I woke up on Saturday excited not just because my terrible first week was over. It was finally the day of the sleepover.

School had been a nightmare all week. There were kids who actively made fun of me, kids who actually just treated me like a girl and kids who literally just laughed. A lot of guys went out of their way to make jokes about me being a girl or feminine. Recently a lot of guys would put on a high voice when they saw me and go "OMG like and subscribe" like I did in the video, even though I never said "OMG."

Most of my friends ignored me or just pretended I was a girl, a girl they didn't really know. That was pretty brutal. A lot of my friends tried to make excuses of why they didn't want to be around me. My friend Blake said he supported me and would be my friend but his parents wouldn't let him hang out with me like that. How are you suppose to just be friends like normal after that? My friend Shawn came up to me and asked me if I could get him in with Sonya Miller as if now that I was wearing a bra I could magically set him up with hot girls. My friend Marc told me he just thought it'd be kind of weird if we acted like I was still normal me and laughed when I said I was still me. All my friends were acting so weird so I wasn't really being that social.

When I did hang out with people it was just to kill time in school. I'd sit on my own at lunch but during my free periods I'd sit with whatever girls were free that period. It was better than getting teased, ignored and faux drooled over by the boys. Most of the girls were nice even if they also treated me like a girl, who didn't know how to do anything, although I'm sure they were talking about me behind my back. It was as if after a round of annoying questions on Monday all the girls in school had decided I was a female and had to be treated as such. We mostly talked about our clothes and people at school. Or they mostly talked at me while I sat and nodded and smiled.

Thursday, this girl Nora McGee, one of Jessica Chandlers friends, after analyzing what message my top was sending to boys, asked if I wanted to hang out over the weekend and looked strangely offended when I said no. Why would I want to hang out as a girl with a bunch of girls?

"Why not?" she said looking hurt.

"I... um have a really busy weekend" I said, feeling bad as I tried to think of excuses. "I have to babysit and this jewelry making class. I have Zumba..."

"You do Zumba?" she said smiling with surprise.

"Yeah." I said, blushing.

"Well that's why your so fit." she said smiling.

Saturday started like a normal day. Mom let me sleep in but when I woke up, I, of course, had to do my makeup. I went down stairs and had some cereal, had Mom drive me to Zumba, danced around with a bunch of other girls in leggings like an idiot, rode home with Mom, sweaty as hell, went back up to my room, peeled off my sweaty leggings, tank top, sports bra and panties, threw them in the corner, hopped in the shower, toweled off, threw on a fresh bra and pair of panties along with a light blue spaghetti strap shirt and pair of black leggins, put my breast forms back in, reapplied my makeup, put my hair up in a ponytail, then sat down to finish my homework. I usually waited till the last minute to do my homework but recently I'd been doing it right when I got home. Besides, I didn't have a lot and I wanted to get it done so I could enjoy the night. Maybe my sisters room straight A ways were rubbing off on me.

Once I finished my homework I started packing. I had to pack like I was going to be going to a sleepover at a girls house. I grabbed my sisters small pink and blue duffel bag and threw in a nighty, a pair of panties, a pair of leggings and a long sleeve Victoria Secret PINK shirt, before running into the bathroom to grab my toothbrush, toothpaste, moisturizers that I have to apply every night in accordance with rule 35, my makeup kit and zipped up the bag.

I heard my phone vibrate on my bed. I walked over and picked it up. It was Scott.

you good to come over at like 5?

sounds good I responded.

My heart was pounding. I looked at the zipped up bag and thought carefully about if I was forgetting something, if I was leaving any clue I might not be going where I told Mom I was going. Feeling ok about my packing job I sat laid back down on the bed.

I picked up my phone and texted Scott again.

i really appreciate you doing this for me

u the best friend i could ask for

He responded 20 seconds later.

no prob bro any time.

Then followed it up 10 seconds later.

you know i'd do anything for you my dude

I smiled. My whole life had gone up in flames but at least I still had my best friend.

Scott had come up really clutch this week. He had given me old clothes of his that I could wear at home when I was alone in my room. I had changed into them a few times but never stayed in them for too long in fear that my Mom would come in and yell at me and add a million years to my punishment. I'd figured out by Wednesday that I was usually safe to change into Scott's clothes for at least 2 hours in the afternoon so I'd usually change back into Jillians clothes at around 5:30 when Mom might come knocking.

I was a little nervous when I brought up the idea of sleeping over at his house while telling my Mom I was somewhere else but I should have known he'd be fine with it.

"I could tell her I'm at this girl Gabriella's house who lives like a block away from me, but instead I could just go to yours." I had said nervously.

"Of course dude!" He said as if I was casually asking to borrow five bucks. "No prob. Come over when when ever you need to. I'll lend you some clothes. Whatever you need."

Even that first day, when I walked into school, my face covered in makeup, wearing leggings and a top from forever 21, most people either didn't recognize me, or came up to asking "what happened to you dude?" or teasing me with a line they thought was clever like "you wearing a thong, Bauer?" but not Scott. Scott, upon seeing his best friend dressed in all female clothing and makeup, having only heard about this big life change from my texts the day before, came up to me and bragged about beating me in fantasy football that weekend, like nothing was different.

I looked at my phone. It was 4:30. Would he mind me coming over? I decided he probably wouldn't. I grabbed my bag and headed down stairs.

"Mom, I headed to Gabriella's!" I shouted, pulling a dark purple Victoria Secret PINK sweatshirt over my head.

"So early?" Mom asked.

"Yeah." I said, "She wants me to get there early so we can try to watch all the Twilight movies tonight and listen to all the audiobooks."

"Have you read all those books already?" she asked surprised.

"No" I said, "I'm finished the first one so we're going to talk about it, then we're going to watch the movie, then we're going to listen to the "New Moon" audio book, then watch the "New Moon" movie, then we are going to listen to the Eclipse audio book, then watch the Eclipse movie, then we're going listen to the Breaking Dawn audio book and then watch the Breaking Dawn movie."

I had worked hard on remembering all this because I knew she would ask me about what I would do at Gabriella's.

"Well it sounds like you girls have quite a night ahead of you" she said smiling. "By the way, I noticed how into these books you were getting so I started reading the first one online." she gave me a mischievous smile. "So, are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?"

I gave a forced giggle. "I'm Team Edward but Gabriella tells me that after seeing the movies, I'll totally be team Jacob."

"Alright, well have fun sweety!" she said.

I slid on Jillian's basic white adidas sneakers, and headed out the store but instead of turning right toward Gabriella's house, I turned left and walked three houses down to Scott's.

I rang the bell, then suddenly remembered Scott's Mom, Dad and Sister probably didn't know that my Mom was forcing me to dress like a girl and I didn't really want to explain it to them, especially because I wasn't sure if Scott's parents would be cool with me staying at their house to escape my mom, so I silently prayed that Scott would answer the door.

The door opened and Scott's older sister Hannah stood there.

Hannah was 16 and like Scott had good looking features, a tan face, and straight, dark brown hair.

"Hi!" she said, clearly not recognizing me.

I didn't know what to do so I pressed forward.

"Uh hi" I said in my best girl voice, the voice that my mom and sister found so convincing "Um, is Scott there?"

"Yeah one sec." she turned her head and shouted up the stairs "SCOTT! THERE'S A GIRL HERE TO SEE YOU!"

I heard the voice of my best friend come from within the house.

"Huh?" I heard him say from the top of the stairwell as he bounded the stairs before his face broke into a smile upon seeing me, his dark spikey hair slightly disheveled, his handsome face beaming.

"Oh right! I forgot to tell you she was coming over." he said give me a crooked smile. "Come on in."

I followed Scott upstairs.

"Why didn't you tell Hannah who you were?" he asked when we were upstairs.

"She didn't know and I don't wanna tell people who don't need to know. It is kind of the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to anyone." I said smiling slightly as I jumped onto one of the bean bag chairs on his floor and pulled off my Uggs.

Scott smiled. "Alright then." he said. "We'll just let Hannah believe I'm up here in my room with a girl." he winked and I laughed.

"You ready to get changed or you wanna chill in your leggings and Victoria Secret sweatshirt a little longer?" he asked, smiling as he opened his dresser drawers.

"Fuck you" I said laughing as I pulled the sweatshirt over my head.

He tossed me a pair of mesh basketball shorts which I caught.

"And I assume you want underwear too?" he asked tossing me a pair of J Crew boxer briefs.

"Oh dude, you are the man." I said happily. "You have no idea how clutch this is" I said as I pulled off my leggings.

"Whoah look at those legs!" Scott said smiling. "Pretty! And pink panties! Not gonna lie, thats sexy!"

I laughed as I flung the leggings on the floor.

"Dude, be honest with me" he said, suddenly sounding serious. "Am I the first guy the see you in your panties?" he said a goofy smile breaking over his face.

"You're my first!" I said blowing him a kiss as I took off my panties. "Head up by the way." I threw my panties at him.

"Eww! What the fuck?" Scott said through laughter. He grabbed a T-shirt and shut his drawers.

I put his underwear and shorts on and took off my spaghetti strap shirt and threw it into my bag. Scott did the same with my leggings and panties. I tried to take off my bra but struggled a few times to get the latch at the back.

"Need a hand dude?" Scott asked.

"No I got it" I said. I'd take off my bra every day that week, why couldn't I do it now?

"You sure Ty?" Scott asked after 10 more seconds of struggling with it. "I can help you out. It wouldn't be any weirder than all of this already is."

I smiled.

"Ok fine." I said dropping my hands to my sides as Scott approached me from behind.

A week earlier I might have felt at least slightly embarrassed standing before my friend in nothing but mesh shorts and a bra while allowing him to take the bra off but at this point, I didn't care. Weirdly, there was something about it that I actually kind of liked about feeling his hands on my back.

"There we go" Scott said as after about a seconds, as he unhooked my bra and I wiggled out of it and put my breast forms into my bag. He patted me on the back and dropped the bra on the floor. I threw on his T-shirt and finally, for the first time in over a week I was wearing only boy clothes again.

I took a deep breath and stretched, allowing myself to feel comfortable again.

"You want some help taking out your hair extensions?" he asked.

I laughed. I had completely forgotten about my hair extensions.

"For sure." I said.

We went into Scott's bathroom, which luckily, is attached to his room and, unlike my bathroom, doesn't connect to my sisters bathroom. Scott carefully removed removed each clip from my real hair until there was a line of hair extensions on the floor of his bathroom. I looked at myself, my floppy light brown hair finally free of any extension.

"We should put those somewhere safe," I said looking at the extensions, "Cuz I'm gonna need to put them back in later." I thought for a second. "No idea how I'm going to do that."

We moved the extensions on to an empty shelf Scott had above his desk.

"Ok." Scott said. "You look a lot more like you now. But your still wearing makeup."

I laugh again. "I forgot about that too. Do you know if your sister has makeup remover?"

After a quick trip to Hannah's bathroom Scott brought me back some wipes and I removed my makeup. I looked in the mirror, ran my hand through my once again boyish hair and smiled the truest smile I'd smiled in over a week. I walked out of the bathroom.

"Ayeeee!" Scott said smiling and he grabbed me. "Look at you looking like a dude again!" I laughed.

"So do you still remember how to lose to me in Madden?" he asked grinning.

It felt so good to be be playing video games again, chilling with Scott again, being me again. About an hour later a knock came at Scott's door.

"Scotty?" his Mom's voice called.

"What's up Mom?" he called back.

His mom opened the door and we paused the game.

"Oh hi Tyler." she said smiling. "Its funny," she said looking at Scott "Your sister seemed to think you were up here with some girl." she laughed. "Scott, your father and I are going to go out to dinner. I gave Hannah money to order something. Don't give her any trouble. Not that you ever do." She turned to me. "Are you sleepover over Tyler?"

"Yeah, is that cool?" I'd slept at Scott's house hundreds of times.

"Of course!" she said as she left. "But don't stay up too late playing video games, boys!"

"It feels so good to be called a boy." I said as we unpaused the game. Scott laughed.

An hour later, Hannah come knocking.

"Hey Scott what do you want for dinner? Oh Tyler. You are here. Mom said you were but I didn't here you come in."

Scott paused the game.

"Like an hour ago." I lied. "Actually came in just as your parents were about to leave."

"Oh. I guess that's why I didn't hear you." she moved on. "So what do you want for dinner? I was thinking pizza. That sound good?"

Scott and I nodded.

"By the way" she asked giving Scott a funny look, "who was that girl that was here to see you?"

Scott smiled. "She's just this new girl from school."

Hannah smiled back. "What did you two do up here?" When Scott hesitated to answer she rolled her eyes. "C'mon, I know you were probably talking to Tyler about it the moment before I knocked." she smiled again. "I've never seen you have a girl over like that. She was pretty."

Scott smiled again and looked at me. "Yeah she was pretty."

"You really don't want to tell me anything about what you two did?" Hannah asked looking disappointed. "Were you guys, you know, having fun?" she made a kissing sound and Scott laughed.

Suddenly Hannah's eyes got big. I followed her eyes. She had noticed my bra which Scott had left on the floor.

"Scott?" she said her voice getting excited. "Is that your bra on the floor or did your girlfriend forget something?" she laughed. "Look at you, my baby brother, ripping girls bras off at 13!"

Scott laughed. "You got me. Now can you get out, so I can talk about it without feeling weird because my sister is around."

"Ok" Hannah said, smiling broadly as she left.

"She didn't even think for a second it was me!" I said, amazed.

"You really do look like a girl when you try. I should have just been like 'that was Tylers bra'" Scott said, smiling as he unpaused the game and immediately throwing a long TD pass to go ahead.

I laughed.

20 minutes later the pizza arrived and we headed downstairs.

"Are you wearing Scott's clothes?" Hannah asked me, squinting across the table as she ate.

"Oh yeah" I said, laughing slightly. I was actually enjoying wearing Scott's clothes. Not only did it feel great to be back in boys clothes but for some reason I kind of liked how they smelled. They smelled kind of like a mix of laundry detergent and Scott.

"Why?" she asked.

"You share clothes with your friends." Scott said. "Why can't me and Ty share clothes?"

Hannah laughed. "I guess. Its kinda cute. I think its more of a girl thing though."

"Well that's sexist." Scott said and we laughed.

After eating we go back upstairs and I was having a great night until my phone rang.

I looked down at my buzzing phone. It was my mom.

"I better not answer it." I said.

"No, you need to answer it!" Scott said pausing the game. "If you don't she might think somethings up and call that girls parents.

I groaned, realizing he was write. I answered the phone.

"Hey Mom!" I said in a feminine voice that makes Scott giggle.

"Hey sweety! You know you left your copy of Twilight at home."

"Oh yeah. I guess I did."

"You want me to run it over to you?"

"No!" I said, too emphatically. "I mean, she has a copy so its fine."

"Oh ok. Are you ok? You sound a little jumpy."

"I'm fine Mom." I say, fully aware that I sound like a bratty teenage girl. "I just wanna get back to Twilight. Taylor Lautner just took his shirt off."

"Ok." Mom said. I could tell she was suspicious about something. How could I have forgotten to bring my Twilight book? "Can I just talk to your friend?" she asked. "Gabriella?"

FUCK I thought.

"Um, you can't right now, because she's in the bathroom." I made up.

Scott was now holding his head up to mine to listen.

"Its ok, I'll wait, I just want to talk to her real quick."

"Ok" I said nervously. "I'm sure she'll be out in a sec." I covered the the bottom of the phone and whisper to Scott "Get Hannah! Just tell her and see if she'll help!"

Scott bolted out of the room. I could hear him speeding down the stairs.

"Ok." Mom said. "I know this is crazy but I just want to make sure your really there. I won't embarrass you. I just want to ask her a few things."

"That is crazy. Don't you trust me?" I said nervously. "But I guess you can. Just please don't embarrass me, Mom."

Scott suddenly sprinted into the room whisper-yelling at a very confused Hannah.

I walked over to the bathroom and flushed the toilet.

"Just pretend to be this girl Gabriella. Say you're having a sleepover with Tiffany, that's Tyler, and that you met him her and jewelry making or whatever and you guys are having a great fucking time." I heard Scott whispering.

"Ok, she's coming out of the bathroom." I told my Mom. "Here's Gabriella."

I handed my purple sequined phone to Hannah who gave a confused "Hello?"

Me and Scott tried to lean in so we could hear what my mom was saying but Hannah was taller than us and we couldn't here so we settled for listening to Hannah's side of the conversation.

"Yeah... that's me... of course... no its just me and Tiffany..." I paced back and forth as she talked. "...yeah were having fun... I love Twilight... I'm Team Jacob... she's wearing leggings and a purple sweatshirt... its fine... ok bye." She handed the phone back to me.

I gulped. "Hi Mom" I said in my girly voice and Hannah's eyes got wide.

"Ok, sorry about that. I just had a paranoid moment. I thought you were sneaking around somewhere but you really are at your friends house."

"Of course I am."

"She seems like a really nice girl." My mom said. "You know who she actually reminds me of. Hannah Kingsley."

"Does she?" I said my heart beating out of my chest.

"Yeah" my mom said. "Not sure why. Anyway, have fun tonight. Don't stay up too late."

"I won't."

"Are you going to jewelry making tomorrow with Gabriella or are you coming home first."

I froze. "I dunno. I'll text you tomorrow morning when I know."

"Ok sounds good."

"See you tomorrow Princess!"

"See you tomorrow Mom"

She hung up. I exhaled.

I collapsed onto one of Scott's bean bags.

"You good bro?" he asked, squatting down next to me.

"Yeah she bought it." I said. "But that was nuts."

Hannah walked over to us. "You two need to explain some stuff to me." she said. So I explained it to Hannah. I explained everything.

"So YOU were that girl I let in?" she asked, stunned.

"Yeah." I said.

She giggled. "So that's your bra on the floor, Tyler?"

"Yeah" I repeated.

"I did take it off though" Scott said, laughing when his sister gave him a weird look.

"WHAT?" she said, ignoring Scott as it all sunk in. "You really looked like a girl. I've known you for almost your whole life and I didn't recognize you."

"I know." I said glumly. "I've been told I'm very pretty."

"Its true!" she said smiling. "And your Mom is making you do this? At all times?"

"Yeah."

"So basically your sleeping over here to avoid your own house?"

"Yeah"

"Jeez" she said. "Thats crazy. So after today you're going to go back to being a girl."

I sighed. "Yup. I have to put my hair extensions back in, put my makeup back on and go to jewelry making class tomorrow."

"Wow!" she said, still stunned. "I never would have imagined this. Do Mom and Dad know?" she asked Scott.

Scott shook his head. "And don't tell them. Seriously. Don't do that to Ty. That would be such a bitch move."

Hannah laughed. "I'm not going to, relax. Your girly little secret is safe with me." she smiled."Do you go to school like that?"

"Yeah."

"Hey Hannah, why don't you stop grilling Tyler about his double life as a girl and give me some time with my best friend. If you want to talk to that new girl Tiffany, maybe she can come over some time and answer your questions about her life style." Scott said suddenly.

Hannah looked a little surprised but didn't protest as she backed out of Scott's room.

"Thanks man" I said turning to him thankfully after Hannah left. "I swear I thought Mom knew."

"Well relax bro." he said rubbing my shoulders before jumping into the other bean bag. "Let's have some fun."

We got back to playing Madden and eating junk food before we finally went to sleep, our eyes tired from staring at the screen for so long, around 2am. It was a great night.

The next morning I woke up, still happy from the night before. Scott's Mom made us breakfast and life was good again, for now, but when I was finishing up his Mom came back in looking concerned.

"Tyler, your Mom wants you to go home right now. I called her to ask what time she wanted you back home and she asked if you'd come home right now." she said a grave look on her face. "She wouldn't tell me what but it sounded like something might be wrong."

My heart stopped. I froze. My eyes opened wide.

"Ok," I said in fake casual voice. "I'll get my stuff and go."

I headed upstairs as Scott followed me up.

"Dude, what the fuck am I going to do?" I said panicking. "She knows! She knows I came here! She's gonna kill me. She's literally gonna kill me!."

"She's not going to kill you" he said in a calm voice but even he looked a little worried.

"She is literally." I said as we reentered my "going to chop my dick off. She's going to chop it off." I was pacing around his room now.

"Dude, just calm down!" he said putting his hands on my shoulders, keeping me from my pacing. "Let's think about this. What can we do?"

It was nice of him to say "we," I thought fleetingly before remembering my situation.

"I, I need to run away." I said. "I can't go back home. She'll kill me."

"No." Scott said shaking your head. "You can't run away. You have no money or no anything. Dude, that makes no sense."

"You're right." I said.

"I really think you should just go back home." He offered.

"No, no. I cant do that. Dude! She'd literally cut off my dick! I need to hide. I'll go to like a movie or something, and then I'll come back here. And I'll just low key live with you." I suggested.

"Live with me?"

"Yeah, in here" I said. "It'd be fine. I'd wear your clothes till I get some money to buy my own."

"Where would you sleep?"

"I dont know, a bean bag, the floor."

"I don't want to make you sleep on the floor. I really think you should just go back."

"Dude! I can't" I repeated. "DICK! CUT! OFF! She's angry now." I looked around. "You have a big bed! We could share a bed! That wouldn't be so bad!"

"You know I love you dude." he said smiling "but I think I'd rather wait until she cuts your dick off before we start sharing a bed."

"Uchhh!" I huffed in frustration.

"Look Ty." He said grabbing my shoulders and looking me in the eye. "I'd never steer you wrong. You know that. You're my best friend in the world. I'm telling you, you should just go back. You can go back like this and just apologize. You can put your leggings and stuff back on and go back and say you just stopped off at my house to say hi on the way home from your sleepover. But if you don't go back home now its going to get worse, because you have to go back home eventually."

I knew he was right.

"Ok." I said taking a deep breath. "Why don't I try saying I just stopped by to say hi."

"Ok," he said. "You need to get changed then. You want me to leave?"

"No!" I said. "I'm not a real girl. You can be in the room while I change. You saw me change yesterday."

"Ok, ok. I was just asking." He pulled my bag out from under my bed and unzipped it. He tossed me my panties, leggings, Victoria Secret shirt, and breast forms.

"Did you bring an extra bra?" he asked.

"Guess not" I said, picking up the one i wore yesterday. Scott helped me put it on and again for some strange reason I couldn't help but kind of enjoy it.

"My hair!" I remembered as I stepped into my leggings and started to put the shirt over my head. "Hannah! Can you get Hannah and see if she can help me with it?"

Scott dashed out and returned a few minutes later with Hannah.

"Wow! You look pretty!" Hannah said slightly snarkily.

"I need you to help me put my hair extensions back in while I fix my makeup." I said desperately.

"Ok, I'll try but I'm not sure if-"

"Just try!" I begged her.

We all moved into Scotts bathroom where I put my face on while Hannah slowly reattached my hair. I finished first. When she was done it didn't look as good as it did before but it at least looked presentable.

"That'll have to be good enough." she said. "Bye Tyler! I'm sorry, I mean Tiffany! Good luck!"

I grabbed my bag and Scott rushed me down the stairs and out the door without his parents in the kitchen noticing. He walked me the 50 yards to my house. When we reached my house he stopped and turned and looked at me.

"Ok, dude" he said, his voice calm. He put his hands on my shoulders again and looked at me "Just go in there and apologize or say whatever she wants. Don't make it worse for yourself. You're gonna get through this."

He gave me a hug. Not a bro hug. A hug hug. He smiled as he let go.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Its just..." he paused as if he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to say it, "hugging you just now felt like hugging a girl. You know. In the chest area"

I laughed.

"Ok good luck dude."

I walked into my house. Mom was waiting for me in the living room. I knew she heard me but she didn't say anything until I tried to pass through the room without saying anything.

"Stay!" she said. "Come here!"

I walked over toward her.

"You lied to me!" she said angrily. "You lied to be! I was trying to be nice and you lied to me! You went to Scott's house! You slept over at Scotts!"

"I just.."

"How dare you lie to me like that! You haven't learned anything you little bitch!" My Mom had never talked to me like that. She was silent for a second. "January." She said finally.

"What?"

"January." she repeated. "You're going to be a girl until January. And I'm going to start checking to make sure you follow every single last one of the rules. Yeah. I've been letting a bunch of shit slide! Not anymore Missy! You are going to be a perfect little daughter!"

"January?!" I cried. It was only October. "That's like 3 months!"

"Complain and I will make it more!" she said. "Now go upstairs till I've calmed down so I can fix you're hair. You're not going to jewelry making today. I need to fix your hair so you'll look decent for dinner and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Mary's.

I had forgotten we were having dinner and my Aunt and Uncles. Just what I needed right now. My cousins Carter and Gabe to make fun of me for being girly while my Mom is laser focused on making sure I'm her "perfect little daughter." They had already made a bunch of jokes when I went to Abigails party. And not friendly jokes like Scott or some of my other friends. Mean jokes.

"You're a raging bitch!" I screamed at my Mom as I felt anger pulse through me. "I hope you die in your sleep tonight!"

She looked up at me with a hurt look on her face. "And that's another month." she said.

I started for my room.

"I thought we were having a breakthrough. I thought we were making progress. I thought you were starting to get the hang out it. The video. The cooking. You doing your own make up." she sighed. "I thought you were doing a good job adjusting. I thought you were even enjoying it. I thought you were being mature."

Suddenly I felt a little bad.

"I was. I made that video. And I cooked that meal by myself. And I did my own make up all those days. I was being mature." I said reminding myself how annoyed I was at her for this whole situation. "But you can't keep making me do this! I did all that stuff and only got a few days off!"

"Well you could have sucked it up like a big b...girl, put on your big girl panties, and dealt with it for another week or so. But instead, you lied to me. And I've always told you, just be honest and if you can't..."

Mom stopped talking as I started walking away. I couldn't take her anymore.

"Hey Tiffany!" I turned back. "While your waiting for me" my Mom said, "Why don't you shave your legs again. Just to make sure their nice and pretty for tonight. Can't have your legs being all gross and hairy tonight."

I walked upstairs, slammed my door and started crying. I texted Scott.

moms making me stay a girl till fucking march

Angry, I threw my phone at my mass of Justin Bieber pillows. It missed and hit a stuffed animal on a shelf in the corner before landing on top of a pile of my dirty panties.

I took off all my clothes and walked into the bathroom and ran a bath. I put my hair up so it wouldn't get wet and, still crying, I grabbed my razor when found a small circular thing labeled bath bomb. Curious, I decided to give it a try. I got in the tub once the tub was full I dropped it in. The water started fizzing and turning pink. It also started smelling like cotton candy. It felt amazing. I just sat it the warm fizzing pink tub crying my eyes out for some 10 minutes before remembering I needed to shave my legs. I spread some shaving cream on my legs and started shaving. I didn't desperately need to shave but there were enough small hairs on my leg that the pink bathwater was soon full of small dark leg hairs. Still crying I moved onto my right leg when all of a sudden the door that used to lead to my room opened. As I realized that I forgot to lock both bathroom doors, my sister walked in, ear buds in here ears humming.

"OOOOOHHHHhhhhh!" she screamed when she saw me sobbing and shaving in the tub. She back peddled.

"Oh my god Tiffany, I'm so sorry! I didn't know! You didn't lock... I'm so sorry! Are you" she paused now noticing the tears. "Are you crying?"

I nodded sadly.

"What, what happened?" she asked. "You can tell me after your bath if you want. I dont want to interrupted your personal time."

I realized that she wouldn't actually see me naked in the pink water the way she would have in a normal bath.

"I dont care." I said glumly.

"Ok then." Jillian sat on the toilet seat. "What's going on, sis?"

I told her everything, about my plan, about Hannah, about Mom finding out. She sat there nodding as I cried my way through my last 12 hours and finished shaving. When I finally finished she spoke.

"You've had a tough day haven't you, sis?"

I nodded. "You probably think I'm pathetic."

She shook her head.

"Really?" I asked her. "You find me crying in the tub and thats not pathetic?"

"You're not pathetic." she said calmly. "You're just a teenage girl."

"Mom is going to get over you lying to her eventually." she continued. "You just have to stop fighting it. Just embrace being a girl. Like I embraced being a boy. If you throw yourself into it, Mom will be happy, and I think you'll even be happy or happier. I've already seen you be a pretty great girl like in the YouTube video. You just have to relax a little."

I didn't know what to say to that.

"I have an idea." she said, suddenly, checking her phone. "Its about 4:00. We don't have to be at dinner until 6:30. Why don't you finish up your bath and then let me help you relax? That way your nice and relaxed for dinner."

"I'm already done." I said wiping my face. "What do you mean though? Help me relax how?"

"Just trust me!" she said smiling, "Just let me grab a few things."

"Wait, before you go!" I called. "Could you grab my robe from my room?"

She walked out the other door to the bathroom, the one into my room and brought me my pink fuzzy robe and left it on the bath mat.

"Your room," she said. "is disgusting. Your dirty clothes are everywhere. You have your bras and panties literally covering the floor. How can you live like that?"

I shrugged.

She opened the cabinet under the sink and while her head was under the sink, I stood up and quickly put on my robe. She looked at me, apparently surprised that I got out of the tub while she was still in the bathroom.

"What?" I said pulling the robe shut. "You didn't see anything."

"Nothing." she said smiling innocently. "Look at you in your pink robe. You're legs look fantastic by the way."

"Thanks." I said.

What she had taken out from under the sink was a foot bath and a small purple container.

"I'll be right back," she said and she returned a minute later with a cucumber. She ran into my room for a second and returned with something clenched in her hand.

"Now," she said taking a deep breath. "Sit on top of the toilet seat and try to relax."

I did.

"This is called a mud mask" she said, and she started smearing stuff on my face, around my mouth and eyes until it covered my whole face.

"Now" she said softly. "Put your feet in the foot bath."

The foot bath was nice and warm. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the jets on my feet and all of a sudden she put something cool on my eyes.

"Whats this?" I asked.

"Cucumbers" she said airily. "Just go with it."

Because it all felt very good, I did.

"Give me your hand." she said softly.

I did and I felt her take my hand and put a little brush against my nail.

"Are you painting my nails?" I asked.

"Yes." she said, "But shut up, don't talk and enjoy yourself."

I did and it was incredible. I wasn't asleep but my entire body just kind of rested.

"Alright sis, feeling anymore relaxed?" Jillian asked who knows how many minutes later.

"Yeah!" I said. "I actually do! That was amazing."

Jillian smiled. "Glad I could help. Now go get pretty for tonight! I already did your nails for you! Now I need to shower. I'm all gross from soccer practice."

I usually wouldn't have loved being told to "go get pretty" but for some reason right now I was ok with it. I went in my room and the moment I sat down at my vanity to get pretty when my mom walked in.

"Are you ready for me to fix your hair?" she asked.

"Yes, Mom." I said politely.

She spent about half an hour adjusting my hair so it looked "as pretty as it did before you tried to ruin it."

In that time Jillian took a shower and got dressed. She poked her head into my room.

"I'm ready to go Mom." she said. She was wearing a black button down shirt with black jeans and her hair was spiked up. She looked undeniably cool and not at all like a girl.

"Fantastic Johnny." Mom said looking at her happily. "You can sit tight. You're sister still needs to get ready."

About 5 minutes later she declared herself done with my hair and told me to do my own makeup and reminded me that she expected me to wear a dress and "one of your fancier ones." I started my makeup carefully applying foundation, blush, eyeliner, mascara and finishing it off with a dark red lipstick.

I then walked into my closet and found a dress of my sisters that would surely make my mom smile. It was a sleeveless high wasted party dress. I thought about what my sister said and I tried it on. It fit perfectly falling at about my mid thigh. The skirt part was very flouncy and elegant. For a reason I can't describe, I even did a twirl. I walked downstairs and when she saw me my mom did smile.

"You look very pretty." she told me. "You should wear heels with that." She turned to Jillian. "Show her those black 3 inch heels."

I'd never worn heels. I followed Jillian upstairs who pointed the shows out to me. I slipped them on and she fastened them. While I felt kinda pretty I was uncomfortable and grimaced, knowing that I would be in for a long night.

"Yeah." Jillian said grinning at my expression. “That's life heels for you."

"Um Jill," I asked kind of tentatively "What jewelry would go well with this dress?"

She smiled. "Awwww, Tyyyyyy. You wanna be all pretty for tonight?"

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up. Forget it."

"No its fine" she insisted. "I've got great stuff for you." She walked over to one of her drawers. "I still have some old clip on earrings from when I was little." I felt my sister clip a pair of slightly dangly earrings onto my ears. "Tyyyyyy, you look so pretty!"

I looked at myself. I did look kind of pretty.

"I might have a bracelet for you too!" she said looking around the drawer and pulling out a small shiny bracelet. "I'm not sure if it will fit." She put it around my wrist. "Perfect! Its a good thing you have such dainty, girl, wrists!" she told me.

I started to protest but seeing as my wrist did look rather girly with the bracelet I just rolled my eyes and slowly followed her out of the room in my heels.

I struggled to walk down the hall so Jillian helped me down the stairs. Mom smiled when she saw that.

"Awww. Look at my children. My handsome son helping my beautiful daughter down the stairs!" she took a few pictures as we continued down.

The car ride was rather quiet. The strange relaxation I had gotten from Jillian's little spa treatment was wearing off, as was the strange happy feeling I feeling I felt when first putting on the dress as it dawned on me who was about to see me in the dress.

"We're here a bit early" Mom said as she pulled into their drive way. "So we probably won't eat right away. Please be good tonight." She looked at me. "And make sure you spend some girl time with Abigail. She looks up to you as a positive female role model.”

“But Mom…”

“Not buts young lady. I expect you to engage with Abigail. Make sure she has fun. I don’t even think it would be fun for you to just hang out with the boys and it certainly wouldn’t be any fun for her."

My heart started to pound again. Girl time with Abigail? That sounded terrible. Not only would I have to deal with Carter and Gabe's taunts I'd have to spend 1 on 1 time with their 8 year old sister?

"Embrace it." Jillian whispered and I took a deep breath and said ok.

Jillian helped me out of the car and across their gravely drive way. Mom rang the doorbell and Aunt Mary answered it.

"Hi!" she said happily. "Come in!"

Her and Mom hugged and kissed on the cheek.

"Tiffany!" she said grabbing me and pulling me into a tight hug. "So good to see you again! Abigail is so excited! And look at you! You look stunning! What a dazzling dress! And Jonathan!" she pulled Jillian into a hug. "Look at you! So handsome!"

He pushed our way through the entry way into the kitchen where my Uncle Jeff and cousins Carter, Gabe and Abigail were waiting.

I shared an awkward hug with my uncle Jeff before greeting my cousins.

"Hi Tiffany!" Abigail said with energy giving me a big hug around my bare legs while Carter greeted Jillian with a friendly "hey dude" and a bro hug.

“Awwww." I said awkwardly trying to share a look with Gabe, who was 14, only a year older than me, and I'd always had a good relationship with, but he was grinning.

"Hey Tiffany" he said trying hard to hold back a laugh and giving me an awkward hug once Abigail finally let go.

"How's it going Tiffany" Carter said, giving me a similarly awkward hug, as Gabe moved along to greet Jillian.

"Good" I lied. "I'm good."

Clearly everyone had gotten to memo about treating me like a girl and Jillian like a boy and they were following it to a tee.

"So we still have a little time till dinner" Aunt Mary said, "So why don't you kids go have some fun in the family room."

The family room was the room in their house that has a wall full of board games as well as pool, ping pong, and other fun things. It's where we always hung out at their house.

We followed Carter through the dining room into the family room. I sat down and immediately realized I had to cross my legs to avoid people seeing my panties. Immediately, Carter and Gabe burst out laughing. Even Jillian didn't manage to suppress a giggle.

"You really are a girl now, aren't you, Tyler" Gabe laughed.

"Its Tiffany now." His brother corrected him laughing. "SHE goes by Tiffany now."

"Guys, c'mon its still me." I try. Its hard to believe these are the same kids I grew up swimming with in their pool and playing football on thanksgiving with, though I imagine their probably thinking the same thing about me.

"She's even got tits now." Gabe said nudging his brother.

Jillian was laughing too now. Abigail, not really able to follow the conversation was laughing too.

"Look at that" Carter said pointing at my legs. "Have you shaved your legs Tiffany?"

"Yeah but..."

Jillian suddenly peeled into wild laughter.

"I walked in on her shaving her legs in the tub this afternoon!" she giggled. “She flipped out."

“No, thats not...” I said but Carter and Gabe had already broke into laughter and there was no stopping them.

I gave Jillian a nasty look. How could she do that to me?

“Oh lighten up Sis!” she said. “We all need to be able to laugh at ourselves.”

“Wait.” Gabe said through tears of laughter. “You call him, I mean, her, sis?”

“Yeah, all the time." Jillian said with a smile.

The boys howled in laughter again.

"She's even wearing earrings!" Gabe laughed.

"More than that!" Carter laughed. "I think I can see her panty lines through her dress."

“Why’d you wear such a fancy dress anyway?” Gabe asked once he’d finally caught his breath after laughing at my panty lines.

“I think its pretty!” Abigail said happily.

“Don’t hate cuz she wants to look pretty!” Carter said. “Lots of girls like getting themselves all dressed up. My girlfriend loves getting all dressed up for no reason.” His eyes lit up. “Hey! My girlfriend just moved here and she’s still kind of figuring things out. Would you mind hanging out with her sometime and showing her around?” He asked.

“Um I’m not sure if..” I started but Carter cut me off.

“Oh c’mon. It’d be fun. You guys could go to the mall. Buy yourself more pretty dresses. You girls would definitely be friends.”

“C’mon Tiff.” Jillian said. “At least meet up with her once.”

“You guys have a ton in common.” Carter said. “Actually, why I don’t I face time her, you guys can talk, set up plans!”

Before I knew it his phone was out.

“Hey babe, so my cousin, Tiffany, she said she’s willing to show you around a little, if you still want that, I’m not sure when but why don’t I hand you over to her and you ladies can hammer out the details on your own.”

So with that I went into the room talking to my cousin Carter’s girlfriend.

"Tyler’s even wearing high heels!” I heard Gabe say as I left the room.

Eva was a total airhead it turns out. And she rambled on forever. After about a minute I just started tuning her out.

“I wanna find places that sell like revealing, sexy clothes. Not slutty but edgy. But not black and dark edgy like stylish edgy. Like I wanna get stuff that boys might say is slutty, but girls wouldn’t say is slutty.” she said at one point.

After listening to her talk for 15 minutes, I decided to tell her I had to go.

“Ok. Well, Carter will give you my number and I’ll text you. I really feel a strong connection with you."

I groaned as I went back into the family room. They had started playing 2 on 2, ping pong, Gabe and Jillian vs Carter and Abigail.

“Oh, can I play?” I asked, happy to see them doing something that I was good at and didn’t involve much talking.

“You can now” Gabe said as he smashed a shot past Carter. “Game!”

“How bout you vs me Tiff?” Jillian suggested.

“Ooooohhh brother vs sister!” Gabe said smiling. “I like it!”

I knew I was way better than Jillian at ping pong so I accepted but as soon as we started the rally for serve I realized it would be a lot harder to play in my heels. I wanted to take them off but I knew if I did I’d have to deal with a whole round of jokes about me taking my heels off, so instead I teetered around in my heels as Carter and Gabe laughed and lost 21-4.

“Boys win!” Gabe cheered.

"Maybe you shouldn’t play in your heels?” Jillian suggested.

“Yeah thats probably for the best.” Gabe said grabbing the paddle from me. “Me vs my brother now” He smirked at me and patted me on the hip. “You can be a cheerleader.” he said. “You and Abigail. Your probably better suited to that anyway.”

“I have pom poms” Abigail said excitedly and she ran upstairs to get them.

A minute later I was holding two pink pom poms (Abigail had given me pink because I was the guest) and following Abigails lead in cheers for her brothers in between points. Abigail had set cheers that she did for her brothers and I realized that Abigail cheering on her brothers while playing ping pong was clearly a regular thing. When Carter won a point we’d stick our pom poms above our head and chant (Abigail with enthusiasm, me with literally none) “CAR-TER, CAR-TER, CAR-TER” and when Gabe one a point we’d twirl our pom poms in from of us and cheer “Gooooooooooo Gabe” raising one pom pom in the air on the word Gabe. I hated every second but Abigail seemed to be enjoying it. Why was I even doing this? I kept thinking. The only answer I could think of was it seemed like it would be worse not to.

When the score was 19-16 my mom came in to tell us dinner was ready.

“One sec” Gabe said. “This games almost over and my mom stopped and watched as Carter shot a forehand past Gabe and saw me reluctantly and Abigail excitedly cheer “CAR-TER, CAR-TER!” and she whooped with glee.

“Mary! Come in here!” she called to my aunt in the other room. I looked over at her and noticed her phone out, ready to take a video. I took a deep breath and when Carter won the next point I tried to show Mom that I was trying to be a positive female role model.

"CAR-TER, CAR-TER!” I cheered.

Gabe put his next serve past Carter.

“Gooooooo Gabe!” I said waving my pom poms like an idiot along with Abigail as my Mom and Aunt took pictures.

"Oh Betsy! Look at our girls!" aunt Mary said proudly looking at Mom.

Gabe won the match on the next point, slicing a drop shot that Carter couldn’t get too.

“Gooooooooo Gabe!” me and Abigail cheered.

“Thank you, ladies!” Gabe said, blowing me and Abigail each a kiss, and giving me a pat on the butt as we headed toward the dining room.

“Alright” Aunt Mary said. “Let’s eat!”

Thankfully I didn’t have to talk much at dinner apart from when Aunt Mary asked me about the Twilight books and then Carter asked a series of obnoxious questions about them.

“Who'd you, rather Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner.” he asked me after about 5 minutes of equally stupid questions.

“Taylor Lautner” I said flatly.

“Enough with the Twilight questions." uncle Jeff said.

"So" aunt Mary said changing the subject. "You never told me about your date."

Who was she talking to? I wondered. Carter? Did Carter tell his Mom about his dates?

"Oh it was very nice" my Mom said. "I really like him a lot. I'm seeing him again actually Tuesday night."

"Wait, what?" I said and Jillian nudged me in the side.

"Where did you think she was last night?" she whispered.

"Oh right" Mom said smiling at me. "You were at your friends house. Robert called me and asked if I wanted to have dinner. You know Robert, Johnny's friend Adam's dad?"

I nodded, stunned. Of course I knew Adam's dad. I knew Adam before Jillian did.

"Well he's also a single parent and I've been talking to him a little because the boys play soccer together and he called asked me out last night. It was very last minute but a lot of fun."

I was shocked. I couldn't remember Mom ever dating since dad died and now she was and she didn't even tell me. I mean we had a busy day but she still could have told me.

After dinner all eight of us went to the family room and played charades, which was fun enough (even if it was girls vs boys meaning me, Abigail, Mom and aunt Mary vs Jillian, Carter, Gabe and uncle Jeff).

“Its time Dad.” Carter said in the middle of the game.

Uncle Jeff smiled. “If its alright with you ladies, me and the boys are going to go watch Sunday Night Football. We concede. Girls win!”

Mom, aunt Mary and Abigail cheered.

“You’re welcome to come of course Jonathan.” he added.

All of a sudden I felt a pulling on the hem of my dress.

“You want to play princesses now?” Abigail asked adorably.

I looked at Mom and she gave me a took that said clearly “yes you do” and I followed Abigail up to her room, which was basically a giants shrine to disney princesses, where she showed me her giants box of princess costumes. She had the dress of every princess as well as countless pieces of fake jewelry and crowns.

“I’m Cinderella. Who do you want to be?” she asked me, her eyes wide.

“I, I have to put on one of those?” I asked her.

“Pleaseee” she said, her big eyes staring at me.

“I’m not sure they’ll fit me.”

“They can! Gabe wore one once!”

I laughed at the thought. I picked up the first one I touched.

“Which one is this?” I asked.

“Rapunzel!” she answered excitedly. “Now you change in the bathroom, I change in my room.

“You want me to take off my dress?” I asked. “Can’t I just wear it over my clothes?”

“It’s better like this.” She begged.

I went into the bathroom, unzipped my dress and hung it carefully on a hook.

I stepped into the princess costume and somehow squeezed myself in. I looked at myself in the mirror. It was pink and purple with flowing sleeves and a flouncy skirt. No body is going to see but Abigail, I reminded myself.

I walked out and found Abigail already in her dress.

“Hi Rapunzel! Are you going to the ball?” she asked.

“No, I don’t have a date.” I said, not sure how to respond.

“Where's your prince?” she asked.

“He’s sick!” I said.

“Thats ok!” she said. “Why don’t you come with me and my prince!”

I spent the next half hour dancing around with Abigail, talking to her dolls and stuffed animals, and finally, kissing "my prince" in the form of a Peeta from the Hunger Games barbie doll.

“Now lets have a tea party!” she suggested. Fortunately only a few minutes into the tea party my Mom came up stairs to tell me that we were leaving. Unfortunately, when she saw me in the princess dress sitting at a tea party holding a doll and she snapped a bunch more pictures of me with Abigail.

I quickly went back to the bathroom to take it off but I couldn’t. I struggled with it a bit but finally realized I was going to need help getting out of it. I walked downstairs and found Mom, already by the door ready to go with Jillian, ready to go. Mom smiled when she saw me still in the princess dress while Gabe burst out laughing.

"Why haven't you changed yet?" she asked me smiling. "If you really like it so much, I can buy you your own princess dress." She said to me prompting more laughter from Gabe.

Embarrassed I whispered my situation into her ear. She came into the bathroom with me and tried but had no luck. We tried unzipping it. We tried lifting it over my head. Nothing worked.

“I’m going to see if Mary has any ideas.” she said.

By the time she told aunt Mary, everyone else had figured out that something was up because we had said we were going to leave 10 minutes ago and not only had we not left but I was still wearing a princess dress.

“Maybe we should just cut it off her?” Aunt Mary suggested. “Although that would break Abigail’s heart.”

“Are their any other options?” Mom asked.

“Not that I can think of” Aunt Mary responded. “But I really don’t want Abigail to see us cut up one of her favorite dresses.”

“So your stuck in that dress?” Carter asked smirking.

“Yeah” I said trying not to react.

“You make a good princess.” he said looking me up and down. "More believable as a princess than a football player."

At this point Mom and Aunt Mary came up to me.

“So here’s what we decided.” Mom said. “You are going to wear the dress home so Abigail doesn’t have to see her dress get cut. We are going to cut it off at home, and then I’m going to try to fix it for her!”

Everyone seemed very happy with that solution although I was not at all happy with the idea of wearing this dress out even if it was just for a car ride.

“So should I go get my dress?” I asked.

“Yeah." she said. “Just carry it home.”

We said our goodbyes meaning I had to hug everyone dressed as a Princess and when Abigail said goodbye to me she said in a small voice “Tiffany, I want you to keep my Rapunzel dress.” Everyone in unison went “awwwww.”

“My mommy said” he continued “that when you were a little girl, you never got to have a princess dress, so I wanna give you that one.”

I sighed and bent down to Abigail and gave her a hug. Abigail was a really sweet little kid and I was already completely humiliated, so I might as well humiliate myself even more for her.

“Thank you Abigail.” I said. “I’ll think of you every time I play with it."

The car ride back home was mostly Mom and Jillian telling me how sweet me and Abigail were together mixed in with the occasional tease from Jillian about my princess dress.

“I just think its so cute that you chose pink one!” she said.

When we got back home Mom stopped parked and turned back to look at us. "I know its been a crazy day but you both did very well at that dinner and because you both did so well I'm taking off a day for both of you. So Jillian you only have four more days of being a boy and Tyler you have 128 more days of being a girl."

Glumly I got out of the car and walked upstairs before Mom could cut the princess dress of me and fell on the bed.

My phone buzzed. Mom had tagged me in four pictures. Dreading what I was going to see I looked anyway.

The first was an image of me and Abigail holding pom poms. Abigail is looking up at me with a delighted look in her eye. The caption read “My niece adores my daughter."

The second was a picture of me and Abigail, pom poms, cheering as Gabe played ping pong with the caption “My nephew has his own personal cheerleaders!”

The third was a picture of me and Abigail in the princess dresses having the “tea party” with the caption “Exclusive tea party: Princesses Only.”

The last picture was the picture she had taken of Jillian helping me down the stairs in my heels. This one had been captioned “My beautiful daughter Tiffany and my handsome son Jonathan.” Not only had she tagged me in all these picture but she had made this last one her profile picture. So everyone she knew would see it. Everyone.

I untagged myself in the pictures only to get a notification a minute later letting me know that I had once again been tagged in four pictures by my mom.

I slammed my head into my mountain of Justin Bieber pillows and screamed into my bed.

The next voice I heard was my Mom’s.

“Tiffany, sweety. Would you like me to cut you out of that dress? Oh Sorry! I'll let you sleep.” She had woken me up but I pretended to still be asleep. She walked over to my bed anyway and sat on the foot of it. “I’m proud of you she whispered to me. I’m really proud of how you handled Abigail." she whispered. "You're a good niece. You’re a good cousin. You’re a good daughter. G'night Princess!”

And she left, leaving me somehow annoyed yet happy but mostly confused. Confused and very, very tired.

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