Mom and I went shopping for more stuff than I knew existed. When we were finally done, I now had a female wardrobe that rivaled Rachel’s and I knew that we would be able to share things between us. It was late afternoon when we pulled in the driveway.

“Emma, go put your stuff on your bed, I’ll be up in a little bit to help you put it away.”

“Yes, Mom.” I replied, taking the bags out of the back of the van and carrying them into the house. Well, it looks like being a girl isn’t going to get me out of any chores. Mom went into the kitchen and started pulling stuff out of the fridge. I sat the bags on my bed and went back down stairs, my skirt tickling the back of my legs. I walked in the kitchen and tried to figure out what Mom was cooking for dinner. You know how they say that mothers have eyes in the back of their heads? I’m convinced that they do.

“Emma, put that apron on, and you can help me make the roast that we will have tomorrow night.” Mom said without turning from the counter where she was slicing something.. I was fairly certain that I hadn’t made any noise as I came in the kitchen. I put the apron on and walked over to where mom was slicing carrots. I was already used to helping mom in the kitchen as she thought that knowing how to cook was a good skill to have. “Can you cube those potatoes for me.”

“Sure,” I said, picking up the knife and turning the potatoes that mom had already peeled into cubes. When I was done, Mom looked at me.

“Do you still have your fingers?” She asked with a chuckle. I held up both of my hands to indicate that, yes, I still had all of my digits. Mom shook her head and smiled. “Ok, bring those potatoes over and put them in with the roast.” Mom instructed. I took the bowl that I had placed the cubed potatoes in and carefully placed them around the roast that mom had already put in part of the crock pot. Mom dropped her sliced carrots into the pot and then slid the whole thing into the fridge so that she could cook it for dinner tomorrow. .

“Now what?” I asked.

“Now we call Rebecca and Lizzy and ask them to bring Rachel home in two hours and join us for dinner.” Mom said before heading to the phone and making the call. I went back up to my room to start sorting out my clothes and putting them away. I started by simply removing things from the bags and sitting them on the bed. I organized the clothes before trying to figure out where to put them On the bed was a pile of skirts, a pile of dresses, a pile of tee shirts and piles of panties and vests. The panties and vests were going to be easy, those went in the dresser. The tee shirts could go there also, but I was at a loss as where to put the other stuff. I heard a knock on my door, and turned to see mom standing there.

“What should I do with the dresses and skirts?” I asked, picking the panties and vests up and placing them in the top drawer of my dresser.

“Let me go see if your sister or I have any skirt hangers.” Mom said and then disappeared. I rearranged my top drawer and put the panties and vests in next to my boy underwear… Mom came back in carrying some hangers that I’d never seen before. They looked like they would grip the waist band of the skirt and let it hang freely in the closet. Mom picked up a pink skirt and put it in the hanger. I watched as Mom took the skirt and hung it next to my pants in the closet. Mom took care of the skirts and left one dress laying on the bed. The dress was a baby pink color, something that I don’t think that most twelve year old girls would wear that color. Rachel was a tomboy so she typically didn’t wear much in the way of dresses or skirts. I glanced at Mom.

“Why didn’t you put that dress in the closet?”

“I want you to wear it to dinner. Your sister isn’t very girly, and judging by what I caught you in last week, you are the more girly of the two of you.” Mom said. I knew that she was right. I think that I would prefer skirts over shorts, at least until the weather turned colder, and then I might have to switch to pants… “I think the color will set your eyes off. The only other color that I can think of that would set them off more is blue.” Mom said. Rachel had blue eyes, and Mom always tried to get her in a blue dress on school picture day. Mom eventually gave up on dresses and settled for blue shirts.

“Mommy, Next time we go shopping can we get me a blue dress?”