrated and handed the phone to Janice.

Janice explained who she was and that she was working with Payne’s World on this shoot. Mrs. Smith knew about Janice from TV and convinced her to come to the convention center tomorrow with Payne’s World and to bring her crew, if she could. She ran it by Mr. Dawson, who approved the idea and agreed to let them go there after they checked in and checked out the equipment they would need.

She checked with Anna, Margaret and Vanessa about tomorrow and about coming to her house after school. She talked with the kids of Payne’s world and invited them to join her crew, at her home after school.

Craig rode with Tom, he had a Nissan 300ZX and it only had room for two. Ginny, Rebecca and Vanessa rode with Janice, and Anna rode with Margaret.

Janice and Anna brought drinks and snacks for everyone. They sat down and started kicking ideas around. Ginny and Rebecca took loads of notes. They went through the material the convention center provided them, on who and what would be there and tried to cover the show as well as they could. They tried to create a time line for a five-minute presentation that covered as many of the areas as possible and yet still provided the people with as much detail as possible.

Angela was a little surprised to see another car outside her home. She knew Margaret’s but the sports car she hadn’t seen before. She picked up her Ralph Lauren outfit and headed inside. Instead of four kids, there were eight gathered around the dinner table talking. She told Janice to get her suits out of the car.

The girls’ ears perked up when they heard suits and went with her to get them. They found three suits and an empty suit bag. Ginny and Rebecca were really interested when they saw Monica’s Boutique on the suit bags. Janice had to take the suits out of the bag and hang them on the door so the girls could look and see what she got.

They went straight to the labels to begin their appraisal. They also checked the fabrics and linings.

“I can’t afford a shopping bag from Monica’s Boutique and you have four suits. That’s not fair Janice,” Rebecca said. There was enough humor in her voice to show that she was just kidding. She was jealous, but not spitefully so.

“You have got to wear that Versace to school tomorrow, Janice. We all need to look good for Mrs. Smith,” Ginny said. “That includes the guys. If we are going to dress up, they are going to dress up, or we’ll kill them.”

They all joined the guys, Ginny and Rebecca read Tom and Craig the riot act about dressing up. The guys surrendered and promised that they would be in their Sunday best. At five thirty the kids departed, Margaret drove the girls home and Craig rode with Tom.

Janice told her Mom about the convention center wanting to meet with them. She said that it would be alright as long as she knew where she would be. She told Janice to call or text her if she was going to be late, or had to go somewhere else. Janice said that she would.

Janice set her alarm a half hour earlier than usual, so she could get ready. She went ahead and set her purse up with the things she would need. Then she set some things out so she wouldn’t have to worry about them. She showered and had her Mom lace her in a corset down to twenty-three inches.

***************

When Janice woke, she worked herself out of that corset and cleaned up a bit. She worked on her hair and makeup, and then began dressing. She laced herself into a corset, and had her Mom tighten it down to twenty-four inches; she then added some suntan hose. She wore her padded brief and gel bra pads. She dressed in a baby blue blouse, her Versace skirt and jacket. Her Mom fussed with her hair a bit, spraying it with hair lacquer and had Janice add a little more color to her face.

Janice looked at herself in the mirror. She was all girl today, of that there would be no doubt.

She grabbed her laptop, camera case, backpack, purse, and cell phone. She put her things in her car then she headed out for school.

She found her friends at their spot and saw that the others were there too. Everybody checked everybody out. Vanessa wore another suit in pink, which Margaret had given her. Anna was dressed in a black suit, while Margaret was dressed in a dark green number. Ginny was dressed in a very nice navy/white sailor type suit, while Rebecca wore a nice dark blue blazer, over a red knee length pencil skirt.

Craig wore a charcoal gray pinstripe suit, with a red/white dot tie. The suit looked like a million dollars on him. Tom wore a black suit, that he needed to retire, seeing how he had a growth spurt in the last six months. The sleeves of the jacket and the hem of his pants were about an inch shorter than what they should have been. He still looked quiet nice in it.

They all looked sharp and drew a lot of attention from the other students. Janice had to admit though, she received more than her fair share of wide eyed looks, open mouths, appreciative looks and even some jealous looks, if she read the body language right.

Vanessa relieved Janice of the burden of the camera case at the bell and they hurried to Mr. Dawson’s classroom. He let them lock up the camera and laptop in his closet. They hurried even more to get to their homeroom, entering right on the bell.

Ms. Nelson looked at them as they entered the classroom and said, “It is so nice of you to join us, but I see it is well worth the wait. I would have to make an entrance to, if I were dressed as nice as you girls are.”

“Sorry Ms. Nelson, we had to drop some things off first,” Anna said.

“No problem girls, you were on time. Please take your seats.”

Ms. Nelson took roll and Ms. Simmons came over the intercom to make announcements. The bell rung for students to go to their first period class. Most of students had Ms. Nelson for first period, though some didn’t and left. Other students came in and gawked before sitting down. Janice, Anna and Vanessa had to explain that they had an important meeting dealing with their Journalism class.

The rest of the morning classes went like that. There were raised eyebrows, mouths that hung open in wonder and stares.

Ms. Smart’s face went red when she saw Janice, although she didn’t make any comments. Janice just sat down at her computer. She looked over and got smiles from Suzy and Debby; at least that made her feel better.

She then booted up her program. Instead of the screen she usually saw, she saw a smiley face that stuck out it’s tongue at her and in a balloon saw the words ‘Janice is a faggot’, before she saw the BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). The same thing happened on all the computers in the computer lab.

Ms. Smart tried to save the server, but electrons travel faster than fingers. In frustration she wrote out a pass and said, “Janice, get your things and go to Ms. Simmons office. The rest of you follow me to study hall.”

Janice was in tears as she walked to Ms Simmons office. Ms. Keller was shocked to see Janice in this condition. “What is the problem Janice? Why are you here?”

Janice explained what had happened to Ms. Keller. She buzzed Ms. Simmons on the intercom and talked to her. Four seconds later Ms. Simmons asked Janice to come into her office and asked Linda to call IT and get a tech over here.

She had Janice sit down in an armchair and tell her what happened. Janice told her that she booted her program. Instead of her program coming up, a smiley face came up, stuck out it’s tongue and in a balloon said that Janice was a faggot. A BSoD came up and crashed her computer, and all the computers in the classroom.

“So why did Ms. Smart send you here?”

“I guess she blames this on me.”

“Did you do this?”

“NO MA’AM!” Janice said getting a little excited. “Why would I do that to myself?”

“I believe you Janice, your logic is flawless. You wouldn’t do that. We just have to get Ms. Smart to see that logic. Now go in my bathroom and fix your face dear. Don’t let her see you sweat.”

While Janice was busy making herself presentable, Linda buzzed her that Ms. Smart was here. She asked Linda to have her wait. Janice took great care to make herself look presentable. She did the best make up job she had ever done. She looked at herself and was happy that she didn’t get any makeup on her suit. She smiled, held her head up high and came back into the office.

“You look much better Janice. You are quiet the young lady you know.”

“Thank you Ma’am,” Janice said as she took her seat.

“Linda, send in Ms. Smart. Please.”

Ms. Smart came in her face still in a grimace.

“Please have a seat Ms. Smart and tell me why you sent Janice to the office.”

“She crashed the computer lab server and all of our computers, Ms. Simmons.”

“Did she really, tell me what happened?”

Ms. Smart told the same basic story that Janice had told her. The smiley face, the words, ‘Janice is a faggot,’ and all the computers crashing afterwards.

“Why do you think it was Janice?”

“It had to be, it started on her computer. I want her expelled.”

“Couldn’t one of your other students have hacked into her program?”

“My students wouldn’t do that. Besides we run a security program.”

“I don’t really think that Janice would do that to her own program or anybody else’s for that fact. She is one of our better students. You yourself wrote those very words, if I remember correctly.”

“That was before she began her perversions.”

“MS. SMART! I won’t have you talking like that about Janice or any student. Now apologize this minute.”

“I am sorry I said that, but this isn’t right.”

“I have an IT tech coming over here now, Ms. Smart we will see what they have to say. Now you may either assist in study hall or take some personal time, but don’t return to your class room, Ms. Smart.”

“I will take some personal time, but I need my coat and purse.”

Ms. Simmons asked Linda to accompany Ms. Smart to her classroom and to lock it up when she left.

“Janice don’t let her get to you, you have done nothing wrong. Of that I am certain. Now go on to study hall please. Remember don’t let them see you sweat. Hold your head up high and smile dear.”

***************

Ms. Simmons was highly pissed at Ms. Smart. She had no reason to accuse Janice Daniels of anything. She would have to find out who had done this. She needed to talk to her niece.

Ms. Smart was livid, she couldn’t believe Ms. Simmons would take the side of that ungodly child; she was a God Fearing woman from what she had heard.

**************

Janice reported to study hall and gave the teacher there her hall pass. She then went to sit between Debby and Suzy. She told them in whispers what had happened, leaving out some things that Ms. Smart had said. She just didn’t want to go there.

The girls assured her, that they didn’t blame her for what had happened. They had some ideas, but no evidence anyone had done it.

Mr. Davis got on the girls about talking in study hall, so they got back to work on their homework.

At lunch, the people listened intently to what Janice had to say. Many had already heard of the incident, and of Ms. Smart going home early, but they didn’t have the whole story. Janice didn’t tell anybody the whole story.

Fifth period went well and at sixth period Journalism, JD’s Production and Payne’s World got a lot of looks from their fellow students. They had already heard and some of them had seen them already but seeing them all together was just stunning. Mr. Dawson checked out cameras, tri-pods, audio recorders and such, to Payne’s World and told JD’s production that they can assist, but Payne’s World needed to do their own work.

Janice got her things and led the two groups out to the cars. They were stopped by the security guard in the parking lot and they showed their passes Mr. Dawson had given them. The cameras and gear all went in Margaret’s SUV. Anna rode with her. Everybody else rode in the same vehicles they had the day before.

At the convention center, they parked in the lot they had been instructed to use the day before. There were all sorts of eighteen-wheelers and commercial trucks there already. The back docks were a beehive of activity.

The kids took all the equipment with them. They really didn’t want to lose it to a thief. A security guard asked what they were there for, and after hearing what they had said, called to check their story out. Mrs. Smith asked the guard to send them on up to her office. He gave them rudimentary directions and sent them on their way.

They were met by an attractive looking lady; that appeared to be in her late thirties to early forties. “Hi, I am Elaine Smith; you must be Payne’s World and JD’s Productions.”

“I am Janice Daniels and this is Vanessa Sebring, Margaret Bradford and Anna Givens. We are JD’s Productions.”

“I am Tom Spires and this is Ginny Morgan, Rebecca Cummings and Craig Livingston. We are Payne’s World.”

“Welcome, I was expecting an unruly mob of kids, but I see you can’t be called kids. All of you look so nice and quite professional.”

The kids all thanked Mrs. Smith.

“Now, if you will come with me, I was going to do the meeting in my office, but seeing all of you, we will meet in my conference room.”

She led them to a room with a long table and about a dozen chairs around it. JD’s Productions sat on one side and Payne’s World sat on the other, with Elaine at the head.

“Now before we get started, I wanted to thank JD’s Production for coming. I was excited to talking to you yesterday, Janice, and it is so good meeting you. I was quite taken by your on screen performance and your candor in your interview on Wednesday. I had to take this opportunity to meet you.

It is good to meet your group too Tom. I don’t mean to make your group to appear less important. It is good seeing young people trying to learn to do things right. So please tell me what your ideas are.”

Tom started out telling Mrs. Smith of their ideas; the others there produced their notes and added to what he said. Tom did give credit to Janice; she explained how she came up with this idea. They talked for about an hour.

Mrs. Smith smiled when they began and listened intently as the two groups worked together to flesh out the ideas. After they finished she asked, “Have any of you seen our commercials on TV?”

Six of the eight said they had.

“What did you think of them?”

“They were alright, I guess. I am no judge of commercials,” Tom said.

“You are just the people to judge them. For this show to be a success, our commercials need to be out there and grab the consumer. They have to want to come here, pay that entry fee, browse the vendors and buy things. If they don’t come, the vendors may not come back next year, the convention center looses money and prestige. I agree they are alright, but alright isn’t good enough. Tell me, you people have some really good ideas, can you make those ideas a commercial?”

Everyone looked at Janice; she thought for a few seconds and said, “We probably can, using many of the same ideas. A news story sells people on the news, and the integrity of the newsperson. A commercial is not that much different.”

“Good, if you can produce three or four one minute spots, whether I use them or not, I will pay you eight thousand dollars. If they are good enough to use, I will pay you a lot more.”

“We would have to check with our attorney, Mrs. Smith, JD’s Productions is now a legal corporation,” Janice said.

“Who is your attorney?”

“Carl Wright, Ma’am,”

“I will talk to him; you kids put your heads together.”

Mrs. Smith got on the phone and the kids got together and started bouncing ideas back and forth. They took their notes and started to pull elements out of them to plug them together for a sales pitch. Mrs. Smith provided them with details each commercial needed to contain, about what, where, when and how much.

************

Back at the school Rick Tanner from the school districts IT department, inspected the damage.

“The program Ms. Daniels started, initiated a virus that infected all the computers on the intranet except one. Every computer out here had their registry and FAT’s corrupted. I will have to reinstall system software on each one after reformatting the hard drives. We have a mirror server that copies all the work on the server at midnight. That server is heavily firewalled. It also has links to the main server that runs a logger during the day. Any activity is noted like which programs were run during the day, when what machine accessed which program, on the server. I don’t think I ever told Ms. Smart about that.”

“I tracked Ms. Daniels program, it was last accessed before she ran it at 8:03 am, by terminal twenty-one.”

“That is during homeroom,” Ms. Simmons said.

“And Ms. Daniels generally logs in at eleven, and works on terminal 16, so it wasn’t her.”

“I never thought it was her, Rick. According to Ms. Smart’s seating chart, Leslie Carmichael sits at terminal twenty-one during home room. She has her homeroom students boot the computers for the day. Leslie was out sick though. Gary Marler sits at terminal twenty, and Chris Steigerwald sits at terminal twenty two. Marler and Carmichael are just there for home room; Sarah Clemens uses terminal twenty one first period.”

“It wasn’t Ms. Clemens who started the program, she wasn’t here yet. I believe an autorun CD was put in the drive when the computer was booted. The CD held a program that hunted Ms. Daniels directory and infected her program. Ms. Clemens sat at her terminal and the program was running in the background. She might know who the CD belonged to. It wasn’t in the drive when I checked and we record her saving her work to the CDR at eight-fifty.”

“Well how much damage was done?”

“Physically none, students in the first three periods may have lost some work, unless they saved to a CDR. Most do. It will take me twenty hours to bring the system back up. If I were in the public sector, I would bill one hundred twenty an hour, so figure two thousand four hundred dollars. I would also add twenty dollars an hour for each student’s work, for each terminal, times three, or another one thousand four hundred forty dollars. So I would report three thousand eight hundred forty dollars to law enforcement.”

“I like that figure, it gives me some leverage in dealing with my students. That would make it a felony, malicious mischief, on top of what ever the computer crime would be. Give me a written report later. We’ll deal with the miscreants on Monday. I want to do some investigating before we show our hands.”

Ms. Simmons went to the VP’s office, “Jeff I have a list of names I want you to check out. I want to know their computer abilities and associates.”

“I will get right on it. This is about Ms. Smart’s class right.”

“Yes it is.”

“Ok, I am right on it.”

Ninety percent of the time Mr. Collins got to play bad cop to Ms. Simmons good cop. He loved it. He also knew when Ms. Simmons chose to play bad cop, she was very scary in a sweet sort of way. Like something out of a Hitchcock Movie. She was a cross between a Koala bear and a saltwater crocodile.

************

Mrs. Smith looked over the ideas they came up for the commercials. The kids had outdone themselves and had come up with some really good ideas. She felt better about the concepts they brought her, than the company she paid two hundred thousand too.

“I like these ideas. Ginny, Rebecca and Tom, give your clothes sizes to Georgia, my personal assistant. I will take you on a tour of the facility so you can get a good look at what you are dealing with. I talked to Carl Wright; he is on his way here. He will be here after five thirty. Please call your parents and ask permission to be here till about eight.”

They stopped by Georgia’s desk. She got their sizes and the type of clothes they wanted to wear. Mrs. Smith also arranged for maintenance to bring up some of the studio type lights they had, so they could use them for tomorrow.

On the convention floor, they covered the various areas they wanted to shoot and got permission from the vendors to use their areas for the shoots. The teams were able to expand some ideas and nix others as too hard. Rebecca chose the scenes she liked best to be in and Ginny picked the others.

Mrs. Smith brought the kids back to her conference room, when she heard that Carl was there. He talked to them about this job and figured the best way to handle it was for JD’s Production to hire all eight of them and for the convention center to pay JD’s and JD’s to pay the kids minus taxes.

“As long as there is an even split I like it,” Janice said.

Everyone agreed with Janice.

“Ok, also since you are getting more work and I see no reason that you won’t continue to do so. I think JD’s ought to buy some more equipment, don’t you agree?” Carl said.

Janice, Anna, Vanessa and Margaret agreed.

“Good cause, I stopped by the store on the way over here. I got another camera like Janice’s, two tri-pods, and auxiliary audio gear. It helps with legalities of using school equipment for commercial gain. It’s over here; use it for the shoot tomorrow.” Carl said pointing at the pile of gear.

The kids poured over the pile of gear, checking it out, setting batteries to charge and making sure they had everything they would need.

“Mrs. Smith, that reminds me, we can edit the video here, but we need a sound set to do the voice over and special effects,”

“If you can edit it here, I have already scheduled some studio time at the TV station and you can do that there tomorrow afternoon.”

The kids got together and started brainstorming again. They laid out a timeline of shooting, beginning at seven thirty in the morning, beginning at the more important sites for the endeavor. They probably wouldn’t finish before the doors opened, but the most difficult shots would be taken care of already.

Some of their parents began arriving and they talked with Mr. Wright about the shoot. He told them what Mrs. Smith offered, what JD’s was doing and how much they could earn just by trying. Carl had even worked out that if they had at least three good commercials, that the convention would pay fifteen thousand per commercial. That had left more than a few of the parents with their mouths hanging open.

They didn’t even mind that he would take ten percent and JD’s Productions would take ten percent for equipment use. Each child would come out earning close to five thousand dollars after taxes and such.

Mrs. Smith had food brought up for everyone as the kids worked, and she got to know the parents. She herself had two kids that were with their grandmother right now. Angela found herself telling Janice’s story to the other student’s parents. Some had been skeptical as she began, but many became sympathetic.

Seeing how Janice was working with their kids and how they accepted her, won the rest of the parents over. She was working hard to help their children succeed.

The kids were about to leave for the night, when Georgia brought three bags of clothes. One bag went to Tom, one to Ginny and the last to Rebecca. They went through the bags to see what they had.

When Tom found a bikini on a special hanger that held the bra and panty in his bag. He held the hanger up to his chest and said, “I don’t think this is my bag,”

“Oh that is so cute,” Rebecca said.

The bikini was a flaming orange and yellow number. The bra was a string bikini bra, but had cups that were pretty modest for a bikini. The panty was a boycut panty in the same fabric. It was sexy, stylish but modest, as swimwear gets.

Everyone laughed and he traded bags with the Rebecca, who held the baggy swimming trunks out for everyone to see.

“I don’t know, but I would have paid to see you in that bikini, Tom,” Ginny said laughing.

“I can go get another bikini for Tom, I guess,” Georgia said, getting in on the fun.

“I think I will pass on that,” Tom said, his face flushed with embarrassment.

Everyone laughed at that and even Janice saw the irony in that thought.

“Dang, I liked those baggy trunks, they would have fit me nicely, but I love this bikini too,” Rebecca said. The trunks were bight Hawaiian style baggies, in reds and yellows. “I could wear these with my top.”

“I can get you the baggies tomorrow, but the bikini fits the theme better.”

“I agree, but I like these too.”

Ginny held up her blue/green tankini for all to see. The tank top had a built in shelf bra. The panty was a classic French cut with a full coverage backside. “I like my suit better; the colors match my eyes so nicely. Georgia you really have a good eye.”

Tom and the girls matched up the outfits with the scenes they were to shoot tomorrow, to save time. They then packed everything up and made ready to leave.

Mrs. Smith locked up all their equipment and led them to the exit.
 
 

*          *          *
 
 
End of Part 7
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
And That is the Way it Happened  © 2007 by Paula Dillon