Morgan is not progressing, so I figured I'd repost something I wrote for the Crystal Hall fan-fics.

---

Hi. I'm Jessie Craighead.

I can recall exactly when my life came apart. That bitch, Lenore Schippers, was ticked off that I'd beaten her onto the girl's basketball team. Especially when the coach told her that even if she had been better at the game, she was worried about her being able to maintain her grades

OK, I can understand being upset about that. But she had to drag her father into it. Mr. Schippers was head of the local MCO office and Lenore gave him this sob story about how I had to be a mutant to have beaten her out and have a 3.8 GPA on top of it.

I thought I was embarrassed when I was told I had to be tested for all this stuff. I was wrong. Real embarrassment was when they dragged me out of gym class saying I was a boy!!

I knew I hadn't had a period yet, but we just thought I was a late bloomer. Turns out I have a genetic condition called complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. CAIS for short.

It means that even though I've got XY chromosomes my body doesn't respond to testosterone or other "male" hormones at all. So I developed mostly as a girl from back in the womb. I don't have a period because I don't have a uterus. I do have a vagina and small breasts. And wider hips than most boys. In short, until they did the testing, even the doctors thought I was just a girl who was developing a bit slowly.

Between that and that fact that I have some of the metagene complexes (like 5 percent of the population does) that was enough for Mr. Schippers to get me classed as a mutant. Even though I don't have any trace of actual abilities. I'm good at athletics, but that took a lot of work. I'm smart, but I still have to work at things.

Being declared a mutant was bad. But worse was that he got a judge to agree that I was a boy, regardless of what I look like.

Y'see, I live in Ohio. And some years back a man died without a will. His family wanted his estate. And challenged his wife's right to inherit. They claimed the marriage was invalid because his wife used to be a man. And the judge ruled that regardless of surgery or anything else, if you were XX you were and always would be legally female. And if you were XY you'd always be male.

I understand that the wife's lawyers even tried to bring up folks like me, but the judge ignored the evidence. So the judge Mr. Schippers went to ruled the precedent applied to me. And that made me legally a boy.

Mom and dad are still trying to appeal the decision, but it may take years. Meanwhile I had to get all my school records changed and get a new ID card. The MID card the MCO gave me doesn't help either. It says I'm a boy and that I'm an exemplar-1. The doctors mom and dad have taken me to say it's more likely that I'm not a mutant at all, but there's no real way to prove it. We're appealing the MID stuff anyway, but they say the odds of being able to fix it are pretty low.

Because everyone heard the news, I kept getting called "pervert" and worse by folks who thought I was a boy pretending to be a girl.

I'd always been a bit of a tomboy because I like sports. But I thought I was 100% girl. Now, I get hassled if anybody recognizes me and I'm wearing anything remotely female.

I don't even want to talk about having to take boy's PE. At least the coach let me change in his office and since I had it as my last class of the day, I could skip the showers.

I couldn't be on any of the teams either. That hurt.

We live in a fairly small town so going to another local school is out of the question. Ironically, mom and dad moved here because they thought it'd be a better place to raise kids.

It got so bad that they asked around and heard about Whateley. I'm not real thrilled about it, but at least nobody will be hassling me about being a mutant. And I can go as a girl.

Anyway, that's how I wound up here in Poe.

---

Life here at Whateley isn't too bad.

Well, I'm still having to "explain" to folks here in Poe that my sex hasn't actually changed. Regardless of that stupid law back home.

At least nobody outside the cottage knows about it. Of course, they think I'm some sort of head case. I know the cottage needs the cover story, but I don't have to like it.

Then again, it does mean I get more slack for being depressed and stuff, so I guess it's a wash.

Classes aren't too bad. I managed to talk them out of Powers Lab, since I don't have any. They said I still needed Powers Theory though. I guess I can see their point. It'll help me understand the other kids, and might even help with figuring out a way to prove I'm not a mutant.

They suggested putting me in the "Survival" class for PE instead of Basic Martial Arts. But after thinking about it, I decided that I wanted to be able to do a better job of fighting back if I get cornered in a bathroom or something on a visit home.

Anyway, since Whateley doesn't have any sports I can compete in, this'll at least keep me in shape.

I was not happy to find out I'd have to go through Powers Testing.

It turned out to not be that bad. Everybody was fairly nice, not like the jerks doing it for the MCO.

Pretty much the same results as before though. Physically and mentally I'm really good for a baseline or really sucky as a mutant. No regen (ouch). No danger sense (really ouch!)

And I can think of a few jerks from my old school I'd like to put through that dodgeball thing.

In the end, they said that nothing says I'm a mutant, but that they can't prove I'm not one. (something about not being able to prove a negative)

In a fit of perversity, I decided on my codename: Normal Girl

Hey, if I can't make a joke about it, I'd have to cry.

---

Yeah. I was out of school for a few days. Had to go back to Ohio for the trial.

Back before I got into Whateley, and I was still living with the mess back home, I got arrested after someone called the cops when I used the women's restroom at a restaurant.

Another shining example of tolerance and sensibility, that.

It was months ago, but the trial only came up now. Our lawyer figured there'd be some arguing. He was going to challenge the whole premise of the "man in a women's bathroom" bit.

Only it all went out the window when the prosecutor put the woman who'd made the complaint on the stand. I just stared at her when she said that she'd seen my penis through the gap in the stall door.

My attorney just let her dig herself deeper then when it was time to cross-examine, he asked her to repeat what she'd said.

Then asked why she hadn't been charged as a peeping tom. While the prosecutor and judge were spluttering, he picked up a folder from the evidence he'd had ready to submit.

Then he said she couldn't actually be guilty of being a peeping tom, anyway because she was obviously lying. Which made her guilty of perjury.

The woman yelled that she wasn't lying. The prosecutor was objecting as well. And the judge didn't look very happy.

That's when he slid the folder in front of the judge and asked to have it admitted as evidence.

It was a report from several doctors explaining my "condition" in detail. And as he put it "My client does not now have a penis nor has she ever had one."

The stupid bitch actually yelled something about how he was lying, that she'd heard all the news about how I was a boy pretending to be a girl before the prosecutor could shut her up.

There was a lot of arguing, and our lawyer had to call up the doctors who'd written the reports. They even had to threaten to produce photos and let them have doctors examine me.

That last was when they tried to claim I'd had sex change surgery.

They wanted to drop it then, but our lawyer told them he'd still be filing suit for false arrest and suing the lady. As well as forcing them to file perjury charges against her.

They tried keep a disturbing the peace charge but we pointed out I was minding my own business. And that there was no way it'd have caused less fuss if I'd gone into the men's room.

We wound up with the charges dismissed, but the judge weaseled out of ruling that I could use women's bathrooms and other facilities. He didn't say anything about my having to use men's one's though.

Since they didn't find me guilty of anything, we can't appeal. So we've still got to wait on the case about my sex under state law.

---

(yes, this one's in third person)

Today, Sensei Ito had asked those who had weapons to bring them to class.

Jessie got a number of strange looks when she showed up with an odd looking stick. Some of the girls recognized the stick as a field hockey stick. And a few of those that did got worried looks on their faces.

Sensei Tolman and Sensei Ito had been having the students demonstrate their weapons by sparring with them.

Sensei Tolman motioned over Jessie.

"Are you sure you want to call that a weapon?"

"Hai, Sensei!"

"Very well. It's your funeral. Whenever you are ready..."

With that Jessie managed to snake the stick out and almost trip up Tolman. Things degenerated from there.

As you'd expect, Tolman held her own fairly easily.

"Alright, that's enough."

She looked over Jessie carefully.

"Where did you learn to do that with a hockey stick? I seriously doubt that most of those moves are legal."

"Our coach wanted us to know what to look for if the other team tried fighting dirty. And she said that we couldn't learn to defend ourselves if we didn't know how to make the moves ourselves."

"She sounds like an interesting woman. I have to wonder where she learned some of those tricks though."

"She said she wanted us to be able to go against the school she went to. Someplace in England.. St. Trinians, I think it was."

"Ah. That explains quite a bit"

---

Sherry had dragged me down to the Workshop. Seems the guy she was so interested in and that she'd told me would be a good addition to our study group was probably down there and had forgotten he was supposed to meet us to study.

Sure enough, he was in the middle of a cluster of guys in lab coats arguing about something. after listening for a bit, I was able to piece together that some gizmo he'd built was ready for testing, but because they weren't sure it'd work right he couldn't just flip the switch.

"So where is this gadget? And what's the deal?"

He pointed at a door on the other side of the room. I peeked in and there was this wall with a viewport in it a few feet from the door. It was just sort of freestanding (but braced). I could see this box sitting on a table a dozen feet from the wall. I guess the wall was the blast shield one of them kept mentioning.

I walked around the wall and looked at the box. I could see a toggle switch sticking up from the top. That was what the fuss was about?

I went back into the other room and looked at Sherry who was obviously getting impatient. Right. The guys were still arguing. Something about remote triggered solenoids?

I stuck fingers in my mouth and gave a LOUD whistle. That got their attention.

"I know how to trigger it safely."

That got a lot of snorts.

Okay, if that's the way they want to be...

"Don't believe me? I'll show you." With that I strode back into the other room.

I took another look at the box and the table. The table was bolted to the floor and the box was in some sort of holder bolted to the table.

"George? It's safe to touch this, as long as I don't flip the switch, right?"

"Yes, but...."

"Watch and learn..." With that, I dug into my purse and pulled out a sewing kit. I carefully knotted the end of a thread around the thickest part of the toggle. I set the spool down, then dug out the tube of superglue I had for repairing add-on nails. A quick bead of glue went over the thread, binding it to the toggle.

I walked back to the blast wall and reached up to set the spool on the top. Then I got behind it, picked up the spool and unrolled another 6 feet of thread and cut it.

I handed the end to George and said "Wrap that around a pencil or something and pull when you want to flip the switch. Then come over to the library to study with us." Then I looked at Sherry and we both walked out the door.

Once we got out into the hall, Sherry lost it. "Devisors and gadgeteeers. You know they'd have spent hours designing some fancy trigger, don't you?"

I nodded. "Or getting a TK to flip the switch."

I swear, sometimes having powers seems to get in everyone's way.

Well, I've got a costume now.

Costuming class was a bit odd at first, but what the heck. It wasn't that hard. And I could use an "easy" class or two.

I went with the skintight bodysuit as a base. With strategic reinforcing. After one of the other kids let slip something about the combat finals, I got serious about reinforcing things and making sure I could still move well while getting some protection.

Plus, it'll be easy to hide under a lot of my clothes.

I have to admit I stole part of the look from the classic Catwoman catsuit.

I got my "symbol" from daydreaming in geometry class. We were covering "normal" lines. Which led to someone making a joke about my codename.

So I got to wondering about what would be "normal" (in the geometric sense) to a girl.

Pretty soon I'd doodled the standard female symbol vertically bisected by a line that was an extension of the "plus" symbol at the bottom.

On my costume, the "normal" is hot pink (and done with electroluminescent fabric) so it will glow. But only when I want it to. The rest of the symbol is a darker pink against the sky blue of the suit.

Needless to say, that part of the outfit is the most heavily reinforced.

Still working on the utility belt. Smoke pellets and a few things like that. I'm working hard in BMA, but I know I'm not up to a stand-up fight with most of the other kids. So I'm going for stuff that's good for escape and evasion.

Thinking about a shoulderbag like some versions of Batgirl have. You just can't fit much stuff into those tiny belt compartments.

Costuming got strange today.

One of the other girls was designing an outfit that had an armored breastplate. She'd designed it with the typical armored cups for her breasts.

This lead to a long lecture from Mrs. Ryan.

Seems that this is a horribly bad idea. She explained that doing it that way means that a strong impact on your chest gets focused into the area between the cups. Which can lead to a shattered sternum or worse.

So even if it looks funny, the "uniboob" look is safer.

She also noted that side impacts with improperly anchored rigid cups can drag them sideways which results in your breasts getting painfully squeezed between your chest and the edge of the cup.

All us girls winced. A couple of guys laughed.

This lead to a lecture about protective cups for guys. She pointed out that they had it even worse if a sideways blow hit their cup. I was careful not to laugh.

Then she pointed out that besides needing to be well anchored against such things it was also a good idea for their cups (and breast protection for women) to not be overly rigid.

Yes, it'd hurt if it flexed too far. But she noted examples of numerous heroes (and a couple heroines) who'd been badly injured when hit with enough force to shatter the protection.

Several of the guys turned green. And none of us girls looked a lot better. Having jagged shards of armor driven into sensitive parts of our anatomy is not anybody's idea of fun.

Armor that deforms rather than shatters is right up there with Edna Mode's "No capes!" rule!

Apparently there's an entire class for the folks that go into full armor and power suits on how to design things to be easier to get out of when parts are bent out of shape. Who knew?

Sensei Tolman has me working with a staff. She figures the skills I showed with the field hockey stick will transfer more easily.

After watching someone else plant the end of their staff and use it as a pivot point I got an idea.

Which is why I'm out here on my roller blades with my helmet, elbow and knee pads and the rest.

Yep.I can use the staff to do different maneuvers. A bit painful learning what I can't do with it while on skates. At least nobody was around to see me mess up.

Getting back towards the central part of campus I ran into those crazies doing Parkour. I'd seen them do it before.

Hmmm. Around here they are pretty much stuck using trees, benches, statues and like like to bounce off of.

What the hey.

I jump in and start using my skates and staff to try to follow along where I can. I had to skip some stuff they did, but I did a few things they couldn't.

Y'know. This is fun.