Dad starting the car woke me up and the sunlight streaming into the room ensured that sleep would not be returning. I glanced at the clock, urgh, half seven! I decided to go for a ride before the day warmed up too much and I didn’t think the neighbours would appreciate me starting on the lawn at this hour either.

I was at least in a better mood this morning and I was quickly into a pleasant mile-eating mode. Perhaps it’s the weather but even the motorists are being more considerate this morning! It was just before nine when I got home, plenty early enough to shower, breakfast and cut the grass – not necessarily in that order.
 

“What are you up to today?” Jules enquired joining me at the breakfast bar.

“Cutting the grass this morning then going over to Rhod’s this afternoon” I told her

“You’re not in for tea then?”

“Nah. I’m staying over at Mad’s, we’re leaving for this costume thing pretty early”

“Oh yeah. I’d forgotten you were away this weekend”

“That’s what I wanted the boots for remember?”

“So that’s what you wanted them for. I did wonder”

I rolled my eyes in exasperation.

“You doing anything much?” I enquired

“I think a bunch of us are going into Worksop. Can you change your bed clothes before you leave, I’ll do a big wash tomorrow”

“Yes mum” I mocked, then had to dodge Jules swipe.

This developed rapidly into several minutes of my sister chasing me around the house to exact her ‘revenge’.

“I give up” I panted

“Right get that bed stripped” she ordered.
 

I was still working on the lawn when Jules left to meet here friends at eleven thirty; this grass cutting was taking a lot longer than I thought it would! Still the day was pleasantly warm and I was enjoying the smell of the new mown grass, it made the day seem really, I dunno, fresh. I eventually finished the green swathe and set to cleaning the Flymo up before putting it away.
 

My delayed shower was all the better as I washed a combination of grass cuttings and sweat from my scalp. I decided that my legs could do with a quick seeing to but looking at the clock I was now running decidedly late, the legs would have to wait. I dressed in shorts and a t, grabbed my phone charger and rucksack and after locking up, left for the Peters place.

On one level I was really looking forward to this weekend, three whole days away, with my ‘girlfriend’. Then there was the down side – three days of dressing up in stupid costumes and worse, girl costumes! I mused about all this as I walked over and realised it didn’t bother me as much as I thought. What bothered me more was stuff like yesterday, the reactions of that Danny kid and Jess? Why did one think I was a girl and the other not? I suppose those two girls might have sicced Danny on to me, a boy wearing white girls skates. And I guess Jess saw the skates and saw what she wanted to see; the guys didn’t help naming me Gaby to her.

“Hello! Anyone in?” Mad’s voice broke my daydreaming.

“Oh hi Mad”

“I came looking for you, you said twelve and it’s gone one now” she mentioned

“Sorry, the grass took longer than I thought”

“Come on, let’s get back to my place, Mum said she’d drop us off at Sylv’s”

“Okay” I hadn’t noticed that we were still a couple of streets away from the Peters residence.

Aunt C dropped us outside the salon, promising to pick us up about five.

We went into Sylv’s where the woman herself was at work on someone’s hair.

“Hi you two, the others are already in back, go on through”

“Thanks” Mad answered

I always feel a bit uncomfortable in the salon although I’ve been in there hundreds of times. We joined the rest of our gang in the lounge where there was an all out PS2 battle going down.

“Hi guys, who’s winning?” I greeted them

“Well it’s not me” Rhod bemoaned
 

Despite the pleasant day outside, everyone seemed content to be inside. Ally went to help out in the salon after a while leaving us to Bernie’s tender mercies. I’d just been trounced for the second time and was idly inspecting my legs when Sylv came through.

“Anything interesting Drew?”

My head snapped up.

“Anything interesting on there kiddo?” Sylv enquired

“Er no, I was just checking for spots” I coloured up as I admitted what I was doing.

“Looks like they need doing” everyone I know knows I shave my legs for my cycling.

“I didn’t have time when I showered” I told her

“You’ll need to do them later Drew” Mad advised, “you can’t have hairy legs this weekend”

“What’s this weekend?” Sylv asked

“Me and Drew are going to Obicon with my parents”

“What’s Obicon?” Rhod’s Mum pursued

“A sort of costuming convention” I supplied

“Yeah and Drew is gonna be wearing skirts all weekend” Mad went on oblivious to the shade of crimson my face was assuming.

Sylv looked thoughtful for a moment.

“Come with me young man” she instructed

“Where?” I said automatically getting up.

“The salon silly, come on”

I shrugged and followed her out into the shop.

“Let’s do those legs for you,” she stated motioning me into the small curtained area she used for privacy.

“Well if I can borrow a razor” I started

“Don’t be daft, I’ve got a gap in appointments, I’ll give you a wax. Now pop those shorts off and lie on the table”

I remembered last time, I had fallen asleep!

“Well okay I s’pose”

I should have run screaming, instead being conscious this time I just screamed as each strip ripped the hair from my legs. I was in so much shock I didn’t realise she was spreading the gunk up my arms too. After the first strip I didn’t have much choice but to let her finish, I mean I’d look totally stupid with just one hairless strip on one arm wouldn’t I?

“There you go Drew, all nice and hairless”

“Remind me never to volunteer for a wax job” I mentioned as I pulled my shorts back up my now smooth legs, I shuddered at the delicious feel.

“What was all that screaming about?” Rhod asked when I returned to the PS slaughterhouse.

“Your Mum decided to wax my legs for me”

“Oh cool!” Mad exclaimed

“And my arms” I advised

“You let her do that?” Bernie queried

“Let is a very relative term” I stated

“Yeah, give Mum an inch and she takes a mile” Rhod agreed

“Well I wouldn’t want to agree for her to do anything” Mad mentioned

Ally rejoined us, followed in short order by Sylv. We all trooped out into the back yard for tea, which was a salad that Rhod and Ally had prepared earlier, when did Rhod start with the food bit? What with my ‘beauty’ treatment, the afternoon had flown by and we had barely finished eating when Mrs P arrived. Mad and I bade our farewells and departed the tea party.
 

“Drew? You know how you’ll be dressing as a girl most of the weekend?” Mad started

“Yes and whatever it is no!” I stated

“You haven’t heard yet” she pouted

“Alright, what?”

“Well would you mind pretending to be a girl as well?” she asked with that slightly pleading inflection.

“I s’pose not” I allowed

“Great!” Mad enthused, “erm I don’t suppose you’d let me stick your breast forms on”

“Aren’t your boobs big enough” I tried to deflect where she was going with this.

“Not on me silly, on you”

“What about travelling there?” that’ll catch her out

“What about it?”

“Well they are sort of obvious, especially on a boy. Like me” I suggested

“Dur, you’ll travel dressed of course!” she threw at me

Of course I knew that was what she was hinting at all along.

“Please Drew, it would be so much easier too if you’re a ‘girl’ all weekend” she begged

Annoyingly I could actually see her logic; it would be less embarrassing if I was a girl wearing these costumes, and it’s not as though I hadn’t done it before.

“I said I wasn’t doing that stuff again, remember?”

“I know but please Drew, pretty please” she fluttered her eyelashes and looked coyly at me.

“If I do it, it’s positively the last time” I asserted

“You’ll do it?”

“Okay I’ll do it” I agreed

“Brill!” she enthused, grabbing me in a bear hug.

“Give over”

“Sorry Drew”

“If I’m doing it lets get it sorted” I suggested

 

An hour later I was sat watching telly with my cousin, aunt and uncle wearing a denim miniskirt and a silky pink top with spaghetti straps, fashionably showing my bra straps. Deep joy! The unfamiliar feeling of the breast forms tugging at my chest disturbed me just enough to put me off the Blackadder repeat we were supposedly watching. So much for no more Gabrielle Peters! The elder Peters family members were totally unfazed when I joined them; I got the feeling they were expecting my appearance as Gaby.
 

Next morning we drove down to Dunstable where the ‘con’ is taking place, I was feeling more ‘Gaby’ like and with everyone referring to me as Gaby I was pretty relaxed. Instead of going straight to the con we drove up to Whipsnade Park, the country retreat for London Zoo. I’m not a great fan of Zoo’s but Whipsnade is a very open place, neither a full cage affair nor safari park, rather somewhere in between concentrating on breeding rare animals. Mad and I walked round arm in arm like girlfriends, well I guess that’s what we are! We had lunch there then took a circuitous route, well I think we got a bit lost actually, to the hotel hosting the con and where we are staying.

We registered for our rooms and I joined Mad in lumping our luggage up to the eighth floor! I had forgotten what we were supposed to wear by way of costumes today, I was not a happy bunny when I realised it was Sailor Moon day! Bum!
 

It was nearly three when we joined the now costumed Peters seniors to go and register for the con itself. Mrs P was wearing a long diaphanous white frock and pointy ears, I thought she was supposed to be from Lord of the Rings. Mad’s Dad made a pretty convincing LOTR wizard; the Peters never do anything by half measures! With Mad and I in our Sailor Moon outfits we joined the short queue for registration in the hotel reception area.

The girls doing the registration used a mini Polaroid camera to get a passport sized picture, which they laminated onto our con id cards. All weekend my id would show me wearing Mad’s long wig and a ‘cute’ hair bow. Yeagh! Once inside it was an eye opener for me as a con virgin. Mad had tried to explain the format to me but to be honest I hadn’t really been paying attention.

“Okay you two, meet your Dad and I here at six and we’ll go for dinner” Aunt C suggested

“Kewl!” Mad agreed, I was still bewildered looking around the main hall.

“Come on Gab” Mad pulled me along into the hall proper.

“Where’re we going?” I asked

“Lets have a look round the stalls first”
 

I was surprised and a bit embarrassed the first time someone stopped us for a picture. Mad gleefully posed and I imitated her position much to the delight of the David Bailey wannabe. What worried me most was that lots of people would have pictures of Gaby by the end of the weekend, if this was anything to go by.
 

“Does that happen a lot?” I asked my girlfriend

“Oh yeah, loads, “ she told me, “sometimes you get like loads of people taking pictures and sometimes you get pulled into group shots as well.”

“I wish you’d said before”

“I thought you realised, you’ve seen all the pictures on the net” Mad temporised

“You mean they could get on the internet too?”

“Course, I’d be surprised if someone hasn’t got pictures posted by next weekend” she advised me.

“Just what I need” I sighed

“There are spot prizes as well, so smile a lot” she advised

I was less than keen on this aspect of the weekend but it was a bit late to wimp out now. We strolled around the sales stands; you could get some really cool stuff and some pretty weird stuff too! Comics, posters and all that sort of show spin off stuff was on offer next to costume accessories, even full costumes. One guy had a little booth where he was taking professional portraits of costumers.

I was amazed at the range of costumes, just about everyone, including the stallholders, was in costume. I recognised some, others were a little more obscure, and the one thing that marked all of them was the enthusiasm and effort behind them. And everywhere people were taking photos!

“Hey, they’ve got Final Fantasy running in five minutes” Mad pointed out

“I need the toilet first” I mentioned

“Come on then, they’re over here” Mad led the way to one of the most bizarre sights I’ve ever seen.
 

We joined the queue (there is always a queue at any ladies lav!), where we waited with a variety of elves, super heroes and anime characters. One girl drew my attention, her hair was dyed bright orange and it was not a wig! I then recalled the picture of Mad with green hair from the last one of these things she attended.

“Hey Mad, you remember when you dyed your hair green?”

“Of course, that was so cool!” she enthused

“Well how come it wasn’t green afterwards, I mean Pinkie’s hair is taking an age to grow out.”

“Dur! I only used a temporary dye of course. You comb it in then it shampoos out.”

“Right!”

“You thought I really dyed it? Mum would have a fit!”

“I guess,” I admitted

“Tell you what, we’ll get some this weekend and you can try it”

“I don’t think so”

“Come on we can just get the start of the film.”
 

Indeed we did get back to the film room just as they started the tape. I like that film, you are often not sure if it’s real or animation, Mad gave me a prod when she saw my FF costume, it looked real nice on the screen, I’m not so sure about with me wearing it though!

We got back to the entrance just before six to find Mad’s parents waiting.

“Enjoy yourselves?” Aunt Carol asked

“Yeah, we’ve just been watching Final Fantasy” Mad told her

“Come on then girls, lets go eat” Mr P suggested.
 

We trooped through to the hotel restaurant where we joined several other conventioners who were already seated. I had almost gotten used to my brief costume but was reminded of it when the waiter seated us. We must have looked a strange sight, an elf, two Sailor girls and a wizard sat eating breadsticks.

“So what do you think Gaby?” Mrs P asked over the main course

“It’s certainly different” I allowed

“Tomorrow is a lot better, more people, more events and the competitions tomorrow night" Mr Peters mentioned

“Great” I tried to sound more enthusiastic than I felt
 

By the time we finished eating, the con had shut down for the night, me and Mad went back up to our room while the Peters senior joined a crowd of conventioners in the hotel bar.

Back in our room, (two single beds!), we stripped off our Sailor Moon outfits and replaced them with shortie pyjamas. We spent the rest of the evening watching MTV and stuffing our faces with chocolate and crisps! Mad insisted on painting all my nails with a pale pink varnish ‘ready for tomorrow night’. At least for most of Saturday I would be dressed a lot less showy; Mad on the other hand was going to be hard to miss!

We finally collapsed into bed about midnight after a smoochie goodnight kiss. How odd can you get – here I am wearing girls pj’s, with falsies sharing a room with my girlfriend who is more than happy to smooch me looking like this. Perhaps Mum’s suggestion holds some water; perhaps Mad does fancy girls! I can live with that as long as I’m the girl. Hang on what am I saying? I glanced over to where Mad was softly snoring in the gloom of our room. How many boys my age get to share a room with their girlfriend? Precisely none. With that thought I dropped off.
 

Maddy Bell 09.01.04