B
Literature
Book Day 2024 Shannon smoothed down the dress she wore; white fabric, pulled in just below her breasts by a thin belt, and paired with a white bonnet and elbow-length white gloves. She walked in, past a poster advertising World Book Day, and encouraging everyone to come in dressed as their favourite literary characters. She had already parted ways with Chloe, who had been dressed as Alice from the Wonderland books, and she walked down the corridor past various others; Harry Potters, Willy Wonkas, and Mary Poppinses... Shannon frowned slightly as she tried to pluralise Poppins. She dropped off her homework books at her locker and was joined by Alice, the petite redhead dressed in a floor-length dress with a hoop bottom, over a white blouse. Her hair was pulled up into a bun and dotted with flowers. Alice opened her own locker to sort out her books. "Oh, hi." Shannon greeted her, she looked her up and down, "Erm... someone from Little Women, but I don't know if any of them were ginger." "Amy." Alice clarified, "I wasn't going to bleach my hair for a one-day thing. And you are... I don't know, someone Jane Austen." "Think of the most famous one." "Mr Darcy? If he dressed as a woman?" "Close. Elizabeth Bennet." "Oh, yeah. That's a great dress." "Thanks, I made it myself." "Really?" "Yeah, I found a pattern in an old book." "That's very impressive. I bought mine, I found it online. Hey, here come the others. That's quite a pair." Colleen and Bridget walked over, and as Alice surmised, they had gone a bit different for their costumes; Bridget wore a black tuxedo suit, over a white blouse and a black bow tie, and carried a plastic gun. Colleen meanwhile wore a suit of shiny armour, which clattered as she walked, clearly made of thin sheets of real metal. "Er... Jane Bond?" Shannon guessed, looking Bridget up and down. "Just the normal James," Bridget replied, "I've done gender-swapped costumes before, and I thought I would reclaim the rampant racism and misogyny." "Yeah, why should men get all the fun?" Alice smiled. "Anyone going to notice me?" Colleen asked, holding out her arms stiffly. "Well, you should have dressed up, then." Alice said, she paused before continuing, "I'm kidding, you look great, where did you get armour from?" "I have a cousin who works in TV, borrowed it for me." Colleen replied, "It's not as heavy as it looks, but can be a bit hard to move around in." "And who are you?" Shannon asked, "Joan of Arc?" "That's not a bad guess," Colleen replied, "But I was aiming for Eowyn, from Lord of the Rings." "It's a great costume." Bridget said, "But we ought to be getting to registration, shouldn't we?" "Unless Colleen can have the eagles take us there." Alice said, slamming her locker closed, "Let's go." Alice stepped forward, but there was a harsh tearing noise and the skirt of her dress did not, having been caught in the locker door and then torn off, leaving her in the top half only, along with her blouse, a pair of white socks and thigh-length white bloomers with lace around the ends. "Oh no...' Alice gulped. "Love the historically accurate underpants!" Bridget laughed. "They came with the dress." Alice blushed. "What am I going to do?" "Style it out?" Shannon suggested, "There's got to be some character who dresses like that, and they're basically shorts." "I hope so." Alice sighed, "And I hope no one asks me who I'm dressed as before I think of one." She started walking off, showing the girls that the thin white material of the bloomers was pressed against her backside so it clearly showed through. The three others shared a look, and Colleen mouthed that maybe it would be fine in dimmer light, which the others nodded at. The girls joined the rest of their form for registration, taken by Miss Bonney dressed as the White Rabbit, then made their way to English with Miss Lane. "Hey, Bridge, your fly's open." Shannon said. "Oh, again?" Bridget stopped and zipped her trouser fly closed again, "I got the suit from a second-hand shop, it's not in the best shape." "I suppose you wouldn't want to buy a new one to wear as a costume." Colleen said, clanking along next to her, "I wouldn't have bought a new suit of armour." "Even if you found somewhere that sold new armour." Shannon replied. She stepped out of the way, recognising that Colleen could not easily adjust her stride, and fell in behind Colleen, and her eyes widened. "Er, maybe a new suit would be put together better." "What do you mean?" Colleen asked. "Check your back door." Shannon suggested. Colleen felt, with difficulty, at the back of her armour, and quickly found the plate from over her rear end had flapped open, hanging down and exposing her bare buttocks and the straps of a small lime green thong. "Oh my god!" Colleen exclaimed, "How long has that been like that?!" "I'd guess since you were sat down in the form room," Alice replied, "Must be a loose fastening." "I hope it doesn't get any looser." Colleen said, closing the flap and clipping it in place to hide her backside again. "Come on, let's get in to class." The class filed into the English classroom, where Miss Lane waited for them, the redheaded teacher dressed in a dark blue victorian style dress, her hair tied up with a thin black ribbon. "Good morning, everyone." Miss Lane greeted them, "You all look lovely, very imaginative. Colleen, wow! Alice, that's an interesting look. Bridget, your fly is open." "Again? Whoops." Bridget zipped her trousers again as she paused on the way to her chair. She sighed as she joined her friends again. "This zip thing is getting annoying." She sat down, and there was a sharp pop as the button burst off her trousers, "But that's probably worse!" "Maybe it'll be okay." Colleen said, lowering herself carefully into her own chair, armour creaking and clanking. "As long as the zip stays closed." "Not much chance of that." Bridget squirmed in her seat and tugged the trousers higher up her waist. "All right, everyone," Miss Lane said, "We're going to find out who all of you are dressed as today, and why you like the characters. Let's go alphabetically, shall we? Alice." "Oh!" Alice looked up, "Er, do I have to?" "Yes, Alice. This is school, so you do." Miss Lane replied. "Okay..." Alice stood up, "Well, as you can see, I have the top half of a dress, and then these shorts..." "They look like bloomers, with the lacy hems." Miss Lane pointed out. "Yes, they do." Alice nodded, "So I'm dressed as... er..." she shrugged, "Amy March, from Little Women... if she caught her dress in a locker and ripped half of it off." The laughter of the class drowned out Alice's attempts to explain why Amy was her favourite sister from the book, although she was able to murmur a few words about playfulness and artistic traits before sinking back into her chair. "Very, um, something." Miss Lane said, "Maybe it's a bit more like one of the other sisters, after Amy pranked them, perhaps?" "Maybe it should have been." Alice said. "Let's move on," Miss Lane looked over the class, "Bridget, why don't you come up here?" "Sure." Bridget stood up and took a step, at which point her trousers dropped, landing around her feet and leaving her knickers, which were purple with bright pink lace edges and bright blue hearts, exposed. The class broke out into further laughter as Bridget froze in embarrassment. "Blunderball!" Someone shouted out. "The spy who pantsed me!" Someone else suggested. "At least they recognise my costume." Bridget said, bending to retrieve her trousers, but she was stopped by a loud ripping noise from her jacket as it split up the back, down to her white blouse. "Agh! My jacket as well?!" "Is this part of the costume?" Miss Lane asked with a half-smile. "Not really." Bridget said, "I just bought the suit cheap and second-hand." "So you're not supposed to be undressing yourself?" "No, Miss." Bridget held her trousers up to her waist as she came to the front of the room, then turned to hide her split jacket against the wall. "So, I came as James Bond. And yes, the books have a lot of issues with a modern reading. But..." "But you fancy Daniel Craig?" May suggested. "That's not relevant." Bridget said, "I just think the books are a bit of fun, as long as you don't mind the old-fashioned attitudes. So, yeah, that's it." "Okay, thank you." Miss Lane said, as Bridget started walking back to her chair, "By the way, you've split those trousers." Bridget paused, stopped in the middle of the room with her heart-patterned underwear peeking through the burst open back seam. "Sure, that may as well happen as well." Bridget said, as she continued to her chair. "Well, that was quite something." Miss Lane said, "All right, Colleen, let's hear the explanation behind that impressive get-up." "I'll try and get there." Colleen said, she pushed herself up with difficulty, the chair and desk being a tricky space to try and get out of. Once she was on her feet, she was able to walk forwards with some more confidence. "Psst, Colleen!" Shannon hissed, "Your back flap!" "Oh!" Colleen grabbed at the back panel, which had again dropped open to unveil her bare backside. She grabbed at it, while the class all got a full view of her rear, and quickly slammed it closed. Too quickly as it turned out, as the fastenings broke and the panel came off in her hand. "Oh no..." Colleen wailed quietly, looking at the silver piece of metal she held. The class found this whole thing very amusing, as Colleen tried to put both hands behind her to cover the missing section, but her armour was too restrictive for her to do it. She struggled and strained to get her hands back, before with a series of pinging noises the shoulder fastenings broke. She managed to get both hands to cover her rear, but the sleeves of the armour had come detached and began to fall off. "So, I came as Eowyn." Colleen said, blushing, "From Lord of the Rings. She's a strong female character, and manages to kill one of the major villains. It's quite clever, actually, that in her armour no one could tell that she was a female." At that moment, the torso section of her armour came loose and folded down from her waist like a drawbridge, showing that she was definitely female as she had her breasts, clad in an orange lace bra, revealed. "Is that what happened in the book?" One of the boys asked, "I only saw the films." "Oh, cripes." Colleen grabbed at the torso piece and pulled it back up, but that also came detached from the suit completely. Not that it really counted as a suit any more, as other panels fell off her, including the front of the crotch section, which showed the front of her lime green thong had a smiling cartoon pineapple on it. "Do you need a needle and thread?" Miss Lane asked, "Or maybe a welding torch?" "It wasn't supposed to..." Colleen gasped, "I thought I had attached all the pieces right..." "Apparently not." Miss Lane said. "Could I... sit down...?" Colleen asked. "Yes, I think it would be best." Colleen turned, but as she took a step one of the leg pieces dropped and tangled around her ankles, tripping her. She sprawled on the floor, her bare buttocks jiggling to the continued amusement of the class. "Are you okay?" Shannon was sat closest, she got up and helped her slightly dazed friend to her feet. "Yeah, just a bit bruised," Colleen replied, before looking down at herself, "and naked!" She squealed and sat down quickly at her desk. "Half naked," Shannon corrected, "You've still got your underwear on!" "Right..." Miss Lane sighed, running her hand down her face, "Okay, Shannon, since you're stood up, let's skip to you." "Okay." Shannon put a smile on her face, and walked to the front. She turned and addressed the class. "I've come as Elizabeth Bennet, from my favourite book, Pride and Prejudice. She's one of the Bennet sisters, a lot of the book looks at who is going to marry who, but Elizabeth is more independent and intelligent, and witty. The book isn't really about the marriages, it's about the society and women's place in it, and a satire of the usual way of doing things. And I like that Elizabeth isn't actually perfect, she has flaws and comes to realise them." "Okay, thank you." Miss Lane said, "Where did you get that dress from, by the way? I haven't seen one like that for sale." "I made it myself." Shannon beamed, "I found a pattern and knocked it up." "It must have taken you ages." "Not at all, I did the whole thing last night." Shannon turned around, posing to show off her dress to the class. "Very good." Miss Lane said, "But you might have cut a corner or two, there's a loose thread there." "Where?" "Here." Miss Lane pinched a loose thread hanging from the side of Shannon's dress and pulled it. "Did you get it...?" Shannon half-turned back, but paused as the seams of her dress opened up and it fell into its constituent pieces and dropped to the floor, leaving the pretty blonde girl in a white thong with a pattern of pink flowers on the front, a brief white bra, and black stockings up to her thighs. "...oh no." "Oh my." Miss Lane exclaimed. "Stockings?!" Alice exclaimed, eyebrows raised. "I was going for some historical accuracy." Shannon said, blushing crimson, "Like you, with your bloomers." "Fair point." Alice nodded. "I'm going to... to go sit down..." Shannon said, struggling to cover her underwear with her hands. "Yeah, sure." Miss Lane took a breath, "Maybe we should stop with the presentations, this doesn't seem to be working out. And I'll give top marks to everyone as long as no one tells the headmistress that I stripped a student to her underwear." "Miss Lane giving out top marks?" Alice said, "That's a turn up for the books!"
