“Smile!” A photographer exclaimed as Jennifer burst into a broad and forced grin, a pleasant one for the cameras that didn’t capture her true mood in the moment. In reality she was about as bitter and miserable as she possibly could be. People walked around in fancy dresses and she was no exception. Dressed up in a school mandated outfit to denote her as a student of St. Elsa’s. Other girls from other schools wore fine dresses as well and she kept being elbowed and jolsted by girls her exact age. Christmas trees loomed over the dance floor and teachers watched everyone with prying eyes. The headmistress kept shooting her glances and the look was enough to make Jennifer force a smile onto her face despite the intense cramping and pain wracking her nether regions. Why her first period had decided to come during a Christmas party was beyond her comprehension but it was there and her absurd belief that tampons caused relief was swiftly killed.
Jennifer had been forced to stay at St. Elsa’s over the Christmas holidays and instead of getting a break she was being forced into more studying, more practice, and excessive mingling with rich wankers who might donate money to the school. It had been announced to all the star students from Kara in grade twelve down to Abigail in grade three that they were staying. No call home, no call from home. Just an alleged break that was really just more class time. They’d been shuffled into a room together with a hypnotic board and been just expected to know this already. Jennifer had managed to avoid capture thanks to the headmistress clearly liking the high school girls more. Girls who were out of character and talking flirtily to rich guys who were looking at their chests in a perverted manner. Jennifer knew that one day she’d have to act like that else reveal she was immune to becoming one of their puppets.
The Headmistress kept walking up to Jennifer whenever the period cramps got bad and would say, “YellTeller,” to her. At first this confused Jennifer but after seeing it be said to other girls, acting as a reset button of sorts whenever the hypnosis wore off she’d do the same, pretending her cramps were nothing and trying to imagine what Lisa was doing at home while likely going through the same thing. Whatever her sister was doing she was definitely not in heels talking to old guys who clearly liked their girls young.
Her cramps didn’t cease though and eventually The Headmistress told her she could go to bed. Jennifer thanked her and quickly exited the party walking through fire doors and entering the empty and echoing hallways. She could finally remove the heels and free her feet from the loud clicking that filled the air. She became silent and stealthy. Her bare footfalls taking her silently through the halls as she cringed. She could only imagine how great the holidays would have been if she’d been sent home with Gardina and Lisa instead of here with her politician turned little sister and the rest of the brainwashed girls.
It was as she walked down the hall that she froze at the sound of voices and pressed herself tightly against the wall. Footsteps echoed voices chattered so distant that it took a full minute for Madame Criss and one of the men from the party to walk past. Except the man from the party was stumbling as if drunk. Jennifer cocked an eyebrow and looked left and right before she crept after them. The man’s way of talking was reminiscent of a man who’d been hypnotized and there was no doubt in Jennifer’s mind that he was. She followed at a distance expecting them to enter an office or large room but instead they entered a janitor’s closet that Jennifer hadn’t ever seen be opened before. She darted forward but it slammed shut in her face from momentum. She backed up after realizing it was locked and waited. Whatever Madame Criss was doing with the man it took roughly half an hour before they emerged lacking sweat and ruffling. She had to help the man so Jennifer was able to dart forward and catch the door with her foot. Had Madame Criss turned around she would have seen Jennifer there but she didn’t and Jennifer was able to slip into the Janitor’s closet unheeded. Immediately she was aware that it actually wasn’t a janitor’s closet. Firstly there was a metal grate under her feet she could vaguely see machine’s through, and secondly there was just a small false wall of janitor supplies so if anyone caught a peek inside from the outside they’d see it. But Jennifer was inside and she could see a metal staircase and that the room ended outside of the vision of the average student.
She wasted no time in walking down those metal steps, her bare feet making a plinking noise on them. Step by step she approached the bottom finding her eyes drawn towards a large machine and a control panel. Doors littered the walls and she drew herself up to the control panel while her eyes fell on a cheque sitting on the table. She picked it up and her eyes went wide at the sight of a chequebook filled to the brim with small transactions made towards the school from some rich bloke with no expiry date attached. Madame Criss must have brainwashed that guy out of his money. It was kind of sickening really. However her eyes drifted to the chamber names. There was a reconditioning chamber, a heavy hypnosis chamber, and a gender chamber. Jennifer just stopped at gender and her eyes lit up. She looked down at the control panel and found the controls for the room. She pressed open chamber and begin process without any hesitation and burst forward darting into the chamber as the door shut. Thoughts about turning back into a man whirled in her head as the chamber began to spin, flashing lights sparked on the walls, gas filled the entire room, and she sucked it in. Seconds passed, then minutes, then the entire process stopped and the gas cleared. Jennifer looked down to see that her body was still feminine, unchanged by anything. Her arms fell and a sigh escaped her lips as the door opened and a metallic voice announced that the process was complete.
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“-So I asked him why he thought i’d be bad at throwing snowballs and he said it was because I was a girl. Clearly a noob to the area. Everyone in the neighbourhood knows I throw the meanest snowballs, I don’t even have to use rocks or ice for them to throw...” Charlie explained while Lisa and Jodi giggled at her story. All four of them were on the floor with open bottles of nail polish. It was a girly activity to be sure but by this point it was just normal to sit on the floor and gossip about whatever while painting toenails and fingernails with pinks, reds, and grays.
Jennifer remained quiet during this. She didnt want to speak or comment. She was upset that she had found that hidden girlifying room, she was upset she had no clear answers to why this was happening, snd upset that by the looks of it people like Charlie we’re stuck as girls. Charlie had clearly been a boy into playing sports, running around with friends, and biking around the neighbourhood looking for bugs and weirdly shaped leaves. However it was slowly being eroded, whomever Charlie was just wouldn’t exist by the time they graduated. She would be a stock girly girl with no traces of being a boy left except a strange lack of baby pictures.
“Something wrong Jennifer?” Charlie asked snapping Jennifer out of her thoughts. She blinked and looked at Charlie before scratching the back of her head.
“Oh just... kind of didn’t get to go home for Christmas,” Jennifer replied, playing along with the reality the brainwashed star students believed. They’d had a great and relaxing Christmas instead of a busy one where they didn’t get any free time. She just forced a smile on and half heartedly joined the gossip realizing at that very moment that she was just like Charlie, trapped in a feminine body and slowly losing her old life to the new one. She was having a hard time remembering where she worked now. It was just a blur over in America now.
It was a few days later that they announced a field trip for the sixth years. Five years had gone by without a single trip out of the school but the second they hit sixth year they were off to a museum, factory, or parliament building every other week. They were handed school mandated backpacks and had to dress in their finest while they wandered the halls of government offices or the like. However once in a while they went somewhere fun that definitely had a ulterior motive. A trip to a beachfront had been filled with fun and sand but later anyone who spent the hours alone was sent to a brainwashing chamber with another girl and they’d emerge as best friends. This had happened to Jennifer and Charlie and now Charlie told her everything while slowly growing to be the domineering member of the friendship. She was the one who came up with ideas or started conversations. Jennifer was fine with that as she’d be caught if somehow she was expected to engage Charlie.
This latest trip to a ski resort was somewhat reminiscent of this. The entire school knew what the price and joy of the school was when it came to sports teams. The skiing team was championship winners for fifty years running and the trip to the ski hill was watched by teachers who paid the utmost attention to the girls that demonstrated the best skiing abilities. Charlie stood next to Jennifer talking about how she’d never done this before while everyone was handed out uniforms that looked as if a fashion designer had been given the task to create ski jackets and hats in the style of the school. They then got skis and were forced up the hill. Jennifer cringed the entire time knowing what was coming. They got to the top of the hill and while cold wind whipped in their faces girls took off down the hill very clumsily and very awkwardly but Jennifer knew she wouldn’t be the same. Something from her old life. She had been a weekend skier, planning trips to mountains and priding both her skis and snowboard over many other things. She and Tucker had raced down the hill to try and impress Tristin and she knew that no matter how badly she fluked this run she would still be considered a natural. She pulled her goggles down and breathed in and out knowing she could at least enjoy this one run before her skiing was corrupted by the staff of St. Elsa’s.
She and Charlie took off at roughly the same time. Charlie stumbled and fell and so did she but the second she got back up she got a feeling for her weight and left Charlie far behind her. She zipped down the powder leaving a trail of ice and snow kicked up behind her. A grin spread across her face as the familiar joy of rushing down the mountain emerged. She swept past trees, expertly handled moguls laid out, and even went off a few low jumps set up. She landed clumsily but remained standing. She zipped down the hill and slid to a halt in front of Madame Criss who grinned and scrawled something out on a page. Charlie showed up not long after and Jennifer went for a few more runs getting more familiar with her weight and height each time. The teachers sat up front on the bus ride home clearly discussing her skill and shooting looks at her as well. Jennifer knew she’d be on the perfectionist ski team next year without a doubt but she didn’t expect results so soon.
The very next weekend Jennifer was spirited away to a ski hill with Miss Rita and put on the hill. However much to her shock Charlie was brought along, though clearly fresh off a hypnosis. Charlie smiled rather dumbly and wavered back and forth on the car ride but once they got to the hill Charlie started talking about how to control the skis like she was an expert. However knowledge didn’t translate into skill and Charlie tumbled down the hill more times that Jennifer could count. She was getting better but it was clear that she had been brainwashed to take an interest in skiing. Jennifer had no idea why but she was certain she’d find out as suddenly ski trips became one of Charlie’s favourite things like she was nostalgic for them. It weirded Jennifer out but she didn’t complain because for once the perfectionist teachings of the staff were over something Jennifer actually enjoyed.