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I want to thank all the people that have helped me edit and critique this story. They are Angel O'Hare, Stacy Miller, Karen Page, Robi, Paula Dillon and especially Maddy Bell for allowing me to join her universe and giving me permission to write in it.

Based on the story Gaby, Book # 4 - Once Upon A Time In America By Maddy Bell

All Characters portrayed in the story are copywrited to Maddy Bell for her Gaby series found at Maddybell.com

Scene 23

Cross Country Skiing:

Sunday:

Just then Mrs. J walked into the room and saw her husband. She immediately figured out what was happening.

“John, I invited these girls to breakfast. Why don't you find a seat and join us.”

“No! I'd rather have a little chat with our s … uh … daughter.”

Mrs. J walked over to her husband and got into his face and quietly said, “No you don't!” with fire in her eyes, “The mood is light and happy and you definitely want to keep it this way don't you? Sandy is here with her FRIENDS. Isn't it GREAT?”

I saw Mr. J deflate, “Ah … yes … um … of course. What I have to say to Sandy can be said later.”

Fortunately the girls were all talking amongst themselves that this little confrontation went unnoticed.

Oh great, I thought. Sandy is in trouble with her dad AGAIN. Sandy looked nervously at me and I smiled at her and winked.

Mr. J shut up and sat down. Mary sat down with the rest of us and she asked, “Can we pray before you start eating?”

Everyone got quiet. Mrs. J said a prayer of thanks and asked that God would help give tolerance, patience and forgiveness. This puzzled some of the girls, but they didn't ask.

Everyone dug in and everyone was complementing Mrs. J for a fine breakfast.

The talk turned to the ski trip; everyone was making arrangements as to who would be taking who.

I could tell Mr. J was really pissed and hadn't said a thing during the whole time we were eating, but wanted to. He kept looking at Sandy with daggers in his eyes. Sandy, bless her, never looked at her dad, for fear she would lose it. I'm not sure the other girls caught on to what was happening. If they did, they were polite enough to not mention anything.

Everyone finished eating their breakfast. The girls asked if they could use the phone so they could make arrangements to be picked up, since they all had to get ready for the cross-country skiing. Mrs. J showed the girls where the phone was.

Mrs. J was taking the dishes out to the kitchen and some of the girls were helping.

When she left the room, Mr. J looked at Sandy. “Sandy, I would like to have a little chat with you; NOW!”

Mrs. J just returned and heard the request and said, “John can I have a word with you please? In the guest bedroom!”

I saw him jump. “No, I want to talk with Sandy!”

“No John, you will talk with me now! OR ELSE!”

I saw him deflate again and got up and followed his wife to his spare bedroom.

I heard the door close. There was too much noise to hear what was being said, but I could tell it was a little heated.

After a bit Mary came out and I saw a look of determination on her face, she looked like she could chew nails and spit them out.

A while after that Mr. J came out and I saw him holding his keys and I heard him go through the kitchen and a bit later I heard the back door open and close and Mr. J get in his car and leave.

Mary came back in and went over to Sandy and quietly told her to relax; she'd handled it with her father. Sandy wanted to ask what happened but knew she couldn't ask with the others around.

“Hey Em, let's go downstairs to the basement and look for the skis and poles; we also have to look for the car rack to put them on.”

The other girls were still making phone calls, so we both decided it was a good time to go look. I carried my laundry bag down into the basement. I was amazed by the size of the basement. It looked like a giant convention hall. It was that huge and it had high ceilings. Someone had finished the basement so it looked like the rest of the house. We could have a full field footie match down here, this was simply awesome.

Sandy led me to a side room and I saw where the washer and dryer were.

“Put your laundry over there, Em.” pointing to where the other laundry sat, “Follow me.and we'll look for the equipment.”

“Your dad was being a real prat again wasn't he?”

“Yes he was, he scared me silly I don't mind mentioning.”

“I saw. You looked like you were ready to run out of the house. I thought you were going to faint when I saw you turn white as a sheet when he told you to follow him. Thank goodness for your mom.”

“Yes thank God for that. She has finally come to her senses and is standing up to dad. She usually would back down when things like that would happen. I'm glad she is finally helping me. Today was a first.”

“Well maybe things will become a lot better now that she has gotten her backbone and is standing up for not only you, but herself.”

“Yes, she has gotten better in the last week.”

“Sandy, I'm sure she will get lots better soon. I'm sure she just didn't know what to do is all. I think you will see a definite improvement in how she treats you.”

“I certainly hope so Em, heaven knows I have put up with a lot in the last 5 years. Oh here they are. Grab these skis Em, these are mom's skis. Stand them upright a sec and let me check the height of them with respect to your height. Good they should work for you, they are the proper size.”

“Whatever you say. I haven't a clue how to ski.”

“Here are the poles for those skis. Ah, here are my skis and poles. Ok, now we need to look for the car carrier.”

We both looked about the room. I saw a contraption that looked like it might hold skis.

“Sandy, is this it?”

Turning around Sandy saw what I was pointing at and she said, “Yes, that's the carrier I'm looking for. I hope it isn't too difficult to mount it to the car roof. Usually my dad does it for us. Well grab an end and let's get this all upstairs.”

We went back upstairs, with all of our equipment, I'm glad it wasn't too heavy.

“Wow Sandy, that basement is simply awesome. It's so huge.”

“Yes it is, isn't it? When I was younger, we used to play basketball games down there, or a modified form of soccer; when we came here to visit our relatives. I was still a young boy then. We had a lot of fun.”

Sandy became pensive at that time; I could tell she was remembering her childhood.

“Well that was a long time ago and this is now. Shall we gather up the gang and get back to our apartment?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

We herded up the girls and asked them if they were ready to return to Sandy's.

They all agreed. They still had to finish packing up.

After we returned and the girls raved about her parent's house. Sandy started to get back into a happier mood. I was glad to see that. The earlier confrontation forgotten, Sandy was herself again and enjoying the company.

The girls all cleaned up the apartment and packed up their stuff. Soon after they finished, their rides started to show. Everyone told Sandy they had a wonderful time and hoped they could do it again sometime. Sandy was all smiles.

“We'll see you at Jack's in a bit, you two.” shouted the girls as they left.

“Ok, see you later. Thanks for coming!”

“Was our pleasure Sandy, thanks for having us over and thank your mom for a wonderful breakfast.”

All the girls were finally gone, and the place seemed too quiet.

“That was a lot of fun. We should do that again. No one guessed I wasn't a girl and they saw me naked. Wow this is so great. Had we not had the gaff, we'd both have been in trouble. Wow, it's so nice to be thought of as a true girl by everyone. Now the girls really will believe I'm a true girl, hopefully there will be no doubt anymore to anyone, I hope anyway. I never had such a fabulous time as last night. I was worried when I had to change in front of them.”

“I noticed. How do you feel about it now?”

“Great, I no longer fear being discovered. It is like a weight has been removed from my shoulders for a while. I was holding my breath when I was showering with Bernie; that was kind of fun and scary at the same time.”

“Did you see my mom's expression when she saw me wearing the nighty? That was so cool. I noticed she was looking at my privates and it confused her. I bet she'll have something to say about it when we're alone. That was too much. I know she was worried when she saw the girls coming out of my bedroom. Also when they were sorting out what they were going to wear. Did you hear her say, ‘I hope you have a little privacy when you get dressed?' I could tell she was nervous about it. I wonder what she'd have said if she knew I took a shower with Bernie.”

“Don't ever tell her. She would go mental if she knew. She would go mental if she knew you got naked in front of everyone last night to put your lingerie on.” I said.

“You know she would.” I giggled. “It's amazing what girls talk about when they are alone and are with other girls, I had no idea.”

“That's something I wasn't even aware of. They certainly do talk about things that I thought were taboo and gross at times. I don't think boys would ever get as gross as them. I was always embarrassed about what boys talked about in PE class, in the showers. The girls have them beat. I found myself blushing the other day, when I heard what the girls were talking about. Our gang didn't talk about such things here, but it certainly was an eye opener when they talked about their periods, or male anatomy, or what they look for in other guys. I simply had no clue.”

“Makes you wonder who the superior sex is, doesn't it?”

I giggled, “Yes it does.”

“Well, let's finish with the clean ups and get ready to go to Jack's. We still have to mount the carrier on the roof of my car.”

“Right, be done shortly.” I ran off to my room to go to the loo and freshen up.

Sandy did the same.

I donned the snowsuit. Looking in the mirror, if it wasn't for the makeup, I looked like Rhod, since only the face showed with the hood up. I tightened the belt around the middle and if it weren't for the breast forms, I wouldn't have had any shape at all in this outfit. The forms made me look like a snow bunny. While in the kitchen, Sandy showed me how to get my ski boots on and then we headed down to the car park.

We got the carrier mounted to the car and Sandy mounted the skis and poles to it. It wasn't as difficult as the men make it out to be.

“Ready to go, Em?”

“Yes I am, Sandy.”

“Well let's get going then.”

When we arrived at Jack's, the number of people that were already here amazed me. Sandy removed the skis and poles from the car rack and gave me my set.

“Here Em, put your boots into these bindings and I'll show you how to adjust them. They need to be properly adjusted, so if you fall the bindings will release your boots so you don't get your legs or ankles broken.”

Sandy showed me how to snap the boots unto the skis and how to adjust and checked the bindings for proper operation.

Sandy looked at me and said, “Your ready Em. Have you ever skied before?”

“Never Sandy, I've never strapped two wooden planks on my feet ever.” I said starting to nervously giggle, I promptly fell down laughing even harder and she started to giggle.

After a bit of lessons from Sandy, I finally started to get the hang of it.

“You're doing fine Em. Remember you guide the skis, don't let them guide you.” she chuckled.

“Harrumph, that's easy for you to say, you know how to ski.”

“Think of it as a challenge, oh dear sister of mine.”

I took off my skis for the moment so I could rest.

Everyone started to line up two abreast. Sandy told me to get in line, or find a partner to get in line with, while she went to check on some of the older kids.

I saw the Walters car pull in to the car park. I saw Drew exiting the car. He was ahead of me, so I hurried to catch up to him.

“Hey Gab, you made it!”

“Er … yeah!”

I walked over to where they parked, carrying my skis.

“This is really cool eh? Can you imagine doing this at home?”

“We never get this much snow, well hardly ever.” Gaby stated.

I noticed Gaby was wearing a long skirt. This puzzled me, but I decided not to say anything. Probably something Brit made him do again. He is going to so freeze his legs off. Doesn't he know girls wear leggings or slacks or something? Oh well.

“The others should be here soon, hurry up, we can practice before they get here if you're quick.”

“Here you are Gaby, put these on and I'll show you how to work the fittings.” Said Mr. W presenting Gaby with a pair of ski boots.

I watched as Mr. W showed Gaby how to put them on and adjust them. I'm glad Sandy showed me back at the house. It's cold out here. I watched Mr. W put the boots into Gaby's ski bindings and I watched him adjust it, telling Gaby how to do it if she would have problems later on. The first thing Gaby did was fall down on her bum. Fortunately for her, the skirt was long enough that she didn't get any snow up her legs. I chuckled a little.

Sandy had told me I only had to slide on these planks to move forward and use the poles to give yourself a push to get going. I'm glad we aren't going to fly down some hill, for that would get me a face full of snow, I'm sure.

Gaby finally got her coordination in order and we were able to move around pretty well after we both had our skis on. The people were lining up to start skiing into the woods. Gaby and I were abreast of each other and started to follow the rest of the people. We were about five meters apart from the people in front and behind us.

“This is so cool.” I said.

“Yeah.” Gaby said, with not too much conviction.

“Sandy says we ski for about an hour then we stop to eat before looping back to the diner.”

“Right.” Drew replied again with that ‘I'm not interested in doing this' attitude.

“Oh come on Drew, it should be fun. Mind you, I think it is brave not wearing trousers, you'll get a right draft up your skirt.”

“Tell me about it! No one mentioned what we were doing, so I just dressed warm.”

“Bummer!” no wonder he is pissed today.

“So what's it like at Sandy's place?”

I just realized we had not had much chance to talk all that much this past week and she wasn't at the sleepover so she wouldn't know.

“Well you know her mum is the school counselor?”

“That's her mum?”

“Yeah. Well anyway they have a really big house and I'm staying with Sandy in the guest flat, over the garage. It's just so cool. She's got her own kitchen and telly and stuff, just like her own house ‘cept it belongs to her rents. I've got my own room with it's own shower and that.”

“Sounds cool,” She admitted as we both slid down a slope. “So you cook there and everything?”

“Well I usually eat with her mum and dad and her little brother in the house coz she's at work, but we have breakfast in the flat.”

“I never knew she had a brother, I've not seen him at school.”

“He's only five, he's just starting elementary school.”

“Is he retarded or something?”

“Naw … Aaarghhh!” I just saved myself from landing on my bum. “No it's the same as infants school at home.”

“Oh. So how come you got paired with her then, I mean she's much older than us and a girl?”

“Well spotted Blondie. Well apparently, after Dan was chucked off the program they tried to find someone to take his place and they got a kid called David to do it. Unfortunately he was killed just before Christmas along with his brother in a car crash, so rather than cancel everything, Mrs. Jones volunteered to put me up as they had a spare room in Sandy's apartment. Wheeeeee!”

As we picked up speed as we went down hill. This skiing is pretty cool. I could get to like this. We continued to chat as we went. It looked like Drew was getting better with his attitude about this whole skiing thing as we went along. He looked pretty funny though being the only one wearing a skirt. He did get a lot of funny looks from the other skiers. I wonder how cold he is in his get-up. I know I'm kind of warm in my suit.

Before we knew it we were at the lunch stop. My muscles in my legs were complaining a bit but I would survive. I had a bit of trouble getting out of the bindings of my skis, but finally managed it. It felt funny walking again after doing all that shushing, and walking in ski boots made me feel like I was Frankenstein, clomp, clomp, clomping along with a ton of weight on my feet. My muscles were beginning to cramp. I parked my skis tail-down into the snow and planted the poles next to them like everyone else was doing. Gaby got them off also and did the same thing. We both followed the crowd through to a clearing were we were surprised, there was an impressive barbecue already going.

I heard, “Hey Dee!” and realized it was Maddy calling for Drew. “Over here cuz.”

“Catch ya later.” I said to Drew

“Sure.” Drew said apprehensively, as he walked off in the direction of Maddy who was with Darla and Bernie, sitting with some girl I didn't recognize.

I saw Ally and Amy sitting by a brazier with a few others getting warm. So I headed for them.

“Hi Ally, Amy how are you two doing?”

“Fine Em. We were talking about last night and the blast we had. We need to seriously do that again. Sandy is so neat, allowing us to use her place like that. Her mother is way cool too. She came across so unapproachable when we first met her. But now that we met her, she is really cool.” Ally stated.

“Yes she is.”

“Hey! Hi Sab, how are you doing?” as she sat down beside me on the other side from Ally.

“Great Em. That was a great party last night. I really enjoyed it. Mrs. J is definitely cool.”

“Ally, Amy and I were just talking about that also.”

“We all agree; we need to do that again sometime.” Sab said. “I never really got to know Sandy all that well, but I like her very much. She's a cool girl. Not so snooty as most senior girls are to us freshmen. She is very likable. She looked like she had a blast last night. She acted like it was her first time having a sleepover.”

“It was Sab. That was the first time she had ANY kids over. Her dad is strict about having any kind of friends over for some reason.”

“Oh, was that why he said what he did? I mean I heard him say to Sandy he wanted to talk with her in the bedroom and I noticed Sandy got pale. I didn't know what was going on. I figured I wouldn't say anything.” Ally said.

Both Amy and Sab said, “We kind of noticed that also, but we figured it would be best if we ignored it.”

“Wow, I thought you guys didn't hear it at all, as you guys were just talking away.”

They all smiled, “Em we knew something was up, but we didn't want to make it worse for Sandy, she is a sweet girl.”

“Thanks guys, that was a great thing to do for her. She was afraid she would be humiliated again in front of others because of her dad. He really is a giant prat. I'll let Sandy know you did know what was going on between her and her dad. I wish Kevin wouldn't have told him about the sleepover, but he did it so quickly we couldn't stop him from mentioning anything.”

“What's her dad's problem anyway? Why does he have this … control issue?” Amy stated.

“I honestly don't know Amy. He is nice and sweet to me, but he treats his daughter like slime and always is trying to humiliate her in front of others. I really don't know what is with him.” I lied.

“Well, I like Sandy a lot.” Sab said. “She's a cool girl. A very sweet individual.”

“That she is Sab, she is a great older sister.”

“Huh?” they all said.

Giggling I said, “Well Sandy and I decided we were like sisters, so she started calling me her little sis.”

“Does she know about you?” Amy asked. “I mean about who you really are?”

“Yes she does Amy, but she promised she wouldn't tell anybody, especially her parents. She feels they may not be able to handle that tidbit of news, so she's asking that no one ever tells them.”

They all said, “We won't Em, don't worry.”

Sandy came strolling over. “Hi girls how are you all doing this afternoon?”

“Great Sandy. Thanks for having us over last night, we had a blast.” Sabrina said.

“You're welcome girls. That was one of the greatest nights I've had in a very long time.”

“We heard. Lets not make it your last. I hope we can do that again sometime.” Amy said.

“I would like that Amy.” Sandy smiled at all of us. “Well the real reason I came over was to get you girls to come over and get something to eat. It's a smorgasbord, so you can eat as much as you want. They are ready for you, so start at that end of the table with the plates and silverware on it, grab a plate and begin loading it up.” She was pointing to the left end of the table.

“Ok Sandy we will.” Ally said.

We got up and got in line with everyone else. The food was good and there was plenty of it. So we could eat as much as we wanted of everything.

After I finished up my plate of food, I dumped the plate, and plastic-ware into the garbage can that was there.

This place was really beautiful. I walked into another clearing a little ways away from the others and looked at the beauty of the place and the mountains in the distance. It was very peaceful and quiet.

“Hey Rhod how are you doing? Beautiful scenery isn't it? Someone said.

Without thinking I said, “Yes it is, isn't it?”

“I thought it was you!”

I turned around and realized it was Dan Martin. Oh my God. What did he call me? Rhod? Oh shit, he knows. I just gave myself away.

To be continued:

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