Summer vacation had been ongoing for a week and I was already bored. The thrifty lifestyle I'd been living for the last eight months meant that my purse was bursting at the seams. The old wooden treasure chest was overflowing with coins and bills, you see I'd yet gone ahead and opened a checking account with our local bank as my best friend Madeline and older sister Lily had been strongly suggesting for the last few months. Instead I'd seemed perfectly okay with stuffing the wages I received from helping down at the family store, my older sisters baker and tea-shop, and from the other odd jobs around town in the old treasure chest, one of the few remaining tokens from childhood. The chest use to contain around four hundred plastic golden coins. According to my mom, I use to enjoy playing pirate when I was little.

So, right now the box was near overflowing, by my own reckoning I had around six hundred or so dollars put away in the box. That six hundred dollars in small bills, not counting the old milk jug full of loose change I had sitting beside it. A pretty good bit of dough if I do say so myself. Money that would soon be put to good use, because as I laid there, stretched out on my bed, my blonde hair sprayed across my pillow, my ceiling fan on high to stir the stale air in my room and aid in the cooling of my hot and stuffy room. Yes I laid there, listening to my dad mow the lawn with an old push mower and smelling the grass clipping. Laying there half asleep and full from the fried chicken tender lunch, my mind started to wonder. I started to wonder what I should spend all that money on?

Now, of course the best course of action would be to take all those bills and coins and bike down to the nearest branch of Bank Plus, a small regional bank that services my area of Mississippi and open a personal checking account with them and drop all the money into that account. That would be the best and wisest course of action and after giving the matter some thought I'd decided I would do that tomorrow morning. The bank was closed, today was the Monday after Memorial Day, and thus the lobby of the bank was closed but the ATM was open.

“I'll guess I'll do that.” I said with a small sigh. I hated going to the bank. You see, I'm different from most people. About two years ago when I was fourteen my sister had talked into doing this weird stunt. You see my school, Benton Academy and its biggest rival Manchester Academy have this weird, ongoing tradition. You see each Homecoming student either volunteers or is selected to be an “Hostage” that is given to the other school. This “Hostage” is guarded by the cheerleaders' rival school and is treated like a visiting guest. Okay, sounds good right, but let me explain a little further, the “Hostage” from the school that wins the game is always released unharmed. But the “Hostage from the losing losing school must always suffer a humiliating forfeit, normally that is getting slimed in the winning school's colors.

Yes, it's an old, but cherished tradition, but then again I'm sure most if not all private schools have those weird traditions. Anyway I'd been hogtied into volunteering for the role of hostage my Freshman year. I did so under the guise of “Jamie Sarah Potter'' the little sister to the famous “Lily Elizabeth Potter.” The events that followed slowly led to “Jamie Sarah Potter” replacing “James William Potter” and had spurred me on a quest of self discovery, a journey I was still on to this very day.

Anyway I think I've gotten off track here. Anyway, returning to the story, as I laid there, flat on my back, peering up at my ceiling fan that was making slow rotations, trying my best to board that express train to the Land of Nod, I felt a sudden feeling of recklessness starting to overcome me. Then as if out of the blue an idea popped into my head. At first I tried to discard the idea, but then it came back a moment later. Again I tried to discard it, and it came back, finally after what seemed like hours, but must have been only a handful of minutes. I accepted the idea with a sigh and then a smile.

With sleep now clearly out of the question now, I rolled out of bed, slipped on my flip-flops and made my way over to my computer desk, I quickly booted up my laptop, once it was booted, I clicked on the “Google” icon that kind of looks like a beach ball and then I started my search.

On a whim I decided to type in, “Anime Conventions in Mississippi.” and the results were well to be expected, slim to none. There was one big convention being held later that summer in Biloxi called CoastCon, and it was billed as being the oldest convention in the state. And there was another one in Vicksburg, and another two in Jackson. The newest one in Jackson was called “Kawaii-Con ''. That one was just three weeks away. And so without giving the matter much thought, and to be honest without thinking I walked over and picked up my purse, I reached into my purse and pulled out my wallet and pulled a prepaid visa gift car. Rolling the mental dice, I decided to go ahead and buy a Saturday Pass in advance while they were on sale.

I knew mom and dad would be away that week, Dad had business in Memphis and mom wanted to go with him. That would leave Lily and I alone to manage the household by ourselves. Ms. Kayla Brewer would manage the store for dad while he was away, and a friend of the family's petite little raven hair girl named Cerridwen Whitethorn would be helping her. So that would free me up, and I was owed some time off from helping Lily, and I could borrow the family car. So yes, everything in theory should work out. I just needed to take this first step and get the ball rolling.

So I entered all my information on the site, you know, name, age, sex and of course social, you know all the stuff that I needed to provided to prove who I claimed I was. A few moments later, after sending all of this information off, I got an email saying my con-badge would be mailed to me in about a week or so. Good, now I just need cosplay.

Now, in my personal opinion if you're going to attend an anime convention then you need to cosplay. Cosplaying is the act of dressing up as your favorite anime character. To me it's a way to pay tribute to your favorite character and to honor them. I know there is a lot of gatekeeping in the cosplay community, and I totally don't get that. Anyway, I was debating between going as Sailor Moon or as a bunny girl. I wanted to go as Sailor Moon because like her, I had blue eyes and blonde hair, and totally had the body.

But, I'd figured there would be at least three dozen Sailor Moon's running around the convention Hall. Sailor Moon was after all one of the most popular anime's of all time. It was right up there with Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Bleach. The top five most popular anime's of all time, and the five that had brought anime to the west first and paved the way for others. Also three of the five had been among the first anime movies to air in the west on the silver screen and bring anime for college dorm rooms to mainstream.

Anyway, after a moment of debating with myself, I'd decided that I would do Sailor Moon for my very next anime convention. Maybe Metro-Con or if I could swing it CoastCon. And so with my mind made up, I goggled 'Bunny-girl Cosplay' and trust me when I say this, my jaw honest to God dropped at the results that popped up on my screen. In for a penny, steal a pound I say, so after some debating, I decided to settle on a baby blue bunny-girl suit. I tossed in some inexpensive blue heels to finish the look and my total came to around fifty seven dollars and ninety seven cents. Paid again with my prepaid visa debit card. Again a few moments later I got a email saying my order had been received and that I could expect my costume in about a week.

With all that out of the way, I decided to try to nap again. This time, I managed to board the express train to Nod. And my mind conjured up dreams of being a sexy bunny-girl and being the center of attention. The week passed in a blur, cheer practice, chores around the house, helping with the family shop, helping Lily with her bakery, hanging out with friends, and you know time just seemed to slip through my fingers. Then one Saturday morning, about a week and a few days after I placed my orders, two packages arrived on the doorstep. Both were addressed to “Ms. Jamie Sarah Potter, 134 Town Creek Road, Benton, Ms.”

Mom of course had found the brown paper wrapped parcels first and had decided to drop them in front of my bedroom door. Mom, thankfully, respected my privacy and if a parcel was addressed to me, she would always drop it by my bedroom door. And that was where I found it, when I was returning from cheer practice.

And I'm not going to even lie to you, I felt my heart jump into my throat as I picked up the two brown parcels. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open my bedroom door, a sudden powerful wave of heat rolled out of my room. A long standing practice in the Potter Household is turning off all electronic devices when your not using them. That includes computers, televisions, lights, lamps, air conditioners, and fans. So my room was boiling like a toaster oven.

Sighing I tossed the package on my bed. And quickly I turned on my air conditioner and ceiling fan, and without giving it a second thought I tossed the form fitting t-shirt and gym shorts I was wearing into the laundry basket I keep at the foot of my bed. Once those were off, I decided that I needed t shower. Lily was about to graduate and had passed the reins over to a new girl named Rebecca Coleman. And Rebecca had been pushing us hard. She was drilling us, and the fact that I was to be her co-captain meant that that she was really starting to drill me. After all it was expected that when Rebecca graduate the reins would handed down to me... joy.

Anyway I was tired, sunburned and sweaty and I needed a shower. The package could wait a while. Plus my room needed to cool down a little. And I needed a snack, snack first, hydrate, shower and then see what had arrived in the mail. Then a short short afternoon nap. The dinner with family, followed by an evening of netflixing and chilling. What a way to spend a Saturday evening am I right?

The shower was refreshing, and brutal. Brutal as in I needed to turn the hot water all the way up to break through the inch thick layer of sweat, mud, and grass that had been caked on my skin during our grueling three and a half hour torture session under the hawk eyed Rebecca Coleman. Each student had to be repeated over and over again until each girl on the squad could perform it with her eyes closed. And in sheering heat of an Mississippian summer, that pure torture.

Anyway, shower done, it was time to eat. Post work-out snack for me was three glasses of creamy chocolate milk and leftovers from breakfast reheated. Better than nothing I suppose. Normally mom keeps a few pounds of cold cuts in the fridge for you know quick fixes and for lazy evening dinners. But, alas the fridge was bare as old mother Hubbard's. Mom had postponed the weekly trip to the supermarket one too many times it seemed.

Anyway, snack done, I decided now it was time to see what the postman brought me. But first I needed to brush my teeth, and I had to keep those pearly whites nice and clean. Anyway, teeth , I walked into my room. Mom and dad were out doing some shopping I think, hopefully grocery shopping, once a month they liked to skirt over to nearby Madison to shop at Kroger. And Lily, well Lily was doing Lily things.
So, I pretty much had the house to myself. I still shut my bedroom door. Once the door was shut, I shifted my attention toward the brown package that sat upon my bed. Taking a deep breath I started to walk toward it. Before I could catch myself I found myself tearing at the brown wrapping paper. Once I'd shredded the paper, I found myself starting to blush, a small box had been hidden by the paper. I opened the box and there before me was a one piece bodysuit, strapless.. the body suit was baby blue, under it I found a matching pair of velvet bunny ears. A black butterfly tie was also included, and two blue cuffs. Under all of this was a pair of blue heels.

I blinked and blinked again. So at last it had arrived. I eased the one piece bodysuit down and smiled. Quickly I started to strip down. I just had to try it on. I just had to, I wanted to see how I would look in the most alluring of costumes.

It took some doing, but I somehow managed to get the costume on. And once I did, I felt my breath being taken away. The costume flattered me in all the right places. It enhanced my bust, and flattered my curves. The skimpy costume totally showed off my hard earned tan. As I admired myself in my bedroom mirror I found myself wondering how the anime convention would go, and wondering just how far I've come on this journey to become Jamie Sarah Potter.

To be continued.