I had been sitting outside for nearly seven hours. They were an hour late. I had moved from my spot on the porch to sitting under the tree in front of the house, so bored, that I was reading some Aristotle book that I didn't understand. I finally gave up on it and put the book over my eyes, since at that same moment, a ray of sun was shining through the leaves on the tree and right into my left eye.
I heard a car drive by, but I didn't think anything of it, I was in Boston after all. The next thing I heard is what caught my attention. "Hey Angel Baby!" The book slid off my face as Mimi practically jumped on me. I didn't mind. I had missed them all so much. I threw my arms around her as Maureen added herself to the hug.
"You have no idea how much I missed you guys." Mimi pulled me up as Mark got out of the car, his camera already held up to his eye and aiming at me. He looked at me through the camera, but lowered it, giving me a weird look. "What?"
He cocked his head to the side. "You look kind of like a guy."
Roger got out of the car, guitar in hand, and smiled at me. "Kind of? She's in pants. Wait, should we call you a he?"
"You don't have to, unless it makes you uncomfortable to call me a she." I gave Roger a hug and kissed him on the cheek. His body got stiff for a moment, but then he smiled and wrapped his free arm around me.
With that, Mark's camera was back up and running. "The new Angel and Collins life style. I will not call it improved, since I find nothing wrong with the way they were before."
I spent the next hour getting them situated in the house, showing them where everything was, and settling an argument over where everyone would sleep. So it was an hour later, Collins had one more hour or school before he would be home, and we were all sitting in a circle under the tree. I had my back to the tree, and Mimi was lying on her back with her head in my lap. Maureen was trying to get us involved in her new protest, which we all backed out of except Joanne, who offered helpful grammar and punctuation tips. Roger was fiddling with his guitar and eating a box of Cap'n Crunch, and Mark was putting new film into his camera.
I began stroking Mimi's hair, and she smiled up at me. "You're not coming home are you?"
"Not that I know of. At least not yet. And it's not that bad here. Except for the lack of you guys."
"And your favorite clothes."
"Ya, that too, but I see you guys took care of that for me, didn't you?"
Everyone suddenly looked at Mark, who stared even harder at his camera. The girls started laughing, but Roger punched Mark in the arm. "Dude! You said you burned all those pictures!"
Mark rubbed his arm. "I did burn them. Most of them." Mark looked up at me. "So I'm gonna need copies of the ones I sent you."
"Well, Collins has the one of all of you sitting in his office, and the rest are in my photo album, so I'll get them later." Roger looked mortified at the fact that the photo was out of my site, so Mimi threw a handful of cereal at him and he calmed down.
A flood of students came out of the school. Classes were out for spring break, and the students were wasting no time in getting away. A group of boys, the same group that had teased me a week before, walked by. The same boy who had done the talking, his name turned out to be Paul, stared at me with daggers. "Looks like the fag found some friends."
Mark's camera, with new film, flew up and focused on Paul's face. Roger jumped up, fists balled, but Mimi jumped after him and pulled him back. Where Roger would have punched the guy in the face, Mimi slapped him. "Who are you calling a fag? Better not be my Angel." She grabbed his collar. "Was it?"
I waved my hand. "Don't even bother Mimi, he's done it twice before."
She didn't care. "Take it back!"
He was obviously scared of Mimi, which I liked, but he stood his ground. "I'm not apologizing to some homo."
Roger went back to the guy and lifted him off the ground by his collar and pulled him to me. I stood up, just because I wouldn't have been able to see his face if I was sitting. Roger shook him. "Say you're sorry!"
"No!"
Joanne stood up very calmly, with Maureen still draped over her, and looked the boy in the eyes. "Hi, Joanne Jefferson. I'm a lawyer, and we have here a perfect case to sue you for verbal harassment, and we have it on tape. There is no judge in the country that would not agree that you are guilty of this crime. Would you like to apologize, or shall we take this to court?" Maureen stuck her tongue out at him
Paul rolled his eyes, causing Roger to shake him. "Fine. I'm sorry."
Roger dropped him. "Now you better get going."
He rejoined his group in a huff and began walking away, when the one boy in the group who had been nice to me turned back, smiled, and waved. "Bye Angel!"
I waved. "Bye Brian!"
Collins walked out of the school, and waved to us. Mark filmed him, and Roger and Mimi waved. Joanne and Maureen went back to kissing.
Mimi laid back down on my lap. "That happens to you a lot?"
"Not a lot, a lot. Just sometimes."
Roger sat back down, still in a huff. "If anyone else does that while I'm here, I'm gonna hit them."
Collins sat beside me, lifting Mimi's legs onto his lap, since that is the only place to sit, and Mimi clearly is not moving on her own. "If anyone does what?"
I gave his a quick kiss and I gave the rest of the group a glance, telling them not to say a word. "Nothing. We were just waiting for you."
"How was the trip?" Collins reached his hand out for the cereal, which Mark handed him.
"It would have been better if certain people were quieter."
Maureen sat up and glared at him. "It's not my fault that the toll booth prices are preposterous. Everyone needs to know that they should not pay them, and I'm going to be the one to tell them!"
Collins held up his hand, telling everyone to stop the arguing. "We all know what this can turn into, so let's just stop here."
We sat for just a moment, letting the silence sink in, when it suddenly began to rain. All the men, and Joanne, ran up to the porch. Maureen and Mimi started dancing in the rain, and when I tried to run up to the porch, Mimi grabbed my hand and made me dance with her. At first I pushed away. "Mimi! You're gonna ruin my shirt!" But she didn't let go, so I danced. Me, Mimi, Maureen, and eventually Roger, danced while Mark filmed us. We were forced to go inside when Maureen's drenched white shirk got one too many looks for Joanne's taste. We are pulled back into the house, where I hook my arms around Collins, trying to soak him, but he stops me by tickling me.
We eventually get dried off and were all lying in the living room at different angles. I was upside down with my legs hooked over the back of the couch, Collins was upright on one side of me, and Roger was lying with his head on my chest and his legs draped over the arm. Mimi was lying across all of us, with her head resting on Rogers shoulder. Joanne was sitting in a chair on the side, with Maureen at her feet, and Mark beside her, as they went over some kind of protest thing.
I began flicking popcorn at Maureen, but she kept catching it in her mouth, so I don't bother anymore. I hung my head limp over the couch and glanced around at everyone. "I'm bored."
For some reason, Mimi and Maureen both sat up at the same moment, Maureen knocking Mark in the head, and Mimi elbowing me in the gut, causing my to do a flip off the couch. Mark helped me stand up, and Mimi started apologizing.
"What did you too both jump for?"
Maureen grabbed my hand and started jumping. "Because we have something for you."
Mimi grabbed my other hand. "And Joanne said we could only give it to you if you said you were bored."
"Cause otherwise it would be medaling."
"And that's not what we're doing. We're only having fun."
"You ready?"
My glance shot from one to the other, and to Joanne. She was smiling at me, so I knew it wasn't a bad surprise. "Okay." They pulled my into my room and pushed me to sit on the bed. Mimi sat behind me and covered my eyes, while Maureen began rifling through her clothes.
I could hear rummaging and then a zipper, and when Mimi uncovered my eyes, Maureen was standing in front of me, with a wig in one hand, a shirt balanced against her chest, and a skirt in the other hand. Mimi hugged me from behind, and Maureen started shaking from excitement. "Go get dressed. We're taking you out!"
I must have smiled my biggest smile ever at that point, which with all the smiling I do, must be pretty big, but I still had a smidge of doubt. "I'm not allowed to dress up."
Maureen scoffed at me. "That's only on campus you said."
I could fell my smile grow. "But where would we go?"
"Don't worry, we did our research. Or actually, Mark and Joanne did our research. Now get dressed!" Maureen threw the clothes at me and walked out of the room, closely followed by Mimi.
I picked up the clothes and got dressed, loving the feeling of being in a skirt again after all this time. It had been nearly three months since I'd worn a skirt. They had picked out my favorite outfit too; an orange and yellow long-sleeved shirt with a green vest over it, a white shirt with colored flowers on it, zebra striped tights, black platforms, and my black bob wig. I felt so glamorous! I stood in front of the mirror, twirling. Ohh, I missed this.
I twirled one last time in front of the mirror and opened the door to the living room, walking out very casually. Roger and Mark clapped, and the girls made 'oooh' and 'aww' sounds. Collins stood up and lifted me in the air, spinning me around. "You look amazing."
Once he sat me down, I did a courtesy. "Thank you!" I hugged Mimi and Maureen. "And thanks you guys!"
"We knew you would!"
"And Joanne didn't want us to give it to you."
Joanne sat up defensively. "That's not what I said. I said I didn't want you to interfere if she was comfortably settled in."
Maureen sat up too, matching Joanne's posture. "That sounds the same to me!" She leaned back against Mark's leg with a seductive smile, though she never took her eyes from Joanne. "You believe me, don't you Marky?"
Joanne sat back in her chair with an exasperated sigh. You could see the smile forming on Marks face, but Roger pulled Mark away by the back of the collar. "Dude, you need a girl friend, badly."
Mark straightened out his collar and sat back down, in another chair, away from Maureen. The blush started riding in his cheeks, so he looked down and began polishing his camera. The task he always took up when trying to avoided other people's glances.
I stood up and grabbed Marks hand, pulling him up. "Come on Mark. Let's go do something."
Collins came up behind me and hugged me. "No use wasting how gorgeous you are on staying here."
I cupped my hands over his, which were still wrapped around my waist. "That's true." I pulled away and turned to the rest of the group. "So, where are we going?"
