Chapter 4

At the end of the evening, Malcolm went around the band members with envelopes of cash. The girls left the keyboards there to be collected the next day, while the other band members took their equipment with them, Brent being the only one to need help taking his drums out to his father’s works van. Several of the parents had expressed their appreciation of the event being both suitable for the teens as well as good entertainment for adults.

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©2025 SammyC

Chapter 20: Addressing Systemic Failures

Breakfast was more than a little awkward, Jules sneaking little glances at me before ducking her head whenever I caught her gaze. I assumed it was a mixture of smugness and shame, like that song about him knowing that she knew that he knew and so on. The two of them had shared some intimate moments, occasionally with most of the county from what I’d heard prior to inserting my little foam plugs, and she knew that I did, indeed, know. In an instant, my traitor mind came up with ‘Not so much kiss and tell as shag and scream’, but I think I managed to hide the smirk, and to be sure, I covered it with words.

Acidalia XX
By Amanda D.

Wednesday Sept 24th 5am EDT:

Jordon:

The Colonel sat on the same rusted metal chair they’d tied him to however many days ago it was that he was “detained” by people claiming to be with the FBI. Same chair, same dank basement smelling concrete room same single light above him same no windows. The only thing that seemed to change was the number of cuts and bruises on his body. Through the fog and haze of pain, hunger and thirst he thought back over his time here.

Chapter 3

Saturday morning, Willow and Wendy carried the Yamaha to the club, making another trip to collect the stand and stool. Malcolm had put the amp in place and set out three microphones. Willow took a dining chair from the back room and set one microphone in front of it, at a level to pick up a seated singer.

“Ah- shit, sorry…” Luke mumbled as he entered the college’s toilet block to find his twin standing at a urinal fastening his zipper.

“S’okay,” Lucas mumbled, not looking at Luke as the young trans man limped toward one of the cubicles. Both twins grimaced as the encounter ended, not least because it was the most words they’d exchanged with each other for weeks.

I watched the expressions dance over her face, realising how much the ‘O’ and ‘W’ words meant to her, poor girl.

“I’m in Salfords, as Jules probably told you, so train will work well if you’re in Horley. There’s a bus stop as well. Where are you based?”

“Top end of Lumley Road”

“Ah. Several buses go past there”

He reeled off some suggestions, all of which I was aware of, although my own choice was usually the number twenty. I was a little puzzled by his knowledge, as he was a driver, like most estate bloody agents, but I assumed it was all part of the toolkit for potential sales.

“Where to, then?”

Chapter Thirty-four.

The rest of the day I was in mild shock. I robotically carried out my duties in my maid's uniform. Sir told me to have an early night. He told me that I should remove all of my hair before going to bed. He reminded me that, as I was now Sarah, I should sleep in her room and use her clothes. I just said "Yes Sir".

I found several tubes of Veet and a pack of pink lady razors and got to work. I had always wondered what it would feel like to be hairless when I wore my wife's clothes. The material was so soft, but you don't feel it with a coating of hair.

Friday morning came the way it usually did, far too late in the week. I managed a bus trip without added audio, and after assembly shepherded a flock of teenagers as they laid out the tables ready for our start at ten thirty.

I was still shaken by the scene with Jules, and the vast depths of her fear. I couldn’t quite see it as she did, because I was someone that fitted the lived reality of trans women rather than the usual fictional stereotype of ‘small, pretty’. I couldn’t feel all of her fear because she was in a place I had never been permitted to enter. No pain, no gain, and as I had never gained, I had avoided at least some of the pain.

Sod that. She had been smiling when she had left my place that evening; just stand by her, ready to catch her if she fell and pray that she wouldn’t.