I confess that I was worried when I sent Larry away to school for the first time in his new short lilac pleated skirt. I was concerned even if his big sister had confirmed everything he had said. Betty had the full inside story. It was really a senior social studies project. Bob, the captain of the baseball team had decided to write a paper on influencing and peer pressure. He had secretly roped in the rest of the team and some other to help him. Could he get the boys in the school to wear a short pleated lilac skirt? A secondary point was to investigate how the school management would react to boys wearing short skirts. The first step was to have the entire baseball team wear the skirt, with a black T-shirt. Black and lilac were the school colors. The baseball team was the pride of the school. They were without doubt the high-status group in school so people wouldn’t react negatively. The next day some “ringers” also wore the lilac skirt. That was intended to be the trigger for others to do the same thing. What Bob hadn’t expected was that some other boys already had got themselves lilac skirts. From that point it just snowballed. Especially the insecure freshmen boys baaahed happily and followed suit. The principal was taken unawares. Besides she had been away the first two days and the teachers waited to do anything till she came back. From a strict formal point of view the boys didn’t do anything wrong. While the skirts were shorter than allowed for girls there was nothing in boys’ dress code about too short skirts. I can’t imagine why. By the time the principal got back the snowball had gathered too much speed. She did nothing.

Betty knew all this because she dated one of the guys on the baseball team. She also knew that Bob’s mom owned the shop that sold the short lilac skirts.

Thus I waved goodbye to my son in his skirt. He appeared to be more confident. Yeah, a boy going to school in a short lilac pleated skirt looking confident!

I was even more surprised when he came back from school. Only very occasionally he had brought back a friend, or rather acquaintance, from school before. That day he was accompanied by three very cute girls. None of them wore a lilac skirt. One wore a black, somewhat longer, skirt and the other two jeans. They got up to his room so quickly I didn’t even think to tell them to leave the door open. Well, they did anyway and when I passed his door they were apparently comparing skirts. I was a bit concerned. Was Larry “one of the girls” after all? The second time I “by chance” passed the door they were engrossed in playing computer games. Something Larry used to do alone. When the girls left they each gave him a kiss. Definitely not the variety that girls gave to their friends. I managed to get one of them alone for moment and asked her what had happened.

- Larry is so cute. Most girls in class think so. Before we thought he was a bit odd but now we’ve come to realize how fantastic he is.
- Why?
- He’s really nice. Not so into being macho as the other boys and then there are the legs. Those AWSOME legs.

Well, eight years of ballet had left their mark.

- AND he shaved. Most other boys have HAIRY legs. Eeeuuh.