Being a girl didn't mean you had to be interested in tea parties and dollies and makeup and dresses. Being a girl was just... being a girl. The best part about being a girl? NOT being a boy. Of course.

So she didn't insist that she was a girl to her family, because they all insisted that she was a boy. She would just smile and nod and go on about her business, ignoring their lack of ability to perceive reality. What can you do but humour those that are unable to think? Poor dears.

When she was only 6 years old, she and her best friend told one of her cousins, just over 2 years older than her. The cousin was able to see the little girl, because she was intelligent and wise and nice enough to listen. So then there were three of them that knew, and they would sometimes play the girly games, even though all three were actually kind of tomboyish.

One night, when all three were sleeping over at the cousin's house, they all played dress-up in the party dresses and church going frocks that the cousin had in the back of her closet and tried not to think about most of the time. The little girl was given a lacy, white dress with a pretty blue sash and matching hair ribbons. It was the most feminine of the dresses, but she happily tried it on anyway. Then, thinking about how silly her family was in their thinking of her she exclaimed, "Look! It has a blue sash! Blue is for boys!"

All three of the girls burst into fits of giggles.

They enjoyed times like this now and then, but the three of them were close friends and swore never to abandon each other. A couple of years later, the cousin and her family had to move away, but they knew she wouldn't be gone forever... so the little girl and her best friend played as before, just with one fewer.

One day, one of the little boys in the neighbourhood talked his granddad into building him the most wonderful of treehouses. It was in 4 different trees, and they were connected by slat and rope bridges. It had gables and paneling and it even had a railing and a porch! It was the greatest treehouse anyone had ever seen! Even the county newspaper showed up to take pictures and sing praises of the wonderfulness of the treehouse.

The little boy and his best friends proudly climbed up the rope ladder and pulled it up after them. Then they stood on the porch and looked at all the children in the neighbourhood, as a king and his advisers surveying the peasants of the land.

They held a long roll of white cotton between them and with a SNAP! they unfurled the banner they had painstakingly drawn the night before.

As it fell open to reveal the cryptic message, the king affixed the little girl (that everyone still insisted was a boy) with a haughty glare and pointed directly at her.

"And this goes for YOU, too!" he proclaimed, as the words became clear, only slightly marred by the rolling: