Diane closed up her shop and headed to the office. She saw that it was already closed, along with the other shop. Derek's car was still here, he must be in her home, she thought. She headed on to her home.

Entering she called out, “Derek, you here?”

“Yes, on the computer doing that research for you.”

“Ok. Pizza or Chinese tonight?”

“Chinese sounds good to me.”

Diane called Derek's home and told his Mom where he was. She then went to the kitchen and got La Choy out of her pantry, and started fixing dinner. She set things cooking, grabbed a coke, and headed to her computer room. Derek was working with the same single mindedness he used with everything he did. She set the coke where he could see it and looked over his shoulder. Derek was looking at references to Jenny Bond right now, entering the best of the bunch into a bookmark folder and printing some of them out.

Returning to the kitchen, Diane finished cooking dinner and brought it to the table she had moved into the computer room just because of Derek. When he started chasing rabbits, it was hard to pry him out of the computer room to eat. He broke for a few minutes and ate. They talked while they ate something he did not use to do. Diane liked this Derek; he was like a brother to her. His Mom and Dad couldn ' t believe the changes in their son, but were happy that he seemed to be getting his own life. Bringing home a paycheck didn't hurt either.

When Derek finished eating , he hit the computer again. Diane booted her laptop and checked her e-mail. She spied one from Brit; it had a large zipped attachment. Unzipping it, she saw it was a large power point file. Diane launched the file and saw that Brit had made a slide show of her pictures in England. It was nifty the way she had done it. She had a description of what the pictures were and the people identified. She was able to identify the entire British group Drew, Julie, Maddy, Rhod, Bernie, and Ally. She saw Dave Bond, John and Carol Peters, Sylvia Morgan. She saw Drew racing ; he really looked like a serious rider. Then there was a lady identified as Drew ' s grandmother, they were apparently headed to Germany. Then a picture of Drew and Jenny, that is the famous Jenny Bond. Next was a picture of Gaby she must have gone with Drew. She must be Maddy's twin. Now Gaby is riding an exercise bike of some sort in front of a TV screen wearing a skirt, not too demure that's for sure. Then one showing Gaby on a stage, and Gaby and Jenny on a stage. Where is Drew? She saw more pictures of Drew and Gaby but never in the same shot. She grabbed a picture of Maddy, Gaby, and Drew and put them side by side. Oh my gosh! That has to be it.

Something wasn't kosher about all this Diane thought, but hey, I don't think I'm gonna mention it. I may not be able to get Jenny on one of my bikes, but I sure as heck might get Drew on one, and I sure don ' t want to kill the golden goose. I sat and thought for a few seconds when I heard Derek call me.

“Hey Diane, there is something strange about the Bonds. I show Jenny having two kids in several references, Jules and Drew. Also I find references to a D.Bond, a Dee Bond, an Andrew Bond, a Gaby Bond who also rides and all of these are referenced as Jenny's kids. I can see D.Bond and Andrew bond but Gaby and Dee are girl's names. Drew Bond is quite a kid, got his record and it is impressive”

“Ok, check out this power point slide show Derek. It has pictures of Brit's trip to England.”

Derek slid over to my laptop and played the slide show. He went through the slides twice, and then he stopped , just star ing at the screen.

“Don't say anything Derek, I want this kid riding my bikes. I don't care about his personal life, but I think we need to look out for him, agreed? Brit seemed to really like him when she talked about him. Do you agree to this, please? He is kinda cute in a skirt, ain't he?”

“I won't tell anyone Diane, it is amazing though. You're right someone needs to look out for him. Oh yeah, that Maddy Peters rides too, I saw her name on the Wheelers roll, she is not Drew's caliber but she is improving. ”

Diane grabbed the phone book and looked up the Walters phone number. It wasn't to late so she called up Brit.

“Hello?”

“Hello Mr. Walters, this is Diane Biggs, is Britney in?”

"Yes just a second, Brit telephone.”

“Hello”

“Hey Brit, this is Diane we really need to talk. It is about your friend Drew or should I call him by another name. ”

I heard her fumble with the phone and then say, “ Oh ah … yes, I think, I know what you mean.”

“Can you come over Wednesday after school? Derek and I are riding on Tuesday. I think this could be pretty important. You need to be very careful with those pictures of yours in the mean time.”

“Sure Diane I can come over, about 6:30 pm, is that ok?”

“That is great, and don't worry I am not going to say anything. Bye and don't worry.”

“Diane I can extrapolate Drew's measurements from these pictures. There are plenty of things for me to reference. We could build him a bike and have it ready for him.” Derek said.

“You can do that from those pics?”

"Yeah, as long as I have a suitable reference in the same picture. This shows Drew standing next to his bike. We see him standing next to Brit here so we know just about how tall she is. The Kid is about five-feet three-inches tall. I can work out all the other measurements, and we can have a custom bike ready for him, when he arrives in six weeks.”

“Do it Derek, I will order the other gear, we will build him one hell of a bike. You said Maddy rides too?”

“Yes she does, she's not bad either.”

“ Well we will still do two bikes then. Go on home Derek, don't do it tonight. Don't forget the ride tomorrow.”

“ Ok Boss, see ya tomorrow.”

Tuesday went by like all others after her morning ride ; she went to work and then headed down to Waynesboro with Derek. There were about twenty riders there when we arrived. These were leisurely rides, men, women and children all riding together. Derek was with one of the girls that were after him. They flirted all through the ride.

Wednesday came; Diane followed her ritual and went to work. Derek completed his computations on Drew and Maddy. Their bikes would be very similar, although Drew's would be set up for a more aggressive ride. I read about some of Drew's races; he was cool but aggressive. The data was compiled, fed into the program , and the plans were printed out. Timmy started work on the front forks. That was the most difficult part of the bike to fabricate and Timmy was very good. She laid out the tubing for the rest of the bike and started cutting and prepping the tubes. She set aside the tubes for welding to begin tomorrow.

Diane headed back to her house to prepare for her meeting with Brit, she had asked Derek to be there also. She dressed in a green silk blouse, a black A-line skirt, green hose, and black heels. She looked better than ok. In her line of work, she doesn't often get a chance to show off, it is good to look like a woman for a change. She did her nails, full makeup and brushed her hair out.

Derek showed up about fifteen minutes early. Diane ordered pizza to be delivered for the three of them. A knock at the door indicated the Brit had arrived. Diane answered the door and let her in.

“Hello Brit, how are you?”

“Doing good Diane, you look great tonight.”

Diane led Brit to the computer room where Derek was of course.

“Hey Derek, you really are looking good. How are you doing?”

“Great Britney, been doing lots better since I started working for Diane.”

“Brit, I have pizza coming and I have cokes in the fridge. I know it is a school night I will get you home about 8:30 but we really need to talk. Tell me about Drew.”

“Drew is a pretty kewl kid Diane. His parents are Jenny and Dave. Right now Jenny is riding with Apollinaris so she hasn't been home much in the last four or five months. Jules is Drew's older sister ; she and Deb hit it off pretty good. A few of us and Maddy formed a cheer group for Drew at his races and time trial thingies. Maddy is Drew's girlfriend and second cousin. I think their relationship is way kewl. Drew even stopped a robber once. I think he is an alright guy”

“How often did he become Gaby, Brit?”

“Uh, I never said he did.”

“I know you didn't Brit, but I am not blind. He is very pretty when dressed up, but he is Gaby isn't he?”

“Yes he is. I put him up to it a lot but he has done it many times before we got to England. He was always having problems with clothes especially after rides. I wound up loaning him clothes several times. I made sure they were always feminine things. In Germany, he lost his luggage but I had brought some of Gaby's things. Don't hate me Diane and don't hurt him.”

“We don't hate you Brit and we have no intention of hurting him. I would like to get him riding my bikes. I think he would be good advertising for me. At least he won't have to worry about being Gaby here, right Brit?”

“Well we might have a problem there. You see Gaby is a cheerleader and they are entered in a competition.”

“We are going to have to watch out for Drew when he is here. Who else knows about Gaby?”

“Sab, Deb, and myself among the kids; Ms. Bell knows and I am not sure of the rest.”

“I am worried that if other people make the connection between Drew and Gaby, he could be hurt really bad. You know what people can be like around here. Derek and I made the connection in different ways. Other people might also make the connection . Hun, if he is a good person and your friend, you need to help him. Tell me how did Dan get in trouble and how did he get decked?”

“Dan found out that the guy he lived with dressed as a girl when he stayed with his father and made a big scene. He then made a racial slur to Sabrina. Later he forced a kiss on Gaby and she hit him.”

Diane nearly choked when she heard that, “That would have been a rude awakening if Dan found out wouldn't it? I take it that Dan doesn't know? Who else cross-dressed Brit, was it Rhod? ”

“How did you know? ”

“I just put it together from your slide show Brit and what you have told me girl. Is he going to be dressing as a girl here too?”

“I am not sure, Diane.”

“Well I guess I need to talk to Ms. Bell. Please be careful Brit. Do me a favor when Drew arrives and gets settled, call me and bring him and Maddy over here. I want to surprise them with new bikes Brit. So don't tell them ok? Don't worry; it is in my best interests to look out for Drew and Gaby.”

Diane gave Brit a ride home. There sure was a lot to think about now!

To be Continued

Paula Dillon 09.02.05 © 2005
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