Lee has her sweet sixteen birthday, but life isn't always roses and rainbows.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. None of the characters, places, or anything else is meant to be represented by anything in reality. Duh! Fiction, get it? I the author reserve the rights, so please don't go posting this anyplace else without my permission. A very special thanks goes out to Cathy and all the others out there in BCTS land who have encouraged and inspired me to write and keep writing. Another round of thanks goes out to djkauf who is the fastest proofer I've ever encountered. Any remaining mistakes are all mine.

Authors note: This story continues Career Day: Wheels of the School Bus Go Round and Round. It probably won’t make much sense without reading that one first. Vol. 3 is planned, but I don’t honestly know when I’ll be able to get to it. I had a lot of problems with the end of this one which ended up in several rewrites. That of course delayed everything, and my move a few months ago didn’t help. So please bear with me. It might be awhile.

“Happy Birthday, Lee!” Squealed little brother Darryl as he bounced on my bed.

Glancing at the clock, it read, 6:30. With a moan I ignored his laughing and pulled my pillow over my head. Happy Birthday to me, oh joy.

I had to suppress a yawn. My sixteenth birthday started off with a bang and showed no signs of slowing down. Darryl, the little rascal, had me up at six-thirty AM. I think he was more excited about today than I was, and that was saying something.

The scamp just had to show me the present he’d, by way of Mom, brought me. Tearing off the wrapping, I had a Bionic Woman Doll. Smiling, I’d added it the collection of girl toys he’d gotten me. My first girl Christmas he’d noticed I didn’t have any girl toys. Darryl single handedly decided to remedy that. Every Christmas and Birthday, I got a doll or stuffed animal.

Seeing the writing on the wall, I got up. I was a curious mixture of tired and wired from last night. Looking at the rising sun, I thought about my friends. I wondered for about the millionth time why we TG types kept getting picked on. Back in 2010, prejudice against gay and lesbians were starting to soften, but not so much for us gender lost, confused and bent types. I sighed.

Darryl however was determined I wasn’t going to be sad today. Marching me into the kitchen, the seven year old was going to cook me breakfast. No surprise here, I hmmm…. Helped.

Then it was off the joys of standing in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles not once, but twice for my Driver’s license and the title of my Studebaker.

Mom met me outside smiling wide. “Your father and the boys are going to meet up with us later. You however are going to run me around on a few errands.”

I raised an eyebrow. She had something devious in mind. Playing along, I smiled back. “I’m game. Where to, first?” I asked.

Pulling up in front of my Aunt Hope and Faith’s little boutique and beauty shop, Mom winked. “My treat.”

Really, it was just an annex to Aunt Hope’s house, but along with my Aunt Faith doing nails and manicures, they’d built up a solid reputation as the little shop that could.

As much as Dad enjoyed Mom’s new lease on life following her and my transformations, I think those two had actually rejoiced. Seeing their big sister always so drab and playing down her assets drove them nuts, I think.

Of my Mom’s large family the strawberry blond twins, Hope and Faith were my favorites. Meeting us at the door, they were obviously expecting us. Both were as short as I was, at five two.

Being that short was about the only thing that bugged me as far as being me was concerned. Even Mom was an inch or two taller than I. Then again Master Bruce Lee was only five seven. Another Master, although fictional, once told his student, ‘Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm, and well you should not.” It’d be three more years before that little green philosopher would hit pop culture this time around, but it made the lesson no less true.

It the case of my Aunts, both my Mom and I were swept away by their hurricane-like enthusiasm. Not wise to underestimate them at all! I managed by the skin of my teeth not to ended up a frosted blond with Debbie Harry bangs.

I like my long, dark brunette hair. Even with trims, it came down to my waist. As anyone with long hair can tell you, it’s a real pain to keep clean and nice, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

The pampering and having someone else doing some of the work taking care of my hair was heaven. The manicure was just as good. Now that I was sixteen, Mom gave them the okay to give me the works.

While I was getting done, so was Mom. Her sisters talked her out of the simple haircut she wanted and into something like a more restrained Farrah Fawcett’s famous do. Afraid, poor Mom would end up blond like I almost did, I suggested rather than the ‘frosting,’ a highlighting in a burgundy. It turned out to be sort of like a tinted Jaclyn Smith look. With Mom’s tanned complexion it really popped.

It took a little convincing, but I got away with mostly only a trim. My hair did however now have similar highlights like Mom’s and was very wavy. My Aunts were quiet pleased with themselves and insisted on lots of pictures.

Back in my car, damn but didn’t that sound good! We were off again. This time to the only real mall in town. I think we hit every last store and even as fit as I was, wondering how we were going to carry everything.

However, the crowning glory of that was getting my ears pierced. Most of the girls in my class already had theirs done, but as I’d said before, my folks are so old fashioned it hurts sometimes. I’d asked some time ago, but they’d refused. Having a little patience paid off for once, since sharing this with Mom made up that refusal in spades. In aces, since I got her to get hers pierced too. Well, really re-pierced since she let the holes close, but now we shared matching earrings.

Watching her as we headed back to my car I marveled at the changes in her over the last few years. The transformation aside, she’d more confidence and to me anyways, happier. Hell, she was getting as many looks as I, and I had to keep from giggling as I imagined the trail of wrath and destruction behind us because of wandering-eye-syndrome.

Surprisingly, we only had one incident, and Mom took care of that. This guy came up to us obviously egged on by his less adventurous buds. Mom ignored him until he was about to open his mouth. She turned looked him in the eye and turned the temperature down to sub-zero. After staring him down we simply walked away as if we never noticed him. She’d definitely been paying attention to Daddy’s 100 yard stare lessons.

After loading my car, I wasn’t surprised at all to find her directing us to Marvin’s. The drive-in was after all where she and Dad had met. At this location, the restaurateur seeing the days of the drive-in were quickly coming to an end, opened a dining room. My stomach growled, more than ready for the late lunch. Despite all the goodies there, I had to be careful this time. I’d pigged out the night before, so I worked a deal to split a burger with Darryl. Marvin’s hamburger baskets were big enough for two anyways.

Adam gave me the eye, seeing what Mom and I’d been up to. Younger brother was still very aware if not jealous of every last thing I received. However, his attitude was much better than it’d been towards the pre-transformation me. His gift to me was a box of assorted hair stuff like, ties and bows that I go though because of my hair. He’d would’ve been left looking silly if I’d let our Aunties have their way!

On the other hand, I can see he was happy with his jaunt with Dad. Whatever the three of them had done while Mom and I went wild with the girl stuff, Adam and Darryl were happy. More power to them, because I know Mom and I very much enjoyed ourselves.

Dad stood as a waitress brought in a cake, chocolate of course. “Lee today you’re sixteen and no longer a girl, but a young woman. You’ve justified our faith in you by acting mature and responsibly. Happy Birthday.”

Then all the staff and even some other dinners joined in singing Happy Birthday. I heard the other part Daddy didn’t say. ‘Don’t let us down now.’

My eyes shining, it was my turn to stand. “I might be a young woman now, but I’ll always be your little girl too, Mommy and Daddy.” Then I blew out the candles. “Happily ever after, happily ever after,” I whispered resisting the urge to click my heels three times.

By the time we got home, I was truly pooped. Between Mom’s ‘errands’ and little brother’s early wake up call, I was worn out. Ever the builder, Dad added a lean-to like garage onto our barn so I had a covered place to park Da’ Car. That kept me from having to keep my car in the barn. Opening and closing those doors all the time was a chore!

“Mom, is it okay I call Vonda?” I asked.

Knowingly she smirked, “Can’t wait to tell her about your new clothes?”

“Mom!” I giggled.

“Go ahead. You can ask her over if you want.” She said. “I don’t think your father has anything else planned. We might be grilling out tonight, nothing special.”

I grinned going for the phone. In the summer, cooking outside was the norm for us. Without air conditioning, it was simply too damn hot to cook inside. Of course being here in the Deep South we started getting summer temperatures by mid to late spring. Dialing my friend on the old black rotary phone, I wondered if we would get cell phones sooner in this timeline.

One of the advancements, I suspected that came from Hap’s wrecked ship sorta kinda by way of the space program was very efficient fuel cells and superconductors. After the ‘73 oil embargo, President Kennedy released the technology to the automakers. Hell, there were even kits to convert existing automobiles to electric. With the promise of running their cars off of water many did just that.

There was a catch. Although it could run off water, using already cracked Hydrogen was much better. Most owners got tired real quick of sticking their water hose in the tank every time they turned around. Going to a station to fill up with “H” took no longer than with gasoline. Plus it seemed you could run forever on a tank full.

Stubborn folk that Americans are, it actually cost more than the inflated prices from OPEC, at first anyways. Of course the big oil companies didn’t just have a cow; they had whole damn herds of moans and complaints. The President had an answer. Since they had most of the infrastructure for supporting the ‘fuel’ industry they got massive tax breaks while they converted over. None of this was cheap after all.

However, that price fell quickly as the conversion paid for itself. For my car, that was never a consideration. It used gas and was going to use gas. My car was a restoration of a classic. Dad did talk about getting our Ford converted, but OPEC found that they’d shot themselves in the foot with the embargo. With no demand gas didn’t cost much more than when I first returned to 1973. It was about four bucks for a tank, which made me grin remembering the prices in 2010 that was that much for a gallon!

It did make me wonder what other goodies were in the toy box. The first home computers were just appearing. However I thought I could leave those alone for now. Frankly I had other things on my mind. Besides, the internet was still years away.

“Hi, this is Lee! Is Vonda there please?” I asked.

“Lee!” My friend squealed. “Happy Birthday!”

I really wasn’t too sure what all we blabbered to each other about. It was at such a high speed that I don’t think fax machines or modems could’ve kept up with us. We did cover her coming by and the cook out.

Running around putting up my new things up, I took a brief instant to sit down. Before I knew it something woke me up.

Little brother was bouncing on me again, O pooh!

“Vonda’s here, Vonda’s here,” he yelled. Darryl could be enthusiastic.

Her face lit up as she saw my new hair style. “Stand up so I can see,” she said reaching to help me down from my high bed.

My Aunt’s had put so much wave into my normally waist length hair, it now fell only about half way down my back. However it was easier to have it over my shoulders on the front.

Darryl seeing how we were going to be talking ‘girl’ stuff raced off to get into some other type of trouble.

I flowed gracefully in a circle modeling their work for my friend.

Smiling I asked, “You like?”

Vonda nodded hugging me. “Happy Birthday, Lee.” She gently took my wrist tying on a friendship bracelet.

As I admired my new bracelet, Vonda touched my hair sending shivers down my spine. We hugged again communicating so much, we didn’t dare say.

Knowing my brothers were about, anything private was an absolute impossibility. So I settle for showing my girlfriend all my new stuff, my spanking new driver’s license to my earrings.

Giggling and comparing wardrobes, we simply enjoyed just being together. However, that swirling tension that heralded our attraction for each other seemed even stronger now. It was as if acknowledging it made it even stronger. Perhaps, it was her admitting that she and Hal were a lost cause. Now I had all of her attention. I really couldn’t say. What I did know was the selfish bitch that I was enjoyed every second.

Mom made an appearance; I had the required fashion show modeling the new stuff. Despite still being tired, it was a fun way of wasting time on a late Saturday afternoon. But all good things must come to an end.

As night fell, Daddy started up the grill. We didn’t have anything heavy, just some hotdogs and the roasting of some marshmallows afterwards. While the boys were busy with that, Vonda and I sneaked away to the barn.

Making sure no one was watching, I held out my hands to her.

Vonda’s shining eyes gave me the strangest feelings. Was this love? I felt I could stand here forever staring at her. Taking up my offer. We tenderly pulled each other together still holding hands.

I smiled as she began to sway to music only she could hear. Humming a few bars, she sang softly in my ear, “But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness. Like a heartbeat, drives you mad in the stillness of remembering.”

It was Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams. Just as gently I sang the chorus. “Thunder only happens when it’s raining.”

Her parents were what passed for upper crust in these parts. Her father was a doctor, and her nurse mother had Vonda taking piano and dancing lessons almost from the time she could walk.

While I’ll never be a piano player, she’d passed on some of her dancing lessons to me. Sometimes she would lead, and at others I would. As self-conscious as I was about our relative skills, I’d couldn’t help but feel this was the perfect end to my sweet sixteenth. Well I guess I should say almost perfect.

“It’s only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and have you any dreams you’d like to sell.” she sang parting her lips.

We leaned into each other and …

A sound from the loft made me look up. There was Adam.

I jumped and so did Vonda as she heard, but didn’t see little brother skittering away.

The mood shattered, again, I was caught between wanting to curse or cry. Taking Vonda’s hand, I said, “I think there’s something up there.” Together we ran out.

I didn’t think he’d seen anything incriminating, but you never knew with Adam.

Daddy just looked sage saying, “Probably just a coon or possum. Now you boys stay out of there,” He said warning my brothers to stay out of mischief. “Time to be heading in anyways.”

Adam slinked back, but I couldn’t make up my mind to confront him or not. I really wanted to strangle the little so and so. Finally I decided to let sleeping dogs lay since I wasn’t sure how much he might’ve seen.

As we cleaned up for the night, I walked Vonda to her Mom’s car she was borrowing. The huge Lincoln was converted to run off of Hydrogen given her parents’, green before green was hip, attitudes.

At least one good thing about being a girl was that hugs were freely allowed. Both of our eyes were full of wistfulness as she left. I helped tote the last of our stuff inside, and got ready for bed.

As soon as I lay down Hap called, “Lee.”

I dug out my ‘pinecone.’ “Yes, Hap?”

“Happy Birthday,” She greeted.

I sighed. As much as I wanted to yell and scream it wasn’t her fault. Adam had interrupted something I really, really wanted, but I couldn’t vent to anyone. Honestly, it was pure frustration. I couldn’t state even to myself exactly what it was. Lust, love, and the usual mixture of stormy emotions teenagers go though at a guess. I lived most of one lifetime before receiving this second chance. A really big but here, I was so messed up with denial, and Gawd knows whatever else, my emotional and social development were seriously lacking.

In a very real way, I couldn’t let myself feel because that would’ve let the beast out of the closet. Telling a close friend on my original timeline once, that it was how I survived, she replied, “I wouldn’t even call that surviving, existing maybe, but that’s not living.”

That was as Ernie. As Lee, I didn’t have to hide anything. Okay, maybe I did from a few people because they wouldn’t understand Vonda’s and my romance. However, the important thing was at least I didn’t have to hide them from myself. I could let my heart tell me true and feel. This second chance gave me the chance to finally grow up without being stunted by self-doubt, loathing and fear.

Part of that process was being immature as a teenager sometimes. That drove me to distraction because although I was aware of it, I couldn’t help myself.

Taking a deep, deep breath I released it nice and slow. Hap didn’t break up that kiss I’d been dreaming of. She didn’t need an emotionally and sexually frustrated teen getting in her face. “Okay Hap,” I replied. “Sorry about sounding mad. I got interrupted in the middle of something I’ve been looking forward to for a really long time.”

“It’s alright Lee,” She said, “If you want to talk about it that fine. That’s what friends are for, right.”

I smiled in the dark. Hap could literally take just about anything living or not and reassemble them into just about anything. However, the intricacies of the human condition were a little beyond her. Perhaps much of how we act and feel are all chemicals and hormones, but our environment and culture have their places too.

“Well,” I began. “Vonda and I were holding each other and doing a little slow dancing. Then we almost kissed. Adam, the little weasel, was spying on us. I don‘t think he saw anything. He knocked over some stuff trying to. I really can‘t say anything without either creating a problem or making one worse.”

Pouting, I complained, “We were so close, Hap!”

“Would it be so bad if he had,” She asked.

Thinking about the blackmail and other schemes of his I’d dealt with over the years in two childhoods with, I said with feeling, “Yes!”

“We’ve talked about this some before. With the med-scanner evidence, my parents can rationalize; okay Ernie turning into Lee was just a weird kind of birth defect.

“My choosing a girl over Ricky would confuse the hell out of them. In their world, girls go for the boys. They might even think that since I picked Vonda instead of Ricky that maybe this whole Lee thing was a mistake and I should be Ernie.

“This is still the 70’s. Maybe in 10 years or so when the Conservative backlash is spent, we’ll see. The good news are the laws RFK signed protecting the LGBT community hasn’t been attacked. But the majority of the country still has some damn strange ideas about what gay means.

“Adam is a product of living in the South. He knows that our parents would disapprove. He also knows it would get me in trouble and thus prime blackmail material. I don’t know for sure he would, because he’s not nearly as bad as he used to be,” I said. Having more of Dad’s attention did help mellow that attitude of his.

“Lee, I still don’t understand your culture’s single minded devotion to male and female bonding. The biological attraction to the same sex happens often enough to be called natural variance. That can also be applied to the gender and sexuality diverse phenomena although the more extreme cases do cause problems; most of those are due to your culture.” Hap said in a way that I could almost see her shaking her head.

“However as you pointed out and your experiences in that alternate timeline demonstrate, as people become more educated and knowledgeable, the intolerance will lessen.

“Right now, I have a birthday present for you.” Hap said.

“A present?” I asked. She was an alien CI computer. Should I be concerned about gifts?

She laughed, “You’ve said before how much you like being with Vonda and doing things with her. The dancing has come up more than once. I’ve prepared a download for you on various popular dances currently being taught. That should put you on a even footing. Like the other downloads it won’t teach you how to dance, but rather help you learn at an increased rate. However, I won’t do it unless you want it.”

Thinking about it I said, “Yes, and thank you!”

“Good,” she replied. “I will begin once you fall asleep. Just keep your kernel close.”

I laid there enjoying the breeze from the window fan. Looking up at the stars, I wondered which one she’d come from. That was one of the things she’d never revealed. “Hap, and thank you too, for listening. I’m sorry I was such a bitch.”

“Again isn’t that what you’ve told me friends do? In your other life, you never got the chance to develop and grow up as you should. Here you are and it’s not always easy. Besides, I’m learning more about humanity by being your friend. Everyone wins,” Hap said.

I nodded as sleep overtook me. “Good night Hap.”

Softy in the southern night, she whispered back, “Good night Lee.”

The last day school was here, yay! With final exams right after my birthday there was no time to advantage of my new freedom. Tonight was our last really free day because the next week we go to work. Ricky was determined for us to see ‘Smokey and the Bandit.’

Vonda and I engineered a silent protest. Both of us got such looks at school, but it was the last day. Most of it was only turning in books and picking up grades. However, our protest was tasteful and fell within the school’s strict dress code. Still the Headmaster gave us such a look. It was simply … hmmm, pop culture.

Ricky glared as he saw our matching ‘Honeybun’ do’s. “No way! We saw Star Wars last time!”

He turned to Hal who was trying and failing to look manly disinterested. If he’d wouldn’t be killed for trying, hell, he would’ve shown up in Leia’s ‘honey-buns’ too. Good thing his hair was far too short unlike Vonda’s and mine.

With Hal and my space and artistic bent, it wasn’t a surprise we were ready to see it again. Vonda kind of surprised me. Then again, Leia was a strong female character even if her role was kinda secondary. Plus I’m the first to say Carrie Fisher is cute. Could be Vonda had a thing for girls who could shoot their way out of impregnable fortresses!

In the end, we ate at Burger King and saw Burt, Sally and Jackie. I must say, I thought there was a lot more changes to this film than Star Wars. Much of the ‘I can’t drive 55,’ thing was the heart of Smokey’s bad boy jive, but here the speed limit was never reduced. Still fun, just different that’s all.

Saturday was the day we turned my bedroom into production facilities. Mom and Daddy okayed our plan, but with a few additions. He was getting a little old for all of the farm work, plus they didn’t want us turning into mushrooms being inside all day. So the deal was mornings when it was cool inside, we work on the book, but light farm work such picking and packing in the afternoons.

Considering how hyperactive I am, I knew I would be working out hard in the evenings. I wanted to keep doing all I was doing already, but needed to work that dancing ‘download’ into my muscle memory.

While we were moving my loft bed, Vonda asked me why I had it right up against the windows anyways. The thing is heavy because the bed part was high up enough so I could sit at a desk fitted underneath as well as have a lot of storage area. It was a nice space saver design from my old closet sized room. However, I like it and when I got my bigger room, I’d kept it.

Smiling I pointed out the window to the sky. “At night I can see the whole southern sky. I like looking up at the stars wondering what’s there.”

With the scant privacy, she gave me a quick hug. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re such a romantic and a dreamer.”

Returning her affection, I smiled. “You’re just figuring that out?”

Our intimate moment was interrupted, yet again, by the boys returning with Hal’s drawing table that my father had knocked together.

However, her comment had touched on a sensitive subject. I was a romantic and a dreamer. By Gawd I loved happy endings and what was wrong having your head in the clouds? It did cause a problem because I still hadn’t committed myself to a career yet.

Yeah, despite my Career Day experience. When I’d walked down that hallway in the bus looking at all of those images, they displayed my interests and aptitudes. It was a little like old Meyers-Briggs personality tests, but went much further with the help of a powerful calculator like Hap the CI.

All the archetypes portrayed were possibilities, but the one that ‘lit’ up was her best guess. Hap’s suggested career for me, was, wait for it, a writer or journalist.

On the other hand, the space program had reached the point where it wasn’t about just national prestige anymore. When the Ares 4 mission to the near Earth asteroid Eros found that lump of extremely rare metals, it’d damn near paid for the whole mission. After that everyone scrambled for the next ‘gold’ rush that was out there. Of course it wasn’t just gold, but a slew of valuable metals that were there for the taking.

Other nations that never had much of a space program in my timeline were out-there now. Great Britain, France and West Germany had an uneasy alliance, but the money kept them together.

The USSR was pumping big, big bucks into their program too. They reached Ganymede and were still there. Their five year mission took advantage of the asteroid’s five year long orbital path. While mining, they enjoyed taking the scenic route as Ganymede crossed Mars’ orbit and went as far out as half way to Jupiter.

Big business was getting its start too out in the final frontier, with NASA offering contracts to mine the Moon and Eros. The jury was still out over the USA claims over Eros. Time will tell.

The point was I wanted to be out there too. But, I also love to write. I always had. From the time I was kid and grown old in my old timeline, to my life in this new one, I wrote. The problem was they were two separate career paths. The one leading to space demanded technical trades and science, while the one as a writer leaned in the other direction with the humanities.

Now I know many fine writers came from the science fields. Going technical didn’t mean I couldn’t write. It did mean I would probably have to set aside my writing while studying. I wasn’t sure I wanted, could, do that.

One of the prime reasons I wrote children style stories right now was because of Hal. It gave him a chance he never had before to showcase his talents and earn him the way to become Teresa.

Vonda refined her own career goals to go to medical school. What she did do well was organize. She kept us on track and helped define our goals while Hal and I concentrated on the creative aspects.

That didn’t keep my muse from whispering other tales in my ear. I felt torn because I didn’t want to abandon my friends. If I went technical, Hal would be left behind. Vonda on the other hand would be welcomed anywhere. I had no doubts she could complete medical school with honors. Doctors were always needed. I know I had to live my own life, but that didn’t make this any easier.

And I’m not even thinking about the increasing complications of knowing about Hap and the truth behind much of this world’s technical advancements. I didn’t regret my friendship with her for an instant, but in a lot of ways, I was only sixteen.

That evening watching the sunset with my friends, I put my worries aside. The scent of charcoal starting fluid was on the wind promising dinner was underway. “Bob Seeger’s Hollywood Night’s” played on Adam’s little radio in the distance. Hugging them to me, I vowed once again to be true to my heart.

Arm in arm with Hal sandwiched between us, Vonda and I walked in downtown St. Michaels. Well, really there wasn’t that much to the town. It had both a Winn Dixie and a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, and a number of local businesses, but that was about it. Just your normal small American town if there is such a thing.

Our first week at work went pretty good, although we all had sunburns despite being cautious. At least I could tan now! However, the reason we were here today was Ricky. He was running late and we decided to meet him halfway to save time.

Of course what goes better on a hot summer day than ice cream! Fortunately for us, St. Michael’s one and only drug store still had its soda fountain. One of our classmates worked there, Green. Sporting red dyed hair, Laurie was always upbeat and flamboyant to a fault. She was one of my classmates I was fairly certain were already sexually active. Not that I cared because, she’d always been friendly to all of us.

True to form she smiled wide as we came in. “Hey! Wow, ya’ll shore got some sun this week.

Did I mention she had a little bit of an accent? Assuming the 80’s went the same way, I had no problems seeing her with big hair in a few years, really big hair.

“Sure Laurie,” I answered smiling back. “I want a chocolate shake.”

Hal got a chocolate like mine, but Vonda got a vanilla with chocolate shavings on top. I wondered if I could invent chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream a few years early. Somehow I had the feeling she’d love it.

We dug into our frozen treats while Laurie, talked our ears off about her latest boyfriend. “Glenn is supposed to pick me up at seven when I get off work. Then we’re off to see “The Deep” with Nick Nolte. He’s got such a cute butt!”

I had to keep from choking on chocolate. There was enough straight girl in me to appreciate the statement, but I knew something she didn’t. Nick turned more than a little weird as he aged.

Vonda giggled, “These two have us going back to see Star Wars, again.”

Rolling my eyes, I held my hand over my heart. “Oh, Harrison Ford is just so hard on the eyes.”

Laurie got this sparkle as she breathlessly remarked, “You know, Mark Hamil does have the bluest eyes.”

Poor Hal turned red as he silently agreed, but Vonda came to his rescue. “I’m sure no here wanted to see Carrie Fisher again.” She said playfully pushing him.

Getting into the game, I mimed, “Help me Obi Wan Hal you’re my only hope!”

Giggling, we didn’t see trouble walking in.

The Imperial March started playing in my head. Instead of ominous black, he wore blue jeans and a Tee with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve. He also missed having storm troopers with him having a pair dressed much like him.

Chris Sawyer with Mike Burns and Russ Chastain swaggered in. All three were jocks, and on most the teams given our school was so small. Chris was the real trouble maker of the bunch. Rumor had his father being a real hard case, and the bruises the jock came to school with seemed to confirm it.

One of the ugly things of the time period was that kind of thing was often ignored. In true manly southern fashion he took it out on everyone else, including my circle of friends. However normally Ricky was enough of a deterrent for him to leave it at verbal harassment.

Okay, maybe not Darth Vader. He was more like a punk with too much to prove. But today we were without our protector and Chris had backup. Mike and Russ wasn’t that bad, just normal testosterone overdosed teenage jocks. Right now, that was more than bad enough.

Laurie bless her heart, wasn’t all that slow. She saw Chris heading our way and came up with trouble. “Maybe ya’ll should exit stage left, if ya’ll know what I mean.” She said lifting the gate so we could head out the backdoor.

Vonda and Hal quickly got the idea as they saw who was coming our way. Ducking though the storage room we found ourselves in the alley between Wannamaker Hardware and Zimmer Drugs.

We didn’t make more than a step, before Mike and Russ stepped into the mouth of alley blocking our escape. That was all it took for us to take off running the other way.

I heard Laurie giving Chris hell, but I’d figured out his plan. Big yes, but unfortunately not so dumb. Going the other way meant a longer run and while he knew I could run circles around him, Vonda and Hal, not so much. They could run us down before reaching the other end, out of sight to do whatever they wanted to.

My hand ripped away the Velcro panel that concealed my equalizer. The old heavy modified car antenna was made of much heavier steel than today’s. Back in the 60’s, New York gangs made the things weapons, that law enforcement outlawed. They were the ancestors of the retractable security batons like the Asp.

“Don’t stop!” I yelled at my friends. “I’m fast enough to outrun them.” I tossed my purse into Vonda’s arms.

Thankfully for once I wasn’t wearing a dress on date night. Tired from the week’s work I’d dressed down with shorts and no they weren’t Daisy Dukes! I chose as best a place as I could for my stand.

I spun around with my wand of doom shielded from view behind me.

Chris charged as if I were the opposing quarterback at the Friday night football game. So this was how a matador felt with near a ton of mad bovine wanting his blood. The jock had a foot or more on me and nearly half again my weight.

In my corner, I had a card up my sleeve. Pardon the pun, but a Wildcard. I might be only five two, but I was the most concentrated little package Hap could put together. I might not be the dynamo my idol Bruce Lee was, but I thought it a good guess I was as close to a female version the alien CI could come up with.

What shifted the odds in my favor was the Matrix-like skill downloads. Poor Neo didn’t have it anywhere close to right with, “Hey, I know Kung Fu.”

Wanna’ try most of the alphabet starting with Aikido and going all the way down the list to Zipota? I had only myself to blame since Hap was aware of my fascination with the Martial Arts. The problem was the knowledge was in your head, but more than a little of really knowing an art was in your whole body up to and including your very spirit. Yeah, I was into the philosophy thing too, so sue me!

It’d taken me ages of really working out hard to take all that knowledge and incorporate into anything useful. Honestly, if not for my friendship and correspondence with the Lee’s I might’ve been lost. Jeet Kune Do is all about taking and using whatever works. That helped great, big lots!

Besides I’m about three quarter positive that Linda’s Jeet Kune Do experiences were one of those I received. All those I’d received also told me something about Hap. She had access to absolutely everyone’s memories who’d been though a med-scanner. Scary huh? From world leaders to a certain time traveling little gal running in an alley in Redneck USA, Hap had us all.

I still wondered if she had any other motives than her healer ethics. She is an alien construct after all. On the other hand it really didn’t matter since I had to trust her. Hap had been in and out of my head so many times that if she was up to no good, my goose was already cooked and on the table ready to be served.

Although the USA had started distributing med-scanners to other countries, the communist bloc could go fish. So how do Red big wigs, up to and including Brezhnev start acting a lot more stable and looking a lot more healthy than I remembered? It was a sure thing the USSR at the very least had one. The question is did they manage to procure all on their own or did Hap help a little to spread her influence?

How did any that apply to my present circumstances? Well MAD comes to mind, Mutually Assured Destruction.

These guys were a lot bigger than I and by Gawd size does matter. For me to put them down and out, I could not hold back. All it would take would be for one to pin me and that was it folks, game over. I might be strong as hell for my size, but I couldn’t even begin throwing 220 lbs of football player off of me.

Master Bruce could manage, but he had years of practice sparring against guys this size. The only opponents I had were Darryl and occasionally Adam when I could talk him into it. While Darryl loved being bounced around, Adam hated the thought of a girl, me, doing the same to him. I tried getting Ricky to help out, but even when he was helping on Da’ Car his time was at a premium. So I had a lot of knowledge and doing katas, but very little time on the mat.

However that also meant at the very least broken bones and maybe worse. The broken two by fours and bricks I’d practiced on assured me of that. However, that lead to hospital, police reports, and possibly others things I really didn’t want to think about. I’d made some powerful friends in the few years since I started living my life over. I would rather not put any of it to the test. That was MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction, all of us would lose.

Somehow, I had to moderate my response. Easy right? You tell yourself that as Mongo is thundering towards you. Fear might be the mind killer, but it sure as hell was telling me fight or flee would be a great idea about now.

As Chris reached me, I decided to start with the ‘Jays,’ Judo. It’s not as if I had much choice given the situation, and was the least damaging of my options.

He flew though the air just like a scene from a movie. What can I say? The throw was designed for exactly that kind of attack. When he hit the pavement flat on his back even I winced. That had to hurt!

Time for a little show-woman-ship, I whipped my baton around continuing my spin to face the other two. The snick-clack of it extending was perfect punctuation to my statement. “Go away or there will be trouble!”

I was reminded of the old Champions superhero role playing game I used to play a lifetime ago. Presence attack to awe your opponents into surrendering: Displaying overwhelming effective use of power, three D6, Displaying weapon: add one D6, Using good soliloquies add two more D6.

Somewhere in the multi-universe, I must’ve rolled those dice pretty darn good, because Mike and Russ skittered to a stop.

Their expressions were priceless. Whatever they’re expecting, Chris demonstrating how not to fall properly from a Judo throw wasn’t it.

He chose that moment to moan.

That was actually a relief since I worried that the big idiot might’ve given himself a concussion when he landed so badly.

Decision time: This was over. “Get him out of here.” I turned sharply snapping my baton under my arm seemingly making it disappear in the alley’s dim light. Then I simply walked away. A good show can be worth a thousand words or something like that I misquoted.

By the time I reach Vonda and Hal the adrenaline shakes were still going strong.

He said a little awed, “I knew you were into the martial arts, and I’ve seen you kicking the crap out of that bag of yours, but that was something else!”

Vonda started to say something and stopped as she saw me shaking.

Making sure we were out of sight of the three dufesses in the alley, I used the wall of the hardware store to retract my baton.

Her eyes cut to the alley as she worked out why I moved. Then she gently hugged me. “Oh Lee,” my dear friend whispered.

Hal, aware we were in the public eye, held both of us. He softly directed my attention to across the street. “Lee look.”

There was Ricky grinning and sauntering along as if he’d not a care in the world. A frown crossed his face as he took in our mood.

It took a few minutes to let him know what happened, and then calm him down. About then one of St Michael’s entire police force of three cops showed up along with a furious, but worried Laurie and Mr. Zimmer the Drug store’s owner.

I gave my friends warning glares not to tell all the details. We saw trouble and we ran. That’s it. No need for more than that. Chris knew the hard way now that I could defend myself, but that was between us.

Officer Brown just looked at Chris shakily limping out and then back at us. He knew something else had gone down.

I however didn’t want to be searched given my illegal equalizer in my purse.

As much trouble as Chris had given me over the years I still winced when he said he slipped and fell. How many times had he given that excuse over the years?

Since we didn’t want charges, that was that. Well, almost since Mr. Zimmer had him on disorderly. He ran paying customers out of the Drugstore. Later on, I learned the Judge, sentenced him to work a few hours for Mr. Zimmer. Hopefully that’ll make the bully think, but didn’t do anything about the problem I think Chris had at home.

We talked about calling it a night, but I still wanted to see the movie. This was still a minor thing, I argued. Besides we got only one day a week to hang out, so let’s make the best of it.

It had the side benefit of Ricky taking us to Marvin’s without a compliant. Of course since we weren’t really dating who everyone thought we were, he wasn’t actually paying for mine. It was Vonda who insisted on picking up mine, while Ricky was taking care of Hal. The whole thing was a little complicated because I wanted to take care of Vonda at the movie. We simply settled up at the end of the night. Our strange arrangement seemed to work because everyone was happy.

The one person who really benefited from this was Hal. His food and movie was paid for by Ricky who said that if he was dating then his date wasn’t paying for anything.

Jesting that because of that, maybe I was reconsidering, Ricky as my boyfriend, we all laughed as Teresa peeked out of Hal’s eyes. “He’s mine. Hands off!”

Vonda had a similar reaction. “Nothing doing Lee. Don’t even think about it. You’re mine.”

I don’t know about them, but I got the most delicious shivers hearing that. The whole possessive thing could turn bad, but in our first flush of teenage passions it felt good to know someone you cared about wanted you.

Even Ricky enjoyed the movie the second time around, although Vonda and I did more snuggling than last time. Despite my insistence on carrying forward, my fracas did upset me. Nestling next to my girlfriend while enjoying one of my favorite comfort flicks was exactly what I needed.

Less enjoyable was what came afterwards, telling Mom and Dad. There just wasn’t any choice in the matter. They would find out about it. Small towns’ gossip traveled fast. Minor or not, Chris’s act of stupidity would be the ‘talk’ of the town for weeks.

I thought about giving them the edited version, but decided against it. The bit of blackmail about Chris’s spectacular ungraceful flip and fall was protection. I didn’t think he would try it again, and I would continue to travel in a group.

They didn’t react well. Mom didn’t quite freak, and Dad didn’t break out the guns, but that wasn’t saying much. I did get a stern talking to, about what I should’ve done, which was stay where we were in a public place and called for help.

I don’t really think that would’ve helped much since bullies always seem to know what they could get away with. Maybe our ‘flight’ reflexes did lead us into greater trouble, but our trouble was more than willing to escalate matters.

The real problem hadn’t been addressed anyways. It was probably too late for that. I’m talking about why Chris went after me from the very first all those years ago. It did seem he was and is being abused at home. Now, this might sound strange, but I don’t have a problem with some kids needing a stern hand. Hell, Adam was a text book case!

However, discipline and good parenting doesn’t include contusions and broken bones. So just how do I fix this? This time I’m afraid I can’t. The best I could do is call attention to the situation.

Talking to Hap later that night, even she had her figurative hands tied. Messing around with someone’s head was one of her big no-no’s. Right now whatever inner healing Chris needed was limited to human knowledge. Maybe the CI that handled that function for Hap’s crew had been one of those that’d gotten trashed.

Sadly she told me, “Lee the hardest thing for any healer to learn is that you can’t help everyone. No matter how powerful your talents or how many resources at your disposal, some are going to continue to hurt and to die. Sometimes nature has to take her course, because trying to help will only make things worse.”

“Hap, I’m not a doctor or nurse. I only want to make thing better. Is that so much to ask?” I replied feeling guilty. “Maybe if I’d been paying attention from the start I could’ve done something.”

“Lee,” she said gently, “You mostly certainly are a healer. Perhaps you don’t practice medicine, but that isn’t what makes a healer. You are a healer because you use words to help, to nurture others. In my opinion the tools you use are as powerful as any my creators have given me. You speak for tolerance and understanding. Your friend Hal’s pictures reach out and touch others with their message while your gentle words calm and comfort.”

“It is who you are. Even as someone who has never given you anything, but grief you were concerned and even now you can’t help yourself, but want to heal.

“But you can’t heal the world, Lee. No one can, not even me. Here at this time and place, only Chris can heal Chris. All we can do is keep our hearts from hardening and be there when he falls. Already he has an addiction and I fear other worse substances will soon follow. Those I can help him with, but I can’t, won’t, invade his mind changing who he is. It is the challenges we overcome that give us our strength. If you take that away you might save him pain, but you are not doing him any favors,” Hap said.

“You mean like with Hal,” I asked, “You could’ve changed him into Teresa years ago when you transformed me, but you didn’t.”

She sighed, “Very much like your friend. Her physical sex needed to be brought into line with her feminine gender. However it was her strong belief that her life would be in danger from her own Father that prevented me from doing so.

“I’m not infallible, Lee. At times I’m dependent on second hand information like with Teresa. I make mistakes that cost lives and that hurts. However, I can’t quit because that would make things even worse. In the end I can only do so much and that has to be enough,” Hap explained.

Memories surfaced of a T-girl who’d frozen to death on a church steps because the local mission wouldn’t let her be housed with the other women. Fearing rape in the men’s shelter, she’d instead died. Or others who’d died simply because of who they were. Killed by those who didn’t regard them as even human. I’d grieved then and again now. What part of Thou Shall Not Kill did they misunderstand?

I hugged my stuffed bear, feeling my eyes sting. “I get it Hap, but it still hurts!”

Her voice gently lured me to sleep. “I know dear one. I know.”

Chris took a drag on his cigarette. His father punished him using the same wide leather belt he always did. It wasn’t for trying to beat up that little freak, but for getting caught.

From his earliest memory his Old Man blathered about the strong and the weak. If you weren’t one you were the other. Every time Chris had broken some rule real or imagined, he gotten the hell whipped out of him.

Right now he was standing, because it still too soon after the last beating to sit down. It didn’t bother him too much because it was only pain after all. Besides he needed to think and he did that better on his feet.

Only he, Mike and Russ knew what really happened out back of Zimmer Drugs. That little freak had thrown him though the air with some kind of that Kung Fu shit. It really didn’t upset him. Keeping hole cards and tricks hidden till you need them were all part of being strong. What bothered him was why she did it.

Once that slut, Laurie, saw them, Chris knew what was up. That was why he sent Mike and Russ back outside to block the alley. He knew just how fast the freak could run. With them outside making sure she couldn’t get by, he could trap her. It would’ve worked if Laurie hadn’t turned into a screaming bitch and slowed him up.

Even knowing there was no way to catch her, Chris had charged anyways. Giving up was never an option. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that while she could out distance him, Vonda and that fairy Hal didn’t have a chance.

He didn’t think at the time. All Chris saw was his real target waiting for him. Now however, he wondered why. All these years the little freak could’ve fought back, but was content to let Ricky play interference.

He had respect for his sports rival. Maybe Ricky was a freak too, but he’d proved himself to be strong and tough. The other freak, Lee, was entirely different.

From the first day at the new school Chris pegged the skinny, shy, red headed boy as weak. The smell of fresh paint was so strong they had to keep the windows open to have classes on those first couple of days. The freak stuttered and had trouble talking.

It was almost too easy to push him around, but Chris did it anyways. For the next, three years he’d made sure the wimp knew who was boss. Then that damn Career Day thing happened.

He crushed out his cigarette wincing at the memory. His father had really freaked out when he’d came home looking like a n----r. He’d gotten the shit really beaten out of him then. Even his mother, who was afraid to so much as lift a figure against his father, went crazy.

Chris had limped and peed blood for a week. That was nothing compared to what happened after they went back to school. He was honest enough to admit if it’d been him who was changed into a c--t, his father would’ve killed him. That was all there was to that. If being weak was bad, being female was worse. There were put on Earth for just one reason according to his father.

That bothered him some, but while his mother sometimes tried, she’d never been able to stop him from getting beaten by his father. That seemed to prove there was the weak and the strong and women were even further down the totem pole, the weakest.

So what happens? The red headed freak wants to stay a girl! The weak wanting to be prey. Of course he’d understood that the rules for picking on the freak had changed, but part of being strong was also being smart.

The other girls, even the ones that didn’t like the freak, helped protect her and then there was Ricky. He’d learned real fast that the ex-girl didn’t have any problem with going fists to cuffs. Only the weak hiding behind the strong, just like his father said.

So what happened Friday afternoon? There’d been no fear in her as he almost made the tackle. His father always said to care about anyone besides yourself was only another weakness. No reason to put yourself at risk if there wasn’t something to gain from it. She’d nothing at all, but she put herself in harm’s way anyways. So why?

And then there was the other matter. Even though only a junior, he shined as one of the best jocks at the Academy. He was big and getting bigger every day. Even now he was bigger than his Old Man. Sure he might be a few pounds lighter, but that was because he didn’t have 20 years of smokin‘, drinkin‘, and the beer belly that goes with all of that bad livin‘.

Tonight Chris saw for the first time the fear in the Old Man’s face when he realized that he was no longer the strongest one.

Did that mean he should be the one doing the beating? Would the Old Man hide behind someone stronger like the Sheriff who had the law on his side? If so then was all this shit he’d been talking for Chris’s entire life nothing but a lie?

Really for all his talk what had his father really done with his life? Owner of a one man car repair shop fixing other people’s problems in a small town no one had ever heard of. That didn’t sound very successful to Chris. He sure as hell wanted to do more with his life.

If he could keep his grades up and did well the next two years on the field, he’d kiss this place goodbye forever.

Inside the Old Man was raising hell, drunk yelling at Chris’s mother who was just as soused. No, Chris was staying out here until both were passed out. From the sounds of it that wouldn’t be long.

Besides he had more thinking to do about Why?