Anna and Vanessa were videographers, Vanessa was also good at editing their work, Anna seconded in lighting and did makeup. Margaret was a wiz with sound and operating the control board. That left John, he was a wordsmith. He was exceptional at watching a scene and telling a story about the scene that was both interesting and informative.
After talking things over, John looked over the six taped scenarios and selected one, while the others checked the setup. Vanessa then took the selected tape; she and John then went through the tapes several times, selecting the scenes they wanted to portray. She also did the computer work, adding captions and the credits.
John then took the tape and wrote his copy. Together they had to come up with exactly two minutes and twenty seconds of story, with accompanying video.
John practiced his story, keeping time with a stopwatch, while Vanessa created a time line for the production. They went over the edited tape several times, before coming up with a sequence they liked. He then practiced the story a dozen times. Vanessa finalized the time line and Margaret practiced cuing in the video, in the proper time sequence.
Satisfied with his copy and timing, Anna then came in and did his makeup. He didn’t particularly like the idea of wearing makeup, but Mr. Dawson ably demonstrated the effects of studio lighting on broadcasters with, and without makeup. The bright lights tended to wash out skin tones and make the people appear sickly and pale without it.
Anna had come to the journalism class from the theatrics dept. She learned to stage makeup. The teacher in those classes insisted that everybody learn how to do their own makeup, much to the chagrin of many of the male actors. Anna was already one of the best girls in high school at applying her normal makeup; after all, her Mom ran a string of beauty salons. Stage makeup just came easy to her, as normal daytime, evening, or glamour makeup styles. She was also very good at working with hair.
Anna had John take off his oversized sweatshirt. She wondered why he wore such horrid things. She then combed, styled and sprayed, John’s shoulder length hair, into an acceptable, masculine style. She then set about applying makeup. She used a heavy foundation and added some warm tones; she then touched up his lips with a mauve sateen lipstick, to give them some color as well. Anna then took a red power tie, off a rack (the rack included several green ties, which could have been embarrassing when working with green screens. They were included there just for that reason.) She then tied a perfect half-Windsor knot. She straightened his collar and the tie.
Mr. Dawson kept a rack of coats, ties, shirts and blouses, along with a multitude of accessories. He expected his students to look as professional as possible, when they did their projects. John took a sports coat off the rack. It had been hard finding one that fit. He had actually chosen a lady’s blazer, that didn’t taper too much. It was just a little loose in the chest, but it draped ok and was a tad tight in the waist, but the padded shoulders made him look good. He then took a seat at the news desk for sound and lighting checks. When everyone was satisfied, Vanessa took over.
“Ok, listen up everyone,” Vanessa said, as she ran down the time line, noting where the camera changes, video feeds, and screen impositions went.
They went through the story a few times, on a dry run, checking their monitors as they went. At the end of each run, they checked their work on playback. When they got the results they wanted, they called their teacher in. This story was to simulate a live program.
Able Dawson, the journalism teacher, sat in the makeshift control room with Margaret. He put on a headset and told the crew to begin in ten seconds. Margaret pulled up the first still, and Vanessa counted John down, and a ‘live’ feed light came on.
(PIP to John’s right, still of Parker County Courthouse)
John: “Today there were fireworks in the Parker County Courthouse, as the Jury, In the Norman Bates Trial, took only an hour and a half to return a verdict,”
(John turned to Anna, still shot cut)
“Once all the participants were assembled, the jury was brought in and the verdict was read.”
1st video feed:
(Inside the court room, the camera on the Judge)
The Judge turns to the jury and inquires: “Has the jury reached a verdict?”
Jury: “Yes your honor, we have.”
Judge: “Will the foreman please read the verdict?”
Jury: “We, the Jury, in the above titled action, find the defendant, Norman Bates, Not guilty, by reason of insanity or mental defect.”
(A commotion could be heard in the courtroom, after the people hear the verdict)
(Studio camera on John, PIP, video to John’s left, showing action in courtroom.)
John: “Those words, ‘Not Guilty,’ struck an emotional cord with the crowd that had gathered for this sensational trial. Family members began sobbing, they cried out and shouted at the jury.”
(John turned Back to Vanessa and the PIP cut.)
John: “The judge then handled the dispensation of Norman Bates.”
2nd video feed:
(Inside courtroom, camera on Judge.)
Judge: “Norman Bates, the jury having returned a verdict of not guilty, by reason of insanity or mental defect, I hereby remand you to the custody of Bellevue State Mental Hospital, until such time as they determine that you no longer pose a threat to society.”
(Studio camera on John, PIP still of Norman Bates, being led away in cuffs.)
John: “With the judgment read, Norman Bates was then escorted outside the courtroom and transported directly to Bellevue State Hospital. Norman Bates, if you will remember, ran the Bates Motel, and was on trial for multiple homicides, committed in June of 1960. I am John Daniels and that is the way it happened.”
Able Looked at the clock and saw it took a total of two minutes twenty-two seconds. He stood up and applauded the kids, who ran to each other and hugged.
“Very well done kids, I really enjoyed that piece. You ran over by two seconds, but that is no big deal. Vanessa, excellent direction and good Camera angles. Anna, you did superb on your camera and makeup. Let’s see how the video came out,” Able said.
They gathered by the monitor and watched their production through twice, before making any comments.
“Margaret, good work on the audio and the keying in of the video. Your audio might have been a little hot on the second video feed, but it added a dramatic touch.”
“John, you had good cadence and the copy you wrote, was excellent. I want to thank you kids for your work with an A-. You are dismissed. John, will you stay here for just a minute?”
“Yes sir.”
The kids patted each other on the backs and gave each other hugs. John then waved to his partners and walked over to where Mr. Dawson sat.
“John, you really have a talent for story telling, I just wanted to congratulate you. Unfortunately, your voice would have sounded better, if it came out of Anna, or Vanessa. You present an incongruity to the audience. Such a feminine voice, coming from an androgynous appearance, can be disturbing. I really hope puberty is kind to you and comes soon. You made a good effort to look sharp, and you were well rehearsed. You could be great, as a news anchor.”
“I hope so too, Mr. Dawson,” John said smiling broadly.
“Go on home John and I will see you tomorrow, in class.”
John collected the DVD of their production. They had to present it to their class tomorrow. He then turned away and left. The big smiled faded, to be replaced by a pained expression. He wanted to cry, but he had to be strong, he reasoned. He opened the door to leave and found his three friends waiting.
“Why so grim, poncho?” Vanessa said when she saw him.
“Oh it’s nothing,” John said trying to brush off his hurt expression.
“We aren’t going to fall for that line buster,” Margaret said. “Now spill it! We are your friends, we are JD’s productions.”
Tears started flowing from John’s eyes, and the girl’s surrounded him in a hug.
“Not here please, just not here.”
“Ok, Margaret get your SUV, we will meet you out front in a few minutes. We’ll just give John a minute to collect himself and be right there,” Vanessa said.
Margaret took off, and Anna took a makeup wipe and started cleaning John’s face and drying his tears. It was then she noticed he still had on the Lady’s Blazer and noticed how well it fit him. She started to giggle, but managed to hold it in.
Out front, they found Margaret waiting and piled into her 2004 Mercedes M class SUV. It had been her Mom’s and when she had moved on to a GL class, she had passed it on to her daughter. She started rolling, after they were all seated and belted.
“Where too?” Anna asked.
“My place, the rents won’t be home till after seven,” Margaret volunteered.
“Sounds good girl, let’s go,” Vanessa added.
“Going already, where you been Vanessa?” Margaret said giggling.
They girls kept up their light hearted banter all the way to Margaret’s home. John seemed to brighten up; he was always that way. Whenever he was down the girls invariably sent his doldrums away. He did the same for them too.
The girls liked him, he never posed a threat, or made them uncomfortable with sexual tension. Together they helped each other get better grades. They were, ‘The Four Musketeers’ at their high school. All for one and one for all, the whole bit.
They actually made life much easier for John; their ties to the popular girls at school could make any boys life, who may have had any aspirations of dating said popular girls, miserable. It also helped that most of the yearbook staff, came from the journalism department. The four of them, just happened to be on the yearbook staff. If you wanted a positive spin in the yearbook, angering the journalism department is not the way to go.
At Margaret’s home they all piled out of the van and into her kitchen. Margaret served her guests soft drinks and chocolate chip cookies and they all sat around the kitchen table and looked at John.
“Ok, what gives John?” Margaret asked.
John looked like a rat trapped, in a room full of big toothed, hungry cats. That he was nervous was apparent to the girls there. “I don’t know, it’s just what Mr. Dawson said to me.” John then gave a faithful recount of what transpired.
“Well John that sounded like praise to us. Your voice will change, you will get taller and bulk out; so that won’t be a problem,” Anna said.
“Well, that’s just it; that is the problem.” John said hesitantly.
“What is the problem?” Anna asked.
“I am never going to go through puberty, my voice is never going to get deeper, I am as tall as I will ever be and I am never going to bulk out,” he said beginning to cry.
The girls were startled by John’s declaration and looked like they had been slapped. Finally, Vanessa asked, “What do you mean John, tell us.”
“You remember last year when I was hospitalized.”
“Yes, you were in the hospital for ten days. You went into anaphylaxis, after you received some kind of shot. You nearly died if I remember correctly,” Vanessa stated.
“Yes, you’re right; Vanessa, but you don’t know the whole story. The reason I went to the doctor was, Mom was concerned that I had not started puberty yet. I was finally sent to an Endocrinologist over it. She ran all sorts of tests, blood work and a bunch of other things. Everything came out semi-normal for a pre-pubescent boy. It just seemed that my body just didn’t want to start developing yet. Well the good doctor decided to give me a shot of androgens, those are male hormones, to kind of jump start my puberty.
Anyway after getting the shot, I had just gotten dressed and I left the exam room, when my stomach started cramping, every square inch of my skin was itching like crazy and I had trouble breathing. I was told that the nurse who saw me screamed bloody murder for the doctor. They even had the allergist come in from next door. I had an extremely rare reaction to the androgen and went into anaphylactic shock.
I woke up in my hospital room in intensive care. It seemed that I had turned the corner and was told that no real harm had been done. About ten hours after I had been admitted, I had a second more serious bout of anaphylaxis. I actually went into cardiac arrest.
Afterwards my body started producing antibodies that attacked my own testosterone production. They tell me now that my testicles are dormant and will never develop. They can’t give me androgens, so I am stuck halfway. I will never be a man,” he said bawling like a baby.
The girls were dumbstruck for several minutes. They really didn’t know what to say to John, to make him feel better.
It was Margaret that finally broke the silence. “Are you allergic to estrogens?”
John stopped crying for a few seconds and wiped his face with his sleeves. “The allergist actually checked to see if I would react adversely to estrogens. They concluded that my body might not reject a regime of estrogen. The Endocrinologist told me that it was either remain androgynous for the rest of my life or go feminine,” John said chuckling to himself.
“I got an idea, John,” Margaret said. She dashed out of the kitchen to her Mom’s sewing room. She came back in half a minute with a measuring tape in her hand. Vanessa and Anna seemed to catch on, but John didn’t have a clue. “Stand up John and take off your coat, tie and shirt.”
John was embarrassed but the girls could be an unstoppable force, when they wanted to be. John’s un-buttoned his shirt, then peeled off a very tight t-shirt and the girls were a little startled as they looked at his chest. Since he now had a deficit of androgens, what little estrogen males normally produce was slowly starting to feminize his body. His nipples and areolas were larger and slightly darker than when they had last seen his chest, larger and darker than guys get period. They could see he had the beginnings of real breasts forming, bigger than an AA but not quite a full A cup. Fortunately they were sensitive enough to not point this out to John. He had the genitals of a six year old, although the girls didn’t know this. He didn’t have very much hair anywhere besides his head, brows and his eye lashes to die for. He stood a hair over five feet-four inches, his shoulders were weak and sloping. The girls looked closely at John’s pants; they were bunched at the waist by his over tightened belt, tight at the hips and loose in the crotch. They were amazed that they hadn’t noticed that before, but when changes occur slowly enough, they often go unnoticed. They now understood why John always wore loose fitting shirts, with pullovers he never tucked them in.
Anyway, Margaret measured John in a lot of different ways. Vanessa even took off one of John’s shoes and read off the size. She saw he wore a man’s size six C, but she was dissatisfied with that size, as she had seen how ill-fitting his shoes were. She had John stand on a piece of paper barefoot and drew around his foot with a pen.
John was just too sheepish to ask what was going on. This went on for several minutes and the girls discussed things between themselves outside of John’s hearing. John finally asked, “What is going on girls? What are you talking about?”
“John, just be at Anna’s house, on Saturday at nine. Be there, or we will come drag your ratty ass there.” Vanessa said standing nose to nose with John, smiling so that John knew he wasn’t standing too deeply, in the brown smelly stuff.
*************************
The next day was Friday and it was JD’s Productions turn, to show their production. It went well, for the most part, a few of the Neanderthal sports types made noises and cracked a few jokes about John’s voice. One commented that John sounded a little like a pansy, and that he looked just darling on the screen, a little too loudly.
Mr. Dawson got in front of the class and asked, “Mr. Barstow, would you care to remind the class about the grade you received for your project?”
Clyde Barstow was a sport fanatic and hoped to get into the sports journalism field. He was himself a Jock wannabe, but he could never cut the mustard, but he was good with stats. He knew the stats of all the schools first-string players in all their major sports.
“Ahhhh… No sir.”
“Well, I will remind them for you. I gave you a C- minus. If I remember correctly you read enough dialogue to span a ten minute sports show in about two minutes, leaving you with twenty seconds of dead air time. John’s project was well timed, he had good use of video footage, it was informative and he had a good cadence. If you want to make it in the journalism business Clyde, I wouldn’t start by casting stones at other people you might meet on your way up, or down as it could turn out.”
Mr. Dawson’s comments brought Clyde a few laughs and jeers from the students. Clyde didn’t like being the butt of the joke, but he felt powerless to do anything about it at the moment.
Able then got his students commenting on the production. What was right with it and what was wrong with it. They talked about the content and the editing of the video. The students had some really good comments on the production, and had a few suggestions on how it could be improved. John and the girls took notes on what was said.
One of the course requirements was that all the students had to keep a journal about all the classes’ productions and their comments. It helped them to plan their current and future projects. They could refer back to what worked and what didn’t. It also helped Mr. Dawson see who was paying attention to the details of each production. They had to record what each project was, who worked on it, their impressions of the project, what worked, what didn’t and what the comments were about it. The journal amounted to one fourth of their final grades. More than one student would receive a slightly lower final grade for biased comments towards other group’s projects. They just didn’t get it.
After Class, JD’s productions met up outside and congratulated each other on their work. Quite a few students came by and offered their congratulations too, while a few couldn’t help making snide comments in passing.
The girls all hugged John and said they had to go, so John went on home.
John’s mother, Angela Daniels, was already home and was fixing dinner. John went over to her, gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek saying, “Hi Mom.”
“Well hello John, how was school today?”
“It was great, we turned in our production today and it was pretty well received.”
“That’s good dear, so what are you going to do tomorrow?”
“The girls want me to come over to Anna’s house tomorrow; we have two more productions to do this semester. I guess they want to go over out next project.”
“That’s good son, I am glad you four get along so well.”
“Yeah, they are great. We have been friends like forever. At least since we all started grade school together.”
“Ok dear, try to finish your homework before dinner.”
“Ok Mom,” John said as he headed off to his room.
*************************
John knocked on the door to Anna’s home; he only had to wait about ten seconds before the door was answered by Margaret.
“Come on in John, we are all waiting for you… We were just talking in the Living room.”
John followed Margaret into the living room. She motioned for him to sit in the high-back chair and she sat with the other girls directly across from him. The girl’s were all dressed in jeans, T’s and sneakers.
For several minutes they just sat there looking at him and he just sat there nervously looking at them. Finally Vanessa stood up. She walked over and stood in front of him.
“John how long have you known us?”
“At lest seven or eight years. I guess.”
“Right, have we ever hurt you, made fun of you, or have we set out to intentionally embarrass you?”
“No, you haven’t, you guys are my best friends.”
“Right and you are ours. We love you as a friend. We spent a little time talking about our friend and what we could do to help that friend. Now the question is, how much do you trust us?”
“I trust you guys with my life.”
A wave of relief washed over Vanessa, she smiled and turned to the other girls.
“We want you to try something, John,” Margaret said to him. “We got together and we think we may have found a solution to your problem.”
“We want you to trust us not to hurt you enough to do as we ask you?” Anna added.
“Friends don’t hurt friends John, and we are not out to hurt you,” Vanessa said. “What do you say?”
John was confused but he did love these girls. All three stood side by side, one foot in front of him, arms crossed under their breasts, smiling innocently at him.
John mumbled, “Ok, I guess.”
John then found himself being dragged from the room by three giddy girls. They took him to Anna’s bedroom.
“John, we got together and got some things we want you to try on. Now don’t say no till you try it.” Anna said as she pulled off a sheet that covered her bed.
John’s jaw bounced off the floor at least two times, as he saw what was on the bed. It was covered in all sorts of feminine finery and clothes. John’s mouth formed the word “No” but nothing came out.
“We want you to go into my bathroom and put these on.” Anna said handing him a pair of lacy white satin boycut panties and a padded lycra brief, “and then come out.”
John was stuttering as the girls hustled him into the bathroom. Anna’s bathroom was a private bath and only had one door, or John might have bolted. He stood there looking at what he had in his hands, for several minutes.
“This ain’t going to work out, girls,” John said, loud enough for the girls to hear on the other side of the door.
“John just do what we ask you too, just this once, please?” Vanessa’s voice said.
“It ain’t going to work,” John said taking off his clothes. He could hear giggling on the other side of the door, after that declaration.
John almost always did what the girls asked him to do. That was why John wound up in their journalism class. They liked the way he told stories. The four of them had once been into RPG’s and John had been their DM. The girls continued to play with him, even after they started to lose interest in the game, because of his ability to tell stories. John had wanted to go to a different high school but the girls talked him out of it. They didn’t want their little group to be busted up.
But for all of that, John really liked Journalism. He began to thrive under the girl’s tutelage, and became more outgoing. It is hard to be an introvert as a reporter. John saw that they had made his life better. So when they asked him to do something he generally complied.
John came out of the bathroom wearing the panties and the brief. He finally realized what they were doing, and he kept muttering, “This ain’t gonna work, this ain’t gonna work,” to them or to himself. He just didn’t know.
When the girls turned and looked at him, he was beet red with embarrassment. They had a look of amazement on their faces. They tried not to stare at him, but he looked like a very tall ten or eleven year old girl, even down to his crotch, there was nothing that shouted sixteen year old boy about him.
They then did a survey of the boy. Anna shaved a couple of hairs in his armpits. Margaret couldn’t find a stray hair on his chest, and the hairs on his arms were finer and more transparent than her own. Vanessa had checked his legs and found just a few hairs on them and lopped them off. As they checked his face, they found it as smooth as their own faces.
John grimaced as they worked on him, but kept it to himself. He wasn’t angry at them. He just wondered how their minds worked.
When they finished their inspection, Anna picked up two boxes from the bed.
“What’s in the boxes?” he asked.
“These, my man are gel bras,” she said opening the boxes for him to see. “I can wear these at times when I couldn’t wear a regular bra. They are made of silicone and have these double-sided adhesive pads on them. I can stick them on me when I wear halter-tops, or backless dresses and my nipples won’t stick out. Also they have a hook on them and after I stick them on I can hook them up. That helps control the sway of my breasts when I am braless, enhances my cleavage and increases my bra size, a cup to a cup and half. I want to stick both pair on you.” She handed one of the larger gel bra cups to John to feel.
“These are cold how can you stand to have them attached to your chest?”
“They warm up after about twenty minutes, you won’t notice them, honest injun.”
“Ok, I suppose,” John said in resignation.
Anna took one of the smaller gel cups and removed the slick paper on it. She carefully positioned it on John’s chest, and then she pressed it on for about ten seconds before releasing it.
“They are also easy to remove so don’t worry about that. They just peel off,” she said as she did the other side. “We could have just stuffed them in a bra, but then they could around shift and that wouldn’t be cool.”
“Why two pair, why not just use the larger set?”
“Set one on the palm of your hand pointy side down. See the larger pair are very concave, like a regular bra cup. If I stuck them on without anything behind them they would flatten out and look strange. I wore the smaller pair a couple of years ago when I was just starting to develop. They are less concaved. They will support the larger pair though, I hope.”
“Ok, I can see that.”
Anna then stuck on the larger cups.
“Are you going to hook them together, like you were saying?”
“No, I got something else in mind.”
“What?”
“This,” she said holding up another garment.
John had seen very little lingerie in his lifetime and didn’t know what it was, but he had a very bad feeling about it. “What is that?”
Anna held up a very lacy, white satin corset. This particular corset had built in cups and was heavily boned. “This my man, is a corset. I had to wear it to my sisters wedding. The bride’s party all wore ante-bellum gowns. Like Gone with the Wind type gowns.”
John blanched when he heard the word corset. He had heard some girls complaining about having to wear them, in the theatrical department, for a play.
“No, no, no, this ain’t gonna work,” he said with a trace of panic in his voice.
“Yes,” Anna said, “We want to get you into one of my skirts. I have a twenty-five inch waist, and my skirt will fit a twenty-six inch waist. Your waist is twenty-seven inches. We just need to take in two inches.”
“No, no, nooooooo,” John said. His volume dropped significantly as the girls tightened the corset down.
John’s faux breasts looked like they might pop out of the top of the corset. He also noticed his own skin was bulging up, just above the silicone.
“You baby. I just need to tighten it a little, that is all. There.” Anna took a measuring tape and measured his waist, after tying the corset off. She had been a little energetic as the tape showed twenty-four and a quarter inch waist. When I wore this corset I had to wear it at twenty-two inches. It’s just at twenty-five on you,” she fibbed.
“I can’t breathe,” he complained.
“Just relax your overreacting.”
After a few minutes John began to feel better.
“Okay put this robe on,” Margaret said handing him a short silk kimono type robe. It was a very pretty red, with flowers and humming birds printed on the fabric. “And these mules,” she said putting them on the floor so he could step in them.
John did what he was asked to do. He tied the belt to the robe after putting it on and stepped into the mules. The mules had all sort of feathery things sticking up on the strap over the instep and a little over an inch lift in the heel.
“Mom has a salon in the back she uses for special clients, when she doesn’t want to go into the shop. So follow me.”
The girls led John into the back. They had all been there at one time or another as Anna or her Mom had worked on their hair. There was a salon chair, a shampoo sink, a salon hair dryer and everything they needed to work on hair, face, nails and makeup.
“I am going to add extensions to your hair, John. It will take about an hour to get them in, but they can be removed in about ten to fifteen minutes. Vanessa and Margaret are going to work on your nails. They will give you a manicure, a pedicure and then put some ‘stick on’ fingernails on you. They also come off easily. So don’t worry. You will look like yourself when you go home.”
Anna started by putting a mask on John’s face and cucumber slices on his eyes. While Margaret put his feet a warm tub and set it to massage his feet. Vanessa put his fingertips in a bowl to soak. Anna checked his hair and found that it was cleaned and well conditioned. So she leaned him back a bit, combed his hair into sections and started working a set of twelve-inch extensions into his hair.
The extensions were all natural hair. They were dyed to match Anna’s hair and add highlights. John’s hair was just a little darker brown, and didn’t have Anna’s natural touch of red. So the extensions added fullness, a touch of color and some highlights to his head. Anna worked them in like her mother had taught her. She wasn’t as good as her Mom, but she was pretty good at it. Her mom wanted her to follow her in the business, but she liked working with John and the girls in journalism.
Vanessa took one hand out of the bowl and began pushing the cuticles back a bit. She had a bit of work to do. John, like many boys, just didn’t waste time on his hands, so his nails were not in the best of shape. She was careful not to hurt him, as she trimmed the cuticles and then went on to file his nails. She buffed the ridges off his nails and then filed the nails in a blunt masculine shape. She then applied acrylic nails using the included tape strips, so they could be easily removed.
Margaret took one foot at a time, she dried, hand massaged the feet, filed and painted the nails. She then checked the feet for rough spots and took care of them with a pumice stone. She finished up by rubbing a soothing peppermint oil into his feet.
The girls could hear John purr as they worked. They were glad he found it as pleasant an experience as they did. He was asleep in the chair when Anna finished. She woke him gently, then removed the cucumber slices and peeled off the mask.
She then carefully brushed and styled his hair a little, spraying it down with lacquer to finish the job. Vanessa had brought in the rest of the clothes and the girls helped him get dressed. Margaret helped him put on a pair of pantyhose. Vanessa then took off the robe and Anna helped him into a royal blue silk blouse and a black chiffon skirt that came to an inch or two above mid thigh. They put some black pumps on his feet that had two-inch block style heels.
Margaret put three silver necklaces on him, fourteen, eighteen and twenty two inches. Vanessa put several bangles on his right arm and a lady’s watch with lots of CZ’s (Cubic Zirconium’s) on his left. Anna added some magnetic CZ earrings. Those earrings had powerful rare earth magnets on the earring and the part that went on the backside of the ear, but appeared like pierced earrings.
Anna draped a makeup cape over him and applied his makeup. She was using the professional kit her Mom used and expertly matched foundation, blush, applied eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow, lip liner and lipstick. She had pulled out all the stops and had gone for a glamour style. She really wanted to WOW him. He looked incredible when she finished.
All this time the girls had not let John see what he looked like. They were even surprised a little by how good he looked as they worked on him. They were not prepared though for how well everything came together. John wasn’t just good looking, they would be hard pressed to look as nice and they were a little jealous of him. Together they smiled.
Finished, the girls walked him over to the full-length mirror. John’s mouth went wide in exclamation as he looked at himself. He had a hard time putting what he felt into words, because he didn’t know how he felt about it. The girls’ smiles faded just a little at his silence. At least till John started to smile, and turning this way and that to look at himself. Then he frowned a bit and a dark mood took over his face. He turned and walked over to a chair and sat down. He found the shoes a little awkward but not overly.
“Stand up John,” Vanessa said to him “Smooth your skirt under you when you sit.”
“What.”
“Stand up and smooth the skirt under you when you sit, like this,” she said demonstrating. “You don’t want to wrinkle your skirt, or show your under things to the people around you and your skirt will be more comfortable.”
That command seemed to break his funk a little and he stood and smoothed the skirt under him as he sat.
“How do you feel, John,” Anna said, “Did we go too far with you, or are you ok?”
John was again a little startled, “Oh, I am sorry. I was just a little confused, that’s all. I don’t really know how I feel about it, but I am ok.”
“John we did a little research after Thursday, we know how much you like journalism. We think you have a flair for it and we have to agree with Mr. Dawson. If you are not going to bulk out and your voice isn’t going to get deeper, you’d never make it in the field. But since you aren’t fighting the effects of testosterone, this might be a way for you to do what you like. You said that your body might accept female hormones. Those would make you like you are now. We just wanted you to see what could be. We all think you could make it as a girl,” Vanessa said.
“But, I am not a girl.”
“Accident of birth,” Margaret said, “You can choose to be a girl though. We love you John, whatever you do, your one of us forever, so get use to it.”
“Yeah. All for one and one for all,” Anna said.
John started to cry and stood to give the girls a hug. It didn’t take him long to ruing the makeup job that Anna had so carefully applied. The girls all had a good cry and group hug.
When John began to calm down, he wiped his tears and kissed all the girls on the cheek.
“Vanessa, you and Margaret go and make us a pot of tea. I want to redo John’s makeup now.”
Anna gave him a tissue so he could dry his eyes and blow his nose and had him sit back down in the salon chair. She cleaned off all the makeup and redid his face. She worked quickly, since she knew what worked on his face.
When she finished, she led John into the kitchen where Vanessa and Margaret were just ready to pour the tea. They poured a cup for everyone and sat down to drink. John sat properly and took his cup. He spilled a little as one of his fingernails ran into his cup broadside, but it wasn’t too bad.
The girls then began discussing their next project. John jumped right into the discussion and forgot how he was dressed. They had to do a field piece and had a dozen options. Where the studio piece they had done, was a fictional court scene that had been put on by the theatrical department, the field piece was to be an actual event. They chose a Children’s fair that was being held just before Easter break, in three weeks.
John was talking and stopped to take a sip of tea. He was then mesmerized for several seconds, when he saw his own lip print on the teacup. He had felt so natural talking to the girls. The girls all had their eyes on him. After a second he continued with his train of thought. The girls all breathed a silent sigh of relief.
They were so consumed in their discussion they failed to hear the front door open and close. Anna’s Mom, Reggie had come home early and hearing the kids talking in the kitchen, she headed that way. She turned the corner and saw four girls talking.
“I heard John, where did he go, and who is your friend Anna?”
There was nothing but silence for several seconds.
“Mom, what are you doing home, so early?” Anna said, the color drained from her face.
“Things got slow in the shop, so I asked Betty to close. Since my daughter is so rude,” she said in mocking severity, “I guess I will introduce myself to your friend. Hi, I am Reggie, Anna’s Mom.” She extended her hand to the new girl, as girls do.
“Hi, Ms. Givens, it… is… ah… me… ah John,” he said, taking her hand in a like manner.
She didn’t have to be told who it was when he began to talk. Reggie just stared, her mouth hanging open, looking at John.
“Anna, make another pot of tea and have a seat. We need to have a good talk,” Reggie said. She pulled John up and turned him like a dancer turns their partner. She looked at him high and low.
“It is nice to meet you again John, please have a seat. You look very lovely by the way.”
“Thank you Ma’am, Anna is very talented.”
“Yes she is, isn’t she?”
When Anna brought the fresh pot to the table and poured for everybody. She sat and looked at her Mom.
“Now, who wants to tell me what is going on?”
“I will Ms. Givens,” Vanessa said.
“Drop the Ms. and call me Reggie girls, except of course for you Anna.”
Vanessa looked at John, with a question in her eyes. He nodded at her, and she began. She told Reggie the whole story, from the start. John started crying again and Reggie held his hand and comforted him, as she listened. Vanessa filled in all the details of why and how they had done the make over.
When the story was finished, Reggie turned to John. “And you’re ok with all this? They didn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to do, did they?”
“Well, except for this damn… Oops sorry, corset. I guess I am ok. It has been interesting to say the least.”
“That’s ok John, I feel the same way about them. How do you feel about all this?”
“I don’t know. I love the feel of the clothes and the way I look is incredible, but how should I feel? I am confused, but I feel good right now. What can I say?”
“Well I can’t keep seeing this beautiful girl and calling her John. Do you have a feminine name I can call you?”
John thought for a second and said, “Maybe… Janice, I guess. How is that?”
“I think Janice is a lovely name. Vanessa and Margaret call your homes and ask them if you can spend the night. Then the three of you start chopping vegetables to make a stew with that chuck roast.”
“I am going to fix Janice’s face and then get cleaned up before dinner. Janice, go on back to the salon. I will be with you in a minute.”
The girls just sat there starring at Reggie, like she had a third eye.
Reggie put her hands on her hips and said, “Jump to it girls, get cracking.”
Everybody jumped up and got to doing what they had been told to do. Reggie had to giggle; she still had it with these kids. They were a pretty good bunch too. Reggie went to the bathroom and used her cell phone and made a call.
Reggie found Janice sitting in the salon chair, with her knees pressed together like any other girl. She wheeled her makeup kit over where it was comfortable to her and sat on her stool. She first cleaned off the makeup.
“Janice, the girls didn’t force you to do this, did they.”
“A little maybe…but no, they really didn’t force me to do this. They convinced me to try it.”
“How do you really feel about it? Be honest with me.”
“Honestly, I am confused. I like it, but I think I shouldn’t. It is crazy, but… I think I could get to like it. I just don’t know.”
“That is being honest and I feel it is a good answer. Do you think it could be an answer to your problem?”
“I guess, I don’t know if it would work or not, it probably won’t, I don’t know.”
Reggie giggled. “I am sorry Janice, yes you have quite a conundrum, don’t you,” she giggled.
“You ain’t kidding, ma’am.”
Reggie finished the makeup job and then checked her daughters work. She had done a fair job on pinning the extensions in Janice’s hair. She would have given her a B+ or maybe an A-. The makeup was definitely an A job, along with their choices of clothes. There was no denying, Janice looked great.
She worked with more than a few transgendered patrons at her shop; none looked as good as this girl. But there is one she knew she was going to have to call and talk to.
“Janice, one other thing before we go and join the girls. Don’t ever do what they want, if it makes you feel bad. You can do it to humor them, just don’t do this if you hate what they are doing. Promise me that.”
“Honest Ma’am, they didn’t force me to do it, I don’t hate this, and yes if I did hate it, I wouldn’t do it, just to humor them.”
“Ok, dear. I worry about you and I know your mother does too. I was afraid the girls manipulated you into this, like the other things they get you in.”
“I know… it’s just that the girls have only done what is good for me all these years. I trust them, even in this.”
Reggie hugged Janice and smiled at her. “Let’s go see what the girls are up too.”
Vanessa and Margaret were busy chopping potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, garlic and such. Anna had a pot of water boiling and was brazing the now diced chuck roast in olive oil, chopped onions and crushed garlic.
They looked up and smiled when they saw Janice and Reggie reappear, after being gone for so long. They had started to worry, but were too afraid to butt in.
“Do you want to help us chop, Janice?” Margaret asked.
John had never helped in the kitchen; he could fix a few things he liked for breakfast and sandwiches. His Mom just never asked. “Sure, just tell me what to do.”
“Well, what ever you two do, don’t let her chop onions or garlic. She has already had her makeup redone twice today,” Anna said giggling. “Are you sure you’re not a girl in real life? You cry like one.”
“Nope, afraid not.”
Margaret got Janice into an apron and had her start chopping celery for the pot. They talked while they worked, the girls noticed, that while John was pretty talkative for a boy, Janice was absolutely chatty and more outgoing.
When the girls started talking about clothes, Janice joined in and told them what she thought about what they wore. Margaret was the clothes-horse of the group, which was not unexpected, as her parents were both high priced lawyers. Anna though, had the best eye for fashion and she could make Mr. Lincoln run away screaming, when it came to bargain hunting. Janice had real opinions about the clothes they choose to wear, that they never knew about, especially Vanessa. Vanessa, while far from dressing as a ‘Tom Boy’, really didn’t dress as feminine as Janice thought she should. Anna and Margaret knew this and had tried to work on their friend; this was the first thing Janice ever said about it.
“I have one question though. Why am I in a nice skirt and blouse but the rest of you are in comfortable clothes?”
“That is easy, we know we are girls, and you just need to convince yourself that you are a girl, the nice clothes are the way to go. We chose your clothes for effect, Janice,” Anna stated. “They are soft and sensual. Don’t you think?”
“I guess they are, they feel good that’s for sure.”
Anna took everything they had been working on and added it to the pot of water that was boiling. All five of them sat down to talk, while dinner cooked.
“Well, what about you Janice, if you had to choose between our wardrobes to dress in, which would you choose.” Vanessa asked trying to deflect attention from herself.
“I think a cross between Anna and Margaret’s. Some of the things Margaret gets, I don’t really care for. The things you see mostly on the runways in fashion shows. They leave me wondering, what the designers were thinking when they come up with some of those outlandish looks.”
“I get some of those things to make my Mom happy. She label shops and sometimes forgets how they really look. So I buy them and wear them a couple of times and she forgets about them. I am surprised you noticed. You never said anything about it before.”
“I didn’t know if you girls actually wanted my opinions.”
Vanessa stood up and put her hands on the table and leaned towards Janice. “Janice or John, it doesn’t matter to us, we always want to know what you think. You are a part of us, an important part at that. It’s like you complete us. We may not always agree with you, but at least we will listen to you. We value your opinion.”
“Really?” Janice asked starting to tear up.
“Really,” the girls echoed. “And please don’t start crying again and mess up your pretty makeup job,” Vanessa said.
That got Janice giggling and the girls to break out laughing. Reggie just sat back and absorbed things in.
“There is one thing I noticed in all this,” Margaret said, “We didn’t notice things about you John, and you didn’t know we wanted to know how you felt, about things. So it’s like we were failing to be each other’s support. John assumed that we wouldn’t be able to understand the truth of what he was going through, we should have seen there was something not right, and John didn’t know we valued what he thought. As close as we seem to be, this is unfathomable.”
Anna’s brow crossed in deep thought, “You know she is right, I guess even Margaret can have moments of brilliance.”
Margaret stuck her tongue out at Anna. Anna surprised everyone when she turned real fast and caught her tongue with her lips and then slipped her own into Margaret’s mouth. Vanessa and Janice just sat there dumb founded, Margaret’s eyes got as big as saucers, but she made no move to break it off herself, and Reggie started laughing so hard she cried.
“Oh Anna, Anna, Anna, where did that come from,” Reggie said trying to catch her breath from laughing, after Anna and Margaret broke their impromptu French lesson. “Are you starting to like girls now darling?”
“I don’t know Mom, it’s just something I always wanted to do to Margaret, when she sticks her cute little tongue out. I mean she sticks it out like all the time. I still like Joey Martin though, but Margaret is a nice kisser too.”
“I do not stick my tongue out that much.”
“You do too,” Vanessa, Janice and Reggie parroted.
Margaret stuck her tongue out at all of them.
“Back to our original conversation, why don’t you dress nicer? I hardly ever get to see ya’ll dolled up like this,” Janice said gesturing to the way she looked.
“Well, I guess it’s because it takes a while to get ‘Dolled Up’ like you are talking about. At school we want to be comfortable, and we don’t like being stared at all the time. It would be harder for us to operate our equipment in journalism like that. We do dress up for our dates, for Mall hopping and such, but then you are not with us then. John probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable going into dress shops, shoes shops and lingerie shops with us. But Janice could,” Anna said coyly.
“No, no, nope won’t happen. I can’t go out like this. Nosirree.”
“Why not Janice, you look totally convincing. You just need to learn how to act like a girl. We can teach you that,” Margaret stated.
“Nope, not going to happen.”
“We’ll see about that,” Vanessa said giggling.
Their conversations were interrupted by the door bell.
“Anna, please answer the door, Vanessa and Margaret set the table for six, please.”
“Six?” Janice asked. She had a sick feeling about who their last dinner guest would be.
“Yes, I called your Mom, Janice. This is just too important to have her on the outside on. You understand don’t you?”
Janice meekly shook her head and looked toward the approaching form of her Mom. “Hi Mom.”
Angela stopped and looked at her child. A look of confusion and wonder was in her eyes. Even though Reggie had told her what to expect, she was very surprised at what she saw. She saw the familial resemblance and had often wondered what John would look like as a girl after those fateful days he spent in the hospital. She just really wasn’t prepared for what she saw.
“John?” She said hesitantly.
“Janice, Mom, at least that seems to fit better right now,” Janice said, plucking at the hem of her skirt a bit.
Angela came over and hugged her child closely and kissed her cheek.
“Well everybody, I guess it is time to eat.” Reggie said.
Anna whispered in Janice’s ear, “Eat slower, take smaller bites, and take care not to mess up your pretty blouse, please. Just do what we do and you will be ok.”
Janice sat next to her Mom, with Vanessa and Margaret across from them with Reggie and Anna on the ends. Janice swept her skirt under her as she sat. Wearing the corset she had no option but to sit with her back straight. She folded her hands in her lap like the other girls, as Anna served everybody. Janice received a smaller portion than she would have usually gotten, but she didn’t say anything about it. When everybody was seated they began to eat.
Reggie asked Angela about her day, and the girls started chatting as they ate. Janice ate more carefully than she usually ate and joined in with the girls in talking.
“The stew is good,” Angela commented.
“Yes, the girls did an excellent job,” Reggie said.
“Did you help, Janice?”
“I helped chop the vegetables, but Anna did the cooking. She’s the real wiz here. I think she did a great job.”
“Thank you, Mom is the one who taught me to cook.”
Angela watched Janice out of the corner of her eye, while they ate. She saw that Janice was moving a little stiffer than the other girls, and she seemed to be obviously trying to copy their movements and actions. She did a pretty good job, all in all, she thought.
Janice was just glad that she had been able to get through the meal without embarrassing herself by getting Anna’s clothes dirty.
“Well, that was a good meal girls, why don’t you clear off the table and let’s all go into the living room to talk.”
Janice helped the girls with the dishes. She loaded them into the dishwasher as Vanessa brought them into the kitchen. This was something she had done before. Margaret cleaned the table and Anna cleaned the kitchen.
When they finished, they joined Reggie and Angela in the living room.
Reggie looked at everybody and smiled, “Since I am somewhat neutral in all this, I will be our moderator. Vanessa, since you are the ringleader of the girls, why don’t you begin and tell us what this is all about.”
Vanessa then gave the tale of how John wound up in skirts. She started at the beginning, at John’s confession to them and wound it up, with Reggie’s discovery. “Angela, we are sorry. John loves journalism, he loves to be able to tell stories, but Mr. Dawson was right. He probably would never make it in the field because of the way he looks and sounds, at least as a Male. We thought that since he couldn’t go down that road he might make it as a woman. You should see John, as we see him. He seems so alive when we do our projects; he is like a different person, more confident, more forceful and self-assured. So that is why we did it, we wanted to show him another option where he could succeed.”
Angela turned to her son or rather her daughter; there was love in her eyes when she looked at her. “They didn’t force you into this did they?”
“Well, maybe a little, but not really. I guess I always knew that this was an option, but I had been afraid to explore it. I don’t think I would ever have done this on my own,” John said crying again.
Angela pulled Janice onto her lap and just held her tightly. “I think not either, I was afraid to broach the subject to you too. I hoped that you would make up your own mind on this. I have to say, I would never have thought you would turn out this nice though. The girls really did a wonderful job on you.”
Janice wrapped her arms around her Mom’s neck and cried on her shoulder. After several minutes she regained her composure and just rested in her embrace.
Reggie then got up and began to speak, “When I came in, I was kind of shocked. I had seen John’s bike outside and heard his voice when I entered my home. I was shocked to find four girls and no sign of John. That is till Janice began speaking. I got to the bottom of things and decided to call you. If what the girls said was true, and I have no reason not to believe them, especially since John didn’t deny it. I decided that this was too important not to call you Angela.”
“I want to thank you Reggie, for that. I suppose the question now is, where is this going? Do you want to become Janice, or would you rather stay as John?”
“I don’t know Mom. This was fun this once, but I know there is a whole lot more to being a girl than just dressing up, and I can’t go to school like this, I would get creamed. The kids there would never accept me as Janice.”
“I have an idea Janice,” Anna said. “Continue on to school as John, but let’s get together every weekend and teach you how to act like a girl. You can see if you are able to fit in as one of us. We will teach you everything we know.”
“One thing to think about girls, if this goes on too much longer we will also need to inform Vanessa’s and Margaret’s parents about this too. I will not keep this a secret from their parents,” Reggie said.
“I agree, Reggie. If they aren’t told, this could lead to a bunch of problems,” Angela stated.
“Give us two weekends after this Sunday first. Please, Angela.”
“It’s not up to me, It will have to be up to Janice or John,” she said. “This is his life and he is right, there could be problems. There are too many people who would be offended by this type of thing.”
“Janice, please think about this. You know we will always stand by you,” Anna said.
Janice looked at her Mom, in a pleadingly manner. “What ever you want dear,” she said, “I won’t force you one way or another.”
Janice looked at her three friends. They all looked pleadingly at her. “I don’t know where this is going. I can’t say that I will go down this road, or another, but we can try this out for two more weekends, if it’s ok with Mom and Ms. Givens.”
The three girls mobbed Janice in a hug, and Janice cried again.
“Janice is already such a girl,” Margaret said giggling, “Her first day as a girl and she has streaked her makeup three times crying, but we love her for it. Don’t we girls.”
They all agreed with Margaret on that account.
“Ok then girls, as long as Angela consents, you can have a sleepover here this weekend and the next two. Then we will have another pow-wow.”
It was only about six, so the girls planned what they needed to do. They decided that they would go get some movies. Vanessa and Margaret would go and get them, as they needed to stop by their homes and get some things. Anna would stay and work with Janice.
Anna took Janice to her room and showed her how to clean the makeup off her face. She then gave her instructions on how to apply a fresh face. Janice took three or four tries before she began to pick up some on the techniques that Anna was showing her. Anna kept things simple for her, just foundation, blush, mascara and lipstick. She did Janice’s eyeliner, shadow and brows for her.
“Promise you will try not to cry this makeup off, Janice.”
“I will try; it’s just that I get so emotional when I discuss this. It scares me, thinking about the future.”
“You have a right to be scared, but I think you also have reason to have hope. Your mom loves you and so do we.”
Margaret and Vanessa were gone about an hour; they went to their homes and got their sleeping bags and some personal things. Then it was girl’s school for Janice, as they showed her how to walk, sit, hold her arms and talk like a girl. They shifted her to sandals with three-inch heels when she became proficient with the two inch heels. Getting her to walk right took a bit of work, after all girls trained to walk like girls all their lives. Margaret gave Janice a purse to carry and some books for the other arm, this did the trick for that aspect. It also forced her to swing her hips a bit, to compensate for not swinging her arms like a guy. The work on talking was the easiest for Janice; she had spent so much time around the girls, she already talked a lot like them.
At ten, the girls got dressed in their sleepwear, Anna gave Janice a long satin sleep shirt to wear. After taking off her blouse, Anna moved behind her. Janice thought she was going to be released, but she found that the corset was tightened down to twenty-three and a half inches. She was assisted in taking off her pantyhose and padded brief.
Janice joined her friends, after she got her sleep shirt on and taken care of her business. They were already dressed in their nightgowns.
“Well, I guess I will see you girls in the morning,” Janice stated.
“We aren’t going to bed yet; we got so much to do.”
They started teaching Janice how to apply makeup to another girl. Anna would do half a face and have Janice try to copy what she did. This went on for an hour. The girls kept Janice talking as she worked. Her first few tries she really clowned out the girl she was working on, but the more she worked at it the better she became. Anna then taught her how to roll hair.
The girls could see that Janice was enjoying herself by her big smile. Janice loved the closeness she felt. Their group had been tight before, but it seemed to have been taken to another level.
The girls then played a few games, Truth or Dare and charades. They used the first game to really get to know each other. The girls wanted to bare their secrets to their friends, so they wouldn’t keep important things from each other anymore. Janice told her friends how she felt about what had happened to her. She knew that the road she was on now was a possibility, but it was one she had been afraid to broach with anybody.
“I mean how can I just say, ‘hey people, I am going to be a girl for now on,’ after all. I just couldn’t do it, and I am still not sure I can.”
“So is being stuck in the middle any better?” Margaret asked.
“No, Oh I just don’t know.”
“Well, we hope to help you answer that question. I think you can, and we will help you. You wouldn’t have to just do it all now and return to school tomorrow as a girl. I think we can train you now and have you start school this fall as a girl. That would give you five months to learn,” Vanessa stated. “Doing it this way, you could change your mind and go back to being John full time and nobody would be any wiser.”
“This is something I will have to talk over with my mother. She would have to agree to this before I start something like this.”
“I think she will approve, but you’re right springing it on her like what happened is not like having her consent or support. Just keep us in the loop Janice,” Anna said.
They did girl type things the rest of the night and finally went to sleep at three AM.
Sunday till four PM, Janice was put to the task by her friends, learning how to be a girl. At times it was two steps forward, three steps back, other times three steps forward one step back, especially when it came to walking in heels.
At five, Angela picked up her son to return home. John told his Mom all that the girls told him. They talked about it. Angela said, she didn’t know what to do. It was ok with her if he wanted to try this plan out. She wouldn’t tell John which way to choose, but she said she would be there for him either way and would help him once he decided. She just didn’t want to be the one choosing for him.
“I just didn’t want to make you into anything you are not comfortable with.”
“I appreciate that Mom. I’m not sure which way I will go, but it is good to know that you will be there for me.”
“I will always be there for you, that’s what Mom’s are for.”
End of Part 1
To Be Continued...
Author's Note: This is a novel length story and is mostly complete at the time of this posting. Additional parts will be posted weekly.
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon
In journalism, it was Clyde’s group Sports Unlimited second presentation. He did a play by play and color commentary of the season’s last basketball game. They had a shot to go to regional playoffs if they won, but unfortunately they lost. John was surprised at how well the play by play commentary went. Clyde showed the vast knowledge he had for the game and the players, as the game went on.
Clyde’s one mistake occurred when a player missed several key shots towards the end of the game. He let his feelings for the flubbed shots spill over into his commentary. After the game, he did interviews with the players. Talking to the player who had missed the shots, he smugly asked him if he threw the game. Not in those particular words, but that was the gist of the question.
The player could be seen turning red and flexing his muscles. His nostrils could be seen flaring and if looks could kill, Clyde would have been in the morgue.
“Oh my God Clyde, that boy was about to pound on you.” John found himself saying.
Clyde had been so proud of his commentary, even to his asking of the pointed question. He grimaced and turned beet red, when he heard John. “What do you know about that, you sissy?”
“We’ll have none of that name calling, Clyde. You have ten seconds to apologize to John, or I will send you to the principal’s office with a recommendation that you find another elective class.”
It only took Clyde five seconds to apologize to John. He really wanted this class to move into college journalism and then into sports journalism. “Alright, I am sorry for calling you a sissy John, but that was a top rate job I had done.”
“John, tell Clyde what you saw.”
“Well Clyde, you really did a great job on the play by play. I was surprised by how interesting you made the game. I don’t usually watch sports, but I liked what I saw to a point. When that player missed those shots though, you seemed to lose your objectivity a bit. Then when you asked that player that pointed question, and seeing that players reaction, I was afraid that you were about to be pounded into the ground. Look at all the non-verbal’s that player was projecting.”
“I am afraid I agree with John, Clyde. I would have given you an A+ up till then. Yes, you can ask pointed questions Clyde, but know what you are talking about. You basically accused the player of throwing that game. That player was showing great resolve, I too was afraid you might get hurt.”
“That is what it looked like to me though, Mr. Dawson.”
“Would it change your mind to know that he had stayed up late because his sister was in the hospital the day before? He was left at the house worrying about her, because that is what happened. He only had two hours sleep before school, and was mentally exhausted. The coach begged him to play anyway. The staff had been briefed on that matter. All in all though, that was an excellent effort I will still give your team an A- for that project. That was your best effort.”
Clyde was somewhat appeased by the praise and the grade, he was also a little embarrassed by his mistake. He hadn’t known about the boy’s problems.
John went up to Clyde after class and said, “I am sorry Clyde, I really wasn’t trying to embarrass you. You did a great job. It’s just that I have seen those looks that player was giving you and I knew what was coming.”
Clyde was amazed that John would come up and talk to him after what he had said. His temper had gotten the better of him. He still didn’t like John and still thought he was a bit of a puff, but he knew how hard it had to be to approach someone hostile to you. “Ok, I see what you meant. It just pissed me off to see us lose that game by two points and not make the playoffs. I really thought he was slacking off at the end.”
“You could have just asked him what happened there at the end. He might not have told you the whole story, but he would have reacted much better to you. When you ask pointed questions, you have to already know the answers. I think you should talk to him. It might affect your ability to access the jocks otherwise. You could go far in sports, if you learned some restraint.”
“I see what you mean. I will think about it I guess, but when are you going to start growing up. You look and sound like a girl. I don’t think there is any other boy at our school that is like you.” Clyde said, a little anger spilling over toward John.
John just bit his tongue and said, “It’s not your problem Clyde.” He then turned and walked off.
The rest of the week was alright. Clyde did have problems with the jocks. He had been cornered by two football players and told to leave the guy alone. Clyde had to eat a lot of crow before he was allowed to apologize to the offended player.
John and the girls spent the week planning their project. They did a lot of research on the festival; who was putting it on, the history of the festival and what they could expect. They planned their shooting schedule and what they wanted to achieve. They wouldn’t get the equipment till that Friday, before their Easter break and they had to be checked out on it before that.
The local TV station had gotten rid of some of their old equipment, by giving it to the school; the supplier for the station heard about it and had donated some new professional equipment also. They got two refurbished cameras from the station. The supplier gave them a new camera that used memory cards and tapes to record on, some computerized editing equipment and software. John’s group would be the first to use the new stuff, if they qualified with it, that is. So they read all the pamphlets and worked with all the equipment to learn to use them properly.
Vanessa and Anna drooled over the new camera. It had two channels for wireless audio hookup and all sorts of bells and whistles. It could be loaded with five 8GB memory cards that held over thirty minutes of video each and audio each. They had ten cards. There were two wireless mikes that came with it. One mike transmitter clipped on the interviewers belt, while the mike clipped on the collar and a standard handheld wireless mike. They had two spare batteries for each camera. The two TV station cameras they got used standard tapes and had one wireless mike channel. All of the clip-on mikes used the same frequency, and the handheld mike used a different channel.
They had to do three tests on the cameras, and after working with them throughout the week, they easily pass.
Margaret and Vanessa also tested on the computer editing equipment, audio recording equipment and the studio console. They found it pretty straight forward and much like they had been using, but it had more powerful, useful features. Margaret made a point to ask her Mom to buy her the editing software, to add to her desktop and her laptop. It only ran four thousand and her Mom and Dad encouraged her in her creativities.
John had to qualify on all the equipment too, although they all knew that he would be in front of the camera for JD’s Productions. Mr. Dawson felt that not enough reporters actually knew what their camera people do, how their equipment worked or how it was best utilized. Everyone in his class learned how to operate all the equipment; they didn’t have to be experts, just qualified.
***************
Friday evening found everyone at Anna’s house again. The girls had gotten permission to stay there the weekend; as long as they were supervised by Anna’s Mom. Janice came to visit shortly after they all arrived home. She took the transformation better this time and didn’t complain as much as the corset was cranked down to twenty-three and a quarter inches. Janice found herself again in a nice blouse and skirt, though the girls also dressed up, for her this time.
After they all did their homework. Janice then helped the girls in the kitchen. They began teaching her how to plan and cook a meal. They prepared Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken breasts, a Caesar salad, French style green beans, asparagus and garlic bread. The table was again set for six, as Reggie and Angela joined them for dinner.
Angela had to giggle when she saw Janice working at the stove with a pinafore apron on.
“You’re cooking Janice?” Angela asked.
“I’m just doing what Anna tells me to do, but yes I guess I am cooking, or rather we are cooking. If it turns out bad I can spread the blame around at least.”
“It won’t turn out bad, you’ll see girl. Now just keep stirring the Alfredo sauce, while I check the Fettuccini.”
When everything was ready they all sat down to eat. Janice remembered what she had done last week and it showed in her demeanor. They all talked while they were eating, about school, work and all the things girls generally talk about.
Angela inquired about what they had planned for Janice. Even though she trusted the girls, this was her child they were working with and she was showing her motherly concern for her. The girls didn’t have detailed plans, but they went over things they felt they needed to teach Janice. Upon hearing their plans, Angela and Reggie added a few things they thought about. Janice even got into things and spoke about her concerns. Some of the things she pointed out, showed just how ill prepared the girls had been and just how much attention she had been paying to her friends.
After dinner was cleared and the kitchen returned to a spotless condition, the girls got to work. Janice was given an education on girl’s fashion. She learned a lot of words that girls used for their clothes, what they meant, how girls describe their clothes, how they mix and match and so on. They taught her how to dress, how to accessorize, what to wear here, what to wear there, what was casual, what casual chic was, what was semi-formal, and what was formal.
Since Janice was wearing a corset, they decided that she should be dressed in a formal gown that Anna had once worn. Angela was almost giddy, when she saw the beautiful dress Anna pulled out of the garment bag. Even Janice was speechless. The dress was an ice blue, confection of taffeta, chiffon and lace. The girls all helped her undress and start getting her ready like she was going to a prom. Reggie took her to her shop; she was just wearing the corset, panties and a robe. Reggie had a blast doing her hair and makeup. She kept chittering away like she was a regular customer. Janice loved the pampering she was getting.
As Reggie finished, the girls came in bringing all the things they needed to dress her right there. They smoothed nylons up her leg and attached them to garter straps that Anna attached to spots on the corset, running them through Janice’s panties to the stocking tops. Janice blanched a bit to see the heels they were putting on her feet, they were at least four inches tall. Next she put on a long full slip that came below knee length, followed by the dress and opera length satin gloves. Lastly she was adorned with a necklace, earrings, rings, bracelets, a purse and a few other accessories. Reggie touched up her hair and makeup a bit. With help they moved her over to a mirror and stood her in front of it. On a count of three, they uncovered the mirror and let Janice see the damage. The girls just stood there smiling at her.
Janice just stood there staring for several seconds before she said anything, “Oh my God. Oh my God,” was all that came out. She turned a bit to the left and then to the right. She turned all the way to one side and looked at her side and back. The dress fit her like a glove to the middle of her hips accentuating her figure. The skirt flared out just a bit. The hem came down to just below the middle of her calves.
She couldn’t believe how beautiful she was, and everything, with the exception of the corset and heels, made her feel fabulous. She even admitted to herself that she liked what the corset and heels did for her figure. “I just can’t believe what you guys have done. It’s just so perfect. I love the dress and everything. Regardless of what else happens, I want to thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Reggie said. “It’s nice working with someone you like and making them look so wonderful. You do look wonderful dear.”
Janice didn’t say it out loud, but it was at that moment she decided that this was the way she was going to go.
“Girls take her into the living room, I want to get a picture of her by the mantle,” Reggie said.
Janice had quite a time moving in these heels, but she couldn’t deny the way the made her appear. She had lots of help though walking. The silky softness of everything as it moved and slid across her skin, almost made her swoon. The restriction of the corset didn’t help that in any way either, but she was in love with the way she appeared. If only she could have been born a true girl, could it have been any better.
The Givens’ have a wonderful home. It could easily be included in any of those magazines that highlight picture perfect homes. Their living room was the highlight of this home. They had a spectacular stone fireplace and mantle in a ranch home style. They always kept the paint, carpet and furniture in a spotless, clean manner, often changing the centerpieces and décor to match the season. It was a true showpiece. They stood her to one side of the fireplace and had her pose with a bouquet of silk flowers.
Janice eye’s glisten from the collected tears, but she didn’t shed them. She refused to ruin the wonderful makeup job they had done on her. Her Mom, although plainly dressed in comparison, stood next to her for some of the pictures and then all her friends joined her for a few. Vanessa held her hand up behind Janice’s head, holding two fingers in a ‘V’, giving her the classic ‘rabbit ears’.
Reggie was quite the photographer; it was her hobby and it was that hobby that spiked Anna’s interest in photo journalism. She didn’t know that it would lead her daughter off in the direction it did, but it was all good. She had some really good friends she thought.
After the pictures, the girls had her walk around and even had her practice dancing some slow numbers with the girls leading her. John hadn’t learned to dance, so Janice found herself stumbling around at first, but she didn’t have to unlearn what John knew. She began to enjoy herself as she started to learn the dance steps.
In between dances they let her sit to catch her breath, the corset affected her endurance. Her feet hurt from the unaccustomed heels she wore, but she began to get more comfortable in them and started moving gracefully. Sitting and standing in the heels, was where she had the biggest problems. They shifted her center of gravity when she sat and her knees were now above the level of her tush, which made standing a problem. It wasn’t easy, but she finally got the hang of it. She was able to stand without showing off what she had on beneath the V-neck of her dresses bodice, or falling on her face.
It was getting late and although it had taken so long to get ready, they reluctantly took Janice and got her ready for bed. She hated taking off all these wonderful clothes though; she had to admit though she was getting tired.
Dressed now in nightgowns, the girls shared a bowl of popcorn as they watched the late chick flick on cable. They fell asleep next to each other at some unknown early hour of that morning.
It was nearly ten AM the next morning before the girls stirred. One by one they migrated to a bathroom and took care of business. Reggie started breakfast for them, when she saw them stir. They all cleaned up and dressed up in skirts, blouses, pantyhose, and heels, applying their makeup before they went to the kitchen, to eat at close to eleven-thirty that day.
They were all just a bit stiff and grumpy from sleeping in odd positions, except for Janice, who was stiff for other pressing reasons; they had again left her in the corset. She was the brightest bulb burning, at the breakfast table.
As the girls ate, they heard the doorbell ring. Reggie got up to answer it, leaving the girls to their breakfast. Everyone’s ears perked up though, when they heard Reggie say, “Oh hello Madeline,” especially Margaret.
“I just need to speak to my daughter for just a second,” she said, as she came on in and headed to the kitchen. Madeline was a very headstrong woman. Once she had it in her mind to do something, she did it and nobody got in her way.
The girls kept their composure, although their guts were in knots.
“Hi Vanessa, Anna, Margaret and who is your friend?” Madeline said. She was dressed in one of her Armani business suits and made up for battle.
“Hello Mrs. Bradford,” Janice said, “I am going by the name Janice, right now.”
You could have knocked Madeline over with a feather as she stared at Janice. She looked at her watch and said, “You guys have thirty minutes to explain to me what is going on. I came over to tell you Margaret, that I have been called out of town for the weekend. I can’t cancel, but I can sure take you with me. Pour me a cup of that coffee Anna, please.”
“I will explain it to her,” Janice said, “I feel it is something, I am going to be doing quite a bit, in the future.”
Janice did explain and went into as much detail as she could, in the allotted time. Madeline’s face, which had started out in a stern grimace, then a look of concern and at last a small smile, as Janice explained how the girls were helping her.
“We’ll, I am not going to ship you off to a convent after all Margaret and you can stay here this weekend, doing what you have been doing. I want all four of you here on Monday after school, with just your Moms and we are going to have a long talk. I will say, that I like the way you got together, to help Janice. That is what you are calling yourself right?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Good, Monday, four, be here girls. Bring pictures. Got to go now, by the way, here is some money for you Margaret.” She said handing her daughter five twenties. A kiss, a hug for each of the girls, even Janice and she was out the door.
The girls just sat there stunned for a few seconds.
“Your Mother has a certain way about her Margaret,” Reggie said.
“Yeah, you’re right about that. They call her ‘Hurricane Madeline’ at the office. That is why they like her. She hits fast, leaves a path of devastation and then she goes, leaving people recovering for years, wondering what had just happened to them, they say.”
“I take it then, that that was a good reaction,” Janice asked.
“Well let me put it this way. She wasn’t kidding about the convent.”
“What do you think she wants to talk to us about?” Reggie asked.
“Oh, she’ll probably give us the ‘Four-One-One’ on the legal stand point for all of this. If I know my Mom and I do.”
“You mean that this is all ‘OK’ with her,” Janice asked.
“She hugged you Janice, do you feel a knife in your back?”
Janice reflexively felt her back. “No, I don’t,” she said before she realized that the question was just rhetorical.
“On top of that, she gave me money. I already have credit cards.”
“Oh, my Mom is really going to hit the roof,” Vanessa said.
“Not after ‘Hurricane Madeline’ hits her, Vanessa. Your mom will feel like she has been rode hard and put away wet, or agreeing that this all was her idea afterwards.”
“Well, let’s go shopping. If Janice is going to the lion’s den Monday, then she should go in style. She’ll need her own clothes,” Anna said.
Everyone there looked at Janice, who just blanched a bit. She looked wide-eyed at the girls and finally shook her head. “Ok, but what about my Mom?”
Reggie handled that question. “I will tell your Mom what we are doing, but I think it would be best if she didn’t go. I mean we’ll be four girls and one Mom. If Angela was there and we met someone that knew all of you, they might just add one and one and get two. I know she’ll miss being on your first shopping trip, but I believe that she will understand.”
The girls hurried to the bathroom to get themselves ready. They never went to the mall looking only so-so, at least hardly ever. They all wanted to look good. They drug Janice with them, she felt a little trepidation at what was happening, but she just went with the flow.
Reggie did call Angela; she agreed that it would be too risky to go with them. She said, she might just run into them surreptitiously shopping for John, but agreed, it was not a good idea to be with them.
The girls took Janice everywhere; their plan was not to give her time to feel self conscious about herself. Janice was very nervous upon approaching the mall, but she had been convinced by her encounters with Reggie, Madeline and even her own mom, that she was very passable as a girl.
It wasn’t too long until she began to enjoy being with her friends in places they had never been together before. The lingerie store only fazed her for a few seconds, before the girls got her so busy looking at the things there.
Janice even let her ears be pierced at the earring store, like the girls wanted. Janice was amazed that there were stores that sold only earrings. John wouldn’t be the first guy at their school to have a single piercing in both ears. Even some of the ‘cool’ guys had both ears pierced once.
Janice did run into her Mom at the mall, she hadn’t expected it. Anna took it all in stride and introduced Janice to Angela, as Janice Davies in case anybody overheard them. Angela gave Janice a special smile and said, “Well hello Ms. Davies. I have never seen you with these girls before, are you new around here?”
Janice went along with the routine and said. “My Mom had to go out of town for the weekend. Ms. Givens is my Mom’s stylist and a good friend. She consented to keep me this weekend. It’s such great fun being around the girls here. I was afraid it was just going to be me and Ms. Givens this weekend.”
“Well, you girls have fun, I have got to pick up some new clothes for John,” Angela said, as she left the group.
After her Mom left, Janice turned to Anna and asked, “Where did Davies come from?”
“You had to have some last name. It would have seemed strange to have a Daniels as a friend, that is John and to meet a Daniels, that being Angela and be introduced as a Daniels, that being you of course, without some taking it in as strange.”
“Can you say that again three times real fast, that was a mouthful on one breath Anna,” Janice said giggling.
“It’s logical; you just have to start thinking like a girl.”
“I am, that is what is scary.”
By the time they all left the mall, Janice had eight bags that they were helping her carry. For the life of her, she couldn’t remember them buying these things for her. She was more than a little embarrassed by her friend’s generosity. It wasn’t that she and her Mom were dead broke, but out of the four kids, her family had the least amount of disposable income. John had never made a point of it around his friends, nor did his friends think less of him for it.
Janice was quietly crying, by the time she got to the car, she realized that they all had probably pitched in to get her these things. The girls didn’t notice till they saw her raccoon eyes.
Vanessa asked her, “What is wrong, Janice? Why are you crying?”
“It’s just that Mom and I can’t afford all of this, we are not broke, but we just make ends meet, with only a few luxuries.”
“It doesn’t matter to us, Janice. If anyone of us needed money, don’t you think we’d help each other out? Vanessa’s family isn’t made out of money either. They may have more than you and your Mom, but not a lot more. Mom and I have a bit more, but we don’t lord it over you or Vanessa. On top of that, Mom and I are the queens of shopping, we always get the most bang out of our bucks,” Anna said.
That statement had Margaret and Vanessa in giggles. “That is why we like shopping with her,” Margaret said. “I can wear an outfit my mom spent over a five hundred on and Anna can copy the look for less than two.”
“She can also smell a sale five miles away, sort of like a shark smells blood in the water,” Vanessa added.
“I won’t tell you what my Mom spends a year on clothes for me, but for the most part, I am comfortable dressing the same as the rest of you. If I let our money go to my head, I would probably find my self distanced from my friends. It would be so easy for me to play the rich bitch; it is scary. I couldn’t do that to you guys.”
The girls had Janice sit in the front passenger seat and made her repair her own makeup, this time by herself, till Reggie was satisfied. That sucked in a way, but not really, she had to redo her eyes four times till Reggie was satisfied. It did teach her how to do it right.
They stopped on the way home at an ice cream store. Everyone ordered a different flavor of frozen yogurt, and shared a bit with each other.
Back home, the girls went through Janice’s things. Reggie made her undress and take off the corset and the gel bras. She then cleaned off Janice’s chest with alcohol and applied breast forms.
“These breast forms are attached with a short term adhesive. They can be peeled off easily, but look better than the gel bra’s you were wearing. With these, you will wear a thirty-four B cup bra, like a lot of other girls your age Janice.”
Instead of the corset she had on they had a different item they called a waist cincher. It laced up too, but it wasn’t as long as the corset. Reggie tightened it up till Janice had a twenty-four inch waist. It was still a pain in her sides, but not as bad, she thought. The girls made her put her own bra on, that was hard and it made the girls giggle, but after a few minutes she got it all hooked up.
Janice then tried on the things they got for her. She had another two padded briefs, six panties, three bra’s, four blouses, a cashmere sweater top, three girl’s T’s, three skirts, two dresses, along with matching shoes and her own makeup. She also had a handful of jewelry, nothing really expensive but nice.
Janice had to show the girls which pieces she would wear together. The stuff they got her, basically matched every other piece, but certain things fit together better than others, she thought.
After the fashion show, they started in on makeup again. She had to create four different looks for herself. The girls did coach her on colors and all, but they made her do her own work. Then she also had to match the makeup with her various outfits.
They ate a light dinner and then settled in to watch a movie and talk about their day. Janice was corrected on her intonation and vocabulary, as they talked. They asked her girl type questions and expected girl type answers back. They accused her of being monotone and made her repeat herself several times, till she got it correct.
“Think of it like this, Janice, when John would tell us a story, he would often get really excited by the story he was telling, his pitch would change up and down to give it emphasis. Girls talk that way, all of the time. They also use their hands more, when they are expressing themselves,” Anna said.
“Also girls negotiate with each other. I might say to Anna, ‘Anna are you thirsty?’ and she might say, ‘a little, are you thirsty?’ and I would say, ‘I could go for a drink. How about you?’ and she would say, ‘I guess I could go for a drink too.’” Margaret said.
“Why not just say, ‘Hey Anna let’s stop for a drink?’” Janice asked, “It makes more sense.” Janice said.
“That’s because you still are thinking like a guy. You have a need and put it out there bluntly. Girls like to come to a consensus. They like to be made part of the decision.”
“So girls are better committee members and guys are better at on the spot decisions.” Janice said.
“Yes, a guy might put it that way, girls want to know that what they feel about something is important to other people too, and that they are not alone in their opinions,” Margaret said.
“Oh, like when I sit down with you guys to discuss a project I am not sure of. I bounce my ideas off of you,”
“That’s it Janice, you value what we say about the projects, although in a lot of cases you have the final decision. You show us you care about what we think and are willing to listen. Most guys just decide it and never care to ask a girl anything. You are different, that is one of the things we’ve always liked about you. You get our opinions,” Vanessa said, clapping for Janice, as she finally started to really get something important. “You are our brains, on a lot of things we look to you, but you care enough to ask us.”
“I guess that is why we work so well together. We care about each other.”
“And you can’t get more girlish than that Janice,” Margaret said.
“Well, how does a guy answer the question, ‘Does this make my butt look big?’ no matter how I have seen guys answer it on TV, there is no right answer and the guy always gets in trouble.”
“There is no right answer; the guy was already in trouble before the girl asked that question. She just traps him with his answer,” Margaret stated.
“How much trouble he is in, depends on how he answers,” Anna added giggling.
Anna had Janice sit on the floor in front of her and did a braid; she started at one temple and then the other and joined the braids together at the back of the head in a larger braid. It was held in place at the end with an elastic hair band and a blue ribbon.
Janice liked the hairstyle and Anna showed her how to do it on Margaret’s head. It took her a while and she had to restart several times when she dropped some hair, but it came out all right. Then Margaret and Janice did Vanessa and Anna’s hair the same way. Vanessa was the hardest to work with, she had the shortest hair to start with and she was the most temperamental, but Margaret finally got it, while Janice did a respectable job on Anna’s hair.
“Don’t get me wrong Janice; I am very happy to be a girl. I like boys, but I just ain’t into the girly girl, ultra feminine bit. The girls know that and I wanted you to know it too.”
“It ain’t new to me either, Vanessa. I have known you too long not to have seen that side of you. It’s cool by me. I think it’s pretty cool though that we all have the same hairstyles. This could be the official hairstyle of JD’s productions.” Janice said giggling.
Anna and Margaret giggled, they kind of liked it, Vanessa groaned a little, but thought she looked alright and it wasn’t too girly, it could be worse after all. Janice could have liked sausage curls. She turned a little green as she pictured herself as a Shirley Temple look alike.
Anna looked at Janice closely and said, “You know, now that I think about it, it is a good look for you, for field work. You wouldn’t have to worry about that wind blown look, like some female reporters I have seen on TV. It looks more professional than a ponytail too. It could work out nicely. Vanessa, you could always get a Pixie cut if you don’t like this,” she said, giving Vanessa a friendly ribbing.
“No, I would look too girly or too butch, with one of those, depending on the cut. I will just keep my hair medium length and straight.”
After the late, late movie, the girls found a comfortable nest and made their pallets. They all fell asleep soon after they laid their heads down.
Sunday the lessons began again, it was just less obvious to Janice that she was being taught. They wanted it to all be natural to her. One lesson that wasn’t subtle and really confused her, was her handwriting.
“What’s wrong with my handwriting, surely that isn’t a guy/girl thing?”
“Oh but it is,” Margaret said, “Your handwriting, while only being marginally decipherable, is too bold and energetic. When you write as Janice, your writing should be smooth, flowing and highly legible. It isn’t really a big deal, but it is one piece of the puzzle, so to speak.”
Janice found writing with the longer stick on nails a little challenging, but not impossible. She had to slow down her writing and think as she wrote.
“This could be impossible to do when I am taking field notes of who, what, where, when, why and how.”
“Still, you can do a lot better than some of your hen scratch; just practice a more feminine style when you are not doing anything. Keep a journal or a diary and keep reminding yourself to write in a more feminine hand. Speed will come with practice.”
Janice then did clothing changes and makeup changes that fit the time of day, or occasion. She found that she had a multitude of different looks with just the few clothes she had, and learned it was a definite no no for girls to wear similar looks two days in a row. John, when he dressed, almost blindly reached into his closet and pulled out jeans and a shirt without considering what he wore the previous day.
Later, the girls went to the mall and just walked around window shopping. Janice was still a little nervous about it all, but she felt good that her friends were there with her. She would never have imagined doing this just three weeks earlier.
At the food court they sat and watched the people pass by. Margaret made her observe and comment on what the other girls their ages wore. She gave her comments and was corrected on her vocabulary. She was taught how girls describe things to other girls. They added new superlatives and critical adjectives, and their proper uses.
“Saying something looks good is alright for a guy, and occasionally for a girl. If a girl says it looks good too much, other girls will think she either doesn’t care; or she is lying. Girls use superlatives like, cute, wonderful, sexy, cuddly and darling. These words express more emotions than, ‘it looks good.’ Learn to draw word pictures of things that matter to girls. You are an excellent storyteller; use that ability to charm the girls you speak to. Make the girls feel something good, when you describe how they look,” Margaret said.
“What if they don’t look good? What if they look hideous?”
“Be careful there, you can really wound a psyche, if you are too blunt. Find something good to say about them and make some suggestions to improve their looks, if you know they could do better. Just understand that some girls, like some guys, have a hard time trying to look, ‘GOOD,’ so to speak. If you are too blunt, or brutal, with your criticism, you can really shatter many of these girls. If you see a girl whose skirt got tucked into her pantyhose, stand behind her and whisper in her ear. I have had that happen to me, as embarrassing as it is to be told by another girl, its worse to learn about it from laughing, or pointing people.”
“Sorta like that girl, who got her wrap around skirt, which was held on by two buttons, caught in her locker last semester. She walked away and the buttons popped off leaving her standing there in her panties. She ran to the rest room like a flash. Mrs. Bergstrom had to go into the rest room to get the girl’s combination so she could retrieve her skirt,” Janice said.
“Did you see that? You have never said anything about that,” Anna asked.
“Yeah, I was just three lockers away, when it happened. I felt sorry for the poor girl.”
“A lot of guys and a few girls even kidded her about that. I wanted to claw some of the girls’ eyes out when they teased her about it. The poor girl had to go home sick from her nerves and embarrassment. It took her a week to come back to school. It took months for her to live that down,” Anna said.
“I knew she was out for a while, I didn’t know that was the reason. Like I said, I felt sorry for her and didn’t want to add to her misery.”
“Believe us; we are proud that you never went through a Neanderthal period. We might not have stuck with you this long, if you had,” Vanessa said. “Girls can be Neanderthal’s too, but it is less common, girl’s tend to be catty and territorial in their own way to other girls. It’s a side they don’t often show to guys. Listen to them in the rest room, or gym, or anyplace there are no guys around, some can be quite vicious.”
Margaret nodded her head and said, “Melissa Thompson is that way. She can be so sweet one minute and as vicious as a hungry lion the next. Any girl who shows a weakness around her is fresh meat for her; but if they get in her face, they can back her down.”
It was getting late and it was time for John to go home. Back at Anna’s home, the girls removed all traces of Janice and set out some things for tomorrow.
John blanched a bit at the thought of tomorrow. It worried him, because he didn’t know what was going to happen. Reggie had filled his Mom in on what had transpired, she had a look of concern on her face when she picked him up, but she didn’t seem to feel the same trepidation John felt.
Monday, as it turned out, was a half-day at school due to a teacher’s workshop. John met the girls after they were released and headed to Anna’s house. They quickly did their homework and then began working on Janice. They gave it their supreme effort and had a great result.
Angela showed up early from work, to help the girls and to lend support to Janice. She was pleased to see what the girls had accomplished, with the time they had.
The kids prepared coffee, tea and finger sandwiches, for the meeting. They kept Janice as busy as they could. Ten minutes till four, they sent Janice back to Anna’s room to wait.
Waiting was murder for her, especially when she started hearing the doorbell and voices of all the people coming in. She sat on the bed and wanted to puke, but that would not be a good thing.
At about four-ten, Anna stuck her head in the room and asked Janice to come on out.
In the living room sat all four mothers, Angela, Reggie, Madeline and Helen. Janice also noted that Dr. Julie Spencer, her endocrinologist, was there.
Madeline got up and said, “Since I called this meeting let me start. I came here Saturday to talk to my daughter and found out something that we all need to know. In case you didn’t know, this young lady is John. Before any of you jump to conclusions, I feel that Janice, that is the name she goes by, should be allowed to tell her story.”
Hearing that Madeline called this girl John/Janice, Helens eyes got real big, her eyebrows arched and she looked a little crossly at her daughter.
Dr. Spencer just smiled, as she looked at Janice and sat listening expectantly.
Janice cleared her throat, which seemed to threaten to close on her and began her story at the Doctor’s office. She organized her thoughts as she spoke and related all that happened, as she knew it. She tried hard not to leave anything out that might be important. When she finished she sat down.
Helen just stared wide-eyed at Janice. She had known the kid had been hospitalized, they all did, she just didn’t know how serious things had been.
“Thank you Janice,” Madeline said, “I know how hard all that is to believe, so I invited Dr. Spencer to speak and she graciously consented.”
Dr. Spencer introduced herself and told the people there what her specialty was. “I just need to ask one thing before I continue. Mrs. Daniels and Janice, do I have permission to speak to these people.”
“Yes,” Janice said. “Of course,” Mrs. Daniels said.
“What John has said to you is true. When John came to me a little under two years ago, he still had not begun puberty. We did a whole slew of test and everything we checked came out normal, just not normal for the average fourteen/fifteen year old boy. You can see for yourselves that John has not bulked out, his voice is still high pitched for a male and his overall appearance is that of a young girl rather than a boy.
We gave John a shot of an androgen, a male hormone, to jump start puberty for him. In ten minutes, John had an allergic reaction to the shot and went into anaphylaxis, he had a rash, nausea, cramps and the lining of the esophagus started to swell shut. Just like some people react to a bee sting, or peanuts, or shell fish. I called for assistance from an allergist, whose office was in the same suite and together, we stabilized his condition and transported him to the hospital. He didn’t say it, but we were close to losing him.
He was admitted to the hospital, and placed into ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for observation. About ten hours later, he had a second bout of anaphylaxis, this one was worse than the previous, he actually arrested twice before he was stabilized.
As a precaution, we did as complete an Allergy survey as I have ever seen done. John’s body now reacts adversely to any synthetic male androgens. His body even had an Immunological reaction to his own testosterone production and that attacked his own ability to produce male androgens. John will never mature as a male. He will never go through a male puberty. Seeing those results, we then tested him for reactions to estrogens and found no sign of an adverse reaction to them.
If John does nothing, his body will slowly feminize. All males produce a small amount of estrogens, but the overwhelming presence of androgens in their bodies keep them from undergoing feminization. John does not have this protection.
He doesn’t produce enough estrogen to completely look feminine, so doing nothing; he will be stuck somewhere in between, not quite masculine, but not totally feminine. So his choices are to remain androgynous, or become a girl and begin HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) to feminize his body. Remaining androgynous is not really a good choice; hormones do so many things other than make a person look like a girl or boy. They affect growth, bone density and more. If he can’t tolerate androgens, he should be taking estrogens. Either way, he will have a hard life. He needs all the support he can get. I will do everything I can to help him, whichever way he chooses.”
Helen, Madeline and Reggie asked Dr. Spencer some questions, which she answered. They discussed his problem for some time.
Finally Dr. Spencer said, “I don’t know what John’s choice is yet. I believe he might be leaning one way, but we haven’t discussed that. Seeing him here dressed as Janice, I know what I would hope he would choose, but it is his life, his choice.”
“Dr. Spencer, I am still not totally certain, but the last two weekends my friends have tried to help me see what it’s like from the other side of the fence, so to speak and I am leaning strongly in that direction. I know I just can’t start taking estrogen right?”
“Ordinarily you would be correct, and even in this case. I would rather wait till we hear from a Psychologist/Psychiatrist specializing in gender issues first. In your case, I could start you on HRT because of the circumstances, but you will be under a lot of stress once you begin HRT. I would rather you wait on a psych eval first. It won’t be easy for you. The hormones will affect your emotional state of mind, as most women know. You need to know what to expect.”
“I think that Janice has acquitted herself quite nicely tonight, I am also quite proud of all our girls, for helping their friend. How do you feel about this Helen?” Madeline asked.
“I have to admit this is all a shock. It seems that I am the last to know about it. I came close to pulling Nessa out of here, when I learned that this girl, Janice is really John. This is hard to believe, but I do believe what Janice has told us. Our kids are good for each other; I have seen how he has affected my daughter and how she has affected him. I will support him.”
Madeline stood and looked at Janice. “I will too Janice or John, we all will, I believe. I have found a psychologist’s who will see you, if you want. I know money is tight in your home and this person has agreed to see you on her own time. (With a little help from Madeline, which she’ll never mention) Margaret mentioned that you made some tentative plans, what are they?”
“I don’t know if you would call them plans, but we talked about maybe doing this on weekends to see if I can adapt. I realize that there is more to being a girl than just hormones. We also talked about me spending most of this summer as Janice. If I decide that this is the way I want to go, I might start before school starts this fall. I realize it might be best to change schools also.”
“You might want to change schools; I know it might be hard on the girls, but I realize that it might be best for you. If you need help legally, the firm I work for has agreed to help Pro Bono. Our girls would be devastated if you just up and left them, so please let us help you.”
“I don’t want to leave either, but I want to live till I am eighty-five too. I don’t know if I can just show up at our school as a girl. I don’t know how well I would be received.”
“Well we have some time to sort that out, until then keep us informed. Margaret has my permission to help you anyway she can. I am sure the other girls will too. Just be whoever you need to be.”
“Oh yes, by all means,” Helen said.
“Same here,” Reggie said.
“I want to thank all of you. It has been so hard, always being strong for John. It is good to know that you all support him or her.” Angela said, getting a little emotional. She had been quiet while all this had gone on, a little afraid of what might happen. It was good to see things headed in this direction now.
“Well we are all here for you as Janice or John, dear. Whatever we can do to help just ask us?” Madeline said.
Janice hugged all her friends and instead of changing she went home with her mom dressed as Janice. There was nobody to pay attention to her, as she got out of her Mom’s car, so they just acted naturally. Janice stayed with her Mom till just about time for bed, when John came back.
***************
At school, the week went by and on Friday, the girls checked out the equipment after signing their lives away. They would have the equipment for a whole week. They planned on using it a lot over that time.
At Anna’s home, they made sure that all the batteries were charged, and everything was ready. Margaret got her laptop and the video editing software, her parents had gotten her along with a card reader and an interface for video editing of VHS recordings. They recorded a video of the transformation of John to Janice and practiced editing that video.
Janice was amazed to see the transformation as a third party, instead of just seeing it in a hand mirror. Anna did the work on her, although Janice had a modest ability at it.
On her laptop, Margaret took the forty-five minute make over and edited it to ten. They then had Janice write a script and do a voice over, describing what was happening, as a reporter would describe it. They took three tries, before everyone was happy and they burnt four DVD’s, one copy for each of them.
Tomorrow, Janice had to go back to being John for the shoot, but afterwards, she would make reappearance. They got their notes out on the Festival and wrote an opening script, where John would be describing what would be happening, along with the history of the Festival. They did a rehearsal with Janice doing the script in the living room by the mantle. They then reviewed their work. Satisfied with what they had seen, they saved it to Margaret’s hard drive and erased the tape and memory cards, before calling it a day, since they had to get up early the next day.
At six the next morning, John cleaned up and dressed in his best suit. It was a very nice boy’s suit. The girls fussed with his appearance till they were satisfied that he looked as good as they could make him look. Anna tucked John’s long hair inside his coat and used a hairdresser’s tape, to tape it down to his shirt.
They ate and loaded their equipment into the Margaret’s Mercedes. The Festival started at nine, and John wanted to get those early interviews done and out of the way, before the festival started. They would then do roving interviews with many of the participants and workers.
Vanessa then stuffed her pockets with dozens of batteries, for all the wireless mikes. Margaret checked her audio equipment and Vanessa and Anna checked their cameras, before departing. They wired John up with the camera’s wireless mikes, and they also checked their radio equipment out. The girls had earphones and small boom mikes and John had an earpiece, with a built in mike, so they could communicate, regardless of their other wireless equipment.
At the festival John did his opening three times and then found the Sponsors of the festival, for their interviews. The sponsors were the local Women’s Auxiliary; they were tickled pink that the kids were doing a piece on their festival. They bent over backwards to give the kids whatever they wanted. John gave them an opportunity to describe their group, what their goals were and what they hoped to accomplish.
Vanessa and Anna got loads of usable material. The festivals director was entertaining and articulate. John’s questions showed just how well he had absorbed the material they had earlier provided him. They finished about fifteen minutes before the beginning of the festival. The girls changed their batteries and set the used batteries up in their mobile chargers.
This was one thing Mr. Dawson stressed to them; always have fresh batteries and spare recording media. If you were at one story and some breaking news occurred, it did not bode well to have dead batteries, or no spare video recording media.
Vanessa carefully tucked away the work they had done already, and then they got ready for more recording.
They roamed throughout the festival grounds picking up human interest bits here and there. Most of the participants were from six to twelve and their parents. The kids seem drawn to John and his easy- going manner. He felt almost like a celebrity, he and the girls had a crowd of kids and parents following them.
John would squat down to the kid’s level when he was interviewing them, unfortunately, when he talked to the adults, he had to look up. Someone came up with a six-inch wood box for him to stand on and it made the process easier for him and appeared more normal.
John whispered to the girls, “I almost wished I was wearing a pair of heels, but I am sure that would go over big time.”
That had the girls giggling big time. “I am sure we could come up with some, if you want,” Vanessa whispered back.
“I think I will pass on that, I am not sure all these good people would take a liking to that.”
At noon, John did several closing bits to the video. The festival still had a few hours to go, but they had a mountain of material to sort through. They would have to condense it down to a three-minute spot and they were also going to do a twenty-minute documentary.
Back at Anna’s, they unloaded all their equipment and carried it inside. They inspected everything to make sure they had not damaged anything and set aside all their recording media. They had a light lunch and then brought Janice back.
They transferred all their video to Margaret’s hard drive, standard VHS tapes, and DVD’s. They then checked all their work to see that it was all in good condition and usable, before erasing the memory cards. They lamented that they couldn’t keep the cards, they cost over nine hundred dollars each.
They spent the rest of the afternoon in girl school. Janice complained about being told that she would be corseted down to twenty four inches all week, but her cries fell on deaf ears.
They critiqued how John did things and about how Janice should do the same things. What John had done, was not that different from what Janice would have done, but there were several areas that would need to be more feminine for her.
“You know Janice, I was surprised at how well the children adapted to you. Kids don’t normally flock to a guy like they did to John. He interacted so well with them and treated them with respect. I am not saying most guys don’t respect kids, but they do treat them differently. I could see Janice though, when John worked with those kids,” Vanessa pointed out.
“I just treated them like I would want to be treated. Some of those kids were really quite bright. There was one girl who was about eight, I guess, who is really going to be a heart breaker when she gets older.”
“I know who you mean; she was as adorable and precious as she was precocious.” Anna said giggling. “You have got to use her in your three minute spot. She took a real shinning to John.”
“She was a bit of a flirt. You’re right Janice; she’ll have the boys fawning over her.” Margaret said.
“Ok, Janice, you said something about heels, so let’s have you walk some more in five inch heels. Mom has a couple of pair she hardly ever wears. They are very hard on one’s feet and calves.” Anna said, heading to her Mom’s room.
She returned with two pair of shoes. One pair was black patent leather pumps and the other pair was sandals with three straps, two across the foot and a third above the ankle. The pumps were a little tight, but Janice could wear the sandals.
Janice felt like she was standing on her tippy-toes. She found that she was taller than Anna was now.
She started walking tentatively at first and mentioned the tightness she felt in her shins. They didn’t let her sit for forty minutes, then it was only for a few minutes. Even though she had worn similar heels before she still found it challenging, she learned to squat to pick something off the floor, while maintaining her dignity and how to walk up and down stairs, without breaking her neck.
She was grateful when they were through with this part and let her sit, but they stopped her when she started to unbuckle the shoes.
“Not until bed dear,” Anna said, “This will help your legs get use to the shoes.”
When Reggie got home from the shop, Janice stood, then walked over to Reggie and gave her a hug. Reggie stared and giggled, as she saw Janice stand and walk. She wasn’t totally graceful yet, but she did a good job, she did have a cute wiggle as she walked.
Reggie gave her a big hug, “That was wonderful, Janice.”
“Yes, Anna felt like I needed to be tortured.”
“Well, let me tell you a secret.”
“Mom no!!!” Anna said in protest, her face blushing.
“Yes dear, no secrets from your friends, especially Janice. Anna tried for a week and she still isn’t as good as you are. She wore shoes like those for a wedding we both were in. Anna swore she would never wear them again.”
“I can understand that, after wearing them for two hours.”
“Turn around let me see you in them.”
Janice took three steps away and then turned for Reggie.
“They look really good on you, Janice; they make your legs and tush look really wonderful. Did you do your own makeup?”
“Yes Ma’am, does it look alright.”
“You did a good job for a novice, not as good as Anna or myself, but very nice.”
“Thank you, I had good teachers.”
“Why, don’t you girls fix dinner? Then you can enjoy yourselves.”
The girls went to the kitchen and all of them pitched in helping. Janice did the actual cooking, with Anna directing her actions. Margaret and Vanessa helped chop and dice the foods. Janice learned about spices, how things should be cooked, and how dishes were prepared. They marinated chicken breast in Tequila and margarita mix for an hour and then grilled them in the broiler. She wasn’t allowed to sample the marinade, before they used it. On the stove, Janice steamed some carrots and broccoli. Margaret made a big salad and Vanessa made some garlic bread. Anna took the marinade and made a sauce out of it. They each got a taste after it was reduced.
“Janice, I would have let you fix the sauce, but you have to be careful when cooking with alcohol. It burns with an invisible flame.”
“I know, we use it at times in chemistry, the flame is invisible except when there are metallic salts mixed in. Then the color varies according to the metal of the salt. Sodium produces yellow, lead is a real pretty blue, and copper oxide a green.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yeppers. I dun gud in Kemistry.”
“Then cooking food is just basic chemistry, after you cook it, you have to present it and that takes artistry.
The girls showed her what they meant. They each took a dish and artistically presented it. Janice had seen food served this way in restaurants, where each dish was carefully placed on the plate and sauces and garnishments were added to make it look nice.
“Garnish like parsley, serves two purposes. First it adds color to the dish and eating it, helps remove some bad smells on the breath, from the food,” Margaret said.
“But the food smells so good now.”
“Food odors on the breath can be offensive and tend to get stale with time. Think garlic, it can add to the flavor of food, but people with garlic breath are mostly avoided by others. Would you kiss someone with garlic breath?” Anna asked.
“No, I guess not. Really, I haven’t kissed anybody.”
“Who have you been attracted to?” Vanessa inquired.
“Sexually nobody, I just never had the hormones to kick in the sex drive. I don’t think I could be attracted to a guy though. I just don’t know that part of my psycho/sexual self never got around to developing. I guess I am more asexual.”
“I don’t think we ever thought of you as a sexual creature. I’m not trying to hurt you by saying that. It’s just how I know I felt.” Anna said.
The other two girls agreed.
“That’s ok. I understand really. I think it could have fractured our friendship if I had been attracted to one or the other of you.”
“Well, you got us all for friends at least.” Anna said.
They set the table for six; Angela showed up and spent some time with the girls. The adults commented on how good the food looked and how it smelled so wonderful. As good as it all looked, it tasted better.
“Who cooked this, the chicken is wonderful, quite zesty?” Angela asked.
“Janice cooked it, Mrs. Daniels,” Anna said.
“Yeah right, I just did what Anna said. I couldn’t have come up with this dish without her.”
“Well you did a wonderful job,” Anna said, “It still could have been screwed up.”
After dinner the girls served coffee and desert in the living room. They talked about their day and showed Reggie and Angela the video they shot that day, along with the transformation video. Angela was besotted as she watched her son become Janice. She had never seen it happen and was simply amazed; as she watched the girls work.
“Since you started all this, I haven’t really seen a big change. You are yourself, just more relaxed at it, Janice. I just didn’t realize how feminine you were to begin with. Seeing you dressed like that is not the big shock I expected.”
“I wouldn’t have thought so before, but you are right. I act more like my friends than the boy I was, but I have learned a lot from the girls. They just took what was there and expanded on what I was, rather than taking parts away. If that makes sense?”
“Perfect sense, Janice. You are becoming what I think you should have been in the first place,” Reggie said. “There was very little of you that shouted masculine to take away.”
“Oh, I forgot to mention, you have appointments with Dr. Spencer and a Dr. Candace Walker, this Friday. Dr. Walker is a psychiatrist that specializes in gender dysphoria. She is the one that Mrs. Bradford was talking about.”
“Ok, Mom.”
The group continued talking about this and that till it was late. Angela went home and the girls got ready for sleep. After such a busy day they all retired shortly after ten that night.
The next day Janice was up first at about six, she cleaned herself up and got dressed and made up. Down in the kitchen she made coffee. She pondered what they should have for breakfast. Anna came in led by her nose to the coffee pot, wearing a robe.
“Ooooh coffee. What are you doing up so early on Sunday and already dressed?”
“Just woke up, I felt good, so I decided to get ready.”
Anna walked around and looked Janice over. “Well you did a good job.”
“Thank you. Let’s fix a good breakfast for everybody.”
“Ok, what did you have in mind?”
“Biscuits, gravy, sausage, and scrambled eggs.”
“Ok, we will do the biscuits from scratch.”
Anna just gave directions as Janice worked. She sifted all the ingredients together and then made biscuit dough. She pre-heated the oven and put the biscuits in. She then cut up some sausage and began frying it in one pan, before she began cooking eggs in another. Anna chopped up some green onions, mushrooms and bell pepper to add to the scrambled eggs. Anna then taught Janice how to make cream gravy in the sausage pan.
The others wandered in and made the juice, and set the table as Janice was finishing up, by pulling the biscuits out of the oven. While eating they discussed their plans. The girls wanted to take Janice to the mall again. Reggie said, she had to go in to the shop and do some bookwork there and order supplies.
Janice and two of the girls cleaned up, as one by one they left to shower and get dressed. Janice did the other girls makeup after they got dressed. She found she learned more by being able to do the other girls faces. She also liked doing this for her friends. The girls made her redo her face, just before they left.
At the mall, Janice learned many tricks the girls used, like where to go for better prices, or certain looks, which places had the best clothes, where to find affordable jewelry that was hip, where girls hung just to be around girls and where they hung to watch for guys. They did buy some things for Janice, that they felt she needed, but mostly they just did their thing there.
After a couple of hours the girls got some drinks and sat at a table in the food court to talk.
Anna had been thinking about what they could do the rest of the week and said. “You know, we still have those cameras, it would be ashamed not to use them more. I think we ought to shoot some more stories.”
“I was thinking the same thing, but I think Janice should find some stories and see how she will do as a girl.” Margaret said.
“I don’t know, we could never turn them in for credit.” Janice said a little worried.
“Credit is not the point of the exercise. We get more experience with the equipment and you get more experience as a woman, doing stories that might appeal more to women, or learning to appeal to a bigger audience.”
“I don’t have any clothes that would make me look like a professional, but is that even important, I wonder.”
“Just leave that to me,” Margaret volunteered.
“Sounds like a plan, lets head home in a bit and come up with some ideas for the shoot,” Vanessa said.
They made a few more stops and then headed home. They tore into the newspaper to see what might peek their interest. They laid on the floor and started checking what was going to happen in the next few days. They looked at the pros and cons of the various ideas they came up with.
They picked one idea, a meeting in city hall, at 9:00 AM, Monday, that dealt with parking problems in the downtown area. That had in the past been a heated issue, with workers parking on the streets, shoppers not being able to park, store owners complaining, jury members having to walk a long distance to get to the courthouse and such.
Not a hard news story, but not fluff, this type story was the bread and butter on televised local news. It was a serious issue to many different groups. Janice went to Anna’s computer to see what she could find on the net, while the girls got their heads together and planned what they wanted to do.
They got together and talked it over while they started to prepare dinner. They decided to go to the meeting for a couple of hours, tape the meeting, interview several people from the various factions and council members.
“You’ll need to look very professional Janice, to get any respect. I think I know just the look. My mom is only a little bit bigger than you are; she has a ton of suits because of her job. Anna, she’ll need a very professional makeup job and maybe have her hair in a knot or a bun,” Margaret said.
“I think I know just the look. You know how Terri Nelson, the local TV anchor, often looks. Her hair and makeup would look good.”
“I think that is a wonderful idea,” Vanessa said.
“What do you guys mean?”
“I have some tapes of the news, we can go over them after we eat and then you can see for yourself,” Anna stated.
“Ok, then we have a plan.”
They had dinner on the table when Reggie got home and they talked about what they had done that day. They told her about what they intended to do on Monday. She gave a few comments about how Janice should look.
“I tell you what, you have Janice ready by six-thirty, I will do her hair and Anna you know enough about makeup to do that. I need to be at the shop by eight,” Reggie said.
“Ok then, we will need to set the alarms for five-thirty,” Anna said.
“While you are doing her hair and makeup, I need to head home for a few minutes. My Mom heads out to work at about seven and I need to see her,” Margaret said.
“Ok, we will need to leave here by eight. So you will need to hustle Margaret.”
“I will have to organize my thoughts tonight; I got some good material over the internet.”
After dinner they sat and watched some of the tapes Anna had of the news. Janice paid attention to Terri Nelson and the other female reporters on the tapes, learning their mannerisms and the way they asked questions. She talked to the girls asking them what they thought of this reporter, or that reporter, and they helped pick the best sequences to learn from. They also talked about some of the mistakes they thought they made and what they thought could be improved on.
Janice then took her notes and practiced an opening spiel for the girls and practiced asking some of the questions she anticipated asking. The girls played the parts of the various factions and drew follow up questions from Janice. They worked till they were satisfied with their plan.
While Janice got ready for sleep the girls took this time to shower, there was just too much to do for all of them to shower in the time they had tomorrow. Janice found herself being laced in the corset tighter than before. Down to twenty three inches.
“Why tighten me down further?” Janice asked.
“My Mom has a twenty four inches waist, she wears a corset often enough she doesn’t get bigger. We need to get your waist down to that tonight,” Margaret said.
They all found their nook and settled in to sleep.
End of Part 2
To Be Continued...
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon
The next morning the alarms were met with shouts of derision and vehemence but the kids got up anyway. They quickly got Janice undressed and into the shower. This was the first time they had seen Janice naked and were amazed at how small she was down there. Janice showered, shaved her legs although she really didn’t need it and washed and conditioned her hair.
They got her dried off, dressed in a kimono style robe and then had a quick bite to eat. Janice was in Reggie’s styling chair at six twenty five. Reggie got to work putting Janice’s hair into a French twist. Anna took over and did her makeup. Margaret left to go home about six-fifty and returned at seven-twenty. Vanessa got all the equipment sorted and loaded into Margaret’s Mercedes.
The girl’s rushed Janice in dressing. Anna raised her eyebrow and looked at Margaret when she saw the labels on the suit and shoes. Margaret just smiled back meekly. They attached her breast forms and then laced her into the corset. The girls then helped her with her stockings, blouse, suit and shoes. The Armani suit was fully lined and didn’t need a slip and the Prada shoes matched the suit so well. They wired her for sound before they helped her into her jacket.
Reggie stuck her head in before leaving and whistled when she saw Janice.
“My God, Janice you look four years older than you are. You could pass for an adult anywhere dear, just don’t go hitting the bars.”
The girls laughed at her comments
“She does look wonderful doesn’t she,” Anna said.
“She looks as good as my Mom in that suit, and just as professional.”
“I hope your Mom doesn’t lose it,” Vanessa whispered into Margaret’s ear.
Janice finally got an opportunity to see what she looked like. Her jaw hung open in wonder as she turned to and fro to look at herself.
“I can’t believe what you girls did. I look gud in this.”
“You should, you have four thousand dollars worth of clothes on,” Reggie said, “If I know my clothes, and I think I do,” Reggie said looking a little cross at Margaret. “You look great, just don’t ruin anything girl.” Reggie just shook her head as she left.
Janice didn’t have time to think about things as the girls hurried her to the Mercedes. They had twenty minutes to get where they wanted. They safely got there in eighteen. Janice helped and carried the tripods for operating in the council chambers.
Anna and Vanessa got their cameras and Margaret got the auxiliary audio recorder. They all showed their high school press passes, they looked quite professional. Mr. Dawson insisted they get use to carrying their credentials. The guard allowed them to pass after checking their equipment for weapons.
They were early enough to set up where they wanted. They set up near an area designated for the local TV station. Margaret set up two wired mikes for the speaker’s podium, the Mayors seat and she had the cardiod mike on a boom for background noise. Anna would operate as a fixed camera; Vanessa, with the new camera, would be roving. Janice sat with notepad and pen ready to take notes about the: who, what, where, when, why and how.
The three factions were to have thirty minutes total, with no speaker having more than five minutes. Speakers would alternate, first the shoppers, then the workers, and lastly the shop owners. The council would then debate for an hour, before they would vote on any actions.
The meeting was a heated affair, with members from each faction forcefully making their points. The shoppers complained that they didn’t have access to the downtown area. The workers were paying savage parking fees, or having to take long rides on buses that also was expensive. The shop owner’s sales were slipping because of the decline of shoppers. The council debated actions, then voted to set up some park and ride lots at three locations about two miles from town. The parking would be free, security would be at the lots from five am till seven pm, the bus ride, which would be express from the lots to a limited number of stops in the downtown area and back to the lots, would be at half price.
Janice saw Stephen Michaels, the TV stations reporter, came in toward the end of the meeting. Some woman handed him a stack of notes and he glanced over them. The camera man and the reporter’s assistant had arrived before the meeting; Stephen was the only late comer.
After the meeting was over, Janice latched on to the Mayor and asked a few questions. He looked at her and was delighted to answer her questions. While the Mayor was answering one question, Janice was jostled to the side by Mr. Michaels, who shoved his mike into the Mayors face and started asking his questions before the Mayor had finished with Janice’s.
“Excuse me Mr. Michaels, I will get to you in a moment. I believe I was answering this lady’s questions.”
“I need your comments now, so we can have it for the twelve o’clock news.”
“Again, I will finish with this lady first.” The Mayor said, as he turned to Janice. He took his time answering her. He was appalled at Mr. Michaels’ rudeness.
Janice wanted to stick her tongue out at Mr. Michaels, but kept her decorum. The mayor even allowed her an extra follow up question before he turned to Mr. Michaels.
She did stick her tongue out at his back, as she walked away. Margaret had lined up a few people from the various factions, and helped Janice through the groups.
The girls then left the city hall about ten after twelve. They stopped at a deli and ordered soup and salads for lunch. They talked while they ate.
“I couldn’t believe it, when that reporter pushed you aside Janice. I think you handled yourself well, except for your parting shot,” Margaret said.
“You did great too, setting up those people for me to talk to. I didn’t think about that. I am sure they would have left, if it wasn’t for you.”
“Vanessa and I got some good tape on all of it. We even got you sticking your tongue out at that Michaels’ bastard.” Anna commented.
“I couldn’t believe it, he comes in late and gets notes from an assistant and then he shoves me around.”
“Yeah he was such a turd. So what next poncho?” Vanessa said.
“Let’s get some footage from around the town, to illustrate the depth of the problem.”
“Sounds good,” they all agreed.
Margaret drove them around after they ate. It took a little while for them to find a place to park. They parked on one street and walked to a more major road and did several closing type comments.
Janice finally said her normal closing line, “And that is the way it happened.”
The girls were about to wrap it up, when an armored car drove in front of a bank across the street. Shots rang out and the girls followed the sound of the reports.
“Tell us what you see, Poncho, keep going.”
“This is Janice Davies, We were just taping a different segment, when we heard shots,” She said. There erupted more gunfire. “It appears we are on the scene of an armor car robbery.” She said crouching behind a car.
Vanessa and Anna kept their cameras rolling and Margaret ran and got the tripods. Janice kept taking glances and describing what she saw. They were about seventy-five feet from an apparent armor car robbery turned shoot out at the OK Corral, as two groups shot at each other.
The guards were shooting at the people shooting at them. The robbers appeared to be wearing bullet resistant body armor. The truck guards were soon joined by the bank’s guards.
Janice kept giving her crew a blow by blow account of the action. Anna kept her camera on Janice, with the action in the background, while hiding behind a tree. Vanessa was next to a building and getting area shots and close ups of the action, while giving directions and receiving updates over their radios. All in all the girls were as secure as they could be under the circumstance, except for Janice, who poked her head up occasionally to see what was going on.
It went on for at least five minutes, before Police began to arrive. More shots were fired, and there seemed to be no progress by either side. Streets were cordoned off, as the police set up a perimeter.
Janice could see that other news teams were slowly starting to arrive and set up. She giggled, as she saw where they were kept. It was only her team that had ringside seats. Every thing seemed to come to an end and Janice stood to give her closing remarks. A couple of more shots rang out and the windshield of the car, she had crouched behind, exploded in shards. Janice quickly ducked and after a final volley, a swat team assaulted the area.
Two people were cuffed, three others were down.
“Quick, give me your tapes and cards, I am going to try to sell them,” Margaret said. “Keep shooting and get some interviews, then take a cab to the TV station.”
Anna and Vanessa changed tape, cards and batteries, before returning to their shooting. Janice also changed batteries on all her mikes. Margaret took off.
**************
Margaret called Mr. Dawson on her cell phone and gave him a run down on where she was going and why. He told her that he would meet her. She then called her mom and kinda told her that they had some really hot film she wanted to try to sell and would need a lawyer at the TV station. She finally had to tell her they had some film of a robbery gone bad, that was sure to be hot news. She finally convinced her how good their film was. Madeline sounded angry, but said she would be there.
Margaret turned into the station lot and ran in the front door. She asked the receptionist for the news director. The lady looked at the kid like she had an extra hole in her head. Margaret raised her voice saying she had some hot footage of the armor car robbery that nobody else had. The station manager, Jack Williams, stuck his head out of his door, when he heard shouting and ran when he heard footage of the robbery.
Margaret explained to him what she said and where they had gotten the footage from the start of the robbery. He took her arm and ran to the edit room. “Fred,” he yelled, as they entered the edit room, “check out this girl’s video.” She handed him the cards and tape. Fred inserted the cards into their reader and slapped the tape into a VCR. He backtracked one and then the other until he had them synced. He then ran the videos.
It didn’t take Jack too long to realize how hot they were. He grabbed a phone and called the news director, “Sam get your ass in edit now. We got a freelancer of that armor car robbery from first shot till last…I don’t care If Dick is here, bring his ass too, this could go national.”
“Sorry ma’am. I am Jack Williams, station manager. Didn’t mean to offend you with my language.”
“That’s Ok, who is Sam and Dick?”
“Sam is Samuel Wilcox, our news director, Dick is Dick Reynolds, he is from the national news director’s office. These videos of yours are hot. Who are you with?” He said, eyeing the press pass on her belt.
“We are JD’s Productions at the local high school, we shot the morning council meeting and were doing some background shots when the robbery went down.”
“Any of you over eighteen,” he asked a little nervous.
“No, we are all sixteen.”
“Call all your parents quick, we need signed releases from all of you.”
Margaret called Vanessa’s home, Helen answered and Margaret quickly asked her to come to the news station. She explained how important it was.
Dick and Sam entered edit and Frank ran the tapes. Both men got real excited and made phone calls.
Margaret finally reached Angela at work. It took a lot of explaining to get her to leave work and come to the station. When she heard that the girls had been shot at, all Margaret heard was the phone hitting the floor, or the desk, it was hard to be certain.
Lastly she called Reggie. Reggie sounded worried, as she hung up.
*************
Janice led her crew to where the other news crews were interviewing local law enforcement. She tried repeatedly to get somebody’s attention. She just didn’t have the credentials the other’s had, or the recognition. That damn Michaels was hogging the Police Lieutenant.
Lt. Anderson knew who he could count on for favorable coverage.
Steve Michaels finally finished with the Lt. Anderson. Janice finally moved in to ask questions. He took one look at her press pass and took it from her and walked away, muttering something about those damn high school kids and their fake press passes.
Vanessa turned her head to where red-faced Janice was quietly expelling expletives. “Now, Now Janice, that is all going to tape. Things are a bust here, let’s head to the station.”
Just as she was ready to turn her camera off, Vanessa caught some action off to her side. Her camera might have caught part of it, she recorded another two minutes and then cut it off.
It took them a few minutes, but they caught a cab to the station.
*************
Madeline was the first to reach the station; she had brought one of her colleges, Carl Wright, who specialized in entertainment contracts, not knowing what to expect. She was also ready to tan her daughter’s hide and ground her till she turned thirty. She was followed by Mr. Dawson, Helen, Reggie and Angela.
A group formed around Margaret as she explained, what had happened and why she had called them. Mr. Dawson listened and then asked what they had gotten. Margaret tried to tell him, but she interrupted by someone calling Mr. Dawson.
“Abel Dawson is that you,” a voice said.
“Dick, what the hell are you doing in this neck of the woods? Are you slumming?” Abel said, turning towards his old friend.
Dick locked Abel up in a bear hug and said, “Nah, national sent me out to the bergs to bring the local news people up on some changes. There is still a slot for you if you ever want to come back.”
“Don’t think so, I am happy teaching.”
“Were these your kids that shot this stuff?”
“So I am told.”
“Ya’ll come over here and look at what we got,” Dick said.
A crowd formed around Frank and he ran both videos.
“Margaret Renée Bradford, is that my Armani suit and Prada shoes?” the crowd heard, and several people giggled.
Abel had a look of confusion and headed to where Mrs. Bradford was having a private chat with her daughter.
“I need to talk to you Margaret. Is that who I think it is?”
“Yes, Mr. Dawson.”
“Does Mr. Daniels know what is happening now?”
“Maybe a little.”
“Using what name?”
“Janice Davies.”
“Is Janice ready to be outed?”
Margaret just blanched.
“I didn’t think so. All of you will have to fill me in later,” he said and turned back to the video.
“Oh my gosh, he is right.” Madeline said, as she ran off to grab the other mothers for a huddle.
*************
Steve Michaels came into edit with his tape and saw what was running. “Damn that is good,” he said. “I can take that and do a voice over to heck with my footage.”
“Like hell you will. You sorry excuse for a human.” Margaret said. “That is our work product. Don’t even think about touching that video.”
Everybody there turned to see a scrawny five foot five inch girl, standing with her hands on her hips, inches away from Steve Michaels’ six foot two frame. The two were squared off for combat.
“You and your friends again. Why don’t you get out of my way and let a real newsman handle the story. You stupid B…” Bitch started to slip off his tongue, but he caught himself before he embarrassed himself too much. “We’ll pay you a few dollars for your tape girl.”
“Mr. Michaels, I am afraid the girl is right. I am Carl Wright. I represent,” Carl turned toward’s Margaret and saw her press pass and read off, “JD’s Productions.”
“Sorry Steve, the girl is too good for you to voice over her. We might just offer this Janice Davies your position, unless you apologize to that lady this second, and get your sorry ass out of here,” Jack Williams said.
“Excuse me young lady,” Steve said. His face was very red, a look of anger was displayed for all to see. He turned and stormed out of edit.
***************
Anna, Vanessa and Janice lugged all the equipment they had. The receptionist had been alerted to their arrival and pointed them down the hall. Janice, carrying the two tripods, was reaching for the door, when it slammed into her. She fell backwards, dropping the tripods, hitting her head on the floor knocking her unconscious.
Vanessa shouted at the retreating form, “You stupid son of a bitch, you could at least see who you knocked down and help them.”
“Vanessa get help, Janice is hurt,” Anna shouted, down on her knees beside her.
That brought a crowd out of the edit room. Jack paled visibly, when he saw the girl laying there on the floor, “Carmen call 9-1-1, Sam tell that SOB to pack his shit and have him escorted off the premises.”
Angela screamed when she saw Janice lying there unconscious. She ran over and knelt beside her crying, “Janice, Oh my god, be alright Baby, please be alright.”
Red faced, Madeline turned to Carl, “You get all the releases from the mothers, talk to that Dick guy and run him through the wringer. Make him cry. I am going to talk to the station manager and do the same.”
Carl licked his chops and hunted his quarry; it was going to be fun working with hurricane Madeline.
Madeline called, Candace Walker and gave her a heads up, and then hunted down the station manager, with a predatory expression on her face. One of her friends just got hurt. She truly looked like a lioness on the hunt.
Janice was unconscious for only a couple of minutes. She awoke with a blinding headache and tried to stand.
“No, Janice, just stay still. We have an ambulance coming, you are going to the hospital, young lady,” she heard her mother say.
Young lady? This confused John for a bit, but then he started to remember a little. Every thing happening around him was just a blur. He couldn’t remember where he was, or what he was doing; he just hurt. Somehow, he was transported to a white room, there were all sorts of people around and his clothes were being cut off. God he could breathe again. Next thing he remembered was being in a tunnel, or a coffin, he didn’t know what, he couldn’t move an inch. He just wanted to sleep, but people kept disturbing him and demanding his attention. He kept hearing Janice, and John, speak to us. Lights were flashed in his eyes.
The world slowly started to settle down and the fog slowly started to lift. He moved his eyes a bit and saw his mother, “Momma, what happened?” he squeaked.
Angela was startled to hear Janice, she jumped and said, “Janice.” She reached for the call button and pressed it.
John then realized that what ever happened; he was playing Janice, at the time. “Momma, what happened?”
“Janice, your back,” Angela said and pushed the call button. “We were so worried. You got hit by a door dear, at the TV station. You fell and hit your head; the doctors said you had a moderate concussion.”
A couple of doctors entered and began checking the figure. More lights were flashed in her eyes, her reflexes were checked and she was asked questions. After about twenty minutes, the doctors were pleased and quite satisfied with her condition.
“You gave us quite a scare. We were almost ready to send you to surgery. You were knocked down and hit your head on a marble floor. You suffered a moderate concussion, but we are upgrading your condition from poor to fair. We are going to keep you here for seventy-two hours.”
“But, we can’t afford that,” John said. “We don’t have that kind of money, Momma.”
“Don’t you worry about that Janice, the TV station is covering all of your bills. It was that reporter, Steve Michaels, that knocked you down.”
That name rang a bell with John, but he couldn’t remember why.
“It was the stations fault and they are covering your bills, and more. I am going to notify your friends that you are going to be ok. I’ll be back in a moment.” Angela kissed her child and left.
A minute or two later a woman with long blonde hair, in a white lab coat entered. She had a big smile on her face as she saw that Janice was awake and said. “Hi are you Janice?”
John looked at the bubbly lady, yes bubbly was the word and nodded a little. His head still throbbed a bit.
“Good, I got the right room the first time. I am proud of myself. Where’s your Mom?”
“She stepped out to tell my friends that I am ok.”
“Good, that makes me happy. I like patients who are going to be ok. I was suppose to see you Friday, but I got called in after you got hurt. I am Dr. Candace Walker, but if you don’t call me Candace, I won’t speak to you again,” she said giggling. “Not!!! But really, call me Candace, please.”
“Ok Candace Please,” John squeaked with an emphasis on please.
“I see you have a sense of humor to. How do you feel there?”
“Like, did you get the license number of the truck that hit me?”
“No, but we got the driver, he’s in hot water up to here,” Candace said indicated holding her hand way above her head. “Hurricane Madeline has got his ass screaming, along with the TV station.”
John managed a little giggle, Candace was a riot. He stated, “I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. They say Madeline can be a bitch, oops, sorry, she can be a hand full, they say.”
“NO problemo kiddo, you had it right the first time. We went to school together. We were sorority sisters.”
Angela came into the room and, saw a lady and her child laughing a little and, then she smiled.
“Good, you must be Angela Daniels. I am Dr. Candace Walker, but you better call me Candace, or I will have to spank you,” she said for Janice’s benefit.
Angela left skid marks on the floor, as she came to a stop. “Ok… ah… Candace.”
“Good you got it right the first time,” she giggled, “It’s not so hard to remember.”
Angela smiled, she liked this crazy lady. She had made her child laugh. “Ok, what can we do for you?”
“We are going to have a nice long talk, Janice and me, if that is ok?”
“Sure, It’s ok,” Angela said.
“I just want to sleep,” John said.
“Sorry, nope, no can do, Doctor’s orders, no sleep for you till waaaayyyyy later.”
John groaned, “Why, I am so tired?”
“No, no, no, Janice. You have had a head injury. The doctors want to keep you awake so they can better assess your condition, so it is either me girl, or one of those grumpy old nurses will sit on you, to keep you awake.”
“You want to talk about Janice, right?”
“Nope, we will get to her later, I want you more lucid for those talks. I just want to get to know you and keep you laughing and smiling.
I know, I’ve got a joke for you. There was this blond down in New Orleans. She was shopping at one of those exclusive malls and found this darling little alligator purse. She asked the man how much? He told her fifteen hundred. You’re kidding, she said. How about seven hundred? Nope ain’t no way the man said. Fifteen hundred, or get your own alligator. Well, she didn’t have fifteen hundred. She didn’t really have seven hundred. She just left the store, dejected. The man later was driving home and saw the women out in the middle of the bayou. A big old gator was making a track for her. The man yelled out, look out lady, there’s a gator after you. The gator got close and the woman pounced on the gator, she wrestled with him and threw him up on the shore, on top of five other gators. She stomped out of the water and looked at that gator and said, Damn, that gator ain’t got a purse either.”
John laughed so hard he hurt, that Candace belonged in a padded cell, not running around loose. He really liked her. The three of them talked for hours, about anything and nothing. Candace had a million blond jokes, each better or worse than the last, depending on how you saw them.
“Janice, I need to go, but you really do need to stay awake for two or three more hours, at least. The doctors will tell you when you can go to sleep.” She came over and, gave her patient and Angela a hug each. “See ya tamale girl. You might want to catch the ten o’clock news, you really made a splash, I am told. You outed yourself in a big way. Don’t worry though; while it may not be all good, it won’t be all bad either, you got lots of friends. If things go right, you may start seeing them tomorrow.” She waved and smiled, as she headed out the door.
Angela turned on the TV to their favorite programs at eight, but she had to keep Janice talking, to keep her awake. Janice was reluctant to talk, but did so, to make her Mom happy. She just couldn’t get into her favorite programs tonight.
At ten, the news came on.
“Our lead story tonight will come on second,” said the news anchor, “The people who shot that footage, also attended the city council meeting and turned in this report.”
The TV showed about three minutes of the council meeting and some of the short interviews that Janice had done. She was impressed at the way they had patched it together.
“This young lady, Janice Davies, that all of you have seen by now, is a high school student here. She is just sixteen, she was filming some closing remarks and recording some background for the story, when well, we will just let you see for your self.”
Janice was again on the screen, the camera paned left and right showing the congested parking along a downtown corridor. The camera came to a stop on Janice. She gave a closing line, ending with, “And that is the way it happened.” Three seconds later, gun shots could be heard, the camera panned to the source and Janice gave her running commentary. She was on screen ten minutes, with cuts to one camera or another. They showed a lot of the shootout, including the scene showing the car windshield exploding. Then some of the Michaels interviews with the police.
It was fifteen minutes before the first commercial break. While not unheard of in TV business, it was quite uncommon, since commercials paid the bills.
After the break, they went on to show the rest of the news, which overran their thirty-minute slot by minutes.
“Oh my gosh, everybody will know.”
“Maybe, maybe not. You were identified as Janice Davies, none of the other girls were seen.”
“I hope not, but my high school was identified. On top of that, everybody will want to know who that kid was, if I don’t miss my guess. That is news worthy itself.”
“I just hate that I had to share the story with that stupid Steve Michaels.”
“You know him honey.”
“Yea, he is one of the reporters for the local TV station. He pushed me around a couple of times that day, literally.”
“Ex, he is an ex-reporter to be accurate, Janice. He was the one that slammed the door into you at the TV station. The station manager fired him on the spot.”
“He deserved it.”
“Now Janice, I didn’t bring you up that way, even low life pond scum, like Michaels, deserves a chance.” Angela giggled.
“Why is everyone still calling me Janice? I am not dressed as her now.”
“Your name was given as Janice Davies, when you came in. The hospital staff knows who you really are. I saw no reason to correct that listing. Dr. Spencer and Dr. Allen, your GP, know you’re here under that name. Tomorrow, if you want, we can correct your appearance, or your name. Your choice.”
“I’ll think about it, Mom.”
It wasn’t till mid-night, that Janice was told she could go to sleep. The funny thing was, she didn’t feel like sleeping then. It took an hour for sleep to come, almost to be immediately disturbed by the vampire shift, wanting blood, another for blood pressure and temp. She went back to sleep only to be woke up by another nurse passing out her meds. At least they didn’t wake her to give her a sleeping pill, she thought
Janice was miserable when breakfast came and sorely wanted to bite the head off of the nurse that came in and woke her. She was much too cheerful, “Good morning Janice. How are we, today?”, but Janice restrained herself and gave a half smile saying, “I might be ok, if I could get some sleep. The doctors wouldn’t let me go to sleep till after midnight, almost as soon as I got to sleep, your vampires attacked and, someone woke me up for my BP and lastly I was woke up for meds shortly after that. Is there any rule against sleep in this place?”
“Of course there is, people come to the hospital to be miserable, not to sleep, didn’t you know that,” the nurse said giggling. “Seriously how are you feeling?”
“The back of my head still hurts a little, and I still have a headache, but not as bad as it was.”
“That is good, expect something for the pain shortly, the doctors will be in about nine to see you, and you have some more tests about ten-thirty. Some good news, you can have visitors after lunch. We have had a lot of requests from friends to see you. Buzz us if you need to get out of bed, you are not to get up, without someone there to help you.”
“Where is my Mom?”
“Angela went down to the cafeteria to eat and get some coffee.”
“Ok, thank you.”
“Your welcome sweetie.”
The nurse raised the head of the bed and Janice finally noticed that she still had her breast forms on, as their weight tugged on her chest. She hadn’t thought or felt like checking before. She felt herself and found nothing on below her gown top, or bottom.
She ate a little bit, even though she wasn’t all that hungry, but she did drink her milk, juice and coffee. Her Mom came in while she was eating.
“Hi mom.”
“Morning Janice, I didn’t think you would ever wake.”
“I didn’t think I would ever get any sleep. I think they woke me three times last night, I’m just not sure.”
“They are bad about that.”
“I have doctors at nine, a test at ten thirty and visitors after lunch.”
“Yep, they gave me the same run down. I am going home to clean up after the doctors are done and before the tests. I might get some rest also; those chairs are bad for sleeping in. I will be back some time after lunch. Reggie will be here while I am gone.”
“Anna too!”
“Not till after lunch.”
“Tell Anna to bring some clothes for Janice.”
“Ok, that answers my next question.”
“I believe I really want to become Janice this fall.”
“I thought that too.”
At five to nine, a parade of doctors came in, they poked and prodded her. It seemed that this was a teaching hospital; each student had to poke, prod and examined Janice. After several conferred together, they upgraded her condition to good. They still said she had to stay till Thursday, at the least.
Dr. Spencer came in and Janice told her what she wanted. She ordered some tests, and said she would talk to them about it tomorrow.
“Hi there sweetie,” Candace said, as she stuck her head in the door, “Feeling better yet?”
“I would feel better if they let me sleep. They kept me up till midnight and then they woke me several times. I wanted to clobber some of them, but I restrained myself.”
“Yeah, it can be rough sleeping with the hospital shifts. I see they came in for blood at one-thirty, then stats, followed by meds. How is the head, though?”
“The back of my head is sore, but my headache is gone now.”
“I see in the notes you told Dr. Spencer you want to go ahead with HRT and become a girl. Is that right?”
“Yes, I really feel that is right for me.”
“Well, let’s talk about that.”
Candace got Janice talking about it for forty minutes. She asked all sorts of questions, that Janice had a hard time answering. She wanted to know how she felt about this or that. Why Janice decided that this was right for her. Their talk was finally ended when some technicians came in to take her for her CT scan. Janice was unable to get the answer to a question she had.
A technician came in with a wheel chair and helped her get up and into the chair. She was wheeled into the imaging department and realized that she had been here the day before. She recognized the tunnel in her half dreams. They did the CT scan of her head. They said this was just to verify that there was no injury to the brain for them to be concerned about, and would provide a comparison to the CT scan she had received the day before.
She was then wheeled around the corner to another room and another tunnel. She was given a full body MRI. Dr. Spencer had requested this one specifically.
Janice was wheeled back to her room, just after twelve. Reggie was there waiting for her. Her room also looked like a florist had gone mad, or moved his whole operation to her room.
“Hi Janice. How are you doing?”
“Better than I was late yesterday. Where did all these flowers come from?” Janice asked, as she looked around the room.
“From your friends, families and the TV station,” Reggie said.
“You gave us a real big scare yesterday. I brought you a bag of clothes. Your Mom called me and asked me to bring them.”
“Good, it will be nice to get out of this hospital gown,” She said, “You know something Reggie, I have never received flowers before.”
“Well, get use to it girl. We’ll get you showered and into some clean clothes after lunch.”
Janice lay in her bed and a nurse brought her a tray. She and Reggie talked as she ate. Reggie filled her in on what happened at the station, after she was hurt.
“Everybody had been there, when Steve Michaels had stormed out and slammed the door into your face, Janice. The station manager fired Mr. Michaels for his gross negligence, and for his actions to Margaret. When we heard Vanessa and Anna scream, everybody hurried out. Your Mom almost had a stroke when she found you on the floor.
Madeline and another lawyer from her office really had a field day. They went after the station manager and an assistant from the national news director’s office. Your video went national, they don’t know how much you’ve earned yet, but it is going to be a small bundle.”
“I’ll need it to replace the suit they cut off me. They did cut that Armani suit off, didn’t they?”
“Yes they did, but you are not to worry about that. Madeline and another attorney will fill you in later today. Oh, Madeline said that you are not to talk about what happened, till after she speaks to you.”
“An attorney? I didn’t know I had an attorney.”
“You do now, and JD’s Productions has an attorney, also. Madeline is representing you against the station and a Carl Wright represents JD’s productions.”
“Oh God, more expenses, I don’t know if we will ever get all my expenses paid for?”
Reggie giggled as she heard Janice complain. “Don’t worry about it, Janice. Things will work out.”
After she ate, Reggie helped her to the bathroom. “You will have to use the shower chair for the next few days; they don’t want to take a chance that you will fall. It is either that, or sponge baths in bed.”
“I’ll take the shower chair.”
“We kind of thought you would.”
Reggie helped undress Janice and get her into the shower chair. She then sat on the toilet and they talked, as Janice showered.
“They left your breast forms on I see.”
“I was surprised by that too, but I am glad.”
“We’ll need to reapply them later today. I will get Anna to bring the adhesive.”
“So all this happened just because that Michaels fellow got pissed at not being able to use my video. I can’t believe how shallow he must be.”
“It surprised everyone, but seeing how much interest your video garnered, it is somewhat understandable. He probably hoped to use that to move up to a major market.”
Janice finished showering and Reggie wheeled her out. She then dried Janice off and went to work on her hair. Reggie combed it out and proceeded to blow dry and style it. She then helped Janice dress in her bra, panties, nightgown and a robe. Reggie then gave her a light makeup job.
Janice looked at her face in the mirror, “Thank you Reggie, at least I look better than I feel.”
“Your welcome dear. Let’s get you into bed. You should start having visitors soon.”
Janice got in bed and under the covers. She started going through the cards that came with the flowers. Reggie showed her arrangement after arrangement. There were some from the families of all three of her friends, Mr. Dawson, some from a Jack Williams, a Dick Reynolds, the local TV station and a very small arrangement of flowers from Steve Michaels.
“Ooohh, I can’t believe Mr. Michaels sent such a small arrangement of flowers. It would have been better if he just didn’t bother.”
“I think Madeline had something to do with that. She will be pissed that that is all he sent though.” Reggie said, as she arranged the flowers after showing them to Janice.
Mrs. Bradford and a well dressed gentleman, were the first to show up at about one fifteen.
“Hi Janice, how are you feeling?”
“Alive, I think. I’m not quite sure.”
“Well, you sure do look good.”
“Thank you Mrs. Bradford.”
“Your welcome, Janice. This young strapping man with me is Carl Wright, he is from our entertainment contract section. He will represent your group on any future commercial productions you do. With your approval that is.”
“Hello, Mr. Wright.”
“Please Janice; call me Carl, at least when we are in an informal setting.”
“I’ll just step outside for a bit and let you all talk,” Reggie said.
“Ok Carl,” Janice said, “Reggie said you wanted to talk to me Madeline.”
“Yes, we have some paperwork you need to sign. I will start with my paperwork. I have a settlement and a confidentiality agreement. I need to go over this agreement with you.”
“Ok, what settlement?”
Madeline set her briefcase on a table and pulled several sets of documents. “The TV station has agreed to pick up your hospital bills, Janice, and they are offering a hundred and twenty thousand in settlement, for your injuries. They are also replacing the damaged clothes and buying you three more suits too, along with a few other perks. They only ask that you say nothing, to anyone, about the cause of your injuries, or anything about the settlement. They want to protect their goodwill, you see if this got out it could hurt the station.”
“You have got to be kidding, a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Are you sure it’s not Yen,” Janice said, with a look of disbelief on her face.
“Nope, its dollars not Yen.”
“And you get your suit back and I get three more?”
“No, don’t worry about the one I gave you. You get four suits.”
“OK, where do I sign.”
Madeline showed her where to sign and asked, “Your legal name is J. D. Daniels. Sign that way here, here and here.”
“Next, here is a form to show that your business name is Janice Davies. A lot of people do that, especially entertainers, and News people. It will be like your Nome de plume. Sign these forms, here as J. D. Daniels and here as Janice Davies. Now it is Carl’s turn.”
“Ok Ms. Davies, I need you to sign an article of incorporation. That just makes JD’s Production a legal corporation, and you are its president.”
“Me president, I think Vanessa would be a better choice.”
“They voted you president. You’re stuck with the title. You hold a forty percent share, and the rest took a twenty percent share.”
“No, they do all the hard work; they just make me look good. It needs to be a straight four way split.”
“Again, the girls said take it, or leave it, but that is the way they want it. You’ll have to talk it over with them, at your first board meeting. Sign here as J. D. Daniels and here as Janice Davies.”
“Ok, what next.”
“Sign this release for the station. Your Mom has already signed, now you must sign as Janice Davies. Now here is your agreement with me. The law firm gets ten percent of the gross revenue for representing you. We will represent JD’s Productions in all legal matters.”
“That can’t be that much,” Janice said, as she signed.
“Ok, Now that I am officially your attorney of record, I can tell you. The local TV station paid JD’s Productions, ten thousand dollars for forty-eight hours of use, of your video and they have a right to replay it anytime they want, for a fee. The national news department paid a hundred and fifty thousand, for the same forty-eight hours rights and rights of future use, for a fee. There were also requests from fifty-eight stations, we haven’t figured out what the gross from that was, but it should be between four hundred and five hundred thousand dollars, depending on market size of each station. We have an accountant working on those figures right now.”
“You mean JD’s Productions has earned over five hundred thousand dollars on that video.”
“Yes, that doesn’t include the crime show people, who have contacted us about using your film in a documentary of the robbery. That is under negotiation right now. I couldn’t begin talks till I had your signature. Also, they wouldn’t air for at least six months or more. I want to emphasis though you now have expenses to pay for. So the four of you will net between three and four hundred thousand, before taxes. You’ll personally net about a hundred and fifteen, after taxes, if you vote to disburse it all, but we will talk about that later.”
“You have got to be kidding, me earn a hundred and fifteen thousand.”
“It’s no joke, Ms. Daniels. Mrs. Bradford told me to make them cry and I did, they will cry all the way to the bank though. Expect more money to come in also, the rest of the majors picked up on your video today. There is even a request for an interview; that will bring in more from one of the majors networks. I had to tell them you were indisposed, due to an accident, but before the week is out, expect to be on TV again. I must say, we will earn our ten percent this week.”
“Do the girls know about all of this?”
“They don’t know the totals, because we don’t know the totals yet. They just know that it will be a chunk of change.”
“Let me tell them, please.”
“Sure, no problem, we have to get back to the office.”
“Oh and, I want to thank you Janice,” Madeline said. “After I dealt with the local station, I picked them up as a client for our firm. I didn’t take my share from your settlement, to avoid conflicts of interest. I negotiated with your mother for the TV stations benefit. We got to go, dear. Remember dear, no talking about the settlement to anyone, not even the girls,” Madeline said, giving Janice a good hug.
Reggie came back in, as they left the room.
“Well, did it all work out?”
“It was more money than I ever dreamed about, Reggie.”
“The girls will be here in a few minutes, they were told to wait till Madeline and Carl left.”
“Janice!!!” They heard from multiple voices, as the door opened again, admitting her friends.
They swarmed over Janice, hugging their friend. She hugged back and began to cry.
“It’s so good to see all of you. I have some good news for each of you.”
“First us,” Margaret said, wheeling a case over to Janice. “Mom said to give you this, It is from the station.” She opened the case and pulled out a laptop. “It has everything my laptop has and more. We downloaded all the video we collected on it. It’s yours. Also, this camera, it is like the one Vanessa used, but with a few more bells and whistles.”
Madeline set up the laptop on the patients table and rolled it over to Janice. “It has a few games on it if you get bored too. The batteries in the camera are charged and five memory cards are loaded in it. Mom said to say it is part of your perks, whatever that means.”
“I can’t say either, confidentiality agreement.”
“We know, we all had to sign one. We didn’t hesitate in doing it for you.”
“Thank you guys. I love all of you.”
“We love you too,” Vanessa said.
“Ok, it is your turn,” Anna said.
“Well, I am not sure how much we have earned, but you guys get at least ten thousand and some change,” Janice said.
The room was filled with squeals of joy, as the three girls were bouncing off the walls. A Nurse actually came in and admonished the girls to be quieter. Vanessa looked at Janice’s sly grin and asked, “How much change Poncho, you’re hiding something,”
“Oh, I guess I did understate that a bit, for effect you know. Actually, the figure could be as high as say ah… eighty thousand or more before taxes, they just aren’t sure.”
The room was filled with dead silence, as the girls just stared at Janice.
“You’re kidding, right Poncho.”
“Nope, the accountants haven’t figured it out yet, and we will have to pay for all our expense, but that should be about right.”
“My god, I can go to college, we can all go to college together,” Vanessa said. “I never thought I would get the money to go.”
“I wonder if we can leave the money in the corporation, avoid paying income tax. Maybe we could let the corporation send us to college, writing the cost off as an education expense,” Janice said.
“You girls have a lawyer now, ask him. I think that is an excellent idea though.”
“Yeah, but let’s each take out ten percent each to spend on ourselves and then let the rest be invested,” Anna added.
“It’s your money, but I think that is ok too,” Reggie said.
“Ok, who is the secretary, of our corporation?” Janice asked.
“I am,” Margaret said. “Vanessa and Anna are Vice-presidents.”
“Well write it down, this can be our first official meeting.”
“I’ll do it on my computer, the girls will remind me. We have got to learn about this corporation stuff. I am sure Mom will help us understand.”
“Carl Wright is our attorney, Margaret, talk to him.”
“Yeah, Mom told us about that too, but I can ask her general questions.”
“So, when are they going to spring you from this joint, Janice?” Margaret asked.
“Two more days at least, I had quite a concussion.”
“Well, we will come see you each day, till you are ready to leave.”
“I appreciate that, I really do.”
The girls sat around and talked for several hours, till a nurse ran them out at dinner time. Janice was a little hungrier this time, than she had been all day.
She watched the six o’clock news, at least she wasn’t on it, she thought.
Her Mom showed back up at seven, they talked about what had happened. She had a hard time believing that their video actually could make enough to send all four kids to college. Janice went over the figures that Carl had given her and what they had decided to do with the money.
“If you decide to change this fall, you will need a lot of money to pay for clothes and things.”
“I am thinking I might change sooner. All the kids at school will have seen that video. I am not talking about wearing skirts and dresses to school starting Monday. I want to buy girls clothing, John’s clothing never really fit anyway. My pants were tight at the hips and loose at the waist. I wore baggy shirts and sweatshirts to cover up the bumps on my chest. Even men’s narrow shoes didn’t fit right. I just want to get some clothes that fit, girls jeans, shoes, T’s and sweaters. Like the girls wear a lot. I can’t live this down, so I might as well live with it.”
“We could move, but I don’t know if that would do any good. Your face has been all over the news.”
“Yeah I know, the cat is out of the bag. I think this is the place I will make my stand.”
“We’ll make our stand Janice; I will be with you on this.”
Mother and daughter hugged each other tightly.
*************
The next day, Janice felt a lot better and smiled when the nurse brought breakfast in.
“Morning sweetie, you look like you are feeling a lot better.”
Janice smiled at the lady and said, “The vampires didn’t visit last night and my head doesn’t hurt today.”
“We hung a garlic wreath on your door last night. You will have doctors visit you at nine and there are some more tests that Dr. Spencer requested. Nothing major, you seem to be doing very well.”
“That is good to know.”
“Ok sweetie, have a good breakfast,” the Nurse said, as she left.
Janice watched the morning news as she ate. That Lt. that took her press pass and two other officers were been suspended, pending an investigation into the death of one of the Armor Car robbers. One person reported seeing the head of the deceased robber smashed into the top of the patrol vehicle, as he was being loaded into it, by one of the escorting officers. The prisoner suffered a severe injury to the head, which he later died from. She didn’t know how she felt about that. She didn’t like the man, but she didn’t feel right about the situation.
The doctors came in and pronounced her fit to be released tomorrow, that is till Dr. Spencer came in. She said she wanted to start Janice on an estrogen and considering what happened when she had received an androgen, she wanted Janice to stay another day. She would start her this afternoon on a patch and a shot. If all went well, in a week she would slowly build up the dose till she had normal levels for a teenage girl.
Dr. Spencer also said that her growth plates in her spine and her long bones were still active and she could expect to grow a couple of inches, but not much more than that, over the next two years. That was sort of good news, five-foot six would be short, but not overly so.
She also said that a surgeon would also be by later today. If Janice and her Mom approved, he would perform an orchiectomy tomorrow morning, because her testicles had atrophied and could present future health problems if she kept them. He would also perform a tuck operation that would give her a more normal feminine appearance.
Janice still couldn’t get SRS without approval from Psych, but Dr. Walker said she would probably approve when Janice turned eighteen, if she stuck with her sessions with the Dr. Walker that is. She couldn’t get the surgery done before that anyway.
“We are doing all this while you’re here, because we realize that your life is about to get complicated. It is outside the norm, we hope you understand.”
“Yes we do Dr. Spencer,” Angela said, “And we appreciate it, very much.”
Some time after Dr. Spencer left, two more Doctor’s came in.
“Janice Daniels?” one asked.
“Yes, I am Janice.”
“Good, I am Dr. Jason Godwin and this is Dr. Wilbur Bailey. Did Dr. Spencer tell you about the surgery she wanted done.”
“Yes she did, she was just here about twenty minutes ago.”
“Good, what we have planned is two fold. First: we plan to remove the non-functioning testicles, an orchiectomy, if you will, and secondly, to perform a tuck procedure to present a more feminine genital region, Right?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Good, we are on the same page. The first is necessary to prevent problems farther down the road. Atrophied, non-functioning, testicles present a higher incidence of cancer. The second part of our procedure is just aesthetic; you seem to be presenting yourself as a female, this will complete that illusion there. We will use a local anesthetic, you’ll be conscious during the procedure; everything should take less than an hour. Dr. Bailey will be in charge of anesthetics. It is a relatively minor procedure, but given your history we are taking precautions. Eat nothing after seven and drink nothing after midnight. You will be prepped at five and we will begin at five forty five. Any questions.”
“No.”
“Good we will see you tomorrow,” Dr. Godwin said, and then the two men left.
“Gee, that was something else,” Janice said.
“Those guys were incredibly focused and succinct.”
They were left to themselves till ten-thirty, when the vampires returned. Janice was afraid they were going to bleed her dry, as they drew tube, after tube, of blood.
“Dang it, leave me a little blood please,” Janice said, giggling.
“No can do, we have to get it all,” the technician said, laughing.
Reggie showed up at eleven and Angela left to go home. Janice started up her laptop for the first time. The girls had apparently done the startup work on the computer and it went straight to desktop. The desktop was a picture of her in Anna’s gown. It was the first time she had seen it.
“When did you get this picture in?”
“We got the pictures and a cd, with all of the pictures on it, yesterday. The girls already had your laptop and loaded all of the video into it that you guys took on Monday.”
“I can’t believe how great I look.”
“You look very lovely in that getup, Janice.”
There were several folders left prominently on the desktop. One labeled pictures, one labeled Nessa, one Anna, and another Margaret audio. There was also the editing software, a complete office suite and publishing software.
After checking out all the pictures they had taken at Reggie’s home, Janice clicked on Nessa and saw seven folders for cards 1 through 7. She clicked on card one, the editing software opened and the video loaded. She just fast -forwarded through the cards, till she got to the shootout. Reggie hadn’t seen all the video yet, so she watched too. Janice was amazed at the resolution of the video, as she watched. She couldn’t believe how calm she appeared to be. She knew it was Vanessa’s calm voice, that kept them all operating and not thinking about what was happening around them.
From the time stamps she saw it was forty-two minutes 38 seconds of video, from the first shot till the shooting stopped. Janice remembered that it was at that time that Margaret took all the recording media and headed off to the TV station. The next card had not been seen by anybody yet, a note said. That was from the aftermath at the scene and Janice trying to get interviews. She got pissed again, as she saw that arrogant police Lt. take her ID all over again.
“That man pissed me off, Reggie. He treated me like a little kid.”
“Madeline said she is going to talk to the police chief about it.”
They could see Vanessa wander off after that and they got some idea about what the total scene looked like. They could see shell casings everywhere and a couple of bleeding bodies. Janice nearly lost her breakfast, but she kept watching. Then she saw the Lt. and two cops escorting a prisoner. They saw one of the cops hop, the prisoner’s head go backwards and then forwards into the roof of the patrol car.
“Oh my, we got the incident with the prisoner on video too.”
“I heard about that, those three officers are currently suspended pending an investigation.”
“Yep,” Janice noted the time stamp and replayed the scene in slow motion. She zoomed into the scene and replayed it frame by frame. She stopped and counted the hands that she could see in each frame. The Lt. wasn’t close enough to have done it. The officer on the left, had his foot stomped on by the prisoner, and didn’t have his hands on the prisoner. The officer on the right; had one hand on the chain, between the cuffs, and the other hand was free. “That prisoner bashed his own head into the car, Reggie.” She played the scene over and over again.
“So they are innocent of the charges.”
“Call Madeline and see if she can get the Chief and Lt. Anderson here. You can tell her why, but ask her not to let on to the police.”
After lunch, some nurses and techs began wheeling monitoring equipment into the room. Reggie and Janice just looked at each other. A technician began hooking Janice up to everything. Dr Spencer came in around the corner, with the allergist she had seen last year, at the hospital.
“Hi Janice,” Dr. Spencer said, “This is Dr. Black; he was the allergist who helped me save you last year. We are hooking you up to all this equipment. We have a cardiac, blood pressure and oxygen monitor and a crash cart here. You’ll be on the monitors till later tonight. If you need to get out of bed call a nurse. We wanted to be ready for problems this time.”
“This is an Epi-Pen I want you to carry it around with you, till we are certain you are not going to react adversely to the hormones. This one is just a sample, you just pop the cap and then use it like this,” Dr. Black said, demonstrating. “You are to use it if you feel like you are having an allergic reaction, then get to a hospital fast. Use it only if you are sure.”
“Now, we are going to give you an estrogen shot and a patch to wear. We are starting with small doses and will slowly raise them,” Dr. Spencer said.
A nurse peeled a patch and put it on her belly, and then gave her a shot in the rump.
Dr.’s Spencer and Black sat down and talked about Janice’s news stories. Janice told them how she came to become such a celebrity and some of what has happened since. After forty minutes, the Dr.’s made their excuses and left.
The girls arrived about two, carrying shopping bags. They were taken aback a bit by all the equipment, but Reggie calmed all their fears. They were elated to hear that Janice had started on her female hormones. They then showed her what they got her. She held up some bras, panties, pantyhose, another nightie, a royal blue, cashmere, turtleneck sweater, a pair of black polyester/rayon twill slacks and a pair of black sandals with a two inch heel.
“I thought you said I had to wear skirts?”
“I think we said you had to wear skirts, till you were convinced you are a girl. We don’t think that is a problem now,” Anna said. “We think you are a girl at heart now.”
“I have already decided to wear different clothes to school, Monday. Clothes much like these. I tried to hide the changes my body has been going through, but no more. I am not going totally feminine to school, but I won’t be wearing my breast-forms. I won’t be hiding my little boobs, under baggy clothes either.”
“Wear that small gel bra, inside a regular bra,” Margaret suggested.
“I don’t know.”
“It’s either that, or a regular thirty-two A bra,” Anna said. “Or your nipples will show through that sweater anyway, that way you won’t look like a little girl at least.”
“I will take it under advisement; I have four days to decide. I think we ought to give Mr. Dawson a heads up though.”
“He already knows about Janice, he was at the station,” Margaret said.
“Oh my,”
“He is cool with it, he won’t be a problem.”
Janice then told them about her having to stay another day, and her minor surgery scheduled for tomorrow. They talked about her plans to wear clothes like this to school starting Monday. Anna suggested that Janice wear her hair loose and straight. Margaret apologized for not thinking before reacting, and for exposing her friend like that. Janice eased her feelings and said that it had all been for the best.
“Oh and thank you all for all the work you did on my laptop. I love the desktop picture, but I am going to change it to the one with all of us on it. You are my buds after all.”
“You’re welcome, it is always fun playing with a new computer, getting it setup and all,” Margaret said. “That one is nicer than my own.”
“Well all of you can use it, that goes for the camera too.”
About four, Madeline came into the room. “Hi girls.”
“Hi Mom,” Margaret said. “Hi Madaline,” the girls said.
“Well, the Chief and Lt. Anderson will be here in half an hour, Janice. I had to twist their arms a bit, but I enjoyed doing it. I threatened to sue them for violation of your first amendment rights.”
“What is this about, your press pass?” Vanessa asked.
“Sorta, it’s about what you recorded after that idiot took my press pass.”
“We haven’t looked at that yet. What did you see?” Margaret asked.
“Enough to clear those bozo’s of brutality.”
“You mean those cops that are suspended.”
“Yep,” Janice said, as she pulled up the video she had sorted out and played it for her friends.
“I think they should give you a medal for this Janice. You could have just wiped it out and their lives would be in the shitter,” Madeline said.
“I couldn’t do that; I would be as bad as they are, if I did that. I would be worse, for that matter.”
The girls replayed the video several times, with Janice pointing out what she saw.
Twenty minutes later, two men entered. One wore a uniform, the other Janice recognized as Lt. Anderson.
“Mrs. Bradford, we are here as requested. Now what do you want?” the chief asked.
“Well hello, Chief O’Connor, Lt. Anderson, it is nice seeing you too. I see neither of you are much for civility.”
“Sorry Ma’am,” the chief said, a little stiffly, “I just don’t appreciate being threatened.”
“Well, you wouldn’t have been here, if Lt. Anderson had used a little courtesy. Let me introduce you. This lady is Reggie Givens, her daughter is Anna, there. This is Vanessa Sebring, my daughter Margaret and Janice Davies. Girls, this is Chief Robert O’Connor and Lt. Leroy Anderson.”
The Chief and Lt. nodded as each person was introduced.
“Sorry Ma’am, I didn’t mean to be uncourteous. Now what is this all about.”
“Always to the point Chief. Alright, we want several things and, then we will forget about all this. First, we want an apology from the department and Lt. Anderson. Secondly, we want Janice’s press pass back, it is a legitimate press pass. Thirdly, we want your word that these girls will be treated as respected members of the press, after all, they have been widely published now.”
“Done, the department will send you a formal apology, your pass will be returned and my officers instructed. Lt, you are already in enough hot water, your turn.”
The Lt. turned to Mrs. Bradford and said, “Sorry Ma’am it won’t happen again.”
“Not to me, you Idiot, to her,” Madeline said pointing to Janice.
“To that kid, she had no business being there.”
“Lt. if you value your job, if you are cleared in the other matter, you better make it so,” the Chief said.
“Sorry for the trouble,” Lt. Anderson said.
“Well, that was pitiful, but I will accept it,” Janice said. “If I was as sorry as you were, I would let you take the fall for brutality, but I am not. I have something to show you.”
Janice turned her laptop towards the crowd and Margaret started up the video up.
“Lt. you and your officers are innocent of brutality, here is some video Vanessa shot.”
The two officers watched the video carefully, Margaret ran it frame by frame, so they could see that the prisoner had hurt himself. There was silence, through the third viewing.
“I am really sorry Ma’am, if I could take back what I said or did, I would. I don’t blame you, if you hate me, but those other two officers are really good people. I know they will appreciate what you have done,” Lt. Anderson said.
“That’s ok, we will burn you a DVD, it is all time stamped down to one one hundredth a second and Vanessa can authenticate its veracity.”
Margaret dug into the computer case and pulled out a DVDR and began to copy the video to disk. She verified that the file transferred properly and put the DVD into a hard case for the Police.
“Why are you in the hospital, if I may ask?” Lt. Anderson asked.
“I fell and hit my head. I received a moderate concussion; they are keeping me here for a few days.”
“Well, I really do wish the best for you ma’am and thank you.”
The two police officers took the proffered DVD and left, after saying good bye.
“I think you might be changing his mind about things, Janice,” Madeline said.
“I don’t think I care about his mind right now,” Janice said. “It would be nice to have some friends in law enforcement, considering my situation. I just don’t want to make enemies in the department, so this is good.”
“You’re right Janice, I would bet he knows all about John Daniels. I know I would, if I were in his shoes.”
“I know, I would too.”
“Well, you kids have fun. I will see you later Margaret, don’t be too late.”
“I won’t be Mom.”
At about six, some nurses came in and began removing equipment from the room and unhooking Janice. They brought in her dinner tray and shooed the girls away. Janice’s Mom called and said she was on her way.
“Reggie, I want to change into the clothes the girls got me, can you make me look great.”
“Sure baby, let’s do it.”
Janice showered quickly with Reggie’s assistance. She dressed in her underwear and into the sweater and slacks. The clothes felt incredible and really clung to her figure. The slacks were low rise and fit well across her backsides and her hips. She really needed the heels to keep the bottoms off the floor.
“Wow, these clothes look and feel so incredible.”
“They are high quality clothes too, I checked the labels earlier. I suspect Anna and Margaret were the ones that selected those clothes.”
“Well I just love them.”
Reggie worked on her hair, she then took Janice’s makeup and began doing a glamour look on her face. A nurse came in and seeing the empty bed, did a double take, as she looked at the two ladies.
“You’re my patient right,” she said, pointing at Janice.
“Yes, my Mom is coming back, after getting some sleep and cleaning up. I wanted to look good for her; you know to boost her spirits.”
“Just keep away from my Cardiac patients, I don’t want a ward full of heart attacks, girl. You look great. I just need to check your temp and BP.”
“Thank you, all of the nurses have been so wonderful to me.”
The nurse took her stats and said. “It’s ok for you to be up and about sweetie, as long as someone is with you. I know how boring it can be laying in bed all day. You just need to be back in bed by eight, no eating beginning now and no drinking after midnight.”
“I will be a good patient ma’am.”
“You already have been, the nurses and staff here really like you and your friends.”
***************
Angela came in and just stared at Janice. “Stand up and let me look at you Janice. Oh my, you look good.”
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too Janice.”
They sat and talked about their days with Angela. She was a little miffed with Janice for not calling her about her Police interaction, but was glad for the rest that she got.
“I am sorry Mom, I know this has all been so hard on you.”
“That’s ok, I just worry about you, that’s all.”
“I know, I am sorry.”
“Don’t be, mothers are supposed to worry.”
At eight, Reggie left and Janice got ready for bed. She took off her breast-forms, and put on her nightshirt. A nurse came in to check on her and she went to sleep. She was awaken at midnight, given some pills and went back to sleep.
At five o’clock a nurse came in and woke her. She checked her genital area for hair and shaved off a couple of hairs. She then had her change into hospital greens and gave her a shot.
At five thirty she was moved to a gurney and taken to surgery. In surgery she was transferred to an exam type table, with her feet placed in stirrups. She felt her genital area being cleansed and a needle being stuck in, in several areas down there. In no time at all it seemed she was transferred back to the gurney and wheeled back to her room. She was a little spacey, but she felt ok.
A nurse told her, “Everything went fine in surgery. You’ll be a little sore down there later, buzz us if you experience any pain. You have five stitches, don’t get up till after one, buzz us for assistance if you have to go to the restroom. We will teach you how to take care of yourself down there, then. If every thing is ok, you’ll be able to go home tomorrow by lunch.”
Janice went to sleep for a couple of hours. She was awakened by her bladder. She saw her Mom and asked for her help to go to the rest room. She buzzed the nurse, who came and removed the dressing and helped her to stand and walk to the bathroom. After she relieved herself, the nurse taught her how to clean herself after using the restroom. The nurse also gave her some antiseptic cream for the area and a panty liner, to go into the pair of panties she was handed.
“Just take care of the stitches, you’ll need to see the doctor next Wednesday, but the stitches will dissolve and fall off in about ten days. Keep yourself dry down there and use that antiseptic cream. The panty liner is just to keep all that mess and what little blood might seep, from ruining your panties. Use them for at least a week.”
“Ok, thank you.”
“No problem dear. You can get out of bed later today and walk around. Just be careful and don’t pop your stitches. Tomorrow wear a spandex panty, to give yourself support down there.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Janice had slept through breakfast, but the nurses brought her a snack to hold her over till lunch. Janice showed her Mom the video that she had given to the police.
“You mean, that if you hadn’t shot that video, then those officers might have been tried for the death of that prisoner?”
“They might have been, depending on what other evidence they collected, showed. This video trumps everything else, It clearly shows that they were innocent.”
After lunch, two ladies came into the room carrying several suit bags.
“Hi, are you Janice Davies?”
“Yes Ma’am,”
“Good, I am Monica Reyes and this is Sharon Novack, I run Monica’s Boutique and Sharon is my seamstress. I was told to fit you in some suits. I have brought eight of my best suits. I loved you in that Armani you wore on TV. I have two Armani’s, three DKNY’s and three Versace suits. Your friends told me your sizes, and I know that, that was Madeline’s suit you wore on TV, so we should be close to your size.”
“I don’t have all my underthings I wore. I am afraid my waist is a little larger than I want it to be, for the suits,” Janice said.
“Don’t worry dear, I was told about the corset, I brought one that is closer to what you should really wear. I want you to have one suit now, to wear home and you can come in and be fitted later for the other three suits.”
“Ok, sounds like fun. Let’s do it.”
Monica pulled the curtain around the bed and helped Janice undress, she wrapped the new corset around her, fastened it and began lacing it down. She measured the waist every now and then, again tightening it till the waist was down to twenty-four inches. Janice found that this corset wasn’t as tight in the chest, but was really tight round the waist. They then helped her with some stockings, fastening them to garters that hung from the corset. Her measurements were now 34-24-34. Janice stepped into her heels and then she tried on one suit after another. She liked all the suits and they did fit her. She decided on the burgundy Armani suit and the navy DKNY. Angela thought she had made an excellent choice.
“I would like to wear that Armani home, The DKNY’s skirt is a little long but I want it too.”
“Ok, put the DKNY back on and Sharon will alter it. How short do you want it.”
“About two inches above the knee,” she asked, looking at her mother.
Angela nodded her approval, and Sharon began marking the skirt. She then had Janice put the jacket on and began fitting it too.
“You have a nice figure, no sense hiding it behind loose fitting clothes, girl. Come to the boutique after you leave the hospital and I will fit the Armani to you. I agree it looks the best on you. The skirts are a little loose at the hips, but that will give you room to grow a couple of inches there. You can let your waist grow to twenty -five inches, after that you will need a new skirt. Your jacket will fit in your bust and waist. Your sleeves are a bit long; you look like you still have some growth in you.”
“The doctor said I might grow another two inches taller.”
“We will see what that does to your arms. If you grow two more inches taller, your arms should grow about thirty-eight percent of that longer, so that would be about three quarters of an inch to an inch. That would still be ok. I don’t think you’ll outgrow these suits,” Sharon said.
After Janice got the suit off, Monica went to unlace her.
“No, please leave me in it; I need to get my waist down.”
“Ok, it will be uncomfortable, but the customer is always right.” Instead, she helped Janice take the stockings off and helped her into her nightshirt.
“Thank you for every thing Monica and Sharon.”
“Your welcome.”
Angela hung up Janice’s suit, “You know, that is a really nice suit. It probably cost more than my whole wardrobe.”
“I will buy you some nice things, Mom. I know how hard you pinched pennies, to make a go for us.”
“That is your money dear, use it to take care of your college.”
“Hush Mom, I won’t hear of it. You’ve taken good care of me, I am going to help you too. End of discussion.”
“But….”
“Now don’t ‘but me.’ Mom,” Janice said and, then she started giggling like she was crazy.
“What is so funny.”
“You… Me, all of this, especially when I told you to stop butting me. You’ve said it to me a hundred times and now I have become my Mom,” she said, continuing to giggle.
Angela stopped and thought a few seconds and broke out in giggles herself, “You’re right, like mother, like daughter, I guess. Alright, you can buy me some things, but don’t go crazy girl.”
“I won’t Mom, but I do love you.”
“I love you too and I just want what is best for you.”
“I know, you never have to tell me that. Your actions speak louder than your words,” Janice said, hugging her Mom.
About four thirty, Mr. Dawson came to her room.
“Hi Mr. Dawson,” Janice said.
“John… I mean Janice.”
“Yep that is me.”
“Uh hello, I just wanted to drop by.”
“We are glad you did Mr. Dawson,” Angela said.
“Please call me Abel, Ma’am. That is you Mrs. Daniels, Janice, you still call me Mr. Dawson.”
“Then you must call me Angela.”
“Ok, uh Angela. I just came by to see how my student was doing. How are you?”
“I am doing better than I was, but I am not so sure about school.”
“I can understand that. This isn’t uh… something that is going … uh … away is it.”
“No Mr. Dawson, I am just not going to hide what my body has been doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mr. Dawson, I have been hiding behind my clothes at school. This is how my body is developing and I have no way to go back to what I was. I am becoming more like a girl everyday, my friends just showed me how much.”
“So you are going to come to school like this?”
“Yes, I can’t hide it anymore. Besides, all the kids at school aren’t dumb. I am sure a lot of them have already recognized me on TV.”
“Yes, I have already received a couple of dozen calls already. The principle even put it together. So what are you going to do?”
“I am going to come to school dressed in pants and a blouse. Nothing overly feminine, but people will be able to see for them selves.”
“I know you always wore baggy, ill fitting clothes. How did this all happen?”
“You remember when I got sick.”
“Last year, right.”?”
“Yes, well my doctor tried to jump start my puberty. She gave me a shot of androgens, male hormones. I had an allergic reaction to the drugs and had to be hospitalized. I then had an immunological reaction that attacked my ability to produce testosterone. Without that, I have been becoming more feminine. I have even started growing breasts. Mr. Dawson, my choices were to become more like a girl or to be stuck somewhere in between. I guess I kind of chose being a girl.”
“You and your friends are my best students, Janice. The best I have ever had. If you need any help and I mean that, any help at all, just call me. I will try to get the ball rolling, I guess. There may be problems, but you have a lot of friends at school, please don’t consider leaving, till you at least give it a try.”
“I will try to get along; Mrs. Bradford is suppose to help with the legal logistics.”
“I have heard rumors that she is good. Real good. So how is the head?”
“It’s going to be alright. I had a moderate concussion, but they are letting me go tomorrow.”
“It’s a good thing that that head is so hard. The TV station is complaining about a cracked floor, I hear.”
“Well tell them to send the bill to that Mr. Michaels, but I hear he is looking for a new job.”
“Funny, that is what I hear too. Oh let me tell you, just get your group to edit that video yourself and turn it in. I’ll guarantee, all of you an A. JD’s Productions really impressed me. You tell your friends that. So what kind of money did ya’ll make?”
“More than I ever expected. I don’t have a dollar amount yet, but the four of us can go to college on it. Let’s just say I am going to spend about ten grand on me and my mother.”
“I kind of thought it was that much. How many markets did you hit?”
“About sixty local markets, but that is before it spread to the other networks. So I guess we might hit a hundred or two.”
“You’ll have reached about a hundred million people then, or there abouts.”
“Our attorney is consulting with several crime shows, to use our footage.”
“It may not be as hot as the Zapruder film was, but you’ll make more money off of it.”
“Zapruder film?”
“Before your time girl. Abraham Zapruder shot the most detailed film of the assassination of John Kennedy. There were others that had some shots, but Zapruder had the best. Like your video, there were others who got some shots, but your’s was definitely the best. You had shot it from the start, you were the closest and you had the best angle.”
“Well, let me burn you a DVD of all of our footage. I have it on my new laptop.”
“New laptop?”
“Yeah, it was sort of a present. I can’t really talk about it.”
“Oh, that kind of present. Then I won’t ask what the station settled for.”
“What station?”
“Yeah right. You have it here?”
“Yes, sit and watch it, while I record it.”
Janice set up the burn and then ran the video for Mr. Dawson. Mr. Dawson fast forwarded some sections and slow motioned others.
“I have already seen a lot of this before, I still can’t believe how calm you looked.”
“I was so scared, my knees were knocking, can’t you hear them? Vanessa kept us going. They are my heroes.”
“You did an excellent job, your commentary brought all their work together. You tell great stories kid. Don’t get me wrong, the girls did a great job, all of them. Almost anybody can be taught to shoot good video, telling a good story is an art that either you have, or you don’t have. You have it.”
“Vanessa is good at directing and editing, I can see her making it in a News Room, putting the news together. Anna at shooting and makeup, she will be good anywhere behind a camera. Margaret has a flair for editing, sound and control. She’ll be a good producer. You were made to be in front of the camera. You have an excellent team. Thinking about it, you might actually have a better shot at it now, rather than as a boy.”
“You would put Margaret above Vanessa?”
“Yes I would. She lets Vanessa have her head, but Margaret is as sharp as a tack. She knows more than she shows. Margaret is the one that got you on the air. You should have seen her go nose to nose with that Michaels fellow, when he tried to poach your work. I don’t know how you got in skirts; I reckon it was the girls. If it was, I would bet my last dollar it was Margaret that planted the seed. The others might have done the work, but she was the instigator.”
“You know what, I think you’re right.”
“Well, I look forward to seeing you at school, kiddo. I got some wheels to grease for you,” Mr. Dawson said, getting up to leave.
“See you in class Mr. Dawson.”
Mr. Dawson left.
“I can see why you like him Janice. He is a nice guy.”
“He is my best teacher. He likes what he does.”
The girls came in after dinner. Margaret said they needed to have a meeting with Carl Wright; they already had some money come in. Any disbursements had to be handled properly, her Mom said. Also, they may be calling you Saturday, for a news show.
Janice told the girls about Mr. Dawson’s visit and Monica Reyes’ visit. Angela had to show the girls Janice’s new suit, the girls were excited about it. The girls planned to be here when Janice was discharged, drive to Madeline’s law office and then go shopping.
Janice also told them a lot of what she and Mr. Dawson talked about, except for his comments on the girls. They were excited about their grades for the course. They had already been editing their video. Margaret and Vanessa had worked it into a three minute, five minute and seven minute segments. They just needed her input on their edits and they wanted her to winnow it into segments she could use as a news broadcast. It was hard, there was so much good video to work with. They had over ninety minutes of video and although at times, there was a lot of nothing happening, there was over thirty minutes of action between the two cameras.
Janice suddenly had the urge to go to the restroom. She reached into the drawer, taking out a panty liner and the antiseptic cream, and made her way to the bathroom. The girls just looked at each other quizzically. They knew what was in the small pink package. They looked at Angela, who just smiled.
When Janice returned she felt uncomfortable, as the three girls stared at her. “What? Did I do something wrong?”
“Why are you using panty liners?” Vanessa asked.
“Oh those, you see the operation I had was the removal of my testicles. They had withered and no longer function, they could have presented a health problem later down the road. So my doctors operated to remove them. They also rearranged me so I wouldn’t bulge out wrong for a girl. I have to use the panty liners and antiseptic cream, in place of bandaging, till I heal down there.”
“You mean they cut everything off and made you a uh…”
“No, but they did tuck me back and folded my scrotum around to look like… you know.”
“Oh, ok we know.” Anna said.
“I have to keep myself clean and dry there, to prevent infection.”
“Like a girl,” Margaret said.
“I guess, I don’t know.”
“You have to sit to pee right.”
“Yes.”
“And then wipe to dry yourself.”
“Yes.”
“That is just like we have to do Janice.”
Janice was beginning to think her friends were a little daft; she was also a little uncomfortable about where this was going. “Yes, I don’t have my thing hanging there to point anymore. It is still there, just not hanging free.”
“You can use the word penis around us, we are grown up enough to say that,” Vanessa said.
Angela broke out in giggles at that. “You girls are something else, but I love all of you.”
That seemed to break some of the tension, the girls eased up on Janice a bit. Janice even started to giggle at the situation.
The girls had to leave at dinnertime, but said they that they would be there early the next day. They hugged their friend as they left.
“Those girlfriends of yours are something else.”
“Yeah, I just haven’t figured out what yet, but you’re right. I still love em though.”
The next day Janice was bubbly. She was glad to get out of the hospital, having spent almost her whole spring vacation there. The doctors came at nine and examined her. They pronounced her fit and began processing her discharge papers. Angela helped her undress and into the shower.
When she got out, she found a new corset, panties and pantyhose. “Where do these things keep coming from, everywhere I turn there is another corset,” she said to herself.
She dried and got the panties, with panty liner on, pantyhose and got the front of the corset fastened. Her Mom came in and helped her tighten the corset, and fix her hair. Janice did her makeup and dressed in her blue sweater, black pants and heels.
When she came out, the girls were there. The girls complimented her on her appearance. They all sat and talked, till a nurse came with her discharge orders, a stack of prescription orders and a new estrogen patch. Janice stuck the patch on her hip, under her panties.
She was then wheeled out the front door of the hospital. Madeline was there with her GL and drove all of them to her law office. They assembled there in a conference room. Mr. Wright was there along with Reggie, Helen and another woman, who appeared to be a secretary.
“Ok, everyone appears to be here with a parent, so let’s begin. First things first, Janice,” Carl said, handing things to Janice. “Here are the letters of Incorporation for JD’s Productions, your corporate seal, and associated documents. I need all of you to sign with your parent’s signature next to your own. Betty will then sign as a notary.”
The documents were passed around and everybody signed them.
“Ok, that is done, now for the legalities. You will have quarterly board meetings. Here if you like, since we have everything we need already here. Any disbursements of funds will have to be voted on at those times and have to be according to the share value each of you possesses. The percentages are J. D. Daniels forty percent, Vanessa Sebring twenty percent, Margaret Bradford twenty percent and Anna Givens twenty percent.”
“Why does Janice get forty and the girls get twenty?” Helen asked.
“Because that is what we voted on Mom. We wouldn’t be here now, if it wasn’t for Janice. She is the talent in our group and the talent always gets a better share,” Vanessa said. The look in the girl’s eyes told her they were serious on this point, so she dropped it.
“Ok, I was just wondering.”
“Back to business. Money has already started coming in. We have received funds totaling three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and expect another four hundred fifty thousand, totaling eight hundred thousand dollars. Now, what do you want to do with the funds.”
Janice raised her hand.
“You are the president and this isn’t school, you don’t have to raise your hand to be recognized,” Carl said chuckling.
“We already talked about this. We want to give each of us ten percent of our share and set the rest aside, making more money so we can all go to college together.”
“Will that be of the total monies received, or current revenues?”
“Just the current revenues.”
“Is that a motion,” Carl asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“All in favor raise your hand,” he asked and then took the vote, “All have responded yes, motion carries.”
“Betty please figure ten percent and have taxes paid on those funds and checks cut for the girls.”
Betty called another office and passed the orders on.
“I would recommend that you only invest two thirds of the remaining funds and leave one third in an interest bearing account, for easy disbursement of any future needs you girls might have.”
“I agree. Can you hire someone honest, to handle our money Mr. Wright?”
“I can and I will, if that is what you want.”
“As long as Mrs. Bradford is happy with your choice. I so move it.”
“I wish to amend that, to all the parents consent till you are each eighteen, if you will,” Carl stated.
“Ok.”
“All in Favor… All have voted in the affirmative. That is a great idea girls, the taxes won’t eat up the money this way, and the college expenses can become corporate expenses, which will save you money.”
“Here is an expense report that shows our fees and what we need to disperse.”
Janice looked it over, as did the girls and their mothers. They seemed reasonable expenses, compared to what was brought in. “These look good. I move we pay expenses.”
All the girls voted affirmatively, Carl then had the minutes typed up and brought checks for the girls. Vanessa, Anna and Margaret got about six thousand each and Janice got close to twelve thousand. Margaret and Janice had to sign the checks, after signing bank cards. The girls’ last act was to give Madeline Bradford, Power of Attorney to sign checks for expenses in the future, up to five thousand dollars, to any one payee. Margaret and Janice were told they had the responsibility to go over the bank statements and income/expense statements monthly.
The girls signed the minutes and then headed to the bank with their mothers, where they set up their own checking accounts, got bank cards and ordered their own checks. Angela signed the checks she had received from the TV station and deposited that money in Janice’s account while the girls were else wise distracted.
With their parents permission, the girls went out shopping. They hit the malls. Janice had told the girls what look she wanted now for school and the girls knew just where they needed to go. Anna headed them for the shops that best fit the bill. Janice didn’t know what hit her, she was stuffed into a changing room, trying on everything the girls thought would look good on her. Margaret sorted the clothes into keepers or rejected. Then all four of them went through the piles, to help select what Janice would keep. Janice had final say, but she valued the opinions of her friends. Mostly she bought blouses, tops, T’s, slacks, jeans, jackets, coats, blazers, jewelry and accessories, along with some very good cosmetics. She did get more than a few dresses and skirts though, for when she wasn’t at school. Anna and Vanessa got some nicer things for themselves also, things they had not been able to afford before.
They each promised each other to dress a little better, to make Janice fit in better. Janice’s wardrobe was just what she asked for. Nice clothes that fit, would look good on her, with out shouting girl, although that was only partially accomplished. Everything she chose made her definitely look like a girl. Most of the clothes they picked, she could wear without the corset. The pants were mostly low rise and the tops were stretchy, clingy things that fit what ever figure was beneath them. She loved the softer, silkier feel of all the clothes.
They did some serious damage in Victoria’s Secret and Frederick’s. She got bras she could wear with and without enhancements, 32A’s. She didn’t quite fill the 32 A’s cups without pushup pads, but they looked good on her and she would soon fill them. She also got some in a 34 B’s and got her own gel bras. Janice couldn’t believe the pile of lingerie the girls said she needed. She was even fitted for two more corsets.
The shoe store suffered the violence of the girls too. Janice tried on about thirty pair. She tried on heels, flats, boots, sports, casual and house shoes. They selected purses to go along with the shoes and her outfits.
Janice didn’t see it, but the girls had been making trips to Margaret’s Mercedes. There was a real danger of them having no room to ride home in, when a very tired Janice called it quits. It took some work, but they all got in the car and drove Janice home.
They all carried a load, as they entered Janice’s home. She hadn’t been home in a week. She entered her room and received a shock; her room looked much like one of the girl’s rooms. The walls had been painted, her closets and drawers had been emptied and the room had been decorated. It wasn’t Shirley Temple, but it most definitely not Rambo. She now had a vanity and a desk for her computer. There were nick-knacks girls keep in their rooms, new curtains for the windows, new bed spread and sheets, a few stuffed animals and several of the plants she had received at the hospital. It was a shock, but Janice liked the new look. John’s room had been so drab.
“When we weren’t with you, we were a little busy, Janice.” Anna said.
“I see that you were busy. I kind of like the new look, though.”
Margaret and Vanessa went to finish unloading the car, while Anna, Angela and Janice started sorting things out and putting them up.
It took all of them a little over two hours, before they had everything sorted out and put up. They went over where everything went with Janice.
The girls then showed Janice that they had spruced up the whole house. They had even redecorated Angela’s bedroom.
Angela ordered Pizza, and the girl’s got their sleeping bags and clothes out of Angela’s room. Janice was going to have a sleep over at her home.
They laid out their things in the living room and went to Janice’s room to change. They made Janice show them what the Doctor’s had done to her. She was a little uncomfortable but she complied with her friends’ request.
“My gosh they did make her look a little like a girl,” Vanessa said.
“Yeah the area is a little bruised up, but she could wear a bikini and nobody could tell she wasn’t born this way,” Margaret said. “Does it hurt Janice?”
“It is sore, but they gave me some mild pain pills. Loosen up this corset a bit please, somebody?”
“No, you need to change corsets Janice. You’ll feel better in a clean one, after you shower,” Anna suggested, as she worked on the laces. “Your really good lingerie you need to hand wash, as soon as you take it off if possible, that way it will stay nice longer, we’ll show you how. Have you got any Snowy Down or Woolite?”
“I don’t know if we do, you need to ask my Mom.”
“We will check while you shower. What’s with this patch Janice, did you quit smoking or something?”
“Something, that’s my hormones. I guess I should take it off when I shower. Could you ask my Mom before I jump in the shower Margaret.”
Margaret came back carrying a bottle of Woolite, and said, “She said to take it off, but put it back on, after you are dry. Each patch is suppose to last a week.”
Janice went to the bathroom with the whole troop. The girls washed her lingerie, while she showered. They even washed the things she had worn at the hospital.
When Janice stepped out of the shower the girls started teaching her more about taking care of herself. She was told to pat dry her skin rather than rubbing it dry with the towel. She was dusted with powder, after her hair was put up in a turban. They then showed her how to wrap a towel around her.
Janice dressed in a pair of panties, with a panty liner in them. The girls showed her where they usually kept their feminine hygiene things. They found that she already had a package there. They put the bottle of Woolite there and hung her things on a towel bar they hung on the back of her bathroom door.
The girls took turns showering, not minding the presence of Janice, as they did. They talked while they waited their turn.
They then helped each other with their hair. It was kind of nice Janice thought, to have some one dry your hair for you.
They dressed in their nightclothes; Janice was laced into another corset, but not as tightly. In the living room, they found that the Pizza had arrived, while they were in the bathroom, so they dove right into it.
Margaret got her laptop setup and the girls began working on their edits. They wanted it to be significantly different from what was shown on TV, yet just as informative. Margaret had some of the good segments already identified and set aside; they were just waiting for Janice to be there, for the final edit. They came up with a three minute and a five minute segment. They would need the sound capabilities of the school studio to complete their project, but they did get their material sorted out.
They then began editing their original assignment, while Janice worked on a script, on her laptop. When she finished, the girls got her into her Armani suit blazer. She looked cute, with the lace and light cream satin of her nightgown, peeking through the neck of the maroon blazer. Anna found a broach and strategically pinned it on her lapel. Janice then practiced her script, while the girls recorded her with her own camera. It wasn’t as good as they could do in the studio, (Face it, the sound and lighting characteristics of the average home, just isn’t as good as a studio.) but it wasn’t too bad.
Anna then put Janice’s hair up in rollers and talked about what she would do with her hair in the morning. Anna and Margaret rolled their own hair too, with Vanessa being the lone dissenter.
The girls stayed up chatting about what they wanted to do Saturday. Janice wanted to take her Mom out to get some new clothes. Her things weren’t in bad shape, she took real good care of them, but she could do with some newer, more fashionable, things.
“I can see that your Mom could use some nicer things, but all in all her wardrobe isn’t too bad. She has a lot of Sears, J. C. Penney and Walmart,” Anna said.
“What do you think she needs most?” Janice asked.
“That’s a hard question to answer, each woman has her own ideas of comfort and style. She might like Armani but be more comfortable in Worthington. She might like Victoria’s Secret, but be more comfortable in Playtex, or Maidenform. I am afraid that one of us needs to talk to her. She might not be comfortable for you to talk to her about this sort of thing.” Margaret added.
“Well, she is going to get some nicer things, if it kills me.”
“I like what you are doing for her, Janice,” Anna said.
After watching the late movie and eating a bowl of popcorn, they settled in for the night.
End of Part 3
To Be Continued...
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon
Madeline also helps smooth some things over.
The girls wandered in, a little bleary eyed, one by one, dressed in their nightclothes, robes and slippers. They set the table, put out the syrup and served the tea, as Angela brought the food to the table.
“Mom, you are going with us today. I am buying you some new clothes. So we will clean up the kitchen, take turns showering and getting ready. Ok?”
“You really don’t have to do that Janice.”
“I know, but I am going to do it.”
“If you insist, I guess I will go along with you, but you aren’t going to waste your money on Armani or Versace for me, that is my final word on that, girl.”
“Agreed, I guess I will settle for less if I have to.”
“We have some ideas about what would look good on you Mrs. Daniels. Margaret and I would like to adjust you wardrobe and give you a younger look. After all, you are still a pretty young thing,” Anna said.
Angela blushed. She was thirty-seven, having given birth to John at twenty-one. Bill had run away a couple of years later, leaving her to raise her son alone. It took two years for her to track him down, with a court order for child support. His payments had lasted all of eight months, before he had bolted again. Her ex mother in law told her that Bill died in a car crash, about four years ago. His blood alcohol level had been .19, over twice the legal limit.
She had worked so hard to get where she was, she never had time to get out and date again. Now with her son, become daughter, she might not get the chance again. How many men would accept a boy who had changed and became a girl, regardless of the situation?
Her wardrobe was functional and just a little plain, but was in good shape. She had spent her money well. She sometimes shopped resale, especially right after Bill had run out on her. She really did want to look better, but those clothes cost more than she had to spend.
“Ok, I will put myself in your hands girls. Just don’t buy me anything too racy.”
“Don’t worry about that. I help my Mom shop and I know what she likes. You wouldn’t mind dressing more like her would you?” Anna offered.
Reggie Givens always dressed sharp. She felt it gave her customers confidence in her abilities if she looked as good as, or better than her average customer. She always looked like the consummate businesswoman, or sexy socialite.
“She sometimes dresses a little too sexy for me, but generally I like her style.”
“Well you need to dress more sexily, now that Janice is getting to be such a looker. You’ll be able to attract attention from her.” Margaret said giggling.
In a way Margaret was right. Janice did look great when she dressed up. It would look a little strange if Angela looked like a wallflower next to her.
Janice and Margaret started on the kitchen, as Angela, Anna and Vanessa headed for the various bathrooms. They had the kitchen clean, as their turn to shower came.
Janice was the last, and the girls had her clothes all set out for her, as she dried. They didn’t have a corset for her, but had her put on her breast forms, a 34 B bra, with matching panties, a gray silk blouse, black denim mini, that came just above mid thigh, suntan pantyhose and some black pumps, with a three inch heel.
Anna worked on her hair, as Margaret did her makeup. They were able to get her ready faster that way. Vanessa set up a purse for her; with everything she would need from makeup, panty liners, her antiseptic cream and a new wallet, with everything that she would need.
“Tell me Poncho, why do your ID’s all show you as J.D. Daniels?” Vanessa asked.
“Oh that is easy, you see my father’s favorite drink was Jack Daniels and he insisted that I be named Jack Daniels. Mom was livid, but she was trying to make a go of their relationship, at that time. So when she filled out the birth certificate, she listed it as J.D. Daniels. She insisted though, on calling me John and said that father could call me Jack.”
“It sure simplifies things. Even dressed as a girl, you look enough like your ID’s, that you could insist that the sex, on your driver’s license, was just a clerical error. Why do you still have a learner’s permit, didn’t you ever test?” Vanessa asked.
“I never have taken the driving test. No reason too. Mom works long hours and needs the car. We never had the money for another car, or to put me on her insurance. They require proof of insurance, before you get your regular license now.”
“Well things have changed now; you can find a decent car for about six thousand and insurance for about a hundred and fifty a month. We need to get you a cell phone too, now that you are a girl, trouble can come looking for you. We can all get one, with one of those big airtime contracts. Mom would get off of my back then, about the number of minutes I burn. We could make it a corporate expense, I think, the car too, maybe,” Margaret said.
“Good Idea, run it by your Mom and maybe we can take care of the phones today at the mall.” Anna said.
Margaret called her Mom and ran the idea by her. Margaret told her friends that her Mom said it was a great idea and would work. She would meet them at the mall at two thirty and help them get the paperwork done. She also told them that they needed to be at the TV station at four, for a meeting.
Janice told her Mom about the ideas they had, as they drove to the mall. She even liked the idea about the car. It was nothing for John to walk home late from school, but now that he was Janice, she had worried about that point. Riding the school bus also could have been problematic too, she thought. She nixed the idea about the corporation buying cars and insurance though, from what she knew, that would put the assets of the corporation at risk from an accident.
They got to the mall and descended on the shops. The girls had to argue with Angela about the lingerie shops. Margaret was the one that pointed out that Victoria’s and Fredericks were mid line lingerie, not top end, like Prada, or La Perla. Janice hung back a little, because she didn’t know how her Mom felt about her being involved in the shopping for intimates. Her fears were put down, as Angela asked for her opinions. Janice wasn’t in the changing room with her to try them on, but she did see her when she modeled her lingerie for the girls.
The girls got Angela everything she would need, bras, panties, foundation garments she normally wore, slips, camisoles, sleep wear and a couple of robes. The fabrics were so sensual and the colors vibrant.
Angela thought the new bras she had picked supported her better and gave her a more youthful bust line. It wasn’t that she was sagging, but she was beginning to show her years there. She also had longed for some of the silkier sexier things. With her budget though, it was either serviceable long lasting under things or cheap, almost slutty things that rapidly deteriorated. She just loved the things she couldn’t afford before.
From the lingerie shops, the girls dragged Angela to some of the mid range boutiques. The clothes the girls picked looked good on her and made her look younger and fresher, although it would take a little for her to feel comfortable with the new hemlines and necklines. There was nothing too racy, or that would be out of place for the office she worked in. She just wasn’t use to hemlines above the knee and it has been years since she wore deep v and deep scoop neck blouses. Her old skirts were all an inch or three, below the knee.
Angela loved the blouses and tops the girls found for her though. She really enjoyed shopping with the girls. Anna showed her true worth and seemed to be able to find things that were not outrageously priced, as most women’s clothes were. What sold Angela in all this, was the look of pride in Janice’s eyes, as Angela was transformed from non-descript middle aged Mom, to attractive vibrant young lady. She had to wear some of her new things, because her old clothes had somehow disappeared. It couldn’t have been Janice, because she was always at her side.
The girls had insisted that she upgrade her makeup. They made sure she got some quality cosmetics. Angela had to admit that everything she got made her look and feel better about herself.
All in all, it wasn’t as bad as Angela feared, but more than what she wanted. Janice had spent just over nine hundred on lingerie, four thousand five hundred on clothes, shoes and accessories and another seven hundred on makeup, hair care and nail care. What amazed her was the amount of clothing that was purchased. She had enough clothes to replace three fourths of what she had.
They met Madeline in a restaurant, at the mall. She passed a phone out to each of the girl’s and one to Angela. That was another thing the other Mom’s had, that she didn’t have. The girls programmed the phones with all their numbers, the law firm’s numbers, each other’s home phone number’s and their parents’ cell phone numbers.
After eating, Anna and Vanessa rode with Madeline, while Margaret, Janice, and Angela rode in Margaret’s car. With all the packages, it was next to impossible for anybody else to ride with Margaret.
At the TV Station they found Walter Bradford, David and Helen Sebring, Reggie Givens, Carl Wright, the station manager Jack Williams and news director Sam Wilcox waiting for them at the receptionist desk. After greetings and introductions were made, they retired to a conference room.
“What did you want us for?” Janice asked.
“We have set up a teleconference; New York wants to meet with you four girls, in five minutes,” Jack said, checking his watch. He pointed to a big screen and a camera at the end of the big table they sat at. “You’ll be able to see them and they will see us.”
He counted down the seconds and the screen lit up with a picture. The room they saw, had people sitting around a desk and when it became clear that both sides were online, some one in New York began with introductions. Jack then made the introductions on his end.
“Ok, it is good to finally meet the crew that set us all on our ears,” Benjamin Sellers, National News Director for the network said. “I have to say to you, that I found it hard to believe that all of you were only sixteen years old. I was very impressed by your work.”
“Thank you,” the girls said smiling.
“Here is what we want to do. We want you four to appear on the morning show, on Wednesday, at nine-thirty our time, that would be eight-thirty your time. We want two days to push your appearance. We are planning on using you for twelve minutes airtime, with one commercial break, some of that time will consist of excerpts of your video and then our morning anchors will have some questions for you. We will shoot you from a studio there, so you don’t have to come here.”
“We have school on Wednesday,” Janice said.
“We have already checked with your principal and she assures us that your absence would pose no problem,” Mr. Williams said.
“I guess it is ok, if our parents approve of this,” Janice said looking at her Mom.
“I do have one concern about it Mr. Sellers,” Angela said.
“I imagine you do, let me say now, that we know about certain problems and rest assured that no mention will be made of them by any of us, about Ms. Davies or Daniels. She will be identified as Ms. Janice Davies by our anchors, by the way. We think that is best.”
“Then you do know.”
“Yes, this network has a policy of non-discrimination and diversity. Given the quality of Janice’s appearance, there will be no problems from our end. Your daughter’s work and that of all the girls, speaks for itself, Mrs. Daniels. That is all we care about. We will put that guarantee in writing for you. There will be no shock journalism from us.”
“Then I will agree after reading it.”
The other parents agreed too. This was too good an opportunity for their children to pass up.
Jack Williams passed out the contracts; Carl and Madeline went over them with a fine toothcomb and gave their assent. The parents signed, followed by the kids signing them and Jack Williams signed for the network.
“Wonderful,” Mr. Sellers said, after he was informed that all the requisite paperwork had been signed. “You will need to be at your local station at seven for makeup, wardrobe, sound and video checks.”
After the goodbyes were said Angela, Janice and Anna went with Reggie, while Margaret and Vanessa disappeared. Reggie drove over to her house, where she led Janice and Angela to her backroom. Reggie had Angela sit in her chair and went to work on her hair, while Anna took Janice into another area, to take care of washing and conditioning her hair.
“Mom is going to style your hair a bit, Janice. It will make getting it in shape in the mornings a little easier. She doesn’t want you to see what you or your Mom looks like, till you both see yourselves in a mirror together.”
“Ok, but tell her nothing curly, or too feminine, for me right now. I just want to wear it straight for the rest of the school year. Where did Margaret and Vanessa go?”
“Margaret and Vanessa are at your house and are working on your Mom’s room. She’ll need to get some old things out of the way, before she can get the new things in her closet and dresser.”
“Good, I think Mom started to really enjoy shopping. I know she hated to spend my money, but she really liked the clothes we got her.”
“Yeah you could see it in her eyes and her expression, as she tried on all those clothes. She looks five years younger now, and she is acting younger too.”
“She needs to get out and have some fun, but it is hard for her, working ten hour days, five days a week. She hasn’t worked this week. So it is going to be a short week financially for us.”
“No, I think Madeline has talked to her boss, she may not get her overtime, but she should get her regular pay.”
“Good. I hadn’t thought about all that, since I had been in the hospital.”
Reggie came in and got Janice, after she had moved Angela to the kitchen. Angela had a tight plastic cap on, with bits of hair pulled through, wrapped in foil.
“How do you want your hair sweety?”
“Just straight right now.”
“Bangs or no bangs?”
“No bangs.”
“Ok, medium length and straight it is, look at these hairstyles and choose one.” Reggie said, handing a stylebook to Janice.
“This is just too much to go through, make me look like Lindsey Monroe, on CSI New York.”
“That would look good on you, I think. Your faces and hair length are about the same,” Reggie said, as she started to work.
Reggie chatted with Janice as she worked. It made the time pass easier for her and her customer. She also picked up a lot of gossip this way, about who was sleeping with who, who was on the sauce and so on. A good hairdresser knew where all the bodies were buried. They also kept their clients secrets; a hairdresser who would talk about other clients, could frighten her clients away. In many ways, a hairdresser was like a confessor.
Janice was a little uncomfortable talking girl talk with her at first, but seemed to settle down. Reggie gave her some dope on her fellow high school students that she didn’t know. Things she thought might one day be useful, if some of the catty girls or some of their boyfriends gave her problems. She thanked her by telling Reggie a few things she knew about some of her fellow classmates.
Reggie was surprised at how knowledgeable Janice was about certain goings on. Janice may not have been in on some of the gossip the girls had, but there was nothing wrong with her eyes, ears and brain. She would definitely have to have a talk with her daughter and confirm some of them on the sly. She didn’t want Anna to know where her info came from. Janice liked the friends, of her friends, for the most part.
While Reggie worked on Janice, Anna took Angela and rinsed the hair color solution out and shampooed her hair.
Reggie had Janice go to another room and wait while she wrapped Angela’s hair on rods and then added permanent solution to her hair.
Reggie then went back to work on Janice.
“Do you trust me Janice?”
“Yes, why?”
“I am going to pluck your brows a bit and shape them. They won’t be as narrow as Margaret’s, but more like Anna’s, not quite a full comma, though,” Reggie said showing her a picture of what she wanted to do.
“That’s not too bad I guess.”
She then shaped her brows and added a few semi-permanent eyelashes of various lengths to give them a feathery look.
Anna rinsed the permanent solution out of Angela’s hair and added neutralizer, then she rinsed it again after a time.
Reggie told Anna to do Janice’s makeup in her own room and keep her there till she finished Angela’s hair and makeup. She told Anna what she wanted on Janice.
In Anna’s room, Anna had Janice undress and put on another outfit. Janice didn’t know where it came from. There was a green silk blouse, charcoal gray mini skirt, taupe pantyhose and black open toe sandals, with a three-inch heel.
Anna sat Janice on the stool in front of her vanity, facing away from the mirror and began to work on her face.
Reggie worked on Angela’s hair. She took the rollers out after drying it and then combed and styled it till she was happy with it. She plucked Angela’s brow into a pair of comma’s and added a few semi-permanent lashes to make her lashes look feathery.
She then had Angela change her clothes to a green silk blouse, a gray mini skirt, taupe pantyhose, and black open toed sandals, with three-inch heels. She smiled to herself, as she already knew what Janice was dressed in. She and the girls had planned this out a couple of days ago.
Reggie then did Angela’s makeup. Angela was good with makeup, she just didn’t use a lot, at least not like Reggie thought would make her look outstanding. Reggie was shooting for outstanding.
“Ok Angela stand up and close your eyes. I am going to lead you to a full length mirror,” Reggie said and then called out to Anna. “Anna we are ready.”
Anna had Janice close her eyes and led her to stand next to her Mom.
“Angela, Janice you are standing side by side. On a count of three open your eyes. Ready one, two, three, go.”
They opened their eyes and first looked at each other. Janice dropped her jaw open and Angela’s mouth formed an O.
“Oh my Janice, you look amazing. That hairstyle looks good on you without being overly feminine. The makeup looks great, Anna you are such a wizard.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Daniels.”
“You don’t look half bad yourself Mom. I think Reggie and the girls have been a little devious,” Janice said, as she looked at the clothes they both wore.
“Just a little darling. We did it for the two of you,” Reggie said. “You both look great. I think.”
“I love your hair Mom, those highlights are wonderful. We definitely look like mother and daughter.”
Janice and her Mom then looked closely at them selves. Reggie had done a wonderful job on them. They could see how much they looked like each other. Although Janice was a couple of inches shorter than her Mom, there was no mistaking the resemblance.
Janice leaned in to the mirror and checked her eyes out. Besides the makeup and even without it, they looked very feminine. More feminine than she may have wanted at first, but she wouldn’t change a thing about them now.
“Reggie, this was well worth waiting for, I want to thank you so much,” Angela said.
“Yeah Reggie, I mean Ms. Givens, thank you.”
“You can call me Reggie, when it’s just us girls. I like that and both of you are welcome. We need to go find out what kind of damage Margaret and Vanessa have done at your house. They should also have dinner ready.”
Everybody hugged, got their things and headed to Reggie’s car.
At the Daniel’s residence, Margaret and Vanessa had been as busy as bees. As much as they wanted to, they didn’t throw anything away. What they did do, was sort out the best of the rest and then laid what they weren’t sure about on the bed. That way they could go through it with Angela, when they got home. You just never knew what a woman would be attached to. They then hung, folded and put Angela’s new things in their proper place. She had enough new things to replace most of her old things.
Margaret then hit the vanity. Most of the cosmetics were easily replaced with the newer ones. They were much better than Angela was use to, and matched her skin better. She put the replacements exactly where the older things were, so Angela wouldn’t have a hard time finding what she needed.
Their work done, they headed to the kitchen. After Anna called them and gave them a warning, they started to fix dinner. Madeline had a chef teach Margaret, and herself, how to cook. They had enough money to just hire a cook, but Madeline liked the personal touch of a meal cooked by the family. Margaret had taken to cooking, like a fish to water, but was careful not to be a showoff to her friends. Today she decided to let it all hang out. She found what she wanted to cook and Vanessa helped with the preparation.
She decided to fix chicken Parmesan, stuffed mushrooms, broccoli, garlic cheese bread, with marinara sauce and a Caesars salad.
Vanessa set the table for dinner, she hadn’t had a lot of training setting a formal table, but Margaret gave her enough help to complete the job reasonably well.
Her stomach had been growling for a while. Now that the smells of cooking were wafting throughout the house, it was much worse. There was the promise in the air that the wait would be well compensated for. Margaret had stopped on the way home and picked up a special dessert, a Boston Cream pie from a ritzy pastry store. It alone had cost as much, or more, than most meals around her home. She was looking forward to sampling it.
Everything was ready when Janice and company arrived. They just followed their noses and found Margaret bringing everything to the table.
Margaret and Vanessa just stared at Janice and her Mom.
“You two look fantastic,” Margaret said. “There is no doubt you two are mother and daughter, no doubt at all.”
“Janice is going to be a real girly girl,” Vanessa said starring and smiling at her friend.
Everyone exchanged hugs and almost as one, they groaned from hunger.
“Margaret, everything looks and smells so delicious,” Angela said.
“I haven’t seen such fancy food anywhere, but at a restaurant,” Janice said.
“Well, let’s not waste time then, let’s eat,” Vanessa said.
Everybody sat and dug in to their salads. It had been hours since any of them had eaten, but they took their time.
They talked about the transformation, as they ate. Margaret and Vanessa wanted all the details. Reggie filled them in on what was done.
“Janice, I just can’t get over your eyes. They were expressive before, but now they look like they could reach into your soul,” Vanessa said. “You have just got to keep up with what Reggie started. I was jealous of your lashes before, now I guess, I will have Reggie work on mine too.”
“Does that mean you are going to be more girly too, Vanessa?” Janice asked, cocking a brow at her friend.
“Don’t get your hopes up too high, but I can’t just let you outshine me like that and not do something,” she said giggling. “I think we all will dress better, so you won’t stand out so much.”
“Vanessa is right Janice, if we dress better, you won’t seem so out of place. We all can turn a head or two. We will be your camouflage,” Anna said. “Maybe Margaret will wear some of her high class stuff too.”
“I could, but I would rather blend in with you two,” Margaret said, looking at her friends.
After dinner Angela, Janice and Reggie cleaned up the kitchen. It didn’t take long, as Margaret and Vanessa had cleaned up as they went.
They then went through Angela’s clothes, she kept a lot of her shoes and pants, a few of her skirts and dresses the girls had set on the bed. She junked all of her old lingerie, except for two items, that had meaning for her. For the most part, she loved her new clothes better. Anna and Janice bagged up the rest for a charity store, as Margaret and Vanessa showed Angela what they did.
Reggie insisted that Angela give them a fashion show. She dressed in a few of her office appropriate clothing things for them, but she mostly showed off her sexier new things. The girls, talked about how to accessorize this, or what might go better with that and how they just loved her new look. Angela beamed under this attention, while Janice just wore a look of pride, seeing her Mom.
Angela seemed to glow, under all the attention that she was getting. Janice had fun helping her Mom, she loved the new level of closeness she was feeling right now. They were close before, but Angela never went clothes shopping with John, and she had never done a fashion show like this. Mother’s seemed to be closer to their daughters and can do more things with them, than with sons.
Angela also noticed how Janice was more into her group than before, if that were even possible. The girl’s treated Janice as if she had been a girl all her life. She noted how much Janice acted like her friends. She seemed very comfortable, in this controlled environment at least. Angela would never have thought that John could slip away so easily. The girls were right too; John was a quiet one, unless he had a story to tell. Janice was more outgoing and effervescent in comparison.
After the fashion show, the girls all changed into their nightgowns. Even Reggie and Angela put on nightgowns. They then gathered in the family room and put on a movie. The girls talked about what they were going to do tomorrow. Sunday being the last day before Janice would go to school as a girl, the girls thought it best that she have a dry run tomorrow, to see how she reacted to having to get up at least a half hour earlier. They set an alarm for six am, the girls would get up and let Janice dress and get ready, as if she was going to school. Then the girls would get dressed and they, with Angela and Reggie, would go out for an early breakfast. This would also help all of them reset their internal clocks, after being out of school for nine days.
Everybody laid down to sleep at ten thirty. The girls in their sleeping bags on the family room floor, Reggie used Janice’s room and Angela in her room. It wasn’t easy going to sleep for them, they had gotten use to staying up late, but eventually they all began softly snoring.
Margaret was the first to wake with the glaring beep, beep, beep of the alarm clock. On her best days she wouldn’t be called a morning person. Anna, Vanessa and Janice woke to her complaints. Margaret finally shut the dang alarm off. Janice staggered off to use the bathroom. It took her a few seconds to realize she needed to sit.
She then went to her room to get her under things and allow the others the opportunity to relieve themselves.
She took a quick shower, brushed her teeth, brushed out her hair, do her skin care, put her under things on and headed to her room to dress. Reggie had already gotten up and was in Angela’s room dressing. Janice picked out her clothes to wear; a skirt, a blouse, pantyhose and pumps, with a two-inch heel. She dressed and then started on her makeup, which was just the basics; a light foundation, mascara, just a touch of eye shadow and lipstick. She found her books and her purse, making sure she had what makeup she needed for touchups. She selected a sweater that went with what she wore and turned to her friends.
“Okay, if we were going to school now, you would be ten minutes late if you stopped for breakfast. You might want to shower at night that would save you twenty minutes. Overall you look very good,” Anna said, with Margaret and Vanessa adding their assent.
“Ok, I won’t be wearing a skirt to school in the foreseeable future at least, but you are right, I need more time to get ready now.”
Janice then sat and talked with the girls, as they took turns using the showers. Everyone showering that morning put a strain on the hot water heater, Anna and Vanessa had tepid showers, which greatly cut down their time in the shower.
When everybody was dressed, they went to the living room, where Reggie and Angela were having their morning coffee. Janice had to pass the scrutiny of the two Moms’. She passed with a few comments. All six of them grabbed their phones from where they had been charging and made their way to the car, Margaret’s was the most comfortable to fit all of them.
At eight forty, they pulled into the lot of the local IHoP restaurant. Janice hesitated for just a second and then straightened her back, before heading to the entrance. She had been lucky thus far, when she had gone out. They had shopped across town and eaten at restaurants that weren’t in her neighborhood. She had yet to run into people they knew, but this couldn’t go on forever.
They first person they met inside was Suzy Remington, the greeter, was a girl from their high school. She smiled and led them to their table. She gave no hint at recognition, at least to them, but she did a double take when she got back to her podium. She knew everybody there, except for one person. She had seen Janice on the news and recognized her, but the more she looked, the more certain she was of the identity of Janice. She knew John and the girls; they were always together at school. She also saw how natural Janice was and found herself in a conundrum. She didn’t feel she was a bigot, but she didn’t know how she felt about a boy parading around as a girl.
Janice caught some of the glances they were receiving. She was nervous, but inside she found the steel not to show it.
“Mom, I think I have been made, by some of the people here.”
“I think your right, but I haven’t seen any signs of trouble so far. I think you are doing alright though, so be proud of yourself and don’t let anybody get you down kid.”
Suzy was unable to contain herself and when she saw the tables around the girls empty and nobody was coming in, she went over them.
“Excuse me, but don’t I know you from school?” She asked quietly enough that she didn’t draw attention.
“Yes, I am afraid you do, Suzy. It is me John Daniels, although I would prefer you call me Janice now.”
“I thought so. So why are you dressed like that?”
“It’s a long story Suzy, but this is how my body is developing. I have a medical condition and there was no way I will ever develop as a guy. In fact, I have started growing breasts, my waist is beginning to narrow and my hips are expanding. This is all me Suzy, no silicone, or padding anywhere. The girls were trying to show me how I would look as a girl and I kinda got caught doing it. Since I will never mature as a guy, my doctors thought that this was a good idea. I was going to wait till this fall, but after Monday, too many people have seen me this way.”
“So you are this Janice Davies everybody has been talking about.”
“Yes that is me.”
“And you really are becoming a girl?”
“Yes I am. How do you feel about that? Will you let me at least have a chance?”
“I honestly don’t know how I feel about it. I just don’t know, but I won’t give you a hard time about it. I am not that way. I have to go.” Suzy said, seeing more people come in.
Everyone at the table could see the tension in Suzy’s shoulders as she walked away.
“Well that went ok I think,” Angela said. “I wonder how she will be tomorrow. She couldn’t make much of a scene here in her workplace.”
“Suzy is an ok girl,” Janice said. “She isn’t a trouble maker. It’s not her I am worried about. I am more worried about the guys that know me.”
“Like Clyde?” Vanessa asked.
“No Clyde is all huff, I can handle him any day by using my head. It’s the jocks, the guys who are always making trouble and the girls like Melissa Thompson, are the ones I worry about. Suzy may not be a supporter, but she won’t try hanging me from a tree.”
The rest of their meal went by without a hitch. Everyone just headed to the check out, instead of pushing their luck and heading to the restroom.
Suzy checked them out at the register and said, “Will I see you tomorrow?” In a pleasant easy tone.
“Yes, but dressed a little less feminine.”
“If what you said is true, I won’t give you any grief. You do look quite nice, by the way.”
“Thank you so much Suzy, that is more than I could expect.”
“See ya’ll tomorrow.”
“That went better than I hoped for,” Janice said, as they got in the car. “But like I said, she wasn’t one of the ones I was worried about.”
“Right, but every good encounter helps a little bit,” Angela added.
The girls drove back to Janice’s home. There they drilled her on what to expect and do tomorrow. The girls made her show them what she would wear the rest of the week. She laid out pants, tops, shoes and accessories, for everyday but Wednesday. Wednesday they had that interview and she would wear her Armani. She then remade her face, to show what makeup she would wear, which was mascara, foundation, or eye shadow, just a little mauve satin finish lipstick that almost matched her own natural lip color.
Margaret got a call on her cell phone; she said all of their mothers would be over this afternoon. The word was that her Mom had gotten some paperwork together to smooth things over at school. She also wanted to talk about the rest of the week.
“Let me cook dinner for them,” Janice said. “As long as the girls will help me.”
“Sure,” Angela said, “Anytime I don’t have to cook is a bonus girls.”
Janice huddled with the girls; they checked the fridge and pantry out. Janice ticked off what she wanted to cook and how she wanted it prepared. The girls began the prep work on the meal. Anna walked Janice through what she needed to do, but left the work to her.
Dinner took shape and the house filled with the aromas of savory foods being prepared. Angela greeted her guests as they arrived and led them to her living room. The mothers talked about this and that, until the girls stuck their heads around the corner and announced that dinner was ready.
Anna and Janice served everyone, and then sat down to eat. The women commented on how delightful the meal was and they wanted to know who had prepared the meal. Not only did the food taste and smell good, it was well presented on the plates. They were surprised to hear that Janice had done the cooking, albeit with Anna’s sure assistance.
“This is wonderful, Janice. How long have you been cooking?” Helen asked.
“I just started learning to cook in the last couple of weeks. I helped Mom in the kitchen a little and I can fix my own breakfast, but this is the first meal where I planned and cooked it myself, with my friends assistance of course,” Janice said.
“Don’t listen to her, we just peeled and chopped. Anybody can do that. She cooked it herself with just a little input from us,” Vanessa said.
“Well she did a wonderful job. I know Angela has got to be proud of her,” Madeline added.
“I have always been proud of my child. She is the light of my life.”
“So why are we all here, Ms. Bradford?” Janice asked.
“Patience my child, all will become clear after dinner and our other guests arrive. You know you have really come a long way in just a few weeks. I am amazed at your poise in all this.”
“It’s been hard in some ways, but I really have enjoyed it. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my friends.”
“That brings up one point that we can talk about now, Janice. In some ways it has been nice being alone, without our kids around, but the girls need to spend some time home, with their own families. I think the girls would even agree to that. I know they have put off dating for the last three weekends.”
“Boyfriends come and go Mom, we are still too young for a long term commitments, but yes I have missed going out,” Margaret said.
“You kids can get together after school each day, like you have been doing. The weekends you can get together also, but the girls need to come home. There are three girls, so maybe we can rotate who you spend the weekend with, if you need more work, or maybe cut back to sleeping over once a month or so,” Madeline opined. “Whatever, we have time to think about it.”
Everybody helped clear the table and was surprised to see so little to do in the kitchen. The girls had cleaned as they prepared dinner. It took a little over twenty minutes to get the kitchen in ship shape.
They finished just in time for the rest of the evening’s guests, Dr.’s Julie Spencer and Candace Walker.
“Ok, now we can get down to business,” Madeline said, opening her briefcase. “I need the letters of recommendation from you Dr. Spencer and you Dr. Walker.”
Dr Spencer and Walker, handed Madeline their recommendations, she gave them to Angela and Janice to read over and add their signatures.
“I also need Angela and Janice to sign these forms stating that Janice is undergoing her real life test in preparation to transition to being a female, and one requesting a legal name change. Instead of being J. D. Daniels, you will be Janice Dee Daniels. Dee was the middle name your Mom picked out. It can be changed if you want, but I think it sounds great. ”
“Yes, I like that name too, thank you Mom.”
Madeline went through a lot more paperwork with them, explaining things as she went. It was clear that she was an extremely organized person and lawyer. They had finished with the mountain of paper, when the doorbell rang again.
“I will get that, I know who it is,” Madeline said.
She left the room for a minute and came back with two people.
“Ok, I will make the introductions. This gentleman is the honorable William Kingston, Judge of the 245 th District Court and Elizabeth Moore, his clerk, this is Helen and Vanessa Sebring, Reggie and Anna Givens, my daughter Margaret, and finally Angela and J.D. Daniels.”
“I want to thank you Judge Kingston and you too Elizabeth, for coming here on a day off. We kind of have a minor emergency and need to meet some legal commitments before tomorrow.”
“It’s Ok Madeline, from what you have told me, I understand and you don’t ask for favors too often, so it is my pleasure. Elizabeth if you would swear everyone in for me.”
Madeline handed a form to Elizabeth and she went from person to person, swearing them in.
“Ok, that’s taken care of; it’s your show Madeline.”
Madeline went in an organized manner. First, J.D. Daniels became Janice Dee Daniels. The Judge questioned Janice and her Mom a bit before signing the order. Then Madeline presented a petition for a change in the legal status of Janice, from male to female. This brought more questions and included statements from the two Doctors present.
“The Court recognizes that it is the intent of Janice Daniels to transition from being a male, to female. We understand that the changes come from a medical necessity and that Janice Daniels, already at this point, doesn’t have the ability to present herself as a male at this time, nor will she at any time in the future. The Court authorizes the change in her legal status from male to female and we wish her the best in the future.”
The Judge signed all the forms and Elizabeth recorded all the motions, attaching the courts seal to them.
“I will forward the appropriate documents to the County, and you will be able to get an amended birth certificate and other documentation in about three weeks,” Elizabeth said, as she handed some paperwork back to Madeline.
“Now, I guess it is time for a party,” Judge Kingston said. “The court so orders. I want to meet these young ladies, that have caused quite a stir in the legal system.”
Janice wore a blank expression as she looked around. Everybody else had big grins on their faces, knowing they pulled one over on Janice.
“Why am I having a party?” She asked.
“It’s Janice’s birthday, silly,” Anna said giggling.
“It’s not my birthday. My birthday is in August.”
“Correction, John’s birthday was in August, Janice was just born a few minutes ago,” Vanessa said.
Janice had a thoughtful expression for a few seconds and then said, “I guess you are right. I think I will start celebrating April 16 Th instead of August 5 Th. What do you think Mom?”
“Legally your birthday is still August 5 Th,” Angela said, looking at the Judge who nodded that it was so. “But we can celebrate your birthday today.”
Vanessa, Anna and Margaret snuck off and returned with a cake, along with party favors and presents. The cake had Janice’s new name on it and one candle that was lit,
“All of you were in on this; I can’t believe you were able to keep this a secret. Especially you Anna,” Janice said.
Anna just grinned and stuck her tongue out at Janice.
Janice had to make a wish and blow out her candle. She then cut her cake and passed it out to the people present. Angela served ice cream to go with the cake.
Janice and the girls had to give a run down on how all this came about to the judge and his clerk. He asked about the bit of video covering the death of one of the suspects. Janice told him why they didn’t know about it till much later, due to her accident and subsequent hospitalization. The Judge asked about the accident, and Janice explained that due to a confidentiality agreement, she could not discuss the accident.
The Judge arched an eyebrow and said, “I hope it was a good settlement.” He looked at Madeline, who just grinned. “I see.”
Everyone gathered around Janice, who opened her presents. She carefully unwrapped the presents, trying hard not to damage the wrapping paper. Janice received several pair of earrings, on a earring tree, a new purse, a silk blouse, another pair of heels, a PDA, a necklace, perfume, a large picture of the four girls together, a charm bracelet, a leather bound diary, with a locked hasp and a set of keys.
Janice looked puzzled at the keys. They were car keys, Volkswagen keys to be exact. “You didn’t buy me a car did you Mom?”
Angela just smiled and said. “Yes, but you are paying for it.”
Janice jumped up, hugged her Mom and asked, “Really, where is it?”
“Out front I imagine dear,” Angela said looking to Madeline, who just grinned. “Yes it is out front.”
Janice and the girls ran outside and looked at it. Sitting in the driveway was a Platinum Gray, four door, VW Jetta gleaming brightly. Janice pushed a button on her key fob, the parking lights blinked, the car chirped, and the dome lights came on.
The girls jumped in one of the doors and sat in the new car. Janice in the drivers seat, put the key’s in the ignition and turned it to Acc. She then adjusted the volume of the Sirius radio and hunted for a station she liked. The adults just gathered around it.
“Janice you can’t drive it yet. Not without an adult driver beside you. You have your learner’s permit I know, but we will see about getting you tested Wednesday, after your interview. Your insurance document is in the center console,” Angela said. “I don’t want you walking to or from school anymore, or riding the school bus. Also I want you to carry your cell phone with you when you drive. Margaret has agreed to pick you up and give you a ride home, till you get your regular dirver’s license,” Angela said.
“Thank you Mom, I love it.”
Reluctantly, Janice was herded back into her house. The Judge and Elizabeth made their excuses, as they got their things to leave. Janice had to hug them, before they left. The Judge looked a little uneasy, but warmly returned her hug.
“Okay, we need to talk a little about tomorrow, Janice,” Madeline said. “The girls will spend one more night here, to help you get ready for school tomorrow. Your Mom is going to bring you to school. She'll meet me and your Doctors at school. We need to go to the Principal’s office, to sort out your changes.”
“Okay, I am glad that you will be there. I am more than a little nervous.”
“You have every right to be nervous dear. I understand that except for one class, there is at least one of our girls in each of your classes. Always have one of them with you; there is safety in numbers. Remember that Janice.”
“I will and thank you Mrs. Bradford,” Janice said, hugging her. “I want to thank each of you Mrs. Sebring, Ms. Givens, Dr. Spencer, Dr. Walker and especially you Mom,” she said, hugging each of them. “And of course I can’t forget my best friends, Anna, Vanessa and Margaret,” she said, group hugging them.
“You girls should get ready for bed now. I know it’s early, but you have been staying up late all week and you will have to get up early, so we can get all of you to school,” Angela said. “Anna, Margaret and Vanessa, go ahead and shower tonight. Janice will shower in the morning.”
“Ok,” they all said.
The four girls went to Janice’s room and Angela talked with the other Mom’s.
“Angela, it will all work out. I don’t want you to worry too much,” Madeline said.
“I hope so. I can’t help worrying though. Janice is my only child.”
“She has some good friends who will help her, Angela,” Reggie said.
“And she has got us,” Helen added, “I can’t help saying. I was a little upset at first. I thought the kids were playing some kind of sick joke at first. Now though, I see how much Janice has changed and how happy she is, I am behind you one hundred percent. Janice is really Janice; I don’t think John ever existed. That isn’t what I meant; I think that Janice was always fated to be. John was always around the girls; he was more comfortable with them and started early on to act like them. If you know what I mean?”
“Yes I understand Helen and I do appreciate all of you. I have felt a long time ago that this is what should happen. I just didn’t want to be the driving force behind John choosing to change. It had to be his decision.”
Angela hugged the women, they gathered their things and left.
The girls took turns hitting Janice’s showers and got dressed in Janice’s room. Janice got used to seeing her friends in various states of undress and it didn’t bother her. She wasn’t even uncomfortable stripping in front of them.
“You are more like us now, than different, Janice,” Anna said. “I always thought you were too cute to be a guy, but you are gorgeous as a girl. I like having you as a friend, as long as you don’t steal my boyfriends we are OK,” She said giggling.
“Yeah girlfriends don’t steal their girlfriend’s boys,” Margaret and Vanessa agreed.
“I don’t think you will have to worry about that. I haven’t had feelings one-way, or the other. If you know what I mean.”
“I have read that low testosterone in men and women, leads to a low libido,” Margaret said. “So I can understand that.”
“Really?” Vanessa asked.
“Yes really,” Anna said. “It’s testosterone in women too, that gives them a degree of sexual aggressiveness, or libido. Or that is what I too have read. Yours was off the chart on the low side. So your sexual libido was next to nil.”
Margaret got in front of Janice’s laptop, hopped onto the Internet and pulled up an article for them to read. Janice took Margaret’s place, Anna and Vanessa stood behind her and they read the article.
“That is interesting,” Vanessa said.
“Yeah, it explains a lot of things,” Janice said. “I like girls more than guys, but I never had feelings one way or another. I wonder how I would be if my body had been normal.”
“Who knows, you’re one of us now girl, and we don’t care if you like girls or boys. Just be our friend,” Margaret said.
The girls found their spot and laid down to sleep. Sleep came hard to them, as they lay awake, but finally after about forty-five minutes, they all drifted asleep.
End of Part 4
To Be Continued...
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon
“Very funny girls. Ha ha ha.” Janice said, as she shivered till the water warmed up fully.
The girls were giggling at Janice’s discomfort and told her to shake a leg. Angela came running into the bathroom shouting, “What’s wrong?”
“We’re sorry Angela, it seems the water was a bit too cold when Janice got in the shower,” Anna said giggling.
“A bit too cold, they piped the water in from the arctic Mom. I was still half asleep when those cretins assaulted me.”
Angela laughed so hard, she had trouble catching her breath, “Well at least your awake now. I will have breakfast for all of you, when you all get dressed.”
Janice was hustled out of the shower and dried off carefully. Anna started on her hair, as Janice brushed her teeth and Margaret and Vanessa dressed. Margaret supervised her makeup, although Janice did the work, while Anna dressed. Janice just used foundation, just a hint of color to her eyelids and cheeks, mascara and a barely there light pink lipstick. She had an understated, but cute look.
Very nice, Margaret thought.
In her room she started dressing under the watchful eyes of her mentors. First she took her antiseptic ointment and carefully applied it to her stitches. She took a pair of hipster panties and added a panty liner. Vanessa went to the restroom and retrieved two more panty liners for her purse. Janice then pulled on a pair of panty hose and a bra, without enhancements. She then dressed in a dark blue silk blouse. She sat on her bed and pulled on a pair of black twill pants and let them pool around her ankles, as she threaded on a pair of above the calf boots, that had three inch heels, zipping them up. Janice pulled the pants up and zipped them, after carefully tucking her blouse in. The pants weren’t ultra low rise, but they were a lot lower than John’s pants, they hit her about six inches above her crotch. The pants emphasized there wasn’t anything there where a guy would normally have something. She got a couple of bangles for her right wrist, a lady’s watch for her left and a jeweled pendant on a thin gold chain, with matching drop earrings. Lastly she got a matching black twill jacket to wear.
She turned for the girls, who whistled at her.
“You said that you didn’t want to shout femininity. I think you failed, but in a wonderful way. You look absolutely scrumptious,” Anna said.
“Yeah, if I were a guy, I would be falling all over myself trying to get a date with you. You are smoking,” Vanessa added.
“You are sophisticated Chic`, girl,” Margaret said. “Okay turn around slowly, we have to check for VPL.”
“VPL, what is that?” Janice asked.
“The number one sin when a girl wears pants, visible panty line,” Vanessa said. “Always check for panty edges, and the half moon front and back from the gusset seam. The others are dunlap, not a problem for you, exposed panty waistbands and a few others.”
“Do ya’ll think this is too much?” Janice asked, a little concern came through her voice. “Should I change to something less sexy?”
“Noooo, don’t change a thing. You look like I think you should, for your first day in school,” Margaret said, handing Janice a black patent leather purse, on a silver chain.
“Amen,” the others echoed.
“Ok, always check your purse before going downstairs. Have you got your cell phone set to vibrate, for at school, wallet, keys, lipstick, compact, eye shadow, foundation, nail polish, pen, pencil, breath strips, panty liners, tampons, you don’t have any, but you should get some, not for you, but some other girl might ask, and anything else you might need,” Margaret said.
“Yeah, I need my antiseptic cream and my Epi-Pen,” Janice said.
“Epi-Pen, what is that?” Vanessa asked
“For if I have an allergic reaction, like I did last year,” Janice said, coming out of her bathroom. “It could save my life. It contains epinephrine. I will tell ya’ll about it at lunch.”
“Ok, let’s get breakfast,” Vanessa said. “I am hungry, we have thirty minutes before we have to go.”
Janice grabbed her book bag and led the troop to the kitchen. They sat at the table as Angela served them. Angela had to take a double take, all the girls looked great, a lot better than usual; Janice though was stunning in simplicity.
“My gosh, the school won’t know what hit them. All of you look so nice, especially you Janice. I thought you were going to dress down a bit?”
“I thought I did. I didn’t know I was smoking till the girls told me.”
“Yes, smoking, that is a good word for it,” Angela said.
“Without dressing in those oversized rags John wore, I don’t think she could not be smoking,” Margaret said.
“You may be right Margaret,” Angela said.
The girls ate as quickly as the girls could and maintain decorum. It was getting close to the time they would need to leave. Anna, Vanessa and Margaret hugged their friend and gave her air kisses before rushing off to Margaret’s Mercedes.
Janice and her Mom headed to Janice’s car, out the front door. “You may drive to school and park, if I can borrow your car today?”
“If I get to drive to school, that is more than ok, Mom,” Janice said, clicking her key fob to unlock the doors to her Jetta. She put her books on the back seat and her purse between her Mom and herself. “Wow, my own car,” she said as she strapped herself in.
Janice had driven before, just not much. She had taken driver’s ed classroom and behind the wheel, but just never took the driving test. She didn’t see the need. They had one car and her Mom needed it. She just didn’t have many opportunities to drive, nor could they afford the added expense for an under eighteen driver, to be on the families car insurance policy. All of that had changed now.
Janice mentally went through all the things she had been taught as she started the car and backed out. She drove very nicely and parked in a visitor’s slot at school.
“Need my keys, Mom?”
“No I have the other set.”
Janice and her Mom entered the school and headed for the office. The first bell rung as they entered. They were stunned. Mr. and Mrs. Bradford, Mr. Wright, and two other legal looking types, Dr. Spencer and Dr. Walker were all there waiting for her. Madeline introduced the other two lawyers as Mr. Timothy Singh and Ms. Sonya Nettle.
Principal Cathy Simmons came out of her office and was taken back by the crowd. “Oh my, are all of you with the Daniel’s?” she asked.
Everybody answered in the affirmative
“Ok, we are moving this to the conference room. Linda, I need you and Mr. Collins to the conference room. If you will follow me Ladies and Gentlemen.”
They followed Ms. Simmons down a hall in the office to what looked like a board room that had a long table and fourteen chairs, plus room for a few more.
Ms. Simmons sat at the head of the table, indicating where she wanted Janice to sit next to her, with Janice’s Mom on the other side. The others just found a convenient seat, with Madeline nearest Ms. Simmons and the Doctors. next to Angela. Linda arrived and took a position behind Ms. Simmons, carrying several files and a steno book. Mr. Collins came in and took a seat at the other end.
Ms. Simmons stood and said, “I’ll make the introductions for the school. I am Ms. Cathy Simmons Principal, at the other end is Vice Principal Jeff Collins and this is my secretary Linda Keller. Linda will be taking notes.”
Madeline stood and said, “I will make our introductions. I am Madeline Bradford, attorney at law, this is Walter Bradford, my husband and attorney at law, Carl Wright, attorney at law, Timothy Singh, attorney at law and legal counsel for LGBT Together, Sonya Nettle, attorney at law and legal counsel for LGBT Together, Dr. Julie Spencer, specializing in Endocrinology, Dr. Candace Walker, a psychiatrist specializing in gender dysphoria, Ms. Angela Daniels, the mother of J.D. Daniels and lastly our client, Janice Daniels.”
“Yes, I was expecting this, Mr. Dawson gave me a heads up, but I really didn’t expect a crowd. Ok who wants to start with what.”
“I will,” Mrs. Bradford said. “First I have a legal name change for J. D. Daniels. She is now Janice Dee Daniels,” Madeline said proffering the appropriate document to Ms. Simmons and another for Mr. Collins. “Next, I have two statements from Dr.’s Spencer and Walker describing Janice’s condition in an abbreviated format, we will give the school nurse a more detailed account, that needs to be guarded from casual contact. Basically, she is transitioning to being a female, and beginning her real life test prior to obtaining final Sexual Reassignment Surgery. Due to a medical condition, Janice has for over a year been developing secondary female sexual characteristics already. She has gotten to the point where hiding her changes is no longer possible and given her recent publicity of being on local and national TV as a female, she has chosen to make the change official.”
“Not totally unexpected, but duly noted,” Ms. Simmons said, handing the documents to her secretary.
“We are concerned about her safety and welfare, here at school, along with certain accommodations, including no PE, as has been the case previously, I understand and restrooms.”
“Speaking to the safety issues, I have alerted my staff of this possibility already. Once I saw Janice on TV and figured out who it was, and it was confirmed by Mr. Dawson, we put our heads together. I have ordered a two fold increase in the number of teachers on hall duty, especially on the routes to and from Janice’s classrooms and in the lunchroom, during all lunch periods. This is on top of the schools four security guards, already on duty.
J. D. Daniels, like you said, wasn’t assigned to P.E. and won’t be in the future, as long as we have a medical excuse from P.E. The restrooms could have been problematic, but this was an old building and upon passage of the ADA act, that is Americans with Disability Act, we were required to provide restrooms that were wheel chair accessible. Our facilities did not provide space for easy adaptation in the current restrooms, so four Janitors closets were remodeled to come into compliance. They are unisex and access is by key, which we will provide. We ask that Janice use these, at least until the idea that he is now a she is accepted and a degree of normality returns. A teacher will be on duty near these restrooms, but not obviously so. Is that acceptable?”
Madeline raised an eyebrow and looked at Janice, who nodded at her. “That is acceptable, we know she won’t be totally accepted by all the students and faculty, as a woman, but it is our hope that she will be treated fairly. The faculty and staff will be held responsible for her welfare, as they would be of any student’s welfare.”
“I understand, we already have several students who are transgendered. I will not say who, it isn’t my place to do so. I will say, that we will look after Janice and see that she is treated no differently than J. D. Daniels was. Janice, you know you will be treated differently by the students, right?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“I won’t tolerate you being mistreated and I want you to report any threats, or physical abuse to us. I hope you have a thick skin and don’t report every derogatory word to us, but only those patently offensive. Do you understand what I mean.”
“Yes Ma’am. I know I may be called names and such, but as long as they are not vulgar, or threatening, or downright obscene, I will try to be tolerant.”
“We have a good school and you are one of my best Juniors. You have brought our school recognition, and unbeknownst to you, we have already benefited financially. We have received several grants, thanks to you. We want you here and will do our best to be here for you.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“I would like for you to go to the nurse, with your Doctors, to relay any information she might need, as your Mom and legal team discuss some things. If that is Ok with everybody here?”
Ms. Simmons received assent from all present.
“Janice, you may show the doctors the way and after that, come see Linda, just outside my office.”
Janice kissed her Mom and led the doctors to the nurse’s station. She didn’t know the nurse’s name, but the nurse was up and met them as they entered the door.
“Hi, I am Sylvia Porter, how may I help you.”
“Hi, I was J.D. Daniels, now I am Janice Dee Daniels, this is Dr. Julie Spencer and Dr. Candace Walker.”
“Yes, I was told I might have a visitor, I didn’t expect three. I am the nurse here. I am a RN (Registered Nurse) and I take care of any emergency needs.”
“That is good. I am Janice’s Endocrinologist and Dr. Walker is a psychiatrist.” Dr. Spencer said and the three shifted to technical jargon and such.
Janice paid half her attention to the three, as they talked, and looked around. There was a front area and three rooms. One marked male, one female and one marked exam and treatment.
“Is there anything else I need to know about her health issues.”
“Not right off hand,” Dr. Spencer said.
“How about my Epi-Pen?” Janice asked.
“Good girl, thank you,” Dr. Spencer said.
The three of them again began another bout of discussion.
“I need to know if you know how to use the Epi-Pen Janice. In your own words tell me how, when and why you should use it,” Nurse Porter asked.
Janice told Nurse Porter, what her doctors told her. If she started showing signs of a severe allergic reaction, she was to pop the caps and to administer the Epi-Pen in the manner that she demonstrated and to hurry to the Nurses office, or call 911 if not at school. She also described the type of reaction she had had, to Nurse Porter.
“Do you have your Epi-Pen with you?”
“Yes Ma’am, along with my American Express, don’t leave home without them,” she said, showing Nurse Porter.
“Very good Janice, we don’t usually allow students to carry medicine and such with them, but this is one of the loop holes, along with asthma inhalers and other emergency meds. I don’t need anything else from you, you can go now.”
Janice made her way back to the Principals secretary’s office. When she got there she was handed a hall pass and a letter for her to show her teachers.
“Show that letter to your teachers, it will explain your change of status to them. The key is the key to the restrooms, and the hall pass will get you to your class,” Linda said, looking at the clock, “Which will be your second period class.”
“Thank you, Miss Keller.”
“Your welcome and good luck. I really liked the way you kids handled the news broadcast, but it really scared the putty out of me to see you so close to the action. Ya’ll really need to be more careful.”
“Yes it happened right where we were and we were about as safe as we could be, without running away.”
“Well maybe you should have run. Anyway you showed a lot of courage taping the robbery.”
“Thank you Ma’am. I guess I will head on to class now.”
Janice left the office and her stomach began to fill with dread. She was more nervous than she had been on that fateful day, a week ago. She had to show her hall pass twice, before she got to her class, after dumping half her books in her locker. She took a deep breath outside and then opened the door and entered.
Her second period class was English and her teacher was Laura Middlelton. The teacher looked over to the door as Janice stepped in. The class wasn’t noisy, but as she entered it became deadly silent. Mrs. Middleton waved her over and Janice handed her hall pass and her letter to her teacher who read it and handed it back.
“Class, yes this is J.D. Daniels. You will now refer to her as Janice Daniels. Please take your seat Ms. Daniels.” Mrs. Middleton said sweetly, before she resumed teaching.
Janice took her seat between Vanessa and Margaret, who were smiling. The rest of the students had shocked looks on their faces, a few were whispering with each other, while some wrote and passed notes. Mrs. Middleton had to hear the low level chatter, but said nothing for a couple of minutes, as she talked about the book they were reading.
“Ok, that is enough talk for now, Melissa, can you tell me what Steinbeck was trying to get across to the reader in the Grapes of Wrath.”
That shocked the class back to normal learning mode and the next twenty minutes passed as normal.
At the bell, some students hurried out and some gathered around. Janice gathered her things and tried to answer the questions that were flying about, as Vanessa headed to her Geography class, she and Margaret headed off to Algebra.
As expected, a few of the students verbally objected to Janice. They asked if she was some kind of freak, but at least they weren’t offensive about it. Some of them just sounded confused, some were neutral on it, while about a third of them sounded somewhat supportive. Many of the girls said it was about time, whatever they meant. She heard one term she didn’t know, something about John having been bishounen.
Janice just didn’t have time to talk to all of them and Margaret propelled her to her next class. A crowd, mostly girls, followed in her wake. The guys tended to give her a little more room.
Janice was glad that there was only five minutes between classes. As she and Margaret entered their classroom, they saw Mr. Sean Adams, her algebra teacher, at his desk. Janice went over to him and handed him her letter. Mr. Adams looked at her for several seconds before reading the letter. Janice couldn’t read him; she would hate to play poker against him, that’s for sure. At least he didn’t scowl like he did at people who talked in his class, or cut up. He read the letter and returned it and gave her a dismissive wave, not out of character for him at all.
Janice got to her seat in time to sit, just as the bell rang. She sat her purse down, got out her homework, pencil, paper and textbook, as Mr. Adams took roll.
“Listen up class, John Daniels or more correctly J.D. Daniels is now known as Janice Daniels, along with a change of gender. I expect you to treat her no less courteously than you did John in the past. No matter what you think about her, I will not tolerate any form of intolerance in this class. Now pass your homework up front; then turn to page 132 in your text books.”
The bell rang and again she had a crowd around her asking her questions, which she tried to answer. Her next class was a computer lab and none of her friends were in it, so she waved bye to Margaret. Debby Jensen, a girl in her math class and computer lab, walked with her.
“Janice, I know we haven’t been terribly close, but I want you to know that I think this is a brave thing you have chosen to do. Tell me if there is anyway I can help you.” Debby said.
Janice was shocked, but asked, “You mean this is Ok with you?”
“Yes, I kind of thought that you were a little girlish, the way you acted and talked. You definitely aren’t like the other guys at school. Some of them are so full of themselves it hurts. You were always nice and so gentle. On top of that, you are a celebrity now,” she said giggling.
Walking in the hall, Janice did see more teachers everywhere they turned. She could hear fairy, queer and such, but she couldn’t tell where it came from, or who said it. She also heard some people who were telling others to shut their mouths, some calling others Neanderthals and such, in what seemed like support.
In the computer lab, the teacher was Linda Smart. Her face wore a grimace as Janice approached her, letter in hand. She snatched the letter from Janice and read it.
“Have a seat J.D. Daniels, I won’t tolerate any disruption of my classroom by you.”
Janice’s cheeks flared a little, John had liked Ms. Smart, but Janice could tell it was going to be rough for her in this class. She found her computer station and saw Suzy across the way and down from her smile and wink at her.
Janice logged onto her computer and got into the C++ program she had been working on. She was at the point where she was going down it line by line checking syntax and simplifying it where possible, before compiling it and then checking it for bugs. She had been one of the better students in computer lab and she wondered how the rest of the year would play out.
Janice really liked the work she did on this program. The program was designed, if she got it to work right, so that she could catalogue and organize her news stories, in a database of her own design. Not that she needed it, but she thought it was a decent idea. She thought she had a very elegant and functional idea.
She could only work on her program at school before, but now she thought she could buy a complier, library and all for her new computer, so she could work on it at home. She burned an extra copy of her program and put the disk in a case, in her purse, before saving it on the teacher’s server.
When the bell rang, she got her things together and found Debbie and Suzy waiting for her.
“Hi Janice, I bet your surprised that I am here,” Suzy said.
“Not really, I always thought you were a really nice person.”
“Yeah, I try to be. I thought about what you said Sunday. If what you said is true, and I have no reason to doubt that, because you are such a nice person too, then I should give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“Thanks, I don’t know what to say.”
“Say that we are friends and that will be enough.”
“We are friends. You know Debbie right.”
“Yes, she is ok too, let’s hit the lunchroom girl.”
They escorted her out of class, to her locker and then to the lunchroom.
“I can’t believe how brunt Ms. Smart was with you,” Debbie said. “I thought she liked you.”
“I guess that was before I became Janice. I kind of expected a lot of people to be that way, but so far it hasn’t been too bad.”
“I think it is running sixty, thirty and ten right now,” Suzy said.
“What’s that?” Janice asked.
“Sixty percent for you, thirty don’t care and ten think WTF. If you know what I mean,” Suzy said.
“I can imagine. I wouldn’t have thought I would have that many supporters.”
In the serving line, she choose a chicken salad, mixed vegetables, dinner roll and an Iced Tea.
“Do you two want to sit with me and my friends?” Janice said hopefully.
The two girls looked at each other and almost said at the same time, “Sure.”
When they were approaching the table John sat at, she noticed a lot more people there than usual, all of them were girls. Anna and Margaret had a spot saved for Janice, between them and Vanessa was across the table. Debbie and Suzy were welcomed by the others.
When Janice had taken her seat, Anna told Janice that these girls wanted to hear her story, before they came to any decision. So Janice gave her story, while eating, her three friends filled in some of the details, so she could get a few bites of food in and so it wouldn’t seem that Janice was trying to dominate the discussion. The girls asked a few questions and Janice tried to answer as best she could. She told them more than she wanted to at first, when it seemed that she was winning them over. John had been very good at reading people and Janice was finding this a very useful skill.
“So you really don’t have your testes anymore?” one girl asked.
“No, they never developed well and they shriveled up after my hospitalization.”
“And you say that you are on Estrogen now,” another asked.
“Yes, because hormones are so important for good health, I couldn’t take androgens because my body reacts violently to them. My body seems to react well to Estrogens. At least so far.”
“And that is all you, you are not wearing any foundations or padding,” someone else asked.
“Well, I wore a corset for a while, to take my waist down from a twenty seven to a twenty five, but not now and I am wearing a bra because I need one now. But I don’t have even a quarter inch of padding anywhere right now. This is all me.”
“Well you look hot. I am going to have to watch my boyfriend closely now.”
“I am not out to steal anybody’s boyfriends. I have never felt one way or another about sex. You girls know me; tell me if I am lying. I just want to be me.” Janice said.
They did know that she never hit on anyone girl, or boy, that they knew of. She didn’t ogle or stare in the way they or others did.
One girl giggled and said, “In that case, I might hang around you to help pick up the pieces of all the hearts you’re gonna break girl.”
Janice giggled herself, when she heard that and said, “Be my guest, you can pick and choose any of them. I won’t fight you for them.”
It was getting late and Janice needed to use the restroom. She and her friends were in all the same classes after lunch, so she led them to the restroom she was allowed to use. Inside it was big, but only had two stalls, but the doors and walls went almost all the way to the floor, leaving just an inch of space open. They were better kept than either the boys or girls bathrooms. The girls quickly took turns before heading to their lockers.
The next class they were in was history, taught by Paula Wainwright. Ms. Wainright gave them a genuine smile when they entered. Janice handed her the letter, which she read and returned.
“Class, I want to introduce you to Janice Daniels. You probably recognize, or have heard, that this is J.D. Daniels, due to circumstances beyond her control, she has chosen to come out to everybody. I want you to treat her well and lend her your support, or at least your tolerance. Please Janice, take your seat.”
Nothing else was said about Janice. The pace Ms. Wainwright taught at, including her tendency to pop questions out right and left, kept everybody on their toes. This was normal.
At the bell, they at last headed to the sanctuary of Journalism for a two hour class. She was met at the door by Mr. Dawson, who smiled when he saw them coming.
“Good your early, Margaret, take Janice and get her wired with a wireless mike and receiver. Anna do her makeup, then get setup on camera one and Vanessa, get the cameras set up like a live broadcast, then you’re on camera two. Margaret meet me in the control room when you finish.”
Janice had a sick feeling about what was going to happen, but she followed directions well. Margaret took off Janice’s jacket, unbuttoned her blouse, fastened a transceiver to her waistband and ran the wires to a mike and earpiece, before getting her blouse settled back again.
Anna then started on Janice’s face. She gave her a darker and more mature look, adding more color to her. She then worked on Janice’s hair, to freshen up her look. The do she started the day with, had started to droop a bit and Anna worked with it to give it a bit more body.
In her ear she heard Margaret say speak, so she did. Good, she heard Mr. Dawson say.
“Ok Janice, you are going to tell your story again. You have twenty three minutes and you will do it in front of a green screen, since you are wearing blue. Just follow our cues and check your monitors at appropriate times. Are you ready girl?”
“Gee thanks for the whole two minutes warning, Mr. Dawson. I am as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs but I guess I am ready.”
“Good girl. Let me introduce you and Margaret will cue you.”
Janice stood off stage, out of sight, but still able to hear Mr. Dawson talk to the class.
“Enter Janice, center stage, camera two, head on, go,” she heard Margaret say.
Janice entered and Mr. Dawson shook hands with her and introduced her to the students. Mr. Dawson then stepped off stage left and headed to the control room and Janice took over.
“I know this may seem strange to all of you, but yes, I use to be called John Daniels. I have had my name legally changed to Janice Dee Daniels and I now present myself as a female. Why, some of you may ask? I can tell you it is a long story.
It started about two years ago. My Mother and my Doctor became concerned that I had not entered puberty yet. At fourteen it was not unheard of in guys to not have started, but it is uncommon.
I was sent to Dr. Julie Spencer, an Endocrinologist, a doctor who specializes in the endocrine system. This system, as far as I know, deals with the glands that deal with the body’s production of hormones. I was subjected to all sorts of tests. In the end the doctor said I was normal for a prepubescent boy.
At fifteen, I still had not started puberty and after another battery of tests, it was decided that I should be given an androgen to jumpstart my puberty. Shortly after I was given a shot, I went into anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock if you will. I nearly died, before I got to a hospital and I owe my life to Dr. Spencer and Dr. James Black, an allergist who had an office in the same suite.
I was stabilized and transported to the hospital, where I was placed in ICU or Intensive Care Unit for those who didn’t know. I came to, and started to feel better for a while, but then I had a second attack of anaphylaxis. I actually went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated twice.
This second bout of anaphylaxis had a more sinister effect on my body. It spurred an Immunological response to my own production of testosterone, the hormone responsible for male growth and maturation.
As a result of that, I will never mature as a male. I will never go through a male’s puberty and all the processes that guys go through.
That is why I don’t shave, my voice never deepened, I never got a second growth spurt and I look the way I do. I was destined to be stuck between, not male and not female, although closer to female.
Now, suppose a young boy, who for no fault of his own, lost his ability to produce testosterone by accident. He could take androgens and mature normally for a boy, albeit a sterile boy, never able to procreate.
I did not have this option. I can’t tolerate male androgens, but a test revealed that I could take estrogens.
Now hormones are important for more things than just make one person look male and another female. They affect just about every part of a being, from bone density, to muscle strength, to heart, lungs and a lot of other things I don’t understand. Dr. Spencer was concerned about it and brought it up to me and my mother. It was decided that I should start hormone therapy. Which in my case meant estrogens, which brings us up to date.
I became despondent over one of my projects, when it was pointed out that I looked and sounded more like a female than a male. My friends in JD’s production wormed the cause of my despondency out of me about a month ago and they put their heads together.
While a pretty boy would never make it in TV journalism, a field I dearly love. It might be possible for me to make it as a woman.
They got together and challenged me to try it away from school. If I did well at it, then maybe I would have started this fall as a female. It would probably have been easier to come back from summer with it a fete accmopli, but that was not to be.
My friends set aside their personal lives to help me play a roll, so to speak. I set about to see what it would be like for a woman in journalism. First I set out to learn how to present myself as a woman and then how to blend that with journalism.
That brings me to that fateful Monday. We set out to do a news story on a city council meeting. (step left, look right at camera one, check monitor, came in on the earpiece.) Here are some excerpts from that meeting. I sat in the City Council public meeting room and took notes, after the meeting I was able to ask the various parties questions about their stance. You may have seen this project on our local TV station and on national TV networks. All went well till we went about shooting some background footage about the meeting. Here you see me indicating the parking problems that people encounter down town.
If this was all that we shot, I wouldn’t be here today like I am. I might not have started female hormones till the summer break began or come to school as a female till the fall semester began. I might not have returned to school here either.
Fate had other ideas though. (starting shoot out feed). As you can see, while I was filming my closing remarks, an armored car drove up, followed by another vehicle. As the rear doors to the truck opened, a shootout began, between the guards and some would be robbers. The robbers were somewhat inept and equipped with body armor. The guards appeared well trained and also equipped with body armor. They were joined by the banks guards and later by the local police department. The shoot out went on for about half an hour. Local TV stations appeared on the scene, in the air and on the ground. As you can see though, they were a long way from the action, they had a bad angle and even the eye in the sky didn’t have as good a video as we did.
You have to agree, this was hot video and we had to move quickly or our video footage would have been history, not news. A member of JD’s Production, Margaret Bradford to be exact, took our work and hawked it to the local TV station and the rest is history. Do any of you have any questions.” (camera one on Janice, two on the audience)
“What was it like being that close to a shootout?”
“I was scared shitless.”
“I can’t believe that you appeared so calm.”
“I thank Vanessa Sebring for that, she kept all of us calm and focused.”
“Why do you look so girly now, if you only have been on hormones for so short a time, did you have surgery, are you wearing padding?”
“I will answer those questions in reverse order. No, I am not wearing padding right now. I have and will at times though. I just wanted you to se the real me today,” Janice said taking off her coat. “Yes I had surgery, but not the kind you are thinking of. Because of my illness, my testes had quit functioning and had shriveled up. They were just removed. I look like this because every guy produces a small amount of estrogen, just like every girl produces testosterone. It’s just in guys they produce so much testosterone it counteracts the estrogen they produce. In girl’s they produce so much estrogen, testosterone doesn’t stand a chance. In me and any guy who looses their testes, they don’t have enough testosterone to protect themselves. So this is how I have been developing.”
“What has it been like for you?”
“It’s been hard, I have grieved over it till I finally accepted the fate I have been dealt. I am facing a full gamut of reactions from support to downright, but thankfully not open hostility. I don’t expect I will ever have total acceptance by others, but I do hope to have tolerance.”
“Are you attracted to boys or girls?”
“Yes, but not in the way you are thinking right now. Feelings of a sexual nature, or Libido, as it is called, is a product of testosterone in boys, as everybody knows, but there are studies coming out that suggest that that is also true for females. Low testosterone in females is being linked to low libido in females. Right now I have all the testosterone of a six year old boy. How much of a sexual creature are they. Really, boys and girls at that age are more alike than different. I want male friends and female friends, but right now, I am just not attracted to guys or girls in a sexual nature.” (two minutes, you’re doing great girl.)
“One more question.”
“So you’re really going to be a girl now. Are you going all the way?”
“I intend to live the rest of my life as a female. I can’t have Sexual reassignment surgery till I am eighteen, in a year and four months. I have to satisfy my psychiatrist that that is what I really want for myself, but yes I think that it is in my future. Thank you for your patience.”
Nurse Porter, Mrs. Simmons and Mr. Collins sat in the conference room watching the video from the Journalism dept. Mrs. Simmons had heard bits and pieces of what Janice told the girls at lunch from her sources and had arranged for this show to happen and for it to be taped.
“Well Sylvia, was Janice shooting straight, is she telling it like it is?” Mrs. Simmons asked.
“She seemed to be telling the truth. From what Dr. Spencer and Dr. Walker told me, she was telling it like it is. She is very knowledgeable about her condition and about what she said from a medical stand point. I am rather proud of her.”
“I am proud of her too; she has a lot of poise from what I could see. She’ll make an excellent Journalist, if she is given the chance.” Mr. Collins said.
“I think so too. It is hard to believe that all of that was impromptu, she had no warning. That is the main reason I believed it. We need to make sure she is equipped to face what ever she faces. I have already heard of a few possible problem areas. We need to look out for her and see that the teachers around her are above average and accepting. Mr. Dawson is going to edit that tape with the help of JD’s production and I plan on showing that at assembly tomorrow, third period.”
**********
After Janice finished and the lights softened, the students of her class came up on the stage and surrounded her. Some were closer than others.
Sandy O’Brian came up to her, “Janice I can’t believe you got up there and said all of that. I couldn’t have done it. That took more guts than I have seen in anybody at our school.”
“I was scared, I would have rather do the shootout again.”
“But you didn’t show it. Mr. Dawson told us what was going to happen. We knew from the grapevine about you already, but seeing you like this, is strange.”
“So this isn’t just some bullshit is it?” Clyde asked.
Janice’s cheeks flared at the bluntness of Clyde’s question, but she didn’t see any malice in his face. “No Clyde it isn’t, this is all me and this is how my body has been developing. How do you feel about this?”
“I just don’t know,” he said and walked away.
“Mr. Dawson threatened any student who went psycho over this, Janice. I think you’ll be alright,” Bill said. “You won’t get any problems from me at least, or from ninety percent of the Journalism class, I think. You know what is strange?”
“No, what?”
“The way you look now isn’t that much different than what you looked like a couple of weeks ago except for your makeup and the jewelry. Your clothes are nicer and fit for a change. I can see why you had to hide it. You look hot.”
“It hasn’t been easy, the girls in my crew had their suspicions, but they never said anything till a few weeks ago. I was surprised myself at what the girls did, and how I turned out.”
“How much money did you make off that news shot?” Tina Gregory asked.
“A little bit. I would rather not say.”
“I guess that means a little or a lot, but I don’t think it was a little. Nice clothes by the way. We will have to go shopping, if this is the kind of threads you wear now,” Tina said giggling and feeling the texture of the jacket.
“Ok kids, back to the classroom, we have some work to do. Greg, All the News is in the lab now, till the bell, Janice, JD’s productions is in the lab second hour. Bill, News Spies needs to do their proficiency check on the equipment. Sandy, Hot Shots have a studio production to present. Let’s go. ”
JD’s productions came into the lab to do their edit work, after the critique of the Hot Shots presentation of a fashion show. They did a four-minute segment, that showed many high school Juniors and Seniors walking a runway, at one of the malls. Sandy was the on screen person and she was somewhat interesting, albeit a little giggly doing it. Mr. Dawson gave them an A- for their work. Janice paid more attention to the presentation, than John would have, a couple of weeks ago.
Janice and Vanessa got together and planned the edit, with input from the others. Janice then got a script she had written for a studio intro into the shootout tape and practiced it. Mr. Dawson had told them to make it a ten minute segment, with a suitable spot for a commercial halfway in. Since they had already edited most of the video, it didn’t take them long to do the studio work and create a time line.
Anna softened Janice’s makeup a bit and fluffed Janice’s hair a bit more and then they were ready.
Vanessa informed Mr. Dawson, but he passed on being there while they taped. She came back in and cued everyone to get ready. On a four count they began. Janice gave her intro and talked a bit about the incident. Margaret keyed the video in. They went from live, to video three times, cued a commercial break, before Janice closed with her, “And that’s the way it happened.”
The four girls checked their work, looking it over twice. They were not allowed to make any changes, as it was suppose to simulate a live broadcast, but they liked what they saw. Janice’s script made more sense to them, than some of the anchors they had seen who did her story, to them at least, but then again they realized that they might be prejudiced.
They burnt five copies, each girl got one and they turned one into Mr. Dawson, who gave them a copy of Janice’s talk, after the last bell of the day rang.
“Let me get my car, wait about seven minutes and meet me at the parking lot, side entrance. Don’t let Janice wander around by herself,” Margaret said.
Janice looked a little miffed and said, “I am not a baby, and really the day went better than I suspected.”
“Yeah, your still in one piece, we want to make sure you stay that way,” Vanessa said. “But make it ten minutes, we need to hit our lockers, Margaret.”
“Make it fifteen then, I need to go to mine too.”
Vanessa and Anna escorted Janice to her locker. Janice looked surprised to see that it wasn’t defaced yet and got her things she needed. She then went to the other girls lockers.
Outside there were some students still milling around, but the parking lots were mostly deserted by the time they got into Margaret’s SUV.
“Today went better than I expected,” Janice said. “There were a few problems, but nothing I can’t live with.”
“Yeah, we were all surprised at how well things went,” Vanessa said. “Billy Jones broke up with me today. He said you had to be some kind of perv and he complained that I hadn’t been around for the last month. But losing him is no loss.”
“I am sorry Vanessa,” Janice said. From what she knew about Billy, she had to agree. Although he had the ability to be suave, he was kind of a punk and bully, to some of the guys at school.
“No big loss, the three of you are more important to me than him.”
“Joey said. It didn’t bother him. He had needed to catch up on some work, but he looks forward to spending more time with me,” Anna said.
“I am in between also, so I don’t have any problems right now,” Margaret said.
The girls came into Janice’s home and they started on their homework, as Janice got them some drinks and cookies.
They set about doing their homework, stopping only to help one of the others when they had a problem in one area or another. It took them about an hour and a half for all of them to finish. They sat and then talked about tomorrow for a short while, before they each had to go. Margaret told Janice that she would be by at seven thirty in the morning, to pick her up. They hugged and left.
Janice went to the kitchen and decided to fix dinner. She took what she learned, to plan and prepare a meal. It was funny she thought, that as John, she hadn’t ever considered doing that and Angela her Mom, never asked him to do that. John appreciated the work his Mom had done for him and kept the house as well as he could, but Janice wanted to do more for her Mom.
Janice found some pasta, a can of tomato sauce, some ground beef and started to work. She started by browning the ground beef, adding salt and pepper to taste. The pasta went into a pot of boiling water that had been salted and a bit of olive oil floated on the surface of the boiling water. She added garlic, basil and tomato sauce to the ground beef and started that cooking. She opened a can of green beans and started them in another pot. Then she drained the pasta and added it to the meat and sauce.
Her Mom came in and was drawn to the kitchen by the aromas. She tasted everything and made a few suggestions to Janice, before hugging her and heading to her room to change.
Janice set the table, prepared two plates of food and two iced teas. Her Mom came in, hugged and kissed her daughter and sat to eat.
“So Janice, how was your day, you have to tell me everything.”
Janice gave her Mom as complete a run down as possible, as they ate. She might have left out a thing or two, not to worry her, but she told her a lot about the good, the bad and the indifferent.
“Everything considered Mom, it went a lot better than I could have hoped for.”
“Mr. Dawson actually made you tell your story to the whole class.”
“Well, we are together for two hours Mom. I would have otherwise had to tell my story untold number of times, if I was asked individually. That gave me the opportunity to tell it once to everyone there. He recorded it and I have a copy, we can watch it after dinner.”
“I would like that Janice. By the way, good job on dinner honey, I was surprised.”
“Thank you. How did your day go Mom?”
“Strangely it went well. Madeline came to work with me and helped me get HR and our insurance sorted out on your change. My manager Paula Monroe and I, had a long talk. She was unusually supportive. I found out she had a cousin that went through the whole SRS business. Oh everybody just loved my new clothes, they were simply drooling over me. My coworkers helped me get up to speed on what I missed and were very interested to hear about you. Everyone wanted to know about your accident and I told them what I could without violating the confidentiality agreement. Some of them weren’t satisfied, but they all understood, when I said I couldn’t tell them more.”
“Wow, it almost seems like there was a big conspiracy to get me into skirts as easily as possible Mom,” Janice giggled.
“I think Madeline read everybody the riot act, like she did at school. It isn’t what she said, but there was the implied threat, if we were mistreated.”
“She can be scary. I need to give her a good hug whenever I see her. I can’t imagine going through all this without her support. I am so glad I have Madeline, Reggie, Helen, the girls and you most of all Mom, on my side.”
“I am so glad I have you as my child. You are the best thing that ever happened to me Janice.”
A tear welled in Janice’s eyes, her Mom saw it and came over and gave her a hug. “You’ll always have friends Janice. You’re just that kind of person. People just seem to take a liking to you naturally. There will always be those who don’t, but most will.”
After cleaning up the kitchen together, they went to the living room to watch the DVD and catch the news before bed. Janice watched intently to her story, checking out her performance, critiquing how well she did. Angela was amazed at the poise and candor Janice displayed, as she talked.
“Well Janice, it sounded like you were talking to a friend and telling them what was happening in your life. You showed a lot of candor and believability in your presentation. You appealed to the audiences’ humanity and that is good. I think you did very well.”
“In some ways I think it was better doing that on the spur of the moment. I would have fretted too long if I knew I had to do that hours ahead of time.”
“I think you’re right,” Angela said, checking her watch, “It is time for the news and then it is bed for both of us girls.”
“Ok Mom.”
End of Part 5
To Be Continued...
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon
She gave her hair and makeup a little more effort, especially to her eyes. She tried to copy her Mom’s work appropriate makeup job. She chose her jewelry, which consisted of simple hoops, a heart pendant on a silver chain, silver bangles and her watch. She kept her things in her black purse and made sure she had what she needed for the day.
She felt that she might have to appear in front of her fellow students today and wanted to look sharp. In truth, Janice really like to dress and look nice. John had never liked dressing shabbily, but he often looked very plain, dressed in oversized clothes. Janice liked to shine.
She got downstairs in time for a hug and an air kiss from her Mom, who whistled at her.
“Looks like I am going to have to work hard, to look as nice as my daughter.”
“No Mom, you are such a beautiful woman, I just want to dress to your standards.”
“Flattery will get you everywhere Janice. Got to run. Take care dear and I will see you tonight.”
“Ok Mom, I love you and you take care too.”
Janice had a bowl of cereal and a banana nut muffin, and then gathered her things for school. As a second thought, she got her camera case out and went ahead and wired her wireless mike underneath her cashmere tank. Margaret arrived about five minutes early and checked Janice over.
“You look great Janice.”
“You do too Margaret.”
“I just want you to feel more comfortable dressed as a girl. I see you got your mike wired.”
“Yes, I feel, I may have to speak again today. I am also bringing my camera to school today. If I do have to do it all over again, I want to be ready.”
Margaret hugged Janice and took the camera, as they headed to her car.
As they reached the school, Anna and Vanessa were together, waiting near the parking lot entrance. Margaret dropped Janice off there, before parking her car. Anna saw the camera case and relieved Janice of that burden. She and Vanessa were in Janice’s homeroom and first period.
They headed for their homeroom. The teacher was Ms. Alice Nelson and she taught government. Ms. Nelson smiled, as Janice entered. Janice started to hand her the letter that she showed her other teachers, but Ms. Nelson held up a memo.
Janice and her friends took their seats, and Ms. Nelson took roll after the bell rang.
“Class I am sure all of you know by now that John is now Janice Daniels. I expect you to treat her no differently than any other student at this school. Thank you.”
The Principle then came in over the intercom and made her usual morning announcements. Of particular notice was a general assembly called, after roll was taken, at third period.
After announcements and the bell rang, some students left and others came in. When the class began, Ms Nelson again made the announcement about Janice and then began to teach.
In second period, Ms. Middleton smiled as Janice, Margaret and Vanessa entered and took their seats. After roll was taken, Ms. Middleton passed out three hall passes to Janice, Vanessa and Margaret and told them that they were to leave at fifteen before the hour and go to the front office.
At the appropriate time, they were dismissed and went to the office. Anna was already there, when they arrived. At ten till, the girls were escorted to Ms. Simmons office. Mr. Dawson was already there.
“Hello girls, come on in and take a seat,” Ms. Simmons said. “Ms. Daniels, as you can probably guess, the assembly is about you. I want to play the presentation you made yesterday to the students and then give you a chance to say some words and I will close. Mr. Dawson will wire you up and then we will head on out.”
“I am already wired, Mr. Dawson, for mike channel two.”
“The Principal is on three and we will have a wireless hand held on channel one. Vanessa and Margaret, here is the DVD, head on up to the control room. Anna, you are on the hand held, down with the audience. We will do sound and video checks in five minutes, and assembly will start in fifteen minutes.”
Anna took the hand held mike and followed Mr. Dawson, Ms. Simmons and Janice to the schools assembly hall. The projection screen had already been lowered and after a quick check of the various mikes, Mr. Dawson headed up to the control room, while Janice and Ms. Simmons headed off stage.
In minutes after a bell rang, the assembly hall began to fill, and the noise level rose. It took fifteen minutes for the students to fill the large hall. Ms Simmons went out on the stage and the hall’s noise level dropped a bit.
“Good Morning, I want to welcome you all here today. We have a special program for you. As most, or all of you know, we have a student that has brought this school some acclaim, over the past couple of weeks. I am sure that all of you know, or have heard rumors that John Daniels is now Janice Daniels,” Ms. Simmons said. There were a few hecklers, but the teachers in the audience handled them effectively. “I want to assure you that they are not rumors. I want all of you to know, without a doubt, that Janice is now a student here and that you should treat her with the same respect you would treat any other student and that no breach of decorum will be tolerated.
We have a twenty minute presentation, where Janice tells her story. She will then make a statement and possibly answer intelligent, well thought out questions.
Again, I want to emphasize, I expect you to be on your best behavior during this assembly. Thank you.”
On cue, the lights dimmed and the projector came on. The crowd hushed and for twenty minutes Janice was on the screen. Not everyone paid attention, there were the usual whispering, notes passed, paper airplanes sailing, an occasional kiss and grope among the students, but generally the students paid attention to the presentation.
After the presentation finished, Ms. Simmons returned to the stage. “I think Janice competently stated her case and was very factual about her situation. Now we will hear from her, I expect you to treat her with respect. Janice,” Ms. Simmons indicating for her to come on stage.
Janice turned her wireless mike on and walked on stage. She stood beside Ms. Simmons and faced the assembly.
“I am not sure if you have more to add. Your presentation was very well done and informative. Do you have anything you want to add.”
“Yes Ma’am,” she said turning to the students. “I want to thank you for how you have treated me so far. I know that this is a bit much for many of you to understand. I can’t blame you for feeling that way. I know there are some who can’t accept the changes I have gone through. I am not asking to be best buddies with you, or to force myself on any of you in any way.
I am asking you for a chance to be myself. I want to finish my education here and be allowed to be active as a student. I do need one thing and that is friends, not boyfriends or girlfriends, just friends.
I hope to bring honor to this school. I didn’t set out to be on national news, or to make a splash, but that is too late now, so I will make the best out of the cards that I have been dealt.
“Do any of you have any questions?”
One guy stood and called out, “I don’t believe any of that rot, it can’t be true.”
“I can’t help that, I find it hard to believe myself, but it is true.”
Another guy shouted something about sucking. He got shouted down, by some of the other students.
“Mr. Boyd, I recognize your voice. I expect to see you at my office and you can expect a one week suspension,” Ms. Simmons said. “I expect you to keep it civil, not agree with Ms. Daniels.”
The students did keep it civil and Janice did answer some more questions. All in all the assembly had not been bad.
“Now you have heard from Janice. I now have a few more things to say. Because of Janice’s appearance on TV, we have been the recipients of three grants. All of you know that money has been tight for the last few years. These grants will provide more money for boys’ and girls’ athletics, expansion of the Journalism Department, our Computer Resources and extra curricular activities. Clubs and organizations at school may apply for an expansion of their budgets for us to consider, on a case by case basis.
We are not trying to buy your compliance to regulations, but it will be noted which groups, are more tolerant and cooperative.
Seniors hoping to graduate this June, should also take note of the lateness of the year.
Like Janice, I know there are some who think this is a joke, some don’t like it and some who even hate it. We aren’t asking you to like it, we are asking that you be tolerant. Intolerance will be met with intolerance. Violence or hatred directed to Ms. Daniels or any other student here, will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. That is all I will say on that subject.
I want to thank all of you for your continued cooperation and hope that we will have a prosperous year for all of us. Thank you, you may go to your fourth period classes.”
Ms. Simmons had a few more words for Janice, as they both shut off their wireless mikes. Afterwards she went to her locker and got the things she needed for fourth period. She was a few minutes late getting to fourth period, but she had been given a hall pass by Ms. Simmons.
“It’s so good that you were able to join us Msssssss. Daniels,” Ms Smart said sarcastically, slurring the Ms. for emphasis.
Janice felt like the temperature dropped thirty degrees in thirty seconds. As she took her seat in the computer lab and called up her files. She saw Stacy and Debby smile at her as she started to work.
Janice finished her going over her program; she saved a copy to the server and burnt a copy, which she put in her purse. She then ran it through the compiler. When she first ran the executable file, it went thirty seconds before crashing. She checked some more and found a missing operand. She corrected that and took another shot.
She went back and forth several times before it seemed to work the way it was suppose to. She saved and burned a copy of her work as the teacher gave them a warning.
Debby and Stacy went with Janice to her locker, chatting about this and that, before heading to lunch. The three of them sat with Janice’s other friends. They talked about the assembly and Janice’s computer class.
“Yeah Ms. Smart is ultra religious,” Debby said. “She reads her bible during her off time in the teachers lounge, I was told.”
“I use to like her, but if that is the only thing she does, I have no problem with her. I never figured that I would win a popularity contest over this.”
“I think she will be fair, even if she doesn’t like you,” Stacy said. “But check your back for knives everyday.”
“So, is Ms. Smart giving you the blues, Janice?” Vanessa asked.
“No, but she is awfully catty to me when I come in her class. You can tell that she doesn’t appreciate my presence there.”
Vanessa, Margaret and Anna escorted Janice to one of the restrooms she could use. They took turns using the two stalls and fixing their faces.
History went well; Ms Wainwright kept the class hopping, as she always does. It kept the students from talking or passing notes.
In Journalism, JD’s Productions was up. They showed the work they had edited in the Lab the day before. Janice stood in front of the class and introduced their work, while Margaret ran the footage.
At the end Mr. Dawson asked, “You edited this footage yourselves right?”
“Yes Mr. Dawson. Everybody has probably already seen most of it, but we included scenes that didn’t leave most TV stations edit rooms, and the Copy I wrote.”
“Good, just had to ask,” Mr. Dawson said, as he turned to the class. “Questions, comments, criticism.”
There was a lively discussion of the presentation by all present. It was almost entirely positive, but not a student made a comment about John/Janice. Mr. Dawson had made it abundantly clear that that was off limits. Even Chad had intelligent questions.
After all questions were answered, Mr. Dawson addressed the class, “I am giving this production an A. This is JD’s Productions last production. I suggest you get with these four students and get them to help your groups, if you don’t have an A for the semester. They have shown that they can produce good work. I am sure they can help you. Next we have a presentation by All the News.”
Students began moving after Mr. Dawson finished talking. Greg Harmon, with All the News, got up and introduced their piece. They did a piece on a school board meeting. They started with excerpts of the meeting and finished with some interviews, with some board members and a few with some of the audience.
They again had a lively discussion about the All the News piece. They had been a little rushed at times, but they presented well, the piece was informative and Greg seemed to know what he was talking about.
“Very good job, All the News. An A- performance. You were a little rushed, but well done at least,” Mr. Dawson said. “Now Sports Unlimited is in the lab, News Spies to equipment check out. Hot Shots and Payne’s World, needs to plan their next piece. Let’s go.”
The members of JD’s Production were each tagged for assistance. Mr. Dawson told them they couldn’t do the actual work for other groups, but could give advice and opinions. Margaret was taken by Hot Shots, Vanessa by Sports Unlimited, Anna by All the News and Janice by Payne’s World.
Payne’s World needed the most help. They held a C+ to B- average. They just didn’t have anyone with the talent to tell a story and were a little weak in editing the material. Janice suggested that Tom Spires take the on screen Job. He had been behind the camera so far and was a pretty fair camera operator.
She had problems with their choice of stories, but found one, an outdoors show, that she knew that Tom could handle. It didn’t take too much to convince them to make those changes, they were really desperate. There was to be a outdoors show this weekend.
Ginny, one of the girls said, “Don’t News Spies have the cameras this weekend?”
“They are checking out 2 cams, there is still one of the old TV station cameras and I have one a lot like the new camera. If you want, I will go with you to do your shoot and let one of you use my camera.”
“Too bad you can’t be our on screen person, Janice,” Tom said.
“Come on, you know more about outdoors stuff than I do. Just get online and find out what is going to be showcased and get an idea of what you want to show us,” Janice said.
“Ok, we have three days to work that out, Craig, you should take a look at Janice’s camera. Ginny, Rebecca and I will get on the internet now,” Tom said.
Janice showed Craig her camera and began checking him out on it.
“Wow, this is your camera? When did you get it?”
“Yep it is mine. I just got it this week; let’s just say it was for a job well done.”
“I can believe that. You aint shitting us about all of this are you?”
“I wish I was, but tell me what you see. Does it look like I am shitting you?”
“You look like Margaret, or any of the girls. Some of the guys were wondering still.”
Janice began to check out Craig on her camera. He was a little tentative at first, he knew how much those things cost and didn’t want to hurt it.
“Come on Craig, it isn’t made of egg shells, you won’t break it if you take care of it.”
“I know, but it’s got to be worth twelve grand at least.”
“Nineteen, but who is counting,” Janice said giggling.
“Wooow, that really must have been some good job,” Craig said, clearly impressed.
Craig started to get use to using the camera and was pretty sure of his actions. Janice didn’t show him all the bells and whistles, she didn’t know them all. She did know how to use it enough to get the job done. She thought she really needed to learn more about it.
Just before the end of class, they all got together and discussed what they found.
“Ok this is a ten minute presentation,” Janice said, “You can pick one area, or do small parts on each area for your presentation. I think it would be better to do small parts on each area. You won’t have time to fall into a rut in any one area. It is more work to plan and you will have to really know enough about each segment to sound intelligent, but it will work better. I think,” Janice said.
“I think you’re right Janice,” Tom said. He then divided up the show and gave each person a segment to research.
Tom surprised Janice, once she got him out front, he seemed to take control. That was something Payne’s World sorely needed, a leader.
At the bell, Janice got back together with the girls and in a pack they headed for the lockers. Margaret left, after hitting her locker, to get the car, while the others hit their lockers. They found Margaret waiting for them near the exit. They all got in and started to drive off.
At the exit to the parking lot, two men blocked their way out, Margaret tried to drive around and the guys moved to block. Janice saw a press pass hanging from one guy’s belt.
“Margaret call Mr. Dawson, Vanessa be ready to call 9-1-1, Anna take my camera and record this and I am going to find out what this is all about. I am still wire for sound honk if it doesn’t come through,” Janice said.
All the girls got busy doing what they were instructed and Janice stepped out of the car. Anna put the camera on the dash and viewed things on the view screen with an ear piece in her ear.
“We are on our way home and you are blocking us,” Janice said. “What do you think you are doing?”
“John Daniels,” the one with the press pass asked hesitantly, “You are John Daniels I believe.”
“No I am Janice Daniels legally. Why are you detaining us?”
“I am Raymond Johnson, a reporter. I am here to interview you, Mr. Daniels.”
“Your eyesight must be pretty bad, and I don’t want to be interviewed by whatever scandal rag you represent.”
“We will report what we know, Mr. Daniels we just want your side of the story. A boy pretending to be a female reporter will be big.”
“No matter what I say you will twist it, so I don’t intend to give you anything. Now we need to get home, please get out of our way.”
“Not until I confirm some things. Why are you pretending to be a girl?”
“Get out of our way! Let us go!”
“No way!”
Janice turned and walked away. Mr. Johnson grabbed her arm, but Janice just jerked her arm out of his grasp and got back in the car. The other guy stood at the front bumper and another they hadn’t seen stood at the back bumper, while Mr. Johnson stood tapping on Janice’s window, trying to get her to roll it down.
Seconds later the school’s security vehicle rolled up followed by a police cruiser. The arriving officers moved the guy’s away from the car. Mr. Dawson and Ms. Simmons arrived on scene together. Mr. Johnson was hollering at the cops about freedom of the press and all kinds of other rights.
Ms. Simmons motioned the girls to get out and come over to her. She asked them what this was all about. Janice got her camera out and showed them what they recorded. Ms. Simmons and Mr. Dawson could see and hear what had transpired.
A police Sgt. arrived and he was shown the tape. He drew Ms. Simmons aside and asked her a question. She pointed to a point on the pavement and said something to the Sgt.
He then came over to the girls and asked to check Janice’s arm. He then asked, “Did these men impede you girls in any manner?”
“Yes!” they all said at the same time.
“We are arresting them and charging them with assault, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, I need to know if you want them charged with kidnapping? They impeded your progress, Ms. Daniels was grabbed and they refused to allow you girls to leave.”
Everyone looked at Janice, she just shook her head no.
“Alright, I still need that tape, and the charges may be upgraded later. A Detective will be by to take statements from each of you, if you will wait by my car.”
Janice downloaded the video to her laptop and burnt a DVDR for the Sgt. She still had everything on a card too.
The Sgt walked over to where the three men were being held and said to them, “You men are being charged with assault, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct by the school district. Each of you stepped on school district property, without authorization. You may also be charged with kidnapping at a later time.” The Sgt. turned to one of his officers and said, “Read them their rights Bret and make sure they know em.”
All three men were turned towards a police cruiser. They were patted down cuffed and had their rights read to them, before being placed unceremoniously in the back of the cruiser.
A Detective arrived and took statements from everybody. After seeing the tape and photographing Janice’s arm, he told them, “The DA will have a look at this tape. He may yet prefer charges of kidnapping against the men, all the elements of kidnapping are there, especially with all four of you being minors. We may be contacting each of you later. You may be on the cover of the National Scandal next week. I know that jerk. I am glad to get him in cuffs on something he can’t worm his way out of.”
Parents started to arrive starting with Helen, then Madeline, Reggie and Angela. They talked to Ms. Simmons, Mr. Dawson and the girls. Anna showed them the video they had on cards. They then talked to the Detective who was still there. Madeline convinced them that the kidnapping charges should be included, which would more than likely be bargained down to Unlawful Restraint if they plead guilty. That would give the DA some leverage to get them to plead.
Madeline suggested that everybody come to her home after they gave their statements.
Soon the cops made their exit taking the journalists with them. The parents with their children left and drove over to Madeline’s home. They gathered in her living room.
“I was expecting something like this. In some ways it is good that it’s happening sooner rather than latter,” Madeline said.
“How so?” Angela asked.
“Well it will be news only for so long. It times well with Janice coming out to her classmates. If it happened later, it would just start things up all over again.”
“But come Friday it will be on the Scandal Rags cover now too.” Janice said.
“That was bound to happen, Janice. If it happened this Friday, the next, or the one after that, it was bound to happen anyway.”
“Yeah, I know your right. I think I can steal their thunder. I can come out tomorrow and let everyone know.”
“The Paper we signed said we can’t do that Janice,” Angela said.
“No, it said they can’t do that Mom. Nothing in it says I can’t.”
“She is right, Angela. If she is going to be news it would be better to do it on her own terms,” Madeline said. “The news people won’t crucify her like that scandal rag will.”
“I know how I can do it Mom, trust me.”
“Ok I don’t like it, but I see your point.”
“Should we pull our daughters out of the interview tomorrow,” Helen asked.
“I don’t think so, Janice needs her supporters, it would look strange if they didn’t show up,” Madeline said.
“We got her into this Mom. We are going to stand by her through it,” Vanessa said.
The parents got together and talked about what had happened a bit more. Janice talked to her friends and outlined what she was thinking. The girls agreed that that is what she should do. Janice practiced answering questions put out by her friends to see where she could insert her answer.
They then talked clothing, “Well I am going to wear my Armani,” Janice said.
“I can wear a suit too,” Margaret said. “I have a black suit that won’t clash with you.”
“I have a blue suit, it may not be as nice but I will fit in with you two,” Anna said. “How about you, Vanessa?”
“Well I don’t know, I have a skirt/jacket combo I could wear.”
“I know which one you mean, that grey/green thing. You are about my size let me see what is in my closet.” Margaret said, as she went over to her closet. She dug around and searched through the hanging clothes. “Here it is,” she said, pulling out a red suit. “Anna, get some hose and a Basque from my drawers, we need to take a couple of inches off Vanessa’s waist.” Margaret dug around for a blouse to go with the suit.
“No, I don’t think so.” Vanessa said.
“So it is good enough for me, but not for you Vanessa,” Janice said teasingly her.
Vanessa grimaced and scowled at her friends, but said, “Oh all right, I will at least try it on.”
Vanessa took off her clothes except for the panties and her friends helped her into her undies. Vanessa had a twenty-six inch waist and needed to go down to twenty-four. The Basque really popped out her breasts as they filled and then overflowed the cups of the Basque, giving her more cleavage than she ever had. The gauzy appearance of the material, masked its ability to constrain. Vanessa wanted to complain as it was tightened, but held her tongue as she realized that Janice would be cinched in tighter tomorrow.
When they tied it off and attached the garters and hose, Vanessa stepped back to take a look in the mirror. Her jaw dropped as she saw just how sexy she appeared. The red lace of the Basque made her body look better than she ever remembered. She blushed as she saw her navel and the color of her nipples through the gossamer material. But her eyes stopped at her panties, “My panties don’t match.” They did kind of spoil the effect.
“We can correct that, we will need to get you shoes to match too, mine are too small for you.” Margaret said, as she helped Vanessa with a camisole and a white chiffon blouse. She did have the smallest feet of those present.
Vanessa then pulled on the skirt, tucking her blouse beneath its waistband. Then she pulled on the jacket. Margaret picked out some suitable jewelry, while Anna worked on her hair and makeup. Anna had fluffed and teased Vanessa’s hair more than it had ever been. She also did her best to match her makeup with the suit. She spent an inordinate amount of time on Vanessa’s eyes trying to get them just right. Janice just stood back taking it all in. She loved the look they were creating on her friend.
When the girls were finished Vanessa again stood in front of the mirror. Her eyes got big as she looked at herself. She wasn’t unfamiliar with dressing to look good and it was true she didn’t do it often, but she looked better than she could ever remember. Her eyes got big as saucers and her mouth hung open. The clothes just felt so right to her too.
“Well how did we do Vanessa?” Anna asked.
“I just don’t know what to say. I look super.”
“Yes you do Anna, I think you look super sexy, but ready for business also,” Janice said.
“Come on girls we need to hit the mall,” Margaret said, dumping Vanessa’s purse into a matching red purse.
Anna helped Vanessa into her trainers, they would have to do till they hit the shoe store. Vanessa wanted to change into her other clothes, but the girls wouldn’t hear of it. Janice broke out in giggles hearing that.
Margaret told the mothers, “We need to hit the mall a bit to get something for tomorrow.”
“Ok,” Madeline said, smiling as she saw Vanessa.
Helen’s Mom also caught the flash of red trying to hid from her, “Vaannneeessa is that you?” she said slightly confused.
Vanessa felt caught like a rat, “Yes Mom.”
“Come here dear, let me look. Oh my, you look lovely dear.”
“That is a lovely suit for you Vanessa, too bad Margaret is a little too broad for it now.”
Margaret was an inch shorter than Vanessa and broader in the hips too, but to say that she had outgrown that outfit was stretching the truth a bit.
“Yeah Mom, I intend to give it to Vanessa, if that is ok with you that is.”
“Of course it is and seeing her in it, she looks nicer in it than it ever did on you. That would be ok Helen, wouldn’t it? I mean, Margaret’s closets are just overflowing. Anna is two sizes too big; Vanessa is the closest, I would love to see some of her things go to her friends.”
Helen started to object, she didn’t like charity, but her daughter looked so lovely. “I guess, as long as they don’t overdo it.”
Janice whispered a, “Yes.” and Vanessa groaned, “No,” inwardly, but at the same time she was intrigued.
“Ok girls, don’t be too long. You will need to get to sleep early to get up early,” Madeline said.
The girls piled into Margaret’s SUV and headed off to the mall.
“I wish we had time to play Barbie with Vanessa, after all, you three played Barbie with me,” Janice said.
“Nope, won’t happen,” Vanessa said.
“Yeah right, that is what John said if I remember correctly,” Anna said, giggling, “You can see where it got him.”
“Yeah, it’s my turn to have some fun, that is what girls do isn’t it?”
At the mall they hit the shoe stores, they found a pair of red pumps that matched the suit, but they had a four-inch heel. Janice, Anna and Margaret insisted that she get them, along with a couple of more pair of heels, with a lower heel of course, that matched outfits Margaret planned on giving to Vanessa.
From the shoe store they went to the lingerie store. Although Vanessa had all the requisite lingerie, it was rather plain; at least to her friends. They went through and decided that she needed a definite upgrade. Vanessa, they found out, was a thirty four C and a size five. The bra’s she had been wearing tended to minimize her appearance and the bra’s her friends helped select, tended to maximize her assets. Her old panties were like the ones many girls wear and could only be called serviceable. The new stuff they picked out were dazzling displays of colors, lace, silks and satins. Yes they did get her some that were an embarrassingly close match to the material of the Basque. Janice had fun helping and the girls treated her no differently than they did each other.
Margaret and Anna were glad that they were working on Vanessa now. They weren’t unhappy by what she wore before, but they saw what she could become. She could well afford the new clothes with what they had earned now. They got her into some new shoes and lingerie the rest could wait till another day.
Madeline called and told the girls to pick up four pizzas and head on home. She told them they were going to get some of Margaret’s things and then they were going to head on over to Anna’s. Madeline said she would explain things when they got there.
They hurried out of the mall to a pizzeria that was nearby and ordered four large pizzas.
At home they found Madeline waiting, she said, “Good you girls got back. Oh Vanessa I just love those heels on you, where did you get them?”
“The Shoe Express, Mrs. Bradford,” Vanessa said, “I can already see why Janice has complained about some of the shoes we had her wear.”
“But they look so good on you. That suit really does wonders for you dear. Alright, now down to business, Margaret grab your suit and the things you need for tomorrow. All of you are going to Anna’s to spend the night. Reggie is going to do your hair and makeup girls. She will start at about four-thirty AM on you Janice, you are a morning person and then hit the rest of you one at a time. So you need to eat, shower and get to bed soon as possible girls.”
Janice swore Madeline said that on one breath, what is it with girls, they can say so much in such a short period of time. Instead of wondering the girls snapped to action. They got Margaret’s things, headed back to the car and over to Anna’s.
They ate their pizzas and they took turns showering while they ate. Reggie and Angela dug in and ate their fill also.
Reggie began rolling hair; she had enough rollers for three girls. She did Margaret’s, Vanessa’s and Janice’s. Anna’s would be the easiest for her to do in the morning. As she finished one head, she shooed them off to sleep and began the next head.
End of Part 6
To Be Continued...
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon
All seems to be going well... but is that too much to hope for.
Anna got up as her watch beeped and started breakfast. By five ten everyone was up and eating or getting their hair done. They then quickly started helping each other get ready.
The other mothers showed up a little worse for the wear due to the early hour, but as the coffee flowed their spirits and their moods lifted.
The girls all got their makeup done and after a final inspection by the mothers, they headed to their respective vehicles for the drive to the station. They arrived at the station at ten minutes to seven.
The girls were all wired with mikes and earphones. The makeup girl gave them thumbs up on their hair and only adjusted the makeup a little. In the studio they did sound checks on all their mikes. Studio lighting was set and adjusted. Video links to New York were established and communication check, between the two sets.
The girls were told to watch the monitors as New York went live. Their story was to be the second one of this hour, so they sat back and watched.
Andrea Edwards, Timothy Niles and Albert Reese, the hosts, introduced the first story. They introduced their first story, welcomed their guests, showed some video and then interviewed them about their subject. During that time they had one commercial break and a blurb about what was coming up next. The girls were given a three-minute notice. Last minute checks were made of the girl’s appearance and the stage was set.
Andrea: “Now we go to a story that many of you have already seen, (Video in the background of the city council meeting ending with the street shots). Four young ladies went out to shoot a video for a class project, for their high school journalism class.
They had done a piece on an important city council meeting and were shooting some background pieces to emphasize the problem. They had just finished, when things began to happen and they were there to witness and record them (footage of the robbery attempt began). As you can see, when the shooting began they sprang into action, documenting and commenting on the action. For over forty minutes they continued to work the story. The robbery turned siege ended, with the swat team assaulting the would be robbers. I have to say Tim; I would be hard pressed to find better coverage of a live, ongoing news story than this.”
Tim: “I agree Andrea, they did a great job. They showed an insight and courage you hope to see in any journalist. On top of that, all four members of that production team are just sixteen years old. Now that is amazing.”
Albert: “Yes they were amazing, when most people would turn and run away, or find some place safe to hunker down, which is what I would hope most people would do at a scene like this. They stayed and faithfully recorded this event from the first shot till the last shot. Now we have a treat for the viewers, after this commercial break, we get to meet the four young ladies who shot this amazing footage.”
(One monitor showed the live feed and another showed the studio in New York. They were given a five count, at the end of the commercial and a return to the studio.)
Back in the studio Andrea said, “Welcome back, we are going live to our affiliate station where these four girls are waiting. Janice Davies, the brilliant on screen personality, is there waiting for us. (The light on the studio camera went green, showing a live feed.) Janice, will you please introduce yourself and your talented production team.”
Janice: “Hi, I am Janice Davies. These are the other members of my production team and my best friends. To my right is Margaret Bradford, audio, editing and producer, to my left is Vanessa Sebring, our editor, director and camera operator and behind me is Anna Givens, camera operator, makeup and lighting expert, together we are JD’s Productions.”
Tim: “Well it is good to meet all of you. How are all of you doing today?”
Janice: “We are doing very good considering how early we had to get up to get ready for today.”
Andrea: “That is understandable; the news never sleeps; some of us like to say. Tell us, how did you and your team come to be there to shoot that news story?”
Here goes nothing Janice thought. “Well, it started out like this. I really love Journalism. I look forward to one day being a TV journalist. My associates and I went out that day to see if I could make it.
You see I have a problem. I was born a male and due to a medical problem, I will never mature as a male. My body reacted violently when I was given a shot of male hormones to try to jumpstart my maturation. I was hospitalized and I had an immunological reaction to my own body’s male hormones. That left me unable to mature as a male. My body deprived of male hormones slowly began to feminize.
So I was stuck, I didn’t think an androgynous guy make it in the news industry. My friends wanted me to see if I could make it as a woman.”
(In her earpiece Janice heard: New York says to keep going, girl. One minute and then back to New York.)
“My friends here worked with me to help me learn how to act like a girl and taught me many of the things girls do naturally. I learned to do my hair, makeup, matching clothes and how to shop. That was fun. Then they got their heads together and thought that I should try to do a news shoot as a woman. We hunted in the newspapers for a news item we could do and found the city council meeting. We researched the story, learned what the sides and issues were. Then we made our plans and went out that day to shoot that story, with me in a feminine role. During our shoot, the robbery took place. The rest is history.”
Andrea smiled at the camera and said. “Well that really is an amazing story. Why are you coming out to the nation here live on TV?”
Janice: “I felt like I had to, Andrea. I recently had a run in with a scandal rag reporter. I knew I wouldn’t get a fair break from him. He would have sensationalized the story for the biggest shock factor. So I felt like I really had to come out.”
Albert: “So are you living as a woman now Janice?”
“Yes Albert, I am living full time as a woman and will continue to do so. I am now legally a female. I just hope I will have a chance to make it in my chosen field.”
Andrea: “Well, if you show such candor and poise as in the robbery and this interview, I see no reason that we might not be working together in the future. I want to thank you and your friends for being here with us today and good luck,”
“Thank You,” they all said.
Albert: “Coming up next…” (The live feed light turned off, the studio lights dim. A voice said, “Good job girls,”)
Jack Williams the station manager met them as they moved off set saying, “Good job girls, I clued New York in about that reporter. They were half expecting that you would come out. I think you did a good job of telling your story in a limited amount of time. If nobody else will hire you, you can always come back here. I need good people like all of you girls are.”
Sam came up and said, “I don’t care if you had an eye in the back of your head, you’re ok by me. Do come back after you graduate from college, we’ll hire you.”
A woman came up to Sam and handed him some paper. He looked at them. “You girls have three emails from Andrea, Tim and Albert,” he said, handing them the paper.
The girls and their mothers gathered around Janice as she read them out loud.
“Andrea says: I can’t imagine how difficult that was for you to do. I know how you must have agonized over it. You did a good job and I wish the best for you.”
“Tim says: I don’t care what anybody may say to you, I think you and your friends have what it takes. Good luck.”
“Albert says: If you do as good a job as you did today, forget the robbery, this was more difficult, I know you will make it. Good luck.”
Jack Williams was handed a note and said. “The switchboards really lit up during your interview. Eighty-four percent are favorable, and sixteen percent are negative. That is excellent given that people who are neutral wouldn’t even bother calling. We will be forwarding any mail or responses to Madeline Bradford, girls. So look forward to more mail and email.”
The girls and their families said their good byes and stepped outside.
“What’s next?” Vanessa asked.
“Well, You, Margaret and Anna go back to school,” Madeline said.
“Oh, do we hafto?” the girls said.
“Yes you have too.”
Angela turned to Janice and said, “You have two doctor’s appointments, a driving test and suit fittings. We need to move it.”
Janice drove to the state licensing office. She filled out the required forms, waited in a line, turned the paperwork in, waited in line and then took her driving test. She was very nervous as she drove, but she was reasonably certain she passed. The trooper looked cross at her for a few seconds and her heart sank.
“I hate to tell you this ma’am but you passed. Don’t let me catch you drinking and especially drinking and driving. You hear,” he said finally cracking a smile.
“Mom would kill me if I did. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Then I don’t want to investigate your death at the hands of your Mom. You did real good, the only problem you had was, you took too long to parallel park. Other than that, you were perfect. You scored a ninety four.”
Janice went inside to turn in her paperwork, have her picture taken and got her temporary driver’s license. The clerk didn’t even bat an eye as she was shown the paperwork to change the listed sex from male to female. She just looked up and continued typing.
Janice then went to see Dr. Spencer. They just took blood, blood pressure, temperature, weight, asked her if she had any problems, gave her another shot and a new prescription. They also had her make weekly appointments for the next two months, on Wednesdays, at four.
They then went to Dr. Godwin’s office. She was embarrassed a little, having to undress and dress in a paper examination gown. The doctor inspected the area of the incision and tuck.
“Everything is looking good, Janice. The bruising is starting to fade and you are healing well. Keep using you antiseptic cream, the panty liners for a week, and keep yourself dry there. Call me when you are ready for SRS, I do very good work. I think you will like it.”
Their last stop for the day was Monica’s Boutique. Monica smiled as they entered and greeted them warmly.
“Are you ready to choose your other suits Janice?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Good, just let Sharon mark that Armani for alteration. You have your DKNY to wear home and you can choose two more suits.”
Sharon got busy marking the suit. She marked to pull it in on the waist in both the skirt and jacket. She left room for Janice to grow in the bust and hips. Janice found a tan Versace suit that looked good on her and a Ralph Lauren jacket and skirt, in a saddle brown, that looked smashing on her. It looked so good; she insisted that her Mom try the same outfit on. Angela was led kicking and screaming into the fitting room, (not really, but she wanted too) and tried the clothes on. She started to protest as she modeled the clothes, but when she stood next to Janice and saw how they both looked, she gave in.
Janice then had to get purses and shoes for all her suits. She got a pair of Navy pumps, for the DKNY, saddle brown pumps, to match her Ralph Lauren and a pair of cream colored pumps, for her Versace. The pumps had heels of between three and four inches.
Monica was so happy to have sold five suits that she gave them some hosiery, matching broaches, for mother and daughter, and scarves to go with their outfits. She made out like a bandit in the end, but she really liked Janice.
The Versace and Ralph Lauren needed fitting. Angela and Janice took turns getting their outfits marked. Then Janice changed into her DKNY suit and pumps, while her Mom got dressed in the clothes she had worn there. Sharon told them to come back tomorrow and pick them up.
They stopped and ate at a restaurant before heading home.
Janice had to call the girls to get her homework. They only had a couple of things for her to do, so she was able to get that out of the way. She had also told Margaret that she had passed her driving test and would drive herself tomorrow.
**************
Janice drove carefully to school the next day. She got there early, so she could park her car near the gatehouse, which sat on the school property. The school locked down the parking lot to protect the student’s vehicles and to keep the students from slipping away without permission. They had very little crime on campus, but this was her first car. She didn’t want to take any chances.
She got her purse, camera case and her backpack, with her books and met her friends at their usual spot. The girls made her tell them all about what Janice and her Mom did, after they left. She had to describe in detail the outfits she chose.
At the bell they headed into school. She could still hear a buzz as they walked through the halls, but it didn’t seem malicious. She found that certain people still gave her a lot of room and she had a few more girls around her.
Her classes paid little attention to her, which was just fine. She didn’t want to be noticed anymore than necessary. Ms. Smart was just as ‘catty’ towards her as before, but she didn’t harass her openly.
The group around her at lunch was a little larger, again mostly girls. They wanted to know more about her. Janice tried to appease them with bits and pieces. She didn’t want to tell her whole life story, but she wanted as many people on her side as possible.
In Journalism, she met with the four students of Payne’s World. They batted ideas around a bit, till Janice had a brilliant idea.
“What if Ginny and Rebecca were dressed in swimsuits and other appropriate clothing. We could get Tom and one of the girls in a boat, another in a canoe, climbing the rock wall they have, a camping scene and a hiking scene,” Janice said.
“That is a great idea,” Tom said. “We could cover just about all the areas that we are interested in. We might need to run that by Mrs. Elaine Smith, she is the one that approved us coming in for the shoot.”
Rebecca got her cell phone out and called Mrs. Smith. She ran the idea by her as best she could, but got frustrated and handed the phone to Janice.
Janice explained who she was and that she was working with Payne’s World on this shoot. Mrs. Smith knew about Janice from TV and convinced her to come to the convention center tomorrow with Payne’s World and to bring her crew, if she could. She ran it by Mr. Dawson, who approved the idea and agreed to let them go there after they checked in and checked out the equipment they would need.
She checked with Anna, Margaret and Vanessa about tomorrow and about coming to her house after school. She talked with the kids of Payne’s world and invited them to join her crew, at her home after school.
Craig rode with Tom, he had a Nissan 300ZX and it only had room for two. Ginny, Rebecca and Vanessa rode with Janice, and Anna rode with Margaret.
Janice and Anna brought drinks and snacks for everyone. They sat down and started kicking ideas around. Ginny and Rebecca took loads of notes. They went through the material the convention center provided them, on who and what would be there and tried to cover the show as well as they could. They tried to create a time line for a five-minute presentation that covered as many of the areas as possible and yet still provided the people with as much detail as possible.
Angela was a little surprised to see another car outside her home. She knew Margaret’s but the sports car she hadn’t seen before. She picked up her Ralph Lauren outfit and headed inside. Instead of four kids, there were eight gathered around the dinner table talking. She told Janice to get her suits out of the car.
The girls’ ears perked up when they heard suits and went with her to get them. They found three suits and an empty suit bag. Ginny and Rebecca were really interested when they saw Monica’s Boutique on the suit bags. Janice had to take the suits out of the bag and hang them on the door so the girls could look and see what she got.
They went straight to the labels to begin their appraisal. They also checked the fabrics and linings.
“I can’t afford a shopping bag from Monica’s Boutique and you have four suits. That’s not fair Janice,” Rebecca said. There was enough humor in her voice to show that she was just kidding. She was jealous, but not spitefully so.
“You have got to wear that Versace to school tomorrow, Janice. We all need to look good for Mrs. Smith,” Ginny said. “That includes the guys. If we are going to dress up, they are going to dress up, or we’ll kill them.”
They all joined the guys, Ginny and Rebecca read Tom and Craig the riot act about dressing up. The guys surrendered and promised that they would be in their Sunday best. At five thirty the kids departed, Margaret drove the girls home and Craig rode with Tom.
Janice told her Mom about the convention center wanting to meet with them. She said that it would be alright as long as she knew where she would be. She told Janice to call or text her if she was going to be late, or had to go somewhere else. Janice said that she would.
Janice set her alarm a half hour earlier than usual, so she could get ready. She went ahead and set her purse up with the things she would need. Then she set some things out so she wouldn’t have to worry about them. She showered and had her Mom lace her in a corset down to twenty-three inches.
***************
When Janice woke, she worked herself out of that corset and cleaned up a bit. She worked on her hair and makeup, and then began dressing. She laced herself into a corset, and had her Mom tighten it down to twenty-four inches; she then added some suntan hose. She wore her padded brief and gel bra pads. She dressed in a baby blue blouse, her Versace skirt and jacket. Her Mom fussed with her hair a bit, spraying it with hair lacquer and had Janice add a little more color to her face.
Janice looked at herself in the mirror. She was all girl today, of that there would be no doubt.
She grabbed her laptop, camera case, backpack, purse, and cell phone. She put her things in her car then she headed out for school.
She found her friends at their spot and saw that the others were there too. Everybody checked everybody out. Vanessa wore another suit in pink, which Margaret had given her. Anna was dressed in a black suit, while Margaret was dressed in a dark green number. Ginny was dressed in a very nice navy/white sailor type suit, while Rebecca wore a nice dark blue blazer, over a red knee length pencil skirt.
Craig wore a charcoal gray pinstripe suit, with a red/white dot tie. The suit looked like a million dollars on him. Tom wore a black suit, that he needed to retire, seeing how he had a growth spurt in the last six months. The sleeves of the jacket and the hem of his pants were about an inch shorter than what they should have been. He still looked quiet nice in it.
They all looked sharp and drew a lot of attention from the other students. Janice had to admit though, she received more than her fair share of wide eyed looks, open mouths, appreciative looks and even some jealous looks, if she read the body language right.
Vanessa relieved Janice of the burden of the camera case at the bell and they hurried to Mr. Dawson’s classroom. He let them lock up the camera and laptop in his closet. They hurried even more to get to their homeroom, entering right on the bell.
Ms. Nelson looked at them as they entered the classroom and said, “It is so nice of you to join us, but I see it is well worth the wait. I would have to make an entrance to, if I were dressed as nice as you girls are.”
“Sorry Ms. Nelson, we had to drop some things off first,” Anna said.
“No problem girls, you were on time. Please take your seats.”
Ms. Nelson took roll and Ms. Simmons came over the intercom to make announcements. The bell rung for students to go to their first period class. Most of students had Ms. Nelson for first period, though some didn’t and left. Other students came in and gawked before sitting down. Janice, Anna and Vanessa had to explain that they had an important meeting dealing with their Journalism class.
The rest of the morning classes went like that. There were raised eyebrows, mouths that hung open in wonder and stares.
Ms. Smart’s face went red when she saw Janice, although she didn’t make any comments. Janice just sat down at her computer. She looked over and got smiles from Suzy and Debby; at least that made her feel better.
She then booted up her program. Instead of the screen she usually saw, she saw a smiley face that stuck out it’s tongue at her and in a balloon saw the words ‘Janice is a faggot’, before she saw the BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). The same thing happened on all the computers in the computer lab.
Ms. Smart tried to save the server, but electrons travel faster than fingers. In frustration she wrote out a pass and said, “Janice, get your things and go to Ms. Simmons office. The rest of you follow me to study hall.”
Janice was in tears as she walked to Ms Simmons office. Ms. Keller was shocked to see Janice in this condition. “What is the problem Janice? Why are you here?”
Janice explained what had happened to Ms. Keller. She buzzed Ms. Simmons on the intercom and talked to her. Four seconds later Ms. Simmons asked Janice to come into her office and asked Linda to call IT and get a tech over here.
She had Janice sit down in an armchair and tell her what happened. Janice told her that she booted her program. Instead of her program coming up, a smiley face came up, stuck out it’s tongue and in a balloon said that Janice was a faggot. A BSoD came up and crashed her computer, and all the computers in the classroom.
“So why did Ms. Smart send you here?”
“I guess she blames this on me.”
“Did you do this?”
“NO MA’AM!” Janice said getting a little excited. “Why would I do that to myself?”
“I believe you Janice, your logic is flawless. You wouldn’t do that. We just have to get Ms. Smart to see that logic. Now go in my bathroom and fix your face dear. Don’t let her see you sweat.”
While Janice was busy making herself presentable, Linda buzzed her that Ms. Smart was here. She asked Linda to have her wait. Janice took great care to make herself look presentable. She did the best make up job she had ever done. She looked at herself and was happy that she didn’t get any makeup on her suit. She smiled, held her head up high and came back into the office.
“You look much better Janice. You are quiet the young lady you know.”
“Thank you Ma’am,” Janice said as she took her seat.
“Linda, send in Ms. Smart. Please.”
Ms. Smart came in her face still in a grimace.
“Please have a seat Ms. Smart and tell me why you sent Janice to the office.”
“She crashed the computer lab server and all of our computers, Ms. Simmons.”
“Did she really, tell me what happened?”
Ms. Smart told the same basic story that Janice had told her. The smiley face, the words, ‘Janice is a faggot,’ and all the computers crashing afterwards.
“Why do you think it was Janice?”
“It had to be, it started on her computer. I want her expelled.”
“Couldn’t one of your other students have hacked into her program?”
“My students wouldn’t do that. Besides we run a security program.”
“I don’t really think that Janice would do that to her own program or anybody else’s for that fact. She is one of our better students. You yourself wrote those very words, if I remember correctly.”
“That was before she began her perversions.”
“MS. SMART! I won’t have you talking like that about Janice or any student. Now apologize this minute.”
“I am sorry I said that, but this isn’t right.”
“I have an IT tech coming over here now, Ms. Smart we will see what they have to say. Now you may either assist in study hall or take some personal time, but don’t return to your class room, Ms. Smart.”
“I will take some personal time, but I need my coat and purse.”
Ms. Simmons asked Linda to accompany Ms. Smart to her classroom and to lock it up when she left.
“Janice don’t let her get to you, you have done nothing wrong. Of that I am certain. Now go on to study hall please. Remember don’t let them see you sweat. Hold your head up high and smile dear.”
***************
Ms. Simmons was highly pissed at Ms. Smart. She had no reason to accuse Janice Daniels of anything. She would have to find out who had done this. She needed to talk to her niece.
Ms. Smart was livid, she couldn’t believe Ms. Simmons would take the side of that ungodly child; she was a God Fearing woman from what she had heard.
**************
Janice reported to study hall and gave the teacher there her hall pass. She then went to sit between Debby and Suzy. She told them in whispers what had happened, leaving out some things that Ms. Smart had said. She just didn’t want to go there.
The girls assured her, that they didn’t blame her for what had happened. They had some ideas, but no evidence anyone had done it.
Mr. Davis got on the girls about talking in study hall, so they got back to work on their homework.
At lunch, the people listened intently to what Janice had to say. Many had already heard of the incident, and of Ms. Smart going home early, but they didn’t have the whole story. Janice didn’t tell anybody the whole story.
Fifth period went well and at sixth period Journalism, JD’s Production and Payne’s World got a lot of looks from their fellow students. They had already heard and some of them had seen them already but seeing them all together was just stunning. Mr. Dawson checked out cameras, tri-pods, audio recorders and such, to Payne’s World and told JD’s production that they can assist, but Payne’s World needed to do their own work.
Janice got her things and led the two groups out to the cars. They were stopped by the security guard in the parking lot and they showed their passes Mr. Dawson had given them. The cameras and gear all went in Margaret’s SUV. Anna rode with her. Everybody else rode in the same vehicles they had the day before.
At the convention center, they parked in the lot they had been instructed to use the day before. There were all sorts of eighteen-wheelers and commercial trucks there already. The back docks were a beehive of activity.
The kids took all the equipment with them. They really didn’t want to lose it to a thief. A security guard asked what they were there for, and after hearing what they had said, called to check their story out. Mrs. Smith asked the guard to send them on up to her office. He gave them rudimentary directions and sent them on their way.
They were met by an attractive looking lady; that appeared to be in her late thirties to early forties. “Hi, I am Elaine Smith; you must be Payne’s World and JD’s Productions.”
“I am Janice Daniels and this is Vanessa Sebring, Margaret Bradford and Anna Givens. We are JD’s Productions.”
“I am Tom Spires and this is Ginny Morgan, Rebecca Cummings and Craig Livingston. We are Payne’s World.”
“Welcome, I was expecting an unruly mob of kids, but I see you can’t be called kids. All of you look so nice and quite professional.”
The kids all thanked Mrs. Smith.
“Now, if you will come with me, I was going to do the meeting in my office, but seeing all of you, we will meet in my conference room.”
She led them to a room with a long table and about a dozen chairs around it. JD’s Productions sat on one side and Payne’s World sat on the other, with Elaine at the head.
“Now before we get started, I wanted to thank JD’s Production for coming. I was excited to talking to you yesterday, Janice, and it is so good meeting you. I was quite taken by your on screen performance and your candor in your interview on Wednesday. I had to take this opportunity to meet you.
It is good to meet your group too Tom. I don’t mean to make your group to appear less important. It is good seeing young people trying to learn to do things right. So please tell me what your ideas are.”
Tom started out telling Mrs. Smith of their ideas; the others there produced their notes and added to what he said. Tom did give credit to Janice; she explained how she came up with this idea. They talked for about an hour.
Mrs. Smith smiled when they began and listened intently as the two groups worked together to flesh out the ideas. After they finished she asked, “Have any of you seen our commercials on TV?”
Six of the eight said they had.
“What did you think of them?”
“They were alright, I guess. I am no judge of commercials,” Tom said.
“You are just the people to judge them. For this show to be a success, our commercials need to be out there and grab the consumer. They have to want to come here, pay that entry fee, browse the vendors and buy things. If they don’t come, the vendors may not come back next year, the convention center looses money and prestige. I agree they are alright, but alright isn’t good enough. Tell me, you people have some really good ideas, can you make those ideas a commercial?”
Everyone looked at Janice; she thought for a few seconds and said, “We probably can, using many of the same ideas. A news story sells people on the news, and the integrity of the newsperson. A commercial is not that much different.”
“Good, if you can produce three or four one minute spots, whether I use them or not, I will pay you eight thousand dollars. If they are good enough to use, I will pay you a lot more.”
“We would have to check with our attorney, Mrs. Smith, JD’s Productions is now a legal corporation,” Janice said.
“Who is your attorney?”
“Carl Wright, Ma’am,”
“I will talk to him; you kids put your heads together.”
Mrs. Smith got on the phone and the kids got together and started bouncing ideas back and forth. They took their notes and started to pull elements out of them to plug them together for a sales pitch. Mrs. Smith provided them with details each commercial needed to contain, about what, where, when and how much.
************
Back at the school Rick Tanner from the school districts IT department, inspected the damage.
“The program Ms. Daniels started, initiated a virus that infected all the computers on the intranet except one. Every computer out here had their registry and FAT’s corrupted. I will have to reinstall system software on each one after reformatting the hard drives. We have a mirror server that copies all the work on the server at midnight. That server is heavily firewalled. It also has links to the main server that runs a logger during the day. Any activity is noted like which programs were run during the day, when what machine accessed which program, on the server. I don’t think I ever told Ms. Smart about that.”
“I tracked Ms. Daniels program, it was last accessed before she ran it at 8:03 am, by terminal twenty-one.”
“That is during homeroom,” Ms. Simmons said.
“And Ms. Daniels generally logs in at eleven, and works on terminal 16, so it wasn’t her.”
“I never thought it was her, Rick. According to Ms. Smart’s seating chart, Leslie Carmichael sits at terminal twenty-one during home room. She has her homeroom students boot the computers for the day. Leslie was out sick though. Gary Marler sits at terminal twenty, and Chris Steigerwald sits at terminal twenty two. Marler and Carmichael are just there for home room; Sarah Clemens uses terminal twenty one first period.”
“It wasn’t Ms. Clemens who started the program, she wasn’t here yet. I believe an autorun CD was put in the drive when the computer was booted. The CD held a program that hunted Ms. Daniels directory and infected her program. Ms. Clemens sat at her terminal and the program was running in the background. She might know who the CD belonged to. It wasn’t in the drive when I checked and we record her saving her work to the CDR at eight-fifty.”
“Well how much damage was done?”
“Physically none, students in the first three periods may have lost some work, unless they saved to a CDR. Most do. It will take me twenty hours to bring the system back up. If I were in the public sector, I would bill one hundred twenty an hour, so figure two thousand four hundred dollars. I would also add twenty dollars an hour for each student’s work, for each terminal, times three, or another one thousand four hundred forty dollars. So I would report three thousand eight hundred forty dollars to law enforcement.”
“I like that figure, it gives me some leverage in dealing with my students. That would make it a felony, malicious mischief, on top of what ever the computer crime would be. Give me a written report later. We’ll deal with the miscreants on Monday. I want to do some investigating before we show our hands.”
Ms. Simmons went to the VP’s office, “Jeff I have a list of names I want you to check out. I want to know their computer abilities and associates.”
“I will get right on it. This is about Ms. Smart’s class right.”
“Yes it is.”
“Ok, I am right on it.”
Ninety percent of the time Mr. Collins got to play bad cop to Ms. Simmons good cop. He loved it. He also knew when Ms. Simmons chose to play bad cop, she was very scary in a sweet sort of way. Like something out of a Hitchcock Movie. She was a cross between a Koala bear and a saltwater crocodile.
************
Mrs. Smith looked over the ideas they came up for the commercials. The kids had outdone themselves and had come up with some really good ideas. She felt better about the concepts they brought her, than the company she paid two hundred thousand too.
“I like these ideas. Ginny, Rebecca and Tom, give your clothes sizes to Georgia, my personal assistant. I will take you on a tour of the facility so you can get a good look at what you are dealing with. I talked to Carl Wright; he is on his way here. He will be here after five thirty. Please call your parents and ask permission to be here till about eight.”
They stopped by Georgia’s desk. She got their sizes and the type of clothes they wanted to wear. Mrs. Smith also arranged for maintenance to bring up some of the studio type lights they had, so they could use them for tomorrow.
On the convention floor, they covered the various areas they wanted to shoot and got permission from the vendors to use their areas for the shoots. The teams were able to expand some ideas and nix others as too hard. Rebecca chose the scenes she liked best to be in and Ginny picked the others.
Mrs. Smith brought the kids back to her conference room, when she heard that Carl was there. He talked to them about this job and figured the best way to handle it was for JD’s Production to hire all eight of them and for the convention center to pay JD’s and JD’s to pay the kids minus taxes.
“As long as there is an even split I like it,” Janice said.
Everyone agreed with Janice.
“Ok, also since you are getting more work and I see no reason that you won’t continue to do so. I think JD’s ought to buy some more equipment, don’t you agree?” Carl said.
Janice, Anna, Vanessa and Margaret agreed.
“Good cause, I stopped by the store on the way over here. I got another camera like Janice’s, two tri-pods, and auxiliary audio gear. It helps with legalities of using school equipment for commercial gain. It’s over here; use it for the shoot tomorrow.” Carl said pointing at the pile of gear.
The kids poured over the pile of gear, checking it out, setting batteries to charge and making sure they had everything they would need.
“Mrs. Smith, that reminds me, we can edit the video here, but we need a sound set to do the voice over and special effects,”
“If you can edit it here, I have already scheduled some studio time at the TV station and you can do that there tomorrow afternoon.”
The kids got together and started brainstorming again. They laid out a timeline of shooting, beginning at seven thirty in the morning, beginning at the more important sites for the endeavor. They probably wouldn’t finish before the doors opened, but the most difficult shots would be taken care of already.
Some of their parents began arriving and they talked with Mr. Wright about the shoot. He told them what Mrs. Smith offered, what JD’s was doing and how much they could earn just by trying. Carl had even worked out that if they had at least three good commercials, that the convention would pay fifteen thousand per commercial. That had left more than a few of the parents with their mouths hanging open.
They didn’t even mind that he would take ten percent and JD’s Productions would take ten percent for equipment use. Each child would come out earning close to five thousand dollars after taxes and such.
Mrs. Smith had food brought up for everyone as the kids worked, and she got to know the parents. She herself had two kids that were with their grandmother right now. Angela found herself telling Janice’s story to the other student’s parents. Some had been skeptical as she began, but many became sympathetic.
Seeing how Janice was working with their kids and how they accepted her, won the rest of the parents over. She was working hard to help their children succeed.
The kids were about to leave for the night, when Georgia brought three bags of clothes. One bag went to Tom, one to Ginny and the last to Rebecca. They went through the bags to see what they had.
When Tom found a bikini on a special hanger that held the bra and panty in his bag. He held the hanger up to his chest and said, “I don’t think this is my bag,”
“Oh that is so cute,” Rebecca said.
The bikini was a flaming orange and yellow number. The bra was a string bikini bra, but had cups that were pretty modest for a bikini. The panty was a boycut panty in the same fabric. It was sexy, stylish but modest, as swimwear gets.
Everyone laughed and he traded bags with the Rebecca, who held the baggy swimming trunks out for everyone to see.
“I don’t know, but I would have paid to see you in that bikini, Tom,” Ginny said laughing.
“I can go get another bikini for Tom, I guess,” Georgia said, getting in on the fun.
“I think I will pass on that,” Tom said, his face flushed with embarrassment.
Everyone laughed at that and even Janice saw the irony in that thought.
“Dang, I liked those baggy trunks, they would have fit me nicely, but I love this bikini too,” Rebecca said. The trunks were bight Hawaiian style baggies, in reds and yellows. “I could wear these with my top.”
“I can get you the baggies tomorrow, but the bikini fits the theme better.”
“I agree, but I like these too.”
Ginny held up her blue/green tankini for all to see. The tank top had a built in shelf bra. The panty was a classic French cut with a full coverage backside. “I like my suit better; the colors match my eyes so nicely. Georgia you really have a good eye.”
Tom and the girls matched up the outfits with the scenes they were to shoot tomorrow, to save time. They then packed everything up and made ready to leave.
Mrs. Smith locked up all their equipment and led them to the exit.
End of Part 7
To Be Continued...
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon
“I can’t have my daughter showing me up too badly out in public, can I? Besides we will look more alike this way.”
Then it was Janice’s turn to be laced in a corset with her gel bra cups strategically placed to enhance her own budding breasts. She had been wearing one so much lately, the corset didn’t seem so tight this time.
They carefully dressed in their matching Ralph Lauren outfits, matched their accessories, makeup and as much as possible, their hair.
At the convention center, they weren’t surprised to see most of the other’s there waiting for them. They were surprised to see Mr. Dawson there.
“Mr. Dawson explained, “Mrs. Smith called and told me what you were up to. I am here to lend my assistance, if it is needed.”
When they all got there they were escorted to the conference room. They divided their labor. Anna would handle lights and makeup. Craig and Vanessa were on cameras. Margaret was on auxiliary audio. Janice was on logistics and would keep everybody on track.
They jumped quickly into action and were ready to start shooting at seven forty five. They shot the climbing wall first. Ginny and Tom geared up. After getting their harness on and attaching the arrestor cable and a rope, Mrs. Smith made sure the various logos were visible before they hit the wall filming. Tom started out sort of tentatively, but Ginny took to the wall like a monkey. She waited for Tom at about twelve feet and they said their lines there. They shot that scene three times to make sure. Tom looked a lot better climbing on the third take.
They shifted into high gear from there and knocked out scene after scene. The boat scene, with Tom and Rebecca, they looked great in their outfits, and it went well. As did the canoe scene, with Tom and Ginny.
Janice noticed her Mom and Mr. Dawson getting kind of chummy. Margaret noticed it too and elbowed Janice in the ribs. They giggled a bit and turned their attention to the job at hand.
They got the shots they needed to get done, before the show opened. Margaret and Janice took the cards from the cameras and headed to the conference room to begin editing the video. Ginny took over on the auxiliary audio, Rebecca took the timeline and script. They then set out to get the rest of their shots.
Margaret and Janice set up a wireless network to share the video they loaded into their laptops. They worked quickly to disassemble the recorded video into segments and to reassemble it into four unique one-minute spots.
An hour and a half later, Vanessa and Craig brought the rest of their video for the girls to begin editing it. The team broke into two groups to add their inputs and assist the two girls.
Vanessa was a big help for Janice, she was better at doing this. Craig, Janice and Anna hunched over Vanessa’s shoulder as she worked. Tom, Rebecca and Ginny worked with Margaret.
Mrs. Smith and Georgia were called in several times to add their input, but mostly they smiled as they saw the kids work. They liked what they saw, so far.
When they got the video right, they ran it past Mrs. Smith again, then made more changes and ran it again. This happened several more times. Mrs. Smith liked being made part of the creative process. After the video was approved, they started adding text to blank pages that they could overlay at points.
At three in the afternoon, they had their partially finished commercials. They saved their work to DVDR’s and headed to the TV station. Angela and Mr. Dawson took care of their other equipment, as the girls took their laptops.
Vanessa, Craig and Ginny rode with Janice. Rebecca rode with Tom, and Anna rode with Margaret to the station. Janice noticed that Craig and Vanessa were playing with each other a little coyly in the back seat. An excited Ginny was talking a mile a minute in the front.
**********
Angela and Abel gathered up the cameras and gear, and took it to his car. Abel liked the way Angela looked. He couldn’t remember having so much fun as being with her and watching his kids make him proud.
After dropping the equipment off at Angela’s home, Abel asked her out to eat. It would be hours before the kids would be finished, working on their commercials. Abel was confident in their combined abilities.
**********
The troop were met at the station, by Jack Williams and Frank from the stations own edit department. They were led to the alternate studio. Frank took their work and ran through it, he helped choose the points to overlay the text. He then played some music and sound effects he thought would work, with their spots.
It was decided that both Tom and Janice would do the voice overs for all of the commercials. First, they would do each separately, then one sharing lines. Janice and Tom practiced their lines and critiqued each other. Then they practiced them timing their work, while Frank ran the spots.
Janice and Tom went into the studio to do their lines. They sat in front of a large monitor. They then did their lines. They each did three takes for each spot and three together, for a total of thirty six takes.
Frank then took the best of the lot and worked adding, music and special effects. All of the kids paid close attention to Frank work. He was very good at what he did.
At eight that night, Frank presented Mrs. Smith with six commercials to choose from. She and Georgia played thru them several times, before she picked the ones she wanted. In the end she selected four.
Georgia then wrote a check out to JD’s Production for sixty thousand dollars. Janice showed everyone the check and she asked Margaret to get it to her Mom, and have Carl cut checks for everyone.
“I am starving,” Tom said.
“Everybody to IHoP, my treat,” Janice said, and sent her Mom a text message "IHoP". She got one back shortly that said, “Ok.”
“Yes!!!” The rest said.
The kids made a beeline to the cars.
They talked about their day, and were excited about the money.
“You know, you still have to shoot your assignment,” Janice said.
“Yeah, I know we can do it though, we learned a lot by watching you girls work, Janice,” Tom said. “We’ll need to come back again tomorrow to get it done.”
“Who can make it tomorrow,” Janice asked.
“I can’t make it,” Margaret said. “Family obligations.”
“Neither can I,” Anna added. “Mom wants me to help in the shop.”
“I can come, Janice,” Vanessa said.
“Ok, I can pick you up. What time Tom.”
“Let’s make it later, say nine-thirty, this has been one long day.”
“Sounds like a plan, see ya.” Janice said, paying the tab.
Janice took Ginny, Craig and Vanessa home, promising to pick them up in the morning.
Angela was waiting for her daughter when she got home. The poor child was exhausted, but happy.
“We sold four commercials Mom,” Janice said, as her Mom helped her undress.
She set her alarm and was asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.
*************
Janice woke tired at six in the morning. She had a nice long soak in the tub, with a Eucalyptus blend bath salts, her mom got her. Her mind began to clear as she drew strength from the warmth of the bath.
She felt a hundred percent better, as she went down stairs for breakfast.
“Morning Janice, how are you today.”
“Better now, I love those bath crystals.”
“One of the perks of being a woman.”
“How did you and Mr. Dawson get along.”
Angela’s mouth hung open as she looked at her daughter.
“Mom it was obvious, you two were flirting with each other.”
“We weren’t flirting, we were having an adult conversation,” Angela said demurely.
“Oh, that is what they are calling it now.”
“Now don’t get sassy young lady. We brought all the cameras and things here. Then we went out to eat. Abel is an interesting person. We did enjoy ourselves watching you kids work.”
“I hoped that you had a good time, you deserved it. We have to go back and finish what we started out to do.”
“Ok, but we need to have some "us" time soon, dear. I need to get to know my daughter better.”
“I know Mom, I promise to set aside some time for us. I don’t see anything coming up this coming weekend. Plan something and I will pay for us to get away. After all, I earned five thousand yesterday.”
“That is a wonderful idea. I just may do that. How late will you be today?”
“It will take a couple of hours to shoot, I would like to wander around the show for a couple of hours. They have some nice things. Afterwards, I would like to bring them here so we can work on editing their material.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Janice dressed more comfortably. She put on her breast forms. It took her a bit to get them on. Her own breasts seemed a bit larger and the back of the forms was too flat. She could make do with them for a while though. She wore a bra and thong set, so there would be no panty line showing in her slacks. A dark green slacks and jacket suit, a red tank, boots and a scarf were her uniform today.
She loaded the equipment in her car. Three cameras in cases, two auxiliary audio recorders, booms, mikes, and two tri-pods went into the trunk. Janice picked up her riders and headed to the convention center.
They met the rest of the crew on the back docks and entered the convention center. The shooting today was anti-climatic, they already knew what they wanted and set out to get it. Tom even interviewed quite a few of the visitors of the show and several vendors. Mrs. Smith allowed them to lock up their things, so they could sight see at the show.
The guys knew what they wanted to look at, they were interested in the boats and sporting goods. The girls wanted to check out all the sportswear vendors. It was eleven-thirty, they agreed to meet back and head on to Janice’s home at three.
“Janice do you have a swimsuit yet?” Rebecca asked.
“Not yet.”
“Well we will just have to see that you get one,” Ginny said.
The girls wandered over to the clothing vendors. Janice started digging through the racks with the girls. There were scads of pretty bikinis in her size. Most she admired, but wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. She was amazed that women would wear these itty bitty pieces of fabric, that really didn’t cover all that much, out in public at a beach. Yet they would die of embarrassment if they were seen in their bras and panties, which in many cases covered more.
Janice did find three suits she wanted to try on, two bikinis and a one piece suit. There was a big line at the make shift changing areas, the attendant encouraged them to be fast and to keep their panties on for health reasons. They did have several full length mirrors set in a sheltered central area.
She went into one changing room and changed into one suit. The suits she chose had bras that covered her forms well and panties that covered her tush.
She met the girls who admired each others suits and commented on their choices. Ginny and Rebecca stared at Janice a bit surprised at the figure she displayed. They liked her first choice, a very red suit with a French cut panty.
Janice changed into the one piece suit. It was a blue/green/yellow flower print suit that had high cut legs and a zipper up the front. It fit tight and high lighted her curves nicely.
“Janice you have to get that suit. You make it look gud,” Ginny said.
“I like it too, except it is cut so high in the legs.”
“It is suppose to girl, it makes your legs look longer,” Rebecca said.
What really surprised the kids was when Vanessa tried on a Brazilian coverage bikini. The bikini panty was very narrow in front. You would have seen pubic hair if not for the panty Vanessa wore and she would have definitely needed a wax job to wear it. In the back you could see the cheeks of her butt exposed. It also had small triangles of fabric for the bra that just covered the nipples barely.
“Vanessa I don’t think your Mom would let you out of the house in that suit,” Ginny said.
“Mom would ground me for life if she saw it. I think her idea of high fashion swimsuits dates back to the 1930’s. I just wanted to see what it looked like.”
“It is sexy on you, too sexy if you know what I mean,” Janice said.
“I know what you mean.”
The last suit Janice tried was a blue/white dot banded halter top, and a hot pant style panty. She added a black wrap around skirt that could go with any of the suits she tried on.
She met the girls outside again. The girls liked the suit Janice was wearing. Vanessa wore another suit that was outstanding on her, a much more modest bikini in black with silver adornments on it. Rebecca had on a suit similar to the one she got, and a pair of baggies that would look good with that suit.
“I see you found your baggies,” Janice said.
“Yeah I like to play beach volley ball, I don’t mind playing in a bikini bra, but I hate getting sand up my butt,” Rebecca said. “I think your Mom would actually let you wear that bikini Vanessa.”
“I like it, and I am going to get it.”
“I think, I am going to get that red number, the one piece and this wrap around skirt,” Janice said.
“I think those would be good choices for you Janice,” Ginny said.
The girls dressed and did some more shopping. Janice found some sportswear that she didn’t get before. She bought some shorts, tops and shoes for the beach and exercise. She even got some tight spandex cycling shorts because she liked the looks of them.
They met up with the guys and went out to eat before headed over to Janice’s. Ginny tried her hand at editing the video, but gave way to Craig who was much better at it, especially with Vanessa helping him. When they had it set, Janice gave Ginny, Craig and Vanessa a ride home.
***********
Monday found Janice dressing for school in a skirt, blouse, pantyhose and two inch heels. She had tried the flats but liked the added height the heels gave her. The skirt was a black denim skirt that came to two inches above her knee and the blouse was a white linen long sleeve blouse. She did her hair and makeup to match the style she wore that day. A little more feminine and not business-like, like the look she wore Friday. She worked on her eyes to make them pop, yet not look slutty. Janice grabbed a sweater, purse and her school bag before heading to the kitchen. Her Mom raised an eyebrow when she saw her daughter, but smiled.
“I see you dressed quite feminine today, Janice.”
“Yes Mom. I can’t see a reason not too. I am pretty much accepted at school.”
“Just be careful dear.”
“I will.”
She got to school early enough to park where she wanted to and met her team and Tom’s team at their usual spot.
“Mom want us to stop by the office after school. They will have our checks ready for us then. You and I will need to sign them Janice,” Margaret said.
That told Janice that the checks would be over five thousand dollars.
“Mom didn’t want us walking around with big checks on us at school.”
The kids all agreed to go there after school.
Janice noticed the Rebecca and Tom were still chummy as were Vanessa and Craig. No one seemed to pay too much attention to how she was dressed, and that was good.
As she entered her homeroom, Janice was given a pass to the office.
She entered the Principals office and was greeted by Ms. Keller. She led Janice into Ms. Simmons office. There were two monitors setup. Ms. Keller had Janice sit in a chair and she sat next to her. Janice recognized Sarah Clemens, she also recognized the boy on the other monitor but didn’t know his name.
“The girl is Sarah Clemens she sat at the terminal first period where a Trojan virus was introduced during first period to your computer program Janice. The boy is Gary Marler, he doesn’t take a computer course, but he is in Mrs. Smart’s homeroom. He sits at the terminal next to the terminal used to introduce the Trojan. We have found out that he belongs to a group of hackers in this town.”
Ms. Simmons entered the room where Sarah sat. She looked sternly at the girl and sat across from her.
“Sarah, do you have college plans for this fall?”
“Yes Ma’am, I am going to go to Texas A&M this fall.”
“I am sorry to say this but I doubt it will be this fall. You are this far,” Ms. Simmons held her forefinger and thumb about an inch apart and continued. “From being expelled. You may also be charged with computer crimes, and malicious mischief. I hope A&M will understand why you can’t make it this fall and why you have a criminal record.”
Sarah’s face was one of disbelief and fear as she heard Ms. Simmons talk. “What are you talking about Ms. Simmons I have never done anything wrong?” She said almost crying. She had earned a full scholarship to TX A&M. She was afraid of losing that scholarship now.
“A sophisticated virus was launched from your terminal first period, Sarah. It caused the whole network in the computer lab to collapse.”
“I didn’t do that, I don’t have that much skill.”
“We know, we have your accomplice in the next room. He started the CD that held the Trojan and you returned the disk to him after class.”
“I didn’t know what was on that disk Ms. Simmons, believe me. Gary asked me to get that disk for him. He said that he wanted a copy of a program that Chris had and they were using the school network to burn a copy of it.”
“Why should I believe that?”
“Because it is the truth. Ms. Simmons.”
“We’ll see about that. You are not going anywhere,” Ms. Simmons said as she got up and left.
In the other room Mr. Collins was seen entering the room. Gary had his feet up on the table and looked as cool as a cucumber. Mr. Collins slammed both of his hands on the table causing Gary to startle and almost fall out of his chair.
“Don’t ever put your feet up on a table at this school Mr. Marler! You are in deep shit son.”
“I ain’t done nothing. Why are you on the rag old man?”
“Twelve years of education and you never learned how to speak. We know what you did Mr. Marler. You wrote a Trojan virus and a hacking program. You loaded these on a CD that you made into an autorun disk. At 8:02 AM Friday you inserted this disk into computer terminal number twenty one, you sit at terminal twenty during homeroom. That program ran in the background and searched out and found Janice Daniels directory and infected the program which she was working on. Sarah later brought you the disk you had inserted into terminal twenty one. We know you also had Chris Steigerwald’s assistance in this endeavor. The three of you may be headed to jail in a few minutes.”
Gary’s face went from cocky, to amazed, to clearly frightened as Mr. Collins spoke. He and Chris had cooked up this scheme. That bitch Janice was nothing but a fairy. The guys just wanted to shake her up a bit.
“Chris and Sarah had no part in this, Mr. Collins. I did it all myself. I am sorry Sarah got involved but I needed my disk back. Chris just thought he was giving me a program. He didn’t know about the Trojan.”
“Chris was involved Gary, who do you think rolled over on you. We first suspected him. He had had words with Ms. Daniels. When we pressed him, he gave you up.”
“That’s a lie Chris wouldn’t do that to me. We had it all planned out.” Gary said, as he realized he had just said too much. “Shit, I ain’t saying anything else.”
“I agree you have said enough. We are calling your parents and getting Chris in here to see what he has to say.”
“You mean you haven’t talked to him yet. You F***ing liar.”
“I guess I might have stretched the truth a bit, but I got what I wanted,” Mr. Collins said, smiling at Gary as he left the room.
“Sarah will be alright, Janice. They just wanted to fit the pieces together. She was an unwitting accomplice to all this,” Ms. Keller said. “Ms. Simmons wanted you to see this.”
“What will happen to them.”
“Mr. Marler is out for the year and will have to finish his senior year at an alternate school. Mr. Steigerwald may also be out, I am not sure. He is a junior and could make up this semester in summer school and will probably be at alternate school this fall. Ms. Simmons and Mr. Collins will have to determine that. Don’t tell anybody about what you have seen.”
“No Ma’am I won’t.”
“Ok Janice, go on to first period.”
Janice saw that she still had twenty minutes of first period left. There was nothing she could do for the guys. It was the school’s computers they trashed. She didn’t know if she would even if she could.
She told her friends on the way to second period, that the principal may know who hacked the computers. They wanted her to know what they knew. She stretched the truth a bit, but didn’t let them know all that she knew.
She saw an unhappy Sarah in the hall and was glad that she was cleared of the charges. Janice felt that she had been used. Sarah was as much a victim as she was.
When Janice left her third period class, a protective Debby walked closely by her side.
Mrs. Smart was much more subdued, when Janice and Debby entered the classroom. She addressed the students before starting them off on their work.
“Class, your work has been restored, thanks to our IT department. A Tech was able to recover everything, except for what the first three periods had done that day on Friday. The hackers have been caught and are being dealt with as I speak. You still have enough time to finish your projects. If at the end, if you are close to finishing, the lost time will be taken into consideration, but only if you work diligently between now and the end of the year. If you don’t currently save a copy of your work each day, I suggest you start doing so. It can save you a lot of pain and effort. Not having a backup will not save your grade, if the computers go down again. It would be the same in industry, if you lost all your work. Now off to work, I want to hear your keyboards clicking away.”
Janice held her breath, as she opened her directory and booted her file. The program worked like it was suppose too. Toward the end of class, she complied her work after saving it to the server and a separate CDR. After compiling, she clicked on the file to run it.
She held her breath as her program started. She put it through its paces and watched it work. Function after function was checked and seemed to be working. She would need to add some data to see how it handled it, but she was happy with what she saw. She went to shut down the program but realized she had left out save and exit functions. Oh well, she giggled, that won’t be too hard to correct.
At the bell, Suzy, Debby and Janice started to leave. Janice stopped and asked the girls to wait outside for her. When she was the last one in the class, she approached Mrs. Smart.
“Mrs. Smart, I just want to say I am sorry if I have caused you any problems. I know that things can’t be the same between us. You were one of my favorite teachers. I can’t go back to what I was, if I ever really was that way to begin with. All I am asking is that I be given a chance to succeed in life, not a guaranteed result.”
Mrs. Smart looked Janice in the eyes and said, “I can’t accept what you have become, or try to have people believe you have become. To me it is wrong. You are a good student, misguided, but good. I won’t be unfair to you, but don’t ask me to be buddies. It won’t happen. I know now I was wrong to accuse you of causing the crash, for that I am sorry. I won’t say anymore.” Mrs. Smart got her things and led Janice out of the classroom.
Debby and Suzy were waiting anxiously outside. They joined Janice walking to her locker.
“What did you do, Janice?” Debby asked.
“We kinda buried the hatchet?”
“Was it buried in your back?” Suzy asked.
“Kinda, we agreed to disagree. I won’t take her class this fall, that’s for sure, but she won’t be the wicked witch to me. At least I think that is what she said.”
“If she comes back, I would like to see her go,” Debby said.
“I don’t know, she’s good. I hate to see good teachers go. She is just too inflexible in her opinions.”
They met the rest of the troupe at lunch and talked about what had gone on. The girls were somewhat relieved to hear that Mrs. Smart might not be a persistent problem.
In Journalism there were no presentations ready. Mr. Dawson informed them of one final project. The students were to prepare a twenty two minute news cast, with four spots for commercials. They were to use all the stories they produced, to select, reedit and then present them as a broadcast. The station manager and news director, from the local TV station, would be there to judge their efforts.
The students would select one producer, one main editor, with two assistant producers and editors, three studio camera operators, sound technicians, control board operators, video operators, lighting technicians and three anchors, themselves. Everyone was expected to participate in some form or other. The students would be graded on their participation and their willingness to work.
They had from this Friday, till a week before their show was due, to select the segments they would show, then they would have one week to put it all together. TV station personnel would be by during that week to help with structuring it into a viable show.
Their first organizational meeting would be this Friday. Twenty five percent of your grade will be getting the best people in the best slots, so think about that. Mr. Dawson passed out sheets that held job descriptions for the various positions.
Ok New Spies has the studio for the first hour and Payne’s World the second hour. Let’s get cracking kids.
A lot of the students asked Payne’s World about the commercials they had seen on TV. Tom told them of the story of how it all came together and how JD’s Productions assisted them. He also told them how much money they all made doing it. Mr. Dawson let them talk a bit before he cracked the whip again, so to speak.
Janice and Payne’s World got to work on Tom’s script. He did pretty well first try, but he improved with each subsequent try. He tried to rush the script at times, but they were able to get him use a smooth steady pace.
When it came their turn in the studio, Vanessa had managed to break away from her group, to give assistance to Payne’s World. They practice it twice, before calling Mr. Dawson in. He sat in the control room as Tom was given a countdown. Ginny cued the video and operated the control board as Craig and Rebecca, operated the cameras. They ran it like a live take.
Tom was a little nervous at first, but after ten seconds he relaxed and found his pace. Ginny cued a station break and gave a countdown. They passed directions back and forth for a minute and Ginny cued Tom back in. A much more relaxed Tom smiled and completed their presentation.
The kids gathered around Mr. Dawson, who wore a stern look of concentration. Their hearts began to fall a bit, till Mr. Dawson cracked a smile.
“Excellent work kids, your best effort to date.”
“Mr. Dawson, don’t do that to us,” Ginny said, as she punched him in the ribs a bit.
A look of surprise was on everyone’s face, more so on Ginny’s face. She couldn’t believe she had just done what she did.
“I am so SORRY Mr. Dawson,” a frightened Ginny said.
“That is alright Ginny, you didn’t hurt me and I deserved it,” he said laughing. “You kids get an A- for that, after you show it.”
They ran through the recording a couple of times, with Mr. Dawson critiquing their effort. Copies of the show were burnt for each of the students of Payne’s World and one for Janice and Vanessa.
At the bell, the kids hurried to the cars so they could go to the law office and get their checks. Vanessa, Craig and Ginny, rode with Janice. As they left the school parking lot, a car pulled away from the curb and followed Janice.
At a stop light Janice noticed, Raymond Johnson in the car behind them. “Vanessa call 9-1-1, that Johnson creep is following me.”
“Who is he?” Ginny asked.
“A scandal rag reporter,” Janice answered.
“The operator said to keep driving to the law office, a cop should be on his tail in a bit.”
“Yeah I see him now.” Janice saw the light at the intersection she was very near, turn yellow. She slowed a bit and then continued through it.
Mr. Johnson went through the intersection on red, to keep up, not seeing the cop behind him. The Cop seeing the way clear, lit him up and went through the red light. Mr. Johnson followed for over three miles without stopping. He didn’t stop until Janice stopped at the law office. He got out of his car and started to approach Janice, but was tackled by the cop and put in the back of the patrol car, screaming.
The cop approached Janice smiling. “I know the light was yellow and you were being followed, but don’t punch through an intersection like that again. Mr. Johnson is going down this time on felony evasion. You might want to get a TRO on him.”
“TRO?”
“A Temporary Restraining Order, ask your lawyer and give her my card.”
Janice looked at the card; it showed his name as Timothy O’Shea. “Yes sir and thank you.”
“No, I thank you,” Officer O’Shea said smiling.
The rest of the troop arrived, as another patrol car arrived. The kids gathered around Janice, as she told them what had happened. Madeline had come out, after being informed of a scene in their parking lot. Janice told her what the Officer had told her and gave Madeline his card.
Madeline smiled. Life was getting interesting. “Don’t worry, I will handle it. Come on inside kids.”
Inside, they were met by Mr. Wright. He had some paperwork the kids had to sign, to make everything legal. He then brought a stack of checks for Janice and Margaret to sign. The checks for all the kids were over five thousand dollars. The kids of Payne’s World were almost bouncing off the walls with excitement.
The kids headed out, after getting their money. Janice stopped by the bank and deposited her check and Vanessa’s check, before taking Craig and Ginny home. They needed a parent with them, to take care of their checks. Vanessa gave Craig a quick kiss, as he was dropped off.
Janice and Vanessa then headed to her home. The other girls of JD’s Production met her there; together they started on their homework and discussed their day.
“So what are you going to do about that Johnson fellow?” Anna asked.
“I am going to leave that to Madeline, I think. I don’t know why he is still coming around. I already short circuited his story.”
“He’ll have some snide comments to print, and maybe he is just a bit put out about his treatment around you,” Margaret said. “He probably isn’t used to being arrested.”
“I hope I never become that desperate for a story.”
“You won’t, we won’t let you,” Vanessa said, “Besides you have more scruples than he does.”
Her friends picked up and left at about five and Janice started dinner. She was about halfway done, when her Mom got home and started giving her a hand. Janice told her Mom about what happened after school.
While they ate Angela said, “I am a little concerned about how long we will have to put up with that reporter.”
“He caught up with me just outside of Madeline’s office. They arrested him for felony evasion. It seems he ran a red light trying to catch me. He continued to follow me for about three miles after the police turned on their lights. Madeline said that she would take care of things.”
“Well you need to be careful dear, I don’t want you hurt.”
“I will be Mom.”
“I checked on what we can do this weekend. How about we go to Padre Island, rent some four wheelers and camp out on the beach, Saturday night. You can fish a bit, we can swim and have some fun.”
“Sounds good Mom; lets do it.”
“Ok, I’ll take Friday off and get us ready. You go ahead and pack Thursday and I will pick you up at school. We’ll head out from there, get a motel in Corpus and then hit the beach the next day.”
They cleared off the table and cleaned the kitchen. They enjoyed doing things together, which they hadn’t done before. Their tasks complete, they headed to watch TV together.
“Mom, my nipples are sensitive and itch a bit right now. My bra is too tight with the breast forms on, too. I didn’t think the estrogen would work that fast.”
“Well, your body may have kicked into high gear, because you haven’t produced any testosterone in a long while. Your breasts were already starting to grow. Take off your blouse, bra and breast forms, I want to have a look.”
Janice went to her room, followed by her Mom. She striped down to her panties. It took a few minutes for her to carefully peel off the breast forms. She took a wash cloth and gently cleaned her chest. Her nipples were more sensitive than she could ever remember.
Angela took a tape measure and checked Janice’s measurements. She found that Janice was a full A cup now, almost ready for a thirty-four A cup bra and had a trained waist of twenty-five without the corset. That would go up if she went without wearing it for a few days. She corseted herself at night and wore one during the day, several times a week. Her hips, at thirty-five inches, also showed signs of broadening and her tush was beginning to round out.
“You have grown a bit in the chest, sensitivity and irritation, go with that growth.”
“I know, but that doesn’t make it feel better.”
“As for your breast forms, we’ll get you some different forms; there are some that have a concave back, those will fit better. Use your gel pads in your bra, and we will go to a shop I was referred too, after school tomorrow. You definitely look more mature with a larger bust Janice. You may not grow much bigger than a large A, or small B. You look better with a full B, or C cup though. We may look at getting you implants this summer. You have the money too.”
“I think I would look good having Vanessa’s chest. She is big when she has the right bra on. Her old bras just flattened out her chest.”
“Girls are that way Janice. Some are extremely self-conscious about having small breasts and others are extremely self-conscious about having a big bust.”
“But when we got her into Margaret’s clothes, you should have seen her face. I think she dressed down, because she didn’t know how good she could look.”
“I loved what the girls did for her Janice, she looked simply lovely. I am glad she liked the look.”
“Margaret gave her three, or four, outfits and I have seen some new clothes on her. She looks like a whole different person. Anna and Margaret are even dressing better.”
“I think they were just dressing to make her feel less self conscious about her appearance. A limited budget, doesn’t allow for extravagant looks.”
“Or maybe she is just now seeing the benefits of looking better. She is going out with Craig now, I think.”
“Craig is that boy who was the cameraman from last weekend, right? He is kind of a hunk.”
“That’s him. I have seen them kissing a couple of times.”
“Good for her. I think I have some cream that will help with the itching. Go ahead and take your bath, I’ll be back when you finish.”
Janice ran her tub, adding bath salts to the water. Bath time was something she liked about being a woman now. She now had a variety of bath salts she liked. The salts helped the itching a bit too. She shaved her legs and her underarms. The hair was starting to grow pretty fast now, along with her pubic hair, which she never had before. She washed and conditioned her hair, before getting out of the bath.
She dressed in panties and a robe, before drying her hair. Her Mom was waiting for her in her bedroom and gave her a tube of cream. It felt good, as she rubbed it in. Janice went ahead and laced herself into a corset, not overly tight, but down to twenty four inches. She put on her nightie and went to bed.
End of Part 8
To Be Continued ???
And That is the Way it Happened © 2007 by Paula Dillon