Lance sees a makeover offer at a costume shop that he couldn't pass up. Unfortunately, he didn't have the money to pay for it, but the store owner was willing to make a deal.

You could have picked Mrs. Berger’s jaw off the floor with a spoon. She stared at Lily as if trying to find evidence of Lance. The cross-dressed boy just blushed underneath her examination. “Sorry Lily, I didn’t mean to stare at you. I guess that means you are in fifth grade like Sammie,” she told Lily.

“I am, but Granny keeps telling people I just turned nine, so maybe I am really in third or fourth grade,” Lily mentioned with a shrug, after hiding a yawn.

Granny after seeing the yawn said, “I love to keep talking about this, but it is past this one’s bedtime.”

As they were walking out of the door they heard, “I invited Lily to the meeting tomorrow and the costume party on Saturday, I got permission from Mrs. Kane for both.”

“We will discuss that after you have your bath, Princess,” also filtered through the almost closed door.

The two of them walked across the grass to the Vanderbilt house. “Sorry, it took so long, I had to get Sammie Berger home first,” Granny mentioned to Mommie who greeted them at the door.

“How was she?”

“Lily was a complete angel like normal.”

“I was more asking about Sammie if it was going to be a problem.”

“Sammie was a complete angel too. No, your problem with Sammie is going to be that she considers Lily to be a perfect replacement for Holly Gregs. Her new best friend!”

“How do you feel about this Princess?” Mommie asked, looking at the yawning little girl.

Shrugging Lily said, “So far it hasn’t been a problem, she didn’t seem to want to out me today in school. But she was clingy more. Who knows we both might benefit from being close friends. If it turns sour we can move right?”

“Negative LILY ANN VANDERBILT!”

“Oh well, guess we have to get along with the neighbors. Oh, she wants to take me to Girl Scouts tomorrow, and a costume party on Saturday. I told her I would get permission, and call her tonight.”

“Tom, may your daughter go to Girl Scouts tomorrow?” Mommie yelled towards the family room.

“I'm not sure Lance ever has enjoyed Cub Scouts, maybe Lily will enjoy this one more,” came the disembodied voice.

“Can you get Lily’s stuff so Alison can leave,” was returned.

The disembodied voice said, “Coming.”

Once Granny had left, Lily was allowed to call the Berger household before her bath.

“Mrs. Berger, is Sammie there?” …

“She is in the tub. Oh. I'm just calling to tell her that I did get permission to go to the Girl Scouts.” …

“My Mommie wants to talk to you,” she said before handing the phone to Mommie.

“Hello Heather,” Mommie said as she pushed the little girl into the bathroom.

“One second I have to get Lily into the bathtub, Heather.” …

After she helped remove the wig, she instructed the little girl to strip and get into the tub. The fact that Mommie would be back to scrub her face was also pointed out before Mommie closed the door.

Mommie soon returned and scrubbed her daughter's face as promised. Taking the nearby pitcher, she proceeded to wash her hair with Strawberry smelling shampoo.

Once dry and wrapped with a towel sitting on the toilet, Lily saw that Mommie was plugging in her hair dryer.

"Princess, Mrs. Berger offered to take you to and from school since she was already taking Sammie. She also offered to take you as a client at her salon after Halloween. Your hair is too long for your brother and too short for you," Mommie discussed as she lifted up sections and blow-dried them. The little girl was watching in the mirror and it seemed her hair was becoming more bushy as Mommie worked.

After Mommie was done, she was patted on her bottom and sent to her room to get dressed in her nightie. She walked into her room to find a second pink present on her bed. Turning to where she left the pile of panties, she found none. The girl yelled, "Where are my panties, Mommie?"

"Where they belong, your underwear drawer, Princess," came the disembodied voice. It continued with, "Your nightie is under your pillow, too,"

She selected a pair of panties with sunflowers on them from the drawer before dressing herself for bed.

Turning to the present she opened it to receive a cream teddy bear with a pink ribbon around its neck. Tucked into bed by her Mommie the little girl was soon fast asleep.

“Mommie wants your sister here at three-thirty, dressed in her uniform, Lance,” Sammie told the boy as he turned to walk across the grass to next door.

Nodding the boy acknowledged the instructions before walking to his house. Walking into the house his mother greeted him, “Hello sweetie, Mrs. Berger brought over a huge box of clothes today, they are on your bed.”

Walking into his bedroom, he … she discovered a pile of clothes like promised. There were a couple of cute dresses, some t-shirts, pants, and two bags. They both appeared to have brand-new clothes in them. The one labeled Levy Dancewear had a pink leotard, a package of pink tights, and a set of ballet slippers. The next one was from the Girl Scouts Store and it had a green skirt, a green vest, and a white top in it.

As she was getting dressed in her uniform, Mommie walked in. “Put a pair of your white dance tights on, they will keep you warm. My little girl looks quite lovely in that uniform, by the way,” she instructed.

Looking in the sock drawer, she noticed that it was fuller than before. Grabbing a white pair of tights, she hesitated at grabbing some frilly socks. Shrugging she grabbed a pair. “What is the ballet stuff for?” Lily asked as she put on the tights and socks.

“I believe Sammie does ballet, and she is obviously planning on dragging you to ballet.”

The little girl realized she was, as she feared, being dragged out of the closet by her new best friend. “Oh!” she exclaimed nervously. She saw two sides to that coin, she was definitely excited, but these were so many big steps at once.

“Turn around sweetie,” Mommie told her, before putting the wig on the girl’s head. She bobby-pinned it before putting the simple black hair band in the hair.

Once her pink shoes were on her, she headed across the grass to the next door. She rang the doorbell, before getting rewarded with “Come in Lily.”

“You will definitely do, sweetie,” Mrs. Berger mentioned as she walked into the kitchen. “Her Highness the Princess is almost done getting ready,” she continued before mumbling barely loud enough to hear, “I swear she is ten going on sixteen!”

“LILY!” Sammie screamed down the hall, seeing the other girl standing there. The little girl was shocked and speechless as Sammie ran and almost tackled and hugged her. “Sorry, I hadn’t had my Lily hug today.”

“No, but you did sneak three Lance hugs today at school,” Lily pointed out.

They were rushed out to the car, and once seat belted Mrs. Berger drove off. Sammie explained that her Mommie lost an argument today about Lily. The little girl asked why they argued over her. “Mommie isn’t happy you are going to Girl Scouts. She …” Sammie started before being interrupted.

“I think I should explain,” Mrs. Berger started. “It isn’t you going to Girl Scouts, it also isn’t who you are, well technically it's related,” she continued. “No, it is who is going to be there, half of the troop are Samantha’s and your classmates. I feel like Samantha is tossing you into the lion's den.” she finished.

Sammie said, “Mrs. Kane and I will watch over Lily.”

“I couldn’t see any of Lance peeking out when I looked at you in the kitchen. I do recommend you keep your last name to yourself. Giving that out will be a full announcement of who you are in this town,” Mrs. Berger cautioned.

Nervously the little girl nodded, she was excited to try this, but now she was extremely nervous. Soon she was shyly walking into the Kane household behind Sammie. It was different acting like she didn’t know her classmates as they small-talked.

“Ladies! Settle down, we will get started soon. Sammie has brought a friend today, Lily. I do have to point out that I am biased here because Lily is my niece. So treat her nicely,” Aunty Hanna told the twelve assembled girls.

Lily felt her face blush up as all eyes turned on her. The shoved-out-of-the-closet girl was happy that apparently, Aunty claimed her as a family member too, not just her new Granny.

“Ok, Girls, we will start with the promise, next is a silly Halloween-themed game, we will have a birthday party for Juliette Low for your Girl Scout Traditions badge, before closing the meeting,” Aunty gave the agenda.

Slowly Lily held her hand like the other girls were doing before saying the same thing they were doing:

“Ok, girls there are twelve of you, I am going to randomly pick names out of this bag,” Aunty started, “Marlene, Lily, Amanda, and Jill, you four are group one. Sammie, Rachel, Jen, and Melissa: group two. Tina, Vicky, Anna, and Isabelle: group three. You all will find a bag with your number and four straws. Pour the bag out where it is, and going relay style assemble the puzzle on the table. You may only use the straw to touch the puzzle pieces, and you must tag the next person before they can begin their turn,” the troop leader instructed.

Marlene poured out what appeared to be a twelvish piece skeleton puzzle from the bag. The little girl was glad that the pieces were not small, the smallest appeared to be three inches. Once Marlene had her turn, she sucked on the straw and ran trying not to giggle to the table. Back and forth all the girls run giggling up a storm, cheering on their teammates.

Lily is sad to inform you that her group was not the winner, but she had excellent fun doing it. She would be sure to point out to Sammie later, in a teasing way, that her group beat Group Two.

After learning all about Juliette Low, and having a slice of birthday cake, Lily followed the other girls by grabbing the girl on her left hand with her right hand, and vice versa for the girl on her right. She felt this was different, but it did make a very tight circle. Suddenly her right hand was squeezed, and the clueless girl guessed correctly that she needed to squeeze her left hand.

“Thank you, girls, I will see you at the Lloyd Event Center downtown in costume on Saturday. Next time assuming she comes again we may be investituring Lily. Goodbye girls,” Aunty said before walking near to Lily.

After the meeting was over a lot of the girls gave hugs, before leaving in their respective parent's car. Lily felt like she had pulled it off, especially in front of Amanda, Anna, Jen, Rachel, and Tina who were in her class in school.

Once all of the girls were gone, except for Sammie and Lily, Aunty Hanna bent down and hugged Lily, “You look good Sweetheart, and you seem to have enjoyed yourself.”

“I did very much so, there is just the slight issue of my five unknowing classmates.”

“We will take it one day at a time, Sweetheart. And Sammie,” Hanna comforted.

Sammie, who was wondering where her Mommie was, answered, “Yes Mrs. Kane?”

“Thank you for being a friend and not an enemy for Lily, she really needs one.”

“There have been hints of the existence of Lily for years, I can’t count how many times she was wearing my dress-up clothes when we were four to six. I was her friend then, I am her friend now.”

“What?” Lily said shocked, who had forgotten all about those times.

Giggling Sammie said, “I can probably find photographic evidence, but really where is my Mommie, she should be here by now.”

Author's Notes:Comments and questions are always welcomed.

This story is fully written and will try to post new chapters on Tuesday and Saturday. -- Thanks Becky