Sorry that it has been a little while since I wrote a chapter. I have a few days left until I get my degree and if anyone has gone through such a thing, you know that the last weeks of a semester is when you do all the work that you have been putting off all year. Well, I still have finals left but I am now able to write some. I hope to do another chapter of the weekend. I hope you enjoy.

 

How Life Can Change

by Little Katie

Part XVIII: A Rose Among Wildflowers

 

The knock on the door woke Emily up before she was even ready. A summer full of sleeping in was interrupted by the first day of school. Emily slowly rolled out of bed and threw on a nightshirt. She slowly made her way to the door, unlocked and opened it.

"Morning, honey," Dad said with a big smile. "First day of school, aren't you excited?"

"I guess, I don't know. It's too early to think."

"Well, get ready and I'll take you out for the first day of school breakfast and then drop you off."

"Okay, daddy," Emily replied as she watched her father walk out the room and down the stairs.

It was a yearly tradition that on the first day of school, she went out for breakfast with her father. Part of Emily felt really excited to go to school, to see her friends again and to be away from Mom. On the other hand, she was nervous, she knew that some didn't care for her much since the accident, and that disturbed her greatly. Before everything had happened, she was well liked by all. She already knew that the class from last year would be intact for the most part, sure there would be some new kids, and maybe one or two wouldn't return. Emily wondered what her new teacher would be like, and if she would get to sit next to Rachael and Becky. She knew she had a lot to learn about this girl stuff, but she also knew that Rachael and Becky offered to help. The lazy days of summer were over and now Emily could get busy.

Emily slipped on a pair of blue panties with white trim around the waistband and legs. She stood in front of the mirror for a little, noticing a definite swelling in her chest area now. She decided it was noticeable enough to put on an undershirt.

"Don't want to give the boys a look at more than I want them to see," Emily giggled as she lowered the undershirt over herself.

Emily went to her closet, she had picked out the first weeks worth of outfits yesterday and had them hung in order of appearance. She pulled out a tan khaki skirt and stepped in, she buttoned the four buttons on the side and smoothed it out. She looked at herself in the mirror and made sure everything was simply perfect. Emily then put on a white dress shirt; she buttoned the top three buttons under the collar and tied the bottom half together in a neat knot. Again, she checked herself in the mirror and made sure it was appropriately covering her belly. The school had some rule that said shirts had to come below the waist, Emily didn't know the full rule but didn't want to be in trouble the first day. She then put on her socks and blue canvas shoes. She had debated with herself for hours whether to go with blue or white, but she thought the blue looked a little better because everything else was so light-colored.

She tsat down in front of the vanity and brushed her hair. She made the bangs lay a little to the left and put the back up in a ponytail; she held it together with a bright pink hair tie. She put in sunflower hair clips, two flowers on each side.

Going to the full-length mirror, Emily made sure the look she wanted was just perfect. She spun around and it was all to her satisfaction. "Here goes nothing," Emily said and took a deep breath before walking downstairs to meet her father in the den.

"Wow," John said looking at his daughter, "Maybe I should give you a bat to take with you?"

"A bat?" Emily asked quizzically.

"Yeah, to beat back all the boys." John laughed.

"Daddy!" Emily blushed.

"Okay, lets get a move on, don't want you to be late the first day."

"Let me just check my backpack, okay?"

"Okay, but hurry up."

Emily grabbed the pink backpack and opened it up. Her trapper-keeper was there, so was her pencil box. Her mom had also put in her lunch box, though Emily had made the first lunch herself, since she and her mother were barely on speaking terms.

"Okay dad, All set."

The two walked out to the car, John opened both the door leading out and the car door for his daughter. Emily buckled up and watched her dad get in and do the same.

"So," John said as he started the car, "how do you feel?"

"A little nervous, I want to know what it's going to be like now that I'm different."

"Probably a lot like before, you will do work and stuff and stay with your friends and hang out when you can."

"I guess, I guess it's just like being my first day ever all over again."

"You'll do fine."

"Dad?"

"Yes."

"Um," Emily struggled to ask what she wanted, "when's the doctor going to tell you about me."

"I don't know; he said a day or two, don't you worry about it, you did nothing wrong, we just want to make sure everything is as accurate as possible."

"But, what's going to happen if it's bad."

"Well, we will cross that bridge when we get there. But, I suppose we will get everyone to see a doctor that helps us with our feelings, just like the one you talked to while in the hospital."

"You think that will help us?"

"I sure hope so, honey. I love you. And you know what, your mom loves you too. She is just having trouble adjusting to everything, that is all."

"I still don't see how him taking pictures is going to help."

"Well," Dad tried to explain, "The camera is a very special one, it can see if you have any bruising where someone touched you."

"I don't see any bruises," Emily looked at her arms.

"Well, these look for bruises just under the skin where people can't see them with just their eyes."

"I guess."

"Well, don't you worry, it will all work out for the best. Remember when the accident happened and you thought that you would hate everything forever?"

"Yeah," Emily grinned.

"You don't hate everything now do you."

"No," Emily laughed, knowing that she actually enjoyed being a girl at times.

"So, just give things time to work out."

John pulled into the parking lot of Denny's and led his daughter inside.

"Table for two?" a pleasant lady asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Emily answered for them.

"Well, young lady, follow me," the waitress told her.

They were led to a table and given a menu.

"May I say," the waitress said, "it is so nice to see a father and daughter spend time together."

"It's the first day of school," Emily said, "It's a tradition." Emily smiled big.

"That is so great, what grade will you be in?"

"Fourth," Emily answered.

"Better watch out for the boys," the waitress smiled, "in fourth grade they can be a real pest. Especially to such a cute girl as yourself."

Emily blushed at the compliment.

"Don't worry if they pick on you either," the waitress advised, "it means they like you."

Emily turned a darker shade of red hearing that.

"Do you know what you would like to have to drink?" the waitress asked.

"Yes," John answered, "A coffee for me and a large O.J. for my daughter. Also two Grand Slams, sunny side up with toast."

The waitress thanked them for the order and they spent the wait in idle chat about what Emily expected out of school this year. The food took only a few minutes to be brought to the table along with the drinks. Emily mentioned how much she looked forward to starting ballet later that week and how she hoped that she could fit in with the regular girls at school. John assured her that she would do fine.

After the meal, John drove Emily to school; this would be the only time he would, unless it was bad weather of course. Any other time, she would walk by herself or get a ride from Barbara. The same went for getting home from school; with the new baby at home, Mom wouldn't be able to just come and pick her up.

Emily got out of the car and stood in front of the big, familiar building. She already knew that this year was going to be different from all the rest, just because shewas totally different this year. She also had a fear that she would walk into the wrong bathroom, forgetting who and what she was now.

She walked up the small flight of stairs that lead to the main entrance. She would be in room 212 this year; she knew the school well enough to not need any help in finding the right room. She walked up to the second floor and found it, a good ten minutes early, enough time to not have to rush through things.

"208, 210, 212, here it is," Emily said as she went through the door. The room had 5 rows of 5 desks set facing the white board, the teachers desk sat at the rear of the class, most likely to make sure the kids behaved. The room was decorated with the usual back to school banners. On the front board was a seating chart. Emily found her last name on the board, first row, fourth seat back. She saw that Rachael would be sitting right next to her but that Becky was clear on the other side of the room.

"Did you find your name?" A small lady called from a desk beside the door. Emily had missed her since she was in the corner.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, then take your seat," the teacher looked young, more like one of the high school kids that rode past her in the cars then someone that went through college. She wore a conservative blue dress suit and had her hair up in a bun. Even so, she still looked young.

Emily walked over to her seat and placed her backpack on the desk. She took out her trapper keeper and a pen and placed it in the small cubbyhole provided. She placed her backpack under her seat, and sat and waited.

Before long, the rest of her classmates came in. At first, just one at a time and then in groups. Becky and Rachael walked in together.

"Emily," they squealed.

"Hi," Emily replied. "Rachel, you get to sit next to me this year."

"I know, isn't that great, but Becky has to sit way on the other end up front. I hope we can get that changed."

"Well," Becky chimed in, "If not we have gym and lunch and music and all that stuff to hang out. Last year I got in too much trouble, anyway."

Becky walked over and took her place up front. No one envied her for where she had to sit.

"So, what happened to Mrs. Round?" Emily asked, expecting the teacher to be someone she knew.

"I don't know," Rachel answered. "Maybe she found a real rich boyfriend and got married and moved to Hawaii and is being waited on hand and foot."

"Do you know who this is?"

"No, she probably just finished college or is one of those student teachers."

"I hope she's nice and don't give too much homework." Emily said.

"Me too."

With that, the morning bell rang.

"Okay, class, come to order," the young teacher sprang up.

Everyone made sure to stop what they were doing and all eyes turned to the teacher.

"First, let's make sure we have everyone in their proper seats. This is the first and only time I will call out roll; I expect everyone to be in the proper seat when the bell rings."

The teacher began to call out the roll, making her way up the first row.

"John Corsi," she called out.

Emily raised her hand.

"You don't look like a John to me."

Charles started to laugh and then all the class joined in, except for Rachael, Becky, and Sean.

"That used to be my name till this happened, now I'm Emily."

"Well, John, that's the name I have for you here and that's what you will be called, until your parents come up and explain you."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I am sure you will spend a lot of time getting good grades, your type usually don't have much of a social life."

Emily wanted to protest, but didn't know what to say. She had the feeling she had been put down, but not quite sure how. Either way, the teacher went on calling out the other children's names.

After calling out the roll, the teacher, Mrs. Bryan, handed out the rules. The rules were always the same year in, year out. Don't call out, don't chew gum, don't yell, etc., etc., Emily knew these by heart now.

After rules and procedures were covered, Mrs. Bryan gave out the very first assignment. An essay on "What I did this past summer."

She walked up to Emily, "Maybe you should pick something more normal to talk about, like maybe two summers ago."

She moved on to another student before Emily could object to the comment.

After they finished, they each took turns reading about that summer. Emily was fourth in line to talk to the whole class.

When it her turn came, she walked to the front of the class and began to tell her story.

"The summer started kind of normal, I was planning to play a lot of baseball and go to the pool a lot. But I got into an accident and things kind of changed."

"Yeah," Charles called out, "you turned into a grade-A faggot."

The class burst out laughing.

"Young man, we do not use that kind of language in this class," Mrs. Bryan scolded. "One more outburst like that and you'll be sent to the office."

"Sorry," Charles said and rolled his eyes.

"As for you, young," the teacher fumbled for what word to use. "Young, whatever you are, I told you to pick something normal, go sit down and rewrite something nice."

Emily sat down and wrote about her first baseball game before the accident happened. Everyone else in the class went up to the front and told their story of the summer. Emily paid close attention when it was a girl's turn. She found it fascinating to hear about dance camp, or doing swim meets or even doing stargazing.

Emily knew what she liked to do, but wanted to see if she was really like the other girls or still like the boys. She found out that a lot of the things were the same. Some boys liked to swim and dive, so did some girls. Some boys liked to do sports like soccer and swimming and so did some girls. Only a few things did Emily hear that were only what girls did. These usually revolved around dancing and shopping.

By the time the last person went, it was time for lunch. The class was divided into two lines, boys and girls.

"John Corsi, since you want to be a girl so bad I suppose you can stand in the girl's line, until we get this figured out with your parents."

Emily put her head down and stood in between Becky and Rachel. Somehow, between them, she felt protected. Rachael placed her hands on Emily's shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze.

"Don't worry about her, she probably didn't eat her Wheaties." Rachael joked while trying to be reassuring.

The class walked down the jade-colored floor, down the hall and into the cafeteria. They were one of the first classes to have lunch. Mrs. Bryan told those that brought their lunch with them to sit down at the first table. No child wanted to sit next to the first table, it was perpendicular to where the teachers sat and ate lunch. So it was the easiest place to get into trouble, for even the most minor of infractions. Emily, Rachael, Becky and Sean went over to the far end of the table, each having a lunch from home. The rest of the class waited in line to get whatever horror was being served. Sean sat opposite from Emily on the very first seat.

"I'm left handed," Sean said as he claimed his seat.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Rachael argued.

"Well, because when I eat my left elbow goes out, and if you are right handed we wind up bumping elbows and you'll spill pudding right on your dress. Then, you'd get mad. Then, I go home with a broken arm." Sean laughed.

"Okay, lefty." Rachel laughed.

Emily sat across from him, mostly not wanting to be unshielded from Charles if he chose to sit near her and make stupid comments. She placed her lunchbox on the table and opened it up. A small note sat on top of the sandwich bags.

"Snitches don't eat my food." Emily read the note, and had to fight back the tears. She looked in and noticed that instead of the ham sandwich, which she had made the night before, there was a bag of a few small rocks. The drink pouch was also missing. She quickly closed the lunch box, but not before Sean had seen the contents.

"What's wrong?" Becky asked, "Aren't you hungry."

"My mom must of got real busy with the baby," Emily tried to cover up, "she forgot to pack it, I bet it's sitting in the kitchen."

"Yeah, babies have that way of making people forget." Sean played along. "You can have half of my sandwich." Sean separated his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and slid half to Emily.

"You can have one of my cupcakes too," Rachael added.

"You can drink some of my cocoa milk," Becky said, "But you better not back wash."

"You know what I think," Rachel said, "I think her mom found a way to save money on lunch."

Everyone laughed, even Emily. Most laughed at the comment, but Emily laughed because her mom thought she would go hungry and now she had more then enough to fill her up until the end of school.

The group began to eat, the first 20 minutes was supposed to be kept quiet anyway. Emily eavesdropped on Mrs. Bryan's conversation. Unbeknownst to the teacher, Emily was sitting right behind her back.

"Oh, and I got a freak in my class this year," Mrs. Bryan told one of the teachers, "of all the luck."

"What do you mean?" Another teacher asked.

"I have a boy pretending to be a girl, I had every mind to pull him from the class and send him home. There is no place in a school for someone like that."

"Who is it?"

"John Corsi," Mrs. Bryan said with authority.

"Oh, didn't you know, he got into an accident, he's been surgically altered so now he isa girl. Kind of a sad story."

"Sad story or not, that's just as bad. What kind of freak parents do that to a kid? Plus, I don't see him fighting it at all. I tell you it's going to be nothing but problems with that one, I can tell. I will be surprised if he, she, it, whatever, makes it out of my class."

"Well, you better watch out how you treat, it," the teacher laughed. "Teachers have been fired for treating children with bias."

"I'm not being biased," Mrs. Bryan explained. "All I'm saying is that these freaks cause a lot of problems. Even today I've had several problems with Mr. Girl."

"Well, you are going to have herall year, you better get used to having herin class."

"Oh, I will, and I'll make sure she learns the important lessons of how life is going to be for her type."

"I wouldn't let others hear you talk like that."

"Oh now, we know each other. I'll play it off like I really care, but between you and me, I'd rather get her out of my class any way I can."

"It's time to go, we still on for a workout after work?"

"Yes, let me go and see what other trouble Mr. Prissypants can get into."

Mrs. Bryan instructed the class to get back into their lines, Emily got into the very back, shocked at what she had heard. Never had she heard a teacher talk about a student with such disdain. She walked as if in a fog back to the room. When she got there the first thing they did was math. The teacher instructed them to take out a pencil and piece of paper, and that she would test their math orally to see where they needed to start the year off.

"Four plus four?" She asked the first student

"Eight."

"Good job."

"Twenty-three plus seven?" She asked the next.

"Thirty," The student answered.

Emily was kind of happy because she knew these and waited her turn.

"Good job, very good."

"Forty-two minus twelve?"

"Twenty."

"Close, use your paper I'm sure you know how to do this one."

The student worked out the problem on the paper. "Thirty?" The child answered and asked in the same breath.

"Very, very good, I knew you could do it."

It was Emily's turn now, she was confident because she had gotten the other students questions right.

"Twenty eight times nineteen?" Mrs. Bryan asked.

Emily stared blankly into space. She knew some of her times tables, but not two digits by two digits.

"Twenty eight times nineteen?" Mrs. Bryan asked more firmly.

Emily got flustered, "I'm thinking."

"Don't take that tone with me, if you don't know just sit down."

"I'm sorry." Emily sat down.

"I don't like quitters," she announced to the class, "I rather you try and get it wrong then be a quitter like John here."

The class laughed at Emily.

"See me after school, young man." Mrs. Bryan addressed Emily.

Mrs. Bryan went back to asking the class questions. The hardest she asked was some two digit by two digit addition and a few of the six times table.

After the math oral exam was over the class was taken to another room. It was full of keyboards, one for every student. Emily was excited to be taking this class, she wanted to learn the piano, but never had been good at picking it up the few times her mom tried to teach her. This being the first day though, they didn't get to play. The teacher simply went over the rules; no gum, no running, keep the headphones plugged in at all times. By the time they got to the part on how to turn it on and hit the keys, not pound them, it was time to go on to art class.

Art class was just down the hall, and the class went into the room. The art teacher was a tall, thick man. He had wire rim glasses and talked a little bit funny.

"Okay class," Mr. Joe stood in front of the room, "Pencils up."

Mr. Joe held his pencil in the air, demonstrating what he wanted done.

"Now stand in front of the easel." He turned to face his.

"Now, draw whatever comes to your mind. No matter how silly or weird, just go wild."

Emily chuckled as she looked at the blank paper. She started to draw a bunch of flowers, all looking the same and taking up one half of the paper. She drew funny faces on some and smiley faces on others and frown faces on others yet. Then on the other half she started to draw a rose.

"What's my little artist up to here?" Mr. Joe knelt down next to Emily.

"I'm just drawing flowers." Emily explained, "I don't think I'm making very good ones."

"Nonsense, you are doing wonderfully," he said cheerfully. "What's your name, hon?"

"Emily." She said meekly.

"Well, let's see what we have, we have all these flowers, they kind of look all the same. Then here we have an Emily flower, unique and pretty, a rose standing apart from the wild flowers. I think this is my favorite so far," he said quietly.

Emily blushed as the teacher went around to see the other students work. After a few minutes passed, it was time to head back to class for the last hour of work. On the way out the teacher stopped Emily.

"I really did like your drawing, it shows character."

"Thank you," Emily said meekly.

"By the way, I know about you, you have been a topic of discussion in the teachers lounge."

"Oh," Emily lowered her head and looked at the ground.

Mr. Joe knelt down next to her and lifted her chin up. "Don't ever let people make you lower your head, you're better then that. And maybe one day instead of the rose being off to the side alone it can grow among the wild flowers and flourish, okay?"

"Okay," Emily said, kind of understanding what he was saying.

"You better head back to class."

Emily walked quickly to catch up with her class, just before they began entering the room. She took her seat and waited instruction.

"On the board," Mrs. Bryan instructed, "Is this weeks list of spelling words. I want you to copy them; you will get a new list every week. Today you will write them five times each, tomorrow you will do definitions, Wednesday you will write sentences and Friday you will get a test."

Emily wrote the words in her trapper keeper, making doubly sure that she spelled them right. Nothing was worst then memorizing the wrong way to spell a word. Some of them she already knew, others were completely new to her.

After the class finished copying from the board, Mrs. Bryan handed out a list of supplies that they would need for the year.

"Now make sure your parents get these. You have one week to get all the supplies and I expect you to have these by Monday."

With that, the bell rang.

"Okay, class dismissed," she told everyone as the bustling began. "Except John, you have five minutes left."

Emily told her friends to not wait, that she would go home alone. She sat in her desk and watched her classmates file out.

"Now, John," Mrs. Bryan said.

"My name is Emily."

"Don't get short with me, until your parents get it changed on the records, that is your name."

"Okay," Emily said quietly.

"The reason I kept you is because of your attitude."

"What did I do?"

"A person like yourself should spend a lot of time in school work. Now, it may not be your fault you are what you are, I'm sure your parents had a lot to do with it. But, you have to face a hard truth, you probably won't be involved in a lot of things socially and if you want any success out of life, I suggest you put a lot of time into your studies. Besides, it's not like you'll get distracted by a lot of parties and stuff like that. There is no reason you can't have a productive life, somehow."

"Okay."

"Okay then, you can go, and you may want to think about dressing in pants or something that resembles a John."

"But I'm not…" Emily quit mid sentence, figuring it was futile to go on.

 

Authors Note : The funny thing is, I know teachers like that. Real negative, opinionated, closed minded individuals. It's going to be a long year for poor Emily if she has to deal with the Evil Mrs. Bryan.

  

  

  

*********************************************
© 2004 by Little Katie. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, and compilation design) may be printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without the express written consent of StorySite and the copyright holder.