Stuck in a Rut.
By Rosalie Redd

Casey Church is a normal 13 year old girl, full of hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties. But in a world where there hasn’t been a girl born in over a century, what is normal?

Chapter 26.

January 1st 1:00 am
Truckee California

For Larry Rawlings, New Years wasn’t that big of a deal. Neither was Christmas, Thanksgiving and any other Family type holiday. Thankfully this year he was home, and not in the middle of a delivery. So instead of spending it alone, he was with his neighbor, Liz.

My eyes cracked open ever so slowly, the world began to materialize around me as I became vaguely aware of my surroundings. I was in a room, on a bed, that much I could tell. My head was pounding, my body absolutely aching; every muscle screamed in horror as I tilted my field of view and tried to take in the room.

Anniversary Check-up

Here is my celebration for 10 years on this site. Its dedicated to Talia who was a big help in getting it done.

You learn something new every day, or so they say.

Boy that was true for me on the 10th anniversary of my arrival at Big Closet.

It started with me waking up and realizing I wasnt in my bed.

Everyone was really great yesterday. I went to the bathroom and washed my face so I didn't look like I was crying my head off. By the time I came out everyone had already eaten and the movie of the night had just started. They all said how nice I looked and then Emily let me eat on the couch with a tray and plenty of napkins so I didn't miss more of the movie. At least when I promised to be really careful, which I did. I didn't want to make a mess on their nice furniture at all, or my pretty new clothes.

I haven't been to a lot of malls but this one seemed big. Because it was friday there were a lot of people here too. For a bit I was almost looking forward to this even in the dress. The twins kept talking about how fun it was going to be. This was their world. Some of their excitement was rubbing off on me maybe. No less than two nurses said how cute I looked at the doctors. It was a different cute though, the cute of a little girl looking like her mommy made her all pretty.

Stepping out of his room he felt alive sort of, like reborn. What ever happened now he was just going to do what he liked. He finally didn't care what other people thought. Before he just pretended he didn't care, he knew that now. Now it was real, he was really free to just be “self” whatever prefix the world wanted to add to it was fine.

Mostly I just stared out the window as we drove to the new house. Kelly sat in back next to me which seemed to annoy John who was our driver again. He had to take out one of the car seats, likely had to put it back in later too. If I had my way he would have taken both of them out but I was use to them by this point.

I made my way up to my room, called Lisa, and told her I was headed to her house with news. Lisa loves news … not TV news, but other news … OK, gossip. I told her it was something that involved my gender and it was amazing and incredible. I took my time getting to her house and made her suffer a little. She was waiting just outside her front door when I arrived, patting her foot and pretending to be looking at her watch. We talked as headed to her room.

Arabella couldn’t believe that she and her team were doing good on Call of Duty 4. The game room her mother and father designed for her had all the games she liked to play. She had a nice gaming computer that her mother helped her build. She had every game system built in her game room. She used her allowance that her mother and father gave her to buy her gaming systems and games. The room was soundproof, so not to disturb anyone.

After school the next day, I went home and went to my room. Since my homework was done, I got on the internet and looked around for something interesting. I wasted time until my mom came to my room and rapped lightly on the door, then opened it a little. “Tracy, please come to the dining room. Your dad and I need to talk to you about something.”

“What did I …?”

“You’re not in trouble. Just come … let’s talk.”

CHAPTER 85
I left Chester with a real sense of hope, while wondering what else DI Mulready had in the way of evidence against Linehan or O’Sullivan. I suspected that my team had not been the only ones digging for things other than gold. There would still be a long way to go for Ben and Peter, but I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to end badly.

Webster’s dictionary defines Speed as the fallowing: the rate of change of position along a straight line with respect to time over a set distance. In other words, the quicker you can get from one place to another. The question is what do you, when your family has spent the last two generations in search of ways to accomplish this goal faster and faster. Would do you do when the family business is the search for more Speed. For Robert ‘Robby’ McGuire the answer is easy. You grab your sister and strap on a pair of Formula One racecars then go for broke.

A teenager loses a bet and is forced to get an over-the-top feminine makeover at a transformation studio that specializes in feminizing rebellious teens. But when it comes out that this might not be his first time at the store, he's forced to confront his fears of embarrassment and exposure as he endures trials far more challenging and personal than he ever dreamed possible.

Stuck in a Rut.
By Rosalie Redd

Casey Church is a normal 13 year old girl, full of hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties. But in a world where there hasn’t been a girl born in over a century, what is normal?

Chapter 25.

Hot Commodity

A Kingdom Ship Story
By Iolanthe Portmanteaux

“If the Grays have really left, that means you'll be the only woman on this planet for a good long time. You're going to be one hot commodity. So stay hidden. I will come back for you. Do not let yourself be seen. Do not let yourself be heard. Do not answer any call. I will come back for you.”

Josie slaps the alarm clock as it goes off. She pulls the blanket back over her head. She had another nightmare last night. She had woken up scared and frightened again. The nightmares were becoming less from her ordeal from last year.

Josie falls asleep again and after the alarm goes off a second time. She turns it off and drags herself out of bed. She wasn’t looking forward to work today. She had to go and see her counselor, before reporting to work. It was mandatory, because of what she went through last year.

In the year 490, Fiach began the phase 2 of Operation Harmony. In Africa, 4 Army Groups of Raven Raiders moved north out of the South African colonies. Another 4 Army Groups launched from the southern boundary of Corvoian Africa. In Madagascar 1 Army Group landed. What little native opposition that arose was simply obliterated and the tribes subdued and assimilated. By 492 all of Africa and Madagascar were part of the Clan Corvo.

The same accident that caused the loss of his leg at age six also stimulated the latent genetics that ran in his family to trigger a mutation. Although becoming one of the ‘exo-humans’ the government monitored would prove to be the least of his worries once he stumbled upon his family’s secret.