Wheels and wings 25

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 25

The following Tuesday the summer term commenced. Despite Mandy’s excellent styling of her hair, Ellie’s heart thumped furiously as she made her way through the school gates with Amie in close attendance to give support. To the sister’s’ surprise nobody recognised Ellie in the school yard or during assembly. Many curious faces glanced at the beautiful ‘new girl’ as they wondered who she was and which class she would be attending. The curiosity was however only evident amongst the girls. Amongst the older boys the interest was pure lust. The fact that Ellie was wearing tights and low courts indicated she was year ten or above. Younger girls had to wear ankle socks during the summer term and buckled sandals, Mary-Jane’s or flat ‘lace-ups’.

It was only after assembly that Ellie revealed her class number namely the top grade in year ten. As she made her way to her form room (Home room to our cross-ponder relatives.) Several very appreciative stares followed her progress. Billy Davies could not believe his luck as the ‘new girl’ entered the form room and settled in his old friend Jack’s seat. Billy, like the rest of the school, had last heard that Jack was leaving to live in Manchester so his disappointment at this news had been tempered by the arrival of the stunning new girl. Ellie had hardly taken her seat before Billy turned on the ‘Jock offensive’. It was however a bit of a front for Billy was actually very shy with girls. Mustering as much bravado as he could, Billy asked.

“Where are you from love?”

Ellie was not yet ready to declare so she smiled wanly and maintained a demure silence as she pretended shyness. Billy was by now thoroughly besotted by the new girl for she had not blocked him dead. No sarcasm or acerbic venom or contemptuous rejection. Her shyness made her very attractive. To Billy’s despair however, his hoped for advance was prevented by the arrival of their form teacher.

The whole class where surprised when Miss Postlethwaite appeared and a bustle of pleasurable anticipation rippled around the classroom as she announced her status. Miss Postlethwaite was very popular and the class deemed her a far better deal than old Wakeford the German teacher. As she poured her armful of books onto the table, Miss Postlethwaite looked up at the class and smiled her famous ‘I’ll brook no nonsense’ smile.

“Good morning children, you’re no doubt surprised to see me as your form teacher because normally the staff rotas are fixed; however this year, a different policy is being tried..”

She paused to study the class as it fell silent before she continued.

“Well, the circumstances surrounding my becoming your form mistress are very unusual ones. We have a very unusual event today and it involves the student who has joined us today.”

She paused again for effect and added humorously.

“Yes, I notice that all the boys have already noticed her well I’m about to shock you boys here and now. What I am about to tell you now has been discussed at length between me and our new girl.”

Elizabeth Postlethwaite did not wait for any responses from the boys as she plunged in.

“I have the privilege and honour to introduce to the class our new student as none other than Miss Eleanor Thomas, though she tells me she prefers to be known as Ellie. You might remember her as Jack Thomas formerly a boy who attended this school over the past four years.”

A stunned silence descended upon the class and Elizabeth Postlethwaite seized that silence to explain further.

“Yes. Miss Ellie is now deemed by all the legal authorities and all members of the staff in this school to be a girl, and a very attractive young lady if I might say so.”

She looked up with her well known 'all seeing smile' as she reinforced her view.

“I warn all of you here and now, I will come down like a ton of bricks on any student I find being abusive or offensive to Ellie!”

With this warning ringing around the deathly silent classroom, Elizabeth turned to Ellie.

“Now Miss Ellie, as we discussed at our previous meeting yesterday, are you ready to answer any questions from the class?”

Ellie swallowed and nodded fractionally as Elizabeth turned to the class again.

“Right class, any questions? And I warn you again, I’ll brook no offensive or abusive questions.”

The silence continued painfully for several seconds before Billy Davies raised his hand.

“Please Miss, does that mean she won’t be doing athletics this term?”

Elizabeth turned and smiled at Ellie.

“Only you can answer that Ellie. It’s your choice is it not?”

Ellie smiled at Billy before answering.

“Well first off Billy, thanks for referring to me as ‘she’. That was kind. As to your question; yes, I will be taking part in athletics cos’ legally, I’m still described medically as a male. I will be described as female for legal purposes but for stuff like sport I have to compete as a male, at least, until I sort my life out. That’s because of the rules in athletics. So for this year at least, I’ll be running in the male track team cos’ I’m still fast. However I won’t be doing any more contact sports like rugby and stuff.”

Ellie saw the relief in Billy’s face as he realised the track team still had its star sprinter. She smiled what she thought was just a sweet smile of gratitude but Billy blushed bright scarlet as the other boys started a slow whoop and David Hughes, one of the jocks crowed.

“Oooh! Watch it Billie, she fancies you!”

Miss Postlethwaite immediately jumped on the boy.

“Right David Hughes! That’s quite enough and we’ll have none of that behaviour here. It’s bullying and it’s transphobic!”

Her use of the word ‘transphobic’ brought silence to the class for few of the children knew of it. Only Charlotte knew about it in any depth but she had already recognised the dangers of association with Ellie so she kept silent. Another girl’s voice piped up to ask.

“What does transphobic mean miss?”

Elizabeth was pleased with the question because the session was going exactly as she’d planned. She described the Latin origins of the word which made a useful language lesson then she gave an excellent description that raised other questions and the lesson developed into a lively question and answer session that gave Ellie several opportunities to quash several misapprehensions.

Finally Miss Postlethwaite just remembered to take registration at the end of the class before the children dispersed for assorted lessons. Billy found himself sharing chemistry with Ellie, Charlotte and several of the brighter children. As they changed rooms, Billy took the opportunity to approach Ellie in the corridor because she was walking slightly apart from the other children and seemed somewhat lonely and vulnerable. As he drew level with Ellie, Billy spoke softly so as to avoid embarrassment for both of them.

“Look Ellie, I’m still prepared to be your mate but please don’t flash that smile again. It looked exactly like a ‘come-on’. You saw how the idiot Hughes reacted. You’ve got a killer smile, you’re gonna’ have to be more careful.”

“Are you prepared to be my chemistry partner then?” Ellie asked then added. “Seems like Charlotte’s dumped me.”

Billy frowned for he was not sure how to frame his reply.

“Yeah, well it’s the same for her innit’? If she continues to be your friend she’ll be accused of being a lesbian, won’t she? It’s different for me, I can look after myself, even thump the stupider jocks; but it’s different for girls innit’? They use words and stuff to hurt people.”

“Yeah Billy and I’ve got all that sort of stuff to face. It’ll be much harder for me to retaliate against the other girls cos’ they’ve been practicing girly nastiness all their lives. You're also going to have to tread carefully with the girls if you try to defend me. Are you okay to still be a friend; just a friend — friend that is?”

“You were my friend before so what are friends for. Nothing’s changed has it.”

Ellie choked back a stifled gargle as she spread her hands and looked down at her feminised appearance.

“I rather think a lot has changed Billy, don’t you?”

Billy suddenly realised the inadvertent stupidity of his last remark and an explosive snort of mirth escaped as he wagged his head. Many heads turned as he laughed out.

“Sorry Ellie! Yeah, loads have changed but yes, I’m okay with staying your friend.”

Ellie sighed as Billy had been really brave to publicly declare his friendship. Then he still had teh insight to open the door for her. She was secretly grateful that the last person she expected had turned out to be her only friend and ally. She wanted to smile as she said thank you but Billy had already given her a secretive warning frown. Charlotte had noticed the interplay however and felt a private pang of guilt that Billy had been brave enough to strand and be counted whereas she had not. Indeed, none of the girls in the class had done a thing to welcome Ellie since she had arrived that morning.

In the chemistry lab Ellie took a single seat and sat quietly unpacking her bag until Billy boldly approached her with questioning eyebrows as many eyes followed him. Billy asked softly so the other kids couldn't hear.

“D’you want me to share with you? Chemistry partners, that is?”

“Why, d’you want to share my brain?” Ellie grinned.

Billy grinned then nodded frankly.”

“Yeah, why not. No good letting a good brain go to waste.”

Then he glared at the class. As one, the rest of the children turned to mind their own business. Ellie was impressed with the charisma that Billy enjoyed. It was obvious to Ellie that she might be able to find a degree of shelter under Billy’s protection. It felt good to savour her first female response to a relationship, namely male protection. She turned from the rest of the class and flashed a hidden smile of thanks for Billy’s eyes only. He caught Ellie's smile and smiled back before whispering.

“Well, yes actually, I do want to share your brain. I’m not asking to share your body. I see Charlotte’s taken up with Jennifer Atkins so it seems she’s dropped you like a hot potato. It’ll be stupid to let your chemistry skill go to waste and I need the extra learning. But I’m also taking what Miss Postlethwaite said to heart. You’re still a person. Provided you don’t make it seem like were boy-friend and girl-friend, I’ll stick by you.”

It was Ellie’s turn to feel guilty yet grateful. She desperately wanted to smile ‘thank you’ again but she kept a straight face and just nodded consent to become chemistry partners. With the relationship hurdle cleared, Ellie patted the empty lad stool beside her then stared straight-faced towards the blackboard as the chemistry master instructed them how to set up the experiment he had arranged. Billy happily accepted the offer of the stool.

The lesson ended on a high for Billy as the pair reached an early successful conclusion thanks to Ellie’s skill. In half an hour, Billy had advanced further than he thought possible as Ellie unwittingly explained each step of the experiment and the reasoning. At the mid-morning break they had to separate as Ellie needed a loo stop.

“D’you want me to guard the door?” Billy asked her.

“No, this is one thing I’ve got organised, I’m to share Miss Flanagan’s the gym mistresses’ loo until the girls get used to me.

I’ve even got a key to Miss Flanagan’s private shower when I change for track.”

“I was wondering about that, see you for lunch. I’ve got English literature next.”

Ellie didn’t do English Literature and it amused her that the captain of the junior sports team, who was a superb athlete in his own right could also like a girly subject like English literature.

‘Still if it makes him into the caring boy that he is, I’ll not complain,’ she thought as she knocked on the gym mistresses changing room door.

The gym mistress smiled as she welcomed the nervous Ellie inside.

“How has it gone?” She asked matter-of-factly.

“Okay so far Miss Flanagan,” Ellie replied. “ Billy Davies has surprised me and turned up trumps.”

“Good. Nice lad that Billy, he’s a natural leader. What about the others?”

“Nothing. I think they’re still getting their heads around it all.”

“What about the Dawson Girl; Charlotte, you and she were quite close last year.”

“Yeah, well that’s sort of died a death. She hasn’t said a word or even a smile.”

“Pity that. Is that business with the cycling club still an issue then?”

Ellie was shocked that the gym mistress knew about the problems in that quarter and she stared in surprise.

“How did you know about that Miss Flanagan?”

Miss Flanagan realised she might have said too much and moved to reduce the damage. . To protect Charlotte Miss Flanagan replied to Ellie’s question with a lie.

“I know one or two ladies at the cycling club. We had arranged to go on a charity walk and we fell to chatting together. I didn’t know you were a member of the cycling club until then.”

Ellie considered Miss Flanagan’s words and felt bound to ask.

“Who were they? The whole thing was supposed to be private because I was under-aged. Nobody was supposed to talk about it outside the club and the racing federation.”

Miss Flanagan breathed a sigh of relief for she knew the ladies but she extracted a promise from Ellie before she revealed their names.

“I won’t tell you their names unless you promise not to mention it to them. By telling you, I will have betrayed the confidence of two good friends.”

Ellie frowned but agreed to the deal for she was quickly learning the value of true friends. Miss Flanagan gave the names. Ellie recognised the names but was mildly surprised. They were two of the least talkative members of the club, so reserved in fact that Ellie had sometimes gone to them for advice because they had always been discreet. Reluctantly she concluded she was held to the promise and after completing her toilet she returned to a free period where she would normally have got stuck into her homework. Being as it was the first day of term, she sat idly wondering what to do when Mr Weston approached her in the Library.

~~ooo000ooo~~