Chapter 18

-7-

Marilyn knocked on Anna's door the next morning.

"I'm in, but I need you to help with those forms. I'm not putting my whole life into one basket. "

"Awesome." Anna ran her fingers through her hair. "Let me get some caffeine into my system and we'll get started."

The forms weren't as bad as Marilyn expected them to be. Anna filled in most of the parts asking for why Marilyn wanted the scholarship, surgery whatever. Only one time did Marilyn stop her.

"No, I want to be a social worker to help people, not just transgendered people. It's not like you are out to help only short, perky blondes."

"True, true," Anna adjusted what she wrote. They walked to the bursar's office to drop off the scholarship forms.

"I'll mail the other one on Monday. Now I happen to know you have a paper for Professor Dingman. Apparently, I have the same paper to work on. Shoo, go write."

Marilyn walked back to her room. She tried to focus on writing the paper, but her conversation with Mack bulldozed its way into head. What was it he said at the end? I need you. It wasn't about him. It wasn't about Marilyn either. That's when the paper fell into place. It was to be about the underlying principle of social work which encompassed all the topics they'd covered so far. Marilyn suspected a lot of people were going to write about ethics. She would too, in her own way.

It's not about me. She wrote. As much as I enjoy being the center of attention, that isn't the place of a social worker. It is about the client's needs, decisions, rights. Those must form the basis of our goals and objectives and it is why we must be constantly mindful....

***

"Good, Marilyn." Professor Dingman glanced at the first line of her paper. "you certainly appear to be on the right track."

She smiled as she took her seat. The student beside her leaned over.

"Awesome show at the Flying Frog." They were the first words he'd said to her since the beginning of term. Other students came up and talked to her as well. Marilyn wondered how long her new 'fame' would last since she wasn't going to be at the Frog this week. Anna and Birungi waved at her. Funny none of them moved to sit with the others. For some reason, it made her smile. Their friendship was exactly what Marilyn needed. They trusted her to survive without their constant support.

The lecture went by quickly and Marilyn went out to have coffee with Anna and Birungi., but didn't count on the crowd that swarmed them at the Cafe. She put up with it for a while before leading the escape to her room.

"I am going to enter the show," Marilyn said, "but I need your help practicing."

"Can you not practice at the karaoke?" Birungi asked.

"I had to quit. Things weren't working out the way I'd hoped."

"Mack hit on you, didn't he?" Anna frowned.

"Something like that." Marilyn waved her hand to dismiss him. "But I need your help to focus on this show."

"All right then, what do you need?"

"I need somewhere to practice and an audience, both for my song and my backstory. Bo told me I have to get it right."

"Can't you get Bo to help you?"

"Bo's the other owner of the Frog," Marilyn said. "I'm sure of it. I quit, so I quit him too."

"Too bad." Anna stared up at the ceiling. "So what did he say about your story?"

"He seemed to think a transgendered person whose father had a heart attack and needed to spend all the family's money, including her university money, and whose parents had to sell their home and move in with her estranged brother who is an active duty Marine might be enough if I dedicated the song to my brother in the hopes of a reconciliation seven years after I last saw him."

"When you put it that way it seems overwhelming."

"It leaves out the attempted suicide and the fact he tried to kill me when I first came out as a girl."

"I can see that would be a downer."

"My boyfriend has access to a practice studio." Birungi raised her hand.

"You never mentioned a boyfriend."

"I haven't met him yet," Birungi said, "I have been so busy. His father's auntie knows a friend of my mother's. My mother and his father talked on the phone and decided Erick is allowed to talk to me. Is that not a boyfriend?"

"Close enough for me," Anna grinned and gave a thumbs up.

"Same here," Marilyn said.

"I will call him." Birungi took out a cell phone and scrolled through the numbers before tapping at one. When a voice answered, Birungi launched into a long dialog in a language Marilyn didn't recognize. Several times Birungi spoke very sharply. When she finished and hung up, she grinned at Marilyn.

"If we go there now, Erick will give me a key to the room. We can use it if we make no mess and tell no one. I am not to tell my Mother he is seeing a girl since he came here two years ago. He is not wanting to explain to his father. Erick is a musician. His father is rich and pays his fees. An angry father pays no fees."

"Birungi, you are evil," Anna said. "I like your style. Let's go." They went out a side entrance and followed Birungi along the paths to another building where a tall black man met them. He spoke rapidly with Birungi then gave her the key. Birungi led them into the building and up stairs until she walked along a hallway until they reached a room Birungi unlocked with the key.