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Author's Note: Picture with permission from *lavonia on deviantart.

Chapter 70
 
 
And of course I’m me so I’m actually making lists of things that we have to do, things that we need and then things that we’ll want. Then there’s stuff that I want or we should want with regards to or own website and what we’ll want on that and or affiliations like links and stuff. I’m actually pretty busy in my head for awhile but I still keep coming back to look at our accounts on the screen.

Okay, I can’t help being happy and grinning at it. I want to be more professional about it but there’s part of me that really is just dancing with the yayness inside.

We’re playing tonight so we could go out to celebrate but we have a lot of real life stuff like work and school to do and I’m thinking to celebrate I’ll bake us a cake.

I head into the kitchen and I dig out some of the baking supplies and the first thing I do is I whip up a from the package brownie mix and get that in to bake. Then I again using the packaged cake mixes which are perfectly good I make devils food cake only I add in some extra cocoa to it mixed first in a little bit of water and my other secret and that’s a few spoonfuls of yogurt.

The yogurt breaks down and mixes in and helps to keep the cake moist and adds an acidic flavor that enhances the cake by cutting the sweetness. Thank you food network.

I pour those in floured and butter cake tins and then pull the brownies and then get to work on the filling that’ll go between the cake layers. That’s easy, some powdered sugar and some cream cheese and a bit of coffee and blend it at high speed until I have a whipped coffee cheesecake filling. That done I make a butter cream icing with real butter and lots of cocoa and a quarter brick of the remaining cream cheese for some zippy tang then lots of chocolate syrup for making hot fudge and just a pinch or so of salt.

It’s just a matter of waiting for the cakes to cool then putting them together first I flip a saucer upside down and set a plate on that and I have a cake turner. Then I put down a devils food cake on that top side down and apply liberal amounts of the coffee cream cheese and then I set the sheet of brownie on top and trim it to match and set the debris aside for later…well maybe because I’m actually snacking on it.

Mmm…just chewy and chocolaty enough.

I apply the rest of the coffee cheesecake filling over that and it’s a good centimeter and a half thick in each place and then I put the second devils food cake on that top side up and then I ice the works with my super chocolate butter cream and I get about two centimeters thick on the side and two and a half on top I even try those icing swirly shapes that are on the box.

“I don’t drink and I don’t smoke up but I do bake. I think this is as good as a bottle of champagne.”

I get a fresh pot of coffee ready and yes we’ll be flying on caffeine and sugar but this kind of stuff needs to be celebrated and this is truly girly happy yayness.

I’m sort of getting the chocolate thing. It’s good, I wonder though if I ever get to where I’m in transition if that’ll change?

Okay, now I’m itching for stuff to do again because the sugar is kicking in and I go to the living room and I set up everything for our pre-gig practice.

Then set out my clothes for the night. A light pink camisole and my underwear to match and a pair of black clubbing styled slacks and a light pink zip front hoody, bangles and a pair of my new shoes with a three inch heel.

I’m just heading downstairs when I hear Brooklyn’s car pulling in and I turn the coffee pot on and let it perk.

The girls are through the door sniffing the air.

“Yay! Angel baked!” Kim shouts dumping her book bag off and heading to the kitchen. I stop her and Brook. “No…not yet I want to wait until Rayne gets here.”

“Why?” Brook asks.

I just smile. “It’s a surprise.”

The girls look at me and I must not be able to have a very good poker face or something because they’re all excited seeing me excited.

Brook looks at me. “Adam died in an accident!”

“What no!” I can’t help but give her that look; I mean as much as I hate him I’m not sure I’d ever want that.

“They’re cutting your weenie off!” Kimmie says excitedly.

“No! Jeeze I just sent the whole TG stuff to the RCMP guy and everything.”

“You’re getting boobs?” Brook asks.

Kimmie reaches out and she cups my breasts. “Look Fred she’s gotten her boobies.”

Brooklyn snorts and Kimmie giggles as I’m swatting her hands away.

“Hopefully but I’m not sure when…no it’s nothing like that.”

Both of them look perplexed. I grin at them. “Trust me this is really, really big news.”

“Good news?” Brook asks now a bit guardedly.

“Great news actually.”

“And we don’t get to know until Rayne gets here?”

“Nope.”

Kimmie sniffs the air again. “But it smells soooo good, Pleeeeease?”

“Nope nothing doing, how about getting to your homework while we’re waiting.”

Kimmie looks horrified. “But we just got out of school!”

Brook wags a finger at me. “You’re not a teenager at all are you you’re just some skinny super young looking forty year old.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being adult y’know.” I cross my arms under my breasts and look at them.

“You’re too responsible Angel.” Brooklyn looks at me.

“I’m fine, I like being me. Responsibility and all.”

I look at her and then she shakes her head and we hug. Yeah we both actually know the stuff that can happen if you actually just eff up and do whatever you want. She grew up in one of those places.

“But I’m getting out of my uniform before I do anything okay? Besides you still need to see about your education there too missy. Jem does not need to be a high school drop out without her GED.”

I nod and smile at this being Brook telling me this, it shows she does care. “It’s on my list, that and actually if I can swing it going to take some business courses at the community college.”

Kimmie looks at me. “Business, not music? I thought you were all gung ho into learning all that technical stuff?”

I smile at that, they really do rock as friends even more they’re my sisters really. “I’m planning on that too. Look we don’t know how long we’re going to be popular so I’m going to try and get my GED and then get into business school while you girls are finishing school here and who knows maybe when you decide on the whole college thing I might be ready for that too.”

Brooklyn rolls her eyes. “Angel do you have a plan for everything?”

“No…I never expected any of this I’m just treading water here.”

Kimmie snorts. “Oh…yeah but Angel treading water looks like synchronized swimming compared to us.”

“Hey that’s not true, you two are awesome.” I hug them both. And I let them go upstairs to get out of their school clothes and I get our water bottles and orange juice chilling in the freezer of the fridge.

I just get that done when I hear the van pull in and I go out to meet her as she’s getting out of the van and I sway over and I wrap my arms around her neck and I kiss her deeply. She get’s this eyes wide in a pleasant surprise thing and she kisses me back.

“Hey you.” I purr at her pressing into her.

“Hey back, you’re in a good mood.”

“It’s been a good day.”

She looks over at our garbage bin and chuckles. “I can see that.”

“No, not that but I think it’s cute.”

“It is cute and definitely you.”

“Well if it was Kimmie there’d be sparkles.”

She laughs and we walk into the house together holding hands and there’s this hot little moment where we’re swaying together hip to hip. Oh and that’s harder than it looks by the way but it still was cool.

We get inside and the girls are coming down the stairs Kimmie running and jumping to sit on the couch her drumsticks in her hands and she’s just in a camisole like some kind of panda and matching sweatpants. Brook’s in one of Mike’s t’s and her cut off’s.

“It’s about time…jeeze Angel has this really big news thing and she won’t let us know until you got here or in the kitchen even though I could clearly smell chocolate and now… (Sniff-sniff) coffee.”

Rayne turns and looks at me and I kiss her lightly and I smile. “Okay let’s just all have a seat on the couch.”

They all take seats and I kneel on the floor. I’m doing it girl style with my knees pointed in and my feet pointing out and it sort of occurs to me that this is actually how I’ve always sort of done that. It’d be a lot easier with a plumb full girl butt though I think.

I take the laptop and bring up the page and even highlight our account and don’t say anything but just sit back and wait. They’re all WTF and just starting and I’m just watching them and Rayne’s the first simply because she knows the business side of this as much or as close to me as any of them and it’s so amazing that I get to see the change in her.

From curious to pure joy in her face and her eyes and she covers the front of her face with both of her hands. “Oh my god…oh my god…we…” Big shining tears roll out of her eyes and she’s staring still at the screen and then brook is staring at the screen and one hand slaps over her mouth and she’s pointing at the screen and she’s all hushed and in awed tones says. “Shut the fuck up…..”

Kimmie is staring at the screen now and you could almost see her tracing Brook’s finger and she stares, and stares and stares and she starts to bounce up the spot on the couch. And whine…and the whine gets both louder and faster until she builds up like a steam kettle and explodes in a squee.

Actually a SQUEE!!!

I honestly think that she might have been really close to exploding. Her and Brook go off on this whole squee and freak out and Rayne looks over ant me and slides across the now vacant couch and leans down and over to me and tilts my chin up and kisses me softly whispering “Thank you.” to me…or to my lips…

Either way it is all so damned awesome. Every girl should get to be kissed like this and often. I mean it really changes the way you feel inside. It’s like the perfect gesture that says. I love you as is even the stuff you hate about you.

We kiss like that for a few moments of the girls freaking and break it as they’re doing this whole kind of hip hop victory dance thing and Rayne pulls me up to join in and there’s laughing and there’s hugging and crying and we calm down just enough for me to move the laptop aside and hold up my hands.

“I’ll be right back.”

I go and get the plates and forks and a knife and the cake and just carry it into the living room and set it on the coffee table. “Since we don’t drink or anything like that I thought that the best way to celebrate this would be a big chocolate cake.”

And I’ll admit to having that good housekeeping buzz going as they oooh and aaaah over it. I know all that stuff is female stereotyping but I get a lot out of it and all the other stuff.

We set down to eat and pig out on the cake and Rayne went and brought in the coffee and we’re laughing and giggling and getting all sugared up and caffeine buzzed and start to talk about what we’re going to do with the money.

And I’m as tempted as they are because I’m kind of liking the whole shopping thing and all of that too. I need clothes I’ve got a good start but I need clothes both for home and on stage and we’re almost getting into talking about the clothing and about the instruments that we want. Rayne looks at me and holds he hands up.

“Whoa, whoa wait a minute Angels the band manager we should listen to what she has to say first.”

I look at them all. “We can’t spend all of it.”

Brooklyn’s looking at me curiously. “Why?”

“Income taxes, we have to take taxes off of it and we have to pay out the royalty cover shares and there’s some other stuff that we need too.”

Kimmie’s frowning. “This is going to take a huge chunk out of our money isn’t it?”

I sigh and nod. “Yeah…first I want to get our guild fees paid so we’re actually on the books as professional artists in the eyes of the industry. That’s a big thing. Second we need to insure our stuff all of our equipment and stuff in case something happens. Thirdly I want to take care of two major things here for the house.”

Brooklyn looks around. “The house is fine it looks great.”

Even Rayne’s looking curious. “Okay hon like what?”

“I want to bank two months rent paid off in advance and call the oil company before the winter season starts up and fill our oil tank.”

Brooklyn rolls her eyes. “Angel jeeze we’re getting by.”

I look at her nodding. “Sure we’re doing way better than I thought but stuff happens Brook and I want us to be prepared at least in a serious way. Once we’ve got a descent cushion we keep paying down on stuff normally and we keep ahead of things.”

Rayne’s nodding. “I agree, I really don’t want us to be even close to the shape that we were in when Summer fucked us over. We’re finally getting out of that hole and we’re climbing higher than ever. Girls we’ll make more money.”

I nod. “We still have our gigs and the tips and the money that comes in from the site from our PayPal account too.”

Brooklyn nods. “Okay I was just all like freaky excited, are we going to see any of this?”

I look at all of them, bite my lower lip. “Two fifty each?”

They hug me and they start babbling that I’m so cool and that this is so awesome and we still end up sitting down and eating more cake and talking about clothes and instruments and stuff.

We’re just lazing a bit afterwards before we practice and Rayne pulls me over to her and let’s me lean on her. That’s just….nice.

“Thank you beautiful.” She says kissing me some more.

I kiss her back. “You have already thanked me but I’ll still take the kissing.”

We kiss some more. “I mean it Angel, you really care about us and the band and you share ideas with us and credit and all these other amazing things that make me want to pinch myself because you’re too good to be true.”

I rest my forehead in the space between her breast and sort of where cleavage meet breastbone. “I’m not really real, maybe that’s why?”

“Hey, you’re real. I’m a lesbian Angel and seriously you are the girl that I’ve fallen in love with.”

I smile against her skin. It’s good to hear and it helps. “I know but it’s just…”

“I know, trust me I do. While I’m not trans I’m gay and when you first get that hitting you there’s this whole part of you that is full of the same things just not gender but sexuality.”

“Yeah…God Rayne you should actually mention that online. There’s a whole lot of stuff I’ve read about the whole little T in LGBT.”

She tilts my head up and smiles right close to me and says. “Well from my perspective it’s the same, you’re no more a guy than I am a straight woman. And you struggle just as much as I do so it is different but it’s not different enough. Not to me.”

I kiss her and roll over onto my knees so I’m kneel standing to her sitting and I wrap my arms around her and we kiss all the way up to when Kimmie and Brooklyn start the warming up stuff by playing *Tom Sawyer* by Rush.

We go through practice and only stop when Mike shows up and he’s with the two biker guys that are friends of my uncle and Mike is shooting me the whole we gotta talk look. I nod and we finish up and Billy and Davey both are clapping.

I take a bow for them and walk over. “So what’s going on?”

Billy looks at me. “We followed that Carmen girl and her little friends through the mall after you two had left. I don’t know her or exactly what her family money situation is but she and her little friends were shopping and buying some high end stuff all on credit cards.”

I think a minute. “I think her dad works for the town or something but I’m not sure if he’d have enough money for that?”

Davey passes me a credit card? “Here they all had these.”

I look at the card. “Blackjack Inc.? I’ve never heard of it?” I look the card over and it’s in Carmen’s name. I look at Davey. “I don’t want to know how you got this right?”

He just shrugs and takes a sip of his ever present Tim’s coffee.

Mike looks at me. “I got word from them and I sort of hung around and checked them out and what they were doing and they’re definitely part of Adam’s court. It’s not sitting right either and I’m not sure why. They are some of the nastiest smug and stuck ups girls I’m seen in a long time and they hang around him and his crew and do all the things that you’d expect from the sheeple types but at the same time I caught a few looks like she hated his ass.”

“Well it is Adam and he’s likely got half of them hating him for one reason or another.”

Mike nods. “Skummer and crew met up with him after school and the whole entourage was heading off together.”

“You see where?”

“He went to this place downtown and from the people I asked it used to be the old bus terminal for the town buses. There was a whole bunch of work crews and contractors down there too.”

I nod. “That must be the studio then. He’s really sucking Summer in.”

Rayne looks at us from getting the gear stowed and ready for the gig. “Or he’s her mark, I wouldn’t put it passed her either.”

I nod and look at the guys. “Thanks for this it helps.” I stow the card in my bra and Mike rolls his eyes.

“Oh it’s official you’re a girl.”

“Well yeah but what are you talking about.”

He points vaguely at my chest area. “You and the whole bra storage system thingy, that’s got to be like one of the key factors of like being a girl.”

I grin at him. “Thank you and kindly stop gesturing at my breasts, you have a girlfriend with breasts you can gesture at all of your own.”

Mike snorts. “Uh-huh and he bra is full of stuff half the time too.”

The guys are nodding. I grin at all of them. “Well we’re going to get ready you guys are welcome to some cake if you…”

All three of them sit pretty quickly and just take forks and start eating the last half of the cake right off the plate. I can’t help but to smile at the faces and the sounds they’re making. Okay not as much the whole chocolate thing as the girls but that whole…Uh-yummy-me-like thing that guys do when they’re eating and speak in gruntese rather than stop eating and use whole words. Y’know that in itself’s a compliment.

Billy stops and is washing down cake with coffee stopping enough to give me a thumbs up. “Definitely Jenna worthy cake.”

I smile and go to shower and after that I type up a report and send it in with her credit card and stick it all in an envelope.

Then I get changed and we head out to the Pine Tree to do the gig and make a quick stop to the Fed ex place and get the envelope sent off fastest delivery and keep the slip to get paid back for.

We’re there in plenty of time and the place is packed again or getting there. I’m glad that we have our parking spots and we meet Dad and Uncle Mitch there waiting for us in the parking lot and they help us unload and set up.

Wow…we or I know a lot of people here. The guy from second cup and a couple of his younger staff. Rick and his girl and what looks like a bunch of them from the hardware store. The comic book guys and I see other faces from school and Rayne says there’s some there from Wall-Mart and the rest is a bunch of people from all over town. There’s people talking and the finger foods are going out of the kitchen fairly fast too and we run through the sound checks.

Mike’s doing that Check-Check thing from Wayne’s world and getting a few laughs from the crowd.

It just seems so right and so natural as the house lights dim and the stage lighting comes up and as we take our spots there’s the rush of cheers and whistles. Tonight is our lighter night but still a fun night and there’s a bit of a mixture of older people in the crowd.

We’ve got some good stuff tonight I think.

I smile at them all and finger wave to them as I’m taking out our ukulele and I grin at them all.

“Hey…Hey…”

And I just get to the second set of “Hey’s” when they’re already chiming into *Soul Sister* By Train.

Yeah…this is going to be a good night.
 

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To Be Continued...