The next morning, Mom…Mommy gets us up early and says, “OK, girls. We have a long weekend and need to get you settled into your new roles for school on Monday. I have to say, I know how to relate to girls much better than boys, but this is still an adjustment for me. So get up and help me get breakfast ready…”

We get up and I am still a little freaked out at wearing one of Mom…Mommy’s nightgowns. I put on some of her old fuzzy slippers and go downstairs in my ‘nightie’. Bree comes down a couple of minutes behind me, looking like she had woken up from a perfect dream, only to find that it is really real. She looks so happy–almost happy enough to make up for my trepidation. We help Mom…Mommy make breakfast and take our pills before we eat.

When we are done eating, Mommy tells us to get dressed in the clothes that she bought us last night. I follow an eager Bree up the stairs and go into my room. I pick up the panties that I had worn for the few minutes last night. I then pull on the jeans. I still marvel at how soft they are compared to my old ones. They are tight, but stretch. The bling on the rear pockets doesn’t really bother me, but the small pockets are a little strange. I put on the blouse again and still struggle with the little buttons that are on the wrong side. The socks are not really that different from what I am used to, other than that they are softer and have lace on them. The shoes…well, they are not uncomfortable, I guess, but a good pair of Nikes would be a lot better…

I get downstairs again ahead of Bree and find Mom…my in the kitchen. Bree comes down a few minutes later and Mommy says, “OK, girls. I have made an appointment at my…our salon. We need to get your hair styled and you really need mani-pedis… Then, we will do some mother-daughter shopping. It seems we have a lot of lost time to make up for…

A little later, we are Mommy’s salon, Claude’s, and she is introducing us to Sally, her stylist. Sally starts with me. Mommy and Bree give me moral support as hair extensions are added to my already semi-long hair which is then cut into a preppy teen style. She then starts plucking my eyebrows and keeps on until I am afraid nothing will be left. Finally, she adds professional acrylic nail extensions (1/4 inch) to my fingernails, followed by gel nail polish on both my finger- and toenails (metallic peacock blue). Bree gets much the same treatment after me. When we are done, we both have shoulder length hair–only mine is more curly, while Bree’s is straight. Bree’s nails are also more green, where mine are more blue.

After Mommy pays Sally well over two hundred dollars, we go to the mall. Our first stop is at the makeup counter at one of the major cosmetic stores. I may not have mentioned that Mommy is extremely sensitive about her looks–she wants to look perfect all of the time. That is why she went into cosmetic surgery rather than settling on psychiatry. It also means that if she ever finds out that we replaced her expensive makeup with cheap store-brand stuff, she will kill us. Anyway, I digress.

She takes us the counter and has the girl give us full makeovers, teaching us how to do it as she goes along. Once she is done, Mommy pays for us to each have a full set of cosmetics in the color pallet the girl had recommended. It was another several hundred dollars, but I will have to say, the makeup feels really good and looks awesome compared to what we had been able to achieve before.

We leave the cosmetic store and go into Claire’s next door. To my surprise, and chagrin, we leave with double-pierced ears and several pairs of earrings, each. I can’t get the picture of those huge sparkly ‘diamonds’ in my ears out of my mind as Mommy steers us to the Victoria’s Secret store.

I want to melt into the floor as she picks out a couple of weeks’ worth of lingerie for both of us. The panties are uber-girly and the matching padded bras are, well, that much more so… Mommy spends another fortune and we go to a different store where she gets us ‘medical grade silicone breast inserts’ for out new padded bras.

After that, we go to at least a hundred different clothing stores and try on thousands of dresses, skirts, and blouses. Bree is in heaven and I am in hell, but I put on a good face and we finally get to stop for a late lunch, with each of us carrying bags and bags of clothes, lingerie, and nightwear.

After lunch, we go to a shoe store and Bree and I each wind up with several pairs of heels and flats. Mommy says it is just ‘to get us started’. Finally, we go to several ‘accessory’ stores and she gets us several purses, belts, scarves, and lots of matching jewelry…

We finally get home around supper-time and I am exhausted. Mommy first makes us neatly pack away our boy’s clothes into bags and take them to the garage for the Goodwill store. Then she makes us neatly put away our new girl’s clothes in our rooms. After that, we have to come and help cook our late supper. Neither of us has any experience in cooking, since it is not something that we have ever helped with–we eat mostly at restaurants or take out anyways, since Mommy usually does not have time to cook after work. I find that I really like helping with the cooking–it is sort of fun, even if it is only grilled cheese sandwiches and canned soup. I also have to say, I don’t like cleaning up afterwards…

After all of the dishes are put away, I go upstairs to clean the makeup off my face. I sigh as I look in the mirror in the bathroom while washing off the makeup with cold cream. I take the moisturizer that the girl in the store gave us and use it like she instructed after I get everything washed off. Then I [i]really[/i] look at myself in the mirror. I see a young girl looking back–with long, curly hair and sparkly studs in her double-pierced ears. I sigh and use the special disinfectant on my ears, as instructed.

A couple of tears stream down my cheek as I wonder what I have gotten myself into. My butt still hurts from the shot Mommy gave me there and I don’t understand why we needed one in the arm, too. And the pills? Oh, well. Mommy is the doctor, but I will be glad when I can ‘rethink’ my feelings and go back to being George…

I go back to my room and put on some pink silky ‘pajamas’ that I take out of my drawer. It seems better to wear something with ‘pants’ than one of the nightgowns that are also in the drawer. There is still nothing even remotely masculine about this. I put on the really short shorts and then the frilly top that goes with the set–it still looks little like a mini-dress over the shorts. I have seen Mommy wear things like this; I think she called it a ‘baby-doll’ set at the store.

I exit my room just as Bree is coming out of hers; she is cleaned up and wearing a silky pale green nightgown. She whispers to me, “Geo…Gwen, are you OK? Maybe you should just tell Mommy that you have changed your mind now.” I shake my head and whisper back, “No, I promised that I would get you over the hump and I am going to do just that. I feel sort of silly dressed like this, but it is just outward appearances. And, hey, we probably would not have gotten our puberty as a Christmas present anyways, right? Come on, Mommy will wonder where we are…”

We go back downstairs to find Mommy also in a baby-doll similar to mine, only it is black. She asks me to make us some popcorn and turns on the TV. I come in with the popcorn just as she is going through available movies on Netflix. She clicks on Serendipity and settles back. She smiles as I sit down, inwardly groaning, but outwardly ‘happy’. She says, “Well, I must say it is nice to have girls to watch movies with–I love a good romance and could never watch them with my boys!”

Bree cuddles up to Mommy as she turns on the movie. I pull my legs up under me in my chair like I had seen Mommy do a lot and settle in to be bored to death. By the end of the movie I am bawling along with Mommy and Bree; I haven’t cried like this in a long time–especially not at a dumb movie. It is actually freeing being able to show my emotions without having to worry about what people think…

We all go to bed after the movie and I lay there for a while just thinking about how I feel. There is the physical stuff, of course–the silky nightwear feels nice on my skin–although the sheets are sort of rough in comparison; the slight pain in my ears; the pain in my butt. Then there is how I am feeling mentally. All things considered, the day wasn’t that bad. Yes, I had to dress up in girly jeans and a blouse and go shopping all day. I had to watch a silly chick-flick. But I got to do it with Bree and Mommy which is something we have not really ever done. Especially not with that level of ‘connection’. And Mommy was actually fun–not the semi-moody person she usually starts getting to be this time of year.

As I drift off to sleep, I decide that I will make it through this. Maybe, just maybe, it will be good for Mommy, too–not just Bree. That would be a huge bonus.

Mommy wakes us up at seven the next morning. Both Bree and I groan, but she is adamant that we get up, get showered, and get our makeup on. So, I get in the shower and use the new girly-smelling bodywash, shampoo, and conditioner that now populate my shower. It takes forever to wash my long hair–and tons of shampoo to get it to lather up. Don’t even get me started on how long it takes to rinse out all of the bubbles…

I finally get out and Mommy shows me how to put a towel around my head like a turban, so I can do my makeup. I stand in front of the mirror in my bathroom, in a short pink wrap-around thingy that Mommy had bought me yesterday (she showed me how to use that, too) and put on the makeup like I had been shown yesterday, well mostly–I had sort of developed my own style playing around with Bree for all of those weeks.

Mommy approves my makeup and shows me how to take care of and style my hair. It takes forever to get it dry, but seems to be easier to do than Bree’s, since I can use ‘scrunching’ gel and dry it, where she has to use a ‘straightening iron’ on hers.

Finally, we are ready to get dressed. Mommy has picked out our clothes for us today. We put on the soft, lacy panties and then she shows us how to put on our bras and insert the breast forms. Once everything is adjusted properly, the weight feels funny, but not too bad. I do, however, feel really weird wearing a bra.

She hands each of us a pair of pantyhose and tells us that we will wear them today for practice. She shows us how to put them on and then helps us into the dresses she has picked out for us. Mine is a pale yellow ‘chiffon’ dress (or so Mommy tells me) and Bree’s is a light blue cotton one. We help each other zip them up and put on the shoes that Mommy indicates. I put on a pair of light green ‘pumps’ with three-inch heels and Bree puts on a pair of red open-toed sling-backs, also with a three-inch heel.

I look at myself in the mirror and can’t believe it. I am a girl! There is nothing of ‘George’ left looking back at me out of the mirror. I look at Bree and hug her, knowing that what is a shock for me is her joy.

Mommy tells us to get our breakfast while she gets ready. We take our pills and have just finished our cereal and put away the bowls in the dishwasher when Mommy comes down, looking like a million dollars (as usual) and says it is time to go. We look at her quizzically and Bree asks, “Go where, Mommy?”

She just responds, “Well, shopping, of course! We still have tons of things we need to get you girls…”

Continued in Part 3.