Lessons In Lesbianism -5

All’s Fair

Days had stretched into weeks sooner than Olivia had expected. Coursework began picking up while the beauty of the landscape around her became a simple background to her life.

While she managed to spend some time socialising, the time taken up by rehearsals and practice left her with precious little of that. As had been obvious from the start, she needed rather a lot of help regarding dance, and she was incredibly thankful to Eliza for helping her so much with it. The other woman had simply asked for some acting tips in return, which Olivia found fairly easy to offer. She’d grown up swimming in all things theatre, so, while she lacked direct experience with masculine roles, she had seen enough directing to have some ideas where to start.

Of course, generally the best place to do their one on one feedback was in either Olivia or Eliza’s dorm rooms. Which, apparently, led to rumours about what they were doing in those rooms.

Olivia was left scarlet cheeked as she was asked during her voice training class by a number of the other girls.

“There’s nothing improper happening,” she mumbled while surrounded. “We just live on the same floor, so it’s an easy place to meet up.”

“I wish I lived in your pod,” one of the other girls muttered, a dreamy look in her eyes. “All those handsome girls…”

As they talked, she noticed a few other more distant girls giving her the stink eye. Olivia decided to do her best to ignore them. As well as everyone else who’d done similarly. Whether it was misplaced romantic envy (when there was nothing between her and Eliza) or transphobia… or both mixing together, she often didn’t know, but she didn’t care to know.

It generally got easier to ignore them as she built up practice with it. Though maybe the need to build up practice was eating into her energy for a social life.

-

“You want me to go home for Thanksgiving!?” Olivia asked, staring at her laptop as she had her video call with Carl.

“You’ve been looking tired. I’ve told your parents. They’ve already bought the plane tickets,” he replied.

“I’m tired because I’m busy,” Olivia muttered. “I don’t think jetlag and flying out for a few days will help..”

“So you don’t want us to worry about you?” Carl countered. “You don’t want us to care?”

“I—I didn’t say that. I just—”

“Do you know how much it cost your parents to buy a ticket on such short notice? And it’s too late to get a full refund… It’s practically October already,” Carl said.

“Well, yes, but—”

“If you’re really happy we’ll be able to tell when you come visit. It’ll mean the world to your mum, seeing you again. This is the longest you’ve ever been away,” he continued, as if she hadn’t replied.

“That—I…” she mumbled, not sure what else to add.

“Don’t you miss us?” he asked.

“O—of course,” Olivia manage after a moment. “I’m just busy, so I don’t have much time to dwell on it.”

“It’ll do you good to come home. I know it. Don’t I always know what’s best for you?” Carl asked.

“I… yes,” Olivia replied softly, folding in on herself a bit. “You do…”

“Good good,” Carl replied, wearing the smile he often did.

She felt guilty about her urge to resist. He’d always protected her. Back in high school he’d kept her safe. It was obvious he had her best intentions at heart. So she went back to nodding along with what he said. Playing the role of the good girlfriend to make up for her shortcomings.

After all, she’d pushed to be allowed to be a girl. She had to accept some of the downsides too, to show she really wanted it. She had to accept having to listen and not get her way unless it really mattered. Like her mother did.

Still, she was glad when the conversation ended, and she could try to go back to living her life of being a student. Of being surrounded by other girls and not having to worry about sexism.

Transphobia, sure… but that was different.

There was a knock and the door, and Olivia called out that it was open. Kala entered, because it was pretty well always her. She knew what times Olivia did her video calls back home.

“Can you negotiate the boyfriend down from daily video calls?” Kala said as she flopped onto her bed.

“Sorry about it being inconvenient,” Olivia mumbled.

“Eh, it’s just thirty minutes a day. Good time to go for a jog or watch tv… but your mood always seems ruined by your chats and then we have to spend all dinner helping you out of your funk.”

“I… I will try,” Olivia said, though she didn’t think she could make any promises.

“Today seems worse, though… what happened?” Kala asked.

“Umm… well… apparently my parents bought tickets for me to fly back over the Thanksgiving weekend,” Olivia replied.

“They… they know we don’t have reading week right after Thanksgiving, right?”

“Yes. It’s just for the three days… well, they want me flying down Friday night.”

Kala grimaced. “That’ll be a fun interruption of your rehearsal time…”

Olivia could only shrug. It was too late to do anything about it. Not wanting to dwell, she suggested they head off for dinner.

-

Eliza and Olivia were early for dance class again, as usual. Olivia still felt the need to change in her room, to avoid the awkwardness she felt about changing to the nude around… well, anyone. If even a guy willing to otherwise date her felt uncomfortable with—it was best she not dwell on it and not subject anyone else to that.

She still wondered at the way Eliza did the same, and then walked with her to the dance room. It was a kindness and solidarity she wasn’t sure she deserved, but she firmly appreciated.

“I won’t be able to do our usual dance practice next weekend,” Olivia said, as they arrived.

“As in… Thanksgiving weekend?” Eliza asked, while leaning against the wall.

“Mhm. It—well, my parents are apparently worried about me, and so is my boyfriend, so—”

Eliza slipped in her position against the wall, sliding slightly as she went from leaning with her arm to leaning with her back. “Boyfriend!?”

“Um… yes?” Olivia said quietly.

“I—you… I didn’t know you had a boyfriend…” Eliza said, straightening out and looking down at her.

“You didn’t? I… I’m sure I must have mentioned him at some point…” Olivia half whispered.

Eliza’s look of concern shifted into a soft and warm smile. “Ah, well, if you did it must not have been very often, and I am known for being a bit forgetful. Especially where guys are concerned.”

The tall woman then let out a slightly forced sounding laugh.

Not quite sure how to respond to that, Olivia nodded slightly. “Um, well, yes… so my parents have already paid for plane tickets for me to go home for Thanksgiving Weekend. I thought I should let you know.”

“Mhm. Appreciated,” Eliza said, though it seemed she was getting a bit lost in thought.

-

That dinner, Eliza’s eyes seemed to sparkle with an idea of some sort. Olivia braced, unsure what to expect, but Eliza didn’t come out with any obvious schemes during dinner. For some reason, though, after dinner, Kala and the others seemed in a bit of a hurry to get back to the dorm. They dumped their plates on Olivia and Eliza’s trays once everyone was finished eating, asking them to go put things away.

A bit confused, Olivia did as she was asked. If the others were in a hurry there was surely a reason for it. It did leave her and Eliza walking back to the dorm with just the two of them, though.

“I heard from some of the older students in our pod that there’s going to be a fair over on Vancouver Island this weekend,” Eliza said as they walked. “Apparently second years perform some skits at it for one of their classes, and they could use some extra hands to help move equipment. If we help out as volunteers we’ll get a free ticket book for the midway… and it would make a good first impression with the teacher who handles that class.”

“And they still have slots?” Olivia asked.

“I was told they always have slots,” Eliza replied. “What do you say? A good day to relax and destress before having to deal with your parents and the flights next weekend.”

“Who all is going?”

“I haven’t really asked around too much, but I figured just the two of us could work? Just a pair of gals being pals,” she said with a grin that left Olivia wondering what her scheme was.

But... Olivia had also always been a fan of fairs. All the bright lights and the bustle. She felt nervous about going alone, though… since Carl didn’t care for them and she didn’t have many real friends back home, she hadn’t been in ages. So she was quick to agree. Regardless of any nonsense schemes Eliza might be up to.

-

She should have found out what time they had to be up before she agreed. The skits were in the morning, from 9:30am until noon. Which meant they had to be at the Sidney Fairgrounds by 8:30am. Which was fine. Except that the ferry took about an hour to get from Ophelia Island to Vancouver Island. And there was the time it took to gather things up before loading them onto the Ferry. In the end she’d had to get up at 6:30am.

At least Eliza’s enthusiasm (and some strong coffee) helped her get through the worst of it. She didn’t care for manual labour before eating, but knew she’d have had to have woken up even earlier to have breakfast before the set up started.

Thankfully some of the stageboys seemed to get competitive about who could carry more stuff, so her load was left fairly light. And then she was able to grab breakfast from the restaurant on the ferry. It was mildly overpriced, but not airport levels of overpriced, so she begrudgingly accepted it. At least the eggs and toast came with a nice view as they sailed between the various islands of the Salish Sea. There was still plenty of fog this early, but it hugged the islands rather than obscuring their view too much.

Eliza sat at the same table, quietly munching on a larger and meatier breakfast, but not actually looking very awake. It was surprising, seeing the normally boisterous and outgoing woman so quiet. The sleepy look on her face made her seem cute… though the baggy denim jacket over a polo shirt and cargo pants sat on her in a way to make her look even more dashingly handsome in Olivia’s eyes.

How was it that the masculinely dressed girls at the school could look so handsome in such simple clothing? Men seemed to be barely a fraction as good looking, even cleaned up as best as they could be…

Not for the first time since starting school here, she felt envious of lesbians.

Just as she was settling into enjoying the view (be that the passing islands or Eliza’s sleepy face… she wasn’t quite sure), the ferry docked at the Swartz Bay Terminal and it was time for everyone to head down and load onto the vans. She and Eliza headed for the same one, though it didn’t matter too much. The drive from the ferry terminal to the fairgrounds was reasonably short. Still, it was nice to not be stuck alone with strangers.

When they arrived it was fairly simple to unload everything. The makeup, costumes, props, and all the rest. Thankfully, between the second year students and the half dozen or so volunteers, they were able to get everything in place with time to spare. The freshman volunteers then sat around on the field in front of the stage, one or two deciding to nap.

“It’s still about forty five minutes until they actually start the performances,” Eliza said. “Do you want to explore the lay of the land a little, while it’s still quiet? Maybe grab some snacks and drinks for while we’re watching?”

Olivia glanced over to the stands and rides a short distance away. There wasn’t too much to see, but enough to explore a bit. Plus, it was probably best to buy any refreshments before the crowds started filing in.

“That sounds good,” she replied.