How had I been volunteered?

At work, I was greeted with shocked expressions. After some days practice I felt I had the makeup dead right and the bright red nails glowed in front of the black dress.

The day was going fine apart from Stuart hanging around me a lot. That lunchtime, the principal and my boss insisted they take me to lunch. So we headed out, not to the local pub our usual haunt, but a semi posh place. After a lovely meal and a number of glasses of wine, we headed back to the College.

I tried to do some work but the wine made my mind all foggy. It was a relief when I was asked to go up to the principals office. The secretary Jan showed me into the principals office and I sat waiting for him to return. Eventually both the principal and my boss came in and their faces looked very glum.

The principal started by saying it was nobodies fault, but there had been a mistake with the Colleges accounts. I asked why they were speaking to me as I worried it was I who had made the mistake. He went on by explaining all Colleges are scored on their finances and 120 is the pass mark. The College thought they had 120, but due to an error, we only have 110. I was still confused why they were talking privately to me and my face probably showed it. Plus the wine was still fogging my judgement.

The principal took a deep breath and said "The funding council have a new scoring system this year and one of the factors is diversity in the workforce." I was still confused. He continued "If the College had for example a gentleman going through a 'change', we would get an extra 10 points and have a pass. So if you could carry on dressing like that for a few weeks, we can fool the funding council and everything stay the way it is. If not, we could be forced to merge with that other College up the road!"

I sat there looking down at the stupidly short hem on the dress. Rather than think and consider the problem, I was worried I was showing the principal my knickers. I asked if I could have a think and tell them at the end of the day and they agreed.

Going back to my office, I could finally get things clear and make an informed choice. What had started as just one day had gone on for a week and I had actually liked it. Dare I say, I had in reality enjoyed it. People looked, treated and spoke to me differently and in a far more pleasant manner. All the old people living in the flats around me never went out and wouldn't know anything different.

At the end of the day I popped back up to the principals office and Jan showed me straight in. Firstly I told him this week had cost me a fair amount and I couldn't keep it up. He agreed straight away for me to have a pay rise to cover these extra costs. That decided it for me and I agreed. His face lit up and was all smiles. My boss came out of his office to the good news and Jan was happy as well. I reaffirmed that it would only be for a few weeks and the principal confirmed this.

He did say there is one thing he hadn't said, which made me suddenly go on the defensive. The funding council are known for spying on staff in certain situations, so I needed to be like this 24/7. Not really thinking about the fall out of this, I said yes.

Going back down to my office to collect my things to go home, Stuart and Sharon were waiting for me. How they knew what I had been asked, god alone knows but when I confirmed it, they were overjoyed and were giving me hugs. Although, when Stuart hugged me, I am sure he grabbed my bum as well.

That weekend I was seriously busy, packing away all my "blokes" things, from clothes to aftershave and from football photos on the wall to getting some flowers for the living room. The vase for the flowers was my first new home purchase.

Having packed away all my bloke clothes, I filled up my wardrobe with fresh purchases and soon had things hanging up on the outside of the wardrobe as they didn't fit. It was a massive experimentation exercise. For men its trousers, jeans or shorts. For ladies its a whole raft of options, colours, materials and choices, and i wanted to try them all.

As weeks passed, the fun never waned and although a bit weird, I had a better relationship with the guys at work, especially Stuart and Sharon. The influx of new students arrived and all just accepted me as the twenty something lady that wore the short skirts and dresses.

When eight weeks had passed the College got a visit from three very stodgy people from the funding council. Two men and a lady in soulless grey suits with white complexions and bland voices. First thing I knew of it was when I was asked to go to the principals office. The room was pretty full with the principal, my boss and the three "greys". I sat uncomfortably in the corner.

The principal turned to me. "We didn't know of this visit and its a bit unorthodox. This Lady and the Gentlemen are from the funding council and wanted to meet our special member of staff." He avoided saying things like sex change or the like and just kept referring to me as "special".

One of the grey men looked me up and down. I suddenly got nervous as the skirt I was wearing was another short one and could he see my pink knickers? I placed my hands on my lap to make sure he couldn't.

The lady then asked me when my operation was going to happen? I blurted out that I hadn't arranged anything yet. She kept pushing me to confirm I was going to have a sex change. She then produced an affidavit for me to sign and swear I was going to have the operation. One of the grey men said that two colleges had been found fiddling the scoring by saying there was someone having a sex change, but it had been a lie. He went on to say those colleges had been shut and staff charged with criminal offenses.

The lady looked at me intently and asked again about when the operation was going to happen. When I said it will happen, she handed me the affidavit and a pen, and told me to sign. I looked at both the principal and my boss and they looked back at me earnestly. I shut my eyes for a few moments and then signed the form and handed it back. The lady said, "That's fine, you will be hearing from us shortly! As you have signed the form, we will arrange and pay for the sex change operations for you. If you fail to have the operations we will consider this fraud and criminal proceedings will be undertaken!!!"

The "Greys" left the college in literally a few minutes, but I sat in that chair numb! I had no option but to go through with the sex change. How had I gone from a jokey single day of dressing like a lady for charity, to ending up having a sex change!?!?!?!