I met Amie in 10th grade. She was beautiful. She was tall with brown hair and big brown eyes…and smart. She was in all advanced classes, like me. I was short, skinny and my looks were only average. Also, I was still prepubescent. So I had no reason to think she would have much to do with me. But, thanks to detention one Thursday, we became friends.

She was there ahead of me, so I walked in and sat across the table from her. I couldn’t help but notice her earrings.
So, I spoke up. “Nice earrings”.

“Yeah,” She said, “want to borrow them sometime.

She saw the hurt in my eyes.

“Oh, no!” She quickly said, “I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just that so many boys in school wear earrings these days. You’re cute, too. I think these earrings would look nice on you. You don’t have pierced ears, do you?”

“No”, My face was bright red by now.

“Your hair is long. A little styling….” She stopped and thought. “Yes”.

“Yes…what?”

“Sit at the table Monday with my friends and me. OK?”

“Sure," I said with possibly a little too much enthusiasm.

“Would you like to come by my house and hang out when we get out of here?”

“OK”.

Amie lived in a mansion. Her dad was a surgeon and made more money than just about anyone else in town. I couldn’t believe I was actually going to go in it.

But, detention ended and we headed to her dad’s mansion.

We got there and went in a side door. Amie’s lived in a separate part of the house that was as big as my whole house. In addition to her bedroom, she had her own bath, dressing room, and kitchen. Her walk-in closet was twice the size of my bedroom.

She flopped across the bed and turned on the TV. “Relax”, she said. “Want a movie?”

We watched a movie, ordered pizza, and talked. We talked about likes, dislikes, family, friends, school. I’m not much of a talker, but talking with her was easy. We found we had so much in common. I was finally able to relax a little despite her awesome beauty.

It got late and I got ready to leave. She said, “There’s only 2 weeks of school left. What are you doing for the summer?”

“Not going to school,” summed up my summer agenda.

“I’m going to my parents’ camp at Surfside Beach for the summer. They said I could bring one friend. Would you be that friend?”

I was stunned. “I’m sure they meant a girlfriend…right?”

“Probably, but let me handle that. Don’t tell me you have to ask your parents. Just say, ‘yes’.”

“Yes.” Who could turn down an offer like that?

“Cool. Don’t pack anything. I will provide everything. Scratch that…my parents will provide everything.”

“Come back by my house on Saturday.” she added, “We have some planning to do.”

I stepped out of her house and headed down the sidewalk toward home. A light rain had started. The cool mist felt good after a day of Texas heat. My mind kept going over the events of the day. I kept picturing Amie in my mind. I thought, “When God made her, He must have said, ‘I’ll see just how beautiful a girl I can make.’”

I got home and decided to lay across the bed just a little before showering. I closed my eyes, smiled, and though about Amie.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

I opened my eyes to bright daylight. A bird was outside raising a fuss about some personal issue. Did I dream last night? No. It happened. I visited with the most beautiful girl in the world at her home. I looked the clock. Nine o’clock. No sense rushing to school now. I might make it in time for second period. Maybe not, but Amie was in my third period class. I had to be there by then. I got up and looked into the mirror. I was a mess.

I dressed and headed out. The world seemed brighter. The grass greener…the sky bluer. “Amie and Jamie”. Poetic.

I arrived at third period early and waited, watching the door. Amie was one of the first to come in. She seemed to have a brighter smile. She also seemed more beautiful…if that were possible. She waved “hello” to me and took her seat across the room. It was all I could do to look at the teacher and think about what he was saying.

Having Amie for a friend was life changing for me. I was “in”. She introduced me to the cool kids with the implication that I was no longer a “nobody”. These kids talked about summer plans that I could only have dreamed of before. Of course, now I had better plans than any of them. I would be with Amie.

Saturday came and I headed back to the mansion. I knocked on Amie’s door and she yelled for me to come in.

She invited me to sit at the dressing table. She stood behind me and started brushing my hair. After a moment, she spoke, “Jamie, you were right about my parents expecting me to bring a girlfriend to camp with me. You are going to be that girl.”

I looked at her in the mirror and said, “What? That’s impossible!”

“No,” she said, “you are almost exactly the same height and weight as I am. Your hair is long and beautiful, and your face is really not very masculine. We can pull it off…and it will be fun!”

I smiled. I would do anything to spend the summer with Amie. “Ok. How?”

"Go into the bathroom and put on the clothes I left on the chair."

In the bathroom, I found a red lace tank top, white shorts, a bra and a panty girdle. I put them on and reluctantly stepped out of the bathroom.
She smiled. “You look great! Sit down and let me do your makeup.” First she plucked my eyebrows. She started applying makeup and it looked awful. But, as she worked, my boy face went away and a very pretty feminine face took its place.
When she finished, she gave me some white sandals and said, “Put these on. My parents are home and I told them they were going to meet the girl who is going to camp with me.”

We went through the door that led from Amie’s section of the house to the main living quarters. The ceilings were very high and everything looked expensive, but not gaudy. Her dad was on the computer and her mom was thumbing through a magazine. They both looked up at us.
“Mom and Dad,” she began, “this is Jamie. I’ve invited her to spend the summer with me at camp.”

They expressed their extreme pleasure at meeting me and I did the best I could to hide my self-consciousness. I was extremely relieved when they dismissed us.

“See?” she said when we got back to her room. “You make a great girl!”

I stood in front of a full-length mirror and turned side to side. “Yeah. I do!” Maybe this won’t be too bad.

“Jamie. I think you were meant to be a girl. You’re just so pretty! We’re going to have a ball this summer. You might not want to go back to being a boy! Now take off your makeup, go home, and be sure to tell your mom about your summer plans. Oh. I almost forgot one thing. She opened a drawer and pulled out a box and two medicine bottles. I want you to wear this patch on your abdomen. Change patches twice a week. Take one of these pills a day, and one of these a day. Don’t tell anyone about them.”

“What are they?” I asked.

They’re harmless meds. They will help you pull off the girl thing much easier.

I shrugged my shoulders. “OK”. What harm could a little patch and a couple of pills do? I went ahead and put on the patch and took one of each pill. I guess I expected to feel something, but I didn’t. I headed home to tell my mom. She wouldn’t mind. She worked all the time anyway, and we rarely saw each other. I left her a note saying I was invited to a friend’s camp for the summer, omitting the fact that my friend was a girl. I told her I would be going straight there right after the last day of school and that I hoped I got to see before then.

The last class, the last day of school finally came. Amie and I walked to her house together. “In the morning,” she said, “we have hair appointments. We’ll both get pixie haircuts, and we’ll get your ears pierced.” This was really happening. I felt excited. Why was I excited? I’m not supposed to enjoy dressing in girls’ clothing. Then I told myself I was just doing it to be with Amie. That satisfied the part of myself that was having doubts about the whole situation.

In her room, she had us both packed, but just had to take out and show me some of the things she had for me to wear. We ordered pizza and watched a movie. Then, we showered and put on nighties…she had me one of those too…and she painted my fingers and toes bright red to match the color she had on. I kept noticing that she only had one king sized bed in her room. “Amie”, I finally asked, “where do I sleep?”

“Well, Jamie,” she said matter-of-factly, “with me in my bed, girl.”

I thought to myself that Amie must really think I’m a girl now. It was beginning to get easy to get confused.

We got into bed and she said, “Let’s snuggle”. She kissed my cheek and said, “I love you, Jamie”.

“Amie, I love you, too…very much!”

She kissed my cheek again and snuggled up with her arm across my chest. I was in heaven.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

I was vaguely aware that it was daylight and someone was moving about the room. Where was I? Oh! Amie’s room! Great! What a day today would be!

“Put on the shorts and top I set out for you. Our hair appointments are at 9 am.”

She was already dressed and ready. She applied my makeup and brushed my hair and we headed out.

She led me down a hall and we came to a door which opened into a garage. There were half dozen cars there. She walked to a Corvette nearby, turned back to me and said, “Let’s go!”

“This is yours? You have a license? Why don’t you drive it to school?”

“I don’t want anybody to mess with it. A while back vandals damaged a lot of cars in the school lot. This baby was right here and didn’t have to go through that. My dad got me a license. He knows a lot of people.”

She clicked a remote and the garage door started opening. She started the Vette and it seemed incredibly loud in the confines of the garage. She drove out into the driveway and it didn’t seem so bad.

When we got onto the street, I began to feel very self-conscious about the clothes I was wearing. Amie looked at me and said, “Jamie. Why are you slumping? No one is going to say anything. No one will even recognize you. We’ll be at Nancy’s salon in just a little.”

She pulled into a small parking lot. I decided to just stand up straight and forget I was a boy. We walked into the salon and bells on the door tingled. Nancy was the only one there. “Hello, Amie.” She said in a Vietnamese accent, “this your friend”?

“Yes, Nancy, this is Jamie. We want matching pixie haircuts.”

“She look a lot like you. You sure she not your sister?”

“Oh, I’m very sure of that!” I made a face at Amie where Nancy couldn’t see. Amie smiled and blew me a kiss.

Nancy was now busy arranging her supplies. “Jamie, you go first?” I sat in the chair ready to accept my fate. She got her ear piercing gun. “Two?” Before I could answer, Amie answered, “Yes”. So, she pierced both ears two times. I had seen that Amie’s ears were pierced twice, so I assumed I was to be a carbon copy. Then, Nancy washed, dried, buzzed, clipped, sprayed, combed, and brushed. I couldn’t see anything that was going on. When she finished, she finally turned me to a mirror. The transformation was incredible. I actually looked a little like Amie! What I did not look like at all…was a boy! I got out of the chair stunned.

Amie had a big smile. “Jamie, you look wonderful”. She hugged me, then she got into the chair. After Nancy worked her magic, Amie’s hair looked exactly like mine. I thought to myself that we looked like sisters. As if she read my mind, Amie said, “We’ll be sisters this summer.”

We got back in the Vette and headed to the house to load the car. The suitcases overloaded the Vette and had to be tied down. With that done, we started out on the long trip to her parents’ cabin on the lake. I thought of Thelma and Louise.

I pulled down the visor and started admiring myself in the mirror. Amie saw me out of the corner of her eye, and said, “Yeah. You’re beautiful, girl.”

“Amie. You still remember that I’m a boy, don’t you?”

“WHAT?” She said feigning shock. “You’re kidding, right! Tell me you’re kidding! I can’t take a boy to…tell me you’re kidding!”

“OK! Amie, I was kidding.”

“Whew! Jamie, don’t ever scare me like that again. Look. My hands are shaking.” She held out her right hand. It did, indeed, seem to be trembling.

“Amie. I’m sorry. I won’t joke like that again.”

“Thank you! Ug!" She stuck her finger in her mouth as if trying to cause herself to vomit.

We drove in silence. I went to sleep and dreamed I was flying. I could see tiny houses below me I would flap my arms and go faster. I headed down and the houses…

“Jamie!”

“What happened?”

“We’re here.”

The “cabin” was approximately the size of my house. It was high up on piers and it was right on the water’s edge”. There were other cabins, none as large or as close to the water as Amie’s. There were several boats tied up on a dock right next to Amie’s cabin.

“Whose boats”. I asked.

“Ours.” She said nonchalantly.

We went in. The air conditioning had the place very cold. “The caretaker has the utilities on. I told him to make the A/C very cold. We can cut it back now. I just don’t like to be hot.”

Amie started opening another suitcase. Let’s go swimming. Holding up a black and pink girls’ swimsuit, she said, "I have you this one piece. Wear the little panty girdle under it to keep everything flat down there."

Ah! She hadn’t forgotten I was a boy. What a faker! But, who cares? I’m here with Amie and we have all summer to…whatever!

We dove into the water. It was warm and clear. After a few minutes, we heard a voice, “Like your hair!” It was a girl at the next cabin. She was taller than both Amie and me, and her hair was very short.

“Hey, Leslie!” Amie called out. “Cmon in!”

“Nah. Not right now. Ya’ll come over when ya’ll get out.”
“OK!” said Amie.

We finally got out of the water, showered, and got dressed. I had so many clothes I didn’t know what to wear. Finally, Amie picked out a some shorts and a ruffled tank top for me. We started out for next door.

Leslie was three inches taller than me and Amie. When we went in, Leslie put one hand behind Amie’s neck, pulled her closer and kissed her on the lips. Amie resisted only slightly. “Very close friends”. I thought.

“Ok,” said Leslie, “this has got to be your sister.”

“Yes,” said Amie, “I finally got her to come to camp.”

“Great!” said Leslie.

“Now…Leslie….!”

“I just meant it’s great that you have a sister as beautiful as you.”

“OK.” Amie said, sounding relieved.

I knew there was more to that conversation than I could understand, but I marked it off to a private joke between them.

“Ya’ll gonna be here all summer?” Leslie inquired.

“Yes,” said Amie, “unless we get bored.”

“If you get bored, go shopping,” Replied Leslie, “There’s a new outlet mall about 10 miles down the highway.”

“Really? We’ll have to check it out. Jamie needs clothes.”

“Oh, really?” Leslie was leery. “You never wanted for clothes.”

“Jamie didn’t pack very much. On purpose, I think.”

I stuck my tongue out at Amie. She reciprocated.

“Well,” said Amie, “we’re going to go watch a movie. You wanna come, Leslie.”

“Nah, my dad will be here soon and he wants me to go fishing with him.”

“Oh, yuk!” Amie made a face.

“Hey, it’s kinda fun!” replied Leslie.

We headed back to the big cabin and plopped down in front of a huge television to watch. She picked out “Oscar”, with Sylvester Stallone. It was a confusing, but very funny movie. We headed for bed and Amie snuggled up. She reached her arm around my chest. “You’ve been taking your pills. I can tell.”

“Yes,” I said, “and the patch.

She snuggled closer. “Goodnight, Jamie.”
“Goodnight, Amie.”

I lay awake in the dark wondering how she knew I was actually taking the pills she gave me. Was it something I said or did? The pills were to help me pull off the girl thing easier. What did that mean? I decided to ask her the next day.

I awoke to the smell of bacon. “Wake up, sleepy girl!” Jamie called from the kitchen. She had me a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast. I thought it was the best breakfast I had ever eaten.

“Wow, Amie, you sure can cook!” I exclaimed.

“It’s just bacon and eggs.” She looked at my ear. “Are you turning your earrings?”

“About a thousand times a day.”

“That’s OK. I know they say wear those for 2 weeks, but I we’ll get you some hoops you can wear today. It won’t hurt anything.”

“Amie?” I asked
.
“Yes?”

“How did you know I was taking the pills you gave me? What are they?”

“OK, Jamie. The truth is the purple pills and the patches are hormones. The other pills are androgen suppressants. They will all work together to give your body a more feminine shape and suppress your development as a male. When we met, I sensed that you’re not really happy being a boy. This summer will give you a chance to see how the “other half” lives. Not many guys get a chance like this. I thought you would enjoy it but, if not, you can discontinue the medication.”

“That still doesn’t tell me how you knew I was taking the pills”.

“When I put my arm around your chest last night, I could feel that you are already developing “breast buds”. The nipples get larger just before breasts start developing. Your body likes the hormones and responds to them quickly.”

This was a lot to take in. “Amie, I think I need to lay down. I feel really tired all of a sudden.”

“Yeah, hormones can do some strange things. I’ll come lay down with you.”

It was not even noon when we got into the bed, but when I work up it was almost dark. I got up and went into the kitchen to find Amie at the table. She had a sandwich fixed for me.

“We slept a long time”, she said, “I just got up”.

“I’m still sleepy”, I said.

“Well, there’s no rule about sleep here. Eat your sandwich and we can go back to bed. We need to change into our nighties, though.”
We changed and got back into bed and snuggled. She patted my soon to be forming breast. Amie’s body felt so warm and nice next to mine. I felt relaxed and peaceful. I drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

I woke up and Amie was still asleep, lying on her side facing me. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and smiled. “Hello, girlfriend,” were the first words out of her mouth. “What shall we do today?”

“I don’t know. I’m kinda bored out here in the woods. How about you?”

“You took the words out of my mouth. To the outlet mall it is.”

We headed to the outlet mall…fast. Amie seemed to always drive fast.

We got there as the stores were opening. After a quick lesson in how to walk, we headed for Claire’s. Amie said I needed a collection of earrings, so I got a healthy collection of hoops, studs, and just about every other kind of earring I could think of. We both took a stud out of each ear and replaced them with hoops.

We went to Victoria’s Secret for underwear, then to another store for dresses, tops, shorts, shoes, etc. I now actually had more girls’ clothing than boys’.

When we had all the purchases we could carry, we left the mall and went to eat. Amie knew a good seafood restaurant nearby where the shrimp and lobster were “superb”. We went in and ordered, and Amie tutored me in dining like a girl. I realized there was more to being a girl than just changing clothes.

I had gradually come to the realization that Amie wanted me for a friend, but not for a boyfriend. She now didn’t even think of me as a boy. It didn’t matter to me. I liked the feel of my new clothes. We hadn’t been out together in public much, but I liked the looks we got. I liked being a girl!

We left the restaurant heading for the cabin. After a period of silence I turned to Amie and said, “Amie, I don’t want to pry, but what’s your relationship with Leslie?”

She smiled. “You picked up on that. Guess that wasn’t too hard. Well, last summer, we got to be really close. Her parents were getting divorced, and she came to me for help. All I could do was listen, but sometimes that’s what a person needs…someone to listen. Well, in all my listening, we…. How do I say this? We were lovers?”

“That’s cool”, I said.

“I’m glad you think that’s cool, because I’ve decided I’m not into boys at all. I guess that makes me a lesbian. When the summer ended, Leslie and I agreed that our relationship would end. It seems like she would like to take up where we left off, but she lives about 300 miles from us. The only time we see each other is during the summer. We can’t have a real relationship. Jamie, do you find boys attractive?”

“Are you kidding…yuk!”

“That's what I thought.”

The rest of the summer was all I thought it would be and more. We did pretty much anything that struck our fancy. We ate, slept, watched movies, got on the internet whenever we pleased. Then, I began to watch the calendar. I knew the end of this was near, and school would mean I had to be a boy again. At least, that’s what I thought. The resourceful Amie had other plans.