Chapter Six: Juliette's First Party

Annie totally played me, but I’m kind of glad she did. I had to ‘perform’ under the utmost pressure while pretending to be Juliette in front of her mom. Sure, I had my face concealed by a sheet mask, but I still had to fake a girl’s voice, move femininely, and make sure I gave off zero male impressions. Looks like I passed.

And thank God I did, because otherwise I definitely wouldn’t be confident enough to meet Scotty in person and convince him that I’m a girl named Juliette, rather than a boy named Jamie.

Chris got a huge kick out of my frighteningly stressful encounter with Annie’s mom, but he too was glad I’d be prepared for my first of three promised interactions with Scotty.

“Dude, I still can’t believe you got away with that,” he said in the middle of munching on Cheetos.

I rolled my eyes, even though we were playing video games and he couldn’t see me. “Chris, it was a week ago. Why do you keep bugging me about it?”

“I’m not bugging you,” Chris insisted. “I just think it’s hilarious that she didn’t recognize you. I mean, how many times have you talked with her mom? How many times have you been in that very house? And she still thought you were a different person – a freaking girl, even!”

Annie never even told her mom that it was actually me. In fact, we didn’t even give Chris all the details about girl practice. Sure, he knew that I was practicing walking, talking, and acting like a girl, but I conveniently left out that I was wearing panties on the daily underneath my boy jeans. Annie thought it’d be good to ‘always keep a bit of Juliette with me’. I actually kind of agreed, as much as it scared me that someone might notice a frilly yellow band poking out of my jeans if they looked at me from the wrong angle.

But to this day, still only Annie, Chris, and Juan knew about our plan to get popular. Juan, of course, being the catalyst and one who’d actually be getting us into these parties. And as it turns out, it looks like this weekend would be the time.

It was Saturday, and Annie had just arrived at Chris’s when he read out the text from Juan.

“Ben Grumman is having a party tonight. Can we make this a Juliette night?” Chris read from his phone. “Well, Jamie… is it gametime?”

It didn’t take much discussion. I was ready to debut publicly as Juliette and get one of my three parties out of the way.

“Tonight’s the night! Yes!!” she squealed. “What do you think you’re gonna wear?”

“I haven’t thought about it,” I replied honestly. “I was just gonna defer to you.”

Annie scoffed. “That’s right, you haven’t been a girl long enough to figure out your own style.”

We decided to meet at Annie’s at 7:30 to get ready for the party.

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As we’ve done in the past, Annie scooted Chris and me up to her room without her parents noticing. But now that ‘Juliette’ has been established, if we ever got caught, she’d simply claim I’m somebody else.

Annie had already laid out three complete outfits for me to choose from.

“Damn, dude! You’re gonna look smokin’!” Chris joked.

“What’s the easiest one to walk around in?” I said, brushing off Chris’s weird remarks. “Comfort should be prioritized for the first night.

Annie stared at her selections for a bit, then settled on the middle option. “I’d say the leggings and top.”

She was referring to a pair of black leggings and a slouchy sweater. It wasn’t too girly, which I liked, and looked far more comfortable than the other two options, which looked like tighter skirts.

We decided on the leggings and sweater, and I was sent into the bathroom to change. Annie insisted I wear and stuff a bra to accentuate my figure just a bit. My ‘cute butt’ (Annie’s words), needed no such enhancement with the leggings.

Chris was impressed. “Holy shit, how do you look hot without even putting on makeup?”

“Can you quit with the objectification?” I grunted back at him. It better not be like this all night.

However, he had a point. I hadn’t done anything to my hair or face yet, and still looked almost 100% girl. Should I be proud of my naturally feminine look? Or maybe, concerned…

Nevertheless, Annie went to work on my face, giving me the works. Foundation, concealer, blush, penciling in my eyebrows, adding mascara, and a fruity, sparkly lip gloss that she claims ‘always make me feel extra femme.’

My hair was brushed, then straightened, and then run through a curling iron to add some loose waves. She topped me off with a few spritzes of perfume and the girl transformation was complete.

“You look gorgeous, Juliette,” Annie said, giving me a big hug. Objectively she wasn’t wrong. I looked like the cute girl-next-door a guy like myself would want to date.

Chris read a new text from his phone. “Juan says we should head over now. Scotty’s arrived.”

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Ben Grumman was an incoming senior and a bass vocalist in Toned. He wasn’t the leader, partier, or particularly notable guy by any stretch. But his parents were super loaded and didn’t give a shit about parties. The ideal friend for anyone in high school.

He lived in a massive, upscale colonial-style home parked on a ton of land. But as we walked up, we noticed the party wasn’t happening in the house, but rather the gigantic, barn-like garage in the back.

The outfit was comfortable, but my nerves were bouncing off the walls. The closer we got to the backyard down the long, gravel driveway, the more I felt like I was making the biggest mistake of my life.

I violently grabbed the arms of my friends and stopped us dead in our tracks.

“Am I gonna die?” I spat out, clearly startling them both.

“Why would you die?” Chris said. “All we’re doing is attending a party.”

“But like, if someone finds out I’m a boy… they’re obviously gonna scream it out to the party. I’ll die of embarrassment.”

Annie held my shoulders and looked me right in the eyes. “Juliette, you are a beautiful, confident, outgoing girl. Keep telling yourself that. Chris and I will look out for you. Juan too. You’ll be fine.”

I guess her words calmed me a bit. Enough to make it into the barn.

As it turns out, I’m really glad she did. This place looked insane. It was a two-level barn converted into a garage. Dozens upon dozens of high-schoolers crowded the space. Some dancing, some drinking, some just chatting, but everyone was having an awesome time. String lights were strung across the ceiling, and the space was accented with vintage posters, old street signs, and other sick memorabilia.

Juan approached and dapped up Chris.

“It begins!!” Juan shouted, quickly lowering his voice. Not that anyone would know what he’s talking about. “Let me introduce you to some friends.” He did a double-take looking at me. “Damn, Jamie, you clean up nice!” I rolled my eyes.

Never before had I been so welcomed into a party. Juan was such a popular guy that his word was plenty to vouch for our coolness.

For the first 20 minutes, I mostly stuck in a group with Chris and Annie, meeting sophomores, juniors, a few seniors, but notably no other incoming freshman. My heart dropped a few times when I saw a few faces I recognized, but I guess my feminine disguise was good enough that they didn’t clock me. Amazing, the power of makeup and a good outfit!

“Hey, Juliette,” Juan came up behind me. “I got someone you should meet.”

Juan turned me around and pointed exactly where I thought: Scotty Allen, standing alone by the drinks.

“Scotty!” Juan shouted, waving him over. When Scotty looked up and over, recognizing who I was, his face lit up. The kind of excitement that you get when talking to your crush? That was the look he was giving me. It hurt me knowing that I’d have to be letting him down eventually. Who’d want to ruin a wonderful emotional rush like that?

“Meet Juliette,” Juan said, stepping away smoothly to leave me alone with Scotty.

The trance he fell into was just like the one on stage. Despite the girly clothes, hair, and makeup this time around he clearly recognized me as the girl from before. The same one who caught his eye at the Toned concert.

“Juliette,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”

I smiled back, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you too.” There wasn’t much to say outside of an awkward pause. “I really love your music.”

“Thanks,” he smiled back, not furthering the conversation. Maybe there was a reason this guy couldn’t get girls. He was kind of awkward.

It took a while for me to pry out some answers, but we eventually got to talking about music and interests.

“So, remind me, you’re going to Hinsdale East this fall?”

“No, no,” I explained, having to keep my lies straight. “My cousin, Jamie, is. I’m moving back to Texas at the end of the summer. Love a good trip with my ‘ol Aunt and Uncle!”

Ugh. That was a lame thing to say.

I went on explaining my fictitious backstory: That I’m up here for the summer for a few weeks to hang out, but my ‘cousin Jamie’ is kind of a quiet, art-loving recluse (hey, not an entire lie) so I’m hanging out with his friends and going to parties. I may have messed up a few details here and there, but Scotty totally bought my story.

As it turns out, Scotty just needed a little loosening up. Admittedly, I was far more obsequious than I normally am. After all, my job was to get Scotty’s confidence back up – not to strike up an actual friendship. So I continued asking questions about his music, his family, his views on life, etc. He was definitely coming out of his shell. At least enough to share some more personal details.

“You seem like an honest, reliable person, Juliette,” he began. Ohhhh, the irony… “Do you ever just, ya know, feel like the stuff you’re doing now, isn’t the stuff you’re meant to do?”

“How so?”

“Well, I dunno... I’m super grateful that Toned wanted me as a freshman. They, like, never do that. But as much as I enjoy singing, it feels like I have other interests I should be trying out. Maybe I’ve, like, gone too deep into music.”

This right here was my purpose. It was exactly my job to plant in Scotty’s head that ‘NO, you DO like music!’. Maybe a pretty girl telling him that could solve it all.

But before I could muster a word, somebody called his name.

“Hey, my buddy’s calling me. I think he needs help,” he twiddled his thumbs for a moment before stepping away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to drop all my woes on you like that.”

“It’s okay, don’t wor–”

“Could I like, get your number, maybe?”

His request totally caught me off guard for some reason. “My what?”

“Your, like, phone number. So I can… I dunno. Text you? Sorry, maybe that’s dumb. I just kinda liked talking to you is all.”

Crap. Was he really asking for my number? This wasn’t part of my agreement with Juan, but I guess it falls under the umbrella of ‘get a girl to boost his confidence’.

“Sure,” I said, reaching for his phone. I input my number, making sure to write ‘Juliette’ and not ‘Jamie’.

“I…will…text you,” he said, not really looking up at me as he left. God, was this his first time asking for a girl’s number? I’m not the smoothest guy, but even I’m not that clunky.

I caught up with Chris and Annie who were chatting with separate people of the opposite sex. It didn’t look like either of them was doing too well, so I came to the rescue.

“What? I was doing fine!” Chris insisted as Annie and I yanked him away. We found a spot in the barn to break down what happened.

I filled them in on my surprisingly awkward but overall manageable conversation with Scotty.

“Do you think he likes you?” Annie asked.

“Definitely. His face lit up when he saw me. But listen, I don’t think confidence is really this guy’s issue. At least not completely.”

Chris and Annie stared at me.

“I think he may just… not like music anymore.”

Annie gasped. Chris threw his arms up. “What!? How can he not like singing? He’s so good at it!”

“Yeah, I know. But he mentioned something about ‘other interests’…”

Chris stopped me right there. “No no no. He can’t have other interests. Because if he has other interests, he drops out of Toned. If he drops out of Toned, that means we did the exact opposite of what Juan asked us to do!”

“And if we don’t have Juan on our side, there goes our party hook-up. I mean look at this place! Do we really wanna lose all this?”

I sighed. This was becoming a lot more complicated than I thought. “Look, I gave him my number–”

“Whaaat?” Annie squealed. “Juliette, that’s adorable!”

“Shut up, okay?” I cut her off. “He asked for my number, so maybe I still have some influence on him. Maybe it’s not too late to stop him from quitting music.” I looked across the barn at Scotty chumming it up with some friends. “He said he’ll text me tomorrow, so I’ll craft a logical, persuasive text–”

Annie was furiously shaking her head. “Nuh-uh. Now way I’m leaving this high-stakes job in the hands of you texting.”

“Well, what other ideas did you have?”

“I think once he texts you tomorrow, you set a time to meet in person to discuss this. Outside of school, outside of parties.”

“Wait, like, just the two of us?”

“Yes, obviously… Pick a park or a restaurant or whatever.”

I couldn’t believe what she was insinuating. “So like… a date?”

Annie smiled. “Exactly.”

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