Maxine continues to mature and an appropriate job finds her.

There are key moments in everyone’s life that determine their future. They lie in one’s memory and emerge when other major events occur and this way they influence forthcoming life. Sometimes they seem negligible and are ignored by others while others that seem to be significant are just a consequences of a series of decisions made years ago. Those are not pleasant or sweet in most cases though they force me to go back and relive them again and again. Thus I can write only ‘bout my memories ‘cause only I and nobody else can know what moments are really key moments.

“Happy birthday dear teenager…” Mum yells in my ear, startling me into awakeness as the sun streams through my bedroom window. “Happy birthday to you!”

“Mum!” I tiredly moan into my pillow. “What time is it?”

“8am,” mum says. “Which means that you’ve only been thirteen for 8 hours and already you’re acting like a stereotypical teenaged girl!” I chuckle as mum whips the covers off of my nightie-covered body and dumps a LOT of presents besides my hairless legs.

“Stop crying!” The middle-aged man barks as the electric clippers shear my head clean of the hair I’d been growing over the last twelve months. I gulp and blink my eyes, but as lock after lock of light blonde hair tumbles in front of my face, I can’t control my emotions. My life, just my hair, is tumbling down in front of me.

Once the haircut is complete, I look at myself in the mirror and I want to scream. Looking back at me is undoubtedly the face of a pre-teen boy. A pre-teen boy with a cute face, but a boy nonetheless.

Swishy in Satin: A TG Mixed Tape

A sextet of stories from six very different authors. Hit play on July’s Mixed Tape flash fiction collection for sea-creatures, sexy transformations, an interview with Amy Komori AND MORE!

“Project more!” Mrs. Ingram urges me. “We want to be able to hear you all the way at the back of the class!”

“I will never let you manipulate me into taking a stand against my own father!” I say in a loud, forceful voice to the girl stood opposite me. “No matter how much you threaten me!”

Jessica stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac at Charles De Gaulle airport with an ache in her feet from standing in high heels all day, and an ache in her head from dealing with needy, insulting passengers all day. She longed for nothing more than to strip out of her painful shoes, her tight skirt and her restrictive corset and lay in a warm bath for the next 24 hours, but as she changed back into her sleek black dress to head home, she knew that wasn't an option.

“I hope you’ve all enjoyed your first term,” Mrs. Houghton announces to the whole of the year as the bell rings, signifying not only the end of the school day, but the end of school entirely for the next two and a half weeks. “I hope you all have a happy Christmas, and I look forward to seeing you back here in January, refreshed and raring to go for another term!” With the assembly ‘dismissed’, we all file out of the hall in neat columns, though once we reach the car park outside the school, we become a lot LESS orderly!

“Jamie?” The young man asks with confusion as he answers his front door. “What are you doing here this early?”