An hour later, with a tear streaked face, I was sitting on the back seat of the Range Rover on the way back to the Home.   Orphan ~ 26 by Susan Brown

Previously...

I was drinking my orange juice as Bob came back in; he had a frown on his face.
‘Sally, girls, we have a bit of a problem.’
We all stopped what we were doing and looked up.
‘Stephanie; that was Matron. All hell has broken loose at the Orphanage. It appears that someone is kicking up a stink that you are staying there under false pretences, pretending to be a girl. The powers that be have decided that you are to move to the Boys Orphanage in the next county. They want you back straight away.’
As I looked at him, my heart started pounding and I felt faint…my worst nightmare had happened.

And now, on with the story…

An hour later, with a tear streaked face, I was sitting on the back seat of the Range Rover on the way back to the Home.

Despite assurances from Sally and Bob that they would make sure no harm came to me, I dreaded going back. Petra held my hand as we went along the quiet country lane. Sally and Bob were very quiet in the front. I think they were dreading things almost as much as I was.

Because I wanted to show everyone how much of a girl I now considered myself as, I was wearing a pink cotton sun dress with matching cardigan. Long white socks and white sandals completed my outfit and I felt as much a girl as I could be. My hair had a pink ribbon tied in it and it tickled my neck every time I moved.

I held onto Teddy tightly in my arm and I was frankly miles away…

I knew more than anything that I wanted to stay as a girl and I dreaded that I would be wrenched away from all that I loved and taken to somewhere that would be terrible for me. I didn’t want to go away; I didn’t want to lose all of my friends and most of all, I didn’t want to move away from where my parents were buried.

I could feel the tears slip down my cheeks as I started to sob uncontrollably. Sally turned around and saw the state I was in.

‘Bob, pull over, dear.’

Bob parked the car and Sally swapped places with Petra and cuddled me tightly.

‘Oh Stephanie, don’t worry honey, we’ll do all that we can to sort this mess out.’

She carried on cuddling and stroking me as we continued on our all too short journey. About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the home. There were several cars in the car park and a few of them I didn’t recognise. We got out of the car with me being the last one out. Sally took one of my hands and Bob took the other as we made our way into the building. I looked up at the dormitory and saw several girls looking out of the windows. ‘They must have known what was going on by now,’ I supposed.

When we walked through the entrance, Sheila was there and she looked a bit upset.

‘Oh I am so sorry this has happened Stephanie. Can you come with me?’

I looked up at Sally and Bob and they gave me reassuring smiles.

We’ll get to the bottom of this and come and see you in a minute after we have seen Matron, OK?’

I nodded and just followed Sheila who took me to the end of the hall and into a room that I hadn’t been to before. The door had ‘staff room’ on it and I followed her in. The room was empty and she motioned me to sit in one of the armchairs that were dotted about the room.

‘What will happen to me?’ I said with a quavering voice.

‘I don’t know, honey. We’ll have to wait and see.’

‘How was I found out?’

She looked upset and I thought that she was going to cry, but she held herself in check and with a slightly quavering voice, explained what had happened.

‘It was my fault. I shouldn’t have taken you to the tennis club….’

‘Pardon?’
Tasmin found out about you. She is an evil bitc… I mean she’s a nasty girl, that one. She has a friend who goes to your school. This girl overheard two of the teachers speaking about you and how you are a boy physically but want to be a girl. She told Tasmin and Tasmin put two and two together and spread her poison to her bigoted father . . . who happens to be a trustee here and also a councillor. To cut a long story short, he spoke to Mr Rogers, you remember him, the man from the council who helped you to come here? Well, Mr Rogers had to tell the truth. He is now going to have disciplinary action against him and may lose his job over it. The same with Matron and some of the others here, including me.’

‘But you all tried to help me!’

‘I know honey, but Tasmin’s father is not a very nice man…much like his daughter. He wants to be mayor and we all think that he wants this mess to be a lever for him to be seen as a fine upstanding citizen and therefore prime mayor material when the election comes up in a few months time.’

‘I…I’ll tell him that it was all my idea.’

‘That won’t help as you are a minor and anyway, we all wanted to help you.’

We both went quiet; there wasn’t anything else to say really. It seemed like ages, sitting in the staff room while my fate was being discussed by other people. Not for the first time, I felt like a ping pong ball. I looked at Teddy, still in my arms and felt a bit envious. Teddy’s don’t have problems like this…

The door opened and Matron came in; she wasn’t smiling…not a good sign.

‘Hello Stephanie.’ she said with a tired looking smile. ‘Can you come with me please?’

‘Good luck, Stephanie.’ said Sheila as I got up and followed Matron out of the room.

Matron didn’t say anything but just held my hand as we walked across the corridor to her office.
She ushered me in and then followed on behind me.

I was a bit intimidated as there were several people in the room. I coughed slightly as the atmosphere was full of smoke. Apart from Sally and Bob, there was Mr Rogers from the council and Mandy, his secretary. A severe looking lady with glasses and an awful hat was standing to one side and there was a gentleman sitting at Matron’s desk with a manila folder open in front of him. He had a cigarette in his hand and he was puffing on it while he looked at the folder on the desk.

I immediately saw the familiarity between him and Tamsin and assumed that he was her father.

He looked up and frowned.

Looking at Matron he said, ’why isn’t he wearing boys clothes?’

‘Because he came here without any.’

‘Hmm, sit down erm, Mark is it?’

‘No, my name is Stephanie.’

‘Enough of that nonsense you are Mark not Stephanie. Now do as you are told, that’s a good boy and let’s not hear anything more about this girl thing.’

I wouldn’t sit down and just stood there fuming.

He looked up again, annoyed that I had done what he told me to do.

‘Will you sit down, Mark?’
‘Not unless you call me by my real name.’

It was as if there was no one else in the room just him and me. It was strange, there he sat with something like a smirk on his face and I just hated him. He wanted to take me away from my friends and ruin my life!

Feeling a gentle hand on my shoulder, I looked around and saw that it was Sally.

‘It might be best if you sit down, honey.’

I reluctantly sat in the chair, making sure that I smoothed my skirt under me first, of course.

‘That’s better,’ said Tamsin’s father, I didn’t even know his name and he was trying to run my life for me!

‘Right, as far as I know it the facts are these. Correct me if I am wrong anyone. You are Mark Jenkins. Your parents died in a crash and you were put in the hands of social services. For some reason you were not put in a boys home in the next county but you were brought here instead and have pretended to be a girl ever since. Am I right?’

No one said anything.

I take it from the silence that this is the case. Apart from the fact that you are a minor and should be looked after correctly by the social services department, I find it astounding that so many responsible adults should collude in this masquerade and put the lives of innocent girls at risk…’

‘Now wait a minute Councillor Smart!’ said Matron loudly, ‘How dare…’

He put his hand up.
‘Your actions in this affair will be fully investigated and as you have been suspended from your post, I think that any discussions between us will be in private. Now Mark, you are young, only eleven I believe and as such, you have been easily led. It’s obvious that as a boy you should not be living in a girl’s home or going to a girl’s school. Miss Barnet here will be taking you to The Chippenham Boys Home. It is overcrowded but I’m sure that they will fit you in somewhere. You will be going to school at St Lukes, an all boys school and...’

‘I don’t want to go.’ I interrupted.

‘What you want is neither here nor there; you are to go where you are told. Now, Miss Barnet will take you to a clothes shop and get you some proper clothing before you are taken to your new home…’

‘I’m wearing proper clothing.’

‘Yes, it would be proper for a girl, but you are a boy.’

‘No I’m not,’ I said as tears started to course down my face, ‘why don’t you listen to me…’

‘Counsellor, enough of this, you are bullying the child,’ said an angry Bob.

‘I would thank you to keep out of this. Any more interruptions and I will clear the room. Now, let me make this clear, you, Mark are a gi…I mean boy. You cannot have had a miraculous change after a few short weeks. I think that you have been brain washed by your so called elders and betters. Now enough of this nonsense…go with Miss Barnet and we will hear no more about it.’

I stood up and Miss Barnet, all hat and glasses came over and held on to my hand rather firmly.

‘Wait a moment,’ said Sally coming over to me, ‘Stephanie, I promised you that we would look after you and we will. Go with the lady for the moment and I will see if we can sort things out, okay?’
I just nodded.

She hugged me and so did Bob. Matron smiled at me and then for some reason winked.

As I went out, I could hear a lot of shouting coming from the room.

‘I need my Teddy.’ I said to Miss Barnet, remembering that I had left her in the staff room.

‘You’re a big boy now and too old for teddies, come along…’

Outside, Petra was there looking all upset.

‘Steph, what’s happening?’

‘His name is Mark not Stephanie and I am taking him to his new home.’

Petra looked crestfallen and she just grabbed me and gave me a huge hug.

‘Oh Steph, what are we going to do?’

‘I don’t know,’ I gulped, tears running down my face. ‘She won’t let me get my Teddy and everything’s gone wrong!’

‘Mummy and Daddy will help.’

‘I know but I don’t think that they can do anything….’

‘Come along Mark I am in a hurry to get to the clothing shop.’

She grabbed my hand again and started to pull me away from Petra. I looked up and saw at the top of the staircase, all of my friends staring down at me. There was Stacy, Rachel and all of the others and they all looked a bit upset, Stacy was actually crying! Then Sheila came out of the staff room holding Teddy in her arm, she seemed to have been crying too. It was all too much for me. I wrenched my hand away from Miss Barnett and ran out of the door.

I didn’t know where I was going, I couldn’t see very well as my eyes were full of tears. I ran along the drive, my dress kept whipping up a bit in the wind. I didn’t care if my panties were showing and I was past caring for anything anymore. I could hear some shouts from behind, calling me back which I ignored. My sandals crunched on the gravel as ran full tilt out into the road. I heard a screech of brakes and then nothing.............

To be continued…

Sorry for the shortness of the chapter. This was necessary as a prelude to the final chapter, coming soon.

Please leave comments as Teddy needs cheering up….thanks