Extracted - Chapter 20 – Do Guys Have Periods Too – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 20 – Do Guys Have Periods Too – Part 1 of 2

 

The kiss.  Kisses!  Because there had been more than one.  Stephen tried not to show it, but he couldn’t get Melody’s visit yesterday off his mind.  Especially when she had kissed him, and especially when she had hugged him.  It had been…disgusting.  Horrible!  Maybe that’s why he couldn’t stop thinking about it.  It had been so bad that…strange things were happening to him now.  Things that actually frightened him.  Especially last night.  Things he didn’t know about, but something told him he should know.

When a girl needed to know girl stuff, she naturally went to her mother.  She was pretty sure though that this was guy stuff, and something told her that this wasn’t something she should discuss with her new mom.  When guys had guy questions, did they go to their fathers?  She was fairly sure that was the case.  Like it or not, she needed to have a little talk with her new father, because she was now more confused about her new life than she had been before.  Why did everything have to be so difficult?  Why did everything have to keep getting worse?

Why couldn’t she have simply died when she had been abducted.  At least that way she wouldn’t have to worry about trying to be Stephen, not to mention so much older than she actually was.  Nancy, inside of Stephen, yearned more than ever for her old life.

As Stephen was walking down the stairs to get breakfast, he just got a glimpse of his new father heading for the door to go to work.  “Dad!” he called quickly.  It still felt weird to call him that, but what else was there?

Henry stopped and turned toward his son.  “Yeah?”

“Dad,” Stephen said again as he reached the bottom of the stairs.  “Any chance you can talk to me tonight when you get home?”

“What about?”

“Um...I think it may be a guy thing, but…I don’t really know.”

“What’s that?”

“Something kind of...embarrassing,” Steve told him.

Henry had already heard about Melody’s visit yesterday from Agatha, and she had spared none of the lurid details, so Henry had an idea of what might be on Stephen’s mind.  “Okay,” he agreed.  “I’ll try to find a few minutes, and we’ll get together later tonight.”

“Thanks Dad,” Stephen told him..  “Have a good one.”

“Yeah,” Henry replied.  He watched as Stephen headed for the kitchen to get some breakfast.  He had been considering having a talk with Stephen anyway.  If this new Stephen was going to be his son, which Henry already knew nobody was going to have a choice about, then there were some things they needed to talk about anyway.  Things that might even help somewhat with the depression Agatha kept telling him that Stephen seemed to be living with.

As he headed for his car, Henry remembered that they still needed to find a new psychiatrist for Stephen.  But who could handle what his problem really was?  The only doctor that came to mind just then was that Doctor Montcliff that they had met in the Catskills.  But she lived in New York!  Hours away!  A solution was needed, and like with everything else, he didn’t know what that solution should be.

 

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After the success of Chrissy getting together with Nancy yesterday, Wanda expected Nancy to at least mention something about it either at dinner last night or at breakfast this morning, but Nancy never said one single word about it.  But that was yesterday, and today was today.  And today she had something else lined up to try and help her daughter.

The old Nancy had loved dancing.  Particularly ballet.  It was time this new Nancy at least gained some knowledge of it, and more importantly, learned to move a bit better.  Wanda wasn’t sure this Nancy moved like a girl at all.  She guessed she did, but there were simply too many little things that she would have expected that Nancy would do differently.  But then, all those little different things were feminine things and gestures that she was sure no boy in the world would even think about.  But girls, all women, were different.  Women noticed things.  So, ballet was the beginning.

She still hadn’t told Nancy yet.  She was still trying to sneak all this up on her without coming out and saying it.  Nancy getting together with Chrissy yesterday had been part of it, the dancing lesson today was another part.  Hopefully, without coming out and simply telling her, Nancy needed to accept that she was most likely going to be stuck being a girl, a female…she was going to be Nancy, for her entire life.  Right now, nobody saw any way around that.  It was time that Nancy saw that too and started to accept that fact.  Which meant that Nancy needed to learn how to be a girl, and act like a girl, and actually put some effort into it, like it, or not.  And Wanda already knew that Nancy wasn’t going to like it one bit.  She was too much of a boy inside.  A boy who had been the epitome of all boy!  A boy who had been practically a man.

Wanda still couldn’t imagine how that boy inside her daughter had to feel about being a little twelve year old girl now.  But then, nobody liked it, especially Wanda herself.  Her daughter was there, but the reality was, she had lost her youngest daughter, as if she had actually died.

She watched as Nancy and Emily finished their breakfasts, rinsed their dishes, and put them into the dishwasher.  Nancy was starting to turn to go upstairs when Wanda stopped her.  “Nancy!”

“Yeah Mom?”  Calling her Mom was starting to become normal.  Maybe even a habit.

“I just wanted to warn you that I made some arrangements for you for this afternoon.”

“Arrangements?”

“Yes.  Whether you like it or not, your ballet teacher, Mrs. Cutter, will be coming to the house here to give you some private lessons.”

Nancy’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head.  “Ballet?  You’ve got to be kidding!  I don’t want to take ballet lessons.”

“I already know that, but like it or not dear, it’s going to happen.”

“Why?”

“Because whether you think so or not, I’m hoping they’ll help you.”

“Help me with what?”

“Life dear!  Life!  Face it, you’re going crazy and this could very well help.”

“I doubt it.  I doubt it very much!”

“Besides,” Wanda added.  “You could use the exercise.  All you do is sit around and do nothing.”

Nancy’s jaw dropped open for a moment.  “And you expect to make me do this?”

“If need be, yes.  I’m hoping though that you’ll at least give it a try.  Besides, what else have you got to do today?  Any plans?”

Nancy wasn’t sure what to do.  “I guess I’ve got plans now.”  With that, she headed straight up to her room.

Wanda was happy.  That had gone better than she expected.

 

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“Mom, please can I go shopping with my friends?”

“I don’t know Em,” Wanda told her.

“But Mom….”

“Emily, have you picked up all those dolls in your room yet?”

“What?  Mom, have you blown a gasket?  I got rid of all my dolls years ago!”

“Then have you cleaned your room and done your homework?”

“Homework!  Mom, what the heck?  School hasn’t even started yet.”

“Then I guess as long as you promise to be safe then….”  Wanda stopped and sighed.  “Sorry Em.  Yes you can go.  I just…  After Nancy was kidnapped, I can’t help but worry about you more than ever.  Can you at least try to be safe?  Stay close to all your friends?  Not wander or be alone…ever?”

“Mom, we’ll stay together.  Don’t worry about me.  I’ll be fine.  I promise.”

Wanda nodded.  She knew she had to let her go sometime.  “I’ll give you some money to spend.  Just…have a good time, but be safe.  Okay?”

“Sure Mom.  Thanks.  And Mom, stop worrying so much about Nancy.  Give her some time for heaven’s sake.  But I do think that Chrissy yesterday was a good idea.  Maybe you should consider inviting her over more.”

“I plan to,” Wanda told her.  “But today Nancy’s got other things to worry about.”

“What things?”

“Mrs. Cutter is coming here to the house in a little while to start giving her private dancing lessons.”

Emily’s eyes bulged.  “That Nancy?”

“Who else?”

Emily shook her head.  “I almost wish I was staying so I could see that.”

“So stay.”

“Are you kidding?  I’m going!  In fact, I’m already gone.”

“Did you want that money I promised you?”

“Oh yeah.  Yes!”

“Then give me a minute.”

“No problem,” Emily told her.  “I’ve still got to get dressed anyway, and then Stacy is picking me up in half an hour.”

While Emily headed for her room, Wanda climbed up to her bedroom to grab her purse.  She pulled a hundred dollars out for Emily to enjoy herself with and headed for her room.  Before turning into Emily’s bedroom, she glanced into Nancy’s room.  Nancy was in there doing what she often seemed to do lately, sitting on the floor with her back up against the bed, doing nothing.  Wanda went into Emily’s room and handed off the money to her half-dressed older daughter.  Then she went over into Nancy’s room.

“Is she here?” Nancy asked, obviously not looking forward to it.

“Not yet.  But soon.”

Nancy nodded.  “Do I have to wear anything special for this?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.  I’ve got...I mean the other me had gobs of clothes that I’m guessing were for dancing.”

“She had…you’ve got gobs of clothes, period!  If you like, pick something.  I’d enjoy seeing you in something different.  Otherwise, what you’ve got on is fine.”

“Good!  I like this.”

“You might want to grab a pair of ballet shoes though.”

“A pair of what?”

“Ballet shoes.  Here,” she said.  “I’ll show you.”  She went to Nancy’s closet and hunted among the many dancing shoes in there and found one of the pairs she was talking about.  She threw the light slippers with the elastic straps to her daughter.  “Just bring them downstairs with you.  In fact, you might want to head down there now before she comes.  We’re paying her by the hour, and I’d rather not pay her to wait for you to mope your way all the way down there.”

Nancy banged her head against the bed in frustration.

“Go!” Wanda told her.

Nancy grabbed the slippers in her hand and climbed her way to her feet.  With her mother leading the way downstairs, she followed, but she kept going all the way down to the basement level of the house to where the dance floor was.  She picked up a cue stick and practiced playing pool while she waited.  A little while later, she heard people coming down the stairs.  She saw her mother and another woman.  A nice-looking woman wearing workout clothes.

“Nancy!” the woman greeted her as if she was happy to see her.

“Nance,” her mother said.  “This is Sonya Cutter.”

“Hi,” Nancy said to her.

Sonya turned to Wanda.  “She certainly looks like her old self.  From what you described, I was afraid she might look sick or something.

“I am sick,” Nancy told her.  “In my head!  Otherwise I’m...fine.”

Sonya took that in for a moment.  “Good.  Then perhaps we should see where we need to start.”  Her eyes now noticed the nice dance floor set up further into the room, complete with mirrors on the walls and a ballet barre mounted on the wall.  “Oh my,” she said.  “This is perfect.  Come on Nancy.  Let’s take advantage of it.”

Sonya took a minute to study the music system, then found some recent pop music.  She turned it on.  “Come on Nance, let’s dance!”  With that, she moved out onto the dance floor and started moving around, dancing to the music and having fun.  “Come on Nancy,” she urged.  “Dance with me.”

Stephen inside of Nancy considered that he wouldn’t mind dancing with the attractive woman at all.  He just didn’t want to do it in Nancy’s body.  Still, he moved out onto the dance floor and tried to…dance.

“That’s it Nancy,” Sonya told her.  “Let loose.  Enjoy yourself.”  A minute later, she suggested, “Nancy, use your arms more!  Loosen up.”  When the song ended, she shut the sound system off.  “Okay,” she said, already knowing what she was working with.  This was certainly not the old Nancy.  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  This Nancy’s arms, and especially her hands, didn’t move right.  They just looked…strange.  “Put your dancing shoes on while I find us some soft ballet music.”

For the next hour, Nancy suffered through everything from how to stand, to holding onto the barre while she did weird knee bends.  Sonya corrected what she was doing often, paying most of her attention to Nancy’s arms and especially her hands and how she moved and posed them.  Over and over she had say, “Nancy!  Hands!” or “Nancy!  Flowing…graceful,” and then she would help Nancy do the movement again until it looked at least somewhat better.

By the time Sonya left, Nancy was not only tired, but she hated ballet more than ever.

 

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