An authorized story, based on the characters and environment of A New Style of Education by Karen Page.

I woke up refreshed, in my own bed. Realizing I was thinking that, I laughed. Kirk would have told me I had it all backward being relieved to NOT being in bed with a girl. Laughing to myself, I grabbed my PDA and saw it was well short of the nine o'clock alarm. So, as the sun was up and I wasn't tired any more I figured I might as well get a start on the day with my exercises and other things they didn't control through the computers.

A quick change to my Gi and I spent twenty minutes warming up and going through my exercises. I stopped when I started feeling winded as I was speeding things up. "Not back to a hundred percent." I laughed to myself. That I wasn't already able to go full speed told me more than anything else, including how sick I'd seen Renee, how sick I'd really been. I did a quick cool down.

I showered, letting the heat soak into my muscles and changed into my clothing for the day, remembering we'd be let out of jail after lunch. I picked up my PDA, and saw it still wouldn't let me access my schedule, though it did show me I had a LOT of time before the nine o'clock alarm. Shrugging, I went over to the keyboard and appreciated again the quality of instrument the school had provided.

Something got my attention, and I faltered in my playing. Looking around, I saw Renee standing in the door.

"Would you mind playing without the headphones, while I get ready?"

"Oh, sure. I didn't want to wake you."

She laughed. It would have been fine, but I'm up now. It'll be nice hearing some music while I get ready to face the day. Don't know if you noticed, but I couldn't even access the music programs.

I smiled ruefully. "I couldn't get anything out of mine but the time of day. Dan wasn't kidding when he said they were locking things down until nine!"

"Guess not, but I'll not be surprised to find breakies waiting at nine on the spot. So, I'd best get a move on."

I waved to her, and was about ready to go back to the piece I'd been working on in my head when it occurred to me it would probably be a good idea to have pencil and paper available any time. These PDAs have gotten me out of the habit of writing things out. I was thinking a while back that I could see how I could get too dependent on them and here I am working on a piece with nowhere to transcribe my thoughts. The MIDI recorder built in would save a run through until I could link to the computer, but… I sighed, and worked on it anyway. If I lose it, I lose it.

I worked on the piece some more, and then realized I couldn't take it much further all in my head. I'll have to ask Mrs. Russell about this issue. Shrugging, I went back to some other pieces I'd memorized over the years. Some Gershwin, some Berlin, some Kern, some Rogers, and a bit of Copland, then I figured I should play something by a European, and was starting with the three Bs* when my PDAs alarm went off. I stopped playing suddenly, and looked around before realizing it was my PDA. I reached behind and grabbed it so I could shut off the alarm. Only then did I realize Renee was leaning in the doorway, doing the same thing.

"Shall we check for breakies?" At her nod, we headed for her door. After all, her door was closer to the lift, which was probably why they'd been knocking at her door each time before.

Opening the door, sure enough, there it was. Pulling it in, we both were about to pounce on our respective plates, when we saw a note. "Tuck in, and don't go looking at the computers until you've had enough. Once you finish, you will each have a message. Dan".

I laughed and handed her the note. "We've our orders."

She glanced over it and shrugged. It didn't take either of us long to eat, but while we were, Renee asked me about all of the pieces I'd been playing. I think I recognized some Gershwin, and then, that was Beethoven there at the end, wasn't it. At my nod, she continued, "Who wrote all those other pieces?"

Not recalling exactly what I'd been playing, "Just some songs mostly from musicals. I know you have them over here, ‘cause we saw Oklahoma with this awesome guy playing Curly. I remember him specially cause he was an Australian dude, and he talked and sang like an American Cowboy. Let's see, his name was Hugh… Oh, I don't remember."**

"My ‘rents didn't play that kinda music. When they played music at all, it was generally classical."

"Wow, there was almost always some kinda music going around any house we lived in."

"Oh, there was music. My mom or dad might be singing at any time, and my dad piped and they both played the guitar in the evenings. We just didn't have things playing much. I guess it was radio that I heard and got to know some classical. That's all they played in the home. Most of the kids complained about that all the time."

"'kay. Seems so different. You said you played the trumpet ‘cause they wouldn't let you play the pipes?"

"Yeah, I was able to do that at school, using a loaner instrument."

"You got pretty good then, since they're considering you for first chair."

She shrugged, "I practiced after school, a LOT, and the teacher helped and encouraged me." She stopped then, and, glancing at my computer, we'd best get cracking. I bet there's a pile of work to get done there."

She was right. And we were working diligently when we were surprised at our PDA's chime. It was almost noon, and it was Dr. Bill's e-mail clearing us to re-join our classes following a final cart based lunch, which should be waiting for us in the hall.

Shaking my head. "I don't see why he didn't let us go eat with everyone else."

"Probably still an off diet, I guess. That or they wanted us and our classmates to eat and not talk about what we've missed and been through."

"Yeah. Let's close up here and grab that cart he says is out there." As we stood up, it occurred to me that the amount of food on the cart was probably different too, since we'd had such a late breakfast.

Pulling the cart into Renee's room, I saw I was right, it was a light meal. Much smaller portions than we were used to seeing in the cafeteria. There was also a note telling us that our PDAs would have our updated class schedule, but that there was plenty of time so enjoy.

"Well, on this our last romantic meal together…" Renee started, but she lost it part way through, laughing.

"Yeah, it'll be nice getting back with the others.

The afternoon was a mixture of class work and chatting with our mates as we went from room to room. Orchestra practice was a relief. I felt a bit out, as I'd not practiced in forever, but I managed. Arriving at the dining room for dinner was an experience. Most folks acted as if nothing unusual had happened; there were some glances from some of the tables. We took our seats; Dan joined our table and made a remark to everyone that it was nice to see us all back together.

Mr. Hobson stood up, "As some of you may have noticed two students from Year One have been absent from meals for much of the last week. Let's all welcome them back, and hope nobody else gets sick enough to be quarantined while you're all here. Now, without further ado, our servers can get to work."

After dinner, Ingrid indicated that we should all head to the year room. "We've all got lots of catching up to do." was all she said. With a bit of trepidation, I went with the others.

It turned out to be less ominous than I'd expected, and the reason we didn't have desert with dinner was apparent. "Dan suggested that we should all get together and chat about what's been going on, and that some ice cream and sauce might make that easier." Ingred started. "So, dig in everyone."

The discussion wasn't all that extensive. Mostly they wanted to know where the cold came from and how sick we'd been. The embarrassing parts never came up. Alice explained a bit more about what she was trying, and how she had been seeing Keith every day. The others talked about classes, and Pru mentioned that Judo wasn't as nice without Renee and me there. I assured her I'd be there the next time.

The next few weeks settled into a routine. We had our classes, orchestra rehearsals, sectional practices, martial arts and everything else. My "Girl" classes also continued. After my voice broke during one session, Kelly brought in a voice specialist and we talked about the eventual differences between male and female voices. Mostly it was an inflection thing, and a word choice thing… Though, she said that once my voice started to break more, we might have to work harder to maintain a more feminine pitch and resonance as well as to develop a natural male voice. If anything, those sessions were harder than anything else I was doing at the school. And, the week later, she decided to go ahead and work on the exercises that would let me keep my Sophia voice. One thing that stuck with me was when she said: "Keeping this voice will be a bit of a job, but far easier to keep this one and develop a man's voice later than doing the other." Apparently, she'd heard this from a colleague from the colonies. I still think it's funny some call the States that. I wonder if it's just to be funny or if some actually sorta believe it. Nah. Anyway, what she heard was that this child performer "Wayne Newton" was told if he worked at it, he should be able to keep his high singing voice as an adult, but if he didn't work at it he'd likely lose the high end of his range like most men did. And, he was known as an adult for being able to sing fairly high pitched bits. The teacher did say that some men are blessed with very large ranges – that counter tenors were able to sing quite high in the soprano range which really surprised me. I later did some research, and found that this guy named David Sabella-Mills*** had won a Tony award playing a woman's part in this racy show called "Chicago"… And looking around on YouTube, I found some. Wow. He could sing!

Even the classes in my specialty; some were really interesting, but others I really didn't get. They said more would make sense later, but they wanted to develop some intuitive skills on my part, before we delved into the theory behind it.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Today was the end of the week; several of us had been working quietly, to make tomorrow a surprise for Renee. I'd gotten the word that it was her birthday from Dan and after talking to Ingrid we'd agreed to have a party as she was the first of the year to become a teen. We were going to do it after breakies in the year room. To complicate things further, Mr. Hobson announced Monday would be a Mix-up day.

That evening was doubly difficult, as Renee wanted to just hang around and have fun, "as we've all weekend to get that assignment done."

"Who knows. Something might come up. Let's at least get the basic stuff done so we don't have it hanging over our heads this weekend."

She shook her head, but in the end agreed. We were working on a shared project; a group trip from London to Madrid, Spain for 15 people. I had to plan itinerary, identify what folks needed to carry, etc. while Renee had to make all the reservations and we needed it all to come out under a certain budget. Our instructors were acting as whoever we needed to contact either for information or reservations and the like. The more we got into it, the more challenging it seemed. It was approaching the time when we were all supposed to return to our rooms, when Ingrid popped over. Hey, you two. Team meeting after breakies in the common room. ‘k?

"What's up?" I asked, quite forgetting about the party.

Some info I need to share that we don't have time to go into this evening. Nothing too difficult. Just thought I'd catch everyone first thing before we went our ways.

I looked over at Renee and she said "We'll be there."

After Ingrid left, we couldn't get back to our project, speculating on what kind of info would be coming out on a Friday that needed to be done in person.

"We'll find out after breakfast. So, may as well get some sleep."

I laughed. "Yeah. See you in the morning."

It was while I was in the shower that I recalled the planning we'd done, and the work the others must have done to get ready for tomorrow. I was surprised that it had slipped my mind.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

The next day, the sun was shining. I popped over to my computer and found a video on YouTube that was a wish for a happy birthday… And sent it to Renee in an e-mail. When I heard her laughing, next door, I knew she'd gotten it so I went over. There were tears coming down her face, as she laughed. Needless to say, I was a little confused.

"Anything wrong?"

"No, silly. It's just nobody's done much anything for my birthday for a while and this is just so silly. How'd you ever find out?"

"What, that it was your birthday? Dan let it slip the last time we chatted. I put together a bit of music as a prezzy for you later, but we'd best get cracking. Don't want to miss breakies."

"You wrote something for me?"

"You'll see… But, let's get moving. I'm hungry."

That was enough. We both were up and made it to breakfast in time.

The meal seemed to crawl as everyone chattered about unimportant stuff and nobody paid any special attention to Renee. It turned out Renee and I had bussing duty (I still thought that term my folks used for what a person cleaning up the table was said to be doing was fun.) And, just before the rest left, Ingred reminded all that there was a class meeting in the lounge as soon as we all got there. The others all went off that way and we quickly finished.

To say Renee was surprised, when we got to the party in the lounge, would have been the understatement of the century. The way she burst into tears was almost too much for everyone… Yet, it turned out to be a wonderful event for all of us as the rest of the crew came to get a hint about how limited her opportunities for happiness seemed to have been.

Friday, September 3, 2004

Things had been going quite well. I'd not say uninteresting as everything seemed to be quite interesting here at the school but it felt like something was up this evening. I wasn't sure what, but when I saw Brenda over at the year four table I began wondering. Then I saw that a few other upperclassmen were also there as their alter-egos… But, not all… And, it wasn't a mix-up day. The high point of the evening though was when Mr. Hobson stood up at the end of the meal to announce the Fall trip would be to Barcelona in a month, and that the Spanish classes we'd all started earlier would become a daily event so that we would have a passing familiarity. Kate said that the school generally tried for trips later in the term to allow for better language training but it just wouldn't happen this year so things would be a little more constrained than sometimes in the past.

On Monday, Renee and I got a new joint project – planning travel for the entire school to Barcelona. Our teachers explained that periodically over the next two weeks, we'd meet with different people who were doing the actual planning to ask questions and compare what we had been doing with the actual plans. It sounded like a neat way to do something like this, though the increase in scope over our last project was a bit daunting.

Friday, September 10, 2004

I was still deep in thought over the hotel rooming situation for the trip exercise when we arrived at dinner, and I was a bit distracted. It was only when I saw there were ten (10) meals to bring to the table that I realized we had a guest and it was Mr. Hobson. I wonder if there's anything new he'll be telling us. It was only last week that he'd stood up after the meal to announce that we would be going to Barcelona for the Fall trip from our table. I didn't think there was any way he could top that, but it was still interesting to think about.

The meal was up to the usual standards for the school. Renee and I were about to go and get the pudding, when Mr. Hobson indicated we should wait. So, we resumed our seats.

"As you all probably know, today makes a milestone for Sophia." I looked around, and saw blank expressions on everyone else's faces, except Tracy's. Mr. Hobson chuckled at our expressions, and continued. "Congratulations on two months living as Sophia. You, and Alice, have done so well that the School has decided to move up your year field trip. In two weeks, you'll be visiting the Tower of London and then have dinner and see a concert in the evening."

I barely contained myself from jumping up to cheer. A trip to the tower was one thing I'd regretted about when the school started. I'd missed the planned family visit. I was sure mom and dad had gone ahead and toured the old castle. And as much as I'd have liked to have done it with them, at least this way I'd still get to see it. "How many leaders will be with us?" No, I couldn't see them letting us go out on our own.

"One of the support staff will be with you as well as two other staff, and to help out several upper classmen will be along. There'll be an organizational meeting before dinner on Sunday, where you'll meet the upper classmen and get the rest of the details of the trip. Before you ask, there'll be one upper classman for each pair of first years and to do the math, that means a dozen students and three or four staff." He paused, and pulled out his PDA. Apparently seeing a lot of questions coming to our minds. "No, I'll not provide more details now. Some will be available to you when you get back to your rooms this evening. For the rest, you'll need to wait until Sunday. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I'll have to abandon you to eat desert on your own while I take a call in my office. Renee and Sophia, go ahead now." He got up, and headed for the door.

When we got back, the rest of the year was abuzz talking about the upcoming trip, and peppering Tracy with questions.

__________________________

* Three Bs – Beethoven, Bach & Brahams
** The Actor in question was Hugh Jackman. He was playing the role of Curly in "Oklahoma" on London's West End when – between shows one day - he auditioned for the role of Wolverine. This actually happened in 1999, but I liked the story so much, I twisted things a little bit.
*** This individual actually exists. And, you can find some of his singing on YouTube.

Comments are greatly appreciated!