Stephanie’s Deal by Jennifer Brock So far, Steven has agreed to become Stephanie for a week and a half as a punishment. In this installment, Stephanie accepts an offer that perhaps she shouldn’t.

Episode 2

Steven awoke abruptly, as his mother was standing by the bed, shouting at him, “Up and at ‘em, Princess! We’ve got a busy day ahead of us.” She whipped the blanket off him and he saw the frilly slip and felt the tight band of his bra around his chest, and remembered what had happened the day before. He’d agreed to pretend to be a perfect girl, as punishment for peeking at his Christmas present. In the cold light of day, he wondered whether that was the right decision, but in his heart he knew that a Nintendo Wii would be worth eleven days of playing dress-up; how hard could it be? He blinked a couple times and tried to think about what a well-mannered girl would say.

Stephanie sat up and swung her legs out of bed. “Good morning, Mother. What would you like me to do first?” Mom was disappointed in how she got out of bed, and made her go back and repeat it until she could do it while keeping her knees together and without letting her slip ride up. Stephanie apologized and thanked her mother for helping her become a proper young lady.

She then handed Stephanie a new fuzzy pink bathrobe and told her to go take a bath using the soap and bubble bath in the basket on the bathroom counter. They had an appointment at the beauty parlor later, so she didn’t need to wash her hair. Steven didn’t want to think about what would happen at the beauty parlor, so he decided to have fun playing with the bubbles. Girls were lucky that they didn’t outgrow bubble baths as early as boys; he could even remember seeing TV commercials where grownup ladies were soaking in bubbles. When Stephanie was sure she’d used her flowery soap everywhere that mattered, she rinsed off and got out of the tub. She saw a big pink towel hanging on the rod where Steven’s usual towel would be, and used it to dry off. She smelled fancy and girlish everywhere and her new bathrobe felt very nice on her naked skin.

Stephanie had to do a double take when she walked into her room. While she was in the bath, someone had been busy. Steven’s bedding had been taken out and replaced with a set that had used to be in his sister Michelle’s room when she was a little younger than he was now. It was all frilly and pink. There were frilly pink curtains on the window, and frilly pink bed skirt, and frilly pink sheets, and a frilly pink bedspread, and the bed was loaded with frilly pink pillows. There was even a frilly pink tablecloth thing on top of the bureau. Her mother came in while she was still taking it all in, and asked what she thought of her new room. Stephanie gave her a big hug and said “Thank you, Mommy. It looks much prettier now.”

Her mother was kind of shaken by this. “You’re welcome, Honey. Now hop up on the bed. There’s something we need to take care of before you can get dressed. I’ve been reading up on men who dress like women professionally, and found something that they do that should be useful for you.” She opened Stephanie’s robe and then spread her knees. Stephanie was very embarrassed to be showing her boy parts to her mother like that, but it got worse. Mom took out a bottle and a bag of cotton balls and started cleaning down there. “I know you just took a bath, but that’s part of the problem. There are moisturizing oils in your bath soap that would get in the way, so I have to cleanse you with an astringent.” Stephanie didn’t know what that meant, but it felt very cold, and then kind of tingly. Then she was pushed onto her back and her mother brought out a roll of some kind of tape and did something to her stuff. “Okay, now your little penis is all tucked away and won’t be popping out making any unsightly bulges. This does mean that when you pee you have to sit down like a real girl, but you should be doing that anyway. When you do, make sure to wipe.” Stephanie nodded, still amazed by her mother’s disappearing act.

Her mother had her close her robe, and she then showed her the three laundry baskets full of her new clothes. While her mother watched, she put everything away. Because it was her first day, her mother picked out an outfit for her, but she said that in time she’d be able to pick out what she wanted to wear herself. She started with another new bra, a pair of panties, and a slip. Then she pulled a red dress on over her head and put on a little white sweater over it. She’d be wearing tights later, but her mother told her to start the day in knee socks, which were not as thin as the tights, but not as thick as Steven’s regular socks. Her shoes were a sort of shiny black version of her white shoes, but with slightly higher heels, and her mother gave her a little purse that matched. She said it contained a little bit of money, a house key, a small comb and hairbrush, and a roll of tape in case she had any “accidents.” Stephanie did a little twirl to see how her dress would move, and then skipped downstairs for a quick breakfast.

She had to sit at the kitchen table several times before she got it right. Dresses and skirts were very complicated things to operate. Steven was glad that he wasn’t one of those Scottish guys who wore plaid skirts all the time; he’d only have to be Stephanie for eleven more days, and then he’d have no more skirt issues. Breakfast was oatmeal, and by the time she had been seated properly to Mom’s satisfaction, it was cold. But she smiled and ate it anyway, thanked her for a tasty breakfast, and did her part to clear the table and clean up.

Mom gave Stephanie her new jacket, which was big and puffy and pink, with white fake fur trim, and they headed out. Michelle was anxious and ready to go, even before Stephanie had to get in and out of the car several times until she could do it right. Their first stop was the mall, where they made a beeline for “Ears to You,” an open air stall in the middle of the aisle. Stephanie’s mother talked to the girl on duty. “Hi. Stephanie here is in the Christmas pageant at Second Baptist, and Denise Cooper said that you could put stars in her ears.”

The girl looked on a clipboard. “Hmm… Second Baptist, yeah we have that style in stock. But it says here the stars were supposed to be for six boys. I’m not sure I can give you that discount.”

“Stephanie is a boy. Don’t make her have to show you. She’s just being punished for something, so we thought we’d make her prepare for her part in the pageant full time.”

Stephanie just wanted her mother to stop talking so they could get this over with. It was so humiliating that she wasn’t even thinking about the pain or permanence of getting her ears pierced. The girl just chuckled and opened a little gate. “Ok, then you cute little she-male, have a seat here on this stool.” Stephanie made sure to be careful to sweep the back of her dress before sitting down, and to keep her knees tightly together. The girl pulled things from a few different cabinets and came over. The whole process was very fast, and it really didn’t hurt much at all, since she started by numbing her earlobes. Stephanie looked in the mirror and the little sparkly silver stars in her ears really helped sell her female image. The girl pointed out that they sold some matching jewelry and she’d extend the discount to cover the whole purchase, so Stephanie left wearing a new bracelet and a necklace that both had little stars on them, too. She also got a free bottle of cleaning fluid to care for her new holes until they healed. Maybe it would look cool to keep an earring when she went back to being a boy, but it might be easier to just let the holes close up.

They then walked down the mall to the House of Beauty. Michelle showed her sister where to hang up her coat, while their mother gave their names to the receptionist. Stephanie sat in the waiting area, and didn’t make any mistakes getting into her chair. She idly flipped through a fashion magazine while they waited. Michelle was looking at the sign behind the counter and noticed something. “Hey mom, did you know they do waxing here? I think I was twelve the first time I shaved my legs, but I think Little Sis here deserves an earlier start.” Steven had never really noticed if he had hair on his legs, so he wasn’t sure why Michelle would want to shave them. And what was waxing, something women do to make their legs shiny? Mom told the lady to add that to Stephanie’s treatment, so it wouldn’t take long to find out.

They decided to do the wax thing first, so they brought Stephanie and her mother into a back room. Stephanie had to take off her shoes and socks and sit in a funny chair, and it was weird because they did like the opposite of all her training in how to sit, and they made her pull up her dress and sit with her knees apart. And then while Mom held her hand, they did the waxing, which wasn’t at all like you’d guess by the name. They should call it something more like “Painfully ripping a thousand band-aids off of your legs.” Her legs were all pink afterwards, and they had to put lotion on them. But they were very smooth, she had to admit. The wax lady also decided to tear out half of Stephanie’s eyebrows, for some reason.

They left her shoes and socks off and brought her back into the big room and sat her in a chair just like at the barber’s. The lady put a big pink plastic smock over her and leaned the chair back so her head was in a sink. Then she started washing her hair, which felt really weird, but really good. The barber had never done that to Steven; maybe being a girl had its perks. After the wash, she sat up again and the lady put some really smelly stuff in Stephanie’s hair and left it there for a while, then it was back down into the sink for a rinse, and then she stuck a big loud hairdryer thing over her head.

While her hair was drying, this one girl came over and started playing with Stephanie’s feet, and doing something that tickled her toes. She held up a little bottle and Mom approved it, but Stephanie’s head was stuck at the wrong angle to see what was going on. When the girl was done playing with her feet, she moved around and started washing Stephanie’s left hand, scrubbing with a brush and poking her fingers with a pointy stick, which hurt a little. She must have flinched, because the girl told her to keep her hand still. She then went around to the other hand and did the same thing.

When the hairdryer came off, Stephanie saw in the mirror that her hair was now a new lighter color, almost a blonde. It seemed to have more bounce to it, too. But the hairdresser wasn’t done. She pulled out a pair of scissors and started cutting, every so often bringing a spray bottle or a comb also into play. It was strange; Steven had always thought of girls as having longer hair than boys, but here this lady was making Stephanie look more like a girl by making her hair shorter. When she finished, she took off the smock and spun the chair around to give her a better look in the mirror. The hairstyle, which she called a “layered bob,” looked really cute and pretty much erased any traces of Steven that were left. She could only see a pretty girl in the mirror.

But then the hand girl came back and led her to another station. Stephanie got her first look at her feet and saw that her toenails had been trimmed and were painted with a very shiny silvery-white polish. She had to rest her hand on a table while very smelly stuff was put onto her nails that made them magically longer. Michelle came over to keep her company, and showed that she’d gotten new nails, too. Stephanie was glad that the girl wasn’t making her as long as her sister had gotten. Michelle now had these glamorous fire-engine red talons that were about an inch longer than her fingers.

Michelle told her little sister that her hair looked nice, and then pulled out a paper bag. There wouldn’t be time to stop anywhere for lunch and still get Stephanie to church on time for pageant rehearsal, so their mother had run down to the food court and brought them something to eat. But since Stephanie’s hands were being worked on, Michelle would have to feed her chicken Caesar salad to her. It was very awkward, but they got it done. Michelle only had to wipe Stephanie’s mouth with her napkin twice. The dressing was pretty salty, but her sister also had a Diet Sprite for her, and the straw made it easy.

After eating, Michelle thought Stephanie could use some lip gloss again, so she had her purse her lips again, and she squeezed stuff out of a little tube onto her lips. This gloss was different than the last one she’d tried. It tasted like strawberries. Michelle said that she’d bought this gloss especially for her, and put the tube in her purse. Stephanie thanked her and smiled, looking at her shiny lips in the mirror across the room.

When the shiny paint on her new fingernails that matched her toenails was dry, it was time to go. Her mother took her into the ladies’ room in the salon to put on her tights and shoes. Mom paid the cashier, but Stephanie had to take some money to each of the women that had worked on her and give them a tip, and thank them for their work, even the painful wax lady. Stephanie thanked her mother for making her look pretty like a real girl, but she asked what they would do about her nice new hair style when it came time to become Steven again. Mom told her not to worry, and they’d work something out. In the worst case, she could always get out the clippers and give Steven a buzz-cut like she used to do every summer.

Michelle dropped Stephanie and her mother off at the church. They were a little late. Even though her mother told everyone about Stephanie as soon as they entered, rehearsal didn’t go too bad. There were even a couple of little boys there who were also playing at being girls beyond just the pageant. The other boys who were acting as angels in the play seemed to be a lot more uncomfortable wearing dresses. They just didn’t get that it was all pretend.

When they were putting angel dresses on, little Connor Bartlett noticed that Stephanie had two sets of straps, so she was wearing a bra as well as a slip. They all started pointing and laughing. It was weird — where did they think Stephanie’s little boobs came from? Or maybe they didn’t notice them; were they too small? She was about to break down, but then Mrs. Patterson was really cool and made the other boy/girls straighten up, and sent her to the ladies’ room to clean her face so she could get made up.

While she was washing her face, she wondered if it was a sin for a boy to use the ladies’ room in a church, but a look in the mirror revealed that there were no boys in the room, just a cute girl. The makeup that Mrs. Cooper put on her made her look like someone off of a magazine cover. She had long, thick eyelashes that really made her eyes look big, and silvery eyelids, and rosy cheeks, and glistening pink lips. She finished off by dusting Stephanie’s entire face with a sparkly powder, and then put a wig on her head that was so silver it was almost white. She looked like a magical space girl from one of those Japanese cartoons. The other kids were awestruck when they saw her, and probably sorry they laughed.

The rehearsal itself was fine. Stephanie was just part of the angelic host, so she didn’t have any lines to memorize. The singing was kind of fun. Stephanie didn’t feel embarrassed by her soprano voice like Steven usually was, so she wasn’t afraid to put some actual volume into her voice, and smiled when she sang, which made the Halleluiah’s sound much happier like they were supposed to. After rehearsal Mrs. Cooper cleaned the makeup off of Stephanie’s face with a special kind of washcloth, and she was disappointed to see a regular girl instead of a supermodel in the mirror afterward. Mrs. Cooper noticed the dejected look on her face and gave her a little conspiratorial wink before getting out the stuff and making her eyelashes just a little darker. It really helped. Stephanie also got her lip gloss from her purse, and she showed her how to apply it. Satisfied with her image, she gave Mrs. Cooper a hug of appreciation and went off to find her mother.

When they got home, Dad said that Stephanie was prettier than he could have imagined, and decided that he needed to take his three lovely ladies out to dinner. They went to Steven’s favorite Italian restaurant, and Stephanie had to suppress a giggle when the waiter called her “Miss.” She didn’t think it would be a good idea to order Steven’s favorite dish with the spicy sausages and the roasted peppers, because it always gave him gas. It probably wouldn’t be ladylike to get into a burping contest with dad. She copied her sister and got the chicken Parmigiana over penne. Halfway through the meal, she had a problem. She leaned over and whispered to Michelle that she had to go to the bathroom. They got up and went to the ladies’ room together. Their father commented under his breath, “A girl for a day, and already going in packs. Go figure. It must be something about the plumbing in there that requires a crew.” His wife elbowed him for being crude.

Mom gave Stephanie a new long flannel nightgown to sleep in. It was red with a pattern of little white flowers, with white lace trim. Her mother said she didn’t need to sleep in a bra again like the night before, but that most girls like to keep their panties on under their nighties. Lying in between girl sheets in girl sleepwear and looking around the girl room, Steven wept a little, thinking that maybe ten more days of this wouldn’t be so easy after all, and wondering if he was going to have girl dreams or boy dreams.

Sunday morning brought another bath. Steven was happy to have the tape off; it was even worth the embarrassment of having his mother come in to wash his hair. After the bath he wanted to celebrate his freedom by peeing standing up, but he couldn’t. Either it was fear that Mom would catch him somehow, or it was something about how wrong it seemed to hold it in a hand with pretty girly fingernails. At any rate he had to sit to be relaxed enough for anything to come out. He put on his girly robe, and Stephanie went to tell her mother she was ready to learn how to dry her hair, but she made her put on fresh tape and a clean pair of panties first.

Stephanie had to get dressed up for church, and she wondered if she’d get in trouble with God for wearing a dress instead of pants. But if it was okay to be a girl angel, it must not be a sin to be a girl girl. It wasn’t a dress, anyway. It was a separate skirt and blouse. Stephanie wasn’t sure why when a girl wears a shirt, it’s a blouse, but felt that her mother seemed to busy to ask. The tights were thicker, more like socks than pantyhose, but still nothing Batman would wear even if they were his gray color; they had like stripes running down them. Stephanie had to wear a little half-slip under her skirt, but when she put on her white top, Mom said that her bra was a little too visible, so she had to take her blouse off and wear a camisole underneath it, which is what you call the other half of the slip. Her mother gave her the choice of wearing a light blue button-up sweater over her outfit, but Stephanie thought her blouse looked too pretty to cover up.

Michelle helped her put on the necklace and bracelet that matched her earrings, and gave her a little spritz of her cologne. Without prompting, Stephanie got out her lipgloss and put it on, impressing her sister with her technique.

The Sunday School class was really easy. The pageant cast just had to run through their parts, and all Stephanie had to do was remember when to enter and where to stand. Little Bobby Perrone was still dressing up like a girl, too, but it seemed like Robin (that was “her” feminine name) really liked it. Stephanie felt protective of her eight-year-old counterpart, and stuck by her to keep the other kids from teasing.

During the coffee hour after the service while Stephanie was just standing around waiting for her family to be ready, she was surprised to see Brian Somers walk over to her and bring her a cup of punch. He was older than her and always dressed really cool. He’d barely said two words to Steven, ever. She thanked Brian for the punch.

He said she looked pretty and Stephanie wasn’t sure what to do, so she just smiled and sipped her punch. But then Brian started asking about Steven’s punishment, so it became clear that he was only talking to her out of curiosity. He seemed sympathetic about her plight, especially when she explained that a Nintendo Wii was the prize for being a girl until school restarted. Brian even made a funny comment that Steven had traded his wee-wee for a Wii that made Stephanie laugh out loud.

But then Brian got weird and told her she was pretty when she laughed, maybe even the prettiest girl there. She gave him a playful slap on the arm and corrected him that there were many prettier girls there who actually were girls, but he said he’d rather be talking to Stephanie than the other girls. She blushed and had to look away.

He immediately got her attention back when he said he had a way she could play Nintendo before her sentence was up. Brian had a Wii at home, and rubbed salt in her wounds by saying he’d be getting more games for Christmas. Stephanie wasn’t sure how that would help her problem, but then he got to his point. His parents were throwing a New Year’s Eve party, and Brian was allowed to invite a friend over to hang out with him playing games and watching TV in his basement. And the friend he wanted to invite was Stephanie.

She wanted to know why he wasn’t picking one of his friends from the youth group, but he said the rest of them were all older than him, and as the baby of the group they picked on him. He’d rather invite someone younger than him, and he said that she was actually closer to his age. Steven thought it would be fun hanging out with him and really wanted to go, but he had to make sure that Brian knew that it would have to be Stephanie going to the party.

And that’s where it got really weird. Brian wanted Stephanie to go to his party, not Steven. He saw it as kind of a date, but since she wasn’t a real girl it wouldn’t be a real date, and he could sort of use her as practice for the real thing.

Steven still wanted to go, but Stephanie wasn’t sure she wanted a date. She ran her hand through her hair to kill time, but the chance to play Wii was just too tempting an offer. Since she’d have to be Stephanie on New Year’s anyway, she might as well be doing something fun. Who knows what girly thing Mom would try to make her do if she was home? She accepted his offer, but said she’d have to get permission.

Brian didn’t waste any time, and grabbed Stephanie’s hand and pulled her over to where her mother was talking to her friends. She wanted to wait for a lull in their conversation, but Brian was more insistent. He excused himself and then asked her if Stephanie could come to his house for New Year’s Eve, and her mother made him tell her the whole story, and she nodded a few times. Stephanie noticed her looking down at something with a puzzled expression, and then realized that Brian was still holding her hand. She wasn’t exactly sure what a real girl would do in that situation, so she just slackened her grip a little.

Stephanie’s mother said it was okay, but she had to talk to Brian’s mother first. So Brian pulled her over to his mother, and her mom followed, and he said that Stephanie was the guest he wanted to have over for New Year’s. Brian’s mother initially said no way could he be alone with a girl at a party that could go overnight, and Stephanie blushed when her mom had to explain the whole punishment story again. She laughed, and said she didn’t believe it, but Mom said it would all be made clear on Christmas Eve when she saw the pageant; all the boys were girls and all the girls were boys — it’s just that Stephanie was the only one doing it full time. She wanted to correct her mother and point out Robin, but she couldn’t see her in the room. Brian’s mother agreed, and exchanged phone numbers with her mom. And then Brian got funny again, and kissed the hand he had been holding, and said “It’s a date, then. See you later, Beautiful.” She was too dumbfounded that she didn’t even hear what her mother was trying to say to her.

Of course when they rounded up Dad and Michelle, Mom immediately had to tell them that Stephanie had made a date, and was talking about how nice “her boyfriend” was. Michelle then wanted Stephanie to tell her everything about him: what his name was, what kind of date they were going on, and especially whether Stephanie thought he was cute. She had to think carefully about what a real girl would do in that situation, and decided that she’d probably talk to her sister about a guy. She told Michelle to wait until they got home, since it would be embarrassing in front of Mom and Dad.

So when they got home, Michelle pulled Stephanie into her room and wanted her to dish the dirt all about her date. Stephanie had to admit that Brian actually was kind of cute. When she said it was a New Year’s Eve party, Michelle asked if they were going to stay up until midnight, and Stephanie said she didn’t know but probably. Her big sister then made her heart stop. She told her that Brian would probably be expecting her to kiss him at the stroke of midnight; it’s the custom for couples at New Year’s, something about good luck. Stephanie was terrified and wished her sister hadn’t told her. The next week would be a living hell of dread and anticipation!