"Missy?" Tucker said into the phone desperately.  He'd considered
sitting for a moment before he remembered how wet he was.  Not that it
was that hard to remember-
     "Valerie?" Missy confirmed into the phone.  Then she sighed.
"Listen, I talked to David - my boyfriend," Tucker took a deep breath to
begin explaining, but she continued, "and he's saying stuff that Ellen
says isn't true."  Missy sighed again.  "What really happened?" she
asked sadly.
     Tucker let out the breath he'd readied.  One of the things he
really didn't want to do today was explain this to someone else, and
especially not one of his new acquaintances, and most of all not the the
girlfriend of the guy involved.  "Um... well..."

     Jane had snagged some towels from the laundry room and wrapped
Valerie in them.  Valerie had smiled absently at Jane, and then
dismissed Jane's presence from her mind.  That normally would have
irritated her, but what Valerie was discussing with the girl on the
phone explained much, at least from what Jane could overhear.  The
recording of the conversation would have both sides, of course, but Jane
was already getting the idea.  *No wonder,* Jane thought to herself.
*It did seem an extreme reaction for simple stage fright, especially
with the theatrics she's already displayed.*

     Tucker sighed as he finally hung up the phone.  He'd done his best,
but Missy still sounded unconvinced.  And that could be catastrophic, if
she chose to believe her own boyfriend over him-
     "Valerie?" Jane's voice shocked him, because he hadn't really
realized she was there.
     "Um, yes Jane?" he managed after a moment of trying to force back a
shriek of surprise.
     "Would you tell me about the incident you were just discussing with
Missy, please."  It wasn't really a request.
     Tucker said desperately, "Um, I'd rather-"
     "I believe I should know," Jane informed him in a quiet flash of
the steel will she had.

     Missy sighed as David reached for her, intending to kiss her.  She
put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him away.  "Not right now,
David.  We have to talk."
     He frowned at her, and asked, "About what?"
     "Saturday."  She didn't really want to look at him, but she had to,
if she was going to get to the bottom of this.

     "And so..." Jane asked, more to see if Valerie realized the
implications of what had happened to her than to edify herself.
     Valerie shrugged, and pulled the towels closer around her body in
an attempt at comforting herself.  "So, I'm not sure... Tracy called me
Monday night, and then Missy today, so I dunno what's going on in their
minds... Missy said she was going to talk to David, the guy, but he's
her boyfriend, so she might believe him instead of me, the ASSHOLE," she
raged, her jaw tightening.
     To distract her pupil, she stated, "Valerie."  The girl blinked and
looked up.

     Julio's heart lept into his throat at the first sound of the male
voice behind him.
     "Well, hello Miss Charlene, an' how are you today?" asked the
voice.
     "Hello Tom," Charlene replied, "I'm doing well."  A hand on Julio's
shoulder pulled him unwillingly into a turn to face the intruder.  A
weathered face smiled at Julio.  Charlene continued, "This is Teresa,
she'll... be staying with us for a while."

     *Where the HELL did I get 'Teresa' from?* Charlie wondered.

     Julio's vision wavered for a moment as he tried to contemplate the
enormity of Charlene's betrayal.
     "I, I think she's a bit overheated," Charlene said, making no sense
to him.
     "Mebbe you oughta take the other missus inside, get her somethin'
cool to drink," the man said.
     "I think so," Charlene agreed, and someone grabbed his arm and led
him out of the barn.  "Bye Tom," she said over her shoulder as they
departed.

     The phone rang, startling them both.  It rang again before Jane
picked it up.  Tucker tuned her out, wondering if maybe now wasn't the
time to go change out of the still-damp clothes-
     Apparently not, because Jane was holding the phone out to him.  He
took it, slowly, and said "Hello?"
     "Valerie?" Missy confirmed.

     *Maybe...*  An image flashed in Charlie's head, of a small girl
back in fifth grade.  *That's it.  Wonder why I was thinking of her?*  A
glance at Julio, now most likely Teresa for her stay here, showed that
the dress she was wearing matched closely the best memory he had of the
girl, probably from class picture day.  *I did think she was cute at the
time.  That must be it.*
     "But," the boy-girl on his arm finally came to life.  "But, you,
he," he spluttered, and then yanked his arm away.  "You BITCH," he
snarled, and whirled around and stomped towards the house.  Charlie
sighed, and followed as quickly as he could, reminding himself that Jane
was waiting for precisely this reaction, and that he didn't want to get
all sweaty.

     Julio came in, like Tucker had expected, all upset and whiny and
demanding an explanation et cetera.  He was more interested in Charlene,
and vice versa.
     "Who was it?" she asked, giving him a look of concern.
     "It, it was Missy," Tucker sniffed, and gave her a smile.  "She,
shae talked to him and called back, she said she broke up with him, and
it's okay, she said, she doesn't blame me for it..."
     "Oh wow," Charlene breathed in relief, and hugged him.
     Tucker's feelings of relief were marred by the increasingly nasty-
sounding tone of Julio yelling at Jane.  Finally, Tucker heard something
that he knew was an unpardonable insult in Spanish.
     He sighed, and slithered out of Charlene's embrace.  Jane slapped
Julio, he could see as he turned around, but before Julio could respond
to that, Tucker twisted into a full-windup kick that slammed into
Julio's belly.  *Hoo, yes!* Tucker congratulated himself as Julio said
"Whuf-!" and collapsed on the floor, holding his stomach.
     He bent down and said, quite calmly, "Do you mind?  Charlene and I
were having a serious conversation, and it is imPOSSible to think when
you're yelling stuff like that.  Now, keep a civil tongue in your head,"
which was something that Jane had told Tucker once when he used a few
rude words to describe a buy-out in the computer industry, "or I'll have
to cut it out."
     "Valerie," Jane said in a warning tone, "that's enough.  I believe
that our latest guest will most likely be leaving very soon."
     "Good riddance," Tucker stated as he stood back up.
     "Miss Jane?" Charlene asked, "can Valerie and I go skating,
please?"  At Jane's nod, she grabbed Tucker's hand and pulled him
towards the stairs and their rooms.

     "What'd you do that for?" Valerie asked as they crested the top of
the stairs, thank goodness.  He'd thought she'd start bitching right
next to the new guy.
     "Because, stupid," Charlie replied, "Jane's gotta convince him to
stay, you know, and we need to let her talk to him."
     "Why does he have to stay?" Valerie asked petulantly.
     Charlie sighed, and stopped in the hallway so he could look Valerie
in the face.  "Look.  Remember when you came here?"
     "Yeah?"
     "You were getting away from something, remember?"
     "Yeah," Valerie remarked sourly.  "All my friends, my family, my
house-"
     "Jail time?" Charlie reminded her.  She looked unhappy at the
reminder.  "So, if Teresa wants to stay out of-"
     "Teresa?"
     Charlie rolled his eyes.  "That's another story.  ANYway," he
emphasized, "this one needs to stay here and get through the program
even worse than you do."
     Valerie's face said that she wouldn't mind at all if Julio went
back to jail or wherever.
     "And," Charlie said as he had a flash of psychological brilliance,
"if YOU mess with Jane NOW, she's gonna send YOUR ass back for
interfering."
     "Oh," Valerie said.
     "And you don't want that, do you?" Charlie guessed.
     Finally, Valerie admitted, "No."
     "See?"
     Valerie sighed at him, and shrugged.  "So, skating?"
     Charlie nodded, relieved.
     "So where did 'Teresa' come from?"

     "Now," Jane told Julio, "go upstairs and wash your face.  You look
a mess."  He did, with the makeup having run with the tears all around
his eyes and down his cheeks and nose.
     He swallowed, then nodded and turned around to leave the parlor.
Jane let him leave without further correction, because she had to speak
with Charlene for a moment.  She would be the best person for the next
stage.  If, she realized sourly, she could keep Valerie from
interfering.

     Someone knocked on Charlie's door, and he was about to tell Valerie
to come in when Jane stalked in instead.  Charlie sighed; he hated not
having any privacy.
     "Charlene," Jane said, coming right to the point as usual, "I need
your help at this point."
     *Not again,* he thought, but nodded instead.  Disobedience wasn't
really worth the cost here, he'd learned.  Eventually.

     "Do you know what I want, what I really-really want," Marie sang
softly to herself as she sprinkled herbs over the salmon steaks she was
preparing.  "Tell me what you want, what you really-really want..."

     "Teresa?" Jane inquired, giving him That Look again.
     "Look, he, she, whatever, just reminded me of this girl, except I
didn't even think about it until afterwards, okay?" Charlie snapped.  He
felt enough like an idiot about the name he'd chosen anyway, and he was
tired of being questioned about it.

     Jane exited Charlene's room, leaving her to change, and knocked on
Valerie's door.  When she turned the knob and entered, there was a flash
of color as Valerie lept over and behind the bed.  "Jeez," she
complained, glaring at Jane, "I'm changing!  Couldn't you wait for a
second or something?"  She had, Jane noted, the indignant expression of
any teenage girl interrupted in her toilette.
     Jane sighed.

     Charlie knocked on Julio's, now Teresa's door.  "Wish everyone
would shut up about it," he muttered softly as he turned the knob.
Jane's newest student had his arms folded on the makeup table.  Charlie
guessed he'd been crying instead of doing makeup, something that he
could easily sympathize with.  His head rose at Charlie's intrusion.
*Yep, tear streaks,* Charlie observed.
     "What do YOU want?" Julio/Teresa asked, his accent coming out
stronger.
     Charlie shrugged casually, and replied, "I just wanted to see how
you were doing?"
     "What the hell were you thinking out there?" Julio/Teresa demanded.
     Charlie stiffened at the latest implied criticism of his choice of
new identity.  *Chill,* he told himself sternly, *Don't fuck this up...
he's just mad about the girl's name, not which name you picked.*
     The defensiveness nonetheless leaked out in his voice as he replied
testily, "Well, what was I supposed to do, tell him you were a guy?"
     Julio/Teresa made several attempts to say something, but they all
collapsed.  Charlie waited until he finally put his head down and
groaned, "I dunno any more."
     "C'mere," Charlie said gently, and cajoled the boy onto the bed.
He spent some time wiping away the smeared makeup with a tissue.
Julio/Teresa just sat passively and looked back at him, more tears
leaking out silently.  Finally, he'd wiped off all the errant pigments,
so Charlie sat back and sighed.  "It's okay," he finally said gently.
     "But why is she doing this?" Julio/Teresa asked.
     *Because she's sick,* Charlie thought, but that was one of those
things that wasn't going to help the situation.  Instead, he shrugged,
and said, "It's just the way she thinks.  And you sort of have to admit,
a lot of times girls ARE better behaved."
     Julio/Teresa didn't answer that; he just stared at Charlie's hands,
now automatically folded in his lap.
     "It really isn't that hard," Charlie added after a minute of
silence.  He smiled at Julio/Teresa.  "Millions of girls do it every
day, you know."
     "But not me," Julio/Teresa replied.
     "You," Charlie corrected, as gently as he could.  He really didn't
want to be on the receiving end of one of Julio's rages.  "At least for
now."
     "But, I mean, when does it END?"
     "Whenever she says it does."  He'd have to start thinking of
this one as Teresa, he realized.
     "But when is that?" Teresa asked petulantly.  Even he - she -
realized the futility of the question, after asking it, and turned away
on the bed.
     Charlie waited a few moments, then reached out and pulled Teresa's
chin back to face him.  "It's not that bad," he said.
     "Maybe for you," Teresa snapped at him.
     "You have NO idea," Charlie snarled before he could stop himself.
He took a breath and let it out slowly.  "She's done enough to me,
before you got here," he mentioned, trying to keep his tone even.  "I've
been humiliated too."  He watched as Teresa tried to figure out what
could be equally humiliating to what HE was going through, and failed.
     "Why are you here?"
     Charlie smiled gently.  "The same reason you are; to learn to
behave like a human being instead of a rabid animal."
     "I'm not-"
     "You've gone after her twice that I saw," he pointed out, "and used
language I'd be scared to say out loud."  *At least in this house,* he
thought.
     "But she's... she's..."  In lieu of describing the horrors, Teresa
simply swept a hand over the clothes she was wearing.
     "I know," Charlie agreed.  In a calculated move, he reached out and
took one of Teresa's hands and held it in both of his.  Leaning forward
on the bed, he stated, "But you can live through it.  Adapt, and come
out of this better than you went in."
     "But it's... it's..."  Words failed Teresa again, but this time she
began to sob quietly.
     Charlie reached out his arms and gathered the latest student into
his arms.  "I know," he murmured into her ear, "I know..."

     "If every man says all he can,
     If every man is true,
     Do I believe the sky above
     Is Caribbean blue?"
     Tucker swept through large arcs with his legs, keeping a rough time
to the waltz beat as he crooned the melody to himself.

     Missy rubbed her eyes, which were incredibly sore, and only then
realized that she had probably smeared her eyeliner all over her face.
"DAMN him!" she shrieked, flinging the dark-streaked pillow she'd been
crying into at the wall.

     After an ill-fated attempt at doing a small jump, Tucker lay on the
concrete and debated the merits of getting up versus just lying there
where he couldn't fall any further.  *And it is so nice outside,* he
thought, looking at the sky.  *And I am so tired...*

     "Are you sure this'll work?" Julio whispered as Charlene knocked
on the door to Jane's study.
     "I know it will," she whispered back confidently.
     Julio wasn't so sure, but there was nothing he could do about it
now.
     "Come in," Jane called, and Charlene opened the door and walked in.
Julio knew he was supposed to follow, but his legs froze.
     "Come on," Charlene whispered to him when she noticed he wasn't
coming, but she finally had to come back and give him a substantial tug
on the arm before he could get his legs to work.  Then, before he knew
it, he was standing in front of Jane.
     Charlene had suggested the idea, and he'd been forced to admit that
it would probably work, and change her mind about sending him away.  On
the other hand, voluntarily submitting to what Charlene had done to him,
and what Jane WOULD do to him in the future, was harder by far than
facing someone with a knife trying to kill him.
     She'd gotten him to take a shower, and then had redone him almost
from the skin outward, selecting a 'pretty' dress that nonetheless
looked closer to his real age than what he'd been placed in for most of
the day, and helping him substantially with his makeup and hair.  She'd
even loaned him some of her jewelry.
     "Well?" Jane finally asked, but without the usual biting sarcastic
tone she'd been using lately.
     "Teresa has something to tell you," Charlene finally prompted.
     He took a breath, and another, but it was only Charlene's hand
squeezing his that gave him the strength to say what he had to.  *If
there is one girl in the world,* he thought, *that won't laugh at me for
doing this, then I can live with it.*

     Tucker found that rolling almost flat on his stomach, so that his
pelvic bones were no longer painfully poking into the concrete, made
lying down a lot easier, and he could rest his head in his arms too.

     "Why don't you go find Valerie," Jane said, "and remind her that
she has to dress for dinner, too."
     "Alright Jane," Charlie replied as he led the quiet Teresa out of
her study.  The place made him nervous, though not quite so bad as the
parlor did.
     "I think she's still skating," he told Teresa as he led her down
the hall towards the stairs.  "We'll go see."  She quietly followed him,
taking the smaller daintier steps that Jane demanded, he noticed.  *Jane
was right, this one's a piece of cake.*  She ignored the ringing phone,
and hoped it wasn't Missy calling up to tell Valerie she'd changed her
mind-
     Charlie opened the front door, and instantly saw Valerie sprawled
out on the ground, not moving.  "Oh God."

     "VALERIE!" someone screamed, and Tucker sat up wondering what the
hell was going on.  "Are you okay?" someone gushed as she landed next to
him.  *Charlene,* he identified.
     "Huh?"
     "Are you okay?" she repeated frantically.
     "Uh, yeah..."  He looked around.  He was lying on the driveway in
front of Jane's mansion.
     There was a good explanation for what he was doing, lying out on
the driveway, he just knew it.  If he could just think of it.  "Um," he
said, stalling for time.  "Um, I'm thirsty.  Can we go inside?"

     "She cannot possibly have planned this," Jane told herself in a
voice she kept perfectly level and reasonable.  The only sign of her
agitation, in fact, was the pencil she was holding and snapping into
centimeter-long segments.  "It's merely a coincidence."  Snap snap snap.

     "You couldn't have just gone to SLEEP out there!" Charlie yelled at
the girl in front of him.
     "Why not?" she challenged.  "It was warm, I was tired, no rocks-"
     "Oh come ON!"
     "Why NOT?  Tell me that, huh?"  She folded her arms and glared at
him.

     "Mrs. White?"  Jane was not looking forward to this conversation.
Not at all.

     Dinner was rather a quiet affair, Julio noticed.  Jane was her
controlled self, as always, and Julio was trying his best to be the
perfect 'little woman' for her, as she demanded, but the two girls,
sitting in matching children's outfits, were glaring at each other hard
enough to start fires.
     It felt very strange indeed to be the only other person at the
table wearing mature clothing.
     Then again, since he hadn't been involved in the argument, he'd
heard Jane coming down the stairs, and was quick enough to dart into the
library and look innocent when Jane looked in on him.
     It was a good idea in more ways than one, since he could look up
the word 'fishwife,' since he didn't really feel like bothering Jane
with such a silly question when she was already busy with the other two.

     Tucker sighed, and silently commanded his fingers to pay attention.
Playing the piano was hard enough as it was without his digits
disobeying him.
     *Maybe if I could find a QWERTY piano,* he daydreamed.

     Bill was enjoying the feeling of his wife under his arm as they
watched some television, but something was... off.  Finally, he
identified what it was.  "Hon?"
     "Hmmm?" Sarah replied.
     "Have you noticed, how quiet it is without Eugene here?"
     Before she could reply, two voices arose in a chorus of antagonism,
and the sound of running footsteps preceeded the appearance, not of
their two other children, but a pair of black panties, and an arm which
Bill recognized as his youngest's before it was yanked backwards.  The
panties floated gently to the floor.
     Sounds of strangling followed.
     Sarah nudged him in the ribs, and Bill sighed, but got out the
Eisenhower half-dollar he carried for these occasions.  Sarah whispered,
"Tails," and he flipped it.  Tails.  His wife won coin tosses an
improbable number of times when it came to the children, he noticed once
again.
     He raised his voice and announced, "Susan, let go of your brother's
neck, I'm too old to make a replacement.  Brian, stay out of your
sister's underwear."
     Further sounds of protest and a muffled smack followed before Susan
marched out of the hallway to righteously reclaim her panties.
     "Mmm hmm," Sarah said as she nestled against him again, "it's been
really quiet with Eugene gone."

     Julio was taking his makeup off, like he'd done many times already
that day, getting ready for bed, when he heard voices raising in the
hall.  It sounded like the two girls continuing their argument.  Without
really meaning to, he drifted towards his own door, to make things
clearer.
     "Look, I SAID I was sorry-" Valerie snapped.
     "You think you can just crawl into my bed after all that-"
     "It wasn't my FAULT!  YOU're the one that said I was lying-"
     "You WERE!  That is the DUMBest story-"
     "Well, go PISS on yourself!" Valerie shrieked, and slammed the
door.  Then slammed another one.
     "FINE!" Charlene screamed as she opened one.  Then slammed it.
     Julio heard Valerie snatch hers open and yell, "FINE!" in reply.
Then, of course, she slammed it.
     He heard one more door open, but then he heard Jane's lower voice
commanding one of them, probably Charlene, to do something, and then he
was glad indeed that he hadn't opened his door a crack to hear better.
Not that it had been necessary.
     Still, listening in hadn't made anything clearer.  Were the two of
them lovers?  *That would explain Valerie's hostility,* he thought.

     "I HATE that bitch!" Tucker seethed into his pillow, tears
streaming down his face.

     "I HATE that bitch!" Charlie told the showerhead, wiping the tears
off his face.

     It was when Charlene exploded into a pile of black slime that
Tucker knew he'd been tricked.  Shooting it, of course, didn't do any
good, and he had been trying to get to the car to get gasoline for
napalm, but now that her treachery had been revealed, he was completely
hosed.  He went down fighting, but as the slime forced its way past his
lips, he knew it was hopeless-

     A shriek awakened Julio, and he lay there, frozen, for what seemed
like hours as his heart pounded, trying to figure out what was happening
without moving.  Finally, he heard a shower running from the next room.
A check of the clock showed it was only eleven o'clock.  *Would someone
tell me what is going ON?* he wished.

     Tucker turned off the shower, and it took him another minute to get
out of the tub.  He hadn't flushed, either, so the first thing that
greeted him when he got out was a mess of floating, half-digested fish
and the other remnants of dinner, burbling around in the toilet bowl.
"Gah," he said, and flushed it all to hell, or the local sewage
treatment plant.

     "Hey, Tucker finally wrote back," Mike said to himself as he sat
down at his computer for his bedtime relaxation.  "Wonder if he's still
on.... nope."  He'd logged off a couple hours before, according to the
tfinger program Tucker had written.

     Tucker shook himself as he crawled back upstairs.  "Gotta do
something about this... late nights like this are gonna play hell with
my head.  Or early mornings.  Or something."  Maybe some more caffeine
would be a good idea...
     He snuck into the kitchen, and was happily chugging a cold soda,
the bite washing away the memory of his vomit, when he heard some
unfortunately-suspicious noise coming from the dining room.  He'd just
stuffed the laptop case into a cabinet and silently closed the door when
Jane walked in.

     Jane was more than surprised to see Valerie up at this early hour.
"Good morning, Valerie," came out of her mouth automatically while the
rest of her mind pondered what the girl was doing up.
     "Good morning Jane," came the not-so-prompt reply.  "What are you
doing up so early?" she asked.
     Jane smiled, catching the irony of Valerie getting off her question
first.  "I was planning to take an early-morning ride.  Would you care
to join me?"
     "Ride?  Ride what?"
     "Horses?" Jane prompted.
     Valerie's face contorted several different ways, but what she
finally said was a mild, "No thank you, Jane.  I'm, uh, not fond of
horses, and I don't know how to ride them anyway."
     Jane inquired, "Well, then, since you're not getting ready for a
dawn ride yourself, what ARE you doing up?"
     She shrugged and looked away.  "Couldn't sleep.  Nightmares."  She
took a deep breath, then shrugged again.  "I think I'll be fine if I can
get in a nap today."
     "Do remember you have choir practice today," Jane remarked, and at
Valerie's nod, she smiled again.  "Then, I think I shall go for a short
ride.  Do be good while I'm out, will you please?"  A last nod, and Jane
turned on her way to the stables.

     "I will never understand her," Tucker told himself as he climbed
the stairs.  "Never in a million years, not if I develop telepathy..."
He did, however, remember to unlock all the kids' doors as he passed, in
case Jane remembered that he was supposed to be locked into his.

     Charlie had just sat down to do his morning makeup when a familiar
scream from across the hall pulled him out of the chair and halfway to
the door before he remembered that Valerie was prone to nightmares.
*Must be it,* he told himself.
     As he sat back down, he heard a faint muffled sound from outside.
It sounded as best as he could tell like Valerie was sobbing.
     "Damnit," he cursed, "it wasn't my damned fault she told that
stupid story when she fell down and then picked a fight!"
     As usual, his conscience wasn't listening to him.

     Tucker came out of his room, exceptionally ready for breakfast.
Especially since he hadn't finished digesting his supper.  He almost
bumped into Charlene, and both of them started to say, "I'm sorry," but
stopped.
     "What?" Charlene asked.
     Tucker took a breath.  He was a little irritated at being 'forced'
to apologize, but weighing constant nightmares versus eating a little
crow was kind of a no-brainer.  "I'm sorry about last night and...
everything.  But I really WAS taking a nap out there.  It was kind of
nice, and with the breeze and everything I didn't get too hot..."  Not
until later; his neck was pink and painful to touch already.
     Charlene opened her mouth, and closed it, and opened it again and
said, "I'm sorry too.  I... I just got worried, I mean really scared
when you were just lying there, and I guess I just stressed out and
yelled at you."
     Tucker nodded acceptance.  "Friends?"
     She smiled at him.  "Friends."  Tucker thought a hug would be a
good idea at that point.

     Julio came out of his room, and caught the two girls hugging in the
hallway.  He started to say something, but they both turned and glared
at him, and he thought better of it very quickly.
     "Well, let's go down and get some food," Valerie finally said.
"I'm starved."
     "You're always hungry," Charlene complained.
     "I'm growing!" Valerie complained back, and made a sour face.
     "Sideways," Charlene remarked, giggling, but Valerie just sighed
instead of snapping a reply.  Charlene beckoned Julio along as she
passed, so he followed the two of them.
     It would have been cool, following the girls in their nightgowns
and robes, if he hadn't been in an equally frilly and fluttery one
himself.  Valerie's was white, and Charlene's was a pale green, but he
himself was wrapped in a frilled pink nightmare.  He would have changed
into something else, except everything else was worse, and the old house
was surprisingly cold, forcing him to wear something.
     They went downstairs, and like yesterday, arranged themselves
around the table.  Valerie, however, looked up at some noise in the
kitchen and went in.  Jane came down the stairs and into the dining room
a few moments later.  She looked around, and sighed, "Where is Valerie?"
     "Right here, Jane," Marie said as she pushed open the door, bearing
a large platter of fruit.  Valerie followed behind with a tray of her
own, this one holding toast and spreads, if Julio's nose wasn't lying to
him.  His mouth began to water.

     "Did you figure out what was wrong with my car?" Brad demanded.  He
had a lot to do today, and the last thing he needed was a car repair,
especially since his mom had left already for work.  She hated him
calling her at work, even when it was for an emergency, like a busted
car.
     The mechanic looked annoyed at him, which made Brad even more
pissed off.  "Yeah," he drawled slowly, "I figured out what was wrong
with it.  No engine."
     "What?"
     "No engine, kid.  There's no engine in it.  You know you need an
engine to make the car go zoom?" the mechanic asked sarcastically, and
demonstrating with his hands.
     "What the hell are you talking about?  No engine?  It worked fine
last night, what the hell are you trying to pull?"
     "I'd like to know the same thing, asshole," the guy snarled, and
Brad got a sneaking flash that he was not going to win this argument.
     But what had happened to his car?

     "Do you know anything about this?" his dad yelled at him as he
dragged him along.  Frank Donner had no idea of what he was talking
about, but it was safer not to argue with his dad when he was already in
a rage.
     Finally his father had dragged him to the front door and shoved it
open.  It took a few moments to figure out what his dad was talking
about.
     There was an engine block, sitting on the front lawn.  With flowers
growing out of the piston holes.

     Tucker sighed as he went upstairs to change into something suitable
for singing.  *Too much to do, not enough sleep,* he thought as he
yawned so hard he had to stop walking.
     He changed into one of the cotton dresses that he and Charlene had
bought, adding a few cheap plastic barrettes Pauline had given him, and
decided against everything else except a slip.  And socks and shoes, of
course.  And his watch, which in combination with everything else made
him look like one of those women you saw sometimes in camping equipment
catalogs.  He shrugged at himself in the mirror.  "Bet Deb'd like this,"
he grinned, and the attractive young woman in the mirror grinned with
him.  His neck was a little bare, though, so he added a necklace with a
gold heart on it, grabbed his satchel, and went downstairs to wait for
Marie to take him to practice.

     Missy wasn't enjoying the waiting, and she knew she wasn't going to
enjoy the talking either, but she felt she needed to.  Especially since
several of her friends had bullied her into swearing she would.
     Finally, the BMW she was looking for (sort of) pulled up, and
Valerie eventually got out of it.  Missy sighed one last time at the
unfairness of it all, but went to go talk to her.

     Charlie was watching one side of Teresa as she walked along,
helping Jane correct problems.  He couldn't help but remember Joan doing
the same thing with him, many months ago, and he smiled at the thought.
     As if in response to his reminiscence, the phone rang.
     Jane grumbled, but told the two of them to stay there and went to
go answer it.  Teresa was looking at him, but he had no clue either, so
he shrugged.
     A minute or so later, Jane came out of the parlor looking annoyed.
*Oh no,* Charlie thought, especially because she was looking annoyed at
HIM.  "Charlene," Jane said, "a young lady named Tracy wishes to speak
with you."
     "What?" was all Charlie could come up with.
     Jane sighed.  "Tracy is, I believe, one of Valerie's friends, and
she wishes to speak with you.  Now."
     Charlie bit his lip, because it was more than obvious that Jane was
annoyed with him, but HE hadn't told the girl to call... and especially
not him.  He didn't even know the phone number here.
     Still, Jane sounded impatient, so he got up and went to the parlor
and picked up the phone.  "Hello?"
     "Charlene?" asked the girl on the other end.  "It's Tracy, and we
were all wondering if you two wanted to come skating after Valerie gets
out of practice?"
     "Um... I dunno."  The idea had some appeal, though.  "Let me go
ask, okay?  Can you hold on?"
     "Sure!"  Charlie put down the phone and went back out of the
parlor, thinking all the way.
     "Well?" Jane asked, hands on her hips.
     "Ah... it's one of Valerie's friends, like you thought, and she was
asking if the two of us wanted to go skating after choir practice?
Please, can we?"
     Jane sighed, and closed her eyes, and Charlie crossed his fingers.

     Mike took a deep, relaxed breath as he surveyed the refrigerator,
looking for something breakfasty to fill his complaining belly.  "Guess
I'll take the crane back this morning," he mused as he pulled out a
Tupperware box full of pasta and a jar of sauce.

     "Jane?"  Marie's head appeared around the corner.  "Is Teresa
here?"
     "She's powdering her nose."  Jane shook her head, but she was
smiling.  "She gets so frustrated and can't control her emotions, but I
think she has learned that physical outbursts get nowhere.  She isn't
pleased with herself for crying so much, but she really doesn't have
another outlet right now."  Marie nodded, but she still had a frown.
"What is it?"
     "Do you really think it is a good idea to let Valerie and Charlene
go skating, unsupervised?" she questioned.
     Jane sighed, and sat down.  "I thought about it long and hard,
Marie..."  She shook her head.  "Valerie is willful enough, that I think
the only way we can control her is through her access to her local
friends.  And, if she has none, then she will be uncontrollable.  She's
been good, the last couple of days, minus a few arguments with Charlene,
and I think I need to let her out today, in preparation for a couple of
the trips coming up.  Otherwise, threatening to ground her will have no
meaning."
     Marie nodded unhappily at that, but then commented, "But aren't you
afraid that they will break the masquerade?"
     Jane shrugged.  "I saw them all skating when we bought skates,"
preferring to think of that day's events as that rather than about
Valerie's disappearance, "and I honestly couldn't see a difference
between any of them, including Charlene.  Once I discounted her lack of
skill, of course.  And they have both been improving, and I still can't
tell the difference between the two of them and the local girls.  And
Charlene has been acting as a brake on Valerie's more outrageous
outbursts.  Except the arguments, of course," she added hastily as Marie
opened her mouth, "but I think that any of the girls will understand
those.  I do myself; I simply need to teach them to settle their
differences quietly and with decorum."
     At that point, Teresa came back, and Jane got up again.  "Are you
ready to resume?" she asked, and the boy-girl nodded hesitantly.

     Tucker sighed, and smiled at Missy.  *Just what I needed, a
heart-to-heart after no sleep.  Still, I guess I'd rather she was still
talking to me instead of still talking to him.  I just wish I hadn't
argued with Charlene last night.  Wonder what set her off-*
     "Helloooooo?" Kayla called, and Tucker snapped back to processing
real-world input.  "Where do you keep going?"
     Tucker shrugged.  "Got a lot to think about, lately."
     Ellen snorted.  "Like what?"

     Debbie frowned as she read the latest email from Tucker.  "Dance?
Why is he going to a dance?"  *And who's he going with?*

     Tucker waved to the crowd of girls, and the associated guys that
had wandered up (not, thankfully, including David) as he walked towards
the BMW.  As he got close, he noticed Charlene sitting in the front seat
next to Marie.  She got out as he got within easy speaking distance.
"Whatsup?" he asked.
     "Tracy," Charlene started without any preamble, "asked if you
wanted to go skating today, she called the house and Jane was like
pissed, but she said we could go anyway, and to be back by four."
     "Four?!" Tucker said.  He checked his watch; 12:02.  *Oh boy oh boy
oh boy-*  "Can we go back to the house to get my stuff?"
     "Got it already," Charlene smirked, and pointed to the back seat.
     "Oh man oh man, thanks for talking to her," he said as he dove into
the back seat, checking what she'd brought.  Amazingly, she'd even
remembered helmets and something to change into.

     Julio sighed as Jane directed him on how to manage a fork daintily.
*I thought I knew how to eat properly,* he grumbled in his mind.  *I
wish she would leave me alone for a while.  Or that I was out with the
girls.*  It seemed horribly unfair that the two girls got to go out
while he was stuck here wearing stupid girl's clothes and doing his best
to act like a girl.  *She must hate men,* he decided, looking at Jane.

     "Bye Marie!" Valerie called and waved, so Charlie did the same
thing before turning back around to face the girls in front of him.
     "Oh man," Tracy said, with Pauline translating, "this place is so
cool, look it's got a low rail for grinds and everything-"
     "Grinds?" Charlie asked before he could stop himself, and of course
all the girls looked at him like he was incredibly stupid.

     Kim asked, "Who's Brad?" and grabbed another onion ring from Mike's
basket.
     Mike sighed.  "Remember, he was the one that ran into Julia's car
in the parking lot, but nobody would testify that he did?"  Kim nodded
warily.  "So, we decided he was way too immature to be driving around."
     Kim gaped at him, then whispered, "So you stole the engine out of
his car?"  Mike nodded modestly, and she began to hoot and bang the
table.  Mike and Jill exchanged evil grins.
     When Kim's mirth died down to giggles, Jill buffed her nails on her
jacket and added, "Oh, and since Frank Donner's car hasn't been replaced
yet-"
     "Something about the insurance expiring," Mike added.  He was very
glad that Tucker was his friend.
     "-we decided to give him a head start on building another one,"
Jill finished.  Kim exploded a second time.
     "The flowers were a nice touch," he told Jill, and she grinned back
at him.

     Tucker knew as soon as he jumped that it was going to end in a
crash, so he just pushed off the rail and relaxed as much as he could
before the impact.  THUD-scrrrrrape.  He was SO glad he'd gotten pads,
he decided as he slid to a stop.  Otherwise, at this point, he'd have
gone through all his flesh and been grinding his bones down.
     "Loser!" Jojo taunted as she succeeded at what he'd just bungled,
sliding along the rail for a couple of feet AND managing to dismount and
keep her feet when she lost her momentum.

     Julio sat down daintily, remembering this time to sweep the skirt
against his bottom as he sat so he wouldn't wrinkle the fabric.
     "Not too bad," Jane commented, and he winced.  "However, you need
to learn to do it with your head level and your back straighter."

     Tucker sighed and wiped his forehead.  He was getting pooped, and
from the looks of it, so was everyone else.  He was about to say
something when Pauline stopped, sighed, and announced, "I have had
enough of this for a while."
     "Me too," Tucker added.  "And I could use something to drink, too."
     There was general acclaim for the idea, so Tucker pulled his helmet
off, and undid the bandanna that he'd put on to keep the hair out of his
way.  "Whoooo," he breathed in relief as the breeze ruffled his hair and
cooled him off.

     Charlie was a little frightened to be going into some girl's house,
but he reasoned that he'd already done it, at Missy's party, and had
done alright then.
     Besides, there weren't going to be any boys around.  He hoped.
     And then he would be able to get out of the backseat of Pauline's
car.  It was rather crowded with six girls stuffed into it, even though
they'd stuffed the skating gear into the trunk, and apparently Pauline
really liked heavy bass on the music, which was threatening to give him
a headache really quickly.  And he was sweaty, and worried about his
B.O.
     All in all, the only thing that would have been worse was being
stuck at Jane's.

     Tucker was waiting his turn for the shower when Trish plopped down
next to him.  <So what happened Saturday?> she asked.
     Tucker sighed, and began to explain.

     Charlie had enjoyed the refreshing shower, and he'd even remembered
to bring fresh clothes for himself when he'd gotten Valerie's gear, but
he hadn't thought about makeup.  Now, he was stuck trying to put it on
with the 'help' of the rest of the girls.
     "You need to do your eyes more," Jojo commented.
     Charlie sighed, and asked, "Why?"
     Trish started signing, and Jojo translated, "'Because you have
beautiful eyes and you need to accent them more.'  Beautiful?" she
disputed, and she and Trish began a furious silent conversation.
     Charlie tried not to goggle at the deaf girl.

     Tucker came out the bathroom, clean and in almost-clean clothes, to
find Charlene staring at herself in the mirror, looking stunned.  Again.
He peeked over Jojo's shoulder and saw what everyone was looking at.
"Looks great!" he commented, and she wheeled towards him.
     "I, I, I look..."
     "Normal?" Tucker supplied.  He sort of expected it when Trish
smacked him in the head.
     <Your turn,> she said, and hands grabbed him and forced him down
into the chair.  He wasn't expecting that.

     They'd done Valerie in blue: blue eyeliner, blue eyeshadow, blue
nail polish on both ends, and somehow one of them had produced a royal
blue lipstick, which Valerie solemnly applied and smeared around.
     She looked in the mirror, sighed, slumped, and murmured, "But I
feel so depressed...."
     Pauline was the first one to get it, and she howled in complaint
and grabbed a pillow.  Charlie got it a second later, and couldn't see
any better thing to do than beat Valerie into a pulp himself, so he
grabbed for another one.

     Pauline glared at Tucker as she dumped the pillowcases into the
washing machine, along with all the towels they'd used after showering.
     "It's not my fault!" Tucker protested.  "I TOLD you not to hit me
in the face!  I mean, and RIGHT after we put all that makeup on me...
you should know better."
     "Shut UP," Pauline told him, and slammed the lid.

     <You're missing something,> Trish mentioned as she looked at
Valerie some more.  It was as good excuse to hit the mall as any.
     <What?> the girl asked.
     <Your clothes don't match,> she signed slowly.
     Valerie gaped at her, then began to laugh.

     "No, wait," Tucker complained as they pulled him through the mall
door in two different directions.  "I know just the place..."
     He led them to the Cotton Spott, where he remembered them having
a royal blue jumper that was perfect... and, wonder of wonders, found it
in a few minutes.  "See?" he said as he pulled it off the rack and
draped it over himself, twirling at the same time.
     There was a moment of respectful silence, then Trish began to
applaud.  They all joined in, of course, even Charlene, and Tucker
wondered what the other people in the store were thinking.  It was
obvious they had gotten their attention...
     "Shoes!" Jojo shouted.  "We need shoes!"
     There was a general motion towards the door, and Tucker complained,
"Wait, let me pay for this first!"

     "You look REALLY funky," Charlie mentioned to Valerie as they were
getting ready to go back to Jane's.  The only thing she was wearing that
WASN'T matching blue was a red blouse, which matched the red streak in
her hair.  They'd even smeared blue eye shadow over her cheeks in
imitation of blush.  The entire effect was unique, to say the least.
     "I know," she grinned.  "What do you think Jane'll say?"
     "No!" Charlie gasped.  "You're not..."  Of course she was.
     FLASH! went a bright light, and when he turned around, Pauline was
grinning and holding a Polaroid.  "I wouldn't want to forget THIS," she
snickered.
     "Wait!  Take more!" Valerie cried out, and thrust one hand on her
hip and twisted so outrageously that she almost lost her balance.
Amazingly, Pauline managed to fire off a shot when Valerie was at her
most off-balance.

     Trish was annoyed.  <Why can't we come in?>
     <Because,> Valerie sighed as she signed it, <the new girl doesn't
have visitor privileges yet, and Jane will eat my butt if I bring
someone in the house right now.>
     <Well, that's no fair!> Trish complained.
     <Life is like that,> Pauline commented, and Trish hit her on the
shoulder, not feeling in a philosophical mood at the moment.  Pauline
raised her arm to hit back, and Valerie got in between them.
     <Look,> signed Valerie, <just wait a while, and we'll make sure
she's a good girl, and then you can visit, okay?>
     Trish sighed, but there wasn't really anything else she could do
but agree.  No matter how much she hated it.
     "Besides," Charlene said as Valerie translated, "we'll take
pictures..."

     Jane looked up from instructing Teresa, and saw Charlene and....
     "Valerie!"
     "You like it?" the impish girl asked, and twirled on her feet to
display the fullness of her blue coating.
     Jane gasped, "What in GOD'S name have you DONE?"
     Charlene replied, in a completely serious voice, "She's been really
depressed lately," and the apparent non sequiteur threw Jane's mind off
track for quite some time.
     Then she got it.
     She wanted to be furious, but the laughter bubbled its way out
first, and she had to sit down before she fell.  Even the flash of a
camera bulb didn't diminish her incapacity.

     Tucker went up to his room to change for dinner with a light heart.
The prospect of having a visitor for dinner didn't bother him.  Even
Jane's demand that he wash all that blue off didn't bother him.
Although he was going to keep the polish on; he thought it would go well
with this other dress in his closet...

     Julio started at the knock on his door.  Charlene's voice called
out, "Are you decent?"
     "Uh, yeah," he called back, and she opened the door and came in.
     "I figured you'd be nervous about tonight, so I thought I'd come in
and help, if you wanted it," she offered.  Julio felt like kissing her.

     "Hey, girl," Tucker said to Charlene, "lookin' good tonight!"  She
was, too; she'd taken at least a hint of what the girls had showed her,
and she looked a little less like a painting from the fifties and a
little more like a modern woman.  Or teenager.
     "Thanks, you too," she replied, scanning him.  "Oh, no," she
sighed, "you kept the polish on?"
     "It goes with the dress," he pointed out.
     "Yeah, but..."  She sighed again.  "Well, we'll see what Jane does
to you this time."
     "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
     She shrugged, and smiled.  "Oh, by the way, you should see Teresa."
     "Why?"
     "She's really improved.  Come on, let me show you," she said, and
took Tucker's hand and dragged him along to Teresa's room.  She knocked,
and when the voice inside said something, she called, "It's Charlene,"
and opened the door.
     Teresa was wearing something in a light aqua, with cap sleeves and
a sort of W-shaped neckline, with a collar around the neck and the rest
filled in with chiffon, and of course the usual lace and satin
embellishments all over the place.  "Wow," Tucker said without meaning
to, and then decided that it would be best to keep this one in proper
Jane-approved durance vile.
     He crossed his arms, and leaned back a little, putting a skeptical
look on his face, and gazed over him.  He noticed Teresa getting red,
but didn't react.  Finally, he shrugged and admitted, "Not bad at all.
You've been working hard at this, I can tell."
     Before Teresa's outraged manhood could react to this like Tucker
knew it would if he left it alone, he grabbed the new kid and swept him
along with one hand on his rear end, being careful not to mush the satin
bow that was acting like a bustle.  "My God, you really have improved in
just a couple of days," he remarked, turning and leaning against him and
rubbing a little, breast against arm.  A little hiccup in Teresa's
breathing told him that Teresa, at least, hadn't yet figured out that
Tucker was sort of in the same boat he was.  "I would NEVER have
guessed, I really wouldn't.  Come on, let's go downstairs and wait,
okay?  Be sure not to mess up that pretty bow in back," he added, and
ran his hand down it.  He knew how HE would have reacted if Debbie had
done that to him, and he was glad to see that Teresa had a similar sort
of reaction.
     He thought, *This one has all the willpower of a turnip.*

     Julio shivered when Valerie leaned against him, apparently
unconsciously, and rubbed her breast against his arm.  Even though she
was still young and small, the effect on him was electrifying.  He
missed everything she said after that, trying to control his reactions,
and only began to move when she placed a hand on his rear end and gently
pulled him along.
     Her hand on his rear was almost worse.  Especially when it rubbed
along him.  Chills went up his spine and exploded along the rest of his
limbs when she did that, and he almost tripped.

     Tucker let go of Teresa's rear when they went to descend the
stairs, because it was a little too tricky to match pace with someone
who was still new to heels while going down.  As he was taking his own
careful steps, he thought of something and turned to Charlene.  "Do you
know who's coming?" he asked, careful to use the sort of phrasing Jane
wanted.
     Charlene shook her head, the curls bouncing as she began her
descent.  "I'm not sure.  I just hope it isn't-"
     "Edith White," they both groaned in unison.
     "Who's Edith White?" Teresa wanted to know.
     Tucker turned back to her, which was lucky because she had stopped
and he would have run into her otherwise, and replied, "Someone you'd
rather not meet, except you probably will in the next couple of weeks."
He shrugged, and refused to answer Teresa's questions.  "Anyway,
Charlene, do you want to get the door when whoever it is gets here, or
be bartender tonight?"
     "Um, door," she selected.

     Jane came into the parlor, finally ready after what seemed like an
eternity of gremlin-plagued mishaps, to find that everything was
apparently running smoothly.  Except, Charlene wasn't there, and Valerie
was, which was a reversal of what Jane had come to believe was the
inevitable order of things.
     In response to Jane's raised eyebrows, Valerie volunteered,
"Charlene is waiting by the door to answer it, and I will be serving
drinks when whoever it is gets here."  She smiled pleasantly, and asked,
"May I ask who it is?"
     Jane, distracted, said first, "A Manhattan, then, please, the
instructions are on the bar."  At Valerie's prompt movement, Jane sank
into a seat and felt as though she had time to think for a moment.  "As
for your other question, Robert is coming tonight.  You may remember him
from several weeks ago?"
     "Oh, yes," Valerie replied, smiling as she glanced at the
instruction card taped to the bar.  "I liked him."  Teresa shifted
nervously, the rustling attracting Jane's attention. "Is he single?"
Valerie asked, and Teresa literally flinched.
     "Valerie, he is twice your age for one thing, and I do not think
you are mature enough to be pursuing marriage at this point," her mouth
replied automatically, which kept her from having to repress the smile
she felt.  *I do not believe that she likes Teresa in the slightest...
I'm glad Charlene was willing to look after her.*
     "I have to start looking sometime, you know," Valerie mentioned
offhandedly, as though it had already been discussed in depth, and
gracefully glided over the carpet to bring Jane her drink.  She turned
and smiled at Teresa.  "Can I get you anything non-alcoholic, Teresa?"
She turned back to Jane and gushed, "Oh!  And did you see how our little
darling turned out tonight?  She is so PRECIOUS!"  Teresa flinched
again, and her eyes betrayed a wounded glance at Valerie.

     Bob was rather looking forward to a nice, 'civilized' evening with
Jane and her 'girls.'  The guys were a lot of fun, but every so often
her preferred to get away from them and enjoy an evening that wasn't
covered in dirt.
     When he knocked on the door, Charlene answered.  She looked radiant
tonight, in a dark rose gown that made her eyes look all the greener,
and he told her so.  She dipped in a mild curtsy and thanked him, and
led him to the parlor.

     Tucker hadn't known how much fun he could have flirting with a guy
while another one dressed like a girl was wanting to slide under the
table.
     Jane called him several times for going too far, but Tucker felt
like he was riding the wave anyway.  He kept flirting with Bob and
inserting little splinters of attention to Teresa, and every time he
did, she flinched.  Tucker almost got her to lose an entire forkful of
food down the front of her dress with one well-timed comment.  Charlene
was torn between laughing at Teresa and bitching at Tucker, he could
tell, but she couldn't make up her mind, and so Tucker's shins were
spared that time.
     "Valerie," Bob asked at one point, "I've been wondering all
evening; what did you do to your hair?"
     Valerie shrugged.  "Oh, I was a little tired of the blond," which
was a complete lie for Teresa's benefit, "and you know how everyone was
thinking Charlene and I were sisters?"
     "Mmmmm," he said, non-committally, which almost confirmed something
for Tucker.  He'd been ready to claim that his hair HAD been blond,
sometime after Bob's previous appearance, if Bob protested.  Since he
hadn't, it strongly suggested that he was in on Jane's plots, or at
least ready to not blow an obvious lie.  Tucker thought the former was
much more likely.
     "So," Tucker continued, "when the maintenance came due, I just
wanted to try something REALLY different, and I'd seen this two-tone
style somewhere," he still couldn't remember where, which bugged him,
"and I thought it looked... interesting," he finally found the right
word, "and Jane didn't argue."  Since she wasn't there at the time, it
was a lot easier, but he didn't mention that.
     "Mmmm hmmm," Bob said.
     Teresa was giving him another one of her bug-eyed looks, so he
stuck in, "I was wondering what it would look like on Teresa, if we did
something like that.  Maybe a blond/brown combination?"  Tucker was a
little disappointed that she hadn't been drinking something when he said
it, since he was sure he could have gotten her to snarf, but it was too
good to pass up.
     "I don't think so," Jane mentioned and Tucker thought, *Well,
that's the end of THAT topic.*
 
Copyright 1997-1999 Ellen Hayes, all rights reserved