Argh!

Okay. First off, Auntie Rhoda seems to think that because I'm a girl now, I'm suddenly 6 years old again and the girliest girly girl in existence. She brought me a Betsy Wetsy and Barbie Hair Fashion head.

Seriously.

I didn't wanna seem ungrateful, but sometime around bedtime, I just couldn't take the baby-talk anymore and snapped at her. I was sorry, like, immediately... and I ended up taking her and dragging her out to the back porch for a talk. I think everything's okay now, though. She showed up after school to take me to Gymnastics. She was clapping and laughing and having fun as I practiced.

Okay, nothing new from the Locker Stalker today, but at lunch... well, I brought up the subject of the slumber party. That was rough. After all was said and done, I used the my-parents-know-their-parents dodge.

Then Jennifer asked me if this was because of my secret.

I tried to pretend I didn't know what she was talking about and she whispered it in my ear. "I know you used to be Ethan."

If she hadn't smiled at me so understanding and held my hand after she told me I would have panicked. I still started to.

I asked Matthew, 'Nessa, and Hayleigh to excuse us and dragged her out to one of the tables where no one was nearby and asked her to explain.

She said she'd figured it out the second day we'd had lunch together when I kept asking questions about her sister. She hadn't called me on it because obviously I wanted to be who I really am now, and besides... friends don't tell each others' secrets even if they're not supposed to know them. She said she hadn't totally felt like it was confirmed until 'Nessa and Hayleigh -- Ethan's only two friends -- started eating lunch with us and they totally acted like they'd known me forever.

D'oh. So, I talked to Mom after Gymnastics and told her what had happened.

All three of them get to come over for the slumber party!

I'm glad Jennifer knew, really... I felt horrible that I couldn't invite her along.

I called her after dinner and before homework and told her the good news... and then we just talked for awhile.

Mom had a great idea, and I passed it along to Jennifer, she's gonna tell me tomorrow if her parents went for it. She's gonna come over on Friday and sleep over and stay for the slumber party on Saturday night. I told her we could all talk -- me and my parents and her -- and we'd answer all the questions she wanted on Friday night.

Now, I'm all kinds of excited about this weekend!