This is an unauthorized continuation of Jeremy Chandler’s, “My Summer in Pantyhose,” last added to by Jeremy 04/07/2023. The story line and characters belong to Jeremy Chandler and are used without express permission. What follows is intended as fan fiction with the greatest of admiration for Jeremy and appreciation for the original work.

  Jamie’s worst nightmare came to pass. OK, not his worst, but bad enough. Tabitha and her parents had been invited as well as Samantha’s mother. Jamie rode in Tabitha’s parents’ car on the way to his house. He supposedly volunteered to show them the way in case they got separated in traffic, but in reality it was so he could sit with Tabitha some more. Having Tabitha sitting next to him in church had been eerily similar to when Megan had sat with him. He had admired her legs coated in the shimmery nylon and wished it would be OK for him to wear one of his skorts to church. It was too much to even think about wearing one of his three skirts. He hadn’t even worn them at home yet.

  The house seemed wall to wall people. Aaron and Tyler had been there waiting when they arrived. Total count was seven guests and the three of them for a grand total of ten. Aaron and Tyler went out to fire up the grill as soon as they could. They had brought the ribs in a plastic container marinating in Aaron’s famous barbeque sauce. Julie and Samantha had pitched in in the kitchen to see that everyone had drinks while Jamie’s mother played hostess entertaining Tabitha’s parents and Samantha’s mother who was invited because it would be rude not to include her.

  Jamie was again uneasy about parading around in girls’ clothes in front of such a crowd. Even at his best, he was uncomfortable being the center of attention. He wondered if he could leave the skirts out of the fashion show. Only Tabitha and his mother knew that he even had them.

  He went to his room still brooding. He always changed after church. Before all this started, he had changed into shorts and tee-shirt and for a while after the mandate to wear pantyhose 24/7. Lately though it was to one of his skorts. He tried more than once to wear one that looked like a skirt, just to get the feel of it. That day he opened his closet paused, then sat on his bed. At the end of school, there had been a couple of pairs of slacks and four button up shirts. Now there was a marked resemblance to Julie’s closet. Skorts, blouses and even three skirts nearly filled the rod. Looking at the floor, his boy shoes aside, there were six pairs of shoes… girls’ shoes. His tennis shoes, foot wear of choice, and his winter boots looked out of place. He stared at it for he didn’t know how long. A knock on his door broke the spell.

  “Jamie?” Julie’s voice call through the door. She opened it a crack. “Are you decent?”

  “Yeah,” he answered. “Come on in.”

  Julie opened the door and came to sit beside him.

  “Mom sent me up to see what was taking you so long. Everybody is getting impatient. Something’s bothering you. What is it?”

  “It’s how Samantha’s wanting to see what I’ve added to my wardrobe gets blown up into a barbeque party with a houseful of guests. I don’t even know that Tyler guy, even a little bit.”

  “Are you worried about how he feels about you?”

  “Yeah kinda. I can hope, that since he’s Aaron’s cousin he’ll be cool with it. I mean he saw me at the mall and didn’t say anything, but he may have just been concerned about it being a public place.”

  “There’s no need to worry about Tyler. We warned him about you wearing pantyhose and he asked Aaron if you were like some friend of his in the eighth grade. He had a friend that he had gone to visit unannounced and caught him wearing his sister’s dress. He stayed friends with the guy and the guy would call him sometimes to play video games and the guy would be in a skirt and blouse or a dress the whole time Tyler was there. Tyler stayed friends and kept the secret, except that Aaron went by to get tell Tyler something and saw the friend, so he had to be let on the secret. Anyway, he was cool with his friend and he’ll be cool with you,”

  That made Jamie feel a little better.

  “Hurry up. I’ll tell them that you were having trouble deciding what to wear. Girls have that problem all the time.”

  “What should I wear? Can I just do the new skorts. None of them look like skirts.”

  “No, I don’t think so. Tabitha’s mother asked Mom how many outfits you had and she said about eleven but with the mix and match possibilities, that could be stretched to over twenty, so that means you’ll be expected to wear at least the original eleven. If I were you, I’d go through them in the order you got them. Start with what Grandma bought you and finish with the skirts that mom told me about the other day.”

  Well that was it. The whole megillah, leaving nothing out. He put the blue skort that Grandma got him, a white cami and a plain white blouse. Steeling himself to run the gauntlet, he went downstairs. On the way, he decided to own it and to do a catwalk strut and turn for each outfit.

  An hour later, he was strutting his final outfit, a blue loose-fitting skirt paired with a lighter blue top with long bloused sleeves. He had been more than a little surprised at the acceptance in that everyone had complemented him on more than one of the outfits. He was about to go up and change into a skort when Aaron announced that the ribs were ready and everyone wanted to eat.

  “Mom,” Jamie said, “don’t you think I should change clothes?”

  “I don’t see why.”

  “I’m wearing a skirt.”

  “A very nice skirt that looks fabulous on you. If you’re concerned about getting something on it, you can wear my hostess apron.”

  The adults sat at the picnic table with Jamie and Tabitha while the others sat at a card table that had been in storage in the garage. Everyone was full of praise the way the ribs turned out. About halfway through the meal Jamie’s mother spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear.

  “While I’ve got everyone here; I saw an ad last week reminding me that the state fair is next weekend. I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s been a long time since I went to the fair. I thought it might be a great idea if we all went together. Is anyone interested?”

  Almost everyone chimed in in favor of going. Tabitha’s father was the first bow out.”

  “I’m afraid that I’m scheduled to be out of town. I’m working a trade show, in L.A. that weekend.”

  Tabitha’s mother was next.

  “Knowing he was out of town; I volunteered to take a group of seniors from the senior center near work to the zoo. Our company has a nine-passenger van and does things like that often. But you know if you don’t mind her tagging along I’m sure that Tabitha would rather go to the fair with you guys than to the zoo with a group of septuagenarians.”

  “Not at all. My thought was it would be great for the kids.”

  That evening Jamie pondered the experience. He decided there was something satisfying about being around other people wearing his skirt. They sat chowing down on the tasty ribs acting as if a boy wearing girl’s clothes was perfectly normal. What’s more he enjoyed the whole experience.
  He wondered if his mother had been right about him having a feminine side. She was certainly right about needing to discover just how deep it ran before going back to school. When they had talked about it, she pointed out that the only thing more feminine than pantyhose was a bra. Thinking about the outfit he had worn the rest of the day; it only lacked a bra to encompass totally feminine. What about bras? Would they fit into his feminine expression? He had to admit that since his mother had pointed out that a bra was more feminine he had thought more about bras than he ever had.
  His mother was still in the family room watching television and Julie had gone over to Samantha’s. He needed to talk.
   “Mom, can we talk for a minute?”
   “I suppose, what do you need to talk about?”
   “My feminine side.”
  She patted the seat next to her.
   “Sit and let’s talk. What about your feminine side?”
   “Is it wrong for me to enjoy wearing girl’s clothes? I mean today, when we ate dinner and after, I was dressed like the girls and the women in the group. The only thing I lacked was a bra. I enjoyed all that. Was that wrong?”
   “I don’t think so. You have the right to express your gender and so long as the people around you are accepting of it there’s no reason not to.”
  Jamie hesitated to bring up the real reason he needed to talk.
   “Do you think that if I added the one thing I lacked that I’d enjoy it more?”
   “The one thing you lacked? You mean a bra?” Jamie nodded. “I don’t know. The only way to know would be to try it. Is that what this talk is about; you want to try wearing a bra?”
  Jamie couldn’t look her in the eye.
   “Is that wrong of me?”
  She put her arms around him and drew him close.
   “No sweetheart. It’s not wrong for you. Would you like me to pick up a bra for you?”
  Jamie nodded.

  Grandma took Jamie to the Fabric Barn as usual and Lucelle was right there to let him in. Grandma took advantage of that often to get in and do her shopping and out again just as they opened so she didn’t have to wait in line. It also gave her opportunity to visit with Lucelle. They had been friends for years, but ever since Lucelle opened the Fabric Barn, she had limited time just to visit.

  “I see Jamie has added to his wardrobe again. It looks very smart on him.”

  “Yes, this time he spent his own money and enlisted Tabitha’s help in his selections.”

  “They seem to be close since I moved their lunches to the same time. But I didn’t know they were spending time together on the weekends.”

  “Oh yes, it’s the third weekend in a row and Tabitha’s family has started attending Central Christian where Jamie’s family goes. What’s more next weekend his mom has organized a trip to the State Fair that includes Tabitha.”

  “Sounds like a relationship of more than work mates or even just friends.”

  “We all believe they are nearly to the boyfriend/girlfriend stage.”

  “Good for him. I was a bit concerned when he was in a funk about his other girlfriend.

  “I’m also glad to see he’s added to his wardrobe. It was getting to be just a little boring with him switching back and forth between two skorts. How many does he have now?”

  “Let’s see, I bought him two skorts and his mother bought three; this last weekend, he bought three more and three skirts, so that makes eight skorts and three skirts.”

  “If he had five before, why was he switching back and forth between only two?”

  “The two I bought him and one of the ones his mother bought him look a lot like skirts and he was sure that looking like he was wearing a skirt would be a no-no for work.”

  “Does he look good in them?”

  “Everyone says he does. I haven’t seen them all.”

  “Humm, I’ll have to have a talk with him. Well it’s time to open up.”

  Tabitha was putting on her apron when Jamie clocked in.

  “Hi, I see you’re wearing one of your new skorts. You’re looking good.”

  “You’ve got one of yours on as well. Looks good on you.”

  “It’s one of your rejects, remember? You tried it on before I did. Who would have guessed that we are the same size?”

  “It feels a little weird to be talking to a girl who’s wearing a skort that I had on before her.”

  Tabitha laughed.

  “I don’t suppose that many boys have worn something before their girlfriend bought it. But you know it’s kind of neat. Makes me feel closer to you.”

  Her referring to herself as his “girlfriend” wasn’t lost on Jamie. While they hadn’t actually decided that was the case, it seemed that everyone thought it was and the way they were going places and doing things together, they might as well be boyfriend/girlfriend.

  “If I think about it, it kind of makes me feel closer to you too.”

  Tabitha touched his arm and leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.

  “Just think? We can borrow each other’s clothes. I doubt there’s any other couple who can do that,” she said. “Well back to the salt mines.”

  Jamie wondered about that phrase. He knew it meant they should get to work, but wasn’t sure what salt mines had to do with fabric.

  Jamie had been busy that morning. It seemed like Monday was always a heavy day. Not only did he need to unbox the fabric and supplies that had been left over from Friday, he had to receive incoming freight. It occurred to him, after the fact, the truck drivers treated him like he was a girl. One had even called him, “Hun,” like the term of endearment that many men call their wives or daughters.

  Kelli came back to his lair.

  “Hey, bo… Jamie, the bins are full. You can quit slacking off back here and do something useful now.”

  She was trying to break the habit of calling him boyette, but it was difficult. It was in her nature to tease people. She wasn’t really malicious, she just liked to see them react. Jamie had kind of disappointed her, in that his reaction was mild, and got milder the longer he was here.

  Jamie followed her back to the cutting table and started restocking the partial bolts in their appropriate places. He had just caught up and was about to head back to the stock room when Margaret caught his attention.

  “Lucelle wants to have a word with you. Stop by her office when you go to the back room.”

  Being called to the boss’s office wasn’t usually a good thing. He wondered if he’d failed to do something right in receiving freight. That was a new responsibility. Before, Lucelle herself had received the freight, the bulk of which always came on Monday.

  “You wanted to see me?” he said, poking his head in the open door of Lucelle’s office.

  “Yes, come in.”

  Jamie stepped in, uncertain as to how he should feel. Lucelle seemed to like him and had always had good things to say about him, but he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he was in trouble.

  “I want to complement you on your upgrade to your wardrobe. Your grandmother tells me that you have a total of eight skorts, but that you think some of them look too much like a skirt to wear to work. Is that right.”

  Jamie blushed. Somehow, Lucelle even knowing he had skorts that look completely like skirts embarrassed him.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Do you think you look good in them? Never mind that, you must, or you’d have never bought them. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that you needn’t worry about them looking like a skirt. Remember, I said you should look professional and with the hose, you always have and that’s all I care about. If people see you as wearing a skirt that’s OK. So long as you look professional you could actually wear a skirt.”

  Oh my God! Jamie thought, Does she know I have three skirts?

  “But they might think I was a girl.”

  “Would that be so bad? Everyone else here is a girl.”

  “Being a girl isn’t bad, but I’m a boy.”

  “Jamie dear, I hope it won’t upset you, but most of the customers who see you already think you’re a girl. The last one, I’m aware of, who thought you were a boy was the lady that I had to straighten out about how professional you looked and that it was my requirement that you cover your legs. Several customers have complemented you saying what a hard-working girl you are. I find it better to not correct them. It doesn’t hurt anyone if they think you are a girl, or even if you dress in girl’s clothes. It’s just your gender expression. Feel free to wear any professional looking clothes you have. If they look like a skirt, or even if they are a skirt, you can wear them to work.”

  “OK, I’ll keep that in mind.”