The Workshop, Chapter I: Shaun

Chapter I: Shaun

So sorry about the long wait! I have been through quite a bit in the past few months, which you can read about back on my blogger site, under the most recent post called “World Famous/Announcement”

Two more minutes…

It was the last day of Shaun’s freshman year in high school. It was also his second-to-last day as a guy. But that wasn’t what was bothering him at the moment. It was the one minute and fifty-five seconds left on the clock before he got out of this class, away from the school, and away from Ms. Valtierra especially, his English teacher whose class he was sitting in now.

Shaun sat and tapped his pencil lightly on his pants leg as he stared intently at the clock.

“So, how many of you are going to the Workshop this summer?” Ms. Valtierra asked her class mindlessly. She too, was waiting for the bell to ring. 15 or so guys raised their hands, and some definitely seemed more excited than others. Two girls had also raised their hands, but no one had payed much attention to them. The process was the same for both genders, but it was definitely a different, more shocking experience for the guys. To be knocked out as a guy and wake up with a woman’s body was a lot different than being knocked out as a girl and just waking up with bigger boobs, or a slightly different skin color, or longer hair or all of the above.

“I was transformed when I was 16,” she continued. “I wish the best of luck to all of you, I hope you’re happy with your new bodies when you’re all finished. Come see me next year and let me know who you are, I’d love to meet your new selves!”

As the process was producing more and more women, lesbianism was being pushed upon several the post-transformation girls so they could all find someone to love and be loved by. Homosexual marriage had been permitted in every country with a Workshop, so everyone had the chance to be happy in their lives. There were no religious debates about any of it – everyone seemed to accept it, even welcome it. It was incredibly obvious that Ms. Valtierra was one of the many new lesbians.

The bell rang, and everyone in the school cheered and ran for the doors. Once Shaun was out, he walked straight home at a power-walk pace, listening to Megadeth and keeping his steps in time with the drums. So what if they were an old ass band? Shaun liked their style of music – it was certainly better than the super-hippy-peace-movement-pop-indie-country cross music that dominated the 20’s and 30’s. MUCH better than the rap and hip-hop music that dominated the first 20 years of the new millenium.

He walked in the front door of his house, threw his backpack on the couch, kicked off his shoes and sat on the recliner.

“Hey honey,” Janine, Shaun’s second mom said from behind the kitchen sink, her arms wet with soap and water halfway up her forearms. “How was your day?”

“It’s the last day of school, it’s kind of self explanitory,” he said with a chuckle. Janine smiled and flipped her hair as she went back to scrubbing a pan. Sure, the dishes could be washed in mere moments with the latest technology, but that’s not how Janine nor Tania – Shaun’s birth mother – were raised, and it wasn’t how they chose to raise him. They took pride in doing things with manual labor.

“Are you excited for tomorrow?” she asked.

“Yes and no. I mean I kinda like the idea of being a girl and all, doing better in school and everything…” his voice trailed off for a moment, contemplating the fact that he might actually make A’s next year, instead of barely scraping by with C’s and D’s like he had this year. “I dunno, I guess I’m just a little scared of what it’ll feel and be like.” Janine giggled as she recalled her own self from before her transformation.

“You’ll love it! I’m sure you know girls are much more sensitive – everywhere – you’ll love the body your mom and I have picked out for you,” she said with a wink. Janine was a very attractive woman by anyone’s means. 5’07” without heels, long wavy black hair that stretched halfway down her back when she let it down, a flawless face and she had a very sexy tan color pigment, without being orange like an Oompa Loompa. Her figure measured 38D-26-35, and she knew exactly how to flaunt every inch of her body. Not bad for a woman in her 30’s.

“I trust you,” Shaun said. “What time are we going tomorrow?” he asked with a hardly detectable sigh.

“Umm, you’ll have to ask your mom hon, I’m not sure to be honest.”

“Alright then. She’s working ’til five?”

“Mhmm. Do you want something to drink?”

“Sure,” he said. “A&W please.”

She reached into the fridge and handed him the can. He thanked her and went into his room and picked up his guitar and pick, and began playing “A Tout Le Monde” as best he could. He hadn’t quite had the coordination it took to play it quite right just yet, but he made sure that his mom and Janine had added musical talent to the list of special requests that could be done to him.

He put down the guitar once he got to the solo portion of the song. It wasn’t very fast, but it wasn’t very easy either. He figured he’d get it down when he came back from the Workshop in August. He sipped his soda and lay down on his bed.

He wasn’t the most attractive guy in the world, but it could’ve been a lot worse, he figured. He had no relation to Janine whatsoever – he was entirely of his mother’s creation. She specifically had some of her own sperm saved from before her change so she could fertilize her new eggs with the sperm later. By pure chance, Shaun looked exacly like his mother had before her change. 5’9″ when he slumped, dirty blonde hair grown out over his forehead, and blue eyes that weren’t special in any way, just a dull shade of blue. He was kind of lanky and pale, but not so much so that he looked like a piece of paper torn in half longways. He didn’t quite have a distinctive feature about him, except for the small birthmark on his back that no one ever got to see.

He quickly fell asleep on his bed. What seemed like moments later he woke up, but it was really 2 hours he had slept. It was now 4:40 PM and he wished he’d slept 50 minutes longer. 4:40 meant Janine’s Soap Opera was on, and nearly every day she tried her damndest to make Shaun watch it with her.

He pulled the blanket over him and picked up his cell phone, then started playing chess online with it. An hour later, with 5 games won and 1 lost, he put the phone down and went out into the living room. Just as he stepped into the room, his other mother – his real birth mother – Tania opened the front door and walked in the house. Janine’s face lit up as her wife of 12 years walked towards her and kissed her passionately, without a word. It hadn’t bothered Shaun at all that no one had said anything to him, as it seemed to be their ritual for the past five years.

“Hey kiddo,” Tania said as she turned her head towards him, her arms wrapped around Janine. “How was your last day?”

“Way too long,” he said with a smirk. “Oh, what time are we going tomorrow?”

“I have you set for noon but you’ll need to wake up at 10 to get ready.”

“Okay,” he mumbled as Tania turned back to her wife. They sat on the couch, played with each others’ hair, and giggled like schoolgirls about various topics in which Shaun had no interest in – not until after summer break was over, at least. “Hey Janine, what’s for dinner?” Shaun asked, looking in the refridgerator.

“I texted for a pizza a few minutes ago,” she answered.
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The three of them sat in the living room with their slices twenty minutes later.

“Can’t you just give me a hint?” Shaun pleaded from the couch along the wall.

“No,” Tania smiled as she shook her head. “You’ll have to wait and see.”

“Besides, knowing takes the fun out of it!” Janine chimed in.

“I’ve never understood why parents get to choose for the kids. It’s not fair.” Shaun sighed.

“You’ll learn to love it,” Tania retorted. “Now hush and eat your pizza.”

Shaun was silent the rest of the night. He did the dishes and his moms went shopping online for his clothes he’d be needing soon, however they had faced it away from him specifically so he couldn’t see the sizes they were ordering. He didn’t like how secretive they were being. Obviously they chose his new body for him, but they could’ve checked with him to see if he had any ideas or opinions. He was only going to have to live with it forever.