“Mom, I’m really not happy about this,” her son complained, crossing his arms and squeezing his legs together, both as tightly as he could manage. Moths, or worse, flitted about in his tummy instead of the proverbial butterflies. “And I feel so stupid wearing this.”

“Nonsense!” Timothy’s mother asserted. “You look adorable in your new school uniform. Besides, you’ve done this before.”

“Mom, that was just for Hallowe’en,” he pled. “Just for fun!”

“But you looked so cute!” she reminded him. “You pulled it off so well.”

“But that was only for one evening,” he argued. “Now, you’re expecting me to pull this off almost every day until I graduate? That’s asking a lot.”

Tim and his best friend, Deke, had both let their hair grow out since they had intended to begin a rock and roll band. Then as soft as Tim’s facial features were, people began to mistake him for a girl now and then. He hadn’t had his growth spurt yet, either. Thus he looked somewhat androgynous. So did Deke, except that he began to get taller over the summer. Tim worried, what would happen when his own puberty hit its full stride?

“I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t think you could—nor if we didn’t have so much at stake,” she explained. “We’re lucky that Saint Elizabeth’s agreed to accept you at all. Conforming to the dress code is a reasonable compromise.”

“With the emphasis on dress!” Tim whinged sarcastically. “It’s unfair, Mom!”

“Life’s very often unfair, Thea,” she reminded him. “And the irony of your going to a girls’ school is that it gives us your best chance at overcoming some of that inequity. So please give this a chance to work.”

“But I still miss Deke and my other friends,” her son complained. “And don’t call me ‘Thea’!”

“You’ll have to get used to it,” she said. “Or would you rather me call you ‘Timmy’ at school while you’re wearing that?”

“No,” he sighed. “I guess not.” Actually, he preferred simply “Tim” but calling him “Timmy” was, after all, his mother’s prerogative. However, she had enrolled him as “Timothea” at St. Elizabeth’s.

“It’s time to go,” his mother chirped as she stood up with a spring in her step. Tim grabbed his purse by its strap from the coffee table before following his mother to the door.

☆ ☆ ☆

One sultry afternoon in mid-August, Tim and Deke sat at a chessboard, playing White and Black, respectively.

“So why do you and your mom gotta move away, Tim?” Deke asked his best friend.

“She got a better job teaching at a private school,” answered Tim. “Not only will she get paid a whole lot more money, my tuition there will be free.”

“But public school is free, anyway,” Deke reminded his friend.

“I know, but my Mom wants me to get into one of the best colleges. She says that the girls who graduate from Saint Elizabeth’s have the best record of getting into the top universities of any school in the region.”

“Yeah, the girls maybe, but what about the boys?”

Tim realized suddenly that he had let slip a detail that he shouldn’t have. “Well, boys haven’t graduated from it.”

“What?”

“It’s actually a girls’ school,” Tim admitted sheepishly. “I guess I’ll be the only guy there.”

“Now that’s rad!” Deke commented. “So the girls will all be after you, huh?”

“I doubt it. No one there’s s’posed to know I’m a guy.”

“Then how will you keep them from—?” Deke started to ask, but then stopped when he realized just what Timothy would have to do. “You’ll hafta dress like a girl there, won’t-cha?”

“Mom says I gotta wear the same school uniform as everyone else,” explained Tim. “And yeah, that means I hafta dress like a girl at school.”

“Well, you got away with it for Hallowe’en.”

“You didn’t look so bad as a girl yourself!”

“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful!” Deke recited a famous cosmetics advertisement while pretending to primp his hair. Both boys laughed at his portrayal.

“I can’t help but wonder if Mom got the idea because of Hallowe’en?” Tim said wistfully.

“Then it’d be my fault, buddy,” confessed Deke. “After all, us going as cheerleaders was my idea.”

“No, that’s not your fault. I coulda dressed as something else. Besides, I had just as much fun as you did,” Tim absolved his friend. “We couldn’t guess what it would inspire my mom to do nine or ten months later, either. If I'd known, I’d’ve gotten a haircut earlier in the summer.”

“I’m nervous about my own hair being too long now. Maybe I should cut mine before school starts again. Besides, since you’re leaving, we won’t have a keyboard player.”

“You’ll find another. Just hold auditions,” advised Tim. Then he paused a moment. “Y’know, I’m really scared of this.”

“Think of it as an adventure,” suggested Deke. “Like you’re a secret agent deep undercover and in disguise.”

“So, I guess that makes you kinda like my ‘handler’?”

“Well, someone’s gotta do it!” Deke retorted with a chuckle.

“I don’t think you get just how embarrassing and humiliating it’s gonna be,” Tim whinged to his buddy. “Mom’s already bought me a closet full of school uniforms. She made me try them on at the store. The women who worked there were teasing me, pinching me, telling each other how cute I was… It really sucked bigtime!”

“Yeah, that had to!” agreed Deke. “So what was the worst part?”

“Prob’ly getting fitted for a bra.”

“But you don’t even have—.”

“That’s the point!” declared Tim. “They fit me with a bra for a flat-chested girl.”

“But a flat-chested girl doesn’t need a bra, does she?”

“I wouldn’t’ve thought so, but they make them,” Timothy informed his friend. “And now I got a drawer full of flat bras.”

“Well, we always knew girls were strange, but I guess now we’ll find out just how strange!”

“We? I’m the agent in the field, here. You just write the reports. I hafta wear the disguise!”

“Hey, Tim! I’m really sorry for ya,” Deke tried to console him. “I know I wouldn’t wanna do it. Seriously, though, can't you get out of it somehow?“

“I begged Mom not to take me to Saint Elizabeth’s with her,” confessed Timothy. “She made it clear that the reason she took the job was to send me to a better school. “She couldn’t do that on a public schoolteacher’s salary. But Saint Elizabeth’s offered her the moon.”

“How much?”

“Don’t know exactly, but my tuition waiver’s worth forty thousand a year by itself and we’ll live rent-free in a cottage on campus. Then after teaching five years, her salary will break six figures.”

“For a teacher?” Deke asked in disbelief. “That’s more like what some college professors make.”

“Well, Saint Elizabeth’s is well-funded with gifts, endowments, and rich parents.”

“Must be nice to have money,” Deke observed jealously.

“I wouldn’t know,” conceded Timothy. “Not yet, anyway. But look at what I gotta do to find out.”

“Then I guess the big question is if it’s worth it?”

“Only if I get into Harvard.”

“S’pose you don’t wanna go to Harvard?”

“But I’m s’posed to wanna go to Harvard. Everyone’s s’posed to wanna go to Harvard.”

“I wouldn’t,” Deke contradicted his friend. “Not if I had to dress like a girl to get there.”

“Ya got me there, buddy!” Tim conceded. Then in a surprise move, castled queenside.

☆ ☆ ☆

Tim’s mother locked the door to their cottage and they began to stroll along the path to St. Elizabeth’s Chapel. The school day was always to begin with Morning Prayer at the chapel.

“Why do we hafta go to church every morning?” Tim demanded. “We’re not even Catholic!”

“Who said anything about Catholic?” his mother responded. “Saint Elizabeth’s is an Episcopalian school. Didn’t you read that in the prospectus?”

“I must’ve missed it, since I was preoccupied with the dress code for some reason,” admitted Tim, adding more sarcasm to their morning. “Don’t I get a key to the cottage?”

“You have to earn it,” she answered him.

“Earn it?”

“Yes, Thea!” she affirmed, slightly emphasizing her son’s female nickname. “Earn it!”

“And just how do I do that?”

“When I’m convinced you accept how you’re dressed well enough that I don’t need to worry about you running home to hide.”

“Môm!” Tim sang out. “I’m insulted! I’m wearing it now, aren’t I?”

“But you keep complaining about it. I want you not just to wear it, but to enjoy it! Pretending to be a girl could be very exciting if you let it.”

“But Mom, is it always necessary for me to attend school wherever you’re teaching? Other kids don’t hafta worry about that—not too many, anyway.”

“Now we’ve talked at length about why you’re going to Saint Elizabeth’s,” continued his mother. “Don’t you want to get into the best college you can?”

“Mom, I think me going to Harvard is more important to you than it is to me.”

“Timmy!” she whined and stopped, turning to face him right where she stood. She was aghast at such an attitude. “I can’t believe you said that!”

“Mom, look at me!” Timmy told her, gesturing down his schoolgirl’s uniform with both hands. “If this is the price I gotta pay to get into Harvard, I’m not so sure it’s worth it!”

His mother embraced him and spoke softly. “You’re all I have left in the world,” she reminded him. “I only want the very best for you. I know you’re scared of all this right now, but please, please give it a chance.”

Still, despite all her hopes for Timmy’s future, she couldn’t help but wonder if she were pushing him too far. As for Tim, he regretted not getting a haircut when the summer began in June. Maybe then his mom would not have insisted on this silly disguise.

“Thea! Hold it down!” Tim’s mom told him as the pleats of his skirt fluttered in a strong gust of wind.

“What?”

“Your skirt!” she clarified. “Hold it down when the wind blows.”

“But Mom! I kinda liked feeling the breeze!”

“Timmy!”

“Mom! You’re not s’posed to call me that,” Tim reminded her. “You don’t wanna blow my cover. After all, it’s your idea.”