Chapter Two "Etiquette Lessons"

     Isabella got home after a quick visit with Joseph and some alone time with him in his apartment. She was still smiling and thinking about it and feeling the after-effects of his strong hands on her lower body when she caught Julecia in the living room being too comfortable with herself in her new dress. Part of her wanted to be mad, but she drew in a deep breath remembering something both Linda and even Winona had said to her about Julecia and the other girls that they had not had proper training or raising by a stable adult in their lives. She drew in another breath trying to put on her understanding and discernment hat and cleared her throat loud enough for Julecia to hear her.

     Julecia made a quick mad dash to pull up her top layer of pantyhose and toss the hem of her dress down to cover herself. She tried to sit up some, but it was not working and Isabella came and sat down next to her. “Erm…let’s go to my room for a bit and talk.”

     Julecia’s face turned an even darker shade of red while she slipped on her shoes and followed Isabella up the staircase to her room. She went and sat on the sofa, and Isabella sat down next to her and smiled while breathing slowly and deliberately. She crossed her legs with a swish and looked at Julecia. “Ah, okay…first of all…I think I understand the urge to well…you know…” She made a motion with her hands, but that just made her even more embarrassed causing her to stop in mid-thought. “Are you following me at all?”

     Julecia giggled. “Si, I get it.” She was still embarrassed as well. “I should not do that.”

     “Well, it isn’t that you shouldn’t do it, but it’s where and when you should that is the issue. The living room is not a good place to do that because it’s a public place. Do you understand that?”

     Julecia nodded her head. “Not in the living room.”

     “What if my aunt or my mother saw you doing that and not me?”

     Julecia thought a moment. “Si, yes…that would have not been good.” She looked serious for a moment. “So, is it bad?”

     Isabella looked at her. “I understand that you get urges. I mean…it’s right there practically in your face.” She laughed a bit.

     “Si, yes…it’s big, and it gets…well…”

     “It feels good?”

     “Si and I want to make it feel better…no?” Julecia looked at Isabella.

     She looked back at her stepsister and wondered. She thought about some questions she had anyway, and this seemed like a good time to just ask them. “Julecia, can I ask you some very personal questions?”

     “What is personal?” Julecia looked confused.

     Isabella thought a moment. She got out her phone and used it to translate some words. “Privada…”

     “Oh…” Julecia nodded. “Personal…” She smiled.

     “We call that private. Like when I go to the bathroom, that is private.”

     “Oh, I get it.” She giggled.

     “So, I want to ask you some personal or private questions.”

     Julecia hugged her. “You can ask me anything.” She smiled. “I love you Isabella, and you saved me. You can ask me…ah…private questions.”

     She paused and looked at Julecia. “When you do that…erm…do you have an orgasm?”

     She looked at Isabela with a questioning expression. “Org…” She struggled a moment.

     “An orgasm.”

     “Orgasm?”

     Isabella blushed. “When Joseph and I are…private…he has an orgasm, and when he does, his penis gets very excited and stuff comes out of it. Does that happen with you?”

     Julecia looked at herself and at Isabella. “What comes out of Joseph?”

     Isabella giggled. “This is not as easy to talk about as I thought it would be.” She blushed again. “Ah…he has what is called semen come out. It’s a white, thick, and sticky substance that shoots out of him.”

     Julecia thought a moment. “I have clear…is that it?”

     “I guess so. Does it suddenly get a rush of really good feeling that makes it…well…really sensitive where you have to stop?”

     Julecia thought a moment. “Sometimes, but mostly it feels really good for a long time. Is that okay?” She smiled.

     “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure this out too. I know when I have an orgasm.”

     “Do you shoot out white sticky stuff?”

     Isabella had to adjust how she was sitting because of what she and Joseph had been doing not long before she got home, and some of it was still creating issues between her legs like right then. She was still pretty soaked in her crotch. The conversation with Julecia caused an unexpected result which made her grab the arm of the sofa and breath heavy for about a minute or so. She looked at Julecia and laughed.

     “Was that an orgasm?” Her eyes were wide looking at Isabella who was breathing heavily and smiling.

     “Oh yeah…sorry about that.”

     “You just have them like that?” She snapped her fingers.

     “No…” Her voice squeaked a bit.

     “Why?” She shrugged her shoulders.

     Isabella got up, and Julecia noticed that the back of her dress was wet. There was an awkward stain on the cushion of the sofa, and Isabella just sighed really loudly. “Damn…I hope that doesn’t leave a stain.”

     “You okay?”

     “Yeah, I just need to clean up and change my clothes. You don’t mind do you?”

     “No, you change.”

     Isabella paused. “I guess it doesn’t matter if you see me do this since we’re sisters now. Do you care?”

     Julecia shook her head. “We’re sisters now.”

     “Yes, we are.” Isabella leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Well, here goes.” She slid off her shoes and pulled her dress over her head. She stood there in her nude outfit and smiled. “You like it?”

     “You are very pretty. I like how your…um…” She pointed to where Isabella’s hips and butt met.

     “Waist.”

     “Yes, I like how your waist looks in those. Do you like mine?”

     “Yes, yours is very pretty too.”

     Julecia smiled.

     Isabella then pulled her shoulder straps down and slid the nylon down over her chest and butt before sliding out of her mess. She slid the rest down over her legs and wiped her crotch with them a bit. “That is what happens when I have an orgasm.” She sounded very matter-of-fact with Julecia.

     “That is different from me.”

     “Yes, it is. I don’t…well…it’s just different.”

     “I will be right back. I have to wash up a bit more and put something fresh on.” She took her clothes to her bathroom and was in there a while leaving Julecia alone.

     Her stepsister got curious and pulled up her dress again to look at herself. She was incorrigible sometimes with wanting to feel good. She slid the waist of her pantyhose down and let her wand come out at full attention once again. She stared at it looking at how different it was from Isabella. She slid her waistband back up, but it was very sensitive, and every move she made caused her to have more intense feelings because the nylon was rubbing it with every shift of her body. She bit her lip and tried to relax.

    Isabella poked her head out and saw most of this and smiled. She tried not to say anything realizing that Julecia was just experimenting with herself after that talk. She cleared her throat and went to her dresser and got a fresh outfit and a pair of regular pantyhose to wear over it. She let Julecia watch her put them on and put on a clean skirt and top before she sat back down. “That’s much better. So, I have to confess.”

     “Huh?”

     “I saw you have that orgasm.” She smiled.

     Julecia blushed. “Sorry.”

     “Look, don’t be, but we have to have some ground rules here.”

     “Ground rules?”

     “Yes, let me explain. You can do that in your room with the door closed.

     “Okay.”

     “If you want to do that around me, say, in my room or your room, you have to ask first.”

     “Okay.”

     Isabella thought a moment. “Does that…well… ever relax?”

     Julecia looked at her. “What do you mean?”

     Isabella blushed. “Um…does it ever not stick up…you know…not be an erection?”

     “Erection?”

     “Boner?”

     Julecia laughed. Then she sat there and thought a moment. She seemed lost in her mind for quite some time before speaking again. “I don’t remember much of my childhood.”

     Isabella looked at her. “Are you okay?”

     “Yeah, I’m fine…with you.” She smiled. “You accept me for who I am.” She struggled to say that out loud.

     Isabella almost cried, but she held herself together.

     “I was always dressed as a girl. That I remember.” She thought again. “I don’t remember much about my family if I even had one really. Did I have a family? I think I had a sister but was that really my sister or another girl taken like me? I remember living in Guadalajara at one point and being taken to a hospital and given shots. I was old enough to remember this. They…the men…used to dress me in a dress with shoes and nothing under it…ever. They liked to parade me around as my dress bounced around in front of me. I didn’t know what they were doing or thinking. They just smiled at me and pointed.”

     “Were you…you know…big?” She pointed.

     “I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t. It was just who I was…like Leticia and Elizabetha. They liked that about us. Some of the girls who weren’t like us were sent away somewhere else. We never saw them again.”

     “That’s sad.”

     “It was how it was. We were taught to sit with our legs open and our dresses pulled up for certain people.”

     “Well, can we break that habit now?” Isabella gave her a look.

     “I get it…here. This is very different from there. I am understanding the difference now, and I want to change my behavior to be more…well…like you.” She smiled.

     “Okay, then sit with her legs crossed…like this.” Isabella crossed her legs and sat properly.

     Julecia did the same and smiled. “That is a bit awkward with this, but I can fix it.”

     “That’s another thing,” Isabella said. “You have to stop reaching for it so much.”

     “What do you mean?”

     Isabella smiled. “I see Joseph and other boys do this all the time. It’s like they think it disappeared or something.”

     Julecia laughed. “That’s not it really.”

     “Oh?”

     “Well, at least for me…it gives me a little good feeling, but I understand what you are saying. I have to be more like a lady, and a real lady doesn’t have one of these.”

     “Exactly.” She smiled.

     “I think I can work on pretending it’s not there while I’m around people that way I don’t accidentally touch myself and make people uncomfortable.”

     Isabella thought a moment. “That would be a good thing, but you are still who you are.”

     “Yes, I won’t forget that.”

     Isabella looked at her. “I also noticed that you are like Katie in that you can’t help but be very truthful and brusque.”

     “What is brusque?”

     “It means that you are short with your words, and people might think that is rude. People don’t always like people who are too truthful.”

     Julecia looked at her. “That is why I like Katie.”

     “I don’t know if you were always like that or if that is a side effect of all the medications you were given. I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure, but it’s part of who you are.”

     “That is a bad thing?”

     “No, it just needs to be worked on with some different ways to talk. We can work on that later, and I’ll help you with that as time goes on.”

     “Thank you.” She turned and looked at the hamper and thought a moment. “Do you like to do certain things to Joseph?”

     “What?”

     “Sorry, was that too truthful?”

     “No, it was just a quick change in subject.”

     “Is that bad?”

     “No, I was just caught off guard.” She smiled. “What things are you talking about?”

     She blushed. “Some men really liked it when I let them put it in my mouth. I knew what I liked.”

     Isabella giggle. “That is very true.” She thought about seeing her at the hospital.

     “So, do you like to do that to Joseph?”

     Isabella just nodded quickly.

     “Do you like to eat it?”

     She just nodded again. “Do you?”

     She nodded.

     “Have you ever had that happen when you do it to yourself?”

     Julecia thought. “Is that what you were asking before about the orgasm?”

     “Yes.”

     “I don’t do that…well…much at all. It’s more like a little stream of very clear liquid. I hardly notice it at all, but I understand what you meant by the feeling now. I get that when I do it to myself. I liked it when some men did it more than others. Some men were too rough, but others were very gentle and let me do the work. I like that better.”

     “Do you like girls at all?”

     “I like you.”

     “That’s not what I meant. Do you ever want to be with a girl?”

     Julecia thought for a long time. “I don’t know. I guess so, but I haven’t met the right girl yet.”

     “That makes sense.”

     There was a long pause in their conversation as Julecia thought for a moment. She was practicing sitting without touching herself and just enjoying the quiet. The noises outside caught her attention as she heard the laughter of children playing somewhere up the street. She looked at Isabella. “Do you know them?”

     Isabella popped out of her daydream and listened to where Julecia was pointing to her window. She smiled. “No. I don’t know every kid that lives here unlike Kelly and Amber. They are the ones to ask about that. Why? Do you want to go outside and play?”

     Julecia smiled. “Sometimes that is all I want to do, but then I wonder if they will accept me for who I am.”

     Isabella stood up and took Julecia’s hand. “There’s only one way to find out. Let’s just go out there and see.”

     The Collins’ house was buzzing at an entirely different level now that two young ladies joined the mix. Leticia and Elizabetha were not loud so much as they were busy. Leticia like to talk to her new stepmother, and Elizabetha was learning to read at a very rapid rate and was going through the family library at a brisque pace.

     Amber was starting a new adventure outside of the dance studio. She had discovered a photo album in their office that included pictures of not only her grandparents, but it included photos of her great-grandparents and their extended families. She noticed notes written in both pencil and pen on certain pages, but it was incomplete in certain details. She sat down and jotted some notes when she came across an incomplete family tree at the end of the photo album. She brought it out to her mother. “Mom?”

     “Yes, Amber?”

     “Did you do this?” She showed her the family tree.

     Her mother took it and smiled. “God, I haven’t looked at this in years.” She ran her finger along the names and smiled then wiped a small tear from her eye.

     “You okay?”

     “Yes, I just get a little emotional when I think about my grandmother. She was a wonderful Southern lady who was always so prim and proper even if she was a little gruff at times.”

     “Oh?”

     “Yeah, my mother actually did this with me for a school project a long time ago.” She laughed. “We won’t talk about when…okay?”

     “Sure mom.” Amber smiled. She looked at one photo. “So, those hairstyles were real?”

     Her mother laughed. “Yes, really bad. They were called beehive hairdos, and they were popular for far too long.”

     “Is she wearing what I think she’s wearing?” Amber pointed to her grandmother’s legs.

     “Yes, who do you think set the standard around here? My mother, my grandmother, Kelly’s mom, and grandmother, and a whole host of ladies set a high mark in style. As I recall as a young girl, I heard conversations about garter belts and stockings, and how they were glad those were gone and replaced with one item: pantyhose. They understood why they were invented and how they revolutionized comfort under their daily dresses and skirts. I think it was our grandmothers who abandoned the granny panties to the waste bin and replaced all of that with these.” She pointed to her legs. “You didn’t have a choice really, Amber. If I hadn’t dressed you the way I did, your grandmother would have.”

     “That’s funny.”

     She looked at Leticia sitting on the sofa. “Now it’s your turn to help these young girls, and you have to help them learn to sit in dresses and skirts properly as well.”

     “Yeah, I do.” She blushed. “So, you’ve seen a bit more than you wanted to also?”

     Her mother blushed and shook her head. “Yes, and while I understand the situation, it is still a shock to see…well…that…you know.”

     Amber smiled. “I get it.” She thought a moment. “And it’s not like they're tiny.”

     “Oh god no…like baseball bats attached to a Barbie doll.”

     Amber laughed so loud and awkwardly that Leticia got up to see what was going on.

     “Are you telling jokes? I like jokes.” Leticia sat down next to Amber.

     Amber looked at her and smiled. She saw how she was sitting and helped her cross her legs and smiled. “That is how you should sit in that dress.”

     Leticia smiled. “Okay.”

     “No, Amber and I were just looking at an old family tree.”

     “Family tree?”

     “Here, I’ll explain.” Amber took Leticia back to the living room and showed her the papers, and Leticia listened before she obviously got a little bored and showed signs of disinterest. Amber left her alone and went to the office again and sat down with the computer and did a quick search about family trees. Then she found a site and began to pound away at the keyboard. She went back to the kitchen to ask for permission to join it where she got a quick nod and okay from her mother.

     She spent the next hour filling in what she knew from the family tree into the forms on the page. Then lots of green leaves began to pop up all over her tree. She was fascinated by what she found including more photos similar to what she had as well as some stories shared by other people.

     When she was not doing that for the next few days, she was helping her new stepsisters learn to sit properly in different-length skirts and dresses to avoid embarrassing situations with their hidden anatomy.

     Through the rest of June, great progress was made with the girls adopted from the human traffickers. They were all in therapy with one large firm on the east side of Asheville going to at least one session per week and some two. Some of the girls were adopted by families in Brevard and Hendersonville, and still, a few others ended up in Charlotte and Raleigh. They kept in touch with each other too. Julecia made great progress in both her English skills and her etiquette stills. She learned to walk more like a girl slowing down in her steps, and she started to exercise with Isabella and her friends on a regular basis. She adopted the same attire for jogging, but she did not like the wear the extra layer of shorts that Jessica chose to wear. It was a source of consternation with some neighbors who got upset seeing this transgender girl seeming to flaunt her anatomy everywhere she went jogging, but Isabella defended her vigorously explaining that it was not her fault that she looked like that. Pretty soon, most of Asheville learned about the hidden society of pseudo-elites who were involved in the human trafficking league and even going so far as selling body parts on black market auctions. They realized that the girls were actually saved from this and not the true participants. It helped that Detective Cruz was very vocal about how the girls were doing well despite the constant hypocrisy from certain churches and groups of people when it was some of their own members who were guilty of prostitution, theft, money laundering, and human trafficking.