Game, Set and Match. Part 1
by Bronwen Welsh
Chapter One

When Mike was persuaded by his friend Dave to be his mixed doubles partner in the tennis tournament, a whole new world opened up, with consequences he could never have imagined.

Most of the girls here that tell their stories say that they felt a strong urge to be feminine from a very early age. It was quite different for me, so I hope you might be interested in reading my story.

I first met Dave when we were the two new boys at a certain school which I will not name. It’s hard being new anywhere which is why I guess we teamed up right away. Dave was always the leader but I was happy to follow, and we did all the crazy things that boys do. The “Two Musketeers - Dave and Mike’ they called us.

We were around the same size and weight in those early days, but as we headed into our teens, Dave shot up like an oak tree, until he was nearly 6ft with broad shoulders and a lean athletic body. I on the other hand lagged behind and stopped my growing at 5ft 7 inches. I was slim and also athletic, but it was Dave that all the girls started to hang around. It didn’t affect our friendship though. One thing we both loved was tennis, and in our early teens we were quite good, and evenly matched, but as Dave grew and I lagged behind, so the matches always went his way with his powerful serves and strokes. I learned to be clever as a means of keeping up with him but resigned myself to losing gracefully.

I had let my hair grow long as was the fashion then and tied it in a ponytail when I played tennis. I remember one occasion when a miss-hit from me flew over the fencing into the nearby park. The ball was picked up by an old man walking his dog and as he threw it back, he called out - “There you are Missy.” I opened my mouth to let fly a retort but then thought better of it. The old guy had bad eyesight, no doubt about it. I heard Dave suppress a laugh and turned to glare at him. In retrospect perhaps that was when the seed was sown.

After each set, we were in the habit of sitting down for a drink, and it was one day a couple of months later that that seed started to germinate. Unlike me, Dave was so enthusiastic he had joined a tennis club, and today he had some exciting news.

“The annual tournament is coming up soon,” he started “and that millionaire guy who joined recently has offered the committee cash prizes for the winners as well as the usual trophy. Five thousand dollars for each division winner, plus other smaller prizes. “

I whistled. “Five thousand dollars! I could certainly use that.”

Dave grinned. “That’s why I’m entering each division - singles, doubles and mixed doubles.”

“If you do well, there’s a tidy sum for you.” I said.

“But there’s a problem,” he went on “I’ve got my doubles partner of course, but all the best girl players in the club have been snapped up for the mixed doubles, and I can’t see any chance of doing well with the ones that are left.”

“I’m sorry to hear that” I replied.

“Are you? Well perhaps you could help me.”

“I don’t know any good girl players.” I replied.

“That’s not exactly what I had in mind.” he replied, “You remember that old guy who called you ‘Missy’? He set me thinking - maybe you could stand in as my girl partner for the mixed doubles, what do you think?”

“What do I think? I think you’re stark raving mad. He was an old guy with bad eyesight. Even if I agreed to it, we’d never get away with it.”

“But what if we could?” he persisted.

“Well for starters it’s a bit like cheating. Two guys against another guy and a girl? That doesn’t seem fair.”

He grinned. “You haven’t seen our top girl players. They’d give the Williams sisters a good game. Believe me, it’s not cheating to play against them, but without someone of your standard I don’t stand a chance.”

Did I mention Dave was always the leader and very persuasive? I always found it so hard to refuse anything he asked of me, even this idea, crazy though it was. I decided I had to show him how mad it was by pretending to agree to do it.

“OK. Well, if you can find some way of making me look totally convincing as a girl, then I’ll do it, but remember, if they see through me, then you are the one in big trouble.”

Dave grinned that grin that was starting to annoy me. “It’s a deal,” he said, “and I know exactly who could transform you, my sister Jenny with whom I share an apartment.”

I had met Jenny once or twice, an amazingly pretty girl who had a football-playing boyfriend of gigantic proportions, which was why I never even thought of trying to take things further. But the chance to spend some time in her company was quite an attraction.

Dave pulled out his phone on the spot and rang her. I couldn’t hear much of what was said, but when he rang off his grin if anything had widened,

“You’re on.” He said, “How about after the next set?”

Jenny opened the apartment door for us, and as usual my heart skipped a beat at the sight of her.

“Please tell him he’s crazy.” I said, but she smiled and murmured “Well let's see what we can do.”

“Can I watch?” said Dave but she firmly told him to go and watch television while she and I went to her bedroom to see what miracle she could perform. Her bedroom was so pretty and feminine, walls painted pink and lots of flower pictures and fluffy toys everywhere. She sat me down on a chair in front of her mirror but put a towel over it.

“I only want you to see the results at the end,” she said.

I’ve never really watched a girl apply her make-up, but now as she set to work on me, I began to realise that it is quite a business and takes a deal of time. One of my other interests is amateur theatre, so I was quite used to dressing up and even having make-up applied, although never this type of make-up, of course. After applying a number of items, foundation, blusher, eyeliner, lipstick etc, Jenny stood back and looked at me with a critical eye.

“That’s not too bad,” she said. "Now for your hair. Thank goodness you've grown it long.

She set about brushing and styling it, tutting that it really needed a wash and proper styling.

“Can I see?” I was anxious to see the result.

“There’s a problem.” She replied. “You may look like a girl from the neck up, but the rest of you is male. You need the right clothes to put your face in context. In other words, you need to wear a dress.”

This was going further than I anticipated, and you could say it was a defining moment in my life. I could have said ‘No’ but I didn’t. Was it because I could never refuse Jenny anything, or was it the actor in me wondering if I could be convincing in a very different role? Whatever the reason, I agreed to her request.

“One thing more, you really need to wear a bra to make the dress look right.”

I opened my mouth to protest and then shut it. “Alright,” I said with a sigh.

Jenny sorted through her lingerie drawer and came up with a plain sports bra, which she helped me into, and she filled out the cups with rolled up stockings. Then she went to her closet and came back with a pretty summer dress.

“This should fit you alright,” she said. I stepped into it and she drew it up my body, guided my arms into the little puff sleeves and then drew up the zip at the back.

“Now you can see yourself,” she declared, and pulled the towel off the mirror.

I stared at the mirror. Looking back at me was a girl who could be my twin sister if I had one. For once I was speechless.

“Right. Let’s go and see what Dave thinks.” said Jenny and taking my hand she led me into the lounge room. Dave was sprawled on the couch watching a football match.

“Dave” said Jenny “This is Michelle.”

Dave glanced up politely, dragging his eyes from the screen, and then he did the classic ‘double-take’ of the old silent film comedies. He stood up and frankly stared at me and let out his breath slowly.

“I can’t believe it, sis,” he said slowly. “Well Mike, err Michelle, you have to admit my sister is a genius.”

I couldn’t deny it, and with that came the realisation that I might have to be Dave’s mixed doubles partner after all.

“But wait a minute,” I said. “Looking like a girl is only half of it, I’d need to move and sound like one to be convincing.”

“I can help you with that.” said Jenny. “We’ve got two weeks, and I’m sure it can be done — you’re an actor, remember?”

So began an amazing two weeks. Each day I went round to the apartment and dressed as Michelle. Jenny taught me how to walk and sit, and how to make my voice more feminine. This was probably the hardest part of all, but I spent hours copying Jenny’s voice, and this was where being an actor came into its own. I won’t go into all the techniques I used, you can look them up on many websites, but the end result was a very passable female voice.

Of course, we hadn’t forgotten the tennis, and I had frequent practice sessions with Dave. Jenny had a tennis dress she loaned me. The first time I put it on over my boxers she gasped “You can’t wear them, don’t forget the skirt is very short.” Instead, she found some soft white cotton panties for me, and I had to admit that dressing fully as a female helped me to ‘be’ a girl. I remember the first time I played tennis with Dave, wearing that tennis dress. He seemed unusually distracted and I actually won the set 6-4.

“Come on Dave.” I cried “Focus!” He laughed and admitted it was a good thing we’d both be on the same side of the net when we played doubles.

The Friday before the tournament, I had the whole day off and went round to the apartment. Jenny had a surprise for me.

“Today is graduation day.” she declared. “You’re going to get dressed and then we’re going out shopping. The world is ready to meet Michelle.”

I confess that a quiver of fear shook me, but Jenny would not take ‘No’ for an answer.

As we entered the shopping mall, I was convinced that some child with its honesty would call out “Why is that man wearing a dress, Mommy?” but it didn’t happen and slowly I started to relax. We passed many women and small children and no-one took any notice of us. We were two girls together as we went through the clothes stores and sat down for lunch.

Jenny patted my hand and whispered, “You’ve passed the final test.”

I agreed but thought to myself, ‘The final test comes tomorrow at the tournament. Can we really get away with this?’