Allie - The teenage years of Alexander Horten

February 14-20, 2016

Jessie’s Mother’s Sewing Room:
“Finally, it's finished.” Jessie holds up the Pink Power Ranger costume he has been working on for the past few months.

He knew Cortney was going to a comic con dressed as a power armor person from the DC universe. He also knew Cortney was a huge fan of Power Girl, just as Arnold was a huge fan of Kitty Pryde from the X-men. He had to admit Ellen Page did a pretty good Kitty Pryde, but her becoming a male was a blow to Arnold.

Doomed

“Boy?” the secretary wondered.
“She claims she’s a boy,” the teacher explained.

Couch Surfer
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Carl liked the freedom of being jobless, but he could never be one of the homeless. His simple rule was to engage with people, and he was good at that. He told stories that were believed – things like “I had all my stuff stolen – I just need somewhere to stay for a few days until the insurance comes through.”.

Tinsley couldn’t believe how humid and hot it was outside today. All she wanted to do was go for a swim in the community swimming pool, but she has never been out in public in a swimsuit before. She was still transitioning, and she didn’t know how she would look in her swimsuit.

Dixie holds her little sister and looks at the freshly dug grave their mother laid in. She was lucky that her parents had burial insurance and plots near each other. All she had to do was sign all the paperwork involved in burying her mother. She had buried her mother in her favorite dress.

Manhattan Tower Twelve, Manhattan, New York:
Rita and the cleaning company she was hired to work for have been on site since eleven at night. The nighttime guards had cleared her and all the other cleaning members. Carla had managed to come by and give her the EMF scanner she needed to scan for the magical artifact.

The Heart of January Bliss
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I don’t know where she came from. That is the funny thing about being a creator. Sometimes it is not a deliberative process – it just happens. She just happened.

Sure, I was looking for a new comic strip to develop and publish, and I had read somewhere that strips are more often read by men. So, I suppose the idea was that I would come up with a strip that women could enjoy.

Dan waited outside his boss’s office bedside the door. He could smell the sweet perfume coming from Cindy, his boss’s secretary. He looked at her as she faced away from him photocopying. She was slim but had a nicely rounded bottom. She wore a narrow black skirt and black stockings. He wasn’t sure. He knew she did sometimes, as he had seen the bulges of the clips outlined in her skirt before. She had a silky white short sleeved blouse on and 3-inch heels.

Scarlett was shooting pool down at Big T’s pool hall. She has been coming to Big T’s since she was capable of walking. Her father uses to hustle people for money, while she watched. When the former owner of Big T’s decided to retire, she bought the place.

She used the money she saved up from hustling people like her father. Everyone that came into the pool hall always underestimated her. There were only a few times that she lost, but she won more than she lost.

Morgan begins college life, and Faye has Morgan come in for a physical exam.

“Auntie Stephie!” The tiny voice calls as I enter the dance studio, immediately bringing a smile to my face as she toddles over to me in her pink leotard and dance skirt.

Every day, all the time it seemed, the guys just made fun of me. Sure I was smart, but I was small, smaller than most of them. It was terrible, as they turned into men, I seemed to stay behind, with my soft hairless features. And puberty, well that didn’t seem to be happening either.

Tomes and Tiaras, Brooklyn, New York:
Carla pulls into the parking lot of Tomes and Tiaras. She had questions about the servant of Nyx she encountered the other night and if there was one person who could give her answers, it was Iris. She knew Iris has been around for a very long time. There were only a handful of people who knew what Iris truly was.

Immune Response
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

What are allergies? An allergy is an immune system response to a foreign substance that’s not typically harmful to your body. Your immune system’s job is to keep you healthy by fighting harmful pathogens – things that could put your body in danger. It does this by attacking those things. The allergic response can be inflammation, sneezing or something much more serious. Shock is the extreme – the body shuts down to destroy the pathogen, even though it might not even be slightly harmful to the body.