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Edited October 2023 & January 2024 to fix grammar issues.
Kathleen took a pen out of her bag and, for better or worse, initialed the articles and signed and dated the contract. When that was done, she also initialed the appendices before putting her pen away. With her life signed away, she turned to sign her body away to Owner. She noticed it was mostly filled out, turning her health care over to Owner. “And my father, if Owner is not available!” she exclaimed. She wondered how Owner got her father's first name and her home telephone number. Continuing reading, she noticed the end-of-life questions the cover sheet talked about, the do not resuscitate line was crossed off, she must stay connected to life support, and her organs would be donated.
Signing and dating that one, she turned to the revocation form. All she had to do was sign it. It was dated in the future for August thirty-first of the following year, which was the end of her servitude. Her body signed away, and she then turned to the example sheet. It listed examples of the changes specified in the document. It also specified that changes were not limited to these examples. Temporary examples were clothes, makeup, face painting, and lifestyle. She didn’t see a problem with most of that. She was a little leery about the last one, but not enough to scare her.
Semi-permanent examples were hairstyle, color, and length. She remembered that the papers gave Owner exclusive control over them. She just hoped that Owner didn’t make her look like a clown or bald. Thinking about her hair appointment, she had scheduled for next week. Owner might raise an exception with that. She sent Owner a text message, “Owner, Girl has hair app. for 8/25, but Art. 3 gives you exclusive rights to my hair, but it is before 9/1. Would you like Girl to cancel it?”
Returning to the examples, she discovered that permanent examples were intentional wounds, tattoos, and piercings. She didn’t think any of those would be a problem, contract or no contract. She didn’t expect any of those would happen.
The next set of examples were the medically necessary changes; it was probably the longest list. Some of the examples were unintentional wounds, eyeglasses, broken bones, vaccinations, all the way down to chemotherapy. She noticed it listed medicine, and then on the following line, it listed birth control. She felt that oddly strange. She noticed, glancing back at the legal documents, that she remembered article five and the power of attorney forms. Owner or herself could make any medically necessary changes to herself. The contract and power of attorney gave him complete control over her. She just hoped he didn’t abuse that control.
Flipping to the next page, the questionnaire, she started to read it. It asked for items like her exact measurements, items she didn’t have a clue what they were or how to get them. The next item was if she was allergic to anything. She could answer no to that, at least as far as she knew.
Medicine was the subsequent information that Owner wanted to know about. She didn’t need any pills currently. In the same vane, it wanted to know about any medical issues. Buttercup wrote down that she sometimes gets light-headed and has headaches. She also wrote down the elephant in the room, which was dwarfism, something she hates to say or even admit.
“Wow, Owner wants to know a huge amount of stuff, like behavior issues, mental issues, and favorite color.” She answered with hints of shyness, none known, and lavender, respectively. She was also asked about smoking, alcohol, and drug habits, something she could definitely answer no to each of those. Looking at the time, she was surprised to find it was almost one. She had better get lunch before they stopped serving soon. She thought that the measurements and copying would have to wait. Gathering up the mountain of paperwork, she put it in her bag and ran out of the room.
“WALK!” came a disembodied shout from the checkout desk.
Dropping down to a fast walk, she continued out of the library, picking up to a run again once she was outside. Slowing down to cross the street, she ran across campus to Reynolds Hall, which was the food hall for the college. Screeching to a stop at the ID desk, she checked in for lunch. She was starting to feel dizzy and a hint of a headache, typical results of getting her heart pumping. Walking to her cluster's regular table, she placed her bag down and sat down to wait for the lightheadedness to go away.
“KATHLEEN, you don’t look so good,” her cluster-mate, Tiffany, said in a worried tone.
Kathleen replied, “I just ran,“ a huff of breath, “from the,” a huff of breath, “library, I,” a huff of breath, “will be fine,” a huff of breath, “in five,” huff of breath, “minutes, Tiff.”
Looking at the time, Tiffany said, “Lunch will end soon. Do you want me to go pick up something?”
Between huffs of breath, the reply was, “Please.”
“What do you want? To drink?”
“Anything," huff of breath, “Not a big,” huff of breath, “plate.”
After she got her breath back, she noticed that Tiffany had set a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich on it, with a pudding cup and a fruit cup on the side. Next to it was a glass that looked like it had apple juice in it. Tasting it. Yes, it was apple juice.
“Thank you. I lost track of time,” she said to Tiffany, who was just finishing up her plate. She continued, “Tiff, you are in theater costumes, right?”
Not sure where Kath was going with this, Tiff answered hesitantly, “Yeah, Kath.”
“Can you measure me? Someone wants them, and I don’t know them,” she said between bites of her sandwich.
With a breath of relief, Tiff replied, “Sure, I was afraid you were going to ask me to make you something. Right after lunch, ok?”
Nodding, Kath continued with her lunch. The two girls ambled across campus to Whitlatter Hall. Tiffany was purposely slowing Kathleen down, seeing how the little girl had really scared Tiff. She really had thought the girl was on her deathbed. Walking into the cluster, Tiff told Kath, “Put your swimsuit on, please, so we can get accurate measurements.”
Heading to her dorm room to do the requested task, she heard Tiff request her step stool, too. After changing, she gathered up the questionnaire and step stool, then headed across the hall.
She promptly heard a whistle, “Nice suit, Kath,” and “Looking good!” from the common room.
Red with embarrassment, she knocked on Tiffany’s room door, which rewarded her with “Come In.”
Taking the stool from Kath, Tiffany set it down in the middle of the room and patted it, indicating Kathleen was supposed to get on it. She then took the paper from Kath’s hands. Glancing at it, she noticed the measurements section and then all the other questions. “Wow, Kath, this form asks lots of personal questions. What is it for?”
As she was stepping up on the stool, she glanced at the now-closed door and weighed her options. She really needed those measurements, and she couldn’t think of a lie that would make sense. With a whisper, she said, “Information my Owner wants.”
As soon as she uttered those words from her lips, the pause in the room was notable, as was Tiffany's lack of movement to start measuring her. She looked down at Kath, and the seriousness in her eyes let her know that a little more than ‘my Owner’ would be needed.
"I know, and I will tell the whole story," Kath spoked softly to Tiff.
As Tiff started to measure Kath, her silence was broken as she assumed the role of sister, mother, or counselor. "How old is he or she," Tiff stated while continuing to measure and jot down figures.
“He, 25”
“Now let's hear the whole story, young lady,” Tiffany instructed, putting the tape around Kathleen’s waist.
As she told the story from the beginning, Kathleen noticed that Tiffany was writing numbers down twice. Wondering why, she asked with curiosity, “Why are you keeping a copy of my measurements?”
In the process of putting the fabric tape around Kath’s head, Tiffany answered, “I get sick of doing class projects to a dress form. Sometimes, it is nice to make it to a friend's size.”
After telling Kath to spread her legs a bit, Tiff ran the tape from her shoulder, down her back, between her legs, and up her front to her shoulder. “Tiff, what was that measurement? It felt so weird!”
“It is your girth, used primarily to make leotards and bodysuits,” was the answer Kath received. “Step down and stand up straight against the wall,” Tiffany continued.
After her height measurement was done, Kathleen noticed that Tiffany wrote down fifty-two and a quarter, even shorter than she had thought she was. She was then asked to sit on the bed with her feet out. “Tiffany, that tickles,” she exclaimed when the tape measurer was placed against the bottom of her feet.
Tiffany just mumbled, “Sorry,” as she wrote down, ‘AA,’ then went to a stack of books on her desk. Pulling one out, she flipped to a chart and, after running her finger down it, wrote seven slash eight on the questionnaire. Flipping a few pages, she wrote two on the paper. Finally flipping to another table, she put her finger on the bottom and then shook her head.
“What were those, Tiff?”
Tiffany, still staring at the last chart, said, “You are an AA cup, and you wear a girl’s size seven - eight, and your shoe size is a children’s two, and finally, the paper wants your adult size, but you are below the scale.”
“I usually wear a size four in shoes and a Juniors extra small.”
“Those both are big on you, right? The Juniors are more than big on you,” Tiff said while looking at the Junior's chart.
Kathleen could only nod her head while looking at her feet. Looking at the paper next to her, she saw that it was entirely filled out, and Tiffany had put less than Junior XS on the paper. “Thank you, Tiff.”
“Don’t mention it. Just expect a call to be a dress dummy for a class sometime this year,” Tiffany said with a smirk while padding the other paper. “Now, young lady, you don’t move from that spot while I go to your room and get this contract. Do you hear me?” Tiffany’s seriousness returned as she instructed Kathleen to stay put.
Meekly, Kath nodded.
After asking where it was, Tiffany went across the cluster to get the forms. Returning, she sat down next to the little meek girl, running her hand on the girl's back like a big sister would do to comfort her little sister as she read the legal documents. Truthfully, the two girls were the same age, but because of the height differences, Tiffany thought of herself as Kathleen’s big sister. You could have heard a pin drop in the room between Tiffany’s ‘Oohs’ and ‘Umms.’
Finally done reading, Tiffany finally spoke, “He is a lawyer, isn’t he? It isn’t as bad as I envisioned at first. He appears to have your best interest at heart in some of these articles.” Pausing for a breath, she flipped back to an article in the contract, “What GPA do you normally average for a semester?”
“Just under four, why?”
Tiffany, showing a slight hint of jealousy, pointed out, “The contract rewards you seven hundred and fifty dollars per semester if you make at least a three-point-eight!”
Kathleen, who had not noticed that fine print, was shocked.
Tiffany continued slowly, “On the other hand, if you don’t keep your total GPA above a three or stay full-time, your bottom is going to be doubly sore,” while looking at the same article.
The little girl just stared at her fascinating feet. Examining the stack of papers some more, Tiff slowly said, as she pinched the top of her nose, “I will allow it, not happy about the health care though. I will be watching you, and if I see anything suspicious or scary I will give this address to the authorities,” as she wrote Adam’s address down on a piece of paper. Holding onto the documents, she told Kathleen, “I want a copy of these,” before handing the papers to Kathleen.
Mentioning she was thinking of swimming since she was already dressed for it, after stopping at the post office, Kathleen left the room. Receiving another round of catcalls for the common room, she went to her room, got dressed, and grabbed her bag after returning the envelope to it.
She stopped at the library on the way to the post office to make two copies of the legal documents and forms. Placing the originals in the return envelope, she included a copy of her schedule and the copy receipt for his share before sealing the envelope. She stared at the envelope, trying to get her feet to work. Now that it was done, she was scared of her future.
Ding went her phone, grabbing it, she saw it was from Master, scratch that, Owner. “Buttercup, sorry, I was in court today. Please cancel the appointment. Owner will take care of that from now on. What is Girl doing?”
“Staring at a sealed envelope, trying to work up the courage to walk to the post office.”
“It is a big step, isn’t it? Giving life control away is not the same as online. I promised not to abuse power. And I hope you like what I do, too.”
Walking out of the library, she texted, “I am going! Going to the swimming pool afterward.”
“Classes tomorrow?”
“Yes, the first one is at 10 o’clock,” she types hesitantly, walking into the post office.
“Bedtime is 9:30, enjoy the pool, Buttercup.”
After handing the envelope to the same lady as earlier, she sent a text to Owner that the envelope was sent. Leaving the post office, she started skipping to the field house.
