*Chapter 15*

Swiss Cheese

 
 
“Mand!” silence was the loud reply, “Mand!”

“Who is it?”

“Me.” I hissed back.

“Drew?”

“Yes.”

“Hang on a minute, I was in the shower.”
 
 

After what seemed to be an age she slipped the door open a crack, “wassup?”

“I need to borrow some stuff.”

“You had my shammy cream yesterday.”

“Not that sort of stuff, I need a dress or something.”

“OT oh, sounds like trouble, you’d best come in.”

I checked that no one was about and slipped inside.

“Hiya Drew.”

Sugar, I’d forgotten about Claire.

“Er hi.”

“So what’s up Gab? Hot date?” Mand grinned.

“Its alright, I’ll do without, sorry to disturb you.” I headed back towards the door.

“Hey! Drew, Gab, I was only joking.” She hurried to cut off my exit.

“Can I just go? It was a stupid idea anyhow.”

“What was?” Claire asked.

Right, I’ve not actually told them have I?
“You can’t breathe a word of this to anyone okay?”

“Cross my heart.” Claire offered.

“As if?” Manda posed.

“Well the touristy people, they kinda want me to do some more pictures.”

“Cool!” Claire cooed.

“I thought you wanted to avoid anyone finding out.” Mand pointed out.

“I do but like I didn’t think there was any harm in finding out what they want me to do.”

“Okay, but why do you need a dress?”

“Dur, she is a girl.” Claire stated as if that answered the question of itself.

“Well she didn’t start off wearing one before.” Mand observed, “So Gab, why this time?”

“Disguise? I can hardly be seen with them as me can I? Someone’d be sure to recognise me, fan, shit etc? If I meet them as 100% Gaby it should throw them off the trail.”

“She does have a point.” Claire allowed.

“My dresses are a bit fancy for that.” Mand mused.

“I guess mine are too.” Claire agreed, “Hey what if we just made sure there was no doubt you’re a girl?”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“Well, we get your er assets on display, I’ve got a lacy cami you can borrow, you got a decent bra?”

“I wasn’t expecting to need one.”

“What size are you?”

“Um 32B.”

“Geez, you look bigger than that!”

“It’s more than big enough.” I sighed.

“Well nothing of mine will fit.” Mand stated.

“We’ll just have to use diversionary tactics.”

“Hang on, I’ve had a thought, I’ll be right back.”

 
 
Of course I’ve got a BH, they gave me that one in Luzern on Friday didn’t they? I quickly slipped back to the room I‘m sharing with Josh. It didn’t take long to locate the underwired, half cup affair that has been presenting the girls to Switzerland for the last few days. I stuffed it down the front of my shorts and headed back to the girls.
 
 

“Ta da! Lifts and separates.” I grinned pulling it out to show them.

“Well put it on then.” Claire suggested.

Without thinking I dragged my T over my head and repeated the process with my breast compression system – er sports bra.

“Nice puppies!” Claire stated.

Oh sugar, my arms came up to cover myself as I turned an interesting shade of puce.

“Too late now girl,” Manda smirked, “get your bra on.”

“Er yeah.” I agreed.

Ten minutes later I was wearing Claire’s cami and Manda’s pink short shorts and Mand was busy putting my hair into a braid. Borrowed earrings, a dab of slap on the eyes and lips and I was done. One things for sure, I couldn’t be mistaken for a boy looking like this, far too much chest and the shorts leave little to the imagination.
 
 

“Here she is.” Dad needlessly stated.

“Well hello again.” The real Heidi offered in German.

“Er hi.” I smiled.

“So, Herr Bond says you are willing to do more modelling for us today?”

“Yes, I quite enjoyed it last time although I wasn’t expecting to see my face on the posters or for there to be so many.” I allowed.

“So how is the race going for you, the mountain climbs are hard yes?”

“Very! I suppose it is going better than I expected.” I guess you could say having the race lead is better than I’d hoped!

“Good, well if you’re up for it we’ve something of a treat in store today.”

“Oh?”

“I’ll explain on the way, so you ready?”

“I guess.”

“When will you have her back?” Dad enquired.

“I think about two hours?” Heidi supplied.

“That’s okay; you have your handy Drew?”

I slid it out of the pocket it was squeezed into, “yup.”

“So Drew, lets go find the camera.”

“See you later Drew.” Dad offered.

“Laters!”
 
 

Heidi’s car turned out to be a Smart For Two with lurid graphics for the tourist board, I clambered in and we headed into the town. The place was abuzz with visitors; I took the opportunity to scan the shops.

“thanks for doing this Drew,” Heidi started,”my boss, she comes up with these ideas and expects me to sort out the detail. When she saw the reaction to the race posters she thought you’d be perfect for the next promotion.”

It was a bit weird being called Drew when I’m in girl mode but that’s how we were introduced last week.

“So it’s not for the race then?”

“No, no.”

Phew, at least I won’t have extra exposure in the next day or so.
We made a turn and crossed the river then had to wait for a train to cross the road – not just any train but a German ICE train! It passed through and the barrier went up.

“Great, we can park here.” my companion stated swinging the motorised skate across the road and into a tiny parking slot behind a minibus.

“The others should already be at the top.”

Top? Heidi led the way to the unimpressive building behind us, Harderbahn the sign along the front stated. We climbed up to where a short queue waited, behind the glass a much more modern variant of the Reichenbach funicular was just arriving. Apparently we already had tickets as we were soon seated inside the mostly glass carriage. By the time we started uphill the carriage was pretty well full of expectant tourists all headed for this Harder place.

“So um, what are we doing today?”

“Some typical Swiss things, you’ll see – I never tire of this view!”

We were climbing very steeply and were already high above the town, damn, I should have brought my camera – hang on Handy! Well I did get a couple of pics of the view and a selfie before we slid to a halt at the upper station. Heidi ushered me up the path marked ‘Harder Kulm’ and after about two hundred metres we arrived at a strangely styled building and were greeted by the dresser from Luzern and a guy with several cameras strung around his neck.

“Georg, Rosa, you remember Drew. Drew meet Georg our photographer. So what first?”

“The players are due for six,” Georg supplied, “we can get the rest done before I think.”

“Come on then Drew, lets get you ready.” Rosa prompted, “we’ve got everything set up inside.”

Clearly I wasn’t going to ‘model’ in what I was wearing so it was no surprise to find another landeskleidung for me to wear – not such a fancy thing as last time, no head dress and less embroidery. However it did have a lilac dirndl and the blouse was every bit as exposing of my bosom! Rosa quickly undid Mand’s hairdressing efforts and soon rearranged my locks into a circular braid decorated with real flowers, tiny little things the same colour as my dress.

“Aatchoo!”

“You have the allergy?”

“Er not usually, I don’t generally have real flowers on my head though.”

“Okay, can you put these in?” Rosa handed me a pair of delicate drop earrings with more of the tiny flowers decorating the drop.

I slipped Claire’s gold hoops out and fitted the drops but left Mand’s crystal studs in the second holes.

“Wunderbar Drew, come on, Georg will be tapping his feet.”

I caught a glimpse of myself in a window – boy or rather definitely not boy!

“Ah Drew, the Edelweiss suits you.” Heidi enthused.

“Um thanks.”

“Let’s get started,” Georg prompted.

You don’t need to know every detail; it can be a bit boring and repetitive after all. They had me posing in different places around the restaurant area, I had to pretend to pull a beer and do the waitress thing out on the veranda. Quite a giggle but my face was getting tired from the continual smiling.

The players hadn’t yet arrived so I got a chance to sample the observation platform while I sipped on a coke. Interlaken is about a thousand metres almost vertically below which allows fantastic views over the town but also out over Thunersee.
 
 

I think I could see the Hotel Crystal and I’m sure that’s the ICE train in the station down there. The network of waterways showed up as milky grey ribbons dissecting the town – awesome, the whole thing looks like a model railway!

“Come on Drew, time to make your musical debut.” Heidi stated.

© Maddy Bell 05.02.14