“Ole Bing” was singing about a “White Christmas” and the whole Martinez family had gathered together to celebrate as they did every year. Joey sat on the floor surrounded by his presents. Gifts from his Mom and Dad, and gifts from his brothers and sisters too. Having older brothers and sisters sure was nice when it came to Christmas!

"So what happened to your nephew Mark?" Denise asked. "Did Marcie come instead?"

"Yeah, sort of," Jane replied, laughing. "It's a funny story–"

Before she could start, I blurted out, "I'm Mark. I'm her nephew Mark."

Cathy has a tough time with her favourite shrink, upsetting the good doctor in the process. Still no plot to speak of, but what's new?

Easy As Turning Out This Drivel.
by Angharad & Virginia Creeper.(A bit of a social climber).
part: 150-1

I must have gone to bed the previous night because I woke up in one, my own. I was so tired, the night before, I hadn't remembered climbing the stairs and getting undressed. My mouth felt as if I hadn't cleaned my teeth and my tongue seemed to have more fur than the average dormouse.

This was not what my father wanted for me. I thought that fairly often, these days. I shook my head to make the thoughts go away, and opened up my ledger. With Engineblock disappearing, I only had to manage eleven, ah, free-range bodyguards for Heavy Sal Hadrian. Well, until Salvatore found him another fella to round out his 'Double Half-Dozen' again. In this business, you needed guys like Engineblock and Niner, but at least Heavy Sal used the threat more than he acted on it. Heh. Kind of like the 'good' gang of mobsters in that Keaton movie back in the '80s... what was it called again?

"You’re one too, aren’t you?" her mother suddenly spat at her. Then she turned to me. "And you too, aren’t you? You’re both lesbians. Everyone here is a lesbian." She was almost screaming she was so frantic.

Before Cynthia could say anything in return, I jumped in. "I am not a lesbian," I said proudly, pausing a moment for emphasis. "I’m a man, so that makes Cynthia heterosexual, doesn’t it? Don’t you just feel better already?" And I smiled at Katherine stupidly as her eyes got even wider while she tried to understand what I had just said.

Easy Over Eggs,
Angharad Golden Hand & Peredur.
part: 100 & 4 dozen.

Silly dress? Look at me now: my first day of high school in a new town, and I was dressed like a girl.

Cathy starts to appreciate what happened and how much she is indebted to Tom Agnew, Professor of Zoology extraordinaire. She agrees to pay back some of the debt.

Easy As Falling Off A Bike.

          My little sportscar - Hiromi had taken Chuck for a ride and used his stick(shift/shaft) to drive very fast. It was all a bit perverted, but still an apt nickname.
          Not long afterwards, Hiromi fell asleep. Captain Slater had re-emerged by then, feeling repulsed by what she had just done. She knew she had no choice if Swan Song would have any chance of succeeding. How many more times would Tom have to please Chuck before completing this mission?

A brief synopsis- Army Captain Tom Slater has been asked by the FBI and the US Army, to infilitrate a Japanese organized crime family. But first the Captain has to undergo some interesting DNA therapy and training to prepare him...her for the mission.

"Oh, Marcie," Ms. Price said with a concerned frown, "What happened to you? I thought you'd get here ahead of me."

In answer I looked up at the Queen of Hearts lookalike standing next to me. I wanted to say, What happened to me? She happened to me. That's what happened to me. Then I looked from Ms. Price's eyes to the hand on my arm, to try to tell her, I'm her prisoner now.

... Usually shooting stars come and go so quickly, you don’t even get to focus your eyes on them. This one took it’s time, however, and we all saw it. A moment after our oohs and aaahs had stopped Hannah said, "A shooting star, that’s what I’ll be. When I die I’ll become a shooting star and everyone will know I was here." Cynthia and I looked at each other behind her back and just smiled knowingly at each other. Then we put our arms around Hannah and the three of us stood there silently watching the sky until we were so cold we had to go in....

I wanted to tell him that it was a stupid idea. I didn't know which was worse: either way, the girls would know I was a boy dressed as a girl. If I pretended to be a girl for the gym class, any of the girls would recognize me later in day when I was dressed as Mark. I was about to object when the bell rang. It startled Mr. Bruce into action. "Come on," he said, pushing me. "We both got places to go."

I was awake. I knew I was awake, because the pain told me so. It is said that you don't feel pain in your sleep. So, if I was feeling this, I must have been awake. I don't think I wanted to be awake.

I opened my eyes. Nothing changed, so I held a hand in front of my face. Well, I tried to hold a hand in front of my face. My knuckles encountered something rather solid, and I still couldn't see what was going on. I closed my eyes again. If there's no real difference between closed and open, may as well keep 'em closed and keep stuff from getting in them, right?