Both Josie and Aunt Carol seemed a little bit subdued last night when we met up again for dinner, and I had the impression that Josie had been crying, although I didn’t think that they’d had a row. Jenny also had the same feeling as I did but we didn’t feel it was our place to enquire into what had gone on between them. Instead we did our best to cheer up Josie during an evening walk along the Promenade, and afterwards invited her to come to our room to watch ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, on television with us. The film had just been released to be shown on tv and none of us had seen it before. So by the time she went to bed she was her normal cheerful self.

Inevitably, as soon as Josie left us there was some further discussion among the three of us as to what we made of our new girlfriend/sister.

‘We really did open Pandora's box when we asked her to stand in for Denise,’ said Sue. ‘I don’t see her ever wanting to go back to her old life now.’

‘Me neither,’ I agreed. ‘I know she seemed a little bit quiet over dinner tonight, but she cheered up later. In fact, she just seems to have slotted in to her new identity with ease.’

‘But how is she going to get on at home and at school?’ asked Jenny.

‘I would imagine it would be with some difficulty on her part,’ I suggested. ‘I can’t see the lads in her village, or the others in her class accepting the change without comment and no doubt some embarrassment all round.’

‘Yes, and that won’t be confined to her school year and will no doubt include me as well,’ said Jenny.

‘But you wouldn’t want your sister to be unhappy,’ said Sue.

‘I don’t know what I want at the moment and whether I have a brother or a sister.’

Josie and Aunt Carol joined us at breakfast at 8.30am this morning. As we were coming to expect, Josie looked very pretty indeed, wearing yet another of Denise’s summer dresses and putting the rest of us to shame in our jeans and tops.

‘You really are getting quite proficient with your hair and makeup,’ I thought to myself as I sat looking at my new friend. ‘It seems to have come quite naturally in your case.’

‘Do you girls have any plans for today, or indeed for tomorrow when I’ll be involved with a trade exhibition for most of the day?’ asked Aunt Carol.

Nobody had any particular ideas as to what to do.

‘Why don’t you go out and explore the seafront and the Marine Lake this morning?’ she suggested. ‘I have a few things to do in my room and some phone calls to make, but I’ll meet you at the entrance to the Pier at 1.00pm and then we can all have lunch together in town and then perhaps we can go have a look around Lord Street together this afternoon’.

‘Alright Mum,’ said Jenny.

‘Well then ladies, does anyone need to fix their hair or makeup before we go?’ she said with a significant look at her sister.

‘I’m good, thanks,’ Josie replied.

We all spent some of our money on the 2p slot machines on the pier arcade but were unable either to walk or take the tramway to the end of the pier because Josie’s heels would have fallen through the wooden slats. Instead we took a walk over to the ‘New Pleasureland,’ and had a look at the "Zyklon Loop" rollercoaster. It looked pretty scary but we decided it was perhaps a little bit expensive.

‘Why don’t we hire one of the giant swan pedalo boats on the Marine Lake instead?’ Sue suggested.

‘That’s a good idea,’ replied Jenny.

‘I’m not really suitably dressed for boating,’ said Josie.

Jenny sighed audibly.

‘Josie, if you want to be treated like a girl, you should start dressing and acting like a real one and not some ‘Princess Barbie.’’

’You can always tell when Jenny’s period is due,’ I thought to myself.

Poor Josie went bright red and didn’t answer. Her lip trembled as if she might start crying, but she managed to stop herself and the others didn’t notice.

‘Come on, Josie, I’m sure that the guy hiring the boat will give you a hand to get in and out and we can sit in the back seats and leave the pedalling to the other two,’ I suggested.

Whilst Jenny and Sue were noisily engaged in propelling our craft across the lake, Josie murmured to me: ‘I’m only wearing the clothes given to me by Denise; she didn’t give me any trousers or flat heels.’

‘I know, and you look very nice in them, but you will find there are times when dresses and skirts are not very practical. It’s a question of knowing what’s most appropriate to wear, but you’ll soon get the hang of it when you’ve had a little more experience.’

‘I’ve only got two or three more days as Josie, worst luck.’

I felt really sorry for her and would have liked to have mentioned the invitation for us to stay with Denise, but I’d promised my Mum not to do so. Of course Denise had asked me on the phone what was happening regarding the invitation and all I could do was put her off until Josie’s mother had decided. I was getting to like Josie, and wasn’t sure what I’d do if I were allowed to go to stay with Denise on my own whilst she was left at home. On the other hand, though, I’d far rather spend ten days of my holiday in Wales with Denise than in Crawley with Joe as he used to be.

We met Aunt Carol at the agreed time and made our way to Weatherspoon’s on Lord Street for some lunch.

‘I’m afraid there will be a small change of plan this afternoon, girls. I have to meet someone in Chester at 5.00pm and so you’ll need to amuse yourselves again. It‘s about an hour’s drive from here so I’ll have to leave you at 3.30pm, but I should be back in time for dinner at 7.30pm.’

‘Don’t worry, Mum, there’s a branch of ‘BHS’ and a ‘Primark’ in Chapel Street, both of which will be open this afternoon,’ said Jenny.

‘There was also a rather good shoe shop on Lord Street that I’d like to visit as well,’ added Sue.

Aunt Carol sighed.

‘You have a Primark, a BHS, and several large shoe shops in Crawley.’

‘I know Mum but it will be somewhere for us to go whilst you are away,’ said Jenny.

‘Alright and have a look out for somewhere suitable and not too expensive for us to have dinner tonight.’

As soon as Aunt Carol left, Josie went to a cash dispenser and withdrew a hundred pounds from Joe’s account.

‘Alright you three, you are now going to show me exactly what I need to buy so that I don’t end up looking like some ‘Princess Barbie’ again tomorrow.’

‘But I thought you were supposed to saving up for a new computer,’ said Jenny, now feeling a little guilty about her earlier observation.

‘That was Joe; I won’t be needing a new computer anymore,’ said Josie, defiantly.

I’m not sure about the etiquette when one half of a split personality starts spending the money saved by the other half, but the deed was done and the money was now in Josie’s hands, so over the next couple of hours we fixed up with a nice pair of black trousers and a dark red top, both from Primark together with a pair of brown leather wedge heels from the shoe shop. We all agreed on wedges rather than flats, since we felt that she could probably benefit from the extra height to make her look a little older. By the time we’d finished our shopping, Josie would be able to melt into any crowd of sixteen year old schoolgirls without attracting attention. Whilst we were out shopping we also found a reasonable looking Chinese restaurant in London Street, for our dinner.

By 6.30 we’d taken our purchases back to the hotel, all had a shower and were waiting for Aunt Carol to return from her meeting. She did so just before seven, looking quite pleased with herself.

‘So what have you all been doing this afternoon?’ she asked.

‘We’ve been shopping and bought me to a pair of trousers and a top,’ replied Josie, clearly a little hesitant about her mother’s reaction.’

‘That’s nice, you’ll have to show me them later. Now let’s all go and get some dinner, and then there are some things that I need to talk to you all about.’