I nodded to Sakiya as I sat down at the table in the quad. She was nicely dressed, as usual. Tri Pi’s fashion sense had always been a little more refined than ours, I guess you could say. Yeah we were on top of the latest trends, but every Tri Pi girl looked like they could wake up in the morning and walk into church every single day of the week, it was disturbing, or even kind of Stepfordy.

“So,” She said. “I’m going to cut right to the chase, how can I help you exactly?”

Chapter 26
Robert was out of bed before Adele stirred and he listened to the early morning chorus that was a rare opportunity for him growing up in the central district of Bristol. He was usually at work at 6am in any case and rarely left before 6 pm so days were long and hard for little reward.

Chapter One - Benny's Girls

British prisoners during WW2 formed amateur dramatic societies in German POW camps to keep themselves occupied and men played female roles quite convincingly. Their German captors encouraged these activities to keep the prisoners active and their minds on things other than escape. But what if.....

“Come on Tammy, you need to improve on your fighting skills.” Greg swings his Bo staff at Tammy.

Tammy brings her Bo staff up in time to block and strike back at Greg. She twirls it and manages to whack him behind his head. She put some power behind it because they were wearing protective gear.

“Good, your doing better.” Greg attacks some more and is blocked each time.

Tammy keeps attacking and finally sweeps Greg’s legs out from under him. She spins her Bo staff and put the end under his chin.

“I surrender.” He was impressed with Tammy’s weapon handling.

There are five of us here for the dinner. It was in this moment I realized how shocked I was that more sisters never stayed for dinner in the house, seriously. Today is was me, Aleah, Isabella, Amelie, and Lauren. They were nervous, but I wasn’t.

CHAPTER 70
We made our way back to Central in convoy, some of the vehicles peeling off to deposit their prisoners at other nicks, the numbers being rather too big for one Custody Suite to hold. I was glad to be able to get rid of all the Personal Protective Equipment that had been weighing me down. I am not a small girl, nor exactly chest-heavy, but I am sure the designers of the ballistic vest were either misogynists playing a nasty joke, or simply nerds with no concept of what a woman’s body actually looked like. Bloody uncomfortable things.

Raven stops a few blocks away from the garage to gather herself. She was still pissed after seeing one of the men responsible for sending her to jail. She tries the breathing exercises she recently learned from Barbara.

Barbara had found her crying and upset about a memory that resurface from her time in prison. She instructed Raven on how to center herself and let the emotion flow out of her, instead of letting it have power over her. She needed to get her emotions under control before she got back to the shop.

“Tiff, what’s going on with you?” Isabella asked as we pushed a squeaky cart down a grocery aisle later that night. “You’re like…glowing.”
“Oh, nothing,” I said in sing-song voice. She was staring at me. She didn’t need to know anything. Tonight we were out getting stuff for tomorrow’s dinner. “Do you think we should go with a roast?”

“Think we should make Audrey make whatever it is we have,” Isabella huffed.

“Does Audrey even know how to cook?” I was genuinely curious. I really had no idea.

“Yes.”

“What? Really? She never even eats.”

Chapter 21

I had to say it again. “I am pregnant.” Then I giggled. I also felt a little bit relieved which was a strange feeling. I think I had become accustomed to the idea of being pregnant throughout the day and was subconsciously worried that it was a false hope.

This story has been reposted from my "Double short-story collection". Reviews from original post included.

At the time I wrote this, I was dealing with some very dark thoughts, so this story was my effort to exorcise them.

Caution: this story contains triggers for those with depression. Also, while bizarre, contains a form of suicide.