Looking at myself for first time in the mirror, I smiled. I wasn’t wearing my glasses, but as they were boys’ glasses they didn’t exactly go with the outfit I was wearing. Things were a bit fuzzy, but even I could see that I looked nice.

I saw a young girl of twelve maybe? Even though my real age is thirteen and a bit and I suppose you could say that I’m officially classified as a boy.

I thought that makeup was supposed to make you look older and more sophisticated?

The makeup was a bit amateurish perhaps, even though I took nearly an hour and a half to apply and then reapply it several times before I arrived at a look that didn’t appear to be too bad.

The denim skirt and white cotton blouse looked okay and not out of place for a teenage girl to wear. My mum’s very old bra could just be seen under the blouse and although stuffed with socks, it wasn’t a bad effect even though I ached to have my own breasts to fill it out. The bra I found up in the loft with a few other of my mums things. It was a wee bit loose, but beggars can’t be choosers, as they say.

Thinking about Mum brought back some nasty things from my past. I tried to remember her face, but couldn’t. The last time I saw her, I was six and I didn’t even know who she was until Dad told me. She was cold and distant, even to me and that hurts a lot, even now.

Returning to the present, you may be wondering where my father was. As usual at that time of day, Dad was at work, which was good, as he had no idea of my strange dressing habits.

Dad was nice and I loved him to bits, but things were hard enough what with having to be a lone parent and trying to run his computer consultancy by himself.

Back to little old me and remembering the strange day that I had just had; I did a very brave thing by visiting a charity shop to try to buy some girls clothes from my meagre savings. I went a long way from home because I was scared of being seen by people that knew me. Going into that shop was the bravest thing that I ever did.

I walked backwards and forwards past the shop, trying to pluck up the courage to just go in and get on with it. Eventually I decided that I just had to do it and as there didn’t appear to be any customers in there, I took my chance.

Before entering the shop, I took my glasses off. I would be in disguise as I never went about without my glasses and looked quite different with them on, a bit like Superman and no one would recognise me if I was unlucky enough to encounter someone I knew in there.

Obviously it wasn’t busy as there were no customers and I just sauntered around looking first at the men’s clothes, then some books and CD’s.

Being a bit short sighted, I knocked up against a rack of books and some of them spilled onto the floor and the noise that made would have woken up the dead, let alone the woman behind the counter, who was on the phone.

I just said, ‘Sorry, I’ll pick them up,’ before she could come over and had a go at me.

She just gave me a wave and carried on talking.

My frayed nerves settled after a few moments and I was able to function again.

Eventually, when the woman behind the counter put the phone down and disappeared out the back somewhere, I went over to the women’s section and then went through the clothes at the speed of light. I found what I was looking for quite quickly, which was a fluke, but I wasn’t complaining about that. The sizes could have been a bit of a problem, but holding the skirt against me, I judged that it would fit, well I hoped so anyway, as I wasn’t going to try them on in the shop.

I nearly jumped two feet when a voice behind me asked, ‘can I help you?’

I nearly had a heart attack as I turned around and saw the lady looking at me with a slight smile playing on her lips.

Now you might ask what contingency plan I would have in this situation, but, being a complete idiot and as thick as two short planks, I hadn’t thought of anything. So I said the first thing that came into me head.

‘Erm, I’m a tranny.’

Ooops.

Why did I say that? Why didn’t I just say that I was buying for my sister/girlfriend/mother, or maybe Halloween (although being Summer that wouldn’t work).

I looked at her. She was a bit hazy as I wasn’t glassed up, but I could tell that was old, about thirty-five maybe, but she seemed as if she had her teeth and all her faculties and was not bad looking for her age. She was about my mothers age, if she had still been around and not gone off with The Rat, as I called the creep who lured her away from us all those years ago. It was just Dad and me at home and had been for many years…but that’s another story, back to my stupid reply to her seemingly innocent remark.

She didn’t seem all that shocked as she replied.

‘That’s not unusual; we get a lot of people like you in here, but normally a wee bit older. So, as I said, can in help you?’

As she didn’t beat me with a stick, throw things at me or scream something nasty and call the police, I sort of calmed down a bit and my heart rate came down off the ceiling.

I looked around and there was still no one else in the shop. Being a Wednesday, a lot of the shops were on half day closing and the street outside had minimal traffic. I took a chance.

‘C…can I try these on?’ I asked.

‘Of course dear,’ she said smiling, ‘ over in the corner; pull the curtain over and I’ll make sure that you are safe.’

I smiled at her shyly and took the clothes over to the curtained off area. It wasn’t a proper changing room, but it did seem private.

I did want to do one of those Superman type changes, just in case, but I wasn’t any good at that and I fumbled a bit, as my hands were shaking a little.

Taking my jeans off, I pulled on the skirt. I was already wearing panties, pink, bought as a pack of three at Tesco’s when I was feeling a bit brave.

The skirt fitted like a glove; well you know what I mean. Then, taking off my t-shirt, I put on the blouse, fumbling a bit with the small buttons that did up the girly way.

There wasn’t a mirror in the changing area, but looking down at myself, it all seemed to fit nicely, which was a bonus, as I didn’t expect for me to be that lucky.

‘Are you alright in there?’

‘Yes thanks, it all seems ok.’

Something hairy came through the curtain and I nearly died of fright. It took a few moments to myopically realise that it wasn’t some sort of ever so furry animal, like a huge rat or something.

‘Try this on,’ said the disembodied voice of the lady.

It was a wig.

The wig was long and blond. It looked clean enough, new in fact. I wondered who had given it in to the shop. A tranny like me, or maybe someone who bought it as a mistake?

I shrugged and then after working out which way was which, I carefully placed it over my short hair.

It felt really weird and a bit hot on. I tried to finger comb it and get it out of my eyes, when the disembodied hand thrust itself through the curtains again.

‘Try this brush,’ she said.

Through the curtain of the hair that was annoyingly restricting my already restricted vision, I suspiciously looked around for a hidden camera. Either she had a monitor somewhere or she had the second sight.

‘Thanks,’ I said, as I pulled the brush through my hair, I mean the hair.

After a few moments I had untangled the tangley bits and the long straight hair felt smooth and free of knots. I loved the way it fell to my shoulders, but wasn’t too sure about the parting. I needn’t have worried…

The hand came through the curtain again with a small mirror. I was beyond being spooked by now.

‘Thank you,’ I said, as I was brought up to be polite.

‘You’re welcome.’

Looking at the mirror and squinting, I could see that the parting was a bit like The Yellow Brick Road, bendy in places, but I was soon able to straighten things out. All in all I was pleased with the effect and I wondered how much all this was going to cost as I needed and wanted the hair now as much as I needed and wanted the clothes.

It was me, the hair I mean. It suited me. I liked the idea of long straight hair that looked nothing like my own locks and it had the added advantage of making me look totally different from the normal me, with or without glasses.

Once I added makeup, my mother wouldn’t recognise me, although she probably wouldn’t anyway as the cow left us when I was knee high to a grass hopper – not that I’m bitter…

‘Lets have a look then,’ said the disembodied voice, ‘there’s nobody here and anyway, I’ve put the closed sign up for a few minutes.’

Hesitantly, I stepped out from behind the curtain like an actor with stage fright.

She was standing there smiling; well I think she was smiling. At least she wasn’t laughing, that would have just about finished me off.

‘I must get contact lenses,’ I thought in passing.

‘You look lovely dear. What’s your girls name?’

‘My boy’s name is David Weller, I could have had some girls equivalent like Davina or something but I like to be called Steph, well Stephanie really but my on line friends call me Steph.’

She didn’t say anything for a moment but looked a bit shocked for some reason and then continued.

‘Erm nice name, but you shouldn’t tell anyone your surname. There are nasty people out there who wouldn’t understand.’

‘I know, it just came out. I’ll be careful next time. My Dad says that often suffer from verbal diarrhoea…’

‘Erm, good girl, thanks for sharing that. So, how long have you been like this; wanting to be a girl, I mean?’

I told her my story, which didn’t take long.

‘Why don’t you tell your father?’

‘I will one day, but not now, he’s got enough on his plate.’

‘Don’t wait too long or you will regret it. I think that you are lovely girl and if you have issues you should speak to him about it. Anyway, back to business, the clothes fit and the wig fits, but you need shoes. What size are you?

‘Four. I think.’

‘Okay, hang on.’

I had a warm feeling in my tummy. It was nice that she said that I was a lovely girl.

She went off for a moment and came back carrying three pairs of shoes, all low heeled and black.

‘I’m guessing that you couldn’t handle anything with much of a heel yet. Am I right?’

I nodded.

‘I trip over my feet wearing boys shoes. Dad says that I have two left ones. God know what would happen if I wore high heels.’

‘Hmm, anyway, we don’t have many nice shoes in your size at the moment, come back in a couple of weeks and you might be more lucky. Now try these on.’

As I was buying shoes to go with the clothes, I chose a pair of black sandals with a low wedge that gave me a bit of height but not too much that would make me totter and maybe fall over when I walked.

I looked at myself in a full-length mirror and I liked what I saw. I didn’t look anything like David, I was definitely Steph, but without breasts, I was flat chested. Not to worry, that was just the icing on the cake and I would sort that out when I got home.

‘You look very pretty,’ said the lady.

‘Thanks, I feel pretty. How much is all this?’ I asked, going red in the face with the compliment.

‘Lets say ten pounds.’

‘Wow,’ I thought, ‘bargain of the century or is she just feeling sorry for me? Well. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth or whatever the saying is.’

‘I’ll take them.’ I said with a smile.

‘Are you going out like that?’ she asked.

‘No way,’ I said, ‘I need to erm, change first.’

‘Still in the closet?’

‘So far in, I’m in Narnia.’

She laughed at that. Reluctantly, I tore my eyes away from my reflection and went to change back into boring David.

After a few minutes I came out from behind the curtain with the clothes, wig and shoes and went over to the counter. It felt strange and uncomfortable wearing trousers again - ah well.

‘I’ll just put your things in a bag,’ she said smiling.

‘Thanks,’ I replied, pulling out my wallet. I had brought thirty pounds with me, as that was my budget. I now had twenty left and that meant that I could go to Argos and buy the makeup kit that I saw in their catalogue. I would even have some money left over now.

I wasn’t worried about buying the makeup as I could always say, if asked, that it was a present for my non-existent sister. Although, knowing that shop, no-one would be interested enough in little me to ask such probing questions.

And so it came to pass that I was now looking at myself in my bedroom mirror, all done up, looking nice and with nowhere to go, not that I would go anywhere anyway as I had the confidence of bush baby and the thought of being outed made me go all of squidgy inside.

I thought of the lady in the charity shop and smiled. She was nice. I looked forward to seeing her again when I could pluck up courage to visit her shop. I wondered if she was single; my dad could do worse…

Silly idea, Steph.

Sighing, I knew that that was an impossibility, as was the fact that I would ever have a proper mum. Dad had gone out with a few women, but work and me always got the way, not forgetting the fact that he was shy as regards to the opposite sex. As he said, he gave wall flowers a bad name.

My phone chirpy, chirpy, cheep, cheeped.

‘Hi Dad, wosup?’

‘Hello David, I wish you would talk proper English like wot I do.’

I giggled a bit girlishly I thought. I would have to nip that in the bud.

‘I’m working a bit late…’

‘Again…’

‘Yea, sorry, its important, one of my best clients and all that….’

He went on for a bit and my mind wondered. If only he knew that his only son was dressed as his only daughter…

‘David, are you listening to me,’

‘What Dad, sorry I missed the last thing you said; mobile playing up.’

‘Hmm, anyway, I want you dressed nicely for this evening, about seven o’clock.’

‘Why?’

‘Because we are eating out. Take the taxi, usual company, the one with the account so you don’t have to pay and come to Luigi’s.

‘Why?’

‘Because I can’t be bothered to cook and you will only get a takeaway given the chance.’

‘Takeaways are full of nourishment…’

‘Pull the other one. Now don’t forget, eight o’clock.’

‘You said seven.’

‘Good you are paying attention. Look, got to go; see you later and don’t forget to wash behind your ears and change your underpants, you might get run over by a bus…’

‘Daaaaad!’

He put the phone down and so did I, smiling. I loved my idiot of a father.

I had almost forgotten how I was dressed; almost but not quite. I felt so comfortable and right being all girliefied and my one regret was that I would have to get changed in the next hour or so.

This wasn’t the only time that we ate out after Dad finished work. His job involved long hours and that meant irregular meal times unless Uncle Ronald McDonald fed me.

I love my Uncle Ron.

I knew that junk food in excess wasn’t good for me and I almost cried when I got two gross, acne like spots on the side of my face. I had to walk around for two days with a brown paper bag over my head…well I felt like it anyway. Everyone was staring at me – I think.

I still had an hour before I had to change for dinner and I made the most of it, which wasn’t much as I had little to do except homework. Sighing I got my books out and did what had to be done. Being rather bright, it didn’t take me long to finish my homework. I was lucky that said homework was geared towards the least intelligent in the class, one Morris Hope, who was, to say the least, hopeless at homework.

At least I was dressed nicely and that helped; a bit, and I loved the way that I had to flip my long blond hair out of the way; probably a nuisance after a while but it was all new and exciting.

All the time I was looking at the clock, knowing that the time was getting nearer when I would have change back into boring David.

I wished that I were Steph all the time. I was happy as Steph and I felt like a girl; well, what I felt that a girl should be like. I wasn’t interested in rough sports although I did like running and tennis. I looked at girls of my age all the time, not because I wanted to get into their knickers, well I did want to do that but in a different way, I wanted to wear the knickers…oh you know what I mean!

No I wanted to be a girl so badly that it hurt. Dressing as I now was, made me feel more girly. But it wasn’t enough, I wanted breasts, the right body shape and although I didn’t fancy the idea of going through it, I wanted the operation to make my outie an innie.

One big problem looming was that I was getting close to maturity. I had been lucky so far, I hadn’t started my growth spurt and my voice was still unbroken. Often I was taken for someone younger than my years and I longed for me to get the Tranny Fairy to come and use her magic wand to change me from a him to a her, but it hadn’t happened and it probably never will.

So, soon, far too soon, my body would change and then that would be it. I would have muscles and hair that I didn’t want and would grow to six feet and become a lumberjack or something equally disgustingly rugged.

You may be wondering why I didn’t tell Dad all this. Well he had enough on his plate helping me to grow up and running a stressful business too. I knew that he had been deeply hurt when Mum left us high and dry and I just didn’t want to add to his problems.

Oh, by the way, if you didn’t think I was messed up enough already, I fancied a boy in my class. How about that for a crazy mixed up kid? Mind you, as far as I was concerned, I was a girl and it was natural for girls to lust after boys, wasn’t it?

I doubt if he would agree with me and I would get mashed to a pulp if I ever batted my eyelashes at him.

I glanced up at the clock and sighed. It was time to go and change.

I stood up, looked at the mirror and sadly gave my reflection a tiny wave.

‘Bye bye Steph, see you again soon.’

‘Next time,’ I thought, ‘I’ll put on some nail polish.’

Sighing again, I dragged my eyes away and went to get ready.

The taxi arrived at Luigi’s at two minutes past seven. I was wearing some smart blue trousers and a white shirt. I would have preferred to be wearing a pretty dress and all the trimmings, but some things just weren’t possible, so I just accepted that my time as Steph would have to stay occasional and private.

I gave the taxi driver two pounds as a tip and left the cab.

Walking into the restaurant, I looked around for my Dad. I saw him sitting at a corner table and went over before the waiter could grab me and ask what a kid like me was doing in a place like theirs…

‘Hi Dad.’

‘Good, there you are, come and sit down. What do you want to drink?’

‘A glass of the house red?’

‘In your dreams son, coke is it?’

‘Please.’

The waiter had drifted over and took our drinks order.

Dad looked at me with a quizzical expression.

‘So,’ he said, ‘what have you been up to today.’

‘Oh, same old thing.’ I said vaguely.

‘It was a teachers training day today wasn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

‘So you stayed at home and did the chores?

‘Well I did make my bed and wash up the breakfast things.’

‘And then?’

‘And then what Dad?’

‘God, its like getting blood out of a stone. I don’t see you all day and its nice to know what sort of day you’ve had and what you get up to.’

‘Well I went to the shops and had a look around and then I came home did my homework and then you rang me.’

‘Did you buy anything’?

‘Not really.’

‘Are you s…’

‘Hi Robert.’

I looked up and there she was.

The woman from the charity shop.

Even though I hadn’t been wearing my glasses, I recognised her and I also recalled her name badge that declared that she was called Molly.

Why didn’t the ground open up and engulf me? What weird thing was happening here? Would she out me in front of my father and a dozen assorted customers and Italian waiters?

‘Oh David, I’d like you to meet Molly. She’s a good friend of mine. I thought that I would surprise you. She’s joining us for a meal. Isn’t that nice?’

‘Hello David, its nice to see you at last, Robert has said lots of nice things about you.’

I was as polite as I could be given the circumstances. I was waiting for the bomb to drop. She would tell him about me. I would be in deep, deep trouble.

Let me explain something. Dad liked surprises and he liked giving them too. It gave him some strange sort of pleasure. Sometimes he was a bit insensitive, but that was his way. I still loved him. As he ordered the meal, I wondered what the hell was going on here. Molly kept looking at me and smiling, knowingly.

Molly was the surprise from hell.

I soon found out what this was all about.

‘This is by the way of a getting to know each other meal. David. Molly and I are good friends, but we wouldn’t want to do anything to hurt you, so we thought that we would see how we all get on and then, if everything works out, we’ll take it to the next stage. Okay with you son?’

‘Erm.’

I had nothing intelligent to say. My world had just ended…

‘Sorry Molly, he’s a bit shy. Maybe I shouldn’t have sprung this onto you suddenly David. It’s just that I know how shy you are and how you worry and things like that. I thought that if you didn’t know what was happening, you wouldn’t worry so much.’

‘Erm. That’s all right Dad,’ was all I could say and it was a miracle that I could say that much.

We had our meal. Molly and Dad had a lot to say to each other and tried to drag me into the conversation. I relaxed just a tad when I realised that I wasn’t immediately going to be outed by Molly, although she did keep looking at me in a strange way...

I didn’t eat that much as I wasn’t that hungry to be honest. We got to the ice cream/Black Forest gateau stage when Dad’s phone rang.

I have to explain that Dad was on 24-hour callout on some of his larger contracts. Normally he shared them with another consultant called Brian, so they did one day on one day off. He called it you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,which sounded faintly disgusting to my young delicate ears.

I looked down at the tablecloth, not wanting to catch Molly’s eye.

‘Hi Stuart, what? When? How? Damn, I’ll be there soon.'

He stabbed his mobile viciously.

‘Sorry about this,’ he said to both of us, ‘Brian has hurt his foot and I have an urgent callout. Look Molly, finish your meal, you too David. Would you mind taking David home and I’ll meet you there later. This shouldn’t take long, I promise.’

‘No problem honey, I’ll take him home.’

‘She called him Honey,’ I thought, ‘this is getting deathly serious. I am so busted.’

Dad actually kissed her on the lips when saying goodbye. With that sign of affection, I knew that my time on earth was going to be short. When he was told about me, I would be dead meat.

I wondered if there were any free spaces in the church graveyard, I wouldn’t take up much room…

He ruffled my hair in a way that I hate, said goodbye and then shot off.

‘Molly…’ I started.

‘Not here David, we’ll talk when we get you home. Too many waiters with big ears.’

I looked around at the couple of waiters hovering about, their ears seemed the normal size to me. Still it appeared that she was running this farce of a show, so with that final comment of hers, I had to be satisfied and bide my time. Needless to say, I was not a happy bunny.

I would love to say that the conversation flowed like wine, but it didn’t, well not on my part anyway. Molly asked me about my school and that conversation went down like a lead balloon, then she told me what holidays she had been on, how she met Dad through a dating agency of all places and other things that had absolutely nothing to do with me.

After about a year, the meal ended and Molly and I went out to her car.

We agreed not to talk about things until we got home. Instead she told me a bit about herself. She was quite a successful artist who worked from home, but she helped out at the charity shop one day a week and it just so happened that today was the day that I went to the shop. It seemed a weird twist of fate that she was working there when the son/daughter of her boyfriend came in and started rummaging through the ladies clothes.

We arrived home far too soon and as I let us in through the front door, my anxiety levels hit the roof.

I rushed into the bathroom as was promptly sick.

‘What a waste of a good meal,’ I thought as my stomach finally decided that enough was enough and stopped heaving.

I found her in the lounge; she was sitting on the sofa.

‘Are you okay; you look a bit pale. Come and sit down,’ she said patting at the seat, ‘I’m stupid and insensitive. I should have realised that this was going to happen. Your Dad and his silly ideas…’

‘What do you mean?’ I said as I sat beside her.

She sighed.

‘Your father and I have been seeing each other for some time. He has shown me photos and even a video of you when you were younger and I thought that I recognised you as you walked into the shop, but you didn’t have your glasses on, so I was far from sure; its funny how glasses can change ones look. Anyway, as soon as you told me your name, I knew. I could see this lovely girl trying on clothes like any other girl. As soon as you changed I could see how happy and comfortable you were about dressing as a girl. It was obvious that you were so very happy trying on those girls clothes and I knew that you must be desperate to tell your father.’

‘I couldn’t tell him; he would die of shame. After all the bad things that have happened…’

‘Stephanie, because you really are Stephanie and not David aren’t you?’

I nodded.

She smiled and then held my hand.

‘Stephanie, your Dad is a lovely man, insensitive sometimes like most men, silly sometimes like most men, but essentially a loving caring father. Do you agree?’

‘Yes, I love him to bits.’

‘He is also a computer expert who is sometimes called on by banks and the government to sort out the occasional tricky problem. Do you honestly think that he would let a child of thirteen loose on the Internet without knowing what was going on? Not because he wants to pry, but because he loves you and doesn’t want you hurt.’

‘I suppose not, but I was careful.’

‘Not careful enough. He had certain safeguards on your computer that flagged up possible problem sites and you accessed some rather strange ones even though you thought that you had bypassed the site blocking software.’

‘I had to find out about me and if I was unusual, strange or just nuts. He was just prying and he shouldn’t have.’

I started to cry. I felt…well I didn’t know what I felt, I was just upset.

‘Oh Steph, you thought that your Dad buried his head in the sand? He knew that you were unhappy about something and then he found the panties and the bra and a skirt hidden not very careful under you mattress and he realised that there was a problem. He had to know so that he could help you. That is why he tracked the sites you were visiting.

‘He spoke to me about it at length and we both decided that you had to come out to him when you were ready and not before. Then you came into my shop and everything changed. I knew your secret and I had to tell your father because he needed to know. We have no secrets and this was one secret that needed airing anyway, so that we can all do what we can to put things right. Do you understand?’

I nodded and then looked up at her.

‘So he knows it all?’

‘Yes honey.’

‘And he’s not angry?’

‘No, he loves you for who you are not what you are.’

‘What if I told him that I liked boys?’

‘You mean that you are attracted to boys?’

‘Yes, I think so. There’s one boy at school. I know that I can’t do anything about it because he has a girlfriend, but I just wish…’

‘You wish that he liked boys or rather girls like you too?’

I nodded.

‘Well, you are still young so you don’t need to worry too much about that sort of thing. Kids of your age get all sorts of mixed messages and its even more complicated for you, as you are a girl in a boy’s body.

‘So you think that I’m a girl then?’

‘It certainly looks that way, but I’m no expert, neither is your dad. You will have to see the doctors, psychiatrists and jump through a lot of hoops to confirm that. Are you willing to do that?’

‘Yes,’ I replied, not even needing to think about it.

Just then Molly’s phone chirped. She had a message.

‘That was Robert; he’ll be here in about an hour. I think that its about time he saw his daughter, don’t you?’

‘I…I don’t know. He might laugh at me or maybe kill me.’

She laughed; it was a nice laugh.

‘Haven’t you been listening to me? He knows about you and is cool about it. The only thing that’s upset him is that you didn’t confide in him.’

‘I…I couldn’t. I told you why.’

‘I know honey. Look stay here a minute. I wont be long.’

I sat there, worried sick about what Dad would say. It was okay for him to say that he was cool with things, but when presented with me dressed as a girl, would he take all that back and flip out?

I had little time for further worrisome thoughts as Molly came back in carrying two bags.

‘I found some more things that I thought might fit you. Would you like to see?’

I nodded.

She handed over the bag.

Inside was a pretty top in pink and a black skirt. At the bottom neatly folded was a dress. Pulling it out, I gasped; it was lovely.

According to the label it was a black patterned French Connection dress. It had capped sleeves and when I held it up against me, the hem fell just below my knees.

‘Would you like to wear it for your Dad?’

‘D…do you think that he would like me in it?’

‘I’m sure he will. There some low heeled shoes in the other bag and some new black tights. Why don’t you go and slap on some makeup, put the dress and your wig on and lets surprise Robert and leave him speechless with your beauty.’

She seemed so sure of his reaction, but I wasn’t. But here was a chance for me to show the real me and I decided that I would take it regardless of the consequences.

Without another word, I took my new things and went upstairs to change.

~*~

It took a while to get ready and I won’t give you a blow-by-blow account of how I reapplied my makeup three times because my hands were shaking so much. Eventually I had finished. I had never worn tights before and the feeling as the sheer nylon encased my legs was indescribably nice. The shoes fitted me like a glove – you know what I mean, and the dress could have been made for me. I only wished that the bra cups could have been filled with something more realistic than socks, but that would be for the future. I did some things that looked like chicken fillets on line that would probably do the trick; maybe I could get some soon.

The last thing I did was to carefully place the wig on my head and then brushing it out so it shone and hung perfectly smoothly down to my shoulders. The parting was in the middle and I had a fringe that just covered my eyebrows. It was as different a look to David that I would ever have.

Even I could see that I looked nice, well lovely, if I was honest. There was no sign of shy David. I was now Stephanie and I loved how I looked.

I gulped and then made my way downstairs. Dad would be back soon and I needed to have Molly give me the final once over before he came in.

Licking my glossy lips nervously, which, by the way, tasted of strawberry now; I pushed the door open and went into the lounge. Although I knew that Molly had seen me dressed as a girl, she hadn’t seen me like this; that is, in a dress with full makeup, not brilliantly done, but not too bad. I hoped that she would agree with me that I brushed up well.

She was flipping through a computer magazine and I don’t think that she was taking it in much, as she was reading it upside down.

Looking up, her eyes widened and she dropped the magazine and I nearly bolted for the door like a startled fawn, but then she smiled.

‘Oh Steph, you are beautiful. Give me a twirl.’

Her comforting words gave me encouragement. It was nice that she didn’t scream and then swoon at the sight of me.

Smiling, I twirled around and the skirt swished about me.

‘Lovely, just wait until your Dad sees you.’

‘I don’t look silly?’ I asked doubtfully, walking further into the room.

‘No honey, you are beautiful.’

‘H…he wont be mad at me?’

‘No I won’t Stephanie; my beautiful daughter.’

I whirled around and there he was as large as life.

‘Oh Daddy.’ I cried, calling him that for the first time in years.

He opened his arms and I fell into them.

‘Mmm,’ he whispered in my ear, ‘daddy, I like that.’

We stayed embraced for ages, with Molly joining in after a few moments and it all got a bit teary. Eventually, we all sat down to talk. I couldn’t believe that my father was so accepting of the way I was dressed and how I wanted to be for the rest of my life, but he was.

I looked over at Molly and she had a beaming smile and her eyes were a bit damp too. Talk about emotional!

After calming down a bit, I got to wondering…

‘Daddy, you didn’t look at all surprised at what I was wearing and how I looked.’

He looked sheepish.

‘Tell her Robert, we agreed no secrets now, from anyone.’

‘Daddy, have I been set up?’

‘Well, it’s like this Stephanie. I erm…I mean, in fact and getting to the point…’

‘I wish you would,’ I mumbled audibly.

‘Right, yes, sorry. Well, erm I didn’t actually have a job on when I left you at the restaurant…’

‘Pardon me?’

‘It was a bit of a ruse. Molly had told me what had happened at the shop and I could tell that she thought that you were scared to tell me about your dressing. Before that I kind of guessed, as I had seen what you had been getting up to on the internet when I tracked you browsing, but I wasn’t absolutely sure if you were just browsing, curious or something more serious than that. Then I found those clothes and it all clicked into place, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

‘Then today, Molly told me what happened in the shop and we discussed what we should do. Lets face it, you were scared enough not to tell me before about all this and the last thing I wanted to do was to spook you out about it. For some reason you wouldn’t tell me your secret but I suspect that you have felt like this for years. Am I right?’

‘Yes, its not something that you can bring up at the breakfast table, you know, “Oh Daddy by the way, I’m really a girl and I want to put a dress on and be your darling daughter. Can I have a clothes allowance?”. I was afraid that you would laugh at me or stick me in the loony bin.’

‘It’s not polite to say things like loony bin. Some people are mentally ill and those illnesses are just as real as physical ones. But that’s beside the point, you are not mentally ill. Anyway, getting back to subject, you couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me about your problem, so I suppose I felt that it was time that you did. I hatched a plan for us to meet Molly at the restaurant and then go on a “job” leaving you girls to get to know one another and maybe help you to open up a bit.

‘Anyway, Moly suggested that she bring you home, get you to wear that lovely dress, make yourself pretty and then I would appear and then everything would be all right.’

‘Daddy, that doesn’t explain how you know all that’s happened here tonight before you came in. You seem to know an awful lot of things that I haven’t told you.’

He looked even more embarrassed.

‘Robert, own up, you’ve been caught out.’

He went red in the face.

Sighing, he said, ‘look at the clock Steph, the one on the wall.’

‘I looked up at it.’

‘So?’

‘Erm, there’s a tiny camera and mic in there. I put it in as part of the burglar system. I’ve been watching you two girls ever since you came home from up in my office.’

I stood up and went over to the clock. I couldn’t see anything, but that was no surprise as the toad was a bit of a wiz with that sort of thing.

‘Daddy, what about privacy laws and all that!’

‘That’s a bit of a grey area when I was only trying to get my newish daughter to tell me what was going on and the only way I could do that was to get your future mother to help bring you out of yourself.’

‘That’s no excuse. How can I trust you…hang on did you say future mother?’

‘Yes love.’

I looked at Molly and she looked at me, a slight smile playing around her lips and then I looked at Daddy who looked worried.

I could have torn him off a strip. I could have played the teenage angst card. I could have rung the police or the child protection agency…

Smoothing my skirt under me, I sat back down demurely, with my legs together and my hands in my lap, like all well-bred girls should.

I looked up at their worried faces; they were on the sofa holding hands, probably for moral support rather than any overly sign of affection.

‘I think that you will need a bridesmaid with expensive tastes. I do need a nice dress for the ceremony, and then there’s the makeover and the clothes for when we go on the honeymoon and…well you can see where this is going. I hope that your combined bank balances and credit cards can take it. Molly, you haven’t just gained a future husband, you’ve gained little me too!’

I think that I heard sighs of happiness and not groans coming from the sofa.

Please leave comments and Kudos if you can. If you can't, shame on you! (leaves room crying in despair!)