Wheels and wings 22

Character List.

Jack Thomas Later AKA Ellie Transvestite/intersexual and keen cyclist.
Amanda Thomas AKA Amie Jack's sister.
Charlotte Dawson Keen girl cyclist and Jack’s soon-to-be girlfriend.
Bob Cycling club captain.
Mr Thomas Weston School games master and keen rugby player.
Billy Davies. Rugby ‘jock’, kind to Jack, he fancies Charlotte.
Marjorie Spencer. Holder of unofficial ‘Prettiest-girl-in-the-school’ title.
Miss Elizabeth Postlethwaite. The English Mistress.
Aunty Olwen Where Jack changes for school and leaves his bike.
Mandy. Olwen’s daughter, Jack’s older cousin.
Mr Griffiths The County solicitor.

Chapter 22

For the next week Ellie did very little at home except for her regular chores in the morning. She still rode out daily on long lonely rides but she did nothing strenuous; no prolonged, hard sprints, no leg breaking hill climbs, no interval training; just long lonely rides with only her thoughts and her bike for company. Ellie had decided to rest her legs for a season just see how much her calf definition changed, and then determine how much she could indulge her femininity during the Easter holidays.

Club riding and competitive events during the summer cycling season were proscribed to her because of the drugs ban so she sought solace in cycling and femininity. During these long rides, Ellie often found tears blurring the road ahead. Sometimes her anger made the tears so intense she had to dismount and find a quiet place in some remote lane where she could just curl up in the long grass on the verge and cry her eyes out until there were no more tears to flow.

Ellie did little know it, but puberty was at long last beginning to bite and unbeknownst to her, the hormones were as much female as male. Ellie’s emotions had started on puberty’s roller-coaster ride.

A strange by-product of the hormone’s effect was Ellie’s decision was her choice of cycling Lycra. Gone where the club colours that she had once worn with pride; now she wore distinctly feminine tops to emphasise her preferred status. Occasionally she encountered other club members out cycling alone on weekdays but invariably she put her head down and studiously ignored any offer of friendship or acknowledgement. Invariably, at the end of her long rides, Ellie stopped by in the mall to indulge in a bit of window shopping to fill in the loneliness of the Easter vacation bike rides.

When Amie found out about the Mall visits, she was more than keen to share those indulgences so they took to meeting in the mall to window shop and visit the cafe where they occasionally met Amie’s class mates. It was during one of those gatherings that past events overtook Ellie in the cafe.

Ellie was giggling uproariously as she and her sister shared some humorous experience involving a bra fitting with Amie’s class mates. Ellie’s bra was visible under the tight, revealing lycra and she just purchased another matching bra in black

“Ellie Thomas! You’re just crazy!” One classmate squealed as Ellie sat at the table and held up the lacy confection against her chest. “You don’t even have the boobs to fill it.”

“I hope to one day.” Ellie confessed.

The girls gasped. Even Amie was a little surprised.

“I thought you weren’t going to transition fully,” Amie replied.

Ellie shrugged as she answered thoughtfully.

“I’m not, leastways not so as to bugger up my cycling. I might do something later, you know, a sex reassignment after I’ve finished serious racing.”

“And when will that be?” A familiar voice interrupted the girl’s revelry.

Ellie and Amie span around as surprise and suspicion overtook them while the other girls fell silent but gathered into a protective ring around Ellie.

“Oh!” Ellie looked up sullenly. “Hello Charlotte, what brings you here?”

Charlotte frowned uncertainly.

“I thought Miss Postlethwaite had spoken to you.”

Ellie glanced at Amie and they both wagged their head as they replied in unison.

“No.”

Ellie continued.

“What’s she supposed to have spoken to us about?”

Charlotte was slightly puzzled then looked up as relief overtook her features.

“Ah! She’s coming now. She must have been looking for you. She doesn’t have your mobile number and your mum’s at work.”

Ellie and Amie craned their necks to see Elizabeth Postlethwaite hustling down the mall. She burst through the cafe door and arrived gasping at the sister’s table. The classmates opened the defensive ring because Elizabeth Postlethwaite was a well liked and respected teacher. She was not seen as any kind of threat.

“Damn! I’ve been looking all over for you. I only wish I had your mobile number.” Then she spied Charlotte. “Ah, I see you’ve met Charlotte.”

Ellie glanced from Charlotte to Elizabeth as puzzlement wrinkled her brow. Charlotte spoke to Elizabeth.

“You’d better tell her Miss Postlethwaite.”

Elizabeth smiled as she bore the glad tidings.

“Doctor Dawson has agreed to let you see Charlotte again.”

Ellie’s response was a little unexpected. She was still hurting from the emotional bruising of the pain-killer incident. Even cycling out alone had not eased the hurt; in fact it had served to worsen it as she brooded on the seeming injustice meted out to her. As she raced around the local lanes and ‘B-roads’, Ellie had had plenty of time to reflect, but those reflections had served only to worsen the resentment. Ellie looked up reproachfully at Charlotte.

“So what makes you think I want to see you? D’you think you can just lift me and drop me like some piece of mud from the road? D’you think you can just use me then leave me like some faithful pet dog?”

Charlotte gasped at the vicious accusation.

“I didn’t reject you or drop you. My dad and the club made me do that!”

“I didn’t hear you protesting.”

Charlotte fell silent. She simply had not realised how much hurt Ellie had felt about her ban and subsequent isolation. It was Amie who moved to try and bring some reconciliation.

“Look you two there’re bigger issues at stake than all that drugs business.”

Ellie flashed a glare at her younger sister.

“Listen Amie, there never was a drugs issue! I don’t take performance drugs I was hurting. It was a painkiller injection!”

“Oops sorry El, but you know what I mean. I’m talking about the other thing. If you two want to get together again you’re going to have to sort out the gender stuff. That was the bigger issue I was alluding to.”

Ellie fell silent for several thoughtful seconds before replying.

“That’s my business.” She replied as she stood up and reached for her helmet.

Charlotte looked at Ellie’s slender shoulders as she studied the bra straps under her top. She felt that Ellie’s gender business was also her business; at least it was if they were to get back together again. She felt bound to comment on Ellie’s remark.

“I thought it was my business as well, leastways if you’re going to turn into a girl.”

Ellie smirked.

“Well I’m not going to ‘turn-into-a-girl’ so there!”

Charlotte scanned Ellie’s pretty pink cycling top with the floral motif and her matching turquoise Capri style shorts..

“So what’s with the girly cycle top ... and those fancy Capri pants, not to mention those tan tights and the make-up and the Alice band in your hair? Not much boy as far as I can see.”

“Yeah; well it shows how much you know. You don’t see very far.” Ellie retorted as she slipped on her pink cycling jacket. “Come on Amie, let’s go.”

“Hold on Ellie, I don’t want to go yet. I’ve not even started my coffee yet.”

Ellie cursed silently but Elizabeth Postlethwaite sensed her mood. She decided to intervene by inviting some of the blame on her shoulders. She placed a hand on Ellie’s arm as Ellie was poised to flounce out of the cafe.

“Hold on a second Ellie, I may be partly to blame here. I thought you still had feelings for Charlotte so I approached her father. I showed him your essay.”

“My essay!” Ellie almost screeched. “But that was private, that was me! The innermost me, you shouldn’t have!!!”

“It’s a very moving piece Ellie, Doctor Dawson was very much affected by it. It changed his opinion of you just as it changed Mr Weston’s. It certainly opened my eyes as well.”

Ellie fell silent, she had nothing to add. Miss Postlethwaite seemed to have a way with arguments that brooked no dissent. The clever use of back-handed compliments took away an opponent’s weapons. Elizabeth swung over to a constructive phase.

“You should write more essays like that one. You could enter them into the school’s literary competitions.”

“If it’s that good, why don’t you enter that essay?” Ellie challenged thinking her argument was invincible.

“Too many home truths Ellie. Besides, what you wrote could be deemed libellous.”

“Huh! It’s all true!”

“Yes, and therefore extremely destructive but you don’t have proof, it’s all your word against theirs.”

“What d’you mean my word? There was a whole rugby team that heard him, not to mention the other team!”

“And do you think they’d support you?”

Ellie paused thoughtfully then wagged her head despondently as she concluded they probably wouldn’t. The idea served only to reinforce the loneliness that she felt would go with her transgenderism for all her life. This brought a bitter bile that caused her to snap at Elizabeth.

“So why are you trying to protect them?”

“I’m also trying to protect you Ellie. If you bring this up they will treat you cruelly. Even if you win, they’ll treat you like a
pariah. Their prejudices do not go away despite laws.”

“I’m already that,” Ellie sighed, “a Pariah.”

She had no more weapons to fire. Instead, she made her excuses and left alone. She didn’t even want Amie’s company. She pedalled slowly home and arrived in a rotten mood. Her mother recognised Ellie’s brooding introspection so she suggested that Ellie go for an early evening ride. Ellie went after grabbing an early dinner and it was dark when she returned. After a brief exchange with Amie and her mum she went to bed with her mind in turmoil.

Two days before the summer term started, Ellie’s mother received a letter inviting them to attend a meeting concerning Ellie’s gender issues.

~~ooo000ooo~~