Janice talks to the student body. JD’s Productions shows their project. Janice gets to have some fun as Vanessa finds herself targeted for an improvement in her wardrobe.

by Paula Dillon

---

 
Tuesday found Janice dressing in a pushup bra that had a little more padding, a slightly padded brief over her regular panties, a white chiffon blouse with a green chiffon V-neck tank, pantyhose, a grey linen/silk blend slim fit slacks and jacket, and grey pumps, with a two and a half inch heel.

She gave her hair and makeup a little more effort, especially to her eyes. She tried to copy her Mom’s work appropriate makeup job. She chose her jewelry, which consisted of simple hoops, a heart pendant on a silver chain, silver bangles and her watch. She kept her things in her black purse and made sure she had what she needed for the day.

She felt that she might have to appear in front of her fellow students today and wanted to look sharp. In truth, Janice really like to dress and look nice. John had never liked dressing shabbily, but he often looked very plain, dressed in oversized clothes. Janice liked to shine.

She got downstairs in time for a hug and an air kiss from her Mom, who whistled at her.

“Looks like I am going to have to work hard, to look as nice as my daughter.”

“No Mom, you are such a beautiful woman, I just want to dress to your standards.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere Janice. Got to run. Take care dear and I will see you tonight.”

“Ok Mom, I love you and you take care too.”

Janice had a bowl of cereal and a banana nut muffin, and then gathered her things for school. As a second thought, she got her camera case out and went ahead and wired her wireless mike underneath her cashmere tank. Margaret arrived about five minutes early and checked Janice over.

“You look great Janice.”

“You do too Margaret.”

“I just want you to feel more comfortable dressed as a girl. I see you got your mike wired.”

“Yes, I feel, I may have to speak again today. I am also bringing my camera to school today. If I do have to do it all over again, I want to be ready.”

Margaret hugged Janice and took the camera, as they headed to her car.

As they reached the school, Anna and Vanessa were together, waiting near the parking lot entrance. Margaret dropped Janice off there, before parking her car. Anna saw the camera case and relieved Janice of that burden. She and Vanessa were in Janice’s homeroom and first period.

They headed for their homeroom. The teacher was Ms. Alice Nelson and she taught government. Ms. Nelson smiled, as Janice entered. Janice started to hand her the letter that she showed her other teachers, but Ms. Nelson held up a memo.

Janice and her friends took their seats, and Ms. Nelson took roll after the bell rang.

“Class I am sure all of you know by now that John is now Janice Daniels. I expect you to treat her no differently than any other student at this school. Thank you.”

The Principle then came in over the intercom and made her usual morning announcements. Of particular notice was a general assembly called, after roll was taken, at third period.

After announcements and the bell rang, some students left and others came in. When the class began, Ms Nelson again made the announcement about Janice and then began to teach.

In second period, Ms. Middleton smiled as Janice, Margaret and Vanessa entered and took their seats. After roll was taken, Ms. Middleton passed out three hall passes to Janice, Vanessa and Margaret and told them that they were to leave at fifteen before the hour and go to the front office.

At the appropriate time, they were dismissed and went to the office. Anna was already there, when they arrived. At ten till, the girls were escorted to Ms. Simmons office. Mr. Dawson was already there.

“Hello girls, come on in and take a seat,” Ms. Simmons said. “Ms. Daniels, as you can probably guess, the assembly is about you. I want to play the presentation you made yesterday to the students and then give you a chance to say some words and I will close. Mr. Dawson will wire you up and then we will head on out.”

“I am already wired, Mr. Dawson, for mike channel two.”

“The Principal is on three and we will have a wireless hand held on channel one. Vanessa and Margaret, here is the DVD, head on up to the control room. Anna, you are on the hand held, down with the audience. We will do sound and video checks in five minutes, and assembly will start in fifteen minutes.”

Anna took the hand held mike and followed Mr. Dawson, Ms. Simmons and Janice to the schools assembly hall. The projection screen had already been lowered and after a quick check of the various mikes, Mr. Dawson headed up to the control room, while Janice and Ms. Simmons headed off stage.

In minutes after a bell rang, the assembly hall began to fill, and the noise level rose. It took fifteen minutes for the students to fill the large hall. Ms Simmons went out on the stage and the hall’s noise level dropped a bit.

“Good Morning, I want to welcome you all here today. We have a special program for you. As most, or all of you know, we have a student that has brought this school some acclaim, over the past couple of weeks. I am sure that all of you know, or have heard rumors that John Daniels is now Janice Daniels,” Ms. Simmons said. There were a few hecklers, but the teachers in the audience handled them effectively. “I want to assure you that they are not rumors. I want all of you to know, without a doubt, that Janice is now a student here and that you should treat her with the same respect you would treat any other student and that no breach of decorum will be tolerated.

We have a twenty minute presentation, where Janice tells her story. She will then make a statement and possibly answer intelligent, well thought out questions.

Again, I want to emphasize, I expect you to be on your best behavior during this assembly. Thank you.”

On cue, the lights dimmed and the projector came on. The crowd hushed and for twenty minutes Janice was on the screen. Not everyone paid attention, there were the usual whispering, notes passed, paper airplanes sailing, an occasional kiss and grope among the students, but generally the students paid attention to the presentation.

After the presentation finished, Ms. Simmons returned to the stage. “I think Janice competently stated her case and was very factual about her situation. Now we will hear from her, I expect you to treat her with respect. Janice,” Ms. Simmons indicating for her to come on stage.

Janice turned her wireless mike on and walked on stage. She stood beside Ms. Simmons and faced the assembly.

“I am not sure if you have more to add. Your presentation was very well done and informative. Do you have anything you want to add.”

“Yes Ma’am,” she said turning to the students. “I want to thank you for how you have treated me so far. I know that this is a bit much for many of you to understand. I can’t blame you for feeling that way. I know there are some who can’t accept the changes I have gone through. I am not asking to be best buddies with you, or to force myself on any of you in any way.

I am asking you for a chance to be myself. I want to finish my education here and be allowed to be active as a student. I do need one thing and that is friends, not boyfriends or girlfriends, just friends.

I hope to bring honor to this school. I didn’t set out to be on national news, or to make a splash, but that is too late now, so I will make the best out of the cards that I have been dealt.

“Do any of you have any questions?”

One guy stood and called out, “I don’t believe any of that rot, it can’t be true.”

“I can’t help that, I find it hard to believe myself, but it is true.”

Another guy shouted something about sucking. He got shouted down, by some of the other students.

“Mr. Boyd, I recognize your voice. I expect to see you at my office and you can expect a one week suspension,” Ms. Simmons said. “I expect you to keep it civil, not agree with Ms. Daniels.”

The students did keep it civil and Janice did answer some more questions. All in all the assembly had not been bad.

“Now you have heard from Janice. I now have a few more things to say. Because of Janice’s appearance on TV, we have been the recipients of three grants. All of you know that money has been tight for the last few years. These grants will provide more money for boys’ and girls’ athletics, expansion of the Journalism Department, our Computer Resources and extra curricular activities. Clubs and organizations at school may apply for an expansion of their budgets for us to consider, on a case by case basis.

We are not trying to buy your compliance to regulations, but it will be noted which groups, are more tolerant and cooperative.

Seniors hoping to graduate this June, should also take note of the lateness of the year.

Like Janice, I know there are some who think this is a joke, some don’t like it and some who even hate it. We aren’t asking you to like it, we are asking that you be tolerant. Intolerance will be met with intolerance. Violence or hatred directed to Ms. Daniels or any other student here, will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. That is all I will say on that subject.

I want to thank all of you for your continued cooperation and hope that we will have a prosperous year for all of us. Thank you, you may go to your fourth period classes.”

Ms. Simmons had a few more words for Janice, as they both shut off their wireless mikes. Afterwards she went to her locker and got the things she needed for fourth period. She was a few minutes late getting to fourth period, but she had been given a hall pass by Ms. Simmons.

“It’s so good that you were able to join us Msssssss. Daniels,” Ms Smart said sarcastically, slurring the Ms. for emphasis.

Janice felt like the temperature dropped thirty degrees in thirty seconds. As she took her seat in the computer lab and called up her files. She saw Stacy and Debby smile at her as she started to work.

Janice finished her going over her program; she saved a copy to the server and burnt a copy, which she put in her purse. She then ran it through the compiler. When she first ran the executable file, it went thirty seconds before crashing. She checked some more and found a missing operand. She corrected that and took another shot.

She went back and forth several times before it seemed to work the way it was suppose to. She saved and burned a copy of her work as the teacher gave them a warning.

Debby and Stacy went with Janice to her locker, chatting about this and that, before heading to lunch. The three of them sat with Janice’s other friends. They talked about the assembly and Janice’s computer class.

“Yeah Ms. Smart is ultra religious,” Debby said. “She reads her bible during her off time in the teachers lounge, I was told.”

“I use to like her, but if that is the only thing she does, I have no problem with her. I never figured that I would win a popularity contest over this.”

“I think she will be fair, even if she doesn’t like you,” Stacy said. “But check your back for knives everyday.”

“So, is Ms. Smart giving you the blues, Janice?” Vanessa asked.

“No, but she is awfully catty to me when I come in her class. You can tell that she doesn’t appreciate my presence there.”

Vanessa, Margaret and Anna escorted Janice to one of the restrooms she could use. They took turns using the two stalls and fixing their faces.

History went well; Ms Wainwright kept the class hopping, as she always does. It kept the students from talking or passing notes.

In Journalism, JD’s Productions was up. They showed the work they had edited in the Lab the day before. Janice stood in front of the class and introduced their work, while Margaret ran the footage.

At the end Mr. Dawson asked, “You edited this footage yourselves right?”

“Yes Mr. Dawson. Everybody has probably already seen most of it, but we included scenes that didn’t leave most TV stations edit rooms, and the Copy I wrote.”

“Good, just had to ask,” Mr. Dawson said, as he turned to the class. “Questions, comments, criticism.”

There was a lively discussion of the presentation by all present. It was almost entirely positive, but not a student made a comment about John/Janice. Mr. Dawson had made it abundantly clear that that was off limits. Even Chad had intelligent questions.

After all questions were answered, Mr. Dawson addressed the class, “I am giving this production an A. This is JD’s Productions last production. I suggest you get with these four students and get them to help your groups, if you don’t have an A for the semester. They have shown that they can produce good work. I am sure they can help you. Next we have a presentation by All the News.”

Students began moving after Mr. Dawson finished talking. Greg Harmon, with All the News, got up and introduced their piece. They did a piece on a school board meeting. They started with excerpts of the meeting and finished with some interviews, with some board members and a few with some of the audience.

They again had a lively discussion about the All the News piece. They had been a little rushed at times, but they presented well, the piece was informative and Greg seemed to know what he was talking about.

“Very good job, All the News. An A- performance. You were a little rushed, but well done at least,” Mr. Dawson said. “Now Sports Unlimited is in the lab, News Spies to equipment check out. Hot Shots and Payne’s World, needs to plan their next piece. Let’s go.”

The members of JD’s Production were each tagged for assistance. Mr. Dawson told them they couldn’t do the actual work for other groups, but could give advice and opinions. Margaret was taken by Hot Shots, Vanessa by Sports Unlimited, Anna by All the News and Janice by Payne’s World.

Payne’s World needed the most help. They held a C+ to B- average. They just didn’t have anyone with the talent to tell a story and were a little weak in editing the material. Janice suggested that Tom Spires take the on screen Job. He had been behind the camera so far and was a pretty fair camera operator.

She had problems with their choice of stories, but found one, an outdoors show, that she knew that Tom could handle. It didn’t take too much to convince them to make those changes, they were really desperate. There was to be a outdoors show this weekend.

Ginny, one of the girls said, “Don’t News Spies have the cameras this weekend?”

“They are checking out 2 cams, there is still one of the old TV station cameras and I have one a lot like the new camera. If you want, I will go with you to do your shoot and let one of you use my camera.”

“Too bad you can’t be our on screen person, Janice,” Tom said.

“Come on, you know more about outdoors stuff than I do. Just get online and find out what is going to be showcased and get an idea of what you want to show us,” Janice said.

“Ok, we have three days to work that out, Craig, you should take a look at Janice’s camera. Ginny, Rebecca and I will get on the internet now,” Tom said.

Janice showed Craig her camera and began checking him out on it.

“Wow, this is your camera? When did you get it?”

“Yep it is mine. I just got it this week; let’s just say it was for a job well done.”

“I can believe that. You aint shitting us about all of this are you?”

“I wish I was, but tell me what you see. Does it look like I am shitting you?”

“You look like Margaret, or any of the girls. Some of the guys were wondering still.”

Janice began to check out Craig on her camera. He was a little tentative at first, he knew how much those things cost and didn’t want to hurt it.

“Come on Craig, it isn’t made of egg shells, you won’t break it if you take care of it.”

“I know, but it’s got to be worth twelve grand at least.”

“Nineteen, but who is counting,” Janice said giggling.

“Wooow, that really must have been some good job,” Craig said, clearly impressed.

Craig started to get use to using the camera and was pretty sure of his actions. Janice didn’t show him all the bells and whistles, she didn’t know them all. She did know how to use it enough to get the job done. She thought she really needed to learn more about it.

Just before the end of class, they all got together and discussed what they found.

“Ok this is a ten minute presentation,” Janice said, “You can pick one area, or do small parts on each area for your presentation. I think it would be better to do small parts on each area. You won’t have time to fall into a rut in any one area. It is more work to plan and you will have to really know enough about each segment to sound intelligent, but it will work better. I think,” Janice said.

“I think you’re right Janice,” Tom said. He then divided up the show and gave each person a segment to research.

Tom surprised Janice, once she got him out front, he seemed to take control. That was something Payne’s World sorely needed, a leader.

At the bell, Janice got back together with the girls and in a pack they headed for the lockers. Margaret left, after hitting her locker, to get the car, while the others hit their lockers. They found Margaret waiting for them near the exit. They all got in and started to drive off.

At the exit to the parking lot, two men blocked their way out, Margaret tried to drive around and the guys moved to block. Janice saw a press pass hanging from one guy’s belt.

“Margaret call Mr. Dawson, Vanessa be ready to call 9-1-1, Anna take my camera and record this and I am going to find out what this is all about. I am still wire for sound honk if it doesn’t come through,” Janice said.

All the girls got busy doing what they were instructed and Janice stepped out of the car. Anna put the camera on the dash and viewed things on the view screen with an ear piece in her ear.

“We are on our way home and you are blocking us,” Janice said. “What do you think you are doing?”

“John Daniels,” the one with the press pass asked hesitantly, “You are John Daniels I believe.”

“No I am Janice Daniels legally. Why are you detaining us?”

“I am Raymond Johnson, a reporter. I am here to interview you, Mr. Daniels.”

“Your eyesight must be pretty bad, and I don’t want to be interviewed by whatever scandal rag you represent.”

“We will report what we know, Mr. Daniels we just want your side of the story. A boy pretending to be a female reporter will be big.”

“No matter what I say you will twist it, so I don’t intend to give you anything. Now we need to get home, please get out of our way.”

“Not until I confirm some things. Why are you pretending to be a girl?”

“Get out of our way! Let us go!”

“No way!”

Janice turned and walked away. Mr. Johnson grabbed her arm, but Janice just jerked her arm out of his grasp and got back in the car. The other guy stood at the front bumper and another they hadn’t seen stood at the back bumper, while Mr. Johnson stood tapping on Janice’s window, trying to get her to roll it down.

Seconds later the school’s security vehicle rolled up followed by a police cruiser. The arriving officers moved the guy’s away from the car. Mr. Dawson and Ms. Simmons arrived on scene together. Mr. Johnson was hollering at the cops about freedom of the press and all kinds of other rights.

Ms. Simmons motioned the girls to get out and come over to her. She asked them what this was all about. Janice got her camera out and showed them what they recorded. Ms. Simmons and Mr. Dawson could see and hear what had transpired.

A police Sgt. arrived and he was shown the tape. He drew Ms. Simmons aside and asked her a question. She pointed to a point on the pavement and said something to the Sgt.

He then came over to the girls and asked to check Janice’s arm. He then asked, “Did these men impede you girls in any manner?”

“Yes!” they all said at the same time.

“We are arresting them and charging them with assault, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, I need to know if you want them charged with kidnapping? They impeded your progress, Ms. Daniels was grabbed and they refused to allow you girls to leave.”

Everyone looked at Janice, she just shook her head no.

“Alright, I still need that tape, and the charges may be upgraded later. A Detective will be by to take statements from each of you, if you will wait by my car.”

Janice downloaded the video to her laptop and burnt a DVDR for the Sgt. She still had everything on a card too.

The Sgt walked over to where the three men were being held and said to them, “You men are being charged with assault, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct by the school district. Each of you stepped on school district property, without authorization. You may also be charged with kidnapping at a later time.” The Sgt. turned to one of his officers and said, “Read them their rights Bret and make sure they know em.”

All three men were turned towards a police cruiser. They were patted down cuffed and had their rights read to them, before being placed unceremoniously in the back of the cruiser.

A Detective arrived and took statements from everybody. After seeing the tape and photographing Janice’s arm, he told them, “The DA will have a look at this tape. He may yet prefer charges of kidnapping against the men, all the elements of kidnapping are there, especially with all four of you being minors. We may be contacting each of you later. You may be on the cover of the National Scandal next week. I know that jerk. I am glad to get him in cuffs on something he can’t worm his way out of.”

Parents started to arrive starting with Helen, then Madeline, Reggie and Angela. They talked to Ms. Simmons, Mr. Dawson and the girls. Anna showed them the video they had on cards. They then talked to the Detective who was still there. Madeline convinced them that the kidnapping charges should be included, which would more than likely be bargained down to Unlawful Restraint if they plead guilty. That would give the DA some leverage to get them to plead.

Madeline suggested that everybody come to her home after they gave their statements.

Soon the cops made their exit taking the journalists with them. The parents with their children left and drove over to Madeline’s home. They gathered in her living room.

“I was expecting something like this. In some ways it is good that it’s happening sooner rather than latter,” Madeline said.

“How so?” Angela asked.

“Well it will be news only for so long. It times well with Janice coming out to her classmates. If it happened later, it would just start things up all over again.”

“But come Friday it will be on the Scandal Rags cover now too.” Janice said.

“That was bound to happen, Janice. If it happened this Friday, the next, or the one after that, it was bound to happen anyway.”

“Yeah, I know your right. I think I can steal their thunder. I can come out tomorrow and let everyone know.”

“The Paper we signed said we can’t do that Janice,” Angela said.

“No, it said they can’t do that Mom. Nothing in it says I can’t.”

“She is right, Angela. If she is going to be news it would be better to do it on her own terms,” Madeline said. “The news people won’t crucify her like that scandal rag will.”

“I know how I can do it Mom, trust me.”

“Ok I don’t like it, but I see your point.”

“Should we pull our daughters out of the interview tomorrow,” Helen asked.

“I don’t think so, Janice needs her supporters, it would look strange if they didn’t show up,” Madeline said.

“We got her into this Mom. We are going to stand by her through it,” Vanessa said.

The parents got together and talked about what had happened a bit more. Janice talked to her friends and outlined what she was thinking. The girls agreed that that is what she should do. Janice practiced answering questions put out by her friends to see where she could insert her answer.

They then talked clothing, “Well I am going to wear my Armani,” Janice said.

“I can wear a suit too,” Margaret said. “I have a black suit that won’t clash with you.”

“I have a blue suit, it may not be as nice but I will fit in with you two,” Anna said. “How about you, Vanessa?”

“Well I don’t know, I have a skirt/jacket combo I could wear.”

“I know which one you mean, that grey/green thing. You are about my size let me see what is in my closet.” Margaret said, as she went over to her closet. She dug around and searched through the hanging clothes. “Here it is,” she said, pulling out a red suit. “Anna, get some hose and a Basque from my drawers, we need to take a couple of inches off Vanessa’s waist.” Margaret dug around for a blouse to go with the suit.

“No, I don’t think so.” Vanessa said.

“So it is good enough for me, but not for you Vanessa,” Janice said teasingly her.

Vanessa grimaced and scowled at her friends, but said, “Oh all right, I will at least try it on.”

Vanessa took off her clothes except for the panties and her friends helped her into her undies. Vanessa had a twenty-six inch waist and needed to go down to twenty-four. The Basque really popped out her breasts as they filled and then overflowed the cups of the Basque, giving her more cleavage than she ever had. The gauzy appearance of the material, masked its ability to constrain. Vanessa wanted to complain as it was tightened, but held her tongue as she realized that Janice would be cinched in tighter tomorrow.

When they tied it off and attached the garters and hose, Vanessa stepped back to take a look in the mirror. Her jaw dropped as she saw just how sexy she appeared. The red lace of the Basque made her body look better than she ever remembered. She blushed as she saw her navel and the color of her nipples through the gossamer material. But her eyes stopped at her panties, “My panties don’t match.” They did kind of spoil the effect.

“We can correct that, we will need to get you shoes to match too, mine are too small for you.” Margaret said, as she helped Vanessa with a camisole and a white chiffon blouse. She did have the smallest feet of those present.

Vanessa then pulled on the skirt, tucking her blouse beneath its waistband. Then she pulled on the jacket. Margaret picked out some suitable jewelry, while Anna worked on her hair and makeup. Anna had fluffed and teased Vanessa’s hair more than it had ever been. She also did her best to match her makeup with the suit. She spent an inordinate amount of time on Vanessa’s eyes trying to get them just right. Janice just stood back taking it all in. She loved the look they were creating on her friend.

When the girls were finished Vanessa again stood in front of the mirror. Her eyes got big as she looked at herself. She wasn’t unfamiliar with dressing to look good and it was true she didn’t do it often, but she looked better than she could ever remember. Her eyes got big as saucers and her mouth hung open. The clothes just felt so right to her too.

“Well how did we do Vanessa?” Anna asked.

“I just don’t know what to say. I look super.”

“Yes you do Anna, I think you look super sexy, but ready for business also,” Janice said.

“Come on girls we need to hit the mall,” Margaret said, dumping Vanessa’s purse into a matching red purse.

Anna helped Vanessa into her trainers, they would have to do till they hit the shoe store. Vanessa wanted to change into her other clothes, but the girls wouldn’t hear of it. Janice broke out in giggles hearing that.

Margaret told the mothers, “We need to hit the mall a bit to get something for tomorrow.”

“Ok,” Madeline said, smiling as she saw Vanessa.

Helen’s Mom also caught the flash of red trying to hid from her, “Vaannneeessa is that you?” she said slightly confused.

Vanessa felt caught like a rat, “Yes Mom.”

“Come here dear, let me look. Oh my, you look lovely dear.”

“That is a lovely suit for you Vanessa, too bad Margaret is a little too broad for it now.”

Margaret was an inch shorter than Vanessa and broader in the hips too, but to say that she had outgrown that outfit was stretching the truth a bit.

“Yeah Mom, I intend to give it to Vanessa, if that is ok with you that is.”

“Of course it is and seeing her in it, she looks nicer in it than it ever did on you. That would be ok Helen, wouldn’t it? I mean, Margaret’s closets are just overflowing. Anna is two sizes too big; Vanessa is the closest, I would love to see some of her things go to her friends.”

Helen started to object, she didn’t like charity, but her daughter looked so lovely. “I guess, as long as they don’t overdo it.”

Janice whispered a, “Yes.” and Vanessa groaned, “No,” inwardly, but at the same time she was intrigued.

“Ok girls, don’t be too long. You will need to get to sleep early to get up early,” Madeline said.

The girls piled into Margaret’s SUV and headed off to the mall.

“I wish we had time to play Barbie with Vanessa, after all, you three played Barbie with me,” Janice said.

“Nope, won’t happen,” Vanessa said.

“Yeah right, that is what John said if I remember correctly,” Anna said, giggling, “You can see where it got him.”

“Yeah, it’s my turn to have some fun, that is what girls do isn’t it?”

At the mall they hit the shoe stores, they found a pair of red pumps that matched the suit, but they had a four-inch heel. Janice, Anna and Margaret insisted that she get them, along with a couple of more pair of heels, with a lower heel of course, that matched outfits Margaret planned on giving to Vanessa.

From the shoe store they went to the lingerie store. Although Vanessa had all the requisite lingerie, it was rather plain; at least to her friends. They went through and decided that she needed a definite upgrade. Vanessa, they found out, was a thirty four C and a size five. The bra’s she had been wearing tended to minimize her appearance and the bra’s her friends helped select, tended to maximize her assets. Her old panties were like the ones many girls wear and could only be called serviceable. The new stuff they picked out were dazzling displays of colors, lace, silks and satins. Yes they did get her some that were an embarrassingly close match to the material of the Basque. Janice had fun helping and the girls treated her no differently than they did each other.

Margaret and Anna were glad that they were working on Vanessa now. They weren’t unhappy by what she wore before, but they saw what she could become. She could well afford the new clothes with what they had earned now. They got her into some new shoes and lingerie the rest could wait till another day.

Madeline called and told the girls to pick up four pizzas and head on home. She told them they were going to get some of Margaret’s things and then they were going to head on over to Anna’s. Madeline said she would explain things when they got there.

They hurried out of the mall to a pizzeria that was nearby and ordered four large pizzas.

At home they found Madeline waiting, she said, “Good you girls got back. Oh Vanessa I just love those heels on you, where did you get them?”

“The Shoe Express, Mrs. Bradford,” Vanessa said, “I can already see why Janice has complained about some of the shoes we had her wear.”

“But they look so good on you. That suit really does wonders for you dear. Alright, now down to business, Margaret grab your suit and the things you need for tomorrow. All of you are going to Anna’s to spend the night. Reggie is going to do your hair and makeup girls. She will start at about four-thirty AM on you Janice, you are a morning person and then hit the rest of you one at a time. So you need to eat, shower and get to bed soon as possible girls.”

Janice swore Madeline said that on one breath, what is it with girls, they can say so much in such a short period of time. Instead of wondering the girls snapped to action. They got Margaret’s things, headed back to the car and over to Anna’s.

They ate their pizzas and they took turns showering while they ate. Reggie and Angela dug in and ate their fill also.

Reggie began rolling hair; she had enough rollers for three girls. She did Margaret’s, Vanessa’s and Janice’s. Anna’s would be the easiest for her to do in the morning. As she finished one head, she shooed them off to sleep and began the next head.
 
 

*          *          *
 
 
End of Part 6
 
 
To Be Continued...
 
 
And That is the Way it Happened  © 2007 by Paula Dillon