Him-Lady or She-Male

Chapter 7 Good days, and bad days.

Ms. Kim’s class of Woman’s studies was interesting. It was interesting only because it would never happen to me. It was about marriage and family through history. If I got married it would be as a husband, well not as a bride to a husband anyway.

Mr. Bird’s algebra II class was not to bad. I already had his class last year. I guess that my Mother made a mistake here. I was taking pre-calculus before, so this class was a breeze.

After class as I was walking through the parking lot to go home,

Polly said “Hi, are you going to the fabric store after school to get a patter to sew?”

“I am trying to forget about that. Does Ms. Sams really expect me to wear a dress to a formal dance? That seems insane. Does she also expect me to have a date?” I was getting mad again.

“Well it is usually the way that it works. If you need a date I’m sure that we can find one for you. But if all else fails, you can always go alone. It’s not something that any girl would want because it shows that no one wants her. A fate worst than death for a girl.” Polly said. “If you want you can meet the rest of that haven’t got our pattern yet. Well be there for hours I’m sure. So see you there Alice.”

She drove off and I started walking again. It was just a couple of minutes to home. I was glad of that. Walking anywhere it a skirt was not high on my list of things that I wanted to do.

When I got home I called Janice. I knew that she was always home, because she worked from home.

“Hello Janice, I just had to talk to someone. I knew that you were home, so I called you.” I started.

“Well hello, Alvin, it is always a pleasure to talk to you, so what is it that has you so upset today?”

“Today was the first day back to school, and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. First my mother registered me as a girl, and then the Headmaster made me wear the girls dress uniform, then the first period I have home economics, I found out that I have to sew a formal dress for the Christmas formal, second period I had to be nude in the girls showers while all of the girls checked me out. Third period I have to learn how to type, forth period the teacher kicked me out for being a pervert, fifth period is women studies, not something that I had ever wanted to study, and last period was algebra II, which I passed last year with an A plus.”

“I guess that you had a busy day Alvin, so who are you inviting to the Christmas formal? And what kind of dress are you going to make? You could make one that looks like a tuxedo, and then invite one of your ten admirers to go with you. I am sure that any of us would want to go because none of us had ever been able to wear a dress to our school formals.”

“Janice, if I could I would invite all ten of you to join me at the Christmas formal, It’s not something that I want to go to dressed in a girls formal.” I said.

“That sounds like a date Alvin, I’ll call the others and tell them that you invited us all to your Christmas formal. That you very much, you are just so sweet.” Janice said.

“What? I can’t take ten dates to the Christmas formal. I don’t think that it’s allowed. And what is going to happen when we all show up in formal dresses?” I started to giggle. “I can just see it now. The eleven of us getting out of our Limo at the dance, and having ten girls, when most of the guys can’t even get one girl to go with them. I wish that I could do it, but I’m sure that there must be a rule against it.”

“Well Alvin, you have to worry about that later, right now you have to get a dress pattern don’t you? Get one that looks like a tuxedo on the top, and then has pants on the bottom that looks like a formal dress. No one can tell buy you, but its what you know that it is, not what it appears to be that would be important, isn’t it.”

“Yes, I guess your right, it’s what I am, not what others see me to be.” I said. “OK, thank you Janice, I needed to talk to someone. Now I’ll go get a pattern like you said, and I’ll see you Friday.”

“Bye Alvin, and good luck.” Janice said, and I heard her hang up the phone.

I went downstairs to find mom. “Mom I need to go get a pattern at the Fabric store today for class tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day that the students were suppose to have their patterns.”

“What is it that you’re getting a pattern for?” Mom had to ask.

“We have to sew a formal dress and wear it at the Christmas formal for school dance.” I said, knowing somehow that Mom would love it.

“That’s great, let me get my purse, and I’ll take you right now. We’ll go to Fabric Barn, because they will have the largest selection of patterns anywhere.”

With that she was a whirlwind of activity. We were on our way in no time at all. The Fabric Barn was in the next town, so it was a thirty-minute drive there. Mom played the radio on the way, and we drove in silence. I think that she was happy because she thought she was getting a daughter at long last.

I on the other hand was not pleased. I reflected about it my self. And I came to the conclusion that I was just not a quitter, in anything that I did. That was what made me a good football player, never quitting, and now this I was just not quitting; I was playing by everyone’s rules of what I should be doing. But it was time to change the rules a little bit at a time.

We looked at the patterns; I found just what I needed. It was a tuxedo costume in the Halloween patterns. I could just add it to any dress that I made. Next I found a pattern for a dress that was really flowing pants with a jacket that had long sleeves and high neck. If I put the two together, and made it in black, then it would be a girl’s tuxedo. I am sure that with the help of some of the girls, in the class, I could paste the two together and make it work for me. It would not be too girlish and feminine, or look like any boys tuxedo either. That should meet the requirements of the class very nicely, be agreeable with my Moms requirements of not wearing boy’s clothes, and still feel like it was a suit with pants. Not everyone would be happy with it, but no one would be so unhappy with it that they would say no either.

Mom agreed with me, she didn’t like the tuxedo tails that I wanted to put on the jacket, but I told her that ‘I wanted them’, they ‘looked so cool’. (OK boyish, but you had better believe that I wasn’t going to say those words to her.)

She also agreed with the material, I don’t know what kind of material it was, but she said it would be OK, but not the best for a formal dress. Girl’s formal dresses should be softer and flow better. I guess that the blue jean material that I fist saw would not have been acceptable to her. Oh well.

When we got home, there was a phone message from Janice. I called her back. “Hello, Alvin, guess what!” She was really excited. “How many guesses do I get?” I asked.

“None, I have been on the phone to the others, and we are all going to accept your invitation to the Christmas formal,” She said.

I didn’t remember inviting them all. “Did I invite you all?”

“Yes, you did, you said, and I quote ‘If I could invite all ten of you’ well, congratulations, you have just invited all ten of us to the Christmas formal. And we all accept, thank you very much for inviting us.”

“Let me get this straight, all ten of you, at the same time, are going to be my date at the Christmas formal? Is that what you said?”

“Yes, and guess what else?” Janice laid on me.

“There’s more?”

“Yes, we have all decided to rent the same white dress. That way no one will doubt that we are all your date.”

“Since I have to make and wear this class assignment, that means that I have to wear a dress, the teacher will be there to make sure of it.” I said.

“That’s OK, have you already got it?” Janice asked.

“Yes, Mom and I just got back, it’s going to look like a girls version of a Tuxedo.” I said.

“Perfect. So we will all be in the same white dress, and you will be in black. What could be better?” Janice asked.

“Well it could be better if I could wear a suit,” I answered.

“But since you can’t, this will be great. We all get to go to out, to our first high school formal dance, and you get to have ten dates. Karen is arranging to have a limo pick us up and then get you. I just don’t know how to hide it from your mom. She’s not going to be happy knowing that you are going with ten girls to the formal, instead of a boy, so you have to tell her, that none of the boys at school would go with you, so we are taking you instead, but wait till the last minute to tell her. That way she will think that you tried to get a date at least.” Janice said. I could just see the smile on her face.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I was going to hate today at school. I was wondering if there was someway that I could be sick and not go. Was sick of school a valid medical reason to be excused?

After Mom came in and told me that I had to hurry and get ready. I finally decided it was no use trying to put it off. I was going to go. I couldn’t quit after just one day.

After breakfast, Mom again said that she would drive me to school. This was strange; Mom had never taken me to school, unless there was a storm.

During first period, I laid out my two patterns and show Ms. Sams what I was going to do.

“Well normally I would say no, but in your case I think that this will be just the outfit. I’m also going to have different students give you a hand in pinning it together and cutting out the pattern next week.

The class was rather boring. I had to pin the two patterns together to make it work.

Gym class held a surprise today.

“Alice, Mr. Dibble is wearing a dress today. The news is all over school. He’s came to school in a dress, and is teaching in it. Julie was in his first period class and said that he is not above rules either, the Headmaster said that anyone that does not treat students with the respect that they should have just might also end up in a dress as punishment also, and since he didn’t treat a girl with the respect that all girls should have, the Headmaster is punishing him for it. It’s hilarious.”