Skirting the issue 5 Nailed it.

Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Audience Rating: 

Publication: 

Genre: 

Character Age: 

TG Elements: 

TG Themes: 

Permission: 

Melissa woke up to sun shining into the bedroom window. She rolled over feeling feminine and a little sexy but very naughty in the satin nightie of Megan's. The wonderfully soft bed of Megan's bed was a bonus. She rolled over thinking of last night as she caught sight of her red nails. They still looked great but she could not get them off even with her remover.

It did not take Melissa long to wake up, grab one of her sister's silk robes and head downstairs for breakfast. For a moment she thought she saw her parents waiting for her as usual. She had to stop on the stairs and look again. Nobody was home but the scare disturbed her all through a breakfast of cereal with milk. For some reason she felt compelled to clean her dishes and small mess from breakfast. Usually as Jason she would leave the dishes in the sink where the milk would dry up before she washed them.

With breakfast over she went up stairs again and took a delightfully sinful bath in Megan's bathtub with a diving cap over her head. Once clean and, after checking, free of unwanted body or facial hair, she dried off wrapping a towel around herself. She waited a few minutes before putting on body lotion and some powder that left a nice lavender scent. Her skin felt soft and smooth. Her choice for today was plain white lingerie combined with a pair of nude pantyhose.

She puzzled over what to wear. She did not really want to wear a skirt or dress today and wasn't sure she could fit into the few dress pants Megan had left behind. Searching she found Megan's old uniform from her cheerleading days. With a smile she changed into it. She played with her makeup and hair putting in the ribbons that went with the uniform. The socks were easy enough but she had to use Jason's one pair of tennis shoes in bright white. They looked almost like a girls. She played for part of the morning as if she was a cheerleader just for the fun of it. She was never as flexible as her sister Megan. After a few spills and laughs she almost felt like she was going to pull something in her back and decided to stop with the cheerleading attempt.

Back in Megan's room she removed the uniform and pantyhose but put the socks back on. She had gotten an idea while moving around. From a dresser drawer she found the white shorts she was looking for. coupled with a link pink short sleeve top that left very little to imagination with its short sleeves, deep neckline and the tiny bit of elastic that scrunched up the material in between her breasts outlining them even more. The mirror showed a girl who's lower figure was female but could stand to lose a few pounds. Her pigtailed hair with ribbons was out of place though. A bit of work with a brush after removing the ribbons and small hair elastics returned her hair to a more normal look.

With her hair done she added a simple necklace of Nikki's from last night along with the watch but not any bangles on her other wrist. All in all the picture of a normal teenaged girl. Strangely happy with the look she gathered the clothes and lingerie from last night into her arms. The trip to the basement where she hand washed all the items before hanging them to dry on the line in the basement for just that purpose over the drain on the floor.

As she was turning off the light Melissa jammed her fingers painfully into the door frame reminding her of the nails she had yet to get rid of. With a few choice, and unladylike, cuss words Melissa resigned herself to making yet another trip outside as her girl self. This time during the daytime. In a way it thrilled her and terrorized her all in one. She picked up the denim purse from last night that she had stupidly left by the back door when she had got home. Making a slip like that was a sure way to get caught and she admonished herself as she locked up the house.

The trip though the hedge was a bit painful as she managed to scrap her bare legs on one of the branches in the hedge this time. Thankful to not having another reason to run to town to get a replacement pair of nylons as she was dressed was a small blessing. Unlocking the door to the old garage always gave her a small thrill. Seeing her car for the first time each morning as the sun first hit it waking it from its nap always filled her with a sense of pride.

She started the car and moved it out of the garage just enough to let it finish warming up. As she did so she walked around the car and listened. Something seemed off. She did not know what but some sense of her felt or heard a different sound as the car idled. Concerned she let the engine warm up before turning it off. She checked the engine oil, antifreeze, brake fluid even the washer fluid. Seeing nothing off but still with that nagging feeling something was off she went around checking the tires. One was a little low on pressure in the front but only by 3 pounds. Not enough to cause a worry. She pulled and pushed on each wheel a few times but they all felt solid.

With the engine still off she checked the working of the transmission, brake pedal, signal lights, and even turned the steering wheel back and forth checking for any loose play. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She started the car once more and listened closely. Nothing again seemed out of normal that she could tell but still it was like the car was telling her something.

Melissa knew that most garages would brush her off for her feelings. Pete would not. She had to go there anyways so telling Pete about it would not be anything out of the ordinary. He would take her seriously and do some more checking. He did not have a hoist yet, he was trying to build one but in the last 4 years she had known him he changed his mind of how he wanted to build it over a dozen times.

When the car was warm she started to drive. The monster did not want her to push it as even it knew something was not right. The drive to Pete's shop was uneventful except for when she hit the one bump. She felt and heard something from the rear. It was more like a small scratch than a bump but it was something.

As she pulled into the back yard she saw a familiar van that she could not place. She knew it wasn't a local van but some part of her mind registered it none the less. It was not till she was pulling on the old wooden door to the old shop that she placed the van. It was from last night. Marg and Nikki's van if she was right. What they would be doing here during the daytime was a mystery.

The old section of the shop minus the grooved and pocketed cement section had a wooden floor long ago made of rough cut wood. At the time, so she was told, it was made with rough hewn 4 x8 chunks of wood. They were too thick to be called boards. There was one or two new pieces in some sections that had to be replaced because of rottenness. The rest were still the same time worn smooth pieces of wood though. They were smooth to touch but had raised bumps all over from knots. What must lie under that floor would be a wonder. Decades of metal shavings and dust. Pete had a section tested for explosive years ago when he inherited the shop and was found to not be explosive. Which is why the floor was not cleaned out. Below the wooden floor was the dust over dirt. The new section was build on a floating cement pad that was also heated. The old section did not receive heat from that but from the overhead heat lamps. Surprisingly the place was warm even in the cold of winter.

It was explained to her once that the thick boards filled with sawdust walls acted as a much better insulation than many newer houses. The new section had been built years before Pete got it but never finished. The inside was fortified and the walls changed from 2 x 4 to 2 x8 for the insulation. In summer the place was cool and in winter the place was warm. Sometimes too warm as the doors to the old section were often opened to cool things down.

Melissa was on the smoother part of the old cement pad without the chips and chunks missing. It was also the one spot where you could jack up a car onto stands and where she hoped that Pete could look at the FD to see what she couldn't. From the front section of the shop she heard voices. The front section had two very old rooms. One was a parts room where various stuff could be found on the strange but packed shelves of old parts. The other was the office. You could easily see the office was built or modeled much like a 1930's office with its fake, mostly warped, oak panels of the era. The once polished floor was missing altogether leaving behind a much traveled on glued covered smooth floor of some unknown material. The century old wooden desk with its many oil stains would have been nice once with all its curves. It was a pine desk vs a more common mahogany or oak desk of the time.

Behind all that in a corner where it had probably never moved since it was put there was the old safe. The safe was no longer used to store anything but small denominations of money and some papers. It was a pretty looking safe with all its bronze work, bronze handles over thick cast iron plates. In front of the desk was two wooden chairs for people to sit and talk. The office had its own oil heater and a big window made of thick time warped glass. In winter you could actually feel a draft from that old window. She was told that the window was actually some 3 inches thick and was never that good to see out of in the first place. It was there for natural light for the one time accountant that used the office. On a shelf in the back wall was various manuals, books, and even the 1930's style electric desk lamp and adding machine.

The place wreaked of nostalgia not from collection but for not being tossed away. On the walls around the shop itself was old posters of various mechanical items. Some were simple charts of bolts, drills, threading and other more common things a machinist needed. Others were a complete sectional of all the old Chrysler Sure Grip differentials used on military and car products while the next one had the Dana limited slip ones.

Every time she looked there was something new and old that just riveted her attention. Like the side of the old bolt bin that had racing stickers all down the side. Some, she knew from looking online, were worth very good money to collectors. Others were not so valuable. The old road runner horn on the ceiling for example. The weld pits and modifications used to make it fit to where it was was not worth so much. The horn worked as it was hooked to a phone ringer of some sort.

She walked into the new section with its computerized machines. In the large box was a project being cut out of actual steel. At the moment its was all waste holes so she could not even remotely tell what was being made. The cnc machine was a box about 8 feet square with large clamps that held the workpiece inside. The clamps actually moved around the piece to whatever angle was needed for a particular cut. The smaller machine 4 feet away the head moved around instead of the base. Its bay was empty of a piece but not yet cleaned out of the pile of shavings.

All around the area was blocks of different types of metals from brass to copper from cast iron to steel all in bins. Over them was sheets of metal in different thicknesses. There was a hydraulic metal press for bending metal up to 1 in thickness or so she was told. Special cutters for the metals also took up much of the space. There was even a weird collection of girders and hydraulic cylinders that Pete called a mold press. Much of the equipment was older except the new cnc machines. There was a door that never opened in the new section where Pete hoped to one day finish the car hoist. Whose current design looked like three pads with arms off each. How this would lift a vehicle was beyond her understanding.

She turned at the sound of voices coming closer to the new section and strode to the door. Pete was in his usual old style striped coveralls that looked more like what old train engineers wore in the steam engine days. Beside him was two balding men. One in a suit minus the jacket. He was in a pair of suit pants, blue dress shirt and red tie. Beside him was a shorter man in blue jeans with holes, a black Metallica t shirt and a leather biker vest over top. Each had shiny heads with hair fringes around them one grey the other salt and pepper. The one in the suit who was taller than the biker dude was arguing with Pete. Neither looked like they had shaved as both sported thick beard shadow on their faces. They turned to look at Melissa who got a sudden inexplicable case of shyness and looked the floor.

"See! That proves my point! Melissa is standing right there! If she was a boy as you say she is then she would not be here as she is. I seriously think you owe me and Mark an apology for last night!"

"Now Nick I'm sure there is a good explanation why she is here as a girl today. Actually there had better be a damn good one." Pete said while looking at Melissa who wanted to do nothing more than hide under the bottom of the 5 ton machine she was standing next too.

"Ah and these are?" Melissa who could not place who the two guys were. Neither looked anything like the people she met last night.

"Ah right. This is Nickolas and his friend Mark." Pete said like it should explain everything.

"Ah..Hi." Melissa still didn't get it at all. Nickolas looked nothing like Nikki nor did Markus look anything like Marg. The Tall one Nickolas moved forward and with a gentlemanly bow took her hand in his hand gave the back of it a kiss.

"So charmed to meet you this way Melissa. But I think you know us better the other way. Switch our names around and make them feminine." He said in deep voice.

"Marg?" Melissa asked as she looked into his eyes. It took her a moment where she squinted her face scrunching up her hose to see it.

"Quite right my granddaughter."Issued the voice of Marg from Nickolas's mouth." Gods that feels so weird when I'm dressed in drab." returning to his male voice.

"Nikki?" she addressed Mark who bowed to her.

"Yep but unlike Marg I can't do her voice without being dressed up." Both men were free of female sing song or mannerism's much like Pete was. Though from time to time she could see abortive movements on each if she watched carefully.

"And do what do we owe the pleasure of your beauty today fair lady?" Nickolas asked causing Melissa to giggle. She held up her hands displaying the nails for all to see. Pete put his hand to the bridge of his nose.

"Mark please tell me those are not acrylics."

"Okay if you really want me to lie.." He said with a shrug of his shoulders saying the exact opposite.

"Why in the fu.. do you have ...Mark I can't believe.." Pete paused again to catch his breath before continuing."Right so they won't come off hence the look."

"I don't see what the big deal is. Her mother would probably be quite surprised to see her daughter actually having nice nails for once." Mark stated as if it was the best thing in the world.

"Surprised? Yep that she would be. Right so we have to remove them. Acetone soak then." Pete thought out loud.

"But that will ruin them!" A bit of Nikki could be heard in that remark along with one or two hand movements. To bad for him Pete was walking to the chemical cabinet already. He removed a small white metal container and poured the liquid into some heavy chemical rubber gloves. This he brought over and placed each of Melissa's hands into them while a horrified Mark looked on. Pete said to leave them on till he said to take them off after looking at his watch. The liquid was really cold at first but warmed up fairly quickly. She followed Pete, Mark, and Nick around the shop as Pete explained what did what in the shop.

Pete was in fine lecture mode as he did so that absorbed her attention much like some of her teachers did in class. It seemed like in no time at all Pete looked at his watch and came to remove the gloves from her hands. Exposed now the once fine nails looked more like her hands were covered in a red glue than anything else. Pete rinsed off her hands over the waste bin funnel before he used a small brush to finish removing the worst of the gunk. He made her wash her hands with some of the white Gunk hand cleaner twice before she could look closely. Most of the nails where now gone but some remained.

She followed Mark out to the van where he complained the entire time about destroyed work as he used some nail boards to sand off the rest of the nail gunk. She was not paying too much attention as she waited with her hands outstretched watching the next door lot construction. The Ford dealer next door was adding an extension to the back of the building. At the moment the men were putting the now driven pillars behind some foam things. She did not know what the pillars were for as she watched trying to figure it out till one of the pillars puffed up with a small muffled pow. They were using explosives to remove the cement from the tops of the exposed pillars. She had heard about this before.

When she turned back her nails were now back to normal but coated with a nice gloss and much more oval looking. She looked at the back of both hands before looking at Mark with a squinty look.

"Relax all I did was clean them up and put on some cheap nail harder after I had to buffed them down. The gloss will be ruined in no time and wont be noticed."

She looked at her nails more closely and saw that he did not get all the spots as there was a few small bare spots here and there. Overall she could tell her mom that she was working on her models with clear and didn't notice since it was done so badly. Nikki of last night would have done a much more professional job. Marcie was right about Nikki. She was a pro while her Nomme de Querre Mark was a klutz.

They returned to the shop with Mark still muttering about how unfair it was to ruin his artwork. There was also something about dang tomboys and not fair. She didn't catch all of it as he was in front of her. When they got inside she showed her nails to Pete who looked at Mark. Mark backed up explaining it was just some cheap nail hardener to protect her nails. With a grunt Pete let the matter drop. They discussed going out for a quick bite to eat. Melissa claimed she couldn't as she didn't want anyone else to see her as a girl. Nickolas shushed her saying it was far past time she hid as a tomboy and lived her life like all her friends.

Melissa was wondering what her few friends would say if they could see her now. She thought better of that as she knew they would tease her enormously. Worse her greatest fear was that they would be in the small cafe on the corner of the same block that Pete's shop was on just more along main street. It was probably the only reason she argued for a more upscale restaurant instead of the cheap cafe.

The men of the group deferring to the one lady went with the other option of the Smitty's restaurant 4 blocks away instead. Melissa was only happy to give Pete another ride in the FD. She did find it strange when he hesitated before getting in the car. The look on his face was also a puzzle.

"Don't worry she doesn't want to play today. She is sick." Pete's face lost the slightly scared look in favor of the more concerned, and very overprotective, parent instead. As much as the FD was Melissa's car it was also his Baby as well.

"What do you mean she is sick? Gas, oil, fluids?"

"All checked no it's not that it's something else."

Pete puzzled over this as Melissa took it over to the curb lane that was notoriously rough. She did this without thinking about it and the Van followed them thinking they had a reason being locals. This section of the main street curb lane was rough because of a violent storm that had passed through the night the concrete had been poured. It had created small dips and peaks that had dried by morning. There was a petition, there was always a petition, to have the street cut down and paved over but so far it had not been done.

The car ran over this rough section at the speed limit of 30 mph working the front and rear suspension just enough that a small thump from the rear was heard. Not very loud but one all the same. Pete restrained himself from releasing the belt to hop into the back just to listen for it again. They both knew there was something loose in the rear. The rest of the short drive to Smitty's was spent with possible causes. Melissa guessed a bad shock while Pete thought it had come loose.

So intent on discussing the possible problem that neither of the two noticed the excited gestures of two young teens at the corner cafe they passed.

up
188 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

cool stuff!

interesting to see the two "girls" in drab. I have a feeling that short of lifting up her skirt and dropping her panties, they will not believe Melissa is a boy ....

DogSig.png

It seems . . ..

Hypatia Littlewings's picture

It seems to me that is because Melissa isn't boy, she seems to be a girl with a birth defect, tho she may not know it yet her self, shes presenting as her true self when in girl mode.

--

The car problem had me worried I kept envisioning her outed because she wakes up in a hospital bed all busted up. I hope that can be prevented now, dangerous sport however.

Whew!

That's a relief, I was worried Melissa wouldn't notice something wrong with her baby 'til it was to late. The only reason she probably noticed is because she was still in girl mode! So I guess those blasted nails were life savers! (LOL) . It looks like the FD 's going to be famous after last nights excursion, and Melissa might be stuck in girl mode a while? Munch munch, may I have more please Ms.tels(y)?(giggles). Thanks tels, I hope you had a Merry Christmas hon. (Hugs) Taarpa

Glad to see

them having fun. Wondering what'll happen next.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Well, I WUZ....

...feelin' better about the car sitch, 'til the last sentence!!!
WARNING! DANGER, DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! (flails forearms around in a weird robotic way)
**Sigh**

Words may be false and full of art;
Sighs are the natural language of the heart.
-Thomas Shadwell

They recognized the car

More than likely they recognized the car as it was being filmed by a person with a cell phone and is probably on you tube or one of the drifting sites by the time that they went by.

Thank you for this great story waiting for more,
Randi

Randi

Thick headed

Jamie Lee's picture

Nick must be super dense, not understanding the truth about Melissa. He is so out spoken that it's impossible to get past his mental block of Melissa looks too good to actually be male. So, using his warped logic, she must be a Tomboy and it's time her true self shone.

Yeah right, mom and dad return home to find Jason sporting acrylic nails and pierced ears. Oh yeah, that would go over good. Or would it be suspected?

Great, Jason senses something wrong with his baby, as does Pete now that he's heard the slight noise.

So the two teens waving frantically are the two from the night before?

Others have feelings too.