Chapter 18: Girl's Day Out

Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock, Wendy and I were dressed in our formal school uniforms complete with the horrible pantyhose, waiting out front of the main entrance.

Sister Elizabeth Ann had organized permission from Wendy's parents to have her braces removed, and Ann had set up dental appointments for both of us. Afterwards, we would get our hair styled. Wendy was really excited, as she had not had an outing since she arrived at the school apart from visiting me in hospital and our team trip to Catholic Central. Even our appointment with the dentist couldn't dampen her spirits.

A huge tank of a station wagon crunched up the gravel drive about five past ten with Ann behind the wheel. I smiled when I saw it - I had forgotten how popular they were with the Moms of this town when I had first been at school. Up till now I had only been in Mike's car.

I opened the passenger door and Wendy climbed in beside Ann where she received a hug, then Ann leaned across to give me a peck on the cheek.

"Hi, darlings, all set? Cleaned your teeth and ready for the dentist?"

Our simultaneous "Aww, Mom!" made her laugh as she put the car in gear. I put on my seatbelt as she pulled away, and then noticed that Ann's seatbelt hung loose beside her. Doing up seatbelts wouldn't become law for another three years, or a habit for another generation, but with a mental shrug I left it done up.

I guess I should have known my own dentist, but I had no idea who this doctor was although he seemed nice enough. He didn't find any cavities, thank god, did a routine polish and twenty minutes later Ann and I were sitting waiting for Wendy. Ten minutes later, she came out with a huge smile - and no braces! I wanted to kiss her so bad, but thought it best to wait until tonight.

Ann treated us to lunch at the Metropolitan and we all ordered the fish and chips special. Ann had a coffee while Wendy and I ordered milkshakes. It wasn't as if we were concerned about the calories!

Our appointment at the hair salon was for 1 o'clock, so we spent a bit of time browsing the store. It was strange seeing the old fashioned "new" gadgets like the Polaroid SX70 instant camera that folded up, and the introduction of the 110 pocket cameras, and those funny old flip flashes. I remembered that if you took a nickel and held it across both prongs you could fire them all off at once! I wanted to buy a package of the flash cards, but in this life I was saving my money!

It was a typical girls' shopping trip, I realized as we walked back to the car, talking. We had just spent almost an hour looking at things, trying on clothes, and not buying a thing although I saw a neat little toaster oven, which would go well in our room. And I had a ball doing something I used to really hate!

"I have some news for you, Patti," Ann said as she was unlocking the car.

"What's that, Mom?"

"I saw Mr. Fredericks yesterday." She looked at me soberly. "He asked me to go work for him at the realtor's again, so I told him it was time to put up or shut up."

"And?" I asked anxiously. "What did he say?" Wendy's hand gripped mine.

"I thought his jaw was going to hit the floor, he was so flabbergasted!" She couldn't hold the serious act any longer and a happy smile spread across her face. "Then he said 'Holy Mother of God! At last! When can you start?' So I start next Monday!"

I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tight. "Oh Mom! I'm so happy for you!" Wendy came to hug her as well, and I included her in our embrace.

"Thank you, Honey," Mom said, looking up at me. "What you said a couple of weeks ago made me think. But it's not going to be easy, you know."

"Oh, poo!" I replied. "What's hard about it? There's only two ways to sell real estate, anyway."

"Excuse me? And what would they be?" she asked, amused.

"Well, either you have a property, and you find someone who needs to buy it, or you have a buyer, and you find the property they need to buy! Simple!"

"Oh, Honey! I just hope it's that easy!" she laughed, and we all got into the car. "There is still the matter of my obtaining a license and a course to pass before I'm a full fledged agent."

"You'll breeze through it Mrs. J.," said Wendy. "Patti got her brains from you!"

There was a certain irony in that remark and I agreed with Wendy because Einstein had always been a good student. I wondered - how much of me was the old me any more?

The hair salon was strictly for ladies only. The days of unisex hair salons hadn't made it to London yet.

Wendy and I persuaded Ann to have her hair done as well.

"Mom, there's baby pictures of me at home, and you've still got the same hairdo!" I told her, and she blushed a little.

"Well, it's easy to take care of and I never saw a need to change it," she replied.

She finally settled on a nice bob shaped around her face, emphasizing her eyes and making her look younger.

Wendy's hair was a challenge. With her thick dark curls, we finally decided to remove the part, give her some bangs, and shorten the entire length down to where it just ended below her ears. I asked the stylist to save the 10 plus inches that were cut so that we could donate it to the cancer center in Toronto where it could be weaved into wigs for kids going through chemotherapy.

My own hair wasn't quite as long as Wendy's but I also wanted to contribute and asked Ann if I could shorten my hair so that I too could give 10 inches. Ann thought about it for about a minute.

"Okay Honey. It's going to a worthy cause and it certainly grows quickly enough, anyway."

By the time my hair was cut, and wrapped in cellophane along with Wendy's, I was left with less than 2 inches of hair, shaped to a point at the nape of my neck. It was a nice cut though and it would sure save on the time it would take to wash and style it. I could actually wear it with a part on the side if I wanted and remembered how turned on I used to get by the military girls who had such short cuts. It must be the Peter Pan thing. Peter was supposed to be a boy, but every time he was played in a film or on stage it was a girl who played the part. Kind of made me think I could be Wendy's Peter Pan.

The stylist was perplexed with our request for the hair and I explained to her about the kids who lost their own during cancer treatments. She thought it was a great idea and asked if I would forward her information on it. She had lost a cousin to cancer and said that anyone donating their hair for such a worthy cause would have their hair cut free of charge.

Hmmm... I could think of a whole school full of girls. I wondered how many I could convince to help the cause.

When we made it back to the school it was just before the classes ended and Ann insisted on going in with us to talk to Sister Elizabeth.

Sister Elizabeth was a bit skeptical about a program she had not heard of, but Ann assured her that she had heard of it and suggested she call the Toronto Sick Children's Hospital to get the address for where to send our locks.

It took but a few minutes before Sister Elizabeth got off the phone. There was sadness in her eyes. She said that it was especially hard on the young girls who lost their hair and that while not common knowledge, yes, they did have a program where they accepted hair and even had a wig manufacturer in Toronto that donated their services for the program. She went on to say that good strong hair was always in need and there just weren't enough people willing to part with the stylish lengths to make enough wigs. She promised this would become an official school charity and thanked us for bringing it to her attention. She planned on announcing and encouraging the students to sign up for the free haircuts.

I gave Ann a hug and a kiss and thanked her for being such a great Mom and taking Wendy under her wing. She actually blushed and said she hadn't enjoyed herself so much in a long time and looked forward to our next girls' day out.

Wendy gave her a big hug and a thank you and we walked her out to the car, waving as she drove away.

All the girls on the team complimented us on our new haircuts, and a few said they would even consider having their hair cut and donated, though most didn't want a style as short as mine!

The practice went well and we concentrated on a faster rotation pattern to keep our opponents on their toes.

For the first time ever, after we had showered and changed, we joined the rest of the team in a very large suite for our late night meal. All of us were in our night attire and it was interesting to see who wore what.

A couple of the girls wore 'baby-doll' pajamas with matching panties, others had simple pajamas like the kind I favored, and a few even wore the type that Wendy was stuck with. Most interesting was the way that some of the girls paired up.

While Wendy and I were not quite ready to publicly declare our love, it was obvious by the way some of the girls sat on other's laps that there were some 'more than platonic' friendships in this team! Some were roommates of players who were not on the team that joined us. I think there were about 20 girls in the luxury suite.

Since we were the youngest members of the team, Wendy and I bid them all a good night and headed back to our own room.

In my former life, one of my short-term girlfriends had tried to introduce me to something called Tantric Sex. Some kind of Eastern thing that was all about touch and getting in tune with your inner self, but I had been a wham bam stick it in and pull it out kind of guy and had had no use for it. I realized what an ass I had been.

It was a cool night outside but I opened the window anyway, lit two of the big church candles that Father Ed had given us, placed them to each side of the bed and turned off the light. I turned to Wendy and, kissing my finger, placed it gently on her lips. Raising my hands to the buttons of her nightgown, I undid them one by one, slowly, deliberately, knowing we had all the time in the world. Her hands copied mine to undo my pajama top, and soon we stood nude facing each other as our fingertips lightly traced the curves of each other's bodies.

I slid my fingertips down her arms, raising her hands from me with the lightest of touches and, my fingertips on hers, guided her to sit cross-legged on the bed where I took my position facing her. We resumed our exploration of each other's bodies, reveling in the touch of fingers, the feel of hands on warm skin, the texture of eyebrows and lips and erect nipples.

Almost an hour later, we leaned together as one, kissing for a long time, then turned to each blow out a candle.

Under the comforter, I spooned up behind Wendy and almost instantly fell asleep.

Classes on Thursday flew by and we were on the bus headed for Saunders before I realized I might see Cathy at the game. Not that I expected to see her on the team, the kind of sports she indulged in were strictly the one on one type with boys. But I figured that since she was still 14 like me, it would provide a good excuse for her to be let out of the house.

Saunders had a decent record in Volleyball, but nowhere near the caliber that CCH was. It should be a fairly easy game, but as Sister Gabe reminded us, no game is easy. We should use this game as a chance to practice some of the new moves we had been working on and to rotate in and out of the game faster.

We had used only four girls to serve in the game against CCH, but Annette was pretty serious about not only winning the game but also making sure that next year's team would be primed and ready. She saved all the grade 13 girls for rotation, and had set Wendy as first serve.

This time, the bus ride took a bit longer as Saunders is on the far side of London, but we sat back and enjoyed the ride. The big change in the ride was that Julie was on the bus with us officially as the school sport nurse! We had a great time talking with her on the ride over. She loved our new haircuts and said she wished she had the guts to cut her hair as short as me. I teased her about it making me look butch but that I could be in and out of the shower in five minutes, and have dry hair in ten, which made Wendy blush. Julie was only sorry that Linda had been called in to take over another shift.

We weren't even surprised this time to see all the cars in the parking lot, but this time there were even more of them. I guess the TV coverage of the game had sparked more interest in girls' Volleyball, and with a sudden revelation, I realized that I had unwittingly already changed some of the future. Then another thought struck me. To my knowledge, St. Ursula's had never had any kind of sports department, and after our first game with CCH, plans were already underway to make sports a credit as worthy as history or religious studies! It wasn't something I had meant to do, but since everything was turning out for the best, I figured it probably meant a better future as well.

Like before, Sister Elizabeth and Father Ed had ridden with us and escorted us to a classroom set aside for us to change and psych up. Julie stayed with us until we entered the gym where the band was already waiting for us. We whooped and chanted as we rushed the gym circling around till we saw where our bench was, where we stood at attention until Annette told us to sit.

There were two TV cameras this time, one in each corner of the gym, and a few more photographers than what just the London Free Press would have sent. I figured that papers from other cities had picked up on the story as well, and since eventually we would be playing the best they had to offer, they wanted photographic proof!

Annette won the coin toss and we took our positions. Wendy had strong arms and hands and her serve still needed some work, but she managed a good overhead serve that was quickly returned to our side of the court. I didn't even wait for someone to set it up. It was coming for me and I nailed that sucker with a fist, driving it down for our first point even faster than the first volley at CCH! Wendy served twice more, and the heat was on.

Saunders was a bit better than we had expected, but we ended the first set 25 to zip. Wendy had served three times, the last being a bit slower getting to the net so Annette had sent Krissy in as a substitute much to Wendy's relief. I could understand Annette's way of thinking though. We all needed to work on all aspects of the game. It wasn't enough to be good in just one position. The grade 13 seniors hadn't played one minute of the first set, which boded well for next year's team, but when the second set started, she started the line up with all the senior girls. I was glad for the break.

It was funny seeing the front three turn their backs to the net to look back at our serving line especially when we weren't serving! But just as we had practiced for so long, when the ball came over Annette's head, Mandy was there to lift it and Annette spun and nailed it. Another starting point in under five seconds! I had seen the photographers clicking off when our front line faced the back of the court, and I was sure that one of them would have a before and after picture of Annette driving that nail into Saunders's coffin. Our team had developed to the point that we almost read each others' thoughts on the court and I somehow knew that no matter when we graduated, we would remain close all our lives.

I looked around the crowd for the first time and spotted Mike and Ann sitting on the bleachers and nearly swallowed my tongue when I realized Einstein was sitting with them! Tom and Rita were nowhere to be seen! I wondered who the blonde was sitting next to Einstein when it hit me that it was Cathy! She was trying to put the moves on Patrick, totally ignoring the guy sitting on her other side.

"Patti?" I heard Julie say. "Are you all right?"

I didn't answer her... I couldn't. The girl who I thought was so good looking when I was in the hospital I now realized was just like any other girl. There was nothing really spectacular about her; Wendy could easily give her a run for the money in the body department. I had been so stupid as a man, and now Einstein, in my body, was getting drooled over by what I would have considered prime pussy at that age.