Betrayed

Printer-friendly version

This is NOT a pretty story. It might look like it takes a page or nine from Zoe's Becoming Robin and similar stories by other authors, but in the end, this is a tragedy, plain and simple. Every single warning listed at the top of the story is appropriate.

The story ends with two big scenes: a rather descriptive rape scene followed soon after by a very graphic suicide scene.

All characters are fictional, the school is loosely based on one that actually exists in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

**********

Colleen Cynthia McGregor walked down the school hall from her English class toward her next class, algebra. She didn't particularly like math, but knew that having at least a semi-solid foundation in it might help her in the years ahead, whether at college or at work.

Colleen was quite tall at 5'11", weighed about 160 pounds, her shoulder length dark auburn hair and emerald eyes were her best features.

She was fifteen and this was her first day in a brand new high school. It was scary, but the kids seemed to be cool so far. The change of schools was felt to be necessary, as Colleen was in the process of undergoing her real life test. As far as she was concerned, it was only the business of her parents and the school staff, but Colleen had been Christopher Charles until the end of the school year in the old town.

Her algebra class was spent trying to follow the teacher's explanations and working on problems he had put on the blackboard. At the end of the class, she had to rush to a private staff shower room not far from the big gym and change, as her next class was physical education. The shower room was close to the gym with half a dozen lockers, a few benches and a row of three sinks against one wall below a large mirror.

This led to her thinking about the legal wrangling that had gone on before she even started here. The school board had known that the new student was a 15 year old pre-operative transsexual and had been trying to prevent her from participating in physical education. It had taken three meetings and a stern speech from the moderator involved before the board had finally capitulated and promised to revise the regulations. They had not backed down on enforcing the requirement that Colleen change clothing and shower separately from everyone else.

**********

Once she had finished changing, Colleen scurried into the big gym, found the girls and sat down at one end of the group. This school had a solid reputation among its various athletic teams, which consisted of boys teams for soccer, basketball, baseball and lacrosse, girls teams for volleyball, soccer, basketball, gymnastics and softball, and co-ed teams for cross-country running, alpine skiing, swimming, tennis, track and field, golf, ice hockey, field hockey and bowling. This gave lots of choices that a girl could pick from for athletics.

She listened to the teacher, a woman known to everyone else as Coach Edwards, as she explained that they would be doing preliminary physical testing to determine the capabilities of each student, with the intent of learning which teams might benefit from their being on them.

Colleen watched as several girls went through brief but thorough testing for flexibility, agility, strength and overall physical condition. Then it was her turn, the coach ran her through the same brief tests, giving praise where it was due and encouragement when needed. Colleen thought she had sucked big time, but as she watched the rest of the girls, she saw that some were just as left-footed and clumsy as she had been.

At the end of that first physical education class, Colleen was called back by the teacher as she was about to leave the gym. Coach Edwards spent the next few minutes saying that she thought, with some regular exercise and training, Colleen could be ready by basketball season. "Look, Colleen, you have the height for it, you just need to learn how to move and to build up your strength and flexibility. Practice, okay?"

"Yes, Coach, I'll do that. Thanks."

She started to walk away, but was called back again and Coach handed her a late pass. Colleen ran into the shower room and wasted no time on getting clean. She quickly towelled herself dry once she was finished, dressed, put on a bit of lipstick, then headed to her next class.

**********

Home economics was her next class, her mom had suggested it to her, saying it would be useful to her later on in life. It was totally new to her; she entered, handed the late pass to the teacher, walked to the first of two empty seats, then sat and focused on the teacher.

This specific class seemed to be about learning to prepare a quick but decent meal, Colleen ended up being paired with a short, slim redhead with bright green twinkling eyes and a ready smile who introduced herself as Bethany, then they were busy following directions.

The class was over before she even realized it, now it was time for lunch in the huge cafeteria. The teacher had said that they shouldn't waste the food they had just made, so one person in most of the pairs carried a pyrex casserole dish as they walked to the cafeteria.

Once they were in the cafeteria, they proceeded to the line, where a staff person was waiting; the staff person noticed the dishes many of the students were carrying and handed a stack of paper plates and a big spoon over to Colleen who happened to be at the head of the group next to Bethany. The pyrex dishes were not very large, just big enough to give four reasonable servings which Colleen started spooning on the plates. The class members who had been carrying the other dishes passed them to Bethany as Colleen filled the plates.

It didn't take more than a few minutes to serve 28 plates, the number of students in the class, the rest of the dishes were handed to the staff person who carried them one by one up the counter to the serving area. Other students could eat it if they wished to do so. It should be noted that there were only five dishes remaining once Colleen had served the class, two pairs had burnt theirs to the point of inedibility.

**********

She had science, chemistry this year, then American history and world geography filling the rest of her school day. Colleen had done biology last year at her old school, chemistry was a different way of looking at things, she actually found she was interested as the class continued.

American history wasn't really new to her, she'd had that in her old school, so it was mostly just a review of known information. World geography, on the other hand, might be interesting, as it could help her to learn more about different parts of the world.

Now that classes were done for the day, she wandered to the office and sat on a chair by the office door. Her mom worked long hours, often leaving home no later than 7:30 AM and returning around 6 or 6:30 PM. One of the teachers here, Ms. Blankenship, lived on the other side of Becket, the small town in Massachusetts Colleen and her mother had moved to at the beginning of the summer.

Colleen couldn't even remember her father, he had run off two months before her third birthday and had never paid child support. Colleen was happy enough to get rides to and from school with Ms. Blankenship, it was less hassle than riding a bicycle nineteen miles each way.

She didn't have to wait very long, then they were headed out to Ms. Blankenship's 2010 cherry red Ford Mustang for the trip home.

**********

Colleen liked Ms. Blankenship, she was one of the teachers who acted as if Colleen had been born female, which made Colleen happy.

"So Colleen, how was your first day?"

"Not bad, Ms. Blankenship, mostly just one class after another, although I did have fun cooking in Home Ec this morning. I've never really cooked at all, well, not beyond making toast, so it was a whole new experience, and I met Bethany Mathews in that class. She and I were the only people in the class that hadn't picked partners already, so the teacher paired us up; the food turned out well enough, I think. Better than the two boy-girl pairs in that class, they were so busy staring at their partners that their food ended up burnt."

"You do know that that is only one of the skills they teach in that class. Mrs. Johns loves to watch her students as they learn new skills. I'll bet that you'll also be learning simple sewing and how to make a pattern for a dress before the month is over, Colleen."

"You're most likely right, Ms. Blankenship. Thanks for the ride, see you in the morning," as the car stopped in front of her house.

**********

Colleen let herself into the house, then closed and locked the door before she kicked off her shoes and headed into the dining room. Mom had told her that she was to do her homework when she returned home from school each day, so she pulled out three textbooks, math, world geography and chemistry, plus she had to read the first chapter of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee by Friday.

Her math teacher had noticed her difficulty with the algebra, so had given her several fairly simple problems to do. It took her almost 45 minutes to work her way through the ten problems, she thought she had them right. She completed a small quiz from the end of the first chapter in her geography text before she turned to her chemistry book and read through the first few pages of the initial chapter.

She was still reading when the front door opened and her mother Elizabeth entered, then dropped her heavy purse on the hall table.

When her mother asked how her first day had been, Colleen gave her a brief rundown of her day, including that she had actually enjoyed the home economics class, having survived her own cooking there; with a brief pause to catch her breath, she continued, saying that the coach thought she could play for the basketball team, but she needed to work on improving her strength and flexibility.

Elizabeth chuckled, then strode over to the other side of the coffee table in the living room, opened it and pulled out three boxed discs and a set of velcro weights for wrists and ankles. "Use these for half an hour a day and you'll be ready when basketball starts. You could also go for walks around here, but that's up to you. There are lots of ways to get basic exercise, you can decide what works for you."

Elizabeth strode into the kitchen and took off her suit jacket before putting on an apron and washing her hands. "Time to make dinner, get in here, Colleen." She waited until Colleen was standing next to her, then said, "I'm going to make a stew, something we can eat in about an hour. Wash your hands, pull out three medium potatoes, rinse them, chop them into half-inch cubes, then do the same with two carrots.

"I'm grabbing the sliced venison your Uncle Jesse sent us the other day; I'll cut a piece off, thaw it a bit in the microwave and cut it into chunks. Now I'll turn on the back burner, set it to a bit above medium with a cup of water in the pot; let it get to a boil for now."

Colleen and her mother worked next to each other for several minutes. "Water's boiling," her mother said, "Add the potatoes and turn it down to medium. We'll add the meat in about five minutes, then the carrots a few minutes after that, cover it and stir it once in a while."

The two women sat down at the dining room table once the remaining meat had been returned to the freezer and the countertop had been wiped. The next 45 minutes were spent in quiet chatter, with one of them getting up to stir the stew now and then.

"You'll notice I only added about a cup of water initially, well, a lot of that will go as the stew cooks. If I had wanted a soup instead of a stew, I would have added another cup or even two to the pot at the beginning. Notice how you can smell it now?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes, mom, it's actually starting to smell good."

"You're right, it is, but give it another fifteen minutes, then tell me what you think."

Colleen placed a glass, fork, knife, spoon and napkin at two seats near the kitchen end of the table, then sat down again.

Shortly before the fifteen minutes ended, Colleen's stomach rumbled, the smell was driving her bonkers. Elizabeth stood up, walked over to the stove, turned off the burner, then used a glove to take the pot off the stove as she grabbed a cutting board and placed the pot on it. She pulled two stoneware bowls from a cupboard, filled each bowl with some of the stew, then handed one to Colleen as they walked to the table. Just as Elizabeth was about to sit, she remembered the bread; she walked to the fridge, put four slices on a side plate and set it on the table.

The two sat down and enjoyed their meal and their time together, they barely saw each other in the mornings. Both had seconds.

**********

The next few weeks were much the same, school, then home, study, help mom make dinner, relax for a bit and then bedtime.

At the start of the third week of September, Mrs. Johns, the home economics teacher, informed the students that they would be spending the next two weeks learning basic sewing skills, including how to repair things like buttons and torn seams.

Colleen and Bethany had continued to pair up in that class, and were beginning to become friends.

Colleen practiced her basketball skills whenever she could find the time; she had also started using those exercise discs her mom had shown her at the beginning of the school year, and her body was starting to show the effects of all of the exercise. She lost about five pounds over those first few weeks, much of that being leftover baby fat, and added more muscle to her legs and arms.

Coach Edwards would occasionally pick her out and have her do free throws, lay ups and other skills. After one such session, Coach called her over and spoke to her. "I'm impressed, Miss McGregor. By the time we start playing in two months, you'll be ready for it."

**********

Colleen was also getting fairly regular lessons on cooking from her mother, on top of whatever she learned in home economics. By the end of September, she was actually planning their weekly meal schedule and deciding what groceries were needed each week. She could have cooked at home if she wanted, but she actually preferred to do it with her mother, she was learning so much and it was fun that way.

**********

In early October, Colleen started seeing a new girl in her English, physical education and chemistry classes. A few days after she first noticed the new girl, Colleen approached her, "Hi, I'm Colleen, I noticed you're new here. I'm fairly new myself, we moved here in the summer."

The new girl, almost as tall as Colleen herself, replied to Colleen, her voice a mix of an Irish lilt and a slight southern drawl, "We moved here from Texas over the weekend, we still have what looks like half the house to unpack, gahhh! I'm Bridget, by the way."

The two girls continued chatting until they parted ways for their next class.

**********

At the next day's physical education class, Bridget was put through her paces, testing various basketball skills, then she informed the coach that she had played on the girls' basketball team last year at her previous school as a power forward.

Coach perked up, then thought for a moment. "If we use you as a power forward and Colleen as a small forward, with Tiffany as center, and Deborah and Vicky as shooting and point guards for our main line, we might have a shot at the state championships in March. The second line would be Christy as power forward, Janelle as small forward, Vanessa as center, and Jillian and Terri as shooting and point guards."

The whole class listened intently, they hadn't reached the state championships in over twenty years, the last time had been in '94.

Coach Edwards grinned, then waved at the floor, "First line, this basket, second line, opposite basket. Let's see what you can do."

The next twenty minutes passed as the two lines practiced under Coach's watchful eyes. "We just might have a chance with those two girls."

**********

Bethany and Colleen grew closer as the weeks passed, as did Bridget and Colleen. Colleen felt good about having friends. Colleen had been planning on a quiet Halloween with her mother, but now that she had two friends in school, she thought it might be nice if they could have some fun over the last weekend in October. She talked to her mom, then invited both girls over for the Saturday afternoon and evening.

On the Saturday afternoon, which happened to be October 29th, Bridget and Bethany arrived within minutes of each other.

The three girls spent the afternoon and evening having fun, even helping Elizabeth as she and Colleen prepared the meal.

Everything was fine until just after 8 PM. Colleen had gone to use the washroom, but had forgotten to lock the door, and Bridget walked in on her before she could pull up her panties. Bridget was in the midst of going off like a rocket when Bethany joined them.

"You... you're no fucking girl. What the fuck do you think you're doing, faking being a girl, damn you?"

Bethany stepped in, grabbing Bridget who was raising her fist and shaking it at Colleen. "Bridget, dammit, listen to me! Tell me just ONCE that you've seen Colleen acting like any of the boys we have in our grade, or any of the other grades; I've never seen anything like that myself!"

Bridget dropped her arm, then stood there thinking for a few minutes. "You're right, Bethany, neither have I. I'll listen now."

Colleen, who had been shaking with fear since the confrontation started, sighed with relief as she fell back onto the toilet seat. "Just give me a minute or two, please, and I'll come out there and explain everything to both of you. Bridget, girl, you had me bloody terrified!"

Bethany let go of Bridget's arm and the two girls left the washroom, heading back to the comfy sofa in the living room.

Once she was finished in the washroom, Colleen spent the next hour explaining everything that led to their moving here where no one knew her and she could have a chance to safely attend school as a girl. She also explained that she had been taking blockers to prevent male puberty for the last seven months after seeing a psychiatrist several times, and that she would be starting hormones once she turned 16 in the middle of December. She told them she was now about four months along on the two year long real life test she would need before surgery.

Both Bethany and Bridget were stunned by everything that Colleen had experienced. Bridget was openly crying and apologizing profusely about midway through the explanations, which slowed things down a bit, and Bethany was having a hard time holding back tears herself.

Bethany's mother arrived just after 10:15 PM to pick her up. Bridget's mother showed up just before 10:30 PM.

**********

School continued, and the three girls formed their own group, meeting once or twice during the week and all day Saturday when possible.

The basketball season was due to start a week from this Friday, and the whole team was nervous about whether they could handle it. Coach Edwards kept them all working hard in practices after school two nights a week, and sometimes during physical education classes.

Coach had set up a board in her office that showed all twelve of their scheduled games. Most of those were on Thursday afternoons, so that there wouldn't be any conflict with the football games that usually took place on Fridays, and the cheerleaders could be at both games. The one exception to the Thursday afternoon games was the week right before Christmas, they would play on the Wednesday instead.

**********

Colleen was enjoying school more than she had for a long time. Her abilities to do schoolwork were never in question, she had no trouble pulling at least Bs in most of her courses in her old school, rather, it had been her height and awkwardness because of that height. She'd had 'beanpole' thrown at her so often it was annoying, then there were the ones that called her 'stretch', 'stringbean' and 'stilts' among other things.

It was weird being the tallest student in her entire grade last year, some of the boys gave her a hard time over it; she figured it was more because she was not only tall, but rather skinny too, she was all lean muscle and bone. It took her months before she felt comfortable with her height and that was due more to the fact that she was seeing a psych about her need to be female as much as for problems with her height.

After the students in Mrs. Johns' class had learned some basic sewing and had also learned some more cooking skills, she announced on the last Friday in November that they would be learning to make a dress which they would wear for the Valentine's Day dance.

The two boys were aghast at the possibility they would have to make dresses until Mrs. Johns informed them they would make suits instead.

**********

The Pittsfield Mid-town HighSchool's Lady Panthers had their first basketball game on Thursday, December 1st against Hampshire Regional High School. It was a home game for the Panthers, so they could expect some decent support from their fans.

The game started all right, with the score showing 11 -10 for the Panthers after the first quarter. It slowed down a bit in the second quarter, they maintained the lead at the half with a score of 20-17. There had been a lot of running up and down the court, the kids were starting to tire.

Someone fouled Colleen in the third quarter, they'd pulled her down so she landed on her left knee on the hardwood floor. She managed to sink one of the two foul shots, the score now standing at 31 - 30 for Hampshire. Colleen was pulled off to rest for a while, the coach wrapped some ice in a towel and placed that around Colleen's knee, telling her to keep it elevated.

The two teams were staying fairly close in points, but Hampshire still had a four point lead with just two minutes left in the game. Colleen leaned over and asked the Coach to let her play. She pulled the towel off, flexed her leg several times, the Coach shrugged and waved her in.

Just 2:03 left on the clock, a four point deficit, and a slightly injured player jogging back onto the floor as her replacement walked off. The rest of the line looked at Colleen in surprise, they had been expecting her to be out for the rest of the game, not back on the boards.

The ball went up, Tiffany dropped it back to Colleen who passed it back to Deborah. Deborah ran with it halfway up the court, then passed it over to Bridget. Colleen kept moving forward, Bridget couldn't shoot, but did pass it to Colleen who made a nice lay up for two points.

The clock was down to 1:16 now, still a two point deficit, could they do it or not? No one knew at that point as the ball went up again. The center for Hampshire grabbed it, passed it to one of their guards, and the ball started moving down the court.

The guard managed to get a pass through to the Hampshire small forward, who went for a lay up, just missing the basket. Deborah grabbed the ball as it came off the backboard, then started moving back up the court. Someone fouled Deborah just after she crossed mid-court.

Deborah bounced in place at the free throw line; when the whistle blew, she threw the ball, it hit the back board, bounced off the rim of the net, then down to one of the Hampshire players who started to run it down the court, then passed to the Hampshire center.

With 28 seconds left just as the Hampshire center went to shoot, she landed slightly wrong, her foot skidding forward half a step as the ball left her hands. There was no foul called, the ball bounced off the backboard and into Vicky's waiting hands.

Vicky passed to Bridget, who ran for a moment, then passed it to Tiffany who took off to the other end. Time was running out, just eleven seconds left, no one was open. Wait, Colleen was clear! Tiffany passed the ball, Colleen spun and shot, the ball swished through the hoop!

The small crowd went crazy, their team had come back and won the first game of the season with a three point shot at the last second!

**********

Colleen hadn't been following the football team, their last game was the day after the girl's basketball team's first game. Win or lose didn't really matter, as the football team wouldn't be in the state tournament this year with a 6 and 3 record prior to their last game. Two teams in the area had posted perfect records so far, with at least four others only having a single loss, and there was still one more game to play.

More than half of the football team had been at our first game, so it was only fair that we be there for their last one this year.

We were the home team, so the kick-off went to the other team's 36 yard line, one of their players caught it and ran it back to our 45 yard line before Brandon Edwinston brought him down. Two more plays brought a touchdown, the kick put us down 7 - 0 after three minutes of play.

Maybe it wasn't our day, it sure as heck seemed that way to her. By halftime, the score was 33 - 12 for the other team. It didn't get any better in the second half, except the scoring for both sides slowed down a bit, the final score was 53 - 23. Our football season was officially over.

One of our players had been tackled and fallen rather badly under at least three of the opposing team, resulting in a broken leg. Colleen had been told at some point in the game that injuries like that one were fairly common in football, it was rare to not have injuries in a season.

**********

School was good, playing basketball was quite a bit of fun for Colleen. By the time of the Christmas break, Pittsfield Mid-town HS had a 4 - 0 record. To say that Coach Edwards was pleased would have been an understatement, no one had expected the team to be doing this well.

Bethany would be having Christmas dinner with her family, but Bridget, her parents and her two sisters were still new to the area. Colleen and Bridget had talked about it several times, and the result was that Colleen and her mom would have Christmas dinner at Bridget's house.

On a side note, Colleen received her first dose of estrogen the day after her 16th birthday, she was almost bouncing off the walls.

On Christmas morning, Colleen and Elizabeth were up by 7 AM, they grabbed some fresh coffee and spent half an hour opening presents. Colleen received several pieces of clothing, a new purse, a small make-up package and a couple of music CDs.

She had given her mother two new suits she had found at a store in Pittsfield a few weeks ago, the suits had been displayed with a 65% discount from their original price of $200 each. She had also bought a purse for her mother, a pair of nice shoes, and a few books.

**********

At 11 AM, Colleen and Elizabeth locked up the house, climbed into Elizabeth's 2014 Toyota 4Runner and drove into Pittsfield to join Bridget and her family for their Christmas dinner, arriving just before 11:30 due to the slippery condition of the roads in the area.

Both had worn fairly nice skirt and blouse sets, clothing suitable for a nice friendly dinner. They hadn't been inside for more than ten minutes when Bridget's mother, Elaine, asked if they could help a bit in the kitchen, she would supply aprons to help keep their clothes clean.

It seems they had forgotten to do the dishes from the night before, and some of them would likely be needed, as they didn't have anything remotely resembling formal dinnerware in the house. Colleen and Elizabeth shrugged, put on the aprons, and were soon busy as bees.

Once the dishes were finished, they were set to work on making sure the table was as clean as it could possibly be. That didn't take very long, maybe ten minutes as it was a twelve seat table with the extenders in the middle, then they were asked to keep an eye on the oven.

Various little chores kept needing to be done, these kept Colleen and Elizabeth busy until just before the food was ready to serve. The turkey had been sitting on the counter for about an hour, making everyone's stomach rumble as the other dishes were set on the table.

The full table was needed, as Bridget's mother's sister and her family had shown up just in time, only one seat was left unused.

The next hour passed in contented enjoyment of the meal, including the pies Colleen and Elizabeth had watched in the oven earlier.

**********

New Year's Eve was quiet, Colleen and Elizabeth stayed home and watched the ball drop in Times Square before heading to their beds.

It was back to school on the Monday after New Year's, and back to the grind. As before, the school work wasn't giving her much trouble, other than the fact that math was not her thing. The real fun was the basketball practices and the games each week.

No one in the school could explain it, the school remained unbeaten as the month of January crept onward. Their seventh game was a tough one, they had to play Hampshire again, this time at Hampshire due to having a limited number of high schools in their part of the state.

Hampshire took an early lead, ending the first quarter with a score of 13 - 11 in their favour. They extended that lead a bit in the second quarter, which ended with a score of 24 - 21. It was the third quarter where things started to get interesting, though.

Hampton pulled the ball back from the toss, the center passing it off to the power forward, then the forward ran up the court. People weren't sure whether the girl was paying attention or not, as she steamrolled a Pittsfield player just after crossing the mid-court.

The Pittsfield player in question, Vicky Preston, received two foul throw shots and put both in the basket. The score was now 24 - 23.

The tide turned, from then on, it was a rout. In the rest of the second half, Pittsfield added 23 points, Hampshire 11, final score was 46 - 35.

Seven games, seven wins, the school was climbing the walls in their excitement. Could they stay unbeaten for the rest of the season?

**********

Colleen had been working her butt off to get her dress finished before Valentine's Day. It was February 9th now, and the dance was being held next Tuesday afternoon from 4 PM to 9 PM in the school gymnasium. She didn't have much work left to do, but she wanted to do it right.

She was working on the side seam, making sure everything was properly aligned, when she discovered she had somehow attached the right sleeve of her nice linen blouse to the seam she was doing, and had to call to the teacher to be rescued, which took the rest of the class.

She was slightly annoyed at what had happened, but realized that the dress would likely be finished in tomorrow's class.

There was another basketball game tonight, she hoped they would win, they were still unbeaten with a 9 - 0 record.

The game was a rout from start to finish, the other team was fumbling or tripping all over the place, the final score ended up being 38 - 17.

Only two games left in the regular season now, they were running 10 - 0. The entire school was loving it, the last time a basketball team there had had a perfect record had been the men's team 37 years before in '79, so everyone figured it was about time for another perfect season.

**********

She had managed to get the dress done on the Friday afternoon and had taken it home to show it to her mother, who was quite pleased.

The day of the dance arrived, she was quite nervous, as she had never attended a dance before as a female, this was brand new to her. As far as she could tell, she had done all right in the classes today; there wasn't time to go home, so she changed in the shower room.

She had a lot of fun; even being as nervous as she was, she must have danced with a dozen boys, maybe more. Thankfully, there had been no alcohol at the dance, although one boy tried to sneak a bottle of Johnny Walker Black into the gymnasium and was promptly suspended.

The biggest issue that happened at the dance was the fight just after 8 PM involving Patrick Dunston, one of the four followers of Thomas Devinson, who just happened to be the biggest troublemaker in all the high schools in Pittsfield. Not only that, but his father was fairly wealthy, and had recently become a partner in a law firm in Pittsfield; every incident in the last three years had been dropped with no reason given.

One of the juniors had been interested in a girl that Patrick was thought to have dumped over the Christmas holidays, but when Patrick spotted the young man kissing that girl near the back of the gymnasium, he lost it and knocked the boy out with three fast punches to the face.

Even with over six hundred witnesses to the assault, everyone expected it to disappear like every other incident involving Devinson's Devils.

**********

The second last game of the basketball season was an easy one, Pittsfield Mid-town HS romped off with the win, the final score was 41 - 26.

The next big project in Colleen's home economics class required them to make either a curtain or a table cloth, their choice; rather than use the sewing machines, they would have to hand sew the edges of the item which would require quite a lot of time before it would be finished.

Colleen was happy to have been put in the course; since school started, her cooking skills had gone from almost nonexistent to fairly good, and her skills in other areas were not far behind. Wandering in a fabric shop that evening, she found a gorgeous design of a dragon just as it was rising from the ground, wings spread wide as it leapt into the air; the images were gold in colour against a deep purple background.

She purchased enough of the cloth to make a beautiful piece for the class, then took it home to show it to her mother, who loved it on sight.

**********

It was the night of the final game of the basketball season; if they won this one, they would have the school's first perfect record in 37 years.

The team they had to play tonight was one of the tougher ones in their area, Pittsfield had very narrowly won against them earlier this season.

The first quarter ended with the other teaming leading by one, the score being 13 - 12 at that point. Colleen had scored a three pointer and a foul shot as part of her team's twelve points so far. At this point, the game could go either way, it was very nicely balanced.

The second quarter was similar to the first, although Pittsfield did get the lead, ending the quarter with the score being 27 - 25 in their favour.

About a minute after the third quarter started, there was a tangle that resulted in four players being on the floor. One player on each side was given a foul; the opposing team made their shot, Deborah's landed on the rim, wobbled for a moment, then fell off the outside of the hoop.

The score was now 27 - 26. Play resumed and the players moved one way, then the other, some scoring, some missing their shots. With 1:30 left in the third quarter, Colleen was knocked down, given two foul shots and dropped both through the hoop in a classic swish.

There was no further scoring in the third quarter, the score at that point was 37 - 34 in Pittsfield's favour.

The fourth quarter started off with a bang, one of the opposing team threw a three pointer from just inside the mid-court line. Tie game.

It stayed extremely close through the rest of the quarter; with 17 seconds left, Colleen was fouled again, the score was 49-48 against them.

She waited for the whistle, then put the first through the hoop with her usual swish.

She waited again, then threw her second shot, it went off the backboard, bounced on the rim, wobbled back and forth, then dropped through the net. The other team grabbed the ball and started running up the court, they had one last chance to take the game.

Their point guard passed to their small forward, who passed to their center, no shot available, she passed to the power forward, who turned and threw the ball; with the ball in the air and one second left, everyone watched as it hit the rim, then the backboard and fell to the floor.

Pittsfield Mid-town High School had done it! They had completed a perfect season, the first for their basketball teams in 37 years.

**********

The school had a huge celebration in the gymnasium the next morning, first class was cancelled and an assembly announced instead.

Coach Edwards was stunned, she had not expected her girls to do what seemed to be impossible, yet they had, and with style.

Now they would have to go to the state tournaments on the third weekend in March. She had a lot of calls to make.

**********

Having the tournament that particular weekend was all right, Colleen thought, it would be a good end to spring break.

She was making decent progress with her Home Ec project, Mrs. Johns had loved the cloth piece when she showed it to her last week.

The rest of her classes were going well, she was even beginning to understand math better, that surprised Colleen a bit.

The day after the final game, Colleen had obtained approval from her mom to be able to go to the tournament. She couldn't wait.

**********

It was 4:30 PM on Friday, March 16 as Colleen, Coach Edwards, Ms. Blankenship, the rest of the team and the cheerleaders all climbed onto the bus. Most of the football players would be following them, likely using the big vans two of the boys borrowed from their parents. It was suspected that at least one hundred of the other students from the school would also make their way there to watch the tournament.

School for the basketball team and the cheerleaders for Friday had been cancelled, everyone else would be skipping classes that day.

The bus rolled out just as the clock from a nearby church rang the bells to let people know it was now 5 PM.

"Okay kids, we'll be on the road for about three hours, with a stop in Palmer for anyone who needs a washroom break. I would advise people to take advantage of that break, as we won't be stopping again until we reach our hotel in Waltham. Is that understood?"

The next several minutes were spent informing people who would be sharing rooms with whom once they reached the hotel.

A large number of the girls did use the stop in Palmer to use a washroom; once everyone was on the bus again, they were back on the road.

They arrived at the hotel just after 8:45 PM; arrangements had been made in advance for rooms for the players and cheerleaders. The football players and anyone else following them would have to find their own rooms in this hotel or one of the several hotels nearby.

Most of the girls were bed by shortly after 10 PM and soon asleep; the rest wandered off to their beds less than an hour later.

**********

The entire basketball team and all but two of the cheerleaders were in the hotel's dining room for breakfast by 7:30 AM on Friday.

By 8:45 AM, the team was on the way to the site for the tournament, they hoped to be able to get a little practice in before the game. They reached the site at 9:15 AM, Coach Edwards led them in and they lucked out, a few spaces were available for teams to practice.

After the players had changed into their usual outfits, gold shirts showing a snarling panther on the front with their names and numbers on the back and matching shorts, they spent the next twenty minutes in a quick practice to loosen them up for the game they would soon be playing.

Their first opponents would be a team from Hardwick in the mid-state area. The girls were hyped, ready to play.

**********

That first game in the tournament was just too easy for them, they clobbered Hardwick, winning very easily with a score of 43 - 17.

The whole team shook their heads. They were finding it hard to believe they had beaten one of the best teams in the state so easily.

They used the time before the second game, which was due to start at 4:30 PM, to get some lunch and have a fair bit of practice again.

**********

The second game was a whole different kettle of fish, the game started off badly and stayed that way for quite a while.

Three minutes into the game, Vicky was fouled quite roughly, she had been bumped knee first into the side boards. The opposing player came very close to being thrown out of the game; Vicky's knee was already swelling up like crazy, so Deborah took her shots, scoring both.

It didn't help much, the other team was pretty strong; after the first quarter, Pittsfield was down 17 - 12 to the Fitchburg team.

The second quarter didn't change anything in that respect, when it ended, they were now down 36 - 25; Colleen had scored four foul shots.

It wasn't looking good for Pittsfield at all, but when the same player did the against the boards stunt with Jillian from the second line, it was enough for the referee; the player was ejected from the game for unsportsmanlike conduct and Jillian scored on both foul shots. Jillian had been lucky, she had seen the player approaching and had twisted around slightly so that her side hit the boards instead of her knee.

Rebecca, one of the alternates, had replaced Vicky after she had been injured earlier in the game. Rebecca was fast, light on her feet, and this proved to be very helpful for the team; Rebecca couldn't shoot worth a damn, but she was damn good at passing to people who could.

After the ejection of the Fitchburg player, the game started shifting in favour of Pittsfield. By the end of the third quarter, Pittsfield was just three points behind; they'd been hustling all over the court, Rebecca's passes resulting in baskets fairly often, so the score was now 47 - 44.

The fourth quarter was a gruelling back and forth rush across the court, with the score staying fairly close. With less than two minutes left, and still trying to catch up on a three point deficit, Pittsfield needed to find some oomph pretty soon or the tournament would be over for them.

The play wandered up and down the court, first one way, then the other. Just as the team was thinking that it was all over for them, Rebecca threw a lovely pass to Colleen with just six seconds on the clock; Colleen turned, threw it and screamed in joy as the ball swished.

Her fast throw at the six second mark resulted in a three point shot, which meant she tied the game just before the buzzer, 59 points each.

The entire audience around the court roared in approval; this was quite a rarity, a game requiring extra time.

"Well, folks, with that sudden tie, we'll take a ten minute break and return for one more round," Bob Jacks, the announcer chuckled.

Colleen was shaking like a leaf, Coach Edwards had to walk to her and slowly guide her over to the team bench.

"Kids, we're doing very well; if we win this one, we'll reach the semi-finals which will start around 4:15 tomorrow afternoon. You've made an amazing effort so far. When the game starts again in a few minutes, go out there and give it your best effort."

"Hello again, folks, I'm Bob Jacks, and I'm back to guide you through the rest of this amazing game, the first tie so far in this tournament."

The main referee stepped forward, and the two first lines filed onto the boards, taking their places as they waited for the whistle.

He blew the whistle, Tiffany tipped the ball back to Bridget, Bridget twisted around and ran partway down the court, then passed it back to Deborah. Deborah found an opening, advanced almost to the other team's free point line and passed to Colleen.

Colleen couldn't find an opening for a shot, so she passed it off to Bridget who had moved back to three point territory, Bridget bounced around for a moment, finally evading her guard, then spun and launched her shot which went right through with the ever so lovely swish.

"Beautiful three pointer from Pittsfield's Bridget Taylor there!" shouted Bob Jacks from his small booth over the play area.

Play surged toward the other end for a moment, the opposition managing to score on a lay up, Pittsfield was up by one point.

"Sweet lay-up from Tracey Patricks on the Fitchburg team, this is going to be a hair-raiser of a game, folks!" Bob laughed.

Deborah grabbed the ball, started running up the court, then passed to Tiffany, who sank a three pointer from 30 feet away. Four points up.

"Another lovely three pointer from the Pittsfield side, this one from Tiffany Alberts! Four point lead now! " Bob yelled.

The opposition's point guard grabbed it, then threw it to their center who ran up and tried her own three point shot which bounced on the rim, then off the backboard before being caught by Rebecca; Rebecca passed it up to Bridget, who ran several steps then passed it to Tiffany. She continued up the court, passing it off to Deborah, who tossed it to Colleen; Colleen prayed, took the shot and sank another three pointer.

"Who is this McGregor girl? She's thrown some very nice three pointers today, that was one of them!" screamed Bob.

The clock was down to 2:33 in this extra quarter, and Pittsfield was now ahead by seven points.

The Fitchburg players were becoming annoyed, they'd expected to advance easily, and this upstart team was kicking their butts. Their point guard passed to their center, who charged up the court, passing across to the small forward who threw an easy lay up. Five point lead.

"Another nice lay up on the Fitchburg side, this one coming from Toni Bantam. Pittsfield is holding on to a five point lead."

Rebecca snatched the ball, threw it across to Deborah who ran up to the center line, then passed to Tiffany. Things had been going pretty well for them in this quarter, so Tiffany tried another three point shot, only to have it bounce twice on the rim, then fall off to the side.

"Ooooooh!" Bob yelled, "That one was a nice try, can't have them all, I guess!"

Tiffany shrugged, then ran after the Fitchburg point guard, who passed the ball over to their power forward, who moved up the court. She couldn't find an opening to shoot, so passed the ball over to the small forward who executed a perfect slam dunk. Three point lead now.

"Wow! A gorgeous slam from Fitchburg's small forward, Toni Bantam. She's hustling quite nicely today," Bob chortled.

There was just over a minute left on the clock as Rebecca took the ball, the started up the court; about halfway to the center line, she passed over to Deborah, who then passed to Bridget; Bridget took off like a jackrabbit, doing an easy lay up under the basket for two points.

"A very nice lay up from Pittsfield's power forward, Bridget Taylor! Well done!" Bob grinned as he looked down at the play.

Back to a five point lead with just 43 seconds left, the Fitchburg shooting guard passed to their small forward, who moved up the court, then passed across to the power forward. She managed to evade everyone and tossed a three pointer. The lead was now two points.

"That was a sweet three pointer from just over 25 feet, Bernice Pleasance threw that beauty," Bob roared. "Two point lead now."

Twenty seconds left, one last try, Colleen supposed as Deborah passed to Tiffany who headed up the court; Tiffany crossed the center line, then passed to Bridget, no chance for a shot, she threw it to Colleen, who pivoted, threw and missed just as the buzzer sounded.

She'd missed her last shot, but they had still managed to beat Fitchburg by two points. The five players staggered over to their bench.

"Well, folks, that was an impressive bit of play from both teams, Pittsfield wins this one with a final score of 70 - 68. Well done to everyone."

**********

The team sat on their bench for nearly fifteen minutes as the crowd continued to cheer and applaud the efforts of both teams.

When the noise finally settled to a dull roar, and they had all had a chance to relax a bit, Coach Edwards led them off the court.

Not quite half an hour later, they were in their rooms at the hotel, grabbing showers or waiting while their roommate had one. It was 6:45 PM.

The players and cheerleaders went to a restaurant for dinner, escorted by Coach Edwards and Ms. Blankenship.

Colleen relaxed in the room she was sharing with Bridget later that night; she decided she was going to bed early, she was totally wiped out.

**********

Those girls that wanted to could visit some of the major landmarks in Boston on the Saturday morning. By 8:45 AM, most of the team members and about half of the cheerleaders had woken up, had breakfast and were waiting by the bus to go wandering around Boston.

The bus driver took them first to Faneuil Hall, they wandered around in there for about 45 minutes exploring a part of Boston's history.

The next stop was the New England Aquarium, several of the girls had fun making faces at the various fish in the pools and tanks.

The third and last stop was at the Boston Common, they wandered around the park for half an hour before they had to return to the bus.

They were back at the hotel just before 2 PM; after a quick lunch in a nearby restaurant, it was time to head back to the tournament.

**********

Their third game was a wipeout from start to finish, they were totally outclassed by the team from southern Boston.

By the end of the first quarter, the Boston team had a 17 - 7 lead. Colleen scored the only three point shot for Pittsfield that quarter.

At the end of the first half, the score stood at 31 - 24; they'd gained a bit, some of that due to Colleen's three successful foul shots.

That was as good as it got for Pittsfield, they managed to get only three points in the third quarter, all on foul shots, falling behind 44 - 27.

The fourth quarter was only marginally better, Colleen scored two three pointers, but the South Boston team walked off with a 58 - 39 win.

Pittsfield Mid-town HS had done quite well, they had gone all the way to the semi-finals before being knocked out of the tournament.

**********

They headed back to the hotel, where the players and cheerleaders hit the showers and freshened up after the game.

They were on the road by 6:30 PM, heading toward home; Coach Edwards figured they would be in Pittsfield by 9:30 PM.

Like they had on the trip down to Boston, they stopped for a short while in Palmer to let people use washrooms as needed.

They were moving again just after 8:10 PM, everyone was relaxing in their seats, knowing they would be home fairly soon.

**********

At 8:57 PM, Bridget sent a text to Colleen, that text also went to the five members of Devlinson's Devils.

The text was as follows: 'Guys, just thot I'd say hello, tell you the tranny bitch is riding on the bus here, she thinks she's Queen Shit. If that isn't clear enough, I mean Colleen McGregor.'

Colleen was surprised to see a text message from Bridget, as Bridget was just a few seats in front of her. Then she noticed that the message had also been sent to five other people, and she knew two of them all too well, Thomas Devinson and Patrick Dunston.

She opened the message, read it, screamed and kept on screaming as she dropped the phone and staggered to the back of the bus.

One of the cheerleaders, a pretty blonde named Alicia Bowman, picked up the phone, read the message, then ran up and slapped Bridget. "What the fuck did you do that for, you bloody crazy bitch? People have a right to live their lives as they want, not have them destroyed!"

Coach Edwards stood up, asking, "What are you talking about, Alicia?"

"This piece of shit just outed Colleen to the five craziest thugs in the Pittsfield high school system, Coach," Alicia handed over the phone.

Coach Edwards read the message, swearing under her breath; a girl sitting near her managed to read it before she knew it, the girl turned to the rest of the coach and blabbed, "Holy shit, Bridget just told those guys that Colleen is a tranny. WTF?"

The screams from the back of the bus continued at full volume, Colleen was in a full-blown off-the-walls panic attack.

Coach Edwards snapped, "Janine, you just made this a whole lot worse, now everyone on the bus knows."

Alicia sighed, turned to face the Coach and replied, "I don't think it matters now, those five thugs will tell the whole school before Monday."

"Oh, damn, and there's nothing we can do right now. Well, Bridget, I hope you like the jail system, girl, because that's where you're going."

"Huh? What the fuck are you talking about? Why would I be going to jail?"

Coach faced Bridget and snarled, "Because what you just did is classified as a hate crime, you outed her to known troublemakers, all of them having been charged at one time or another with one or more forms of assault. You gave them a reason to go after her."

Bridget shrugged and said, "Oh, well, maybe the bitch shouldn't have been such a goody two shoes," then turned to face the windows.

**********

Coach Edwards called the Pittsfield police, informed them of what had happened, and said they would arrive at the school by 9:20 PM.

When they pulled into the school lot, a police car was waiting there. Two officers stepped out, walked to the bus and waited for the door to open before climbing into the bus itself. Coach Edwards pointed at Bridget, the officers placed her under arrest and Mirandized her.

"Ms. Edwards," the male officer remarked, "We have officers checking on the five boys, we'll have their side of it soon."

Coach nodded as the officers led Bridget off the bus, then placed her in the back of their car before exiting the school parking lot.

**********

Four officers in two squad cars found the five boys in their 'clubhouse' in a partially destroyed warehouse on the edge of the town.

A quick scan of each boy's cell phone showed no message such as had been described to them, the boys had deleted them already.

The biggest officer spoke to them, he was quite blunt about it, "We know you received the message, boys, we have the original from the phone that sent it. That shows quite clearly that she sent it to each of you and to the girl that she named in the message."

"Sir," Thomas Devinson replied, "We don't need that kind of shit. If we want to have fun, we know lots of ways to find the fun we like."

"I want to make this clear: We'll be keeping an eye on the five of you, so will the school. If anything happens, we'll know right away."

**********

It had taken Coach Edwards, Alicia and another cheerleader, Penelope, over twenty minutes to initially calm down Colleen. It took a further thirty minutes before Colleen was able to stand on her own two feet, wobble her way to the front of the bus, then exit it.

Elizabeth was standing about 25 feet away, next to the driver's side door of her Toyota 4Runner.

Colleen saw her mother, tried to move toward her and nearly fell over, only being caught by the quick movement of Coach Edwards.

Colleen took a deep breath, then slowly wobbled to her mother, who promptly enveloped her in a warm and comforting hug.

The two stood there for several minutes before Elizabeth led Colleen around the car, opened the door and had her sit down. Elizabeth made sure that Colleen was buckled in before she closed the door and moved around the front of the car to open her own door.

No more than two minutes later, Elizabeth steered the car into the street, heading for her home.

**********

Elizabeth was heartbroken; as far as she could tell, there was only the barest bit of her daughter present, she seemed to be only a shell.

Elizabeth had arranged to work the next day, unsure if the school's basketball team would be returning on Saturday or Sunday. She kept a close watch on Colleen through the night, waking up periodically to go into Colleen's room and check on her.

When she woke up again at 8:30 AM and looked in on Colleen, it was to see that Colleen was awake and staring at the ceiling.

Elizabeth called Colleen's name several times, but the girl didn't respond at all, it was almost as if she weren't there. Elizabeth shivered, this was getting way too eerie for her. She went downstairs, called her work to say she wouldn't be in, then she called Colleen's therapist.

Dr. Bannerman wasn't in the office on a Sunday, so she left a brief but detailed message on the doctor's voicemail.

Elizabeth looked in on her daughter again, she hadn't moved at all, and was still staring vacantly at the ceiling.

**********

The doctor called back at 12:48 that afternoon. Elizabeth told her everything that she knew about what had happened.

"So she wasn't responding to her name at all? Hmmm... did you try using her male name at all?"

"No, I didn't, I didn't think that would help. Do you really think I should do that, Dr. Bannerman?"

"I'm not sure what else you can try; this is not good, it's entirely possible that she could be going into a form of catatonia, Ms. McGregor."

"Oh, dear, is there anything else I can try if her male name doesn't work?"

"You could try playing some music, I suppose, especially if there is a band she likes much more than any other she might hear."

"I'll try both of those now, Dr. Bannerman. If there's no change, do I call you again?"

"Yes, I've reset the voicemail to forward to my home phone at this point, so I'll answer immediately."

**********

Elizabeth slowly climbed the stairs, then walked to her daughter's room.

She had left the door open earlier so she could see right away if there was any change. There was none as far as she could see.

Elizabeth stepped into the room, calling out, "Christopher, Christopher Charles McGregor, answer me!"

The child's eyes flicked briefly toward the doorway, then were facing the ceiling once again; there was no other response.

"Christopher, please answer me. I wonder if I should play your favourite music, those early Guns & Roses albums," she chattered as she began to look through the shelf of compact discs on the desktop partially hidden behind the semi high-end HP computer monitor.

She eventually found the first album, pulled it out of its case, then set it in the CD part of the ghetto blaster sitting on the night table between the bed and the desk. She listened for a brief moment as the first track, Welcome To The Jungle, started to play, then left the room.

She didn't know whether the music might reach her child or not, but it was worth a try, she had set it to loop once the disc finished.

She looked in the room every now and then, still not seeing any change, and was about to call the doctor when she heard sounds upstairs. She ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and into Colleen's room, to find the child sitting on the floor next to the bed, crying silently.

**********

Elizabeth was ecstatic that her child had responded to some degree, she whispered, "Who am I talking to, Christopher or Colleen?"

The child didn't respond immediately, staring into the distance over Elizabeth's shoulder, then said, "Why, I'm Colleen, mommy!"

Tears began to slide down Elizabeth's cheeks as she gathered the girl into a hug, whispering, "Oh, my precious girl, thank you!"

Elizabeth continued to hug her child close, eventually she looked down and noticed Colleen had fallen asleep on her lap. She carefully lifted Colleen from her lap, then stood up, stepped over to the bed, pulled back the cover, laid Colleen down and tucked her in nice and snug. Just as she was about to leave the room, she turned and lowered the volume on the ghetto blaster, Colleen would hear it, she might, but no one else.

**********

Perhaps the music from that band had had some kind of healing effect on her baby, Elizabeth had no idea, but was thankful nonetheless.

Colleen eventually came downstairs under her own power just before 5:30 PM on Sunday afternoon. "I'm hungry, mom."

"Go put some jeans on, plus a t-shirt and a sweater, then come down and put on your jacket and boots, we're going out to eat."

Ten minutes later, they locked the house, got in the 4Runner, then drove to the Becket Country Store & Cafe.

They chattered and relaxed over a nice meal at the cafe, Colleen finished a burger and fries, Elizabeth had a chicken salad, both had coffee.

**********

Colleen was quite tired by the time they returned to the house, she changed into a nightgown and was sleep by 7:45 PM.

Elizabeth woke up twice during the night when she heard screams coming from Colleen's room. Each time, Elizabeth sat with her for several minutes, hugging her and rocking her gently back and forth, before Colleen would settle down enough to go back to sleep.

**********

Colleen woke up at 7:15 AM on Monday morning. She wandered downstairs, had some toast, then went up to have a shower.

Elizabeth noticed that even though Colleen was interacting with her, she didn't seem to be fully present, and she was quieter than usual.

She had called the doctor yesterday after Colleen had woken up on the floor in her room, the doctor was relieved but still worried.

Elizabeth left the house a bit later than usual on a work day, she wanted to see her daughter again before she left. She had her winter jacket and boots on, and was beginning to get a wee bit impatient when Colleen came back down the stairs wearing jeans and a nice sweater.

Elizabeth smiled at her daughter, gave her a brief hug, then left the house.

**********

The next few days were not all that far from normal, as far as many of the people in school could see when they looked at her. Several people mentioned that she seemed more distant than she had been before, and as expected, her status was now known by the whole school.

There were occasional nasty comments when the people making them figured that no one would see it, but that wasn't the case. The camera system the school used had decent audio capability as well as visual, and the comments came through clearly enough.

Colleen was just beginning to think that it would all sort itself out when a door opened beside her as she walked by on her way to her last class of the day, world geography. Someone grabbed her, yanked her into the room, then slammed the door behind her.

**********

The moment the door closed behind her, Colleen knew that she was in serious trouble, all five members of Devinson's Devils were there.

One of them, Johnny Bowerton, stuffed an old thermal sock in Colleen's mouth, then threw her to the floor, pinning her left arm down.

Another, Paul Emerson, grabbed her by the right arm and helped to hold her down.

A third, James Edgerton, punched her in the back of the right knee, then pinned that leg down and waited.

The fourth, Patrick Dunston, dropped down to his knees and forced her left leg to lie flat on the floor before he yanked her jeans down to her ankles. James reached over, unlaced her boots, pulled them off, then finished pulling her jeans off as Patrick ripped her panties in two.

The only one remaining, Thomas Devinson, laughed as he shed his pants, then his underwear, before he knelt next to Colleen.

"Well, bitch, it's time to introduce you to what being a woman really means, this is going to be so much fun for all of us."

They hadn't even started and Colleen was terrified, she knew instantly they intended to fuck her without any lube or protection. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks as Thomas stuck first a finger, then two, then three into her anus, before he laid down and replaced it with his penis.

She cried as he rammed it in as hard as possible, thrusting hard and fast, with no concern at all for how it would affect her. She had no idea how long it took, but she felt the explosion of his sperm as it entered her ass, and a moment later, he pulled out of her, then stood up.

He quickly moved over to kneel beside Patrick, who took his place, stripped his jeans and underwear, leaned down over her, then rammed his penis deep inside her. He was more forceful than Thomas had been, rocking her with each motion of his body.

The tears were now pouring from her eyes, she tried to turn her head, but one of the other boys was holding it firmly in place. A few minutes later, after Patrick dumped his load inside her, he moved out of the way, replacing James Edgerton who had been holding her right leg.

James was happy to have his turn, he laughed as he undressed, then leaned over her and shoved his slightly smaller penis into her rectum. James decided to take his time, and rammed it in with long, slow strokes for several minutes before he filled her butthole with his ejaculate.

The last class of the day was roughly half finished at this point, but the boys didn't care, they had an unwilling victim, a sweet gift indeed.

James leaned off to the side, then slowly stood, moving up to take Johnny's place in holding her left arm down.

As Johnny began to stand up, James knelt near her head and used one hand to hold it down while his other hand held her left arm.

Johnny giggled as he stripped off his chinos and boxers, then laid on top of her and slowly penetrated her. He was in no rush, he wanted to take his time, so he too used long and slow strokes. His luck wasn't good, though, he blew his load inside her barely a minute later.

He shrugged, rolled off of her, then moved up to take her right arm as Paul, the last of the five, moved behind her.

It only took Paul a minute to lose his jeans and boxers, then he laid over her and had his turn, shoving it deep into her ass. He was hard as a rock, and grabbed her by the hair as he began to pump harder and faster, pulling her hair each time he shifted back.

He deposited his sperm in her ass as deeply as he could, then slowly pulled out, stood up and moved aside.

Thomas grinned and laughed, he was going to get a second turn with this stupid worthless tranny bitch, who cared if she got hurt?

He was soon behind her, laying over her prone body, then forcing his penis into her anus just like the first time, hard and fast.

About a minute or two after that, Colleen heard what sounded like people walking by, then she realized classes were done for the day. With a sudden burst of adrenalin, she twisted her head to the side, spat out the filthy sock and screamed as loud as she could, twice, a third time!

**********

Within seconds of the first scream, someone discovered the locked door and then it shuddered in its frame. She had no idea who was trying to get in, but the impacts on the door continued, and after the ninth or tenth hit, the lock and hinges snapped, and the door flew inward.

Patrick and Johnny rolled over her, Patrick knocking Thomas over in the process, as the door passed right beside her, tumbling twice before one corner buried itself in the plaster wall on the outer side of the classroom twelve feet past her head.

The first person inside the classroom turned out to be Brandon Edwinston, who grabbed Thomas and threw him against the outside wall. Colleen was barely able to look around through the tears, but she giggled when she saw Thomas sliding bonelessly down the wall to the floor.

Seconds later, the doorway was filled with a dozen other members of the football team, all of them glaring at the males inside the room.

"Peter," Brandon snapped, "Call the nurse now. Billy, call 911, ask for the police, say we've found a gang rape in progress, that's all you say."

Peter and Billy pulled their cell phones from their shirt pockets and made the calls as ordered by Brandon.

Brandon then turned and faced the doorway. "Jonathan, get everyone out of here, make sure no one enters before the nurse does, okay?"

Jonathan Patterson, the 6'11" tight end for the football team, nodded and started waving at people to get them to leave the room.

**********

A few minutes later, someone knocked on the frame of the doorway, then Jonathan let the school nurse through into the room.

She tut-tutted as she slowly walked up and knelt down beside Colleen's head. "Oh, dear child, I know this is going to hurt you again, but when the paramedics arrive, as they will since the call to the police was reported as a gang rape, they're going to have to take specimens.

"Right now, I just want you to lie there, don't move, stay as still as possible, please?" Colleen slowly nodded her head to show yes.

The nurse reached down, took Colleen's left hand in her own and held her, pouring her love into this poor, horribly abused child.

**********

It was probably no more than five minute later when Jonathan let the paramedics and eight police officers into the room. The paramedics knelt on Colleen's other side, across from the school nurse, as they opened various packs and bags to get the items they needed.

One of the paramedics used an Erase Sperm Isolation Kit, gathering a large number of sperm samples for testing.

That process took several minutes, then the paramedics did a slow but careful examination of the back of her body without moving her. The two paramedics then left Colleen in the care of the school nurse as they went to get mouth swabs from the five half-naked handcuffed boys.

Brandon and a few other members of the football team were quietly giving statements to several of the police officers. Several others waited out in the hall to have the chance to give their statements, as did several girls who had looked in just after the door was broken.

The police officers exchanged looks with each other, looks that said 'These boys deserve whatever they get in the prison system'. It made not a whit of difference to the officers that the victim was transgendered, it was entirely nonconsensual, which made it rape under the law.

By the time that the last statements had been taken, it was almost 4:30 PM, and the nurse was still holding on to Colleen's hand. Colleen had slowly pulled herself up into a sitting position much earlier. A pair of panties was handed in from outside the room, and Colleen used the school nurse's shoulder as a fulcrum to help her stand. She put on the panties, picked up her jeans and put them on, then grabbed her boots.

Once she had her boots on and laced up, she picked up her purse, then slowly walked out of the room and followed Ms. Blankenship out of the building. Ms. Blankenship knew what had happened, she had arrived on the scene only a minute or two after the door was broken.

**********

The drive to Colleen's home was very quiet, the sound of the engine could be heard quite easily. Ms. Blankenship pulled into the driveway at Colleen's house, both exited the car, she locked it using a remote, then waited for Colleen to unlock the front door and enter.

Ms. Blankenship followed Colleen into the house, Colleen took off the jacket and her boots, throwing them all on the floor, then stepped over them and climbed the stairs. She walked into the bathroom and turned when her teacher said, "Leave the door open, please."

Colleen shrugged, what did it matter now if she had no privacy? She turned into the bathroom, stripped and turned on the shower, setting it slightly hotter than was actually comfortable. She stepped into the shower, picked up the soap and began to scrub herself roughly all over.

She stayed in the shower until the water had turned almost ice cold, she was still scrubbing away at her skin all over her body, but especially around her genitals and her ass. She actually scrubbed hard enough in spots that she broke the surface of her skin, watching it bleed.

When she could no longer handle the coldness of the water, she turned off the taps and stepped out of the shower. Ms. Blankenship gasped when she saw the abraded skin in several locations around her genitals, and the slow seep of blood from the abrasions.

"My gods, child, it looks like you tried to scrub your skin right off your body."

Colleen whispered back, "I was trying to do that, I don't know if I will ever feel clean again."

**********

As Colleen exited the bathroom, her mom entered the house, looked up and saw her naked daughter in the upstairs hallway.

Elizabeth looked again, was that blood on her daughter's belly? What the hell had happened?

Ms. Blankenship nodded as she followed Colleen into her room. Colleen laid down on her back on the bed, and cried herself to sleep.

**********

Ms. Blankenship slowly descended the stairs, then walked into the living room after leaving her boots and coat by the hall table.

Elizabeth was standing just inside the entrance of the living room, looking up the stairs.

"She's asleep for now, Elizabeth, although I don't know for how long, so I had best tell you everything now." She spent the next thirty minutes or so giving as detailed a description of the afternoon's events as she could, especially what she had seen with her own eyes.

Elizabeth listened, the events were so appalling that she was lost in a state of shock, only recovering when the teacher called her by name.

**********

Abe Peters had been the lone detective that had responded as part of the group of officers sent to the school that afternoon. It had been almost seventeen years since he had seen something like that, and he wished he had been able to avoid it, but duty made it necessary. Just thinking of what had happened to the girl had him turning slightly green at the gills, he truly hated rape cases.

This one was a slam dunk any way he looked at it, though, and now it was time to make a phone call.

"Hello, you've reached the offices of Porter, Blacks, Johnson and Devinson, who would you like to speak to, please?"

"Please put me through to Mortimer Devinson immediately, this is Detective Abraham Peters of the Pittsfield Police Department."

"Mortimer Devinson speaking, hello, Abe, how's it going?"

"Not too good, Mort, and even worse for you. Your son was arrested 90 minutes ago for gang rape, there's no way to cover this one up. The paramedics on the scene had already started collecting sperm samples from the victim plus mouth swabs from all five perps. At last count, there were twenty-three witnesses that saw her being held down with your son still having penetrative sex in her asshole. I know for a fact that there are a dozen or more pictures of that scene that were taken by students just seconds after some of them broke the door down."

"He did WHAT?" Mort roared through the phone lines.

"He and his four cohorts gang raped a sixteen year old girl in an empty classroom at Pittsfield Mid-town High School two hours ago."

"Oh, my god," Mortimer moaned, "You were serious when you said there's no chance to cover it up?"

"Not a snowball's chance in hell, Mort, I saw it on the 6 o'clock news just before I called you. The DA was on it as soon as he knew about it."

"This will destroy my career. Oh, my god, I should have let that damn boy of mine deal with things on his own long ago."

"Too late to worry about that now, Mort. Bye," Abe said as he hung up the phone.

**********

Elizabeth cried as she sat in a chair next to her daughter's bed, Colleen had been sleeping for almost two hours, it was now 8:10 PM. She had been absolutely horrified after hearing what Ms. Blankenship had told her earlier, those boys would know what Colleen felt soon enough.

She continued to sit and watch as her daughter slept, the evening fading into the deeper hours of the night.

Some time between 12:45 and 1 AM on March 24th, Elizabeth fell asleep in the chair, her head resting against the wall behind her.

**********

At 2:53 AM, Colleen woke up to find her mother sitting in a chair near the bed, sound asleep, snoring softly as she slept.

Colleen slowly climbed out of bed, pulled a pair of needle nose pliers from a small tool kit in her closet, then walked quietly out of the room. In the bathroom, she used the toilet one last time, then opened the medicine cabinet and took two double blade razors from an opened pack.

Using the pliers, she carefully removed the plastic pieces surrounding the actual blades, then pulled the blades out of the razors. She used a face cloth to pick up the blades, sliding them onto the cloth, then folding it over the blades as she walked into the spare bedroom.

She stopped just inside the door, then went into her own room and grabbed the trash can before returning to the spare bedroom.

She positioned herself on the bed, then dropped the cloth beside her and opened it, carefully picking up one of the bare blades. She winced as she made the first cut, but then hardened herself and continued, slowly separating the head of the penis from her body.

The first blade was beginning to slip, cuts becoming slightly more jagged than straight, she switched to the second blade, then continued. The hard part was having to cut underneath the penis, she had to do it by feel, but eventually, she held the whole item in her bloody hands.

She turned, wrapped the thing in some kleenex and dropped it quietly into the bottom of the plastic trash can beside the bed.

She was almost done now, in a few more minutes, she would be on her way to the eternal peace she sought.

She carefully picked up both used blades with a piece of kleenex, then dropped them on the item in the trash can.

Colleen picked up the third blade, turned her right arm palm up, then sliced the vein from elbow down to wrist in three quick strokes. Before her resolve could fail, she switched to the final blade and ran that down the other arm in the same manner, then laid down on the bed.

About five minutes later, Colleen whispered what would be her final words. "They used me as if I were nameless, worthless. They damaged me irreparably, broke me in so many ways, and by their actions, I was irrevocably, completely and utterly... betrayed."

up
93 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

please

Please don't let it end like that. That is one of the most horrible endings I've read in a long time. I know you had your reasons, but please tell me she got justice, even if it was posthumously..

Can't stop crying on this one... ugh...that poor sweet girl =[

Edit: After re-reading this for the 10th time, and reading the writers response... in my moment of grief I picked a poor choice of words, when I said it was a horrible ending, I don't mean that crazypagangurl did a horrible job, I meant that it was one of the worst outcomes possible in a story that I've read in a long time. She did an amazing job writing, otherwise I wouldn't be a nervous wreck at 2am, still trying to wrap my little brain around this.

Re: please

If I changed it to make it less horrible/nasty, then it wouldn't be the story I was trying to tell.

The ending is necessary to drive home the effects of the actions that occurred before that.

Adding anything that would offset the end of it would remove the angst I was striving for in this story. It NEEDS to be that way precisely to get the reaction that you had to it, the intent is to make the reader FEEL the hurt, pain, brokenness, despair and sense of being betrayed.

I wasn't wanting that...

I know she's gone, I wasn't asking you to change it to be less horrible or nasty, and no matter what you did those feelings won't go away... I was merely begging to see the guilty crushed like bugs...

So they can feel this horrible sense of despair and agony that we felt when Colleen did what she did. Share the horrible/nasty persay...I know why you won't... but I wasn't asking you to change the story. I'm sorry if that's how it came across.

Sara

We live in a cruel world ...

... and so it's easy to make people feel the hurt, pain, brokenness, despair, and betrayal. After all, every past hurt lurks beneath the surface, barely scabbed over by time and distance. All a writer needs to do is rip the scab off by making folks care enough about his or her character to want them not to be hurt the way they were hurt ... to stop it from happening again. See? Piece of cake.

I'm sure you've heard the last words attributed to several different actors over the years, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." Well, from one writer to another, let me give you another truth. "Despair is easy. Hope is hard."

You walked your readers down to the bottom of a dark cave and pushed them into a bottomless pit. Your warned them, and they followed, so it's on them, really. You did what you set out to do. But if you want a real writing challenge, try walking them down to the bottom, showing them the pit, and then giving them a reason to believe that they can climb out themselves — or that someone will reach down and help them climb out before they can be pushed into the depths.

That's the hard part — writing a believable story that gives people hope. Why is it hard? Because hope requires faith in concepts you don't see often in the real world. Ideas like justice, or honor, or heroism, or courage feel as rare as the dinosaur and the dodo these days. Maybe that's why superhero movies are so popular these days. Maybe that's why acts of heroism, no matter how small, make the evening news.

With this story, you raised the darkness. Maybe someday, you will choose to raise the light, and push back the darkness instead.

Keep writing!

Randa

Re: We live in a cruel world

Randa, this whole story came out of a "what if?" moment while I was reading Zoe's Becoming Robin two or three days ago.

Specifically, what if someone outed you in a very public way just for the hell of it, to see what would happen?

Some people would simply brush it off and move on, whereas some would do just like Colleen did here. I know despair is easy.

Sure, I could have spun it so that the story ended on a positive note, "to raise the light" as you say. The simple truth of the matter is that it needed to be told this way, as bluntly as a sledgehammer hitting a wall.

As for raising the light, I've been doing that in Home, Rescue, etc. Some stories don't end happily.

Poor sweet girl

Almost at a loss for words, my God no punishment can be bad enough for what those sick boys did to that sweet precious girl. I'm still crying from the pain and humiliation they put her through. I feel her hurt and don't know what else to say through my tears.
May she Rest in Peace in the hands of Our Lord.

I clicked the Kudos, but

I cannot say I "liked" the story. That would make me as guilty as the five rapists. On the other hand I did appreciate it, which is why I clicked. It was one of the most harrowing stories I have read. The contrast between the necessary relative tedium of the early round-by-round account of the basketball series and the pace of developments after she had been outed, was masterly. I'm only sorry that her final comments were to an empty room and not recorded on her cell phone. Other people needed to be informed as to how destructive their actions had been.
I hope setting it down helped you and did not leave too many scars.
Well done!

Scars?

No, this story didn't create or leave any scars, although it may help me to heal a bit more, simply by getting the angst out.

I can't say I've been there in the gang rape sense, but I have been on the receiving end of male-to-male rape four times, three of those in a six month stretch between November of '81 and early March of '82, all in a group home for "troubled" boys.

Those incidents, and the fact that I had been secretly wishing I was a female for several years, eventually led to my seeking treatment for gender dysphoria in September of '92. I've been on estrogen and male blockers most of the time since then.

I'm not sure, but I doubt I will ever be able to get SRS, as I'm on disability and the place that runs access to getting SRS is one where I don't feel comfortable. The doctor I saw there in early '96 put me down rather snidely, and there were stories he was acting inappropriately with several of his patients. Since I had no proof of whether the stories were true or not, I pretty much dropped it and walked away.

I didn't think of the cell phone bit. I suppose I could add something like that, but I don't like changing things much once the story is written. There are times when I will do it if there is a continuity issue or an error, but other than that, I leave them as written.

Thank you very, very much for saying that my writing was masterly, that is quite the compliment.

No, it was only a suggestion.

Please don't change anything, leave it as written. It is after all your work!

You warned us. I regret

You warned us. I regret reading this to the end.
I will not read a story like this again !

Wow...

Donna T's picture

Not sure what to say.

Donna

24/7

Jamie Lee's picture

After what happened to Colleen on the bus, and her reaction, then the gang rape, someone should have been with her, awake, 24/7 for as long as needed. Someone should have had an educational knowledge of might come next and demanded the suicide watch.

With Colleen committing suicide, Bridget and the five things should be charged with complicity in her death. Bridget has the most responsibility in Colleen's death because she outed Colleen in the first place.

Those five things should be thrown off the highest cliff on the planet, giving them a bit of time to think about all the horrid things they'd done. But they are headed to prison, no doubt about it. And daddy won't be able to hide this one.

In fact, daddy made a mistake by covering up his sons' previous horrors just to save face with the firm. And in a way, daddy is also complicit in Colleen's death because of his past actions which lead his son to believe daddy would bail him out of anything.

Colleen was not nothing, not worthless, she was a person who had a right to her own life. She had the right to be herself and be left alone by those who might not have agreed.

Elizabeth is going to be beyond devastated when she awakes and discovers Colleen. She is going to be blaming herself for not staying awake and watching Colleen. She will need extensive counseling to help her deal with the way Colleen died. Then she needs to go after the five families and bleed them dry, since they let their dogs run free.

Others have feelings too.

apologizing

sorry but you must know that you were the only who made me cry

Re: apologizing

No need to apologize, PapaBear. I know it is a hard story to read emotionally, I cried a few times while writing it.

Wow

Alice-s's picture

That was a tough one. A good story but damn.