Wildcat Fall [NEW] Chapter 7

Dear Readers, This is an apology and an explanation. I started Wildcat Fall earlier this year and realized it wasn't the story I wanted to tell. Here is a newly written chapter that integrates with the core of the original Wildcat Fall. This is the continuing saga. I would appreciate any feedback. Constructive criticism is important to me as I am rewriting this story. Thanks.
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New Chapter Seven 4016

In the afternoon, everyone met Teri’s surgeon, Sydney Rallings. She shook hands and smiled. “It’s nice to see the faces of the women we’ve been listening to in the operating room. We love your music. It keeps us energized. But now give us a few minutes with the patient. Robyn and I need to examine Teri and then meet with Jenn and Amy.”

Teri watched as everyone lined up and left. Then, the doctor looked around and focused on her. “Your surgery went well enough to do your surgery robotically. You’ll see three spots under the bandages where we made the entry. In your case, we examined your existing internal female organs. After studying your MRIs, X-rays, and CT scans, it was great to find a very healthy set of ovaries that we were able to connect to your newly constructed vagina. We used a small portion of your stomach lining, making the operation straightforward. Using this technique means that you’ll heal faster and possibly self-lubricate. And since Jenn is going to be your home care provider and Amy is a surgical nurse, please stay.”

Teri watched as miles of gauze and tape were removed. She couldn’t feel anything except for the occasional tug or pinch. It was strange to observe and imagine herself giving birth to a boa constrictor. And then there was the smell. “This is kinda gross, isn't it?” Teri looked up at the doctor.

“Well, I’m used to it. Compared to a surgical inversion and deconstruction, this was a piece of cake. The fact that you’re intersex made this a simpler procedure. We did have to move your urethra and snug all the new material into place, but your recovery should be faster.”

As the doctor left, Teri started crying. She didn’t know why.

The last day was a blur. Jenn and Amy helped Teri pack. Jenn found her a comfortable outfit for the ride home and Conor waited in the parking lot to drive them home.

Her doctor had warned her that the surgical area would itch and talked about UTIs. As she was leaving, Robyn handed her a box containing the same dilators she’d been taught how to use that week.

Jenn had leaned in and whispered, “Your first sex toy.”

Robin and Julia gave her a wheelchair ride down to the lobby. After many hugs and thanks, Jenn handed Teri two small gift boxes to give to her nurses. Teri glanced at Jenn, then she said to the nurses, “We want you to open them.”

Everyone watched both nurses unwrap the robin egg blue paper to see a square box with the name Tiffany imprinted on the top. Inside was a gold bead bracelet with a carved ruby heart charm. They thanked Jenn and Teri and promised to listen to the Wildcats.

As Amy was slipping an inflated donut cushion under her seat, Teri turned to Jenn. “Thank you for getting those gifts. You’re ten steps ahead of me.”

Jenn kissed her tenderly. “You’re welcome. You’ll be getting back to normal soon.”

Teri smiled. “I’m looking forward to sleeping without being woken every two hours.”

Amy buckled her youngest daughter into Conor’s big four-door pickup. “I’m hoping that you’re comfortable tonight.”

Teri kissed her back. “Thanks, Mom. I’m thinking about practicing driving so I can commute to Allentown to work at the band house each day.”

Amy’s head swiveled around. “Practice driving? Let’s discuss this when the doctor clears you, okay?”

Teri looked at her mom and nodded.

Jenn was smiling. “We’ll be getting her back to the band house soon. And after we work the kinks out of my schedule, I’ll be staying in Allentown, too. I’ll study out in the country, and we can use our apartment whenever we need it.”

Conor looked up at Jenn. “You’ll miss out on a lot of college life if you’re hiding in Allentown while Teri works.”

Jenn nodded. “I have the best of both worlds. And it doesn’t hurt having a rock star for a girlfriend!”

Teri laughed. “So I am officially the rich girlfriend, huh?”

Jenn smiled. “The whole time you toured, videos were posted every week on the Wildcat’s YouTube channel. Everyone’s been watching the band on Instagram and TikTok. Before long, you’ll be signing autographs.”

Teri frowned. “I hope not. I’d gladly leave the fame behind. The other Wildcats can have the paparazzi all to themselves. One stalker was enough.”

As they unloaded everything and carried it into the elevator, Teri leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Jenn whispered. “How about if you just lie down and rest. You’re not used to all this.”

“Well, I’ve been resting for days.” Teri kissed her mom and hugged Conor, thanking them for their help. Then, Teri let Jenn help her back to their bedroom.

Around five o’clock, Jenn got a text from Gina and gently shook Teri awake. “Hey, Rock Star. Grace and Gina are coming over and bringing dinner with them. Maybe it would be fun to go up on the rooftop deck. What do you think?”

Teri smiled at the thought of seeing Grace. “Yeah, great idea. I need to wash and brush. Hopefully, we’ll find a little privacy up there. That deck is pretty cool, and I’m sure more than one condo will want to use it tonight.”

“Gina said they’d go straight to the roof and save a spot for us.”

After showering, Teri sat on her inflated donut and worked on her hair and makeup. She was still tired, but could smile now that the hospital was behind her.

When she put on her underwear, Teri had to tug everything into place. She turned to Jenn. “I’m getting fat. Even my underwear are tight.”

Jenn came over to investigate. “I’m guessing you’ve retained fluids from lying down.”

“Yeah. I’ve got to start running again. On tour, Tiffany had us out every morning for an hour. I’ve got to start moving.”

Jenn frowned. “Just take it slowly. I don’t want to see you mess up your recovery.” She kissed her, then held up a colorful peasant dress.

Teri kissed her after looking in the mirror. “That’s great. But I feel like my boobs and ass are huge.”

As they rode the elevator up to the roof, Jenn slid her hand over her girlfriend’s butt. “I can’t tell. But you feel good.”

Everyone watched Teri come through the rooftop door and, with a lot of cheering, yelled, “Welcome Home!”. One by one, they showered her with hugs.

Teri was amazed to see Jessica and Mac, Richard and Phil, Robert from the club, DJ Blank and his beautiful new girlfriend, Fiona, Lisa and Smith, Tiffany and Mike, Zoe and Bruno, and finally Amy and Conor. Teri’s emotions got higher with every hug and kiss.

Teri spotted Phil and Richard. “I can’t wait to play my new vinyl on the stereo!” She paused for emphasis, then turned to Phil. “And I really want to record some new material. Having to stay in the hospital for a week was tough because my brain kept coming up with new songs and lyrics for the band. I wrote up everything, and I can’t wait to get back to work.”

Phil glanced at Richard and smiled. Richard turned to Teri. “Uh, you’re supposed to take it easy, doctor’s orders. But just so you know, we had a gentleman’s wager that you’d be writing new material for another album when you were still in recovery. We figured that you could never just sit still.”

Teri smiled. “And what did you bet?”

Phil blushed. “I’m not going to tell you, but I won.”

Richard grinned. “It’s the kind of bet that we both come out winners.”

Teri blushed, too. “This sounds like an X-rated bet that I’m not old enough to visualize.”

Teri hugged them both. “I still can’t believe how everything happened so fast. Last year, I was worried about paying for a semester of music school, and now I can afford to start my own scholarship program.”

Richard smiled. “Your financial advisor should be able to offer you ways to invest and put that money away. Fame is fleeting.”

As they walked away, Teri shook her head. So much had changed in such a short time. It was crazy.

“Hi!”

Teri recognized a familiar voice. She turned and hugged Grace. “Oh, Grace, I’m so happy to see you. I missed our Thursdays.”

Grace frowned. “Are you okay?”

Teri laughed and squeezed her tightly. “I’m great. But I just wanted to hear your voice, and well, see your smile.

Grace smiled. “I’m just glad that you made it through the surgery and came out on the other side with a positive attitude. That’s reward enough for me.”

Gina appeared and stood there grinning from ear to ear. She looked at Grace and started telling a story. “Okay, Little. Since this is a love-in, I have to share. A long time ago, when you first joined the Cats, I asked Grace what she thought was going to happen to you. You know, back then, you were disguising yourself as Tasha and trying to work through trying to fit in with the Cats. Of course, we didn’t know about your intersex diagnosis. I was wondering where the Tasha masquerade was going to take you. I told Grace I believed you were female from the start. You were just too beautiful and always got my motor running.”

Teri laughed. “Oh, I remember going through a lot of confusion. I was dressing up as a woman and trying to play the part. It was crazy. Jenn seemed to like Tasha and enjoyed watching her play in the Wildcats. I loved what was happening, but felt a lot of guilt. I mean, seriously, what guy should feel happy about pretending to be female? And then finding out that I was intersex totally sent me down a rabbit hole!”

Gina nodded.

“Yeah. My life’s been like one of those video games where everything changes, and you still have to keep completing the quest.”

Gina hugged her. “You got it right. You’re on a never-ending journey.”

Teri turned to Grace. “Isn’t that what life’s all about? I try to have control, but it's like riding a tornado, hanging on for your life.”

Grace agreed. “You’ve been through a lot and worked hard to handle it. I think you’ve been doing a masterful job of keeping your head above water.”

“Uh-huh. Having the Wildcats blow up so quickly and everything we do seems to turn to gold.”

Gina shook her head. “Face it, babe. You’re a wizard. You are magic. But tell Grace about your Vampire love opera.”

Grace laughed. “Do tell. I love to hear where your imagination goes.

Teri smiled. “It’s my take on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. They’re both Vampires from different clans. And when they fall in love, it starts a lot of friction.”

Gina laughed. “Uh-huh. Teri’s light-years ahead in planning for our future. And this month, she’s creating and producing a Christmas record for Beyoncé and Taylor Swift that has to be done before December 1st.”

Grace shook her head. “So you have the other half of September, October, and November to wrestle this project together for the world’s biggest superstars.”

Teri laughed and covered her mouth. “And the whole thing has to be done in complete secrecy.”

Grace shook her head and turned to Gina. “What do you think about all of this?”

Gina laughed. “Hey, we're just riding our Little Shit’s rocket. The rest of us spent four years touring every dive bar and small club playing music every night. We could only dream about what’s happening to us now.”

Smith stood there, looking around at the party and listening to Gina, Grace, and Teri discuss how the Cats had become so popular. He knew from experience that they had a lot more excitment ahead of them. “Yeah, I know that I’m ancient history, but twelve years ago, when EBR left high school, we were content to just play in Texas. Back then, that was enough for a four-piece punk band. We never knew that everything would explode and take off either. A year later, we were in demand and needed a manager just to keep track of the bookings and handle all our money.”

Smith frowned. “But after three years of fame and fortune, we stopped talking to each other. When we broke up, none of us wanted to see each other for a long while. Eaten By Raptors had rocketed up into the stratosphere but burned up on reentry.”

Teri was nodding. “Yeah, but the reunited EBR is coming back hot and strong. You’ve got a new record. You’ve got set lists to perform, mixing new arrangements of your old hits.”

Gina was smiling. “When we were eighteen, we did our own bookings, and for four years, we took every gig we were offered. No one was seeking us out, so we learned the hard way about self-promotion. We played at any joint that would pay us. It was us against the world. It made us strong because we loved what we did.”

“Yeah, you guys never realized how good that was. EBR lost control and became wind-up robots. We never knew where we were and just went on stage playing the same stuff over and over again. Whenever we had a new song, the producers had to decide if it fit our image before we were even allowed to play it.”

Gina shook her head. “You guys were manipulated, while the Cats became tighter. We thought we were record-worthy and never understood why it never happened. But after four years of dragging around playing our music, we were butting our heads against the walls. We were tired.”

Tiffany hugged Gina. “But when Teri rehearsed her original songs and played with us for a weekend at the Rendezvous, Richard and Phil came down from New York. They knew Teri was the missing piece.”

Smith shook his head. “Yeah, you guys took it slow and got it right. When we began to blow up, we were blindsided. Our manager walked away,
so when our music climbed the Billboard charts, we couldn’t handle it. A record company signed us to this terrible contract. They owned us. They made the real money, and we did all the work. You've had it so differently.”

Smith smiled. “We got lucky. We’d signed a one-record deal, and they wanted more. Another lead singer told me that we needed to include all our masters in the new deal. I honestly didn’t know what he was even talking about. But we did, and are still making money when our music is played.”

Gina was nodding. “Right. We had Richard and Phil in our corner, and they’re still watching out for us.”

Smith smiled. “It works because Teri has no desire to be the boss. There are no ego clashes. Teri’s the most diplomatic writer, producer, and musician I’ve ever known.”

Smith was grinning. “One day, we’re playing a rock club in Austin, and the next, we’re reading all this stuff about us in Tiger Beat. We couldn’t stop laughing after seeing our faces on school lunch boxes.”

Lisa patted her boyfriend on the back. “Well, I know two Wildcats that each had one of those lunchboxes and still get all wet thinking of EBR, a band of eighteen-year-old hunky guys. I know that Eaten influenced them to become punk rockers.”

Teri was laughing. “It’s hard to think of Zoe and Tiffany as impressionable teenyboppers.”

Lisa shook her head. “I met them when we were in high school and on the same varsity volleyball team. But they still played EBR tunes while we drilled and practiced.”

Smith nodded. “Once we finished our three-record deal, we didn’t want to be Eaten By Raptors anymore. We each felt isolated and alone. No one reached out to help us.”

Lisa pointed her finger. “We’ve been so lucky. We’ve had great people offering us help.”

Teri smiled. “Did you ever wonder why they love us so much? Is this like a reverse sexism thing, where it’s good for everyone to support beautiful women playing rock?”

Lisa hugged her sister. “Well, that would be a big turnabout. We’d had record companies tell us that we didn’t fit their profile. We’ve been turned down. They were saying girl bands don’t sell albums. And then Teri came up with the idea to sell online from our own site. But it’s cool, little sister, to finally see that you’re lumping yourself in as a beautiful woman. I like your show of confidence.”

Teri blushed. “Well, kinda. I mean, I’m not fishing for compliments, and maybe I don’t hold a candle to the rest of you, but I do kinda blend in. I still think it’s weird to have morphed into who I’ve become. But it’s okay.”

Smith laughed. “Stop, Teri. You’re just as beautiful as the rest of the Cats except for maybe…”

Lisa had already made a fist and was winding up.

Smith stepped back out of reach as he snapped his fingers. “Yeah, you know that blonde lead singer, whatshername? Now she’s a fox!”

Teri watched, then turned to her sister. “You know, I noticed that you like to smack Smith a lot. I mean, you don’t hold back.”

Lisa smiled as she pulled her boyfriend into her arms and kissed him. “'Cause he’s just so darn cute. And honestly, he’s fun to punch! Kinda like sex.”

Teri hugged her sister. “Hey! Speaking of that, I haven’t asked yet. How was Nashville? You guys start any babies?”

Teri had to laugh when she saw her sister and Smith suddenly look at each other and blush. She realized that her comment had pushed a button. Knowing she was suddenly in on their secret, she smiled and said in a hushed voice, “Hey, did I guess right? Are you pregnant?”

Lisa shook her head vigorously as she grabbed Teri by the arms. “No, no babies. But we’ve talked, and it’s out on the table. But we’re still talking, not starting.”

Teri was smirking. “Yeah, that’s what Mom calls the Zoe effect. She thinks Zoe’s baby is going to create an avalanche with you and Tiff. She said something about needing a nursery for the European tour.”

Lisa laughed. “I can picture tiny little tots with tiny little passports.”

Smith frowned. “And cases and cases of diapers. We’ll need a box truck just to carry all the paraphernalia: the strollers, the playpen, the rockers, cribs, and so many toys. All those babies, too much!”

Teri smiled. “Smith, you seem pretty familiar with all that baby business. Do you have a secret family you’re not talking about?”

Smith looked pained as he shook his head and looked towards Lisa with a big grin. “No, not yet. But I’ve got eyes, and my band guys all have big families. But the Zoe Effect is a great idea. If we’re going to take care of one, why not three? These junior Wildcats can grow up together.”

Tiffany poked her head in and laughed. “Mike will have a heart attack when I tell him we’re getting pregnant. I’m already driving him crazy being around him twenty-four-seven this month.”

Teri shook her head. “Nah. The guy is in seventh heaven, having you ‘sexing’ him up all the time. He’s loving it.”

Tiffany grabbed Teri and kissed her hard on the lips. “Nah, the little shit is right. I’m turning Mike into an old man with my demands. I never realized that once I opened that spigot, I couldn’t shut it off. Maybe all those years on tour left me with my needs unfulfilled. So now I’m filling up that tank.”

Mike came up and squeezed her. “Uh-huh. She’s got the libido of a nineteen-year-old boy. But I’m having fun trying to keep up.”

Lisa turned to Mike. “You missed the conversation. Tiff and I decided to both get preggers and have three little Wildcats go out with us for our European tour.”

Mike’s eyes widened. “Oh.” He turned to Tiffany and watched her nod.

Teri was impressed by his recovery when Mike said, “Uh, sure. I’m up for that.” He turned to Tiffany and said, “So we can throw the protection out and just knock a few out of the ballpark tonight, huh?”

Smith stared at Lisa. He grinned. “I guess this old man is in, too.”

Teri howled. “And just like that, peer pressure wins. Just don’t tell Jenn. She had this crazy notion a while back to be a teen mom. I think she’s forgotten all about that.”

Suddenly, Jenn called out from near the food tables. “No, Teri Nelson. I haven’t forgotten. I figured if I could go to school and nurse you back to health, then I could take care of an infant.”

Smith shook his head. “How's that possible? I mean, you’re both women.”

Gina laughed. “Hey, cowboy. Wait until you hear Jenn’s plan.”

“We’ll use the same sperm bank donor who contributed to Lisa and Teri. The baby would use the same sperm that fertilized Amy, and our baby would genetically be linked to both of us. You know, there’d be some of Teri’s genetic background fertilizing my egg, and I’d be hatching it inside my body.”

Smith paused to digest what Jenn had said. Then he stared at Jenn. “That’s crazy genius.” He then turned to Lisa. “I never heard this story before. Now I have even more respect for your mom and know where you get all your independence from.”

Lisa kissed him and then turned to her sister. “We’ve gotta work on finding out who our sperm donor guy is. You know, track him down and see what makes him tick. Even though he doesn’t know we exist, he’s still our baby daddy.”

Teri shook her head. “Nah. That’s wrong. Baby daddies are there, you know, present. This guy has no idea where his sperm went. But I agree. We need to find a private detective who can be discreet and reliable. I don’t want to find our guy and suddenly introduce him to the family. I grew up just with a mom and did just fine.”

Smith shook his head. “Yeah. You don’t need the scandal sheets suddenly connecting this guy with the two of you and the Wildcats. I can’t see any good coming out of it unless it’s for medical reasons. You know, hereditary deficiencies and that kind of stuff.”

Teri looked at them. “Do you think that his sperm caused me to be intersex? Is this all genetic? Will our baby be all right?”

Grace was nodding. “I think that bears some research. Lisa has no genetic problems, but it would be a shame if this guy’s DNA produces problems.”

Lisa was smiling. “All the more reason to find a good detective, you know, one who is great and can keep it all hush-hush. Of course, we’d always worry about whether some guy could be trusted not to spill the beans.”

Teri laughed. “A guy, huh? How about a Super Woman to do the job?”

Lisa blushed. “Oh, my gosh. I never thought of Jessica Jade helping us out.”

Jessica hugged Lisa. “I heard the conversation and would be happy to track him down. If he’s a bad guy, we can arrange to make him disappear, right, Teri?”

Teri's eyes grew wide. “Uh, no. We aren’t going to go all Ninja on him. But maybe some long-distance watching. I guess it all depends. But can we keep ourselves out of all of this? I don’t want another stalker.”