And That is the Way it Happened -3-

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Janice goes to her first news shoot as a woman. She becomes comfortable in her role, but things are never as easy as the plans seem.
Things for her go from good to bad... to good.

And That
is the Way it Happened

Part 3

by Paula Dillon

Copyright © 2007 Paula Dillon
All Rights Reserved.

 
With an early wakeup in the works everybody found their place and went to sleep.

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

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Comments

Wow

Hope Eternal Reigns's picture

Hi Paula,

Beautifully crafted, heart-warming chapter. With just enought action and nastiness to show off the nice parts to great advantage.

Please post more very soon.

Thank you.

with love,

Hope

with love,

Hope

Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.

Most looked for.

This has become one of the stories I most look for. It is heartwarming and very well written. More please?
Hugs!
grover

Beautifully Done Paula!

This Chapter really had it all.... action, advancement of the change, exploration, and the stage set for the coping. The return to school is going to be equally as exciting and seeing how others relate to Janice and her feelings towards her schoolmates.

You have done very well on this story Paula and if no one else has done so *hugs*. I love the direction and development with which you guided your sweet gentle tale!

Love

Sephrena Lynn Miller

More Please!

Another very good chapter in what is becoming a very nice story. I look forward to the next part to see how the school handles the change and Janice handling the school.

To add another nit pick to the pile, a person doesn't change band size in bras if the cup size changes. The torso isn't the part that has changed so the band size stays the same. The main measurements would change as: 32, 24, 34 into 34, 24, 34.

Thank you, Paula for sharing you imagination with us.
Later
Nellie

And That is the Way it Happened -3-

Like how Janice took off running as a new girl.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine