Any resemblance between the content of this story or any of the characters depicted herein and real persons or events is highly unlikely and purely coincidental

Once upon a time there was a handsome widower who remarried. By his first wife, he had a beautiful, young daughter who was a bright, hard working, delightful girl with a pleasant disposition and an even temper. As he had money, looks and position, he was able to be choosy, so for his second wife he chose a hot, classy trophy blonde who had been divorced for some years. From her first marriage, at an early age, she had two rather plain daughters who were both more than somewhat snobbish and quite spoiled. After a short time, the man, who as well as being a talented and merciless divorce attorney for the rich, was a serious type ‘A’ personality, had a sudden, massive stroke and died. He had looked fit and healthy, but he ate terribly and had never taken care of either his cholesterol or his blood pressure. The widower and the stepmother had an ironclad prenup which was still in its first phase where she did not get very much of his money and he had left an equally ironclad will that left most of his worth to his charming daughter. However, the stepmother got to live in the house and was the executor of the will. The monies were in a trust, also managed by her, until the lovely daughter turned eighteen.

“Ella!” The harsh cry echoed through the house. “Get in here and finish your chores.”

Ellie’s thoughts momentarily flashed to how much she hated to be called Ella. She jumped up from her homework. ‘What now?’ she wondered. She had cleaned all of their rooms, the stairway and the upstairs hallway. She had washed and folded their clothes. Thank goodness that her father’s will had stipulated that Carl be kept on as the live-in, cook-houskeeper. Good news, bad news. Good news, he and Ellie got along great and he did a lot of the housework. Bad news, he was gay. It seemed that Vicki was not very tolerant of gay men and she was nearly apoplectic at the thought of him cleaning her room or washing her clothes, so he was forbidden to go upstairs to clean or to do any of her laundry and so, Ellie got those jobs. She was surprised that her ‘loving stepmother’ ate the food he cooked. He truly was a great cook, though.

Ellie found her stepmother in the library. “Yes, Stepmother. Did I forget something?” Ellie had never been tempted to call her ‘mother’. Vicki did not allow the familiarity of her first name. So, it was Stepmother, or Ma’am.

“You certainly did. I asked that the Rolls be washed and waxed. It’s filthy. You know it has to be ready for my weekend golf date with Jane and her friends.”

“Stepmother, I washed and waxed it just yesterday. Unless someone has taken it out of the garage...”

“Do not dispute me! It’s filthy and there are candy wrappers on the floor. See to it immediately!”

“But Stepmother, it’s already dark and I still have to finish my homewor...”

“Immediately, I said!”

“Yes, ma’am.” At least it was not cleaning out Vickie’s fireplace ashes again.

As usual, Carl had heard the discussion and Ellie found a bucket, sponge and other supplies sitting near the side door. She went out to the garage and found the charcoal grey Rolls sitting outside the garage, covered in dust from someone’s unpaved driveway. Jessica drove too fast on those surfaces, and most others as well. The car was unlocked, of course. A quick check inside found that Michelle had been here, too. No less than three candy bar wrappers, a couple of dropped Milk Duds, a small smear of white chocolate on the door and an empty, one liter, carbonated juice drink bottle. Well, that didn’t take too long to clean up. The dust on the dash and other interior surfaces took longer. All in all, it took almost two hours to finish the detailing and put the car away. No one had left out a key for her to move it, but Carl had long ago made a secret duplicate for her.

Carl had her school work on the table in the kitchen, along with a couple of cookies and the fixings for some tea. The kettle was just starting to whistle as she came in the door. “How do you do that? You always time things that way.”

“I saw the light as the garage door went up when you moved the car inside. I turned up the heat. No secret.”

“Well, just know that I think you are perfect. If you liked girls, I’d marry you. Oh God, could you see Vicki’s face?” Ellie sat down and savored the first cookie. She still had an hour worth of homework, so another five minutes wasn’t important enough to worry about.

“I told you, I like girls, some, a bit. I just prefer boys.”

“Yeah, you told me once, girls with boy’s rear ends, and no boobs. Poor things. Well, you could always put the moves on Jessica.”

“Please. I have some standards. In her case, she has to have a personality. So, are you going to the dance?” Even the tone of that question indicated a change of subject.

“Dance?” Ellie looked up at Carl. “What dance? Not that she’d let me get a date, or go if I had one.”

“Two weeks from Saturday night. The whole town is invited and no dates are necessary. It’s free, in the town plaza and the park. It’s a combination late Labor Day party and the last event for the sestercentennial of the town’s founding. Costumes or masks required.”

“Oh. But I don’t have anything to wear. You know the size of my allowance.” She held up her hand with her thumb and fingers curled into a big zero. “And it’s ten miles to town. She’ll never let me ride with them to a dance.”

“Trust me, Honey. I have everything planned out. Your dad helped me out when a lot of others didn’t. His little girl is going to the dance in style. You just be here this weekend while they are out playing golf.”

Saturday

“Ellie, this is my friend Molly. She does costumes for acting troupes, local theater groups and she plans costume parties for a living. She has some stock costumes, props and various other sundries in her van. I had a couple of ideas, so she put together a couple of specials as well.”

Molly was a tad extreme looking. Ellie’s school had allowed some dress code revisions lately, so that even with the school uniforms, lots more skin was showing, but it had been a very conservative town for eons and, even with the Swarm threat and the new societal changes, there were still a few rules about extreme hairstyles and piercings. Molly was in her twenties, very slim with a boyish figure and she had four or maybe five colors to her hair, none of which were found in nature. She wore a stud in her tongue and had a tattoo of a rose with the thorns piercing her bare shoulder and drawing blood. Then Ellie realised that the flower’s leaves were hiding the tail of a long, colorful snake. She could see a loop of it climbing up out of Molly’s peasant top, over the left breast and dropping down into her sparse cleavage. She saw it again on one leg, poking out of her skirt and then back up underneath. The head was coming over the other side of her back where it stopped to draw two more drops of blood at the hollow of her neck. The girl wrenched her eyes back up to Molly’s face which she found smiling at her.

Ellie turned pink. “Sorry, but ... Hello, Molly. I am glad to meet you but, did Carl remember to tell you that I don’t have any money?”

“Not to worry. He said he’d take care of it. Looks like you have a fairy godfather.” Molly laughed as she started to open up her rolling cases. She had used a little ‘swish’ hand move that hinted that the ‘fairy’ comment meant gay.

Ellie really didn’t like people insulting Carl. She had to put up with it from her stepfamily, but not this stranger. “I would appreciate it if you did not use words like that to talk about my friend,” she said icily.

Carl stepped in as Molly looked up in alarm. “Hon. It’s just a joke. From her it was a joke. She’s bi, and she’s my friend too.”

“Oh! Oh, I am sorry, but ... Ok, foot in mouth. Can we start over?”

Molly popped up onto her feet again. “Sure, Honey. We’ll kiss and make up.” The next thing Ellie knew, she was being thoroughly kissed and hugged by Molly, who was a decent kisser, even if the tongue stud was wierd. Ellie found it interesting enough that she was kissing back.

After just a few seconds Carl cleared his throat. “Molly. No molesting my friends without permission.”

Molly pulled her mouth away from Ellie after a tiny bit longer. “Spoilsport. You’re just jealous because I am kissing her and not you. But just because you don’t want to do her doesn’t mean no one else does.” She made sure she got one more good ass squeeze in before she let Ellie go and went back to her case.

Ellie was having some trouble breathing. At first, she had been startled, but now she was feeling the same way she did when she let Michael Tomkins kiss her for about half an hour at a time. And that had ended up with her losing her virginity, just days before Michael decided that they should stop seeing each other. Damn. And Carl was gay. Mostly. Ellie certainly didn’t do much for him, at least. Too many curves in front and in back for his tastes. Oh! Carl’s description of his occasional girl interest suddenly came to mind. She realized that Molly was talking to her.

“ ... so since he said you needed to be disguised, all of my ideas have masks, and wigs. He is right. That golden hair of yours is very distinctive. I have a brown wig, two blondes, a black and a couple of reds. With your coloring, I think the red. Unless we try to make you look like a guy. Hmmm, doubtful. Ok. Strip down. We need to see what we have to work with.”

“Strip?”

“Yes. Do you need Carl to leave the room?”

“No. I, uhhh ... I think I’ll be more embarassed by you.” But Ellie started taking off her top anyway.

“Me?” Molly’s eyes were laughing. “But honey, it’s just us girls!” she said, batting her eyes outrageously.

Ten minutes later Ellie was wearing only some black, faux leather boy shorts provided by Molly. She had left her bra on at first, but Molly said she needed to see the whole effect. Then she had to replace her panties with the boy shorts. She could see that Molly appreciated the view and that was getting Ellie kind of worked up. Molly was carefully measuring Ellie’s waist, bust, hips, in-seam, arms and neck. There seemed to be a lot of collateral touching going on as well. “Yes. Girl, you are just made for the Highwaywoman get up. Black leather, black satin and black lace with just a couple of hints of red satin in the lining. Your hair is straight, so we’ll use that curly red wig. It will cover more of your facial profile as well. Here, see if these boots fit. Carl gave me your sizes.” Molly pulled out a pair of knee high boots. They were black suede leather with three inch heels and had large cuffs at the knees.

As Ellie sat down and Molly helped her pull the boots on, she thought of something. “Wait, if he gave you my sizes, why did you need to measure me?”

Molly was currently just about lying between Ellie’s legs as she smoothed the cuffs on her boots. Her chin was at the midpoint of Ellie’s thighs. Her cheek just barely brushed Ellie’s skin. “Honey, I didn’t really need to. I just wanted to.” Then she batted her eyes at Ellie again.

“Molly, leave the girl alone.”

“As soon as she tells me to, Carl. She looks like she needs to get out more.”

Ellie was looking at the costume. “Isn’t this going to be too racy for this town?”

“Hon, after what I saw last year, this is going to be sexy, but not over the top. And there will be a lot that are way over. I’ve rented out six topless numbers so far. And there is that new fad in form-fit codpieces. Of course, the form being fitted to is not always that of the wearer, but...”

Carl kept up a bit of conversation with the girls as Molly put one piece of constume on Ellie at a time. She took the boots back off and helped Ellie put on the lacy black corset, garter belt and stockings. The corset did not completely meet in the middle; instead, there was bright red lacing which left a two-inch gap down her midline. The topmost lace was about two inches below her nipples and the upper corners of the corset drooped down and away from the cleavage, showing the red satin lining. Ellie could see the tops of her own nipples when she looked down, but she was not positive how hard it would be for others to see them. The gap in the corset went from her cleavage all the way down to where the corset stopped about four inches above the top of her shorts. The black micro miniskirt covered part of that space, but the bottom did not even come down far enough to cover all sight of her boy shorts. Ellie could still see them in the full length mirror. After Molly had carefully straightened and smoothed the stocking seams, she tied their ribbons to those hanging from the corset and readjusted the corset. Then the boots went back on. She put the wig on, followed by a large, black velvet hat with a red feather plume. A black silk mask tied on to the hat with a black ribbon. It was a domino top with a detachable scarf of black lace covering her mouth. Molly helped Ellie put on the black lace, elbow-length half-gloves. The whip was coiled at her right hip and a saber in a sheath was attached to straps hanging from the other side of her belt. A flintlock style pistol went into the tops of each boot. Ellie was nearly incoherent by now. Molly had probably touched every inch of skin not covered by the panties. She had also ‘smoothed and adjusted’ every inch that was covered at all. Ellie slowly realized that Carl was talking to her.

“Ellie, girl? Are you going to be all right? I need to do some things, and ... Slow down Molly. Ellie. I can leave you two alone or I can kick Molly out. You decide.”

Ellie looked at Carl through half-slitted eyes. Then she looked down at Molly where she was perched on her heels at the edge of the couch. Molly was breathing nearly as hard as Ellie was. “Thanks Carl, really. But I want her to stay. I still have to get off,” she giggled a bit. “umm, get this costume off without damaging it.”

“I’d be glad to help you get off, umm, get this costume off,” Molly snickered. “Both even.”

As Carl walked back towards the kitchen, he hid a small smile. He wished he could give a better life to the girl that he loved as if she was his own daughter. However, he could at least arrange a few moments of joy. He heard a last few words behind him

“We had better get the hat and wig off first. They are kind of delicate.”

“I don’t know. You have really been torturing me. Maybe I should see if this whip is real.”

“It’s a fake and isn’t any good as a whip, but have you really looked at the handle?”

“Ooh! He looks happy to see us.” Ellie held up the long, thick, supple handle.

He gently closed the door behind him.

“Jessica, Michelle! It’s time to leave,” Vickie called from her room. She did not want to be the first down the stairs as that would meant missing an entrance. Even if the only other people watching were her daughters. And the hussy of course.

“Ready, Mama!” Jessica came out and clumped and jingled her way down the stairs. She was dressed as a wild west gunfighter. Sort of. Tan leather shorts were above chaps with lots of loose leather fringe work. She wore a brown leather vest with no shirt underneath it. She had a watch on a long chain with the fob in her right side vest pocket and that watch in the left side vest pocket. That was the only thing holding the vest closed. Jessica’s problem was she had next to no cleavage; her breasts were barely A cups, so the vest did not really expose much except skin, unless it was wide open. She was wearing a large neckerchief around her neck. It was positioned so she could raise it to cover her face for robbing banks or trains. Currently, it also covered the top of her chest, hiding even more of her nearly non-existant cleavage. Her dull black hair was not covered, even by her too large cowboy hat. The hat band matched the cowboy boots. They were a medium brown with turquoise accents and she wore round, roweled spurs. Her first step down the stairs nearly killed her as the spurs caught on the top step, but she managed to recover against the railing before she completely lost her balance. A double holster with a couple of obviously toy cap guns finished out her costume.

Michelle followed more slowly, as usual. Her costume was supposed to be a ‘warrior maiden in chain mail’. Unfortunately, as thousands of women at science fiction and fantasy conventions have found out over the decades, you have to be pretty fit to look good in chain mail armor or ‘brass bras’. Michelle looked like the fat lady waiting to sing at the end of the opera. The one that the costume lady hated. She was wearing a fake, Viking winged helmet with attached blonde braids. Next in line was a ‘brass’ bra; light metal links attached to the cups which were actually made of shiny plastic. The cups were sized and shaped wrong for her heavy bosom, so she seemed to push out in every direction around the rim. The bra was under a very gauzy shirt vest that ended at the chainmail skirt or kilt. Her heavy belly was clearly visible through the gauze. Even made of aluminum, that much chain mail had some real mass to it and the bra dragged down. She had to keep pulling it up. She had chosen the lightest version of the skirt, which also meant that the holes were larger. Her panties were showing. They seemed to be made of some type of shimmery gray material and they were pretty obvious through the holes in the skirt because the panties were huge, which was because she was huge. A fake sword in a sheath and sandals that strapped up to her knees completed her costume. The sword and sheath were too long for her short legs and dragged on the floor. All in all, she looked a lot dumpier than normal.

Once both girls were at the bottom of the stairs, Vicki made her entrance. As usual, she was both elegant and graceful. Her shiny brown hair had one lightened streak in the center. Her costume was similar to those worn by Glenn Close in Dangerous Liasons. In that film, she’d worn the 18th century gown showing pretty much every bit of cleavage that she had, including hints of nipples. However, in these days of sexual display, Vickie’s version was even more risque. The dress had a half cup, shelf support for her breasts which were completely exposed from two inches below her nipples and all the way up. There was a lacy, v-shaped panel running down from her cleavage and ending at her belly button. The dress top had no straps although it had connected sleevelike armbands around the midpoint of her biceps. There was also no back to the dress. From Ellie’s vantage point, she was not sure how the dress stayed up, even with double-sided tape. The skirts were voluminous and bulky looking, but they and the dress’s upper body were very sheer and you could see that the skirts were covering a light-weight framework with no underskirts. Under that was a naughty looking set of garterbelt and stockings and a high cut pair of panties, all in the same lace pattern and color of the dress. In effect, you could see skin almost every place, except directly under her breast cups and the very front of her panties. She was gorgeous.

Ellie stepped out from the stairway to the third floor. Her sweat shirt and pants mostly hid her figure. Her medium length hair was obviously just tucked up, out of the way. There was a smudge of dirt on her face.

“What have you been doing?” Vicki demanded.

“I had to change some light bulbs upstairs. I used the new fluorescents as you asked me to.”

“We’ll be back by one. You had better be asleep when I get home.”

“Yes, Stepmother.”

As soon as they were out the door Ellie ran back up into her secret room in the attic. She opened the window so that she could hear the car leaving and, more importantly, coming back. She wiped the fake smudge of dirt from her face and her workout clothes flew off. She was already in the corsette, panties, garter belt and stockings. Stepping into the skirt, she grabbed the black belt that her whip and saber were strapped onto. She stopped to check if the whip handle had been cleaned after it’s last session in her bed. Such a nice, helpful, friendly whip. She would put new batteries in tonight. She sat down to pull up her boots and stuffed the two pistols into the boot tops. Stuffing her ID into another open-topped pocket provided at the top of the boots, she swung around to the tiny make up table with her mother’s things. There was an emerald necklace from her hidden safe, that the steps had never seen. It would go well with her red hair, and it hung just level with her nipples. Ellie didn’t plan on anyone recognizing her face, so who cared if every guy stared at her tits. She did her makeup quickly and sparingly. Just a tiny bit around her eyes and red lipstick. Wig, hat, mask. Well, better leave that off for now. It was hard to see with and she had to drive. Time to face Carl.

She trotted down three flights of stairs. “Carl?”

“In the kitchen.” She followed his voice into his usual nook. “Oh, my. You look so lovely! I wish I was straight.”

“Or at least more bi,” Ellie giggled. “We could share Molly. Ok, are you finally going to tell me how I am getting to the dance?” Ellie was practicing her posing since she was not embarassed for Carl to see her, even in the invitation to sex that she was wearing. Currently she was standing with her legs spread, the boots smooth against her calves, her hip shot out to the right, the miniskirt worn so high that her ass cheeks were showing and the corset with her bra cups not really covering her nipples. The whip coiled on her left hip hung down below her hem line. Her hat hung from the handle of the saber, hanging from her belt.

“A Highway-woman needs a horse.” He tossed his key chain onto the table.

“The orange beast?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that my Bronco is in perfect condition. I just prefered orange to the faded lemon yellow that it was before I restored it.” His protests were cut off as Ellie hugged him tight.

“Just teasing. I’ll be careful with it. Don’t wait up for me.”

“Remember, you need to leave before your stepmother or she will see the truck in the lot. The kitchen door will be unlocked, just in case you are in a hurry. She said home by one. So, you had better plan on not leaving any later than midnight. And don’t park where you can get blocked in.”

Ellie parked the Bronco on a side street near the park. She had been lucky to find something within a block of the plaza but someone had been just pulling out, leaving a space. She put on her mask and tied the ribbon to the hat. As she walked she kept an eye out for the steps. It was only about seven PM so it was still light out and would be for some time. There was a food court with drinks and typical summer food such as hot dogs, watermelons and potato salad. There were two separate groups of stands. One had spendy prices posted, and the other was quite cheap, but it had a conspicuous sign stating that everything was replicator made. Some people would just not eat that stuff.

Ellie spotted Vickie chatting with some women and men that looked like country club types. Even in costume, you could tell who had money and who would not associate with people without that money. Jessica and Michelle were hanging around the fringes of the same group. Ellie got as far away as she could be and still see them.

“Well hello, there lass! Ye look to be an outlaw. Might there be a reward for catching ye?” A hand lightly touched her arm.

Ellie recognized the voice and she turned to face Molly. She was dressed in a ‘cabin boy’ outfit tailored so as to hint that she was not really a boy. From behind you weren’t sure, but from in front it was pretty obvious. Since she did not really have much in the way of tits, she was braless but the loose, unlaced shirt didn’t really cover much above her belly button.

“You already got your reward.” Ellie said. “But if you’re nice, I’ll give you a tip when you pick up the costume.”

“Deal,” said Molly.

Ellie blushed, as she realized what she had just said. “Umm, I’ll call you when I know I have some spare time without the steps.”

“Make it a full afternoon. I will have to inspect everything closely. More than once.”

“Damn you, I am definitely going to have to go home and replace the batteries in this whip tonight.”

Molly just tugged her out into the dance area. “Come on, lets dance and drive people crazy trying to figure out if I am a girl or a guy.”

“Sure,” Ellie said as they moved, “ but tell me, do you want guys or girls to hit on you?”

“Yes,” Molly giggled.

After a while, Molly had spotted a guy that she wanted to show her shirt to at close range. She said something about letting him try her out as a traditional cabin boy. Ellie had needed to sit out a few dances anyway. Her boots were just a bit hard to dance in. She spotted the high school quarterback, Prinz Harmen, who was standing all by himself. In fact it looked like he was being shunned by almost everybody of their own age. He was wearing a tight-shirted, pirate costume, complete with a cutlass, a flintlock pistol, much like hers, and a stuffed parrot on his shoulder. His face was darkened with makeup to give him a swarthy, menacing look. Very non-PC, Ellie thought. “Hey Pirate Prinz, want to dance?”

“You know my name, so you’re a local, but you obviously have not heard the news.” Prinz gave her costume a quick, appreciative look, but made no move to accept her offer.

“What news?” she asked.

“The word is out that I am out. Of the closet that is. Too bad no one got the details right.”

“Recognize me yet?” She asked, batting her lashes as she reached out and stroked his chest with the coiled up whip.

“Why are you flirting with me?” he asked. “And no. The voice is familiar, but I can’t remember any cute red-heads in our school. You seem younger than me, so maybe I just missed you.”

“First. I’m practicing. The flirting that is. And if you decide to go back in the closet, I wouldn’t mind succeeding. I practice with Carl too. I don’t seem to get as embarassed, you know? And I thought you were going out with Charlene. Second, or maybe third, not a real red head. I’m Ellie. Eleanor Livingston.”

“Ellie? You mean Jessica and Michelle’s stepsister? No wonder they are so mad at you. You probably stole their guys just by walking by.”

“Stole what guys?” Ellie was a bit confused.

“They have been complaining and telling everyone that you stole their boyfriends by sleeping with them.”

“What? I never ... Look has anyone ever seen these boyfriends? As far as I know they have not had one in the last couple of years, not since they moved here.”

“Hmm, not that I know of. They said they were college boys from out of town. But OK, when you look at them ... Not important to me anyway. My social life is dead and I doubt that the guys will even let me play on the team this year. Someone will complain that I am watching them in the locker room or something.”

“So why did you come out? Oops! Sorry, sorry. None of my business. And I don’t mean to imply that you should have stayed in the closet., but lordy are there going to be some unhappy girls.”

“No that’s ok. I’d like to talk about it, if you don’t mind missing another dance.”

When she nodded at him, he relaxed. Then she said, “Well, first, actually do you still dance while out of the closet? My best guy friend is gay. I doubt that I will catch something new.”

Prinz’ eyes lit up. “I’d be happy to.” They went out and tore up the floor for a few numbers and then the music went to something wild enough that Ellie was not willing to try in her new heels. Prinz grabbed a couple of fruit punches and they sat down for a bit.

“So, first, I am more bi than gay, if you know the difference.”

“Yyyeesss, I think I do.” Ellie was thinking back to Molly, working her way up her legs and her anticipation of what Molly was going to do. Then she thought of her own feelings lately. “Go on.”

“It was a really wierd sequence of events. What happened was, my mom got a fanny tuck while my dad was out of town on a really long, overseas business trip. He came back and went ballistic. It seems he preferred her a little bit bigger, or even soft and a bit flabby. In the ass at least. He kept saying if she wanted something fixed, she should have done her boobs. She is pretty slim up top. So, I am hearing all this, but trying not to, you know? Lalalala! I already knew something, because I overheard them on occasion, but ... Mmm, Dad’s a spanker. I don’t mean me and little Gracie, well, not much and definitely not for sex. However, when he and Mom get frisky, he likes to spank her first. She put up with it, I guess, but she wasn’t thrilled. But he likes uhh, movement.”

“Movement?”

“He wants her ass to shake like jelly when he spanks her.” Prinz blushed visibly even under the pirate makeup.

“Ahh, and now she doesn’t jiggle as much. So how did that make you come out of the closet?

“Well. It’s uhmm. Her ass is more of a turn on to me, now. I mean aesthetically, you know? I like girls with a bit less of, well everything. Boyish rear end, slim up top. The one girl I have been going with looks like that. Now my mom looks more like that, not completely, but more so. So I am talking with my sister Gracie, because Dad is talking divorce, and she’s upset and somehow I let it slip, that I like Mom’s new look and that it looks more like a boy’s ass. Then at the next family meal, an argument starts and I forget exactly how, but Gracie drops the ‘he likes boy’s asses’ bomb into the conversation. The interrogation starts and I don’t lie. Dad’s unhappy, to say the least, Mom is a bit shocked, but supportive, I think she already suspected that I like guys as well as girls. And Gracie is truly clueless and innocent. ‘What? What did I say.’ So anyway, the next day, I go to pick up Charlene and her dad meets me at the door. ‘No gay boy is dating my daughter.’ Dad must have said something to him. In a week, it seems everyone knows.”