Chapter 22 - Introducing

Principal Silver led Simone and Deanna to the hallway and moved further down the hall to get away from the loud music and other prom attendees. He was already annoyed that Deanna Scott was interrupting his pleasant chat with the school’s attractive new music teacher, but her crazy accusations that Simone Biggs was a boy. Asinine.

He turned around and looked at the girls. “Miss Biggs, Miss Scott here claims that you’re really a boy.”

“Ha!” Simone said, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m a 100% real girl.” She then noticed the principal checking her out, which gave her a creepy feeling. She figured she might use that to her advantage.

“She’s lying, Principal Silver,” Dee complained. “She’s just trying to win prom queen and embarrass the entire school. Tell him about Zoey’s bet, Simone.”

“Miss Scott, please let me handle this,” the principal chimed in.

Simone smirked, “Dee is just jealous ‘cause I’m more of a girl than she is. Or maybe she realizes she isn’t going to get a single vote for prom queen.”

Deanna grunted and started to move towards Simone, but was held back by the principal.

“Let’s just quickly resolve this,” The principal suggested. “Can I see your ID, Miss Biggs? We can put this issue to rest.”

“Sure thing,” Simone said, digging into her clutch. She pulled out Lance’s student ID. Which read ‘Simone Biggs’ and had a picture of Lance from her first week of school when she was already pretending to be ‘Simone.’

The principal studied it for a moment, and realized this didn’t tell him anything if she had been pretending this entire time. Unsatisfied, he asked, “Do you have a driver's license?”

Simone considered saying, “That’s none of your business,” but instead wanted to further humiliate Deanna. Luckily she brought her own license with her. She pulled out her license from the clutch and handed it to the principal.

The principal looked at the California state license.

“You know,” she added with a sexy pose. “If I was a boy, there would be a lot of boys and men at this school who would suddenly get super embarrassed that they’ve been checking me out.”

The principal's eyes went from the license to Simone, then quickly back to the license as he got uneasy. He suddenly wanted to retreat from this conversation. Just the insinuation that he’s been ogling a teenage boy made him nervous. He handed the driver’s license back to her without making eye contact. “Looks fine. You both should get back to prom.”

“That’s obviously a fake!” Deanna yelled. “Just like her fake boobs. Show us your fake boobs, Simone.” Dee pointed accusingly at Simone’s chest.

“What? They’re not fake, you twit, and I’m certainly not flashing you.” She crossed her arms in a defensive posture. “Or the principal.” She sidestepped into the administrator’s personal space and he stepped away just as quickly.

From behind them, Olivia approached.

“Simone, what’s going on?” Olivia asked, looking at the principal and Dee.

“Oliva, tell him what you saw yesterday,” Dee demanded. “How he tricked you.”

“This is a private matter, Miss Jones,” the principal explained, attempting to gain control of the situation.

“They actually think I'm a dude!” Simone said laughingly to Olivia.

Olivia chuckled, “Simone is most certainly not a dude.”

“And how would you know?” Dee asked, folding her arms.

Olivia walked up to Simone and kissed her in front of the stunned principal, whose eyes got wide. She then embraced her and grabbed her ass. When the kiss was over and Simone was thoroughly dazed, Olivia turned to Simone’s accusers. “I know because we’ve been intimate.”

The principal cleared his throat. “That’s… enough, Miss Jones.” The principal added, trying to hide his discomfort. “N-Not on school property.”

Deanna turned frustrated. “She’s in on it. She’s lying!” She then lunged at Simone and tugged on her hair. 

“Ouch!” Simone screamed and slapped Deanna square in the face. The slap echoed through the hallway over the distant music. “I spent a long time on that braid, bitch!”

“Ladies!” the principal yelled and raised his hands, trying to restore order.

“He’s not a lady!” Dee desperately yelled, while cradling her reddening and throbbing face. “I can find more witnesses.”

* * *

Lance and Zoey arrived at the school. They got out of Zoey’s car, while Lance grabbed her backpack containing the necessary clothes to change back into ‘Simone’ and slung it over her shoulder. and were stopped at the door by one of the volunteer prom committee members checking the guest list. 

“Hi, Zoey.” She scribbled something on the guest list, then looked at it confused and put the pen down and looked up at her. “But I don't have a date for you.” She then looked at Lance. 

“He’s a last minute date. What can I say? I’m a procrastinator.” Zoey smiled at the girl.

The girl looked at Zoey and then Lance. “I’m sorry, I was told ‘only students on the guest list.’”

Zoey examined the girl. She was on the prom committee with her, but wasn’t at the setup yesterday. She searched her memory then finally said, “Melissa, I love what you did with your hair. Oh - and that dress! Hot.”

“Oh, thank you, Zoey.” Melissa was shocked Zoey Sellers actually remembered her name and complimented her.

Zoey then picked the pen up off the table and handed it to Melissa. “Hey, Melissa,” she whispered to her. “Can you just add him to the list? He’s cool. He just moved here.”

Melissa smiled and nodded. “Umm, sure.” She looked at Lance. “But he needs a ticket.”

"No problem." Zoey pulled some cash out of her purse to pay for Lance’s ticket, relieved she had gotten her in.

“And I need a name for the guest list,” she said, looking up at Lance.

“Lance Biggs,” she stated.

“Oh, are you related to Simone Biggs?” She handed Lance a clipboard. “Here, You have to sign this waiver.”

“That’s um… my sister.” Lance skimmed the waiver about drugs and alcohol and school and property and quickly scribbled her signature.

“She’s so cool!” Melissa gushed. “She’s totally gonna win prom queen. I heard rumors about her, but I don’t think they’re true.”

“Never trust rumors,” Zoey added.

Lance blushed realizing Melissa was talking about her and not the real Simone.

When Melissa was done adding Lance to the guestlist she smiled. “Have a good night!”

Zoey quickly turned to Lance, “let me put your change of clothes into my locker.” 

Lance gave Zoey her bag and she quickly stashed it into her nearby locker.

They walked into the cafeteria and began scanning the dance floor. Before they could get far, Mack, and a confused Christopher, ran up to them.

“Hey,” Mack blurted out. “The principal took Simone away. Olivia went to find her.”

“Then let’s go look for them,” Zoey suggested.

Lance looked at Christopher. “Hey.”

Christopher looked at Lance, confused. “Wait - if you’re here, then who is…”

“My twin sister.”

“You have a twin sister?”

“We can talk about who’s who, later,” Zoey interrupted.

The four of them left the cafeteria and entered the hallway where Mack said Olivia went. At the end of the hall was Simone, Deanna, Olivia and Principal Silver.

“Simone!” Lance yelled down the hall.

“Lance!” Simone responded. 

“What’s going on here?” Zoey asked as her group approached the other group.

"This is none of your concern, Miss Sellers,” Principal Silver advised. “Please, all of you should just go back and enjoy the prom."

"Not until you tell me what you are doing with my sister," Lance insisted.

Deanna looked at Lance in shock and then back at Simone, and suddenly realized she had the wrong ‘Simone.’ “No!” she yelled. “He’s the one pretending to be a girl! Zoey orchestrated this whole thing.”

"Your ... sister? Who are you?" the principal asked, as he started wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. The commotion was beginning to make him sweat profusely.

"I’m Lance Biggs. Simone's brother. I just arrived from California this morning."

“And you don’t go to school here?”

“No, sir, I don’t,” Lance replied. “Now, what are you doing with my sister? Or do I need to call our father?”

The principal then looked at Zoey. “Miss Sellers, would you care to explain what this is all about?” The principal looked increasingly worried that a fight was going to break out. Or worse - a lawsuit.

“Certainly,” Zoey said. “You see, Dee and I made a bet that I could get a person of her choosing to win prom queen. She chose a boy.” She then pointed at Simone. “But that’s not him. In fact, no boys were nominated for prom queen. Dee here is a sore winner.”

“No!” Dee furiously protested. She pointed at Lance. “He was nominated.”

“No,” Lance corrected, “Simone was nominated.”

“That’s me,” Simone smiled.

“‘Lance’ doesn’t even go to school here,” Zoey added to drive the point home.

A very frustrated principal was shaking his head. “I think we’re done here. Miss Scott, follow me to my office. There will be consequences for this outburst.”

Deanna was livid, but had no choice but to follow Principal Silver down the hall. She knew she’d been had, and hung her head in defeat.

When Principal Silver and Dee were gone, Lance ran up to Simone and they embraced in a hug. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” she asked.

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Simone replied.

“Well, it sure was,” Lance chuckled. “And you knew?” Lance looked at Mack.

Mack shrugged and smiled, “She wanted to keep it a surprise.”

"Lance, you look really sharp tonight!” Simone gushed. “I know you were planning on wearing something else, but… why didn’t you tell me?"

Lance sheepishly put her head down.

“Hey,” Simone said, lifting Lance’s chin up. “It’s OK. I’m your sister and I will always love you.”

“And we’re all your friends,” Zoey added.

Lance looked around at the people surrounding him. Simone, Zoey, Mack, Olivia, Christopher.

“Everyone,” she cleared her throat, then announced, “I think I’m transgender.” She expected shocked or disgusted faces, but instead she only saw accepting smiles.

Simone reached out and gave her sister a hug. “It’s OK, Lance, everything will work out. I’ll help with Mom and Dad.”

One by one, the others took their turn embracing Lance. She had never felt this kind of love and support before.

“OK, Princess, it’s time for you to pick a new name,” Simone announced. “You can’t keep using mine. It’s confusing… and a little weird.”

“Princess,” Lance echoed, paused for a moment, and giggled. “That’s right! I’m Princess Viola.”

“Princess Viola?” Zoey repeated, a confused look on her face.

Lance blushed. “Yeah, when we were younger I was always Princess Viola. Since… um… it looks like Princess Viola is here to stay… can I go by that?”

“Well, how about just ‘Viola’?” Simone laughed, hugging her sister.

“Yeah, I like that,” Viola agreed, with a great big smile.

“It will be so much better not having to call you by your sister’s name, Viola,” Mack said, hugging her.

“I’m so glad you finally told us,” Olivia said when it was her turn to hug Viola.

Then it was Zoey’s turn, but instead of a hug, she gave Viola a kiss. A long kiss.

After a moment of everyone watching the couple, a disappointed Olivia cleared her throat.

“Alright, Princess,” Simone announced. “It’s time to get you ready for your prom.” She asked the group, “Where can we get changed in private?”

“The student council office,” Zoey offered. I have the key in my locker.

Zoey led Simone, Mack, and Viola down the hall..

Christopher turned to Olivia. “This school is crazy.”

“Never a dull moment,” Olivia agreed.

* * *

Zoey got the key and Lance’s backpack from her locker. Then the group headed to the student council room.

“Oh, you got your ears pierced too,” Simone observed as they walked down the hall.

“I did,” Viola admitted, pulling at her lobes. She was still a little embarrassed admitting all of this to her twin sister.

“Hey, remember when I first got my ears pierced?”

“Umm, no.”

“We must’ve been like eight. You were so jealous. Mom had to get a pair of fake clip-ons for you to wear for the rest of the day. That was until Dad saw them.”

“Oh, yeah,” Viola said, her voice getting quieter. “I think I remember those.” 

Simone studied Viola. “You’re getting tense and withdrawn. Don’t. You’ve been Viola in front of me before.”

“I’m just anxious. In a good way. This is a lot.”

“I’m here for you. If you want me to stay and not go home Sunday night, I’ll stay.”

“What about school?”

“I’m sure Mom and Dad can pull some strings.”

They arrived at the student council office. Mack brought out her bag full of cosmetics and started arranging them on a desk.

Zoey similarly emptied out Lance’s backpack they had brought with them.

Simone was the first to start getting undressed as she kicked off her heels.

Viola modestly turned away from her sister, took off her suit jacket, and started unbuttoning her shirt.

When Viola was standing there in her boxers, Zoey handed her a pair of panties from the bag. Viola looked at them and chuckled. “Remember when I got into yours?”

“Well, if you’re lucky, maybe I’ll get into yours later,” Zoey smiled and winked. 

Viola turned bright red as she exchanged her boxers for panties.

“I’m teasing,” Zoey laughed, watching Viola squirm. “Let’s just enjoy this moment and not rush things, OK?”

“Thank you," Viola said, relieved.

Zoey collected the suit off the floor and brought it to Simone.

Mack came over with the dress. She held up the corset. “First, medieval torture time!"

After Viola was tied and bound into her corset, she put on her bra and inserted the breast forms into them. Mack then assisted Viola in getting into the prom dress. 

Viola turned around and saw the smiling faces of Mack and Zoey. Simone still had her back to everyone and was buttoning up the shirt.

“Can I turn around yet?” Simone asked.

“Not yet,” Zoey said, placing Viola’s heels in front of her. Viola stepped into them. Zoey then placed the wig on Viola and adjusted it.

Mack started applying makeup onto Viola’s face. “You know I'm getting pretty good at doing this fast.”

“Wait. Is this the same makeup you put on Simone?” Viola worried.

“Viola,” Mack stressed. “We’ve been doing this for six weeks. I’m a professional. Trust me.”

“OK,” Viola said, as Mack raced through applying the layers of makeup.

Five minutes later, Mack announced, “Done.”

“OK, Simone,” Zoey said, holding her shoulders. “May I introduce you to your sister, and future prom queen, Princess Viola.”

Simone turned around and her jaw dropped. “Oh, Viola, you look amazing!” 

“You really think so?” Viola asked, trying not to cry at her sister’s acceptance.

Simone smirked, “Actually it’s almost like looking in a mirror.”

“No crying!” Mack warned. “We don’t have time for another make-up session.”

“There’s one last thing”, Simone said, unclipping her necklace and putting it around Viola’s neck.

“What’s this?” Viola asked.

“This is Mom’s necklace. This was the first necklace she gave me. I felt it was only right for it to be the necklace you wear to prom.” 

“I don’t know what to say,” Viola choked out. “Thank you.”

“Do we have time?” Simone asked Mack and Zoey. “My hair is braided, hers should be too.”

“A few minutes,” Zoey said. “We’ll be cutting it close.”

Simone then started to braid Viola’s wig. “I’m braiding your wig in the same style I braided my hair so nobody will know the difference.”

There was a knock at the door. Olivia popped her head in. “Ladies, they’re going to announce the prom court in two minutes!”

“We need to hurry up then,” Zoey announced. “Simone, can you walk and braid?”

“Yes,” Simone said as they left the classroom and went back into the hallway.

* * *

Dee burst through the cafeteria doors and found Tyler standing off to the side. “OK, Tyler. Plan C.”

“What was plan A and B?” Tyler asked.

“It doesn’t matter. The principal isn’t listening to reason anymore. We have to sabotage the prom votes. Maybe dump the ballot boxes. Or maybe we can pull the microphone wires. Maybe you can get one of your friends to run up there and yank that wig off him. Maybe we can get someone to throw punch on him.”

“Whoa. Hey, I’m out. This plan of yours is stupid. I listened to you when you told me Zoey cheated on me and for me to get back at her. And that’s done and over with. But this has nothing to do with any of that anymore. And aren't you being a little extreme?”

“Are you really going to let a boy win prom queen?” She asked.

“I thought that bet was your idea. Besides, I thought your grudge was with Zoey, not Simone.”

“I didn’t expect it to get this far. He has to be stopped.”

“Who?”

“Simone! A boy is about to win prom queen. I was disqualified.”

“Who cares? If I don’t win Prom King it’s not the end of the world. I doubt it's the end of the world if Simone wins Prom Queen, either.”

“But I got suspended because of him! Principal Silver kicked me out of my own prom.”

Tyler cocked his head and shrugged. “Then why are you still here?”

Dee grunted and stormed back through the cafeteria doors.

* * *

As they reached the double doors of the cafeteria, Simone finished braiding Viola’s wig.

“Simone, I have a short wig for you,” Mack added.

Simone took the wig and fit it over her own head.

“The nominees for Prom King are…” Principal Silver could be heard saying from inside the cafeteria.

The girls quickly dashed through the cafeteria’s double doors as the principal read off the three boy’s names. 

Simone gave Viola a hug. “Good luck!”

Viola smiled and quickly walked to the front of the cafeteria near the stage where she found Olivia, Tyler, and the two other prom king nominees. 

Olivia saw Viola, smiled, and whispered, “Wow! If I didn't know better I wouldn't have known you’re a different person than the girl I came to prom with.”

“Olivia, I want to apolo-”

“Later,” Olivia said, placing a comforting arm around Viola's shoulders.

Tyler and Viola gave each other a nod. 

“I’m glad you changed your mind,” Tyler said.

“I had no money,” Viola chuckled.

“And this year’s prom king is…” the principal began.

“Huh, I wonder how that happened,” Tyler smiled. “Hey, I just saw Dee. She’s not taking this well.”

“What happened?”

“I refused to help her and she ran outside.”

“Andrew Scaletti,” the principal finished. There was applause as the guy in a well-tailored tuxedo walked onto stage waving at people. 

“Sorry, Tyler,” Viola said. 

Tyler shrugged, smiled, gave her a thumbs up, and retreated back into the crowd of prom-goers.

Olivia grabbed Viola’s hand. “Are you nervous?”

“Yes,” Viola replied and squeezed back.

“Don’t be. You’ll do great. You’ll be an awesome prom queen.”

“What about you?”

“Me? Hell, even I voted for you.”

“Now, for Prom Queen,” the principal said. “The nominees are Simone Biggs and Olivia Jones. Unfortunately, a third candidate was disqualified.”

There was clapping and cheering as the band started a drum roll. Simone and Olivia hugged each other and held hands. The principal paused as he unfolded the paper that had the winner’s name. “And the 1999 Prom Queen is…”