On the first day back at school, Jennifer was nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t get it!” Chloe observed to Suzanne as they sat in the classroom while the register was taken, Jennifer’s desk conspicuously empty. “She was so excited about her presentation!”

“I know, right? Did she message you about it last night too?” Chloe nodded. “She said it was going to be awesome and to make sure we didn’t miss it! Weird that she would just not show up?”

“Unless she’s already in the hall getting ready?” suggested Chloe. “But I didn’t see her at all this morning!”

“Last time she was online was about half six this morning!” Suzanne observed, sneaking a look at her phone under the desk. “So she must have been up pretty early! Maybe she got sick?”

“Sucks if that’s the case!” Chloe looked genuinely sad for her friend. Their teacher, Mrs Humphreys, called for quiet then took the register. Neither Chloe nor Suzanne could help noticing that she didn’t even read out Jennifer’s name, as if she not only knew already that she would not be there but almost as if she was no longer part of the class. She must be sick, the both concluded internally as they sat in silence, and her parents had already informed the school so Mrs Humphreys was just saving time by not calling out her name.

“Lovely!” The teacher set down her pen and smiled at the class from behind her desk. “I hope you all had a lovely Summer and are looking forward to another year of learning?” This was met with the expected polite but non-committal murmurings of assent. “As I’m sure you all remember,” she grinned almost teasingly, “your project over the Summer was to prepare a short presentation on a woman of your choice who you feel changed the world?” The class, boys and girls alike, nodded. “Over the next couple of weeks, you’ll all be making your presentations before the school but today, by her own request, we’re going to start with Jennifer. Yes, Chloe?” She turned to the schoolgirl whose hand had shot up at the mention of her friend’s name.

“Miss? Where is she?” Chloe asked. “Jennifer’s not here!”

“Don’t worry about that for the time being!” Mrs Humphreys smiled knowingly. “Everything will become clear in due course! Now, class,” she turned her attention back to the whole room. “Leave your bags here and let’s make our way down to the hall for assembly.” The thirty or so pupils obediently filed out of the classroom, across the landing and down the stairs, merging along the way with the various other groups who were all on their way to the same destination. Eventually, the assorted lines of children converged on the double doors and made their way into the hall where they sat in reasonably neat rows on the floor, facing the front of the hall where a large screen was set up.

“Good morning, School!” the Head Mistress, Mrs Anderson, welcomed them once they were all assembled.

“Good morning, Mrs Anderson.” the entire school replied in pseudo-musical unison.

“This morning, we have a very special treat!” she clasped her hands together. “As I’m sure you know, it’s tradition at our school that pupils moving into Year Six spend the Summer researching a topic that they are set at the end of term then make a presentation on that topic to the school once we return for the new school year. Normally these presentations run for between five and ten minutes a piece and we aim to enjoy three in morning assembly every day until everyone has had their chance to present. Today, however, we’re going to do things a little differently! Jennifer Miller contacted the school last week and asked especially that she be allowed to present first and, since she had manage to collect so much material, that she be allowed to take a whole assembly for herself. When we heard about how diligently she had been preparing this presentation over the Summer and how dedicated she was to the research, we of course agreed! And so, without further ado, I’ll pass you over to Jennifer!

The lights dimmed and the screen began to glow. The assembled pupils clapped politely, expecting Jennifer to emerge from wherever she must have been waiting to begin her presentation but instead the screen began to show an animation of a burst of silver stars against a pink background and words appeared on the screen in gold script that matched the Sidney’s logo as if they were being written. “Desperately Seeking Sidney”, followed by smaller letters underneath which read “Written and Presented by Jennifer Miller”. The animated title card faded and it was then that the curious audience saw Jennifer for the first time, not in person but on the screen.

There were a few shocked gasps and more than a few giggles when it became apparent that she was completely naked apart from her hat and boots. The scene on the screen showed her stood next to a waving waxwork of Sidney Roebuck, attired very similarly but in pink rather than white. Wondering if the teachers were as surprised at this as the pupils, Chloe shot looks at both Mrs Humphreys and Mrs Anderson as well as the other teachers but from the indulgent way they were smiling, they had all seen this video already or had at least been warned what to expect. More than a few of the male teachers, she noticed with amusement, were sitting with their legs crossed and she wondered what the boys in the audience were making of it!

“Welcome!” Jennifer grinned at the camera. “And thank you all for joining me on this adventure! Surely everyone is familiar with my friend Sidney, here?” she gestured at the animatronic figure which was slightly unnerving in the way all figures of its kind tend to be, however whimsical or charming the subject. “We all know her as the face, and body of course,” she giggled, “of Sidney’s Family Restaurants! But how many of us have ever stopped to think about the girl herself? The person behind the mascot? Just who was Sidney Roebuck and why, exactly, did she want to get eaten so badly that not only did she campaign publicly for the right when her family had more than enough money and influence to arrange such a thing discretely if it was really what she wanted, but also for a change in law and culture that would allow others to follow in her footsteps? Come with me as I seek the answers to all these questions and more!”

What followed over the next twenty minutes was a condensed summary of everything Jennifer had learned about Sidney over the summer, starting with basic biographical details gleaned mostly from the biographies she had bought on her first visit to Sidney’s, illustrated by some of the home movie footage Hunter Roebuck had been kind enough to share with her, followed by details about her campaign, incorporating video clips from Sidney’s early viral videos as well as interview footage and of course the “Kinky Boots” music video in its entirety. Amongst the exploration of Sidney’s life and campaign, Jennifer dropped in some information about how cannibalism had been viewed historically and at Sidney’s time, not going into great detail about the online fetish community but making sure to confirm that it existed alongside the more horrific and barbaric depictions of cannibalism from movies and cartoons. With no footage available to share of Sidney’s slaughter, Jennifer covered this part of the story with the video she had made with Caroline where she marked her up with the same cuts that Sidney had been parted into. Finally she talked about the aftermath and legacy of Sidney’s campaign, showing footage she had got from Sarah’s grandmother as well as excerpts from the videos she had filmed herself at the restaurant. She briefly covered the success and expansion of the Sidney’s brand and finished up with a summary of the girl-meat industry today.

“None of this would have been possible,” she was shown back next to the Sidney animatronic as she had been at the start of the video, “without this girl here! If it had not been for her, the world we now live in would be completely different! Thanks to Sidney, not only do we get to enjoy a delicious kind of meat considered taboo for far too long, but organ transplant waiting lists and emergency blood-drives are a thing of the past! Our world is happier, healthier, safer and not to mention far tastier, all thanks to Sidney Roebuck!”

The scene faded and a slow, almost sentimental piano rendition of “Yellow Rose of Texas”, Sidney’s unofficial theme song, began to play behind assorted footage of Sidney in both private and public life, ending with the last known picture of her, standing in the classic Sidney pose. The video zoomed in on her head and Sidney winked at the camera before the screen faded to black.

Thinking this was the end of the presentation and still a little puzzled why Jennifer had not been there to deliver it in person, the audience began to clap politely but this quickly stopped as they realised that, in true cinematic style, this presentation included a “post-credits sequence”! Jennifer appeared on the screen once more, but immediately there was an obvious difference in the footage. Throughout the presentation, whenever she had appeared on camera, Jennifer had clearly been indoors in a controlled environment, mostly in her own house but sometimes at other locations like the Sidney’s lobby. This time, for the first time, she was outdoors, the natural light washing her out a little and the sound quality, while perfectly fine, not quite the professional standard it had been for the bulk of the presentation. The close-up shot showed Jennifer from the waist up, arms folded, leaning nonchalantly against a white-painted brick wall, naked apart from her hat as she had been throughout the presentation.

“Well howdy!” she grinned, speaking in a put-on Texas accent and giving the Sidney salute. “How y’all doing this fine morning?” She giggled, dropping the accent. “I’m sorry, I just can’t keep that up! If you’re seeing this, it means my dad did his job properly!” The camera spun around to a comically-angled close-up of Mr Miller who grinned goofily, waving at the camera, before turning it back to his naked daughter. “I hope you enjoyed the presentation! I tried to keep it concise! For those of you who are interested, there will be a ninety minute version uploaded on Youtube at some point today. Up until the montage you just saw, it’s all my own editing work but, for reasons that will soon become apparent, I’m going to have to trust my dad to edit this final section himself so I can’t speak for the quality! Hopefully it will come out well but if you have any complaints about the camera work or editing, you’ll have to take them up with him!” She giggled again. “Okay, Dad!” she instructed him. “Let’s show them where we are!”

The tight close-up pulled back to show Jennifer stood on the street, her bottom half as naked as the top, outside a butcher’s shop with assorted cuts of meat from a variety of animals but including Girl on display in the window. The ornamental letters on the window read “Morrison Fine Meats” with “Est. 1943” in smaller letters underneath. With such an intriguing spectacle on the screen, only the few people sat immediately around her noticed Caroline quietly get up and leave the room.

“It is just before a quarter to seven on the morning that you are watching this at school.” she told the camera. “Obviously if you are watching this at home on another day then this is however long ago it was!” she grinned. “But either way, as I speak to you now, it is just before a quarter to seven and Mr Morrison is getting ready to open his shop for the day. Although he is a busy man he has generously agreed not only to grant me a last-minute interview but to fit me into his schedule this morning! I would be lying if I said I had not been toying with the idea for some weeks now but it occurred to me yesterday afternoon, as I put the finishing touches to the editing of both versions of the presentation, that I had set out on this journey wanting to understand Sidney, to get inside her head and to put myself metaphorically as well as literally in her boots.” She raised a white-booted foot and teasingly wiggled it towards the camera. “And I realised that there was only one way I was really going to do that, and that is to follow where she led! That’s why we’re were now, so I hope you’ll all come with me and enjoy as I complete my journey following in the footsteps of Sidney! Ready?” She grinned, putting a hand on the door ready to push it open, “Let’s go!” Still looking at the camera, she pushed the door and the bell to alert the shop-keeper that someone was coming in pinged. The scene faded to black and Mrs Anderson paused the video.

“Now before we continue,” she addressed the assembled pupils as the lights came back up, causing the paused blackness on the screen to appear a faded charcoal grey, all of whom were sitting in rapt and fascinated silence, “while I believe this is a wonderful educational opportunity for everyone and it does not serve any of us well to shy away from the realities of life, including where out food comes from, I am told the following scenes are,” she read from a small card, clearly quoting a message she had been given, “unflinchingly graphic, and I am aware many of you were friends with Jennifer and may be a little squeamish about watching what comes next so,” she smiled a little nervously, “if any of you would like to leave and not watch these last few minutes of the presentation, now is your opportunity to do so.” She stood looking out at them expectantly for at least half a minute during which nobody seemed to move a muscle. Certainly nobody seemed to want to miss the climax of the presentation! “Very well then!” she smiled. “Let’s continue!” The lights went down again and she allowed the video to resume.

Jennifer was now shown inside the butcher’s shop with two other people. One was a stocky, friendly-looking man with a bald head and bushy light-brown moustache. Even if he had not been dressed in a blue and white striped apron over a white smock, it would have been clear that he was the butcher. The other person was a girl of about thirteen or fourteen with long, straight, dirty-blonde hair in a neat ponytail. Like the butcher, she wore a blue and white striped apron but unlike him she appeared to be wearing nothing at all underneath it. From the steadiness of the shot, it was clear that the camera was now on a tripod as it had been for the scenes that Jennifer had filmed herself, or at least on a stable, flat surface of some kind. The sound quality was crisper too.

“I’m here with Mr Morrison, the butcher,” Jennifer told the camera, “and his daughter Honey.” Both waved at the camera as Caroline had done when introduced for her scene. “Mr Morrison, thank you so much for fitting me in today and taking the time to record this interview.”

“It’s a pleasure!” the jovial, burly man assured her with a very sincere smile.

“Perhaps you can tell us a little about how you came to choose this line of work and how things have changed for you over the years?”

“Well,” Mr Morrison stroked his chin thoughtfully, “the profession has always been in my blood, really! This shop was founded by my great-grandfather when he came home from the war then passed to my grandfather when he retired. My father, God rest him, took a different path and became a civil engineer but I always enjoyed my visits here as a boy and decided to go to college and get a qualification in butchery, after which Grandfather took me on as a sort of apprentice until he retired and I’ve been running the business ever since. One way or another I’ve been in the trade for nearly thirty years, man and boy!”

“That’s a long time!” Jennifer conceded with an impressed nod. “And how much of a part does Girl-meat play in your business?”

“Well it’s our main source of income, really!” Mr Morrison explained. “By far the most popular and affordably-priced for most people. Very few overheads with Girl, you see! None of the farming infrastructure you get with other meat. We do stock pork, beef, chicken and occasionally a few other more exotic meats too but we’re a supplier of Girl first and foremost. It’s also,” he continued, “the only meat the we fully process here on site. Girls tend to be a lot more cooperative than pigs or cows when it comes to their slaughter!” he chuckled. “Back when I started, we used to buy the carcasses in from the abattoir like the rest of the meat and just part them out in the back but eventually I realised I was adding extra steps and expenses I didn’t need to and could just cut out the middle-man! Now girls like yourself come to me and I take them through the whole process.”

“And that’s what we’ll be showing my friends in a few minutes?” Jennifer grinned with excitement. “The whole process of slaughtering me and butchering my carcass? Just like Sidney?”

“Absolutely!” Mr Morrison chuckled again. “In fact we still work from the same guide that was devised for Sidney herself, although the technique has been refined a little over the years and the whole process is handled more efficiently!”

“Oh?” Jennifer asked, sounding genuinely intrigued. “Can you give us an example?”

“Well, the big one that comes to mind,” Mr Morrison explained thoughtfully, twisting the end of his majestic whiskers, “is the slaughter itself. Now, bear in mind we have no actual footage of Sidney between the time the door of the preparation room closed and when the press were invited in to view and film the cuts of meat laid out on the table, but according to what people who were there in the room at the time have since written or said in interviews, her head was cut off then her body was hung up to drain. Now,” he waved a hand in a conciliatory fashion as if to assure that he meant no disrespect to anyone involved, “that’s a perfectly legitimate way of slaughtering a girl and is often done for the spectacle. There’s something about a pretty head being removed with one neat chop that just feels so satisfying and enjoyable to watch, but it’s not the best way in terms of efficiency. What we do here, and what has become industry standard for setups like mine that are about producing and providing food rather than entertainment, is that we hang the girl up first then cut her throat, pulling her head back to keep the wound open. This way, her heart continues to beat and pump the blood out a lot faster than if she is killed before being bled out. Once it slows to a trickle, that is when we remove the head.” Jennifer gave a visible, involuntary shiver of excitement, knowing that what he described was what would happen to her in a few short minutes.

“Well we’ll get to see that in action first hand very soon!” she grinned.

“We certainly will!” Mr Morrison replied with a chuckle.

“And what happens to the heads once you remove them?” Jennifer asked, knowing the answer of course as this was a conversation they had already had when they made their arrangement but wanting to give the nice butcher the chance to explain it to the viewers.

“Well there’s a few different options,” he explained, playing with the tip of his moustache again as seemed to be his habit when he was thinking. “They can be preserved as they often are at Sidney’s, turned into a trophy or something a little more…” he cleared his throat awkwardly and his cheeks turned pink which Jennifer found quite adorable under the circumstances, “practical! But we don’t do that in-house, they need to be taken to a taxidermist within two hours of removal and kept refrigerated for the best results. Some families like to take the head home and hang it out in the garden so that the birds can peck away all the flesh then they turn the skull into some kind of ornament as a memento. Some girls, on the other hand, opt for full harvest where the meat from their face is taken too, as well as their eyeballs, tongue and brain which can be surprisingly delicious if cooked right!”

“And that’s what happened to Sidney?” prompted Jennifer.

“That’s right!” Mr Morrison confirmed. “Every scrap of usable meat from her body was harvested!”

“Then that will do for me too!” Jennifer grinned before turning her attention to the girl who had, up until that point, been stood quietly, politely listening to the conversation. “Now,” she smiled warmly, “perhaps you’d like to tell us who you are and how you fit in around here?”

“I’m Honey,” the girl introduced herself in a sweet voice, “the butcher’s daughter.”

“Sweet name! Sounds delicious!” Jennifer teased, making the older girl giggle before continuing.

“I’ve been helping out here in various capacities since I was six or seven! At first I just used to stand outside as an advert, if the weather was nice enough of course! I’d often have leaflets to give out to for girls who were curious about signing up and wanting to know more!”

“Naked, I presume?” Jennifer asked cheekily.

“Well yes!” Honey giggled. “I was there to advertise Girl-meat after all!”

“And do you plan on being harvested yourself one day?” asked the young interviewer. “I’m sure people must ask about your meat all the time when you’re showing it off?”

“Oh yes, I’m always being asked how long it is before my turn and whether they can reserve particular cuts but I’m used to that now and it doesn’t bother me! To answer your question, when I was younger I rather assumed it would happen one day but as I got older and started helping Dad out in the shop and with the work in the back room, I started to see my future as behind the counter rather than on it! I’m currently learning the trade from Dad and hope to go to college like her did in a few years to get the professional qualifications so that I can take over the business when he’s ready to step down.”

“And you’re going to be assisting with my harvest today?” Jennifer asked, as much as a statement as a question.

“I certainly am!” the older girl grinned. “And I consider it an honour!” All three smiled only slightly awkwardly as the camera as the scene faded to black. When the picture returned, the trio had moved into the back room and Jennifer was now completely naked, without even her had and boots, and her gently curling brown hair had been pulled back into a rather severe ponytail. Both the butcher and his daughter had hung up the aprons they wore in the shop and were now wearing disposable translucent plastic overalls, him over his clothes and her over her otherwise naked body.

To be continued...