Chapter 3 - Outfitting Annie

School on Wednesday took forever.

I was really looking forward to going out with Mom and Kate, and the idea of being Annie for the outing had moved from yeah, OK to this is going to be fun! Something had clicked when I saw myself as the girl version of me. On stage, Annie was a character, a role I was playing; off stage, the Annie I saw in the mirror was me as a different person.

That was a part of my excitement, but I have to say that the chance to eat junk food at the Food Court was just as exciting. Not that my family was fanatical about 'eating healthy,' but Ronald McDonald and I were at best distant acquaintances.

Not that I was ready to settle for a Happy Meal, but being able to choose from all those interesting places in the food court was keeping my mind far away from my schoolwork.

At last the final bell rang and I headed for the bus, clutching my books, mind only on going to the mall as Annie.

"Jesus Danno! You look like a girl hugging your books like that."

Damn! I got caught. I had drifted off into a fantasy-land inspired by those scholcky movies Mom and Dad like to watch - you know, the ones where the geeky boy and shy girl try to spark a romance and always end up doing something stupid before they get together and live happily ever after. Well, I was doing the scene where the girl (always in a tight fitting preppy sweater to show off her figure) was carrying her books clutched to her bosom after school. Then the geeky guy offers to carry them for her and usually ends up dropping them into a mud puddle. Maybe I should start writing stuff instead of acting.

That burst my bubble. No way I wanted Craig to carry my books.

"Better than having to see a chiropractor because my backpack broke my spine, dude."

"Man, that play is messing with your mind, Danno. Remember - you ain't a girl when you get off the stage."

"I'm not a girl, I just play one on TV, but I'd like to recommend you switch to Blowhard Tampons for that…"

"You're gross, dude!"

"You're grosser."

"Ain't that the guy that puts out the celery in the supermarket?"

"Nah, he's the guy that peas on the merchandise."

"Lettuce us stop this foolishness."

"Fine by me, I can't think of any more puns."

"Whew! Whatcha doing tonight?"

"Going shopping with my Mom."

"You poor fool!"

"It's not so bad, we're eating junk food at the food court."

"Well, I suppose…"

"Makes up for having to watch my sister agonize over what skirt she wants to buy."

"I'd hold out for ice cream if you have to go through all that."

"Not a bad idea. I wonder if I can stretch out trying on new stuff as long as they always do?"

"Not a chance. Gotta go - time for the bus"

"See ya, Craig.

Whew! That was close.

 

I was the first one to get home, as usual. Kate's bus arrived about twenty minutes after mine and Sam's about fifteen minutes before mine. Sam usually stopped off with his buddy Steve to hang out for a bit. To tell the truth, he played video games because Mom and Dad weren't too keen on them at home. Sure they realized what he'd been doing, but they just took that time into account when setting playing limits. Sam hadn't figured that out yet, though.

Me, I never did find video games all that interesting; I'd rather read or hang out with my friends. Since I was going to the arts & music magnet school my friends tended to be into the same things I liked to do, but somehow I lived far enough away from most of them that we didn't get together after school much at our homes. I've always wanted to learn to play an instrument, but with all the time I spent at the theatre somehow that never happened. Obviously I sing, and I was part of the school choir, so twice a week I stayed late for choir practice. Fortunately, the choir was on Tuesday and Thursday so there were no conflicts with my acting. It did keep me busy, though.

Being a Wednesday, I went upstairs and took a shower before changing clothes. I really couldn't tell you why I did - I wasn't all sweaty or anything. Somehow I just thought that was what a girl would do before she went out to the mall. I certainly wouldn't have showered if Danny was going to the mall, but it just felt right.

I put on my dance belt, then my panties and bra and looked at myself in the mirror. There was something fascinating in seeing Annie Loesser (as opposed to Annie Warbucks) looking back, wet hair and all. I borrowed Kate's blow dryer and dried my hair while watching myself in the mirror. I had seen the word 'voyeur' in a book somewhere and now I had some inkling of what the word meant. Even at eleven years old I realized that what I was doing was about as girly as I could get - and I loved it.

I heard the front door open about the time I turned the hair dryer off, so I quickly put on my jeans and top (which somehow didn't feel so over-the-top girly right then) and was tying my sneaks when Kate came in my room.

"Hey sis! Looking good."

"I hope so."

"Hey! That's my hair dryer!"

"Yeah. Works good."

"You little rat. Did I say I could use it?"

"I'm wearing your clothes, so why not use your hair dryer?"

"Get your own, squirt!"

"I'll ask Mom while we're at the mall."

"Don't do it again."

"Wear your clothes or use your dryer."

"Smartass. You wouldn't fit into the clothes I wear now."

"Save them for me?"

"What? You going to make this permanent?"

"As if…"

"I need to get ready, twerp. Behave yourself."

 

Having gotten the best of my sister I settled down to do my homework - no excuses allowed by the parents even if Mom was taking us out shopping. I had just about finished when Mom got home. She gave me a kiss and asked if I was ready for our big adventure.

You bet I was!

"OK girls. Eat first or shop first?" asked Mom.

"Eat!"

"Eat!"

"Ask a stupid question… All right, ten bucks for each and I want the change back. Annie?"

"Yeah"

"You do know that now you're a girl you need to live on salads and diet drinks, don't you?"

"That's the dumbest thing I ever heard!"

"That's one of the secrets we girls keep to ourselves. We have to constantly worry about how our bodies look and that means we're always on a diet."

"Wait a minute! Are you telling me that because I'm wearing different clothes I can't eat pizza?"

"Sad but true, darling."

If Kate hadn't lost it then I might have swallowed the whole thing - without salad dressing. Mom is really good at telling tall tales.

"Darn it, Kate! I almost had her believing it!"

"Just for that I'm going to order a whole pizza with everything!"

"Seriously though, think twice about eating anything with tomato sauce - you don't want to stain your clothes."

"I thought you wanted to get rid of this shirt?"

"Oh, then go ahead and order double sauce and dig in! We can always get you a new blouse."

"Mom!" wailed Kate.

"See if you can order butterfly topping on the pizza, Annie."

"I'll settle for anchovies, but a salad with the pizza sounds good, too."

"See - order a salad and your meal automatically becomes healthy. Bet you didn't know that."

"Is that another of those girl secrets?"

"Sure is."

"Then I guess I'll just have to stay a girl until I learn all the things I need to know."

"That would certainly be interesting tomorrow at school."

"Oh."

"Such things take a lot of planning. How long did it take you to be comfortable as Annie on stage?"

"Right. I get it."

"Then get some pizza so we can actually do some shopping."

 

"I need help, Mom. I haven't a clue about what I should wear for dinner with a bigwig."

"Teaching you about fashion must have slipped my mind."

"Like having an extra daughter slipped your mind?"

"Where did you find her, by the way? Back of the closet? Under the stairs?"

"Ran into her on stage and she asked me to dance."

"From what Moira was saying you're a very good student."

"I do like the Irish dancing. Too bad I didn't discover it when I was small enough to be a contender. Moira says if I wanted to compete I should have been dancing when I was just out of diapers and started serious training when I was maybe seven."

"Sort of like they say about Olympic competitors - you have to start before you're old enough to know if you want to compete. If you're enjoying dancing then just learn what you can and have fun with it."

"I like that. Besides, if I started when I was little I'd have been dancing as a boy. I like dancing as a girl, the dresses are really neat. It wouldn't be so easy wearing pants."

"Somehow we didn't foresee any of this when we encouraged you to try out for Annie. It just seemed it would be a waste of that beautiful hair if you didn't."

"Just because I have red hair…"

"Because you have beautiful, curly, vibrant red hair. Are you really OK with all this, Danny?"

"Sure, Mom. It's like having a secret identity. Better than being Spiderman because putting on a dress is a whole lot easier than that stretchy costume."

"I always wondered what he did with his regular clothes after he put on the Spidy suit. Somebody would be sure to come along and scarf them while he was hanging off that web."

"Don't forget his shoes. They'd be even harder to hide. Maybe Spidy leaves his clothes in an air conditioner on the top of those tall buildings."

"I hope he doesn't use the air inlet! Stinky shoe smell through the entire building. They'd have to evacuate. Just you remember to put your clothes in the closet, Missy."

"Yeah Mom…"

"This is not getting you a dress."

"Yeah, and if we take too long Kate will try to buy out the store."

"Good thing this is a junior's shop or I might give her some competition."

"You going to teach me how to shop like a girl?"

"First lesson, start from the inside out. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need a new bra. That old one of Kate's is the wrong size."

"It does feel a little loose."

"Your bra should be a bit snug. Not that you'll ever have to worry about having breasts to support, but the proper size band will be more comfortable it will stay put better. Ready to get measured?"

"Measured?"

"We ask the sales lady to measure your chest so we know what size you need."

"The tag says my bra is a large, so I suppose I should try a medium."

"Hey! Who's teaching who here?"

"Doesn't the Bible say something about a little child shall lead them?"

"Look it up when we get home. Right now, look for a bra. You see anything you like?"

"Not something I put much thought into."

"Plain white should be best, you can think about colors later."

"Will there be a later?"

"I wasn't thinking. You make such a good daughter I forgot."

"This one looks OK."

"Want help to try it on?"

"I figured out how to do it all by myself with this one."

"Children grow up so fast! One second they're babies and the next second they're putting on their own bras."

 

"Look OK, Mom?"

"Does it feel good?"

"Yeah, it does. That's weird but I kinda like wearing a bra."

"You do?"

"It's… comfortable, I guess."

"Maybe there will be a later if that's the case."

"Would it freak you out?"

"You sound like your grandmother. I haven't been freaked out in years. No, you're the one that has to be satisfied, our job is to support you as long as you aren't doing something that will hurt you or get you killed. If you keep wearing a dress it might get you some nasty remarks, though."

"It already has. I don't like it, but the people who are nasty aren't the kind of people I want to be with, anyway."

"Be careful, Annie. If anything worries you be sure to tell us. There are some people out there that think it's OK to hurt anyone who is different. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Me either. Can I think about if there will be a next time?"

"Of course. Now we need to be thinking about a dress. Since this is dinner at a very nice place, a dress is what you should wear. If it were at a casual place then trousers and a blouse would be OK, but we want to impress our prospective Angel."

(If you aren't up on Theatre terms, an Angel is someone with the money to fund the production. For a professional production, they make money if the show is a hit and lose money if it flops. For our amateur theatre the chances of an Angel making money are the same as a snowball's chance in the place that Angels don’t frequent.)

So we looked at dresses. Mom tried to tell me about the various styles and what would look good on me. I was a tall, skinny kid, so Mom said that my hemline should be a little above the knee, but not too much. After all, I was only eleven! A dress with a tie would help me look like I had some curves even if I didn't, as the tie would make the eye think it was a waistline.

She had lots of other suggestions, but was careful not to overwhelm me. We found two dresses that might work, one a white with a green flower print and the other a plain deep blue. Mom said those were colors that worked with my red hair and light complexion. I was trying to decide when I heard "Katherine Melissa Loesser, over my dead body!"

I turned around to see my sister Kate in a bikini with the tags hanging off it. Having so recently become acutely aware that girls had breasts, that fact was brought home by Kate's breasts that were thoroughly on display. My first reaction was surprise; up until then the fact that Kate was a young woman had escaped me; she was just Kate.

My second reaction was - frankly - jealousy. My newly awakened awareness of my own femininity had me wishing I could have breasts like that when I grew up. It was a good thing Mom was pissed at Kate and ignoring me, because my confusion must have shown like a beacon. Did I really want to be a girl like my sister?

No time to follow that thought, Kate stomped off to the dressing rooms and Mom handed me both dresses and told me to try them on. I could hear Kate muttering in the booth next to me as I stripped off my clothes and put on the dress. After learning how to hook a bra behind my back, tying a bow behind my back was child's play, and I was a child. I left Kate still muttering and walked out to show Mom.

She stood there with a saleslady who had been attracted by the vocal skirmish. From their smiles I figured out the dress was a good fit for me. I got to see myself in the mirror and was commanded to twirl around and pose this way and that, which reminded me of posing as Annie for the publicity pictures.

"Very nice, Annie, but those sneakers will never do. We need to get you something that is a lot more dressy."

So we went to the shoe department and I tried on a lot of shoes while still wearing the dress. Mom and the saleslady finally decided on a pair of black patent leather pumps with just a little bit of heel. Back we went to the changing rooms where we found Kate sulking. I almost blew it by pointing and saying 'pouty lip' but good sense prevailed. I figured I didn't want Mom mad at me.

So, back into the changing room and reprise my twirling and posing. I couldn't decide which dress I wanted and neither could Mom, they both looked good.

"There's only one thing to do in a case like this," announced Mom. "We'll get them both. Your father can take us all out to dinner tomorrow and you can wear one of the dresses then and the other on Sunday."

"Mom!" wailed Kate. "Don't I get a new dress, too?"

"If you hadn't wasted your time with that silly bikini you would have been able to find one. It's too late now, Annie is finished shopping."

Jeez - I had been her sister for only a couple of hours and already she hated me.

Tough.

And by the way, we weren't done shopping, Before I got out of there I had a blue training bra to go with the blue dress and a package of new panties. And hair ribbons. Just what every eleven-year-old boy dreams of getting.

Well, this one, anyway.