Synopsis

Brandon is a bright boy growing up near Albuquerque, New Mexico. He likes school, soccer, computer games, and playing in the school band. Small for his age and youngest in his class, his size has made him the target of every school bully for years. Each year the verbal and physical abuse increases, finally wearing him down to the point he doesn't know if he can continue. Just as he reaches the end of his rope, he is suddenly befriended by a classmate he least expected. As their friendship grows and deepens, Brandon learns the value of a best friend and finds himself moving down a road he never expected. Over the course of the school year, his friend helps him discover and cope with his feelings, hopes, dreams - and fears.

This is the story of a young person's unusual journey to stand up to the numerous obstacles that life has dealt him - and to become the person he believes himself to be. (Part 2 of 6)

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Viewing Note: This story should be viewed with the Edwardian Script ITC font installed on your Windows platform in the c:/Windows/Fonts directory. Microsoft Word installs this font automatically.

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The Legal Stuff: Standing Up to Life  © 2008 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright  © 2008 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface
 
 
I began this trilogy of novels last year, first publishing this book at FictionMania and Story Site in March last year. Setting out to tell a story I felt I needed to tell, I was pleased that the readers of both sites seemed to enjoy the work. A couple months after I initially posted this book at FictionMania I met a dear friend Carla Ann who offered her services as an editor. With her help I began to go back and proof this book a few months ago for publishing at Lulu.com. More than anything I liked the idea of having a hardback edition of the book for myself, but I felt that perhaps others might enjoy a copy as well.

With that information in mind I am posting a standard copy of this here at BigCloset, and announcing that I have three versions available for purchasing through My Store (www.lulu.com/tiffanyshar) at Lulu.com. There are 6x9 hardback editions and paperback editions, as well as a high quality pdf version available for download. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it from my store. I hope to have it available through Amazon.com in a couple months as well, and will offer to have Erin sell it through her Amazon page at that time.

Thank you to all of you, my amazing readers, who have enjoyed this work in the past. You will discover that this new version is much more refined than what I initially posted a year ago. I hope you all enjoy this and my other novels. I hope to have the second book, Daring to Hope, also available in this form by mid-March, and the third book will hopefully be available this summer! I will make future announcements about Book Three through my Lulu storefront as well.

I will be posting this in six segments during this week. Please enjoy, and thanks for reading!

     -Tiffany Shar

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Chapter 4
 
 
IT HAD BEEN an interesting few months since September. I had basically two camps of people that I dealt with on a daily basis, the girls and the guys. Wonder that. The guys began razzing me pretty hard about the length of my hair. One such incident happened the day before spring break.

"Ralphy," Lucas had cornered me, "I used to call you a girl because you were such a wimp. Now I'm sure that you must be one - or want to be with your hair like that!" I attempted to get by him to go to Biology, but he blocked the way.

"Go away Lucas, I don't have time for your crap." I said as I tried getting by him again.

"Or what, the little girlie will start crying to her mommy? Or you'll fight me like the girl that you are? I'm real scared." He said this as I once again tried pushing past him.

"You know, even if I was really a girl, I know that I could take care of you just as easily as your pal Matt." He was obviously taken aback that I was speaking up to him like this. The incident with Matt seemed to bring a spark of uncertainty to his eyes. "Now, you can either move out of my way, or try to beat me up. I'm not going to take any more of your pathetic trash talk." Yeah, I'd grown up a bit since September… Now if only he would move out of my way…

"Well, Ralphy, I guess I'll let you go for now, but you watch out." He said this as he turned around and started to walk away. I noticed that part of the reason for his retreat was the principal coming towards us. Oh well, if nothing else I didn't get beat up, that was a start right?

I walked up the staircase to class. I got in there a minute early and started talking to Amy.

"Brandon, I can't believe it, I think Lucas was actually afraid of you!" Amy said.

I forced myself to chuckle, "Yeah, boy I'm glad he doesn't realize nothing has changed! I'm still just as short as I was at the beginning of the year,and I've lost weight even… I'm even less of a threat now than I was then!"

She laughed a bit too. "Hey, what are you doing over the break?" She asked.

"Well we're going to stay at home. My parents can't really afford to go anywhere since we're going on the trip this summer. You?" I asked, knowing that money would definitely not keep her from going anywhere. Her mom was a doctor and her dad was a lawyer. There was certainly no lack of money at her
house.

"Mom and Dad have to work next week, so I'm stuck at home." She paused for a second as if pondering something. "Hey! Would you like to come hang out at my house on Monday?"

I didn't know what to say. I hadn't been invited over to anyone's house in a long time, let alone a girl's house. What would we do? What would the other kids say? I spoke without thinking any further though, "Sure! Where is your house?"

"It's down…" It turns out she only lived three blocks away in a nicer section of houses behind our house. She wrote down directions during class, and wrote a time of noon down.

"Amy, thanks for being such a great friend! I'm really excited about coming over." I somehow kept from squealing with the glee that I felt.

We walked down the hall and the stairs together before splitting off to our separate classes. I couldn't believe it, she was a real friend that was really inviting me to come over to her house to hang out! Over the past few months we had reaffirmed to each other that neither of us wanted to date the other, but were just good friends. Still, this was the first time that we were going to have seen each other outside of school.

I had been quiet the past few months to most people in my classes. That was the main reason why I think the bullies had been giving me a wider berth. My novelty as a target had worn off. My hair had also given me a bit of a status bump as well. It was almost down past the bottom of my neck now, and a lot of the girls had decided I looked like a rock star.

I didn't know if that was really the case or not, but what I did know was that it was becoming harder to comb in the morning. Mom had said something about taking me to go look for some hair stuff today when she got home. I didn't know what she meant, but I hoped it would be something else that would get me closer to my real goal of becoming more like a girl.

This was all running through my head when I walked into Social Studies. The class was normally a waste of time, but with everyone being excited about getting off for break it was even more pointless. We got through the class after having to do a crossword puzzle while yet another episode of America's Funniest Home Videos played.

Leaving there I went over to the band hall for band practice. Mrs. Remar made us practice up till the last minute of the period. She was getting us ready to go to contest next month; something that sounded both cool and scary at the same time. I had maintained my first chair status, and with some lessons I was taking, had gotten through the entire book that the second year students were learning out of. Band had become a place where I could really focus my talents and energy - and I was putting tons of work into it.

But that day I went through the period thoroughly distracted, thinking of going over to Amy's house, not really paying attention to my music. Thankfully I had practiced enough that I was still getting my parts right. At the end of class I put my saxophone away and hurried to choir. Mrs. Schultz knew that she had no control over her classes, so she chose to show a movie that day to avoid the fight. I was honestly grateful; when she was getting hammered by the kids it was stressful for all of us! That took me to lunch.

Amy and I sat with her friends talking at lunch, in what had become a normal routine for us. One of our friends, Ashley, asked me. "So Brandon, how long are you going to grow your hair out?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know, I'm kind of thinking I'll let it get to here," I said while motioning the just below my shoulders. "It's not as long as I want it yet, so we'll see."

"I think it would be awesome if you grew it out that long. You look cute with long hair. Much better than that spike you'd worn since forever." Nikki chuckled.

I turned bright red and the girls all giggled. "Thanks, I think." I replied.

They started talking about their favorite movies for the rest of lunch. Mentioning how cute this actor or that actor was… I just kind of sat there and took in what they were talking about. Lunch seemed to fly by that day, but everything else seemed to drag on forever! It seemed like three days had passed between lunch and the final bell rang to end school.

After school I picked up my saxophone from the band hall and hurried to the bus. I was truly ecstatic that the break was finally here! Especially now that I had Monday to look forward to! I had Amy's directions in my pocket and nothing could stop me from having a good day going home. Not even some snide comments from Lucas talking about the girl named Ralphy on the way home.

Once I crossed the major street that ran between my block and the bus stop I started skipping for some reason. I didn't even notice it until I got halfway home. I turned around hoping no one had been watching. Thankfully, no one had. I got home and threw my backpack and jacket by the door, got some water, and sat down at the computer.

I had found a new website yesterday that talked about ways of hiding the fact that I was a boy. From what I had read, it was possible to keep my body from becoming more masculine if I started on female hormones in the next couple years. I didn't know if it was possible or not, but my goal was to somehow let my parents know my thoughts and get them on my side by the time I turned thirteen… That was the brick wall I was afraid to hit.

Mrs. Schultz had given me a miserable thought the day before when she said that very frequently boys with high voices end up with really low ones once puberty sets in… She of course had been trying to make me feel better, but only succeeded in making me scared of the future. I was terrified that would happen to me if I waited too long beyond that age to take care of things. Of course I was even more mortified of telling my parents about this.

Since September I had begun to do a lot of little things different. For one, I had stopped drinking coke every day. Before I made this decision I had been drinking at least four cokes after school every day, plus a coke at lunch, and I was afraid I was going to get fat. This bothered me because that would keep me from being able to ever have a chance of looking like a cute girl. My mother was not exactly the skinniest individual and I didn't want to be heavy like her (she wasn't really fat… but she wasn't skinny).

That brings me to something that had been a huge nuisance for me. On the internet I read story after story about boys being able to try on their mother's clothes. I wish I had their mothers; I didn't even bother trying because I knew everything would be way too big. Since I didn't have a sister either, there was no chance for me to act out on my desire to dress as a girl. It was truly driving me insane.

I started a little when I heard a car door slam outside, and instantly began closing the window that I had open. I also quickly cleaned out any trace of the sites I had gone to. We only had one computer and it was in the family room - so I had to be careful not to let my parents figure out what I was looking at online. I had little doubt there would have been huge consequences imposed on me if they did.

As Mom came in the door she asked, "Brandon, are you ready to go?"

I had almost forgotten that she wanted to go shopping for some stuff for my hair! "Umm… sure, let me get my shoes on."

"Take your time, I need to go to the bathroom before we leave," she answered.

I quickly ran to put my shoes on and then we left to go to the store. I wasn't exactly sure which store though. "Mom, where are we going anyway?"

"We're going to Wal-Mart."

"And what exactly are we getting?" I asked tentatively.

"Well, since you insist on growing your hair out, we need to get a few things for you to take better care of your hair. Up till a couple months ago, you could just use your shampoo, a comb, and some hairspray and it worked. Now that it's longer you're going to need to do a lot more to keep it looking nice."
 
 
I sat their dumbstruck, was this really happening? Maybe she'd buy me my own hair brush today! Who knows what else? We got to the busy parking lot and went inside. I suddenly was a little self-conscious as we went into an aisle of the store that I couldn't truly feel comfortable as a guy.

"Well first thing we need to do is get you a hair brush, which one do you want." She pointed to three of them, one black, one purple, and one in a teal-blue.

I actually had a number of things that were purple, including a jacket that I was wearing, and decided I wanted the purple one. "That one." She kind of looked at me strange but went with it, putting it in the cart. She also grabbed a small collapsible one that came in black and put it in the cart.

"You should have one in your backpack just in case you need to brush it elsewhere."

I smiled and said, "That's a good idea." I looked around at the rubber bands and other hair ties that were in the area. I saw a lot of Scrunchies, one of the new hot things all the girls had and wished I could get one.

I had already decided though that I was not going to suggest anything to buy. I was feigning absolute ignorance on all of the things we were looking at (even though I really had already tried to learn as much about it as I possibly could!). I didn't want to tip my parents off to anything - I was afraid the first thing they would do was make me shave my head… In the meantime I saw she had added a pick type comb to the cart. I let Mom lead me to the next aisle she thought we needed to go down. I was really disappointed that she hadn't brought up rubber bands at least… We moved onto the next aisle that had shampoos and such.

"Well let's see. We need to get you a shampoo and conditioner set now. Why don't we go with this brand, which scent do you want?" She asked while pointing to a brand that had like ten different scents.

I really wanted to say strawberry, as it was my favorite flavor/fruit, but I was afraid that would give away too much. I settled on something I thought a boy or a girl could go with: "How about the coconut scent?" I asked.

"Okay, that'll work." She said while putting it in the cart. She then looked at the shelf and saw there was a matching hair spray for that brand and grabbed it.

"Don't I already have hair spray at home?" I asked.

"You do, but I think this stuff will work a bit better. And it's also a match to the shampoo and conditioner, so it should work better." She replied, matter-of-factly.

She then walked down to another aisle where there were hair dryers. She looked at several hand blow dryers before settling on one. As she put it in the cart she said, "Your hair is going to take longer and longer to dry on its own, so it's a good idea for us to be able to speed that process up.

She started to go towards the front and asked me, "You are going to keep growing your hair out right?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Because if I buy all of this stuff for you, you can't decide immediately to just shave it back down again." She told me. It was then that I became aware of the there was a higher cost associated with this new hairstyle.

"I'm going to stay with this for a while," I replied.

"Good." She paused, then smiled and added, "Because I think you look good with longer hair." That was the first comment I had gotten from my parents one way or another as to my new style. I was shocked to say the least, and I was using every bit of self-control not to jump up and down, while grinning out of control!

We left the Wal-Mart after paying for the supplies. On our way home I remembered Amy's invitation.

"Oh! Guess what!" I said. "Amy asked me to come over to her house on Monday!" I was excited and knew that she could see it in my face.

"Cool. So are you two going out?" Mom asked me, kind of teasingly, but genuinely wanting to know.

"No, we're just good friends. But isn't that cool? I haven't hung out with a friend from school in… I don't know how long… It's going to be great!" Mom started making more inquiries about Amy and my friendship. Apparently she hadn't realized how close of friends we had become at school.

When we got home she looked at the map that Amy had drawn for her house and said, "She lives in a nice house over there." Mom had met her mom a few times, mainly dealing with her in relation to the trip. Her parents were also going to go along on the trip as sponsors.

"Brandon, put this collapsible brush in your backpack right now before we forget. Then meet me in the bathroom." She said.

"Okay," I replied smiling. I didn't know why I was smiling, but I just was!

I did as she asked and went to the bathroom. She held the purple brush in her hand. "With your hair getting longer you're going to need to brush it out several times a day to keep it from getting ratty. Turn around." She pushed my shoulders to where I could see what she was doing in the mirror while she was behind me. She spent the better part of five minutes telling me how to brush my hair right.

"I'm also going to suggest that you start showering instead of taking a bath." I must have looked heartbroken, I loved taking baths. "You can still take them occasionally, but it'll be a lot easier to wash the shampoo and conditioner out of your hair this way."

"Okay, I guess I can do that then." I answered, a little mollified.
 
 
She then went on to tell me that she wanted me to take a shower after dinner using the new shampoo and conditioner, and then she was going to show me how to blow dry my hair. She was very specific on timing of the conditioner and stuff. I acted like I really didn't want to do all this stuff, but inside I was jumping up and down screaming, 'YES! YES! YES! YES!!!!!!!'

We went out for dinner that night to a Mexican place. I loved spicy food, particularly the green chili that we enjoyed in New Mexico, and this restaurant was one of my favorite places to eat. After a good dinner we rented some movies, and then went home. Mom told me to go shower and use the stuff she bought. I was excited!
 
 
I spent more time in the shower on my hair than I ever had before. Now, while my hair had reached what I thought was a magnificent start, ten inches, it wasn't going down to my shoulders yet. I probably spent as much time on it though that night as I would if it had been down to my bum. I got done and got dressed, beginning to brush my hair out and told Mom that I was dressed.

She showed me how to use the blow dryer effectively, and once I was done I noticed my hair seemed to be occupying more space somehow. "Mom, did my hair get bigger somehow?"

"Yes I think it did. That's part of what conditioner will do for you. Also brushing and blow drying it probably poofed it out a bit more too."

I sat down on the couch a few minutes later and we watched a movie till way past my normal bed time - I love spring break! I went to bed dreaming, scheming, and plotting to try and figure out a way to get some scrunchies of my own. I couldn't believe just how great everything had gone that day!
 
 
Chapter 5
 
 
THAT WEEKEND we went over to my grandparent's house for a while. My grandfather gave me a fair amount of heckling over my hair until my grandmother told him to knock it off, because she liked it. I hadn't seen them in about a month, so it was even longer than it had been the last time they'd seen me. I had actually expected more heckling from him, so I was quite pleased that it had ended so abruptly.

With the weekend quickly over, Monday came. I got ready and Mom dropped me off at Amy's house at noon. When Mom had said it was a nice house she wasn't exaggerating. It was a huge two story house with a circular driveway in front of it. I rang the doorbell and stood nervously until she came to the door.

"Hey Brandon, come on in!"

I went into her house and she led me up to her room, which was also huge. It was decorated in a mix of little girl colors and bedding, with pictures of some of the latest cute movie stars up on her walls. "So what do you want to do?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know, did you have anything in mind?"

"Well, we could play on my Playstation for a while?" She suggested.

"Sure, that sounds fun." I was willing to go along with almost anything. I wanted her to invite me over again!

We played games on it for a couple hours before we got bored. "Well now what," she asked me.

"I don't know, maybe watch a movie?" I asked.

"Alright, that sounds good." She replied. "What do you want to watch?" She asked me.

"What do you have?" I asked.

"Well… I just got the Lion King yesterday, you want to watch that?" She asked.

"I don't know, is it any good?"

"You mean you haven't seen it yet?!? I can't believe that. Come with me!" She exclaimed as she grabbed my hand and dragged me down to their living room. I was stunned as I saw they had a huge TV that that must have cost a fortune! She led me to the couch and turned on the movie.

"Do you want anything to drink while the previews are going?" She asked.

"Maybe some water please?" I asked. She brought back two glasses of water from the kitchen a few minutes later. And we watched the movie. We actually talked and laughed a fair amount while the movie was playing. And, during the course of the movie I decided I really liked it.

"That was really good. My family doesn't go to the movies so I hadn't seen it yet."

"I love going to the movies, you'll have to go with me the next time something comes out."

"That sounds like fun." I replied.

"By the way, I don't think I told you yet but I like what you did with your hair today. It looks really nice." She told me.

"Thanks. My mom took me to the store and had me pick out some different shampoo, a couple hair brushes, and a blow dryer. I can't believe how different it looks when I take care of it this way."

"You know there are a lot of girls that would kill to have the hair that you have now." She told me.

"Thanks… I think." I said blushing deeply.

"You're welcome. I've been really amazed by how much you've changed this year. I think you're acting a lot more grown up. Everyone has noticed, I think that's why most of the kids have stopped messing with you. Well… that and a bit of fear after Matt's nose." She said laughing and winking at me.
 
 
We talked about just about everything over the next couple hours. The two of us had a lot in common, and we had a chance to bond in those few hours like we had never had before. Her mom came home a little later and said, "How are you doing Brandon?"

"I'm doing well, how are you Mrs. Hancock?" I replied politely.

"Tired. It was a long day. Say, I'm going to order pizza for dinner, do you want to stay and eat with us?" She asked me.

I looked at Amy, she was nodding at me vigorously, so I answered, "Sure, just let me call my mom and let her know that I'm staying for a while longer."
 
 
After I called her I sat down and talked with Amy some more. Her mom joined us a few minutes later and told Amy her dad was on the way home. "Brandon, I like your hair, it looks really nice."

"Thanks." I replied to her. We continued talking for a while and then she told Amy to take me upstairs to wash up. She showed me where her bathroom was, connected to her room (I was so jealous), and we both washed our hands before returning downstairs. Her dad and the pizza arrived at almost the same time.

Dinner with Amy's family was fun. Period. End of story. She had such a neat set of parents, and I had a great time at dinner that night. Her parents definitely seemed to like me. Something that became apparent a few minutes later.

Amy's father asked me, "Brandon do you like to ski?"

"Yeah, the few times I've been able to go I loved it. I just haven't been able to go that many times." I said. I was kind of curious as to why he was asking.

"Well how would you like to go with us this weekend? It'll be our treat."

"Really? Are you sure?"

Her dad nodded, and Amy said, "You have to come! It'll be so much fun!"

"I'd love to, but I'll have to ask my parents first. I don't think they'll say no, but I do have to ask." I said.

"Fantastic." We all talked for a while longer before I decided I should probably go home. Amy went with her mom to drop me off at home. Mrs. Hancock talked to my parents for a few minutes and they said yes to me going with them. My parents offered to pay for my lift ticket and food, but she flatly refused saying, 'it was their treat.' We all thanked her and I said goodnight to Amy as she got in the car.

"Amy thanks for inviting me over, I haven't had this much fun in a long time. Thanks!"

"No problem Brandon, I feel the same way. I'm looking forward to seeing you Friday. Goodnight!"

With that ended one of the best days I had ever had with a friend to that point. I couldn't have had more fun than I did that day!
 
 
My mom took me to a used sporting goods store Tuesday to see if we could find some ski pants. We found a pair of black pants that fit pretty well for a good deal so Mom bought them. To say I was excited and looking forward to the trip was to understate the matter a great deal. I had been able to go skiing a total of three times before this - all on school trips.

That actually had me a little worried. I knew that Amy and her family went skiing a lot during the year. Would she be upset with slowing down to hang out with me? Or would she just leave me in her dust and all alone on the slopes? To say the least I was suffering with some insecurity issues. I managed to forget about that most of the time and just be excited.

I think my mom was really happy to see me smiling and looking forward to something. Things had improved a lot at school - but only to the point that I was only crying about twice a week when I came home. At least that was down from every day…
 
 
AMY AND I talked quite a bit over the phone each day leading up to Friday. I found out that I was going to be sharing her room at the condo since she had a set of bunk beds in there. "Prepare yourself for a talk by Dad though," she warned me. She had told him we were just good friends, but she knew that he would still end up saying something to us.

For me it was just going to be one new experience after another. I had never slept over at a friend's house before. Never. Can you believe that? I was outright hyper and giddy Thursday night. When Mom told me it was my bedtime I went to bed and couldn't get to sleep for hours. When she shook me awake the next morning it felt like I'd only been asleep for five minutes.

I took a shower that morning, dried my hair, and ate breakfast in record time. I paced around the house for thirty minutes before they arrived right on time at 7:30am. Mom went and talked to Amy's parents for a few minutes while I carried my backpack of stuff out to their car. I was already wearing my ski pants, as was Amy, when I got in the car. I noted that hers were basically the same as mine except they were purple.

"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked her.

"Great. We're going to have so much fun!" She replied excitedly.

We drove off and began the hour and a half drive up to the resort. After a while I asked her, "So what are we going to do first?"

"Well we're going to go put our stuff in our condo. Mom's going to fix us something to eat for lunch, and then we'll drive up to the resort." She said.

Her dad must have been listening in while he was driving, because he then said, "When we get up to the condo I'm going to have you try on a pair of Amy's ski boots. They're a little small for her, but I think they'll probably fit you. If they do then we'll just have you use her old skis with them. If they don't we'll go get you a rental set. Does that work for you?"

"Sure, I'm fine with whatever is easiest." I replied. I was suddenly thinking… Girls' ski boots? Or are they the same as guys? I wasn't honestly sure. All I knew was that maybe I'd get my first chance to ever wear something that was made for a girl! I didn't know if I was supposed to take a macho stance about it but… Oh well. Who would see me?

We continued the drive up to the resort with Amy and I chattering away as only kids that are best friends can. Before I knew it we were pulling off the highway and driving up a snowy gravel road to their condo. We went inside and Amy gave me the "Five-Cent" tour. On the first floor they had a closet right inside that they stored skis in when they weren't using them.

From there they had a second closet that was a normal coat closet. They had a fairly large kitchen, dining room, and den that were all kind of open to each other. In the middle of the room, against a wall, was a huge fireplace that had a bear rug in front of it. There were some couches and love seats arranged in an open bracket around it facing the fireplace. Amy also showed me where there was a half bath on that floor as well.

We then went upstairs and she showed me that there were two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Her parents' bedroom and bathroom were massive - they easily took up sixty-five percent of the space on that floor. Then she said, "and here is my room - our room tonight," and opened up the door to her bedroom. It was decorated much like her normal bedroom and had a set of bunk beds up against one wall. Both beds were decorated in Barbie bedding. She also had a huge doll house and dozens of Barbies stacked on a shelf above it.

As if reading my mind she said, "I like Barbie!" We chuckled a bit. She then added, "A lot of other girls are saying we're too old for them, but I still play with them. That's what I do when I get done with homework on most nights."

I felt kind of awkward… what was I supposed to say to that? So I responded, "That's cool that you still play with them. I still play with toys a lot too. Where do you keep them at your house? I didn't notice there being this many there."

She smiled at me, "I have a separate play room down the hall from my room. It's all Barbies and dolls, and since I didn't think you'd want to play with them we didn't go in there. I'm so glad you don't think I'm a freak for still playing with kids toys."

"Amy, you would be the last person I would ever think of as a freak." She smiled at me and said thanks.

She then showed me the bathroom that we were going to share… it was the size of both bathrooms at my house combined… It had a whirlpool tub and a walk-in shower. It also had a large vanity and two sinks.

She also had a large closet that had several more sets of ski pants, sweaters, and other cold weather clothes.
 
 
From there the conversation got a little more mundane and we decided who was going to sleep in which bed. By 'we' decided, I mean she said, "TOP BUNK!" and giggled. Apparently that was her tradition with friends - whoever spoke up first got first choice.

We were still talking in there when her dad came in, speaking initially to Amy, "Your mom is making lunch right now for all of us. When she gets done we'll eat and then head up to the slopes." He hesitated for a second, looking a little bit awkward before saying, "Actually, I wanted to talk to you both for a moment while we have a chance." Here it comes I thought.

"Brandon, from what Amy has told me I believe we can trust you two, but I'll ask anyways for you two not to do anything inappropriate. If you were both still younger I wouldn't even say anything… but middle school changes things. Do I have to say more, or do you get what I mean?"

"Mr. Hancock we wouldn't even think of doing anything like that. Amy and I are both waaayyy more interested in being friends than anything else." I replied.

"I believe you. Especially considering your response was almost word for word what Amy said last night. I do want you both to leave the door open tonight though okay?"

Amy replied this time, "That's fine Daddy, though there's nothing to worry about."

"I know sweetheart, but I'm your Dad, which means it's my job to say these things. Anyway, why don't you both come downstairs and we'll see if these ski boots fit you Brandon?"

We followed him downstairs and went to the ski closet. When he opened it up I saw two sets of ski boots that looked to be our size. One was pink with purple latches and the other set was black with purple latches. My heart skipped a beat wondering which pair I was going to be using.

He picked up the black ones and handed them to me. I took off my right shoe and put my foot into the boot. It was a good fit. I was actually curious what my foot size was compared to her. I'd have to check it out later.

Amy's mom came around from the kitchen "Do you mind wearing her boots Brandon? They're not overly girly, but if they bother you we can rent another set instead."

"They're fine Mrs. Hancock; I'm really not bothered by it at all." I replied.

"Okay but if you change your mind that's alright. Just be sure and let us know." She said.

I then saw the skis that went with the boots and almost wondered if I shouldn't have taken that back - they were covered with a mixture of purple and lighter purple. I decided to not worry about it though - wasn't this just a really cool little step on the journey I wished to take? Yes. I began to feel a little more excited as I thought about it all.

Once we were sure everything was set up right for me, we sat down and ate the grilled cheese and soup that her mom had made for us. After lunch I made sure that I thanked her and helped put all of the equipment on their SUV's ski rack. Then we all got into it to go up to the resort.

At the resort Mr. Hancock handed me a lift ticket and told me to attach it to the zipper of my jacket. Amy's mom was talking to her in the meantime, "Amy do you have your backpack?"

"Yes mommy," she replied. I could tell she was a little annoyed her mom was doing this in front of me.

"I just want to make sure that you have it and the extra stuff in it in case you guys need it. The snacks and your extra clothes are in there right?" She nodded and I stopped paying attention as Mr. Hancock had me help stack skis and poles against the car. Once everything was out of the car they told us where they wanted us to meet them at 4:30pm for dinner.

"Come on Brandon, let's go!" Amy said to me as we made our way away from her parents. We found a chairlift that would take us up to a spot where there were a lot of easy green trails to start off with.

We put on our skis before we got to the chairlift and I was a little shocked when the guy running the chairlift said, "Have a good run ladies," to us. I kind of blushed for a second and Amy giggled next to me.

I looked at her and asked, "do I look that much like a girl right now?"
 
 
"Not a whole lot, but the purple on your jacket, the skis, your hair, and the fact you're with me must have been enough to confuse him." She said in between giggles. I stuck my tongue out at her.

"I have one of those too!" She said smiling and sticking her own tongue out.

Now the jacket I had wasn't a girl's jacket, it just happened to be mainly purple with some blue and black areas on it. It wasn't the complete norm at the time, but it wasn't that unusual in that area because of the ski resorts. She had a point about the combination effect there - one that I was not unhappy about even a tiny bit!

We talked and giggled the rest of the ten minute ride up to the top and then started down the slope. It was actually a really warm sunny day that day. The temperature was about fifty degrees, so we really didn't need our jackets that much even. I shed the ear warmer I had on pretty early on in our run.

We had a lot of fun going down the slope. Usually I was a pretty timid skier, but somehow hanging out with Amy made me less so. I guess there's safety in having a friend doing the same stupid things? We went down our first run in about thirty minutes and then made our way back to the chairlift.

"So do you want to try something harder now?" Amy asked with a slight twinkle of mischief in her eye.

"As long as it's not too much harder I'll go for it." I replied as we looked at a map on the way up. I had finally found something to be annoyed about with my hair… it kept getting in my face - especially my mouth as we were riding up the chairlift. I kept pushing it back behind my ears to try and keep it in place, but it was still a bit short for that to be really effective. About five minutes later we made it to the top. I did the usual hop off of the lift and moved away from it to avoid getting hit by the chair.

"Hey, Brandon hold on a second." Amy said coming over to me. She opened up her backpack and dug for something for a moment. She pulled out a purple headband for hair. "I notice your hair keeps getting in your eyes, do you want to see if this'll work to keep it out of your face?" She asked me.

"Umm… wouldn't that be kind of weird?" I asked timidly.

"Well, maybe if someone knew you, but most people won't even notice. Besides, it's going to be a long afternoon if you're constantly fighting with your hair, trust me, I know!" She said pointing to the ponytail her hair was tied up into. "I'll put one in my hair too if it'll make you feel any better?" I saw she had a pink one in there too.

"Okay, I guess. If we see your parents though help me hide it somewhere okay? I don't want them to decide I shouldn't be around you because I'm weird or anything, alright?" I replied.

"Don't worry, Mom was the one who told me to be sure that I had an extra one in here since she thought you might need it!" I was flabbergasted by that. With my mouth still open she put the purple one into my hair and the pink into hers and started off down the trail while I was still in shock. Her mom thought I would wear it willingly? Did she know I wanted to be a girl? Did Amy know it? I was suddenly kind of nervous, but took after her down the trail.

Before I knew it we were going down a blue trail that had moguls on it. For those of you who have never skied before, moguls are little hills of snow on the slope. There's usually a section of them like rapids on a river on some of the harder trails. I had heard about them but never skied on them before.

I tried to follow Amy's lead going down them but I screwed up and my right hand ski went the wrong way. BOOM! Down I went, tumbling head over heels. My ski bindings released and I just kept tumbling a couple more times.
 
 
Chapter 6
 
 
WHEN I CAME out of shock I ran through a checklist in my brain about how my body felt. It really didn't feel like anything was seriously injured, but I didn't get up right away because it just seemed like too much work at that moment…
 
 
"Miss, are you okay?" I turned my head to see a ski patrolman standing next to me.

"Umm…" miss? Well, I didn't want to seem like a freak so I decided not to correct him. "Yeah, I just decided it was more comfortable on the ground." I said with a slight chuckle that sounded a lot more like a giggle. I got up from the ground and walked a few steps. "Yep, nothings broken except my pride."

I looked down the hill and saw Amy walking up the slope to me. She was almost up to where I was. In the meantime the patrolman was nice enough to recover my skis for me. "Are you alright?" Amy asked me.

"Yeah, like I told him, nothing's hurt other than maybe a little pride. But at least it was a pretty spectacular dive!" I said with a wry smile. The patrolman said, "It was a pretty good one. I was worried that you were actually hurt from that one. Well, since you're not, I'll leave you two ladies to continue. Have a good day."

Amy stood with a bemused expression on her face. "You know Brandon we could have some fun with this…"

"Umm… let's just worry about me not killing myself the rest of the day!" I said laughing.

"Oh alright, you're no fun!" She replied. "But we need to fix your hair real quick, your headband is really crooked now!" She did that and we started down the slope again.

Fortunately for me there weren't any other mogul sections on that trail and we had a pretty uneventful trip back down the slope. As I skied down the slope I was deep in thought about the day so far. On one hand part of me was screaming, 'YES! YES! YES!' I mean, I wanted to be a girl, I should be happy that I'd been referred as such two times that day right?

On the other side I had a healthy dose of fear. What would Amy say if she knew I wanted to be a girl? What would her parents say? What would my parents say? And obviously what would the kids at school say?
 
 
We got down to the bottom and Amy looked at me curiously. "Brandon, don't worry about them calling you a girl, it's not a bad thing. I personally don't care what they call you; you'll be my best friend no matter what. Plus, no one from school would care if they saw you here today. And, my parents both really like you and they don't care what you look like either."

"Best friend? Really?" I asked. I heard all of what she said, but my brain got suddenly stuck on that part.

"Yes, you really are my best friend Brandon. I know I haven't ever come out and said it to you, but I've said it to my mom plenty of times." We put our skis in a ski rack and walked into the lodge at the base of the mountain. She found a couple chairs by the fireplace that we could sit in for a few minutes while we kept talking. The rest of the room was pretty vacant.

"Brandon, I talk to you over the phone more than anyone else. I tell you more than I tell anyone else, you really are my best friend, and I'm not just saying that." She told me.

I knew without a doubt that she meant it and that I could trust her probably more than any other person on the planet. "Thanks Amy, you are definitely my best friend too. I just never realized that you felt that way about me as well. It's kind of strange though isn't it, a guy and a girl being best friends, but not having any interest in dating each other?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is that I really don't care one way or another as long as you don't." She said.

"I certainly don't, I couldn't think of a better person to have as a best friend myself." I said.

"Well, now that we have that settled are you a little more okay about the comments?"

"I guess. I just hope that no one from school sees me wearing a headband. I'd hate to have to endure one more thing at school." I said.

"You'll be fine Brandon, you've been doing so much better at dealing with them that I don't honestly think it would be worth their time. Besides, I'd help you out if something were to happen, okay?"

"Okay." I sat there for a brief moment before asking, "Do you know where the bathroom is? I really need to go."

"Yeah, I'll show you. I really need to go too!"

We walked down a hallway and found a set of restrooms. I half hesitated when I went into the men's room… I hoped no one freaked out and thought I was a girl going in the boy's room… Thankfully the restroom was empty when I went into it, and I came out without anyone seeing me. I waited for Amy outside of the restroom and she emerged shortly.

"Ready to go back up?" She asked.

"Yeah. Do we have time for another run?" I asked looking at my watch. It read 3:30.

"We should if we hurry and take one of the easier green trails that we can go faster on." I nodded and we hurried off to grab our skis and go on up the chair lift.

There was a different guy at the bottom of the lift and he said, "Have a good run, ladies."

I couldn't believe it… Maybe my plan could actually work. Amy was pretty accepting of me at this moment. I was beginning to think that she would be if I ever told her the truth too. I just didn't know if I could do that yet… I decided it didn't matter right now. The important thing was to have fun with my new best friend - or at least my newly announced best friend.

We got to the top and Amy said, "Let's try not to kill you again okay? I want to go shopping once we're done with this run!"

I said, "I'd certainly like to stay in one piece too, so I'll go for that plan." With that we began down the slope. Thankfully this time we didn't have any more acrobatics from me, and we made it down to the spot we were supposed to meet her parents at 4:20. We thought we might beat them, but they were already sitting there drinking coffee.

"How did your day go guys?" Mrs. Hancock asked.

Amy answered first, "Well other than Brandon trying to kill himself on some moguls not much!" She said with a wink.

"You had a decent spill huh?" Mr. Hancock asked.

"I think it looked pretty impressive. I wasn't hurt, but I definitely tumbled head over heels a couple times. I had fun though!" I said grinning.

I could tell that they decided it must not have been a big deal by the way their faces relaxed a bit.

"Well what do you want to do now?" Amy asked her parents.

"Why don't we go down into town and go shopping on Main Street. Then we've got reservations at a restaurant for 6:30pm. Does that sound alright?" her mom asked.

We both nodded. "Okay then, let's put the skis up on the rack and get going!" her dad said.

We got everything loaded up and sat down in her parent's car. As we were leaving I reached up to scratch my head and felt the headband still in my hair… Oh no!

I had intended to take that out before her parents saw me with it… I decided to do damage control and just go ahead and take it off. Amy saw what I was doing and grabbed it as I passed it to her. She then discreetly put it back in her bag. Her parents didn't say anything about it, so I decided they must not have noticed.
 
 
We talked non-stop with each other on the way down to town. It was a kind of long drive, about thirty minutes, but it was pretty with all of the snow on the trees and an occasional frozen pond here and there. My favorite thing though was when you would see a waterfall off to the side, because they were frozen! When we got to town we found a parking space and started walking around the various tourist shops that were on the street. I just kind of followed Amy around blindly. I wasn't really looking at anything for myself since I didn't really have any money to buy anything.

We went from one store to the next, with no one really finding anything to buy. After a bit we came to an Indian craft store. I wasn't really into the whole Indian thing, neither were they, but even if you're not into their dolls and such you have to admit the craftsmanship is top notch, especially their silversmithing. Amy's mom was taking a really close look at some of the necklaces.

Amy and I were kind of bored with that store and she suggested, "Hey, why don't we wait outside for her?"

I shrugged and said, "Okay."

So we waited outside on a bench by the store. Her parents came out about five minutes later and her mom said, "Okay, let's go ahead and head to the restaurant."
 
 
Both of us nodded vigorously since we were starving. We walked down about a block to the restaurant and saw instantly that it had been a good idea to have reservations. There was a line of people inside and outside the restaurant. If we hadn't had the reservations we would have had an hour-and-a-half wait, that's what I heard a hostess telling some people behind us at least.

We were seated fairly quickly and I discovered we were in the nicest restaurant I had ever been in. Every table had a cloth table cloth, cloth napkins, crystal glasses, and the inside was very nicely decorated. I wondered if I would even be able to afford an appetizer inside this place. After we were seated and the menus were given to us her dad said to me, "Brandon order whatever you want, it's our treat, and don't worry about the prices."

The waiter came by and asked, "What can I get you to drink?"

"Iced tea?" I replied. 'Do places like this have iced tea?' I asked myself.

"Great," he replied. He then took the rest of the table's drink orders as well. Amy also ordered an iced tea, and her parents ordered water and wine to go with their meal.

I briefly wondered if they had a kids menu (not that my appetite was that small,) but quickly decided if Amy wasn't asking that then there must not have been. The menu featured 'fine Italian' cuisine, and I quickly discovered I couldn't pronounce - let alone understand - what half the dishes were.

"Amy, what are you getting?" I asked. She was more used to this and would probably be able to help me I figured.

"Probably the scaloppini di pollo." She said.

I scanned down to that part of the menu and decided that sounded good. "That sounds good."

A few minutes later the waiter came back with our drinks and took our orders. Her dad started off saying that we wanted an order of calamari to begin with. Then her parents ordered before the waiter took Amy's and my orders. I decided to go with the Scaloppini (whatever that really was) as well since it seemed like a safe bet. It also appeared to be one of the cheapest dishes at only twenty-seven dollars.

Our dinner came with a small salad that I found myself enjoying. The 'Calamari' came out then as well. I had no idea what it was, so I had no preconceptions.
I found that I was enjoying it thoroughly.

Amy looked amused about something, "Brandon, so you're enjoying the squid?"

"The what?" I asked.

"The squid, that's what calamari is." She said giggling.

I couldn't decide whether or not to be horrified, not believe her, or just say yes. In a split second I said the polite answer, "Yes, actually it's pretty good." I ate some more then to decide whether or not I actually liked it or not, now that I knew what it was. I decided I did like it.

From there our meal came out. I was glad to see it wasn't some exotic, inedible thing. I cut up a piece of the meat and discovered it tasted really good. That night during dinner I didn't talk a whole lot. I was fairly tired and out of my element so I sat quietly enjoying my meal.

I became full very quickly - I figure I'd eaten a third of the dish and found myself wondering how her family felt about leaving food on the plate. Thankfully Amy's mom answered that question almost on cue again, "Brandon, don't worry if you can't eat it all, we'll take the rest back for tomorrow." I was relieved at that, especially when Amy's dad spoke to the waiter and ordered two desserts for the table.

When the dessert arrived we each took a small piece of it. The first dessert he ordered was something called tiramisu. I decided I had never tasted anything that good before. It had such a wonderful creamy flavor with the bits of cakelike stuff inside. He also ordered a slice of chocolate mousse cake, something I liked, but not as well as the tiramisu.
 
 
"So Brandon, did you enjoy your meal?" Mr. Hancock asked me.

"Yes, it was wonderful Mr. Hancock! Thank you again so much for bringing me this weekend. I don't think I've ever had this much fun." I replied with what I perceived as a giant smile on my face.

"Well we'll have to have you join us again next fall when we come back up here. The slopes close next weekend so it'll have to wait till then." He told me.

"I look forward to it!" I said just as happy.

With that Amy and I chatted about a whole lot of stuff for a few minutes while he paid the check. As a group we walked back down the street to the car and headed back up to the condo. I must have really been exhausted because the next thing I remember was us pulling into the driveway.

I noticed Amy also looked like she was waking up. "Well did you two enjoy your nap?" Mrs. Hancock asked us.

Amy grunted, "Uh-huh."

I replied saying "I guess. I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep."

We woke up enough to walk into the condo and sit down on the couch in front of their fireplace. I had been kind of tired before the nap, but now I was feeling awake again. I had a feeling that Amy and I would soon be hyper and bouncing off the walls again - something I'm sure her parents 'couldn't wait for.'
 
 
WE BOTH plopped down on the couches and began talking to each other. As we sat there we both commented on how chilly it was inside the room. Amy said, "I bet my parents forgot to turn the heater up before we left."

"Brrr…" I said.

We quickly became distracted talking about other things though. A short while later her mom interrupted, "Before either of you get too comfortable, why don't you go change into your pajamas while we get a fire started?"

"Though not at the same time in the same room please." Her dad joked. I could tell he was actually joking this time though - something had changed in his attitude toward us.

"But Dad!" Amy joked back. We went upstairs and took turns in her bathroom changing into our pajamas. I had a set of blue flannel pajama bottoms and an old soccer shirt for a top. She, big surprise, came out wearing a set of satin Barbie pajamas. I was instantly very jealous of her - I wanted a pair of Barbie pajamas!

We both talked and joked around as we bounded back downstairs to the couch. Her dad had built a blazing fire in the fireplace that felt really good on our cold bodies. We bundled up in some blankets there and kept jabbering on. This time, we were talking about movies that were coming out that we hoped to see.

"I want to see the Sandra Bullock movie that's coming out in April. It sounds really cute." Amy said.

"I'd like to go see Apollo 13 when it comes out. I think it's going to be a really cool movie too."
 
 
We went on and on about that type of stuff. Her mom brought us mugs of hot chocolate at that point, and asked if we wanted to play a board game. I looked at Amy and she shrugged and said, "sure."

"Amy why don't you go pick something out real quick with Brandon?" Her mom suggested.

"Okay Mom, do you care what we play?" She asked.

"Just not Candyland please," her mom said teasingly, but it made me wonder - did she still like to play Candyland?

I followed Amy to a cabinet underneath the staircase where there were a lot of board games stashed. "Well what do you want to play," Amy asked me. I saw tons of games in the cabinet including some I had never heard of. A few of them were; Candyland (it looked well used), Monopoly, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, My Little Pony, something called Mall Madness, Trouble, Connect 4, and others. I had no idea what was good. It's kind of hard to play board games when you're an only child. I wasn't completely sure how Amy's family made it work. Maybe they just had friends over more often.

"I don't honestly know, except when I'm at my cousin's house I never really get to play board games. So I really don't know what's good, you pick something." I told her.

I thought she would argue with me on it, but a glint in her eye told me that she had something in mind already. She pulled out the game she had been wanting to play I guess, called 'Mall Madness.' "I love this game," she said.
 
 
I thought it looked totally like a girl's game - not that that bothered me, but I hoped they wouldn't say anything. We brought it back to the coffee table by the fireplace. Her mom looked at her and said, "I thought I told you both to pick out a game?"

"Mrs. Hancock I didn't know what was good so I told her just to pick something." I replied hoping to keep her from getting in trouble.

"Besides Mom, I didn't pick Candyland!" She said in an exasperated drama queen voice while rolling her eyes. I giggled a bit about this.

"Alright I guess, as long as Brandon doesn't mind. Let's get it set up since it does take a while." Her mom said.

She wasn't kidding. It probably took fifteen to twenty minutes for us to get the board and stuff set up. Soon after that though, the four of us were all having a great time. If you've never played this game I highly suggest that you do!

I was not surprised that Amy won the first game - she was like a card shark with her skills at the game. But, surprising to all of us, I won the second game! After the second game her mom seemed to notice that it was getting late and that we should be going to bed.

Mr. Hancock had already left the room to go upstairs when she said. "Well, you two need to get to bed so we can hit the slopes again tomorrow before they get crowded. Before you do that though, I bought something for the two of you that I thought you might enjoy since you've become such close friends this year." She handed us each a small box that had was tied shut by a ribbon with a bow on top.

We both opened our boxes at the same time and discovered a little jewelry box inside. When we opened them up we each found half a heart on a silver necklace chain. I noticed that the necklace was marked as being made of sterling silver as we both pulled ours out of the box to look at them.

"Brandon, if you consider it too girly I won't be hurt if you don't wear it. But I got a long enough chain no one should be able to see it under your shirt if you don't want them to see it. I thought it could be at least a symbol of your friendship and a souvenir from this trip."

I sat stunned, this seemed like a wonderful gift, but did this mean she knew I wanted to be a girl? Perhaps, perhaps not. I was always taught not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and said, "It's a great gift, thank you Mrs. Hancock." I stood up and gave her a hug to emphasize my appreciation.

"Well then, if you're both in agreement then you need to make a pinky promise to each other of some sort and then put them on each other. Since I'm not part of this promise I'll disappear for a couple moments… But you need to go to bed in two minutes, so keep it quick." She said smiling while she left the room.

"Wow, your parents are really nice Amy. Do they usually do this kind of stuff for your friends?"

"No. I think they like you more than any other friend I've ever had. Well, like she said we have a promise to make!" She smiled and held out her right pinky.

I put out my right pinky and asked, "So what are we promising?"

"How about that no matter what happens to either of us, no matter who else we meet, or how we change, that we'll never break each other's trust or secrets?" She suggested.

"That sounds good, I promise never to break your trust or tell any of your secrets." I repeated back to her. We moved our pinkies up and down and then separated. I took the necklace in my hand and put it around her neck, and she did the same to me.

She gave me a hug. "See now we are really officially best friends!" This was the first time we had ever hugged, something I had wondered what it would be like. It really was a memorable moment, but it was just two best friends giving each other a hug. For better or worse there was no boy/girl chemistry thing going as far as I could tell.

"Well, let's go up to bed before your Mom starts herding us there," I whispered to her.

She giggled a bit and nodded. We went upstairs and both of us went into the bathroom to brush our teeth. I discovered how nice it was to have two sinks in one bathroom. We finished up and headed towards the beds. She seemed to be back into a giddy mode from having won the calling contest earlier. Amy was definitely pleased with herself about that victory.
 
 
Before she started climbing into bed though, she grabbed a stuffed teddy bear and a stuffed lion from the one side of her room with the toys. By the time she returned I had crawled into my bed - kind of excited to be sleeping with Barbie bedding - while she was doing whatever she was up to. She walked over to the beds and said, "Here. I don't think you brought a stuffed animal with you. And I don't let my friends sleep over without one!" She said with a big smile.

Part of me wanted to tell her I hadn't slept with a teddy bear since I was five… but girls sleep with stuffed animal's right? Wasn't she proof of that? "Umm... Thanks. I think."

"You're welcome." She replied and then climbed into her bed. Her mom came upstairs and turned the light off saying, "goodnight guys." Normally when you sleep over somewhere you stay up all night talking… tonight wasn't one of those nights though. I think we were both asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
 
 
Chapter 7
 
 
I FELT A slight prodding sensation. Something strange was happening in my dream. "Brandon, wake up." Poke.

"Ahh!!…" I woke up to see Amy standing over me.

"Wake up Brandon! Geeze… how long does it normally take to wake you up?" Amy asked me as she kept poking me.

"I don't know… I'm usually never awake for it" I said as I tried to roll back over.

"If I have to I'll tickle you!" She said. I knew she meant it too.

"All right I'm getting up!" I said with a groan.

"Good, why don't you go ahead and take a quick shower. Mom's making breakfast downstairs. Once you're done we'll go eat and then we'll hit the slopes!"

"What time is it?"

"Seven."

Groan… "Way too early…" I said as I got off of my rear end, and dragging myself and my stuff to the bathroom. I showered, but didn't wash my hair. Mom had told me that if I was in a hurry that could save me some time - I got the feeling we were in that hurry. I got out of the shower as quick as I could, and then took care of the rest of the essentials to starting a day. I did brush my hair out really quick after brushing my teeth, and putting my ski clothes back on.

I switched shirts to a Disney shirt I got when we went to Disneyland this past summer. It was a yellow shirt with Mickey on it. I only had one pair of ski pants, so I had to wear those again. I looked at myself and decided I was fairly presentable and went out to the room.
 
 
"That was quick. Did you wash your hair out?"

"I didn't think I had time to do that… So I'll wait till tomorrow I guess."

"I didn't wash mine out today either…" She paused before continuing, "I was kind of hoping if we get back early I could get Mom to do it for me."

"Your mom washes your hair?" I asked

"Occasionally. It's such a great feeling having someone else wash your hair!" She replied enthusiastically, "Maybe I can get her to do yours too!" She added. I felt a little awkward and mumbled something.

"Do you have your necklace on?" She asked curiously.

"Yes, you?" I asked. I didn't take it off that night, and left it on in the shower by accident. 'Shouldn't hurt it though,' I figured. I currently had it tucked underneath my shirt - I was experimenting to see if you could see it if I did that. There was a bit of chain around the front inside of my collar visible. I didn't know if I could get away with wearing it to school or not. My hair actually did cover the back of the chain though…

Bringing me back to the moment she said, "Yep! Anyway, I'm hungry let's go eat!"
 
 
She dragged me down the stairs and we sat down at their dining table to eat. I'm really not a morning person, never have been, never will be. But I did my best to act civilized!

We drove off to the resort a short while later. At the resort we got to unpack everything all over again.

"Okay guys, we're going to let you go off again on your own today. We'd like for you to meet us at the Timberline Restaurant for lunch at 11:30, okay?"

"Okay," we both answered together. Amy then led me to a different lift than we had used the previous day.

"Hey Brandon, we should do something with your hair again today." She said. Somehow I felt there was something strange going on, like she had been looking forward to this.

"Okay, I guess we can do the headband thing again today. Did your mom mention it last night or this morning?"

"No she didn't, but like I said she suggested it in the first place. Are you worried about forgetting to take it off before we saw them?" I nodded. "It's really okay! It's not that big of a deal to wear a headband."

"I guess I'm not really worried about what strangers think, I just don't want your parents to think I'm a freak or something. You're too good of a friend for that."

"If my parents thought that, do you think my mom would have gotten this necklace set for us? My dad was in the store and I'm sure she told him what she was thinking of doing - so he obviously likes you too. So chill." She said with a smile.

"Okay, I guess I'll wear the headband again." I said smiling back at her.

"Okay, let me get it out." She started digging through her bag. "Uh-oh…"

"What?"

"I think I must have taken them out this morning for some reason… Hrmm…" She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then looked at me before digging into her bag. She said, "Turn around."

I looked skeptically at her for a second, "Trust me," she said. So I did. In a moment I felt her gathering my hair and pulling it back and forth before she said a few seconds later, "Done!"

I felt my hair, something felt odd. It was off of my neck -that hadn't been the case in a while - and my hand ran up to find, "A ponytail?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep! And actually I think you look really cute with it!"

I was flabbergasted… I didn't know what to say. "Okay… If people thought I was a girl yesterday that's probably only going to be worse today… I should take this out."

I started to reach up to pull the scrunchie she had used to tie it up out. But she gave me this sad puppy dog look. "Come on, I'll remind you to take it out before we meet with my parents. I've wanted to do that and so much else with your hair since like a month ago. I didn't know if it was long enough though… Come on. I promise I'll never tell anyone else!" She said practically groveling.

'I was right, she had planned this.' I thought to myself before saying, "Alright. But please remind me to pull it out. I don't want your parents to see me like this."

"Great, let's go!"
 
 
She put her skis on and we climbed up to the chairlift. I hoped that I had fought hard enough to not make her think I was going along with it too easily. On one hand I really wanted to be a girl… on the other hand it was such a scary road. I was beginning to fear that it was also one my best friend had pegged me as wanting to follow.

"So Amy, why are we getting on this chairlift today?" I asked.

"Well, we're going to meet my parents at that restaurant, and it's on the backside of the mountain. This'll get us into that area. We can make several runs down this side and then we can meet them there. Then we'll be able to ski the front side of the mountain the rest of the day. Sound good?"

"Yeah, that does sound good. So, we're getting really close to the trip to Florida, are you excited?" I asked her

"Yeah I am. Have you ever been there before?"

"No, we went to Disneyland in California last year for the first time, but I've never been east, let alone to Florida. You?"

"Yeah, we've been a couple times. The last time was 2 years ago. I love it there, especially Disney World! You'll have a blast there, it's way better than the one in California. What are you looking forward to most?"

"I don't know." I said thoughtfully before saying, "Actually I think the day at Kennedy Space Center and Space Camp! Have you ever seen that movie?" She shook her head, "We'll have to watch it together sometime. I mean I guess maybe it's kind of dorky but I love science and space. It would be so cool to be able to go up there someday."

"I don't think it's dorky at all. Actually that's the one place on our trip that we've never been - I've always wanted to go there though. The rest of the kids may not realize it, but I'm every bit as much of a dork as you are!" She said giggling as we reached the top on the chairlift.
 
 
We made our way to the top of the trail we were going down and started down the slope. The ponytail was a whole new experience - something I'd wanted to experience ever since I'd decided I must really be a girl - and it was everything I hoped it would be. I loved how it bounced a bit every time I hit a bump.

We skied several trails down to the bottom. When we got there I said, "That was fun! I think I like the trails back here better than ones on the front."

"I kind of do too. Tell you what, let's go back up and stop at the bathroom on our way down before we go the rest of the way back here, okay?"

"Sure, that sounds like a great plan." I really needed to go too.
 
 
We rode the lift back up to the top, this particular lift was slower and it took us almost twenty minutes to get back to the top. I suppose it's still better than having to walk up though right? We skied down the little bit to a building that had a café, a small store, and some restrooms. She entered the girl's room while I went into the boy's room. When I finished I went to wash my hands and looked at myself in the mirror.

I couldn't believe how much I looked like a girl! I loved the scrunchie that was in my hair. It was purple, and seemed to match everything else I was wearing. I left the bathroom and started to wonder if some guy saw me what he would think…

What would happen if he wondered why I was going into the boy's restroom…? Thankfully no one had been around when I went in, but that was bringing up some questions I hadn't really thought about. I had not even come close to coming out and saying my desires… but my hair and my appearance were causing most people to believe I was a girl without even doing anything else. What problems was that going to cause?
 
 
Amy came out of the ladies restroom and we went back down the slopes via a different set of trails than last time. We reached the bottom about forty minutes before we were supposed to meet her parents.

"Brandon, we should head back up and start skiing to the restaurant we're meeting my parents at."

"Sounds good, I'm starving!"

When we got on the ski lift we started talking again. It was awfully hard to talk while we were going down the slope, so it was nice to take the break to be able to talk.

"Brandon, I was supposed to remind you to take out the scrunchie before we met up with my parents."

"Oh that's right," I said as I started to reach up to the foreign object in my hair.

"Wait," she said and I stopped reaching, "why don't you just leave it in?"

"Umm… Because boys aren't supposed to wear their hair in a ponytail held up by a purple scrunchie?"

"Who says?"

"Well… What other guy, besides me, have you ever seen with their hair in a purple scrunchie?" I asked. I wasn't sure where this was going - I was mildly terrified though.

"Well… none… But I don't care, and my parents won't care either." She said.

"Umm… what happens if they think I'm a girl at the restaurant?" I asked.

"Well… they may think that anyway." I raised my eyebrow a little before she suggested, "You could just let it slide?"

"Why are you so insistent on me keeping my hair like this?" I asked.
 
 
The chairlift stopped in midair - something was wrong on one of the ends or something. "Umm… Look Brandon I don't think we could ever date, I'm not really interested in you in that way… But I think you feel the same way right?" I nodded "But I think you look cuter like this. I don't know, maybe its more fun having you as a friend if you look like that? You don't have to do it I guess, it's just something I think is cute. And admit it, you like it don't you?"

I stuttered for a moment, thinking about denying it... "How do you know that I like it?" I asked.

"You smiled when you realized what it was at first. I also saw you smiling when you felt it bouncing, and you frowned when you thought you needed to take it out."

"I didn't do that did I?" She nodded. "I guess I do kind of like it a bit… but it's a little weird. You won't tell anyone will you?"

"Of course not!" She said.

"What about your parents, will they tell my parents about my hair?" I asked nervously. The chairlift started moving again.

"We'll lie about it, we'll say that I won a bet against you and this was what I won. Fair enough?" She asked.

"Yeah, I suppose that does work. I hate for you to lie to your parents though."

"Ah... This is something minor, and Mom won't mind one way or another. So, are you going to leave it in?"

"Sure. You're right, I do enjoy it. You promise your parents aren't going to care?"

"Promise."
 
 
We reached the top and started down the hill towards the restaurant. We'd been skiing intermediate level trails all morning, so it didn't seem too bad getting down to this restaurant from the top. We made it with about ten minutes to spare and sat down on a bench outside to wait for her parents.

I sat there wondering for a few minutes if I should still take out the scrunchie, but I was committed shortly later when her parents skied up. Her mom came up to us and looked at me, "Cute. Amy, why is Brandon's hair up in one of your scrunchies?"

"He and I had a little bet and I won."

"You're okay with this Brandon?" her dad asked. He didn't seem overly concerned about it, but was checking anyway.

"Well I was okay enough to bet about it, so yeah." I replied. I was glad that no one asked us what the bet was.

We then walked into the restaurant to get lunch. We sat down and had a casual lunch of hamburgers and fries. At the counter I was not surprised when the worker said, "and what would you like miss?" I was really ecstatic about it in so many ways, but I was still so nervous about what was going to come from this. We talked about the day of skiing so far, and when we were going to meet down at the base.

"Amy, Brandon, why don't you go ahead and meet us back down at the base in two hours?" Her dad asked at the end of lunch. That would put it at 3pm.

Amy asked, "What are we going to do when we get done?"

"Well I figured we'd shop a little at the resort and then go to the condo and hang out there for a bit. I figure we can take it from there. Does that sound like a plan?"

Amy and I nodded and took off for the slopes. We took a chairlift up from where we were to the very top of the hill. Then we followed a series of trails to get back to the front side.

"I'm worn out," I said to Amy when we got to the bottom.

"Me too." I looked at my watch, it was only 2:10. "I'll go again if you want to, but right now I'd kind of just like to find some hot chocolate and sit down somewhere."

"No, the hot chocolate sounds really really good." She said. We put our skis over on a rack and then walked into the lodge. It was certainly not a cheap thing to buy there - especially since I insisted on getting both of ours, but her parents had done too much for me to let her pay for that.

The counter guy said, "hear you go miss, enjoy."

'Not a single person I've met today thought I was a boy! I can't believe it!!' I thought to myself, even as I said "Thanks." I took the drinks over to where Amy was sitting next to a warm fire.

"Here Amy," I said as I handed it to her.

"Thanks!" We sat there quietly enjoying the drinks for a while without either speaking. Both of us relaxing and deep in thought.
 
 
Chapter 8
 
 
"BRANDON, WHAT DO you want to do when we get back to the condo?" Amy asked.

"I don't know, what is there to do?" I asked

"Well, we could play another board game - though that's a long time for games. We could go swimming in the pool there… We could play with my toys… Or we could just sit there and look bored?"

Part of me wished so much to play with her toys (Barbie's!), but my better judgment said there would be other opportunities for that if I went over to her house more. We had actually talked about me starting to come after school to hang out after school, this week. So… out of the other options I decided on swimming. I loved swimming.

"How about swimming?" I suggested.

"That sounds good, did you bring your swimming suit?"

Man how I wanted to say no to see what would happen… would it be like my dream at my aunt's house? But the scared and intimidated me said the real answer, "Yeah, I did."

"Okay then, let's go swimming when we get done with shopping!" She was fairly excited, I was glad to see that. I fed off of her excitement and we both talked rapidly for the next twenty minutes or so when we realized that we needed to go meet her parents.

We grabbed our skis and walked down to the parking lot. Amy thought about putting our skis on the rack but we couldn't reach that high. Her parents showed up a few minutes later though and her mom reached into the car for a camera.

"I want to get a picture of everyone together before we put the stuff up for the season." She had Mr. Hancock prop the skis up in the snow behind the car (there was a pile where the plows had pushed it up), and had us stand in front of them. As she was getting ready to take the picture she saw a resort worker and asked him to take the picture.

I had a feeling it would end up looking more like a family picture than a friend with a friend's family. I stood in front of Mr. Hancock, Amy in front of Mrs. Hancock. We took like ten or fifteen pictures like that with their nice camera, and then Mrs. Hancock got several with just Amy and me.
 
 
After we got done taking them I suddenly remembered I still hadn't taken the scrunchie out… Oh well. I didn't think you could probably see the scrunchie, you'd just see the hair pulled back. I decided not to worry about it. From there we got everything loaded back up.

Mrs. Hancock then said, "Okay, let's go look at the shops!"

We followed her lead to the various stores and looked around. She stopped in at one store that offered merchandise with the resorts name on it. "Amy, you need a new t-shirt right?"

"Umm… Yeah, the other one is fading really bad." She replied.

"Pick out a new one then," she said pointing at the t-shirts. Amy looked around and picked out a black shirt that had the resort logo in bright blue.

She then looked at me and asked, "which one do you want Brandon?" I was flabbergasted, after all they had done for me they were going to buy me a shirt too?

I must have looked confused though because Amy said, "Brandon, get the same one as me, it's unisex, and it would be fine for a boy to wear it too!"

I didn't know what Amy had in mind but I went along with it. I also discovered, much to my surprise, that Amy and I were the same size. That was strange, everyone at school except Nikki was taller than me but I actually thought I would be a little bigger than her. We got the shirts and finished up the shopping. From there we headed back to their condo.
 
 
"What do you two want to do when we get there?" Her mom asked.

"Brandon and I were talking about going swimming. Is that okay with you guys?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. You guys can go swim for an hour or so, and then I'll have dinner ready for you."

"What are we having Mom?" Amy asked.

"Well I'll heat up the leftovers from yesterday, and then I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. Does that work?"

I of course nodded because I wasn't about to complain while in someone else's house, and Amy seemed to go along with it too.
 
 
When we pulled up to the condo we helped them stash all of the ski stuff back in the closet, I left the purple boots on the floor there, and walked with Amy upstairs to her bedroom.

"Why don't you get into the bathroom first?" Amy suggested. "Make sure you put some pants on top of your swimming suit since we have to walk outside a little bit before we get to the pool. It will be cold… especially when we come back!"

"Okay, that's a good idea." I replied and took my bag into the bathroom. I put my swimming suit on and put on a pair of nylon wind pants over them. I left the bathroom a few minutes later and she went in and out. While she was in the bathroom I pulled the scrunchie from my hair.

I liked the way a pony tail had felt, though my hair was just barely long enough to hold it in. I looked around in my bag for my brush and started brushing my hair out. I was just about done when Amy came out of the bathroom. "Why are you bothering when we're just going to get it wet anyway?" She asked.

"I dunno… just seemed like the thing to do right now. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's grab a couple towels and let Mom know we're walking over there."

"Okay," We grabbed two towels and then bounded down the stairs.

"Mom, we're going to the pool now." Amy told her Mom.

"Okay, did you remember towels?" We nodded. "Then have fun. I'll send your dad after you guys when it's time for you to come back for dinner."

"Thanks Mom," Amy said.
 
 
We walked around the building's backside to a building that housed the condo community's indoor pool and jacuzzi. Amy and I walked to the door and used her house key to get in.

"So what do you think?" she said as she opened the door and I really got a chance to look inside the building. The pool was large, and looked like it went outside as well as inside. On one side of the pool sat a water slide that was about twenty feet tall. There was also a glass wall that allowed you to view a fitness center from the pool area. On that same wall I saw signs for girl and guy restrooms.

"I think it's really nice. I'll come up with you guys any time you want!" I said with a wink.

"Well, I think you can plan on being able to come with us anytime you want. Enough talking! Let's go swimming!"
 
 
We both stripped down to our swimming suits. I immediately headed for the water slide using it to kick off my time swimming.

"Hey, that was my idea," Amy said as I climbed up the slide. I stuck my tongue out at her and continued to the top. As soon as I reached the top I sat down and went down the slide. I had far too much fun with that for my age!

Amy was right behind me, and we then had a splashing contest in the pool before going back up the slide. She beat me up to the slide this time and it gave me time to admire her swimming suit. It was a pink one-piece swimsuit with some thick, angular, blue lines across it. How I wish I would have been able to wear something like that!

We swam and played in the pool for what only seemed like fifteen minutes before her dad came and said, "Amy, Brandon, it's time for dinner."

Amy gave me a final splash and we swam to the side where we had left our clothes and our towels. We both dried off our bodies and tried to dry our hair a bit before putting our clothes back on.
 
 
We then started back to their condo - it had gotten cold quick that night, and by the time I got back there I thought my hair must be frozen! It hadn't quite done that yet, but it certainly felt stiff. We sat down at the dinner table and had the leftovers with the grilled cheese and soup.

I had learned earlier from Amy that it was a tradition for them to eat this meal the night before they went home. Apparently she used to beg for it when she was really little, and that was their compromise for her.

I was fairly tired so I didn't talk a whole lot during dinner - though no one seemed to be much better off. I was full about the time that Amy's mom asked her, "Do you want to take a quick shower and then I'll wash your hair?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Amy said, fairly excited. "You should do Brandon's too!" Amy suggested excitedly.

"Brandon if you'd like that I'd be willing." Her mom said to me.

"What exactly do you do?" I asked. Trying to remember back to what Amy told me.

"I just wash her hair with shampoo and condition it over at the sink. I usually massage her scalp a little too. It's not really anything that out of the ordinary, it just feels nice to have done for you. So… yes… no…?"

"Sure, it's something to do if nothing else." I replied.

"Okay then, Amy why don't you go shower first and then Brandon can get in there. Okay?"

"Okay Mom, I'll be back soon." She said to her Mom.

I stayed down and helped her mom with the dishes. She smiled as I helped her work on them. It just seemed like something I should offer to do though. Amy came down about ten minutes later and I went up and showered real quick before putting on my pajamas (I noticed that's what Amy did), and coming back downstairs myself.
 
 
When I came down I saw Amy's mom wrapping her hair up in a towel. "Brandon, go ahead and come sit down here. I saw she had set up a taller chair in front of the kitchen sink where Amy had been sitting. Amy was smiling - I think that may have been her favorite part of the trip so far.

I sat down in the chair. "Brandon, why don't you take your necklace off while I do this? I'll put it here on the counter." I took it off and handed it to her.

"Okay, now lean back and relax." Her mom told me. I did, I sat back and relaxed as she first wet my hair down some more, and then began applying shampoo to my hair. As she was doing this she made sure she rubbed the shampoo into every hair and part of my scalp there was. It must have been some of Amy's shampoo, because it smelled like berries.

I then felt her rinse it out with the sink sprayer. I thought maybe she would be done then but as soon as I heard her put the sprayer back down I felt her rub something else into my hair - it must be conditioner I thought. The whole experience was more wonderful than anything else I could remember.

A few minutes later she rinsed the conditioner out of my hair and wrapped my hair in a towel like she had done Amy's. I sat up, kind of feeling a head rush, and then stood up. "Thank you Mrs. Hancock. That felt really good!" I said.

Amy was sitting on the couch with her hair still wrapped up, "See, I told you so."

"I never doubted you. So what's next?" I asked.

"Well, now Mom will blow dry my hair and put it into some random style she'll decide on… and then we get to team up and do the same to you!" She said smiling.

"That's only if you want to though Brandon," Mrs. Hancock said as she walked over to the couch where we were sitting. She pulled a kitchen chair up next to an outlet on the wall and directed Amy to sit down in it.

"Come on Brandon, you have to!" Amy said.

"Okay, just because you want me to." I said.
 
 
I watched her mom take the blow dryer and several combs/brushes and work with her hair for a while until it was dry. Finally I watched as she separated the back of her hair in half and tied each side into cute pigtails with some pink ribbon. She whispered something into Amy's ear. After she had heard whatever her mom had said she smiled really big and jumped out of the chair.

"Okay Brandon! Your turn!" Amy squealed. She was clearly more excited about this than I was able to let on myself. The truth of the matter is that I couldn't have been more excited. Maybe I would get pigtails too! Was my hair long enough for pigtails? I had wondered that recently.

I sat down in the chair and felt Amy and her mom work together on my hair for what seemed like forever. I swore I must be in a dream… They ran the blow dyer through my hair while combing and brushing it out. After a while they turned the blow dryer off and I felt her separate my hair, they were actually going to do it - I was going to have pigtails like a real girl!!!

I couldn't wait to see myself in the mirror. Her mom had to try a couple times to get the bunch of hair on my right just right, then she moved on to my left. A minute later she said, "Done."

Amy giggled a little bit, grabbed my hand, and said, "Let's go look!" She led me bounding up the stairs to the bathroom.
 
 
When we got up to the bathroom I couldn't believe it. If I thought I had looked like a girl with the ponytail it was nothing compared to the two pigtails hanging off either side of my head. "Whoa." I said. I looked so cute! I looked just like a little girl - maybe a little too little… I couldn't stop smiling about it! And, I couldn't keep the giggle in my throat from coming out.

"You know Brandon, you would make a prettier girl than most of the girls in our grade." Amy commented.

I couldn't disagree with her on that… I had always dreamed it might be such, but here it was and she was right. If only I had girls clothes on there would be no doubt. That brought me back to reality though, and I became morose as I said, "Yeah, but that could result in me getting beat up more…" I answered honestly.

"Actually, I think that people are going to start leaving you alone more and more. If you came dressed up in girls clothes to school there might be problems, but I don't think you're going to get anything from your hair. Besides…" She giggled, "I know of at least three girls that have a crush on you because of your hair. They think you look like a rock star." She giggled some more. "So what do you think?"

"It's different… it's kind of amusing…" I trailed off.

"Okay, let's go downstairs and play a game now!" She grabbed my hand and we walked back downstairs. She went to the closet and came back with Monopoly. I think I saw her mom groan a bit, but we ended up setting it up and playing.

You know Monopoly is just one of those games that seem to always go the same way with people everywhere. Well, we had a lot of fun, and I do have to admit I kicked some serious butt! I set up a great racket of hotels on expensive and inexpensive sites and Amy and her parents kept landing on them.
 
 
At about 10pm I took Mr. Hancock's last set of cash and properties… It was a good day!

"Okay, you guys need to get going to bed so we can get out of here in the morning." Her mom said to us.

I yawned and nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I'm pretty tired anyway. Thanks again for everything you guys have done for me this weekend, it's been a lot of fun."

"You're very welcome Brandon, again, anytime you want to come along with us, or even just come over to our house feel free!"

"Thanks." I grabbed my necklace off the kitchen counter - I almost forgot it! - and grabbed Amy to go upstairs. I think it was the first time I ever dragged her somewhere - she was mostly asleep at this point.

When we got upstairs we both brushed our teeth and just went to bed after that, we were both pretty tired. I think we tried to stay up and talk, but we were both asleep by the time her mom came to say goodnight.
 
 
Mrs. Hancock shook me awake in the morning, "Brandon, it's time to get up and get ready."

I grunted and sat up. She reached up and woke Amy next. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and slowly got out of bed. Ugh… I hate mornings… My hair felt kind of funny I thought for a second before realizing I forgot to take my pigtails out… I pulled the hair ties out of each side and grabbed my hair brush to brush it out. I looked up and saw Amy doing the same thing.

We ate a breakfast of cereal, they cleaned out some stuff, and we got on the road to go back home. Amy and I talked on the way home, but it was a little more subdued. Tomorrow we had to go back to school, something that neither of us were really looking forward to.

They pulled up to my house a couple hours later.

"Thank you so much for inviting me along," I said to them all, but particularly her parents.

"No problem Brandon, we really enjoyed having you. Anytime you want to come over feel free to." Mrs. Hancock said.

I spoke with Amy really quick outside of the car through her window, "So Brandon you're going to come to my house after school tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, it sounds like fun. Hopefully they won't load us down with homework." I replied.
 
 
My parents came out of the house and gave me a hug and said thanks to her parents. My dad grabbed my bag from me and we went inside. Of course once inside they started 'interrogating me' as I like to put it.

"How was your weekend?" My mom asked.

"It was great; the Hancock's were really nice to me!" I began telling them about their condo, the skiing, and most everything else. I did leave out the hair stuff, I didn't think they would completely freak out, but I didn't want to take a chance. I then told her that Amy had invited me to work on homework after school tomorrow at her house.

I talked for quite a while before they let me go to my room. I played with some Legos for a while before deciding to read a book. When I looked for a book to read I decided to read an old Nancy Drew book that I had. I quickly became immersed in the book, and other than taking a break to practice, the rest of the day passed quickly.
 
 
Chapter 9
 
 
THE NEXT DAY school went decently, except for one thing… Homework! Amy and I had first period together, and Mr. Krantz decided that this was the week to do two things. One, we had a paper due Friday based off a lab we did that day dissecting a frog. The second was a major test on Friday that was supposed to be a 'practice final exam.' We still had two months till the end of the year, why were we taking a 'practice final?'

Amy and I complained about both of those things to each other over lunch. Nikki sat down at our table and said, "Hey you guys have the same shirt on!" I blushed a bit.

"I'm surprised no one said anything before now." Amy commented. "Brandon went with my family up to go skiing this weekend."

"It was a lot of fun," I added.

"That's cool. We got back from Denver last night…" She continued on, and it was clear that it wasn't a big deal to her that we were wearing the same shirt. I was somewhat relieved; it was a unisex shirt, but still… Anyway I got through the rest of the day without being picked on at all. I was a little surprised by that, and the absence of trouble made me a bit nervous. However, as they say, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth.'
 
 
After school I met up with Amy and rode her bus to her house. I showed a note to the driver when I got on and she let me on without a problem. I sat next to Amy and we chatted all the way to her house. "So you guys have your band competition soon?" She asked me.

"Yeah it's in about three weeks. Mrs. Remar is completely going psycho about it. Just today a kid didn't know his part so she told him to put up his stuff. I mean, it was just one note… I just hope I don't screw up in front of her these next few weeks. I don't want to lose my first chair."

"Are you doing soccer this season?" She asked me.

"No, my good coach is leaving and the new guy is the old assistant. In a word he's a jerk. I went to two practices before deciding it wasn't worth it. How about you? Are you doing anything this year?" We pulled up to her bus stop and started walking towards her house.

"I'm thinking about trying out for the cheerleading squad this month. I've always wanted to be a cheerleader - I just hope I'm good enough to make it." She said.

"I'm sure you'll make it Amy, out of any of the girls you're the most likely to. You've done so many things like gymnastics and dance I can't see you not getting onto the squad!" Amy had done both of those activities since she was two. Her gymnastics coach had been trying to get her to go to some of the Olympic trials, but she said 'no' to that. She liked doing it, but didn't want to compete at that level - she just wanted to have fun doing it.

"I hope you're right Brandon, it would be so much fun I think." We reached her house and went inside.

"Well, shall we start on this stupid assignment that Mr. Krantz gave us?" She asked.

"Yeah… I guess. I can't believe he wants us to do all of this the week after spring break, why couldn't he have given us at least a day without homework?!"

"I agree, but I don't think we could get anywhere arguing with him. Here, let's go work in my playroom. I have a table in there we can work around." She said as we topped her stairs and went into a room I hadn't seen before.

"Okay." I replied as we entered into one of the most girly rooms I had ever been in. The room was painted in pink and purple, and I guessed must have been her nursery when she was a baby? There were Barbie dolls, baby dolls, stuffed animals, and basically every toy that a girl her age could have wanted from age five to twelve. "You weren't kidding when you said you had a lot of toys." I said to her.

"Nope, I'm definitely a spoiled brat," she replied with a giggle. "Here, help me get this table out," she pointed to a fold up card table against the wall. We got it set up and grabbed a couple chairs from against the wall.

"Okay, he wants us to write a 'narrative' about the dissection first." She said and we began working on it. We both worked hard on the project and within about two hours we had most of it done.

Her parents had come home by that point and invited me to dinner, but I had to turn them down tonight. "We're having dinner with some family friends tonight. I'd love to take you guys up on your offer another time though." I said as I gathered up my stuff.

"Brandon, why don't you come over tomorrow and we'll finish up this project and work on studying for the test?" Amy asked.

"Okay, that sounds good." I said as I went out the door to where my mom was parked on the road. She waved at Amy and her parents and we went off to dinner with our friends. I had a good time at dinner that night and we had a great meal.

That night I made sure that I practiced so I could avoid the wrath of Mrs. Remar. By the time I went to bed I was definitely ready. That night, all I could think about when I tried to go to sleep was Amy's wonderful room, and how great it would be to be able to play with her and her toys.
 
 
BY THE END of the week I had been over at Amy's house a couple of more times, and we both made it through Mr. Krantz's test and assignment with better than a one-hundred percent. He kind of gave us both a funny look when he handed them back the following week. "Amy, Brandon, can you two stay for a moment please." He said as everyone filed out of the room.

"Sure," Amy and I said.

When everyone had left the room he asked, "Did you two copy the assignment from each other?"

"No, we worked at the same time at my house, but we didn't cheat or anything if that's what you're suggesting." Amy asserted. I wasn't so sure it was a good idea to be that in his face though.

"That's fine, I don't mind that you two worked together on it at all. If anything I was going to say you two should do that kind of thing more often. I think it helped out on your tests as well. You were the only two that got A's on both the assignment and the test. Anyway let me write a pass out for each of you so you're not late to your next class."

He wrote it out and we both looked at each other trying to figure out what that was about. As we left I said, "I thought he was going to accuse us of cheating or something."

"I did too, but my parents would have been all over him in a heartbeat. That's why I said something to him first; I figured he must know my parents wouldn't put up with that crap. I don't think either of us will have any problems from him though. I think he genuinely likes both of us more than any of the other students." She giggled for a second.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about how people give us a hard time about being 'teacher's pets' sometimes. The truth of the matter is that we end up getting way more help from them than they do because of it. I don't know, it's kind of funny." She laughed some more as we split up and went to our separate classes.
 
 
That day we had a playing test in band to see if we would be allowed to go on the trip that was coming up. If anyone scored less than an 80% they wouldn't be allowed to go. I was really nervous about it, but when I asked her my grade afterwards she told me I had received a perfect score. That was reassuring.

In choir we just goofed around that day since Mrs. Schultz was gone. Amy and I talked pretty much non-stop during that class period since we didn't really want to watch the movie that was put on. The sub looked at us like she was annoyed, but held back from saying something for one reason or another.

Towards the end of class Amy asked, "Hey Brandon, do you want to go see a movie this weekend?"

"What movie?"

"Nikki and I were thinking A Goofy Movie. It's probably going to be really dumb, but it seems like something to do. If nothing else it's something to do."

"Who else is going to go?"

"Maybe Ashley, other than that I don't think anyone else. So what do you think?"

I thought for a second, "It sounds like fun, let me double check with my parents and I'll call you later?" I wasn't going over to her house today because she had gymnastics practice.

"Okay, I'll be home around seven, call me then."

"Okay." I told her.
 
 
By the time I got through the end of the day I was glad to be going home. When I got there I looked on the internet for stuff and just kind of chilled for the rest of the night.

I did ask my parents for permission to go see the movie this weekend and they agreed. I called Amy and let her know that I could go. She told me it looked like it was going to just be Nikki, her, and I since Ashley couldn't go. I said that was fine, and we made plans on Friday during school on when we were meeting at the movie theater.

Saturday at 11:00am Mom dropped me off at the movie theater where Amy and Nikki were already waiting.

"Hey," I said as I walked up to them. They both said 'hi' back and we walked to the ticket line.

"What movie, Miss?" The guy asked me.

I just shrugged the mistaken identity off with a smile (It did make me happy), and said, "One for A Goofy Movie."

Amy and Nikki bought their tickets behind me and came up to me giggling a minute later. "Brandon, I can't believe how often that's been happening to you recently!" Amy said.

"Often?" Nikki asked.

"When we were skiing a couple weeks ago everyone seemed to say that," I told her. I was blushing pretty heavily.

"Don't worry about it Brandon," Amy said.

"And definitely don't cut your hair," Nikki said.

"I agree," Amy said.

"Umm... thanks." I replied as we got into the snack bar line.

"So Brandon, how much money do you have left?" Amy asked.

"Umm... I have four dollars left. It looks like just enough to get a coke, but not much else."

"Not necessarily, Nikki how much do you have?" Amy asked.

"I've got five, you?"

"I've got six-fifty left. If we pitch in the extra beyond the three dollars for a drink we'd have just enough to get a large bag of popcorn and nachos that we could split. Wanna do that?" She asked.

"Sure," I said, Nikki nodded too.

We got up to the counter and the guy asked, "What can I get for you ladies?"

I caught a smirk on Nikki's face and wanted to strangle her, but just answered, "Three Cokes, a large popcorn, and a thing of nachos please." I wondered if he would figure out I was a boy at this point.

"Sure thing Miss." He replied and began getting our order together.
 
 
As we stood there I heard a voice that I had thankfully not heard for a long while at this point. It was Matt. I quickly looked around and saw that he was in line, two lines over. I had heard his parents had sent him out of town to go live at a relative's house in Arizona, what was he doing back? If he saw me what would he do? I looked again and didn't recognize any of the other guys with him. They all looked like thugs just like him though.

I whispered to Amy, "Amy… Matt's back there, what should I do? I can't imagine he would be too happy to see me."

"Relax, the guy is bringing our popcorn back right now and we'll go in the movie theater. I'm sure he's not going to see the same movie as us. He'll probably go see Bad Boys, he's 'too cool' to go see a kids movie."

Our stuff came over and we booked it to the theater and took our seats. Nikki looked over at me and said, "Brandon, you look like you've seen a ghost!"

"I kind of have," I replied and explained about Matt.

"Don't worry about him. He wouldn't dare do anything in a public place like this. The cops would be called and he'll go to prison for certain this time." Nikki said.

I hoped they were right. I honestly had a sinking suspicion that I was not going to get as lucky as Amy and Nikki thought. Thankfully the movie previews started a short while later and I began to enjoy myself as we munched on the nachos and popcorn. About half-way through the movie I really needed to go to the bathroom. I was kind of scared to go out there by myself though.

What if Matt was in the bathroom too? I decided I couldn't wait till the end of the movie though and got up to go. Amy whispered to me, "Wait a second, I'll come with you."

I felt a little bit better instantly and we went over to the restrooms. I went in really quick, went, and got back out. Amy got out a second later and we headed back to the theater. I thought, 'good, we're home free!'

"Hey Amy! Where's your little sissy friend Brandon?" I knew in a second it was Matt's voice again, and cursed my decision to think the positive thoughts I had just been thinking. I had totally doomed myself!

Amy motioned to me to keep walking. It was worth a try and I hoped it would work until I saw a hand reach out for Amy's shoulder. I tried to warn her but she apparently didn't need it. The next thing I knew was that she had ducked under the grasp and we were still somehow walking forward.

"Amy I just want to talk to you and your friend here." Matt said as he ran ahead of us suddenly. "Maybe if you won't go out with me she will." I just about dropped dead at that moment. Matt thought I was a girl and didn't recognize me?
 
 
We both turned back around and started heading for the main area. "Matt we don't want to talk to you." Amy said fairly angrily. We had reached the area where a ticket taker was taking tickets from several people when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Why don't we let her tell me that?" He said rudely.

He spun me around to look at him. I angrily yelled at him, "Get lost already!"

"No, not until you both learn your places, which is to go out with me."

"Look, it's not going to happen." Amy said. "If you don't stop bothering us we're going to go call the cops."

"You think the cops scare me Amy? I'm going to get you one way or another. If I have to, I'll wait for you after the movie when you go outside." Matt sneered.

"Matt you're a real dumb-ass you know it?" I said, surprising myself - my language hadn't reached anywhere near that 'extreme' recently. "Leave us alone." I said and we started to head off again toward the main lobby where we thought we'd have a better chance of being safe.

"Wait a second, Brandon?!?!" Matt bellowed. My outburst had been enough for him to finally recognize me. "Come here, so I can teach you the lesson you deserve for getting me kicked out of school!"

Amy and I tried to move faster but I felt the hand shove me on my back too soon. I managed to roll when I fell and got back on my feet a second later. I looked up just in time to see Matt sending a fist my way, tried to duck while flinching, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't in pain. I looked up to see a guy gripping Matt's hand firmly in his palm.

"Sir, you need to calm down. I'm a police officer and you need to leave this establishment right now."

"You're going to stand up for those two?" Matt said incredulously and began struggling to get loose from his grip. I suddenly thought my earlier sworn comment couldn't have been any truer. Not only was he a jerk, but he was dumb to boot! Sure enough in about the blink of an eye he was on the ground with the officer holding him down.

"Ladies, I'm terribly sorry this gentleman lacks any real manners. He'll get a chance to learn some here in a bit though I think. Go ahead and go see the rest of your movie. I shouldn't need a statement from either of you since I witnessed his attempted assault." He said.

"Umm... officer thanks, we appreciate it." Amy replied. And we began heading back to the theater. The movie was most of the way over now, but that was okay Amy and I agreed later, it wasn't that good of a movie.
 
 
We left after the film and told Nikki what had happened as we headed out to the parking lot to wait for our parents. My mom was waiting outside and came over to talk to us. "So how was it?"

I debated about not telling her about the incident but decided that I was better off telling her. I relayed all that had happened and she decided to call the police department and let them know that there had been a restraining order in place. They had just been getting ready to release him at that point but decided to hold him now that they knew he violated a restraining order.

After determining that was a violation of his probation they ended up sentencing him back to six months in the state's juvenile facility. Of course I didn't know all of this till the hearing in May, but I'm happy to say this was to be the last incident with Matt I would ever deal with.

I did spend a decent amount of time thinking that night about how he hadn't recognized me immediately. Who would have thought I could come that close to fooling someone who had known who I was by looks that well? I kept wondering if it was possible for me to really be a girl. I mean I knew that I didn't have the right parts, but it was possible to get them to be like the right parts right? I didn't sleep for a long time that night…
 
 
Chapter 10
 
 
The next week-and-a-half passed by quickly, and the next thing I knew we were showing up at the school at 7am Thursday morning to travel to another school in Albuquerque for our band competition. We were supposed to warm up at 8:45, so we were leaving early enough to get there. Mrs. Remar said it would take about forty-five minutes to get to the host school. I got on the bus and sat down next to Nikki.

We were all dressed identically, both the guys and girls, when we got on the bus. Everyone had on black slacks, white button up shirt, black bow tie, and a dark blue vest. A couple students had complained about the uniform, but everyone was wearing it since Mrs. Remar wouldn't let you go if you didn't. And, when someone made the mistake of saying they didn't care, everyone learned that if you didn't go you had to do a huge research paper to make up the grade. There weren't any complaints after that!

We were all fairly excited when we got on the bus, but within about twenty minutes the bus had quieted down a lot. Nikki and I kind of dozed off only to be woken up by Mrs. Remar standing up at the front of the bus.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we're getting close to the school where we're going to perform. There are a few things that we need to take care of before we get there though. When we get off of the bus everyone must have their shirt tucked in and their bow ties on. No one will get off the bus until I tell you to do so though." She said sternly.

"Anyone that has long hair will need to put their hair up into a ponytail with some of this ribbon," she was holding up a roll of thick blue ribbon, "before we get there. I know that some of you ladies have already done your hair into other styles, but I want everyone to have their hair the same for longer hair. Any questions?"

She seemed to be looking at me as if I was going to put up a fight about my hair. I looked back respectfully and she said, "Then I will come down the bus with the ribbon, please help each other get your hair the way it should be. Thanks."

Did this apply to me I wondered. Nikki answered that for me, "Brandon can I do your hair?"

I was kind of flabbergasted. I was going to get to have my hair the same way as the girls and not get in trouble for it. I couldn't believe this was happening again to me.

"Umm… I guess if I have to?"

I put on kind of an annoyed face for show as Mrs. Remar handed me a piece of ribbon. She handed one to Nikki too. "This needs to be tied into a bow around your ponytail. Nikki, if you can do Brandon's hair, and maybe Jessica can do yours."

"Okay Mrs. Remar," Nikki said.

When she had walked back a few seats Nikki giggled a bit. "I've wanted to see you with your hair in a ponytail for a while now! This'll be fun. Do you have a hair brush?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Then get it out and turn around." She ordered. I grabbed it from my backpack and turned around so she could do my hair. Several of the girls that were nearby all started to help Nikki fuss with my hair. Before I knew it I could feel that sensation of my hair being held up in the air by something.

"Here," Jessica said as she handed me a mirror. I looked at myself and couldn't tell the difference between me and the girls on the bus. The best thing was that it wasn't even my own idea! They had even tied it up really high in a girl's style. Could life get any better?

"You look cute." Nikki said.

"Umm… Thanks." I replied.

The girls did Nikki's hair, and then they started pressuring me a bit. "Brandon, you have to let us play with your hair on the way back home!" Jessica said.

Nikki said, "Yes… Please!" She said with a 'puppy dog' expression that the little bit of guy left in me couldn't resist.

"Alright… I guess… But you can't let anyone give me a hard time about this, alright?"

They all nodded and agreed that they would make anyone who picked on me pay dearly for their fun. As I sat there quietly for the last few minutes before we arrived I was thinking about what to do about the bathroom situation. I looked more like a girl than a boy right now. Going into the boy's bathroom could be rather dangerous.
 
 
I decided I didn't really have a choice though, and decided that if I went in with some other boys from our band I might be okay. When I looked around the bus I did realize that there was one other boy with long hair (longer than mine) that also had his hair tied up now, although his was tied much lower in a masculine style. Maybe I could be okay though?

I didn't really have much time to ponder any of that when we got there. She let us have a quick three minute trip to the bathroom. I made sure that I was in and out before any of the boys from other schools even had a chance to think about a girl going in the boy's room. Then we had to get our instruments out. Once we had our instruments out of the cases we all lined up to go inside the warm-up room.

Mrs. Remar smiled at me when she saw me, she whispered in my ear, "Brandon you look cute." She then gave me a wink. That kind of surprised me, was she really human? I'd always assumed she was some sort of alien cyborg!

We walked to the warm-up room together, and after playing for what seemed like ten seconds we were escorted over to the stage. I think we all were pretty nervous, but we played really well! The performance ended and we walked over to another room that was set up for us to 'sight-read.' For this part of the contest we had to play a piece that we had never seen before - ever!
 
 
I can't say that it was a performance to mark the calendars with, but we managed to stay together to the end, and for the most part there was a melody… From there we went to another area where we took a group picture and were given the option to purchase the photograph. My Mom, who had driven the other bus that had the top group of the middle school band in it, appeared at that point. She looked around for a second before she saw where I was standing within the group of girls I was talking to.

"Brandon do you want a picture?"

"Yes, if we can." I replied. I suddenly remembered my hair, which would be in the picture!

"That should be fine," she filled out the paperwork and walked with me back to the bus.

"Nice job sweetie, you guys played really well!" She gave me a sideways hug at that point. Then she looked around to make sure no one else was around, "I like your hair this way, it's cute!" She gave me a wink and batted the back of my hair like a cat would a toy.

"Well don't mess it up!" I said in a playful whining voice. We both laughed a little and then I separated from her to go meet up with Nikki. Once we put our stuff up we were called into a circle by Mrs. Remar.

"First of all I want to tell you all how proud I am of the way you played - you did a really great job! I just got the scores back from the judges. We received Superior Ratings from every judge in our performance, and the judge in sight-reading!"

We all cheered and Nikki and I gave each other a hug. "We can't leave until I get done with the Advanced Band in about another two hours. Once we get done with them we'll go to a mall for a bit so you can get something to eat and shop a little. Until then, you are to find a seat in the auditorium and stay there. You will be a polite audience…" Lots and lots of rules… "Once the advanced band performs there will be one more band for you to listen to. When that band finishes come back out here to the bus, okay?"

We all nodded. "Okay, go have a seat. Stop by the bathroom if you need to on your way in. Remember, stay in at least pairs!"

We walked into the auditorium via a bathroom and watched the rest of the performances, until it was time to leave. The Advanced Band had been good, but I didn't know if they would get a superior too or not. I figured they were being judged a lot harder than we were.

After the last group we were supposed to listen to we stood up and went out to the buses to go to the mall. I was kind of looking forward to hanging out with Nikki and the others at the mall - 'who knows what the girls might drag me into!' I thought.
 
 
WHEN WE ARRIVED at the mall Mrs. Remar stood up to speak to us again, "If you want to you may take your vests and bow ties off. But, your shirts must stay tucked in, and you must remain in these concert clothes. Right now my watch says it's 12:15. You may eat, shop, or both as long as you are back here by 1:15pm. The bus will pull out then. Do not be late! Also stay in groups of at least two or more at all times. If I come by and find you alone you will be staying with me the rest of the trip. Again Congratulations! You are the first ever Sixth Grade Band from our junior high to receive Superior ratings at this contest!"

We all kind of gave a holler and began getting off the bus. Nikki, Jessica, and I decided to go get something to eat first. I looked around the food court and chose to eat at a pizza place called Sbarro. I'd had their stuffed pizza before and always enjoyed it. After I got my pizza I met up with Nikki and Jessica at a table to eat our food.

"So Brandon, are you going to take out the ribbon?" Nikki asked.

I noticed she still had hers in though, "Yours is still in. Do you think I should?"

"Well, I'm afraid Mrs. Remar might get mad if I take it out now since she didn't say we could." She said.

"Well then I guess I'll keep mine in then too…" I said.

We talked about different things for a while. When we finished eating I noticed that we still had thirty minutes left. "What do you guys want to do now?" I asked.

"Well, first the bathroom, then why don't we go to the toy store?" Jessica suggested.

"The toy store?" I asked.

"Yeah, I want to buy some cards or something to play while we go home. Does that work for you guys?"

"Sure," Nikki said.

"Why not?" I replied.

We went over to the restrooms and I ran in and out quickly again before meeting them outside the bathroom a few minutes later. We walked down to the toy store and browsed inside. There were several games for my game boy that I looked at, as well as some new Lego kits they had on sale. I stayed with them through the store though, so of course we ended up walking through the Barbie section.

Nikki and Jessica talked about having this one or that one, and how cute this one was, etc. Jessica ended up buying the deck of cards she wanted and we started walking back down towards the buses. Across from the toy store we noticed a photo booth and decided to go get our pictures taken.

We did the usual photo booth thing and each took a couple of the photographs. We then tried to start moving back to the buses.

On the way back I saw something that hadn't been there the last time I was in this mall. It was called 'Dippin Dots,' and claimed to be the ice cream of the future. I was immediately curious and went over to the place.

I looked at it and asked, "What is this?"

The lady behind the counter said, "It's ice cream that's flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. It's really good, if you haven't tried it before you should."

Nikki said, "I tried this last time I was here, I love it. We should all get some!"

"Okay, it sounds interesting. I'd like a medium strawberry please." I said.

"Coming right up Miss." I almost rolled my eyes. But, I really couldn't blame her since I was with two girls with identical hair and clothes basically… "Here you go," she said over the giggles behind me.

Nikki and Jessica both got their ice cream too and we continued back to the bus. The first bite I took of the ice cream I was hooked! It was great, what a neat idea for ice cream! I was still eating it when we got back to the bus and Mrs. Remar looked at me and asked, "Where's mine?"

"Back there?" I suggested.

"Next time you have to get some for me too." She said. I couldn't tell if she was serious or not. But then a second later she cracked a smile and I could tell that she was only half serious. "Go ahead and get on the bus." She said to me.
 
 
I got on the bus and found my seat. When everyone was on we left to go back to our hometown with a set of superior ratings! I was sitting quietly when Jessica said, "Brandon, you know how you said you'd let us play with your hair on the way back?"

"Umm… yeah…"

"Well, we're on the way back now!"

Before I knew it they had me in the aisle seat and three girls, Jessica, Nikki, and Ashley were all playing with my hair. They tried braiding it first, but it wasn't long enough to do any really long braids so they took it out. After about fifteen hairstyles and stuff being put in and out of my hair I ended up in pigtails again. They used the ribbons from mine and Nikki's hair to tie each side up.

"There, all done," Ashley said.

"How cute," Nikki said.

"Time to take some pictures," Jessica said.

"What… no pictures," I tried to say but they took like six before I could even begin to resist.

"We should all put our hair up like that and take some more pictures!" Ashley exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, Jessica go steal a few more ribbons, we'll need 4 more to do it." Nikki said.

Ten minutes later and the three of them had their hair the same way. There were actually three other girls that did it too after seeing them having so much fun with me. One of the sponsors used Jessica's camera and took pictures of the seven of us like that. Mrs. Remar came back and got into the picture for a couple of them too. During the last photo we held up the two plaques that we had earned that day.

"Jessica, you need to get me copies of those so I can put them in the band scrapbook," Mrs. Remar said.

"Okay, I'll have my mom get them developed this weekend and bring them Monday!" Jessica said with far too much enthusiasm for me at that moment. That would mean other kids at school would see me like this. I didn't care as much with the band kids, but how would the other kids react?
 
 

Before I had too much time to worry about it we arrived back at the school. School was over when we returned, but instead of getting a ride directly home like every other kid I was going to have to ride my Mom's bus back to the bus yard. Once everything was unloaded the two of us left.

"Wow, your hair is certainly cute right now sweetheart." Mom said.

Crap… I forgot to take it out! "Umm... thanks. The girls got bored and started messing around with it. I'll take them out now," I said as I started to reach up for them.

She stopped my hand though and said, "No, leave them in for now. I think your dad would be amused by them."

"Are you sure he won't pop a gasket?" I asked.

"Yes I'm sure, he'll be fine with it." She said.

I wasn't so sure, and for the remainder of the drive to the bus yard and to home I was completely nervous. What would he say? I would be so much better off taking them out. We got home and I walked through the door. My dad saw me, saying "Well that's different. I guess the girls had some fun with you today?"

"Something like that."

"Well, in all honesty if I didn't know you were my son I'd think your mom traded you in and brought back a daughter in your place. I've sometimes wondered if she'd ever do that since she wanted to have a girl so much." He joked. 'Really?' I wondered to myself.

I laughed politely, and as soon as I finished telling him about my day excused myself to go take a shower. I decided just to change into my pajamas since they were more comfortable than anything else. I was pretty sure that we weren't going anywhere else that day anyway. After all of that I decided to call Amy and tell her about my day - I was really excited that we had received the ratings we had.

We talked on the phone for about fifteen minutes before her mom started yelling at her to get off the phone, so we made plans for me to go over to her house tomorrow after school. I told my parents about it and they said okay.

Dad picked up some fast food for us to eat for dinner that night. The rest of the night I just found myself just vegging out. I went to bed with a little more comfort in my desire to be a girl. After all, my parents hadn't completely freaked out when their son came home looking like a daughter!
 
 
Chapter 11
 
 
The next day I was really tired from the day before, but I was still really excited that we had done so well at contest. In the morning announcements the principal congratulated us on our fine performance at the contest. For the most part that day ended up absolutely flying by, and before I knew it I was riding the bus home with Amy. When we got to her stop she told me, "First person to the door chooses what we do!" and she took off.

To my credit I made it only a half second after her, even if it wasn't fair, I still lost. I grumbled a little bit to myself. As she opened the door and we went inside I asked, "So what are we doing today?"

"Come upstairs with me." She led me upstairs to her playroom. When we got up there she started getting a whole bunch of Barbies out and putting them in the center of the room. She pushed a gigantic doll house to the center of the room too.

"We're going to play Barbie's today! I haven't been able to play with them much in the past couple months - so that's what we're doing. Unless…" She paused, "you've got a really big problem with it?"

"Umm… I guess not, but I don't exactly know what you're supposed to do with them. It's not like I've ever played with dolls before." I replied timidly. I was absolutely trembling. I had wanted to play Barbies with her for so long now, and I was finally going to get a chance!

"That's okay, I'll teach you!" She said. "First things first, names…" She proceeded to tell me the names of several dozen dolls before saying. "Okay, now why don't we play with these ones today… and we need to change their clothes so help me out here…"

She continued to explain the intricacies of how to play with them for a while, and by the end of about two hours I'd had a blast. It was everything I had hoped it would be. I had a ton of fun that day! At the end Amy said, "You know Brandon you're more fun to play with than most of my friends."

"Thanks Amy, I had a lot of fun too." We were cleaning up her Barbies and putting them back in their places. She had promised me we would keep this from her parents for now. We had put a movie in the TV in the room where we were playing.

"So do you want to do it again sometime?" Amy asked me.

"Sure, why not?" I replied with a smile. When we were done putting everything up, we set up some bean bag chairs and continued watching the movie. A few minutes later we heard her mom coming upstairs.

"Hey Amy, Brandon, how did your day go?"

"Good Mrs. Hancock," I replied.

"It was good Mom," Amy said.

"Amy said that congratulations are in order for yesterday?" Mrs. Hancock inquired.

"Yeah, it went really well. We got the highest rating you could get. I guess we're the first sixth grade band at our school to ever do that!"

"Well congratulations. Listen, Brandon, I talked to your parents and they're going to meet us for dinner. Why don't both of you go put your shoes on, and wash up, so we can go."

"Cool," Amy said.

"Okay, that sounds like fun." I replied. We both put our shoes on and got ready. A few minutes later we piled into their SUV.

"Where's Dad?" Amy asked.

"He had to work a little late so he's just going to meet us there."

"Okay." Amy answered.
 
 
We drove to the better of the two local Mexican restaurants, meeting my parents at the door. A few minutes later Mr. Hancock joined us too.

"Brandon how was your day?" My mom asked.

"It was alright, I'm tired from yesterday though." I said.

"It was a long day…" She continued talking and asking me stuff but my ears were more on what my dad was saying to Mr. Hancock.

"I wanted to thank you again for taking Brandon with you on that trip. That was nice of you guys to take him!"

"No problem, it was our pleasure. The two of them seem to be joined at the hip anymore, and that's fine with us…"

"Hey Brandon, you want to hang out tomorrow?"

"Umm… Mom can I?" I asked.

"Yes, but don't forget you need to be selling candy bars for the trip too this weekend." Mom said.

"Why don't they do both?" Mrs. Hancock suggested. "They can walk around the neighborhoods between our house and yours going door to door. I'll follow in the car to keep an eye on them. You'd be welcome to come too if you want."

"That sounds like a great idea! Do you two want to do that?" Mom asked Amy and I.

"Sure Mom," I said nodding. Amy also nodded her approval. I knew we would have a lot more fun selling candy together!
 
 
Our food arrived right about then, and we all became more focused on food for a bit. I deeply enjoyed my Chile Relleno plate. There's nothing like New Mexican Green Chile! For those of you not from the promised land of New Mexico, a Chile Relleno here is a roasted New Mexican Green Chile Pepper stuffed with a white cheese, breaded and deep fried, then covered with more cheese (usually cheddar or Colby-jack) and plenty of Green Chile sauce! It really is some of the best food in the whole world…

After we finished our meal my dad picked up the check. "Here let us get that," Mr. Hancock said.

"No, you guys took Brandon on that ski trip, we'll get this."

"Well thank you," Mr. Hancock said.

I always hated moments like that, they're always so awkward! In the meantime my mom was talking to Amy's Mom. "So we'll come by at one?" She suggested.

"Sure, that sounds good."

We all stood up and headed for the door. "Well thank you for dinner," Mr. Hancock said at the door, "we'll have to do this again more often."

"Well we'll all be together on the trip next month so we should get some opportunities then." My mom said.

"Yes, I think it's going to be a great trip for all of the kids." Mrs. Hancock said.

"Yeah! We're really excited," Amy chimed in for us.

"Well, let's get going, good night guys!" Mr. Hancock said.

"Goodnight," I said to them and we got into our separate cars and drove home.

On our way home we stopped and rented some videos. We all just kind of vegged in front of the TV that night before going to bed. 'Wow, what a great day I'd had! How many times do you get to play with Barbies for the first time?' I thought to myself as I tried sleeping.
 
 
THE NEXT MORNING I woke up feeling really good and excited for the day. I had three boxes of candy to sell, with thirty bars in each. Everything I sold that day was going to all go into my own pocket for money to spend on the trip. Through other fund raising, and the amounts my parents were willing and able to spend, I had paid off my trip. I also already had about a-hundred-and-forty dollars in my account for spending money. At a dollar of profit per candy bar, I would be able to have ninety more dollars if I sold them all.

Amy had told me already that any of the money she raised went to her own spending account; I think she had about a-hundred-and-fifty in her account at this point. She was hoping for a similar sales spree today. This was our last fundraiser so… if I wanted to be able to buy anything really cool I'd have to keep raising the money!

We got in the car and put my candy in the trunk. Each box had our names on it so it would be easy to keep track of whose was whose. It was a really windy day that day, but it was still pretty warm. I had on shorts and a school t-shirt. When we got to Amy's house we went in for a moment and I saw that she was dressed like me. The only thing really different with our outfits, were our sandals. We got away from her house pretty quick and began walking down her street.

We walked up to the first door together and Amy took her first sale. We alternated who was the one selling, every other door. After that block we had both come out pretty evenly, each of us managing to sell one box. We got into my Mom's car and found that she and Mrs. Hancock were getting along very well. 'Perhaps too well…' I thought. We moved onto the next block and began all over again.

My hair was once again beginning to show that one little thing that made it annoying… it and the wind did not get along so well. My hair kept getting blown into my eyes and face. When we finished that block Amy offered a black hair tie to me, which I used without thinking much about it. I was impressed with myself, since I managed to put my hair in a decent ponytail without any help.

"Cute," my mom said. "If you keep growing it out I might have to have some fun with your hair myself. It seems like everyone except me has gotten to play with it!" she joked. I knew instantly that Mrs. Hancock had told her about my pigtails on the ski trip…. I got really nervous.

Thankfully I didn't have to respond as we reached our next block and the two of us started going to doors again. It was kind of funny - I could be wrong - but I think I sold at a higher rate after my hair went into the ponytail. Amy seemed to notice too. As we walked between houses she told me, "Brandon, you know if we put you in some of my clothes I think you could sell twice as much as you are. I think that when you put your hair in that ponytail they began thinking you were a girl." She giggled a bit and I joined in.
 
 
Within another hour we had all of our candy sold, and we each had an additional ninety-dollars to put into our accounts. "Do you two want ice cream?" Mrs. Hancock asked.

"Yes!" We replied in unison. I'd been noticing we were doing a lot of that recently, it was really cool. It kind of reminded me of some of the characters in the books I read when I was younger.

"Okay, let's go to Dairy Queen then." She said. Mom started driving down that direction while Amy and I jabbered along in the back seat. Selling the candy bars seemed to bring a new immediacy of the trip to mind.

"So tell me about Disney World," I had said to Amy.

She told me about all sorts of things there. "You'll love Epcot Center, especially all of the countries that are there."

"Countries?"

"There are a bunch of countries that have 'embassies' set up at the park in one area. They have restaurants, shops, and rides that are all themed on the country. You can even get a park passport and get it stamped at each of the different places."

"That sounds neat, we should do that." I said to her.

She went on about a bunch of other things that you could do as we reached Dairy Queen. We each ordered an ice cream cone and sat outside to eat them. I think everyone, including our Mom's had a lot of fun today.

"Well, what are we doing now?" I asked.

"Well, if you want to go hang out with Amy and her family tonight that's fine. I'll come pick you up at nine?" She suggested.

I glanced at Amy and she nodded vigorously. "Okay," I replied.
 
 
Mom dropped the three of us off at Amy's house with a promise that she would hang out at our house on Friday.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked Amy when we got inside.

Her mom answered before she could though, "Well, in about an hour I'm going to go get some Chinese food for dinner. Then I thought we could all sit down and watch a movie in our living room?"

"That sounds good Mom," Amy said.

"Until then?" I asked.

"We go up and play or something. Let's go," she said and dragged me upstairs. Her mom smiled behind us.

We went upstairs and she closed the door. "Barbies?"

"But what if your mom catches us?" I asked.

"She won't care. Besides, this is just another one of my harebrained schemes!" She said, giggling a bit.

So we went ahead and began playing. We played for about fifty minutes and were putting things away when her mom peeked her head in to check on us. "Barbies?" Her mom asked.

"I decided Brandon needed to be inducted into my way of playing!" She said.

"Well, okay, as long as Brandon doesn't mind." She hedged.

"It's okay Mrs. Hancock, we're always doing things I want to do. It only seemed fair to do something she wanted to do." I replied.

"Okay then. I'm going to go pick up the food, I'll be back in about ten minutes." She said as she closed the door.

"Amy, I can't believe your mom didn't say anything more." I told her.

"Why would she? I play with Barbies all of the time - she actually asked me once, teasingly, if I'd made you play with them yet!" She giggled a bit.

I was torn in my emotions on what to think of this but decided to giggle as well. "Well let's finish putting stuff up," I told her.
 
 
After we did so we washed our hands and headed downstairs just before she opened the door with food. She sat the food on a bar that was in the middle of their kitchen and we dished up the food that we wanted. It was great. I guess you've realized by now I'll eat almost any kind of food. I do draw the line with mayonnaise, sour cream, and salad though… those items make me sick!

We sat down at their dinner table and ate until we were full. "So are you guys ready to watch a movie?" Her dad asked.

"Sure, what are we going to watch Daddy?" Amy asked.

"Well I just bought a new movie today it's called Stargate. Several of my clients have said it's really good."

"Okay… that sounds okay then," Amy replied.

It sounded like a good science fiction film to me - and as someone that liked Star Trek and Star Wars, I didn't think you could go wrong there. "Sounds interesting," I added.

We sat down in their living room and put the movie in. Amy and I sat on one couch while her parents each sat in a chair on either side. I don't know about Amy, but I loved the movie. It was great! That may not have been the most girly movie to like… but I loved it nonetheless.

My mom rang the doorbell shortly after the movie was done and I left with her to go home. I said thank you to the Hancocks and told Amy I'd talk to her tomorrow or see her on Monday. On the way home Mom said, "Why didn't you tell me that I'd missed an opportunity to see you in pigtails already?"

"I don't know… I thought maybe you would get mad?" I replied.

"Of course not, laughed a bit, but not gotten mad. Look I'm really not surprised to hear that happened, especially with you hanging around Amy so much."

I was in shock! I had honestly thought I would have gotten in trouble for all of this… Why I don't know, but I did. "Mom, while we're on the subject, could you pick up some of these pony tail holders like this?" I said pointing to my hair. Why not try?

"Sure sweetie, I'll pick some up at Wal-Mart tomorrow. I probably should have gotten some for you sooner."

"Thanks!" I said.
 
 
We got home shortly after nine that night. I wasn't quite ready to go to bed so I just read a book in my room until my mom told me I had to go to turn out the light. I couldn't believe how accepting everyone had been about everything that day… I mean it wasn't really that many things. I had gotten so absolutely nervous about everything - to actually have people accept things that were bringing me closer to being like a girl really surprised me. I went to bed thinking that maybe my ultimate goal might not rub my parents the wrong way as much as I had thought it would.

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To Be Continued...