Synopsis

Brandon is a bright boy growing up near Albuquerque, New Mexico. He likes school, soccer, computer games, and playing in the school band. Small for his age and youngest in his class, his size has made him the target of every school bully for years. Each year the verbal and physical abuse increases, finally wearing him down to the point he doesn't know if he can continue. Just as he reaches the end of his rope, he is suddenly befriended by a classmate he least expected. As their friendship grows and deepens, Brandon learns the value of a best friend and finds himself moving down a road he never expected. Over the course of the school year, his friend helps him discover and cope with his feelings, hopes, dreams - and fears.

This is the story of a young person's unusual journey to stand up to the numerous obstacles that life has dealt him - and to become the person he believes himself to be. (Part 5 of 6)

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Viewing Note: This story should be viewed with the Edwardian Script ITC font installed on your Windows platform in the c:/Windows/Fonts directory. Microsoft Word installs this font automatically.

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The Legal Stuff: Standing Up to Life  © 2008 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright  © 2008 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface
 
 
I began this trilogy of novels last year, first publishing this book at FictionMania and Story Site in March last year. Setting out to tell a story I felt I needed to tell, I was pleased that the readers of both sites seemed to enjoy the work. A couple months after I initially posted this book at FictionMania I met a dear friend Carla Ann who offered her services as an editor. With her help I began to go back and proof this book a few months ago for publishing at Lulu.com. More than anything I liked the idea of having a hardback edition of the book for myself, but I felt that perhaps others might enjoy a copy as well.

With that information in mind I am posting a standard copy of this here at BigCloset, and announcing that I have three versions available for purchasing through My Store (www.lulu.com/tiffanyshar) at Lulu.com. There are 6x9 hardback editions and paperback editions, as well as a high quality pdf version available for download. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it from my store. I hope to have it available through Amazon.com in a couple months as well, and will offer to have Erin sell it through her Amazon page at that time.

Thank you to all of you, my amazing readers, who have enjoyed this work in the past. You will discover that this new version is much more refined than what I initially posted a year ago. I hope you all enjoy this and my other novels. I hope to have the second book, Daring to Hope, also available in this form by mid-March, and the third book will hopefully be available this summer! I will make future announcements about Book Three through my Lulu storefront as well.

I will be posting this in six segments during this week. Please enjoy, and thanks for reading!

     -Tiffany Shar

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Chapter 19b
 
 

"A girl?" My mom asked gently.

I nodded and the tears just flew out at this point. Both of my parents hugged me and kept saying reassuring things to me. I cried and cried for the better part of an hour before I finally calmed down.

I had heard my parents trying to get my attention somehow and I hadn’t been able to focus on anything. I heard, "Tiffany." That brought my attention to my Mom’s face.

"Sweetie, do you think you can talk now? Or do you want to wait until tomorrow?" Dad asked.

I didn’t know what to do. My parents said they still loved me, but they would never let me keep my hair now would they? What was worse is they would probably never let me go over to Amy’s house again. They’d also be taking away my Barbies and doll house of course… would they even keep me? Maybe I could go live with Amy’s family…

"Tiffany come back to us." Dad said. He was calling me Tiffany. How did they even know about Tiffany?

I found I was having a hard time trying to even think. Everything just seemed to be spinning around in front of me, and I couldn’t control any of it. As soon as I was sure that I must be stuck like this, I felt my hair being stroked and a hand on my chin. I began to make out my dad’s face as he said, "Tiffany? Please talk to us sweetie." The look on his face scared me — he looked terrified or something, it was a look I’d never seen on anyone’s face before. As I slowly regained my sense, I found that I was now sitting on the floor in the living room. How had I gotten here? I saw that they had moved the coffee table out of the way.

"What?" I managed to ask.

"Sweetie, it’s okay. We really still do love you. Here take a drink." Mom said handing me a glass of water. I managed to take a sip and grimaced at the taste through all of the salt from my tears.

I managed to mutter, "Thanks."

"Do you think you’re alright to talk a little bit now?" Dad asked.

"I’ll try…"

"Look sweetie, why don’t you just listen while I tell you what we know and how long we’ve known, okay?" Mom said. I nodded. "We suspected something about the hair early on, but didn’t say anything. On the ski trip Mrs. Hancock noticed some things and told us about them. She didn’t know anything for certain, but she thought it was something we should know about."

"On the band trip then, when I found out that you had let the girls play with your hair, but didn’t take it all out on the first chance I started looking into things a bit more. Then when Mrs. Hancock found you two playing with Barbies she also decided that there might be something more to it and let me know to keep an eye out for anything else. She also called me one night when you were staying with Amy. She figured out that you two had been playing with your hair again — and it looked like you had been wearing some of Amy’s clip-on earrings." How could she possibly have known that?

"We talked on the phone for a long time that night about everything — and after speaking to your dad — we decided to put a test out there to see if we couldn’t find out for certain. That’s when Mrs. Hancock suggested that you wear Amy’s swimsuit. She said you didn’t exactly jump to it, but you definitely were trying to look like you weren’t jumping to it."

"The final two pieces for us were put in place when you didn’t just give the Barbie stuff away, and went along so easily with last night’s stuff." Mom finished.

I sat there in stunned silence. Not only had they known for a long time, but they had set me up with opportunities to try being a girl. I had always assumed that Dad would beat me senseless or something. He’d talked so many times against ‘queers,’ and I figured I fit that description better than anyone. "So you’re really not mad at me?" I asked.

"No sweetie, we’re not." Dad replied.

"But… you always said…" I stammered.

"Forget what I’ve always said. I’m not saying I understand any of this, but I do think there is more to this than you just being different." He said gently.

"Look sweetie, we both love you very much… and we can tell that there is something to this for you. We want to take you to see someone on Monday."

"A shrink?" I asked.

"Well, in a manner of speaking yes." Mom said.

"Look, before we can do anything with this, we need a professional opinion. This lady has a lot of experience helping out with things like this… and Mrs. Hancock holds her in really high regard. She’s also really nice — we’ve already met with her a couple times." Dad added.

"You already met with her?" I looked at them incredulously. I sat quietly in shock for several moments before saying "Okay, I’ll see her. But, you have to promise me something." I said.

"What?" Dad asked.

"You can’t break up my friendship with Amy, you can’t take away the stuff in my room, and you won’t make me cut my hair if I don’t want to."

"We promise." Mom said quickly.

At that point I started sobbing some more and I don’t really remember anything else from that night.
 
 
Chapter 20
 
 

THE NEXT THING I really remember was waking up in my bed. I was really startled. Did yesterday really happen? I could feel that my face was all salty and I was still in my clothes from yesterday. What could I do now? I know my parents said it was alright… But my life seemed like it was so over. It took a long time, but I finally built up the courage to get out of bed and go to the bathroom.

I finished up in there and found Mom waiting outside. "Do you want to talk?" She asked.

How could she possibly want to talk after all of that? "Not really. Can you just let me sit in my room today without you guys bothering me?" I asked.

"I don’t think that’s a great idea Bran… I mean Tiffany. I… What do you want us to call you?" Mom asked with a really worried expression on her face.

"Tiffany." I whispered very quietly.

"Tiffany, I don’t want you to be in your room alone today. If you want, I’ll help you move your dollhouse into the living room so you can play with it in there."

"You’re not just doing this so you guys can get rid of it are you?" I asked.

"No, we made you a promise. I’m just worried about you and don’t want to see you alone today, okay?"

"Okay." I said. She and Dad helped me out with the dollhouse and I played with my Barbies for most of the rest of the day. At seven that night Mom came in and said, "Amy wants to talk to you on the phone."

I debated back and forth on what to do, but decided she was my best friend — I had to talk to her. Mom handed me the phone. "Hi," I said.

"Hi." Amy said back. "Tiff I’m so sorry about what happened… I didn’t know anything about it… I’m so thoroughly mad at Mom right now… Please don’t hate me… Please don’t hate my mom either though…"

She went on for a little bit longer before I said, "Amy I don’t hate you and I don’t hate your mother."

"Are you sure?" She asked nervously.

"Amy, without you and your mother I never would have been able to be Tiffany at all… I’m more scared than anything."

"You don’t have anything to be scared about. I guarantee you I’ll stick by you all the way no matter what happens, and so will my parents."

"I know Amy." We talked for a while longer before things became a little more relaxed and she told me about the pictures her mom had taken. Apparently they had turned out really good and she couldn’t wait for us to do scrapbooks on Tuesday.

She told me her mom was starting her vacation for our trip that day and wanted to help us out. They also had everything we would need for it too, so not to worry about bringing anything more than some photos.

I told her about the appointment tomorrow at that point. "Amy what happens if she decides that I have to be a boy?"

"Look, you can be whoever you want to be. You’ll be fine. If all else fails when you come over here you can wear my clothes okay?"

"Okay."

"What happens if she says that I should be Tiffany though?"

"What would be bad about that? Isn’t that what you want more than anything?" She asked.

"The other kids…" I started.

"I won’t let the other kids mess with you, and neither will any of our friends. Tiff, that means that you have the cool kids all behind you. No one will dare do anything serious against you at that point. And, if they do we’ll take care of them." She answered.

We talked for a long time that night. I was honestly surprised Mom didn’t yell at me to get off of the phone, but I think she and Dad had decided that would be a bad idea. I ended up hanging up three hours after we started talking. I was feeling at least a little bit better. I was still absolutely mortified that my parents had found out though. In retrospect it wasn’t that hard for them to figure it out… but… still… And, I was scared senseless about what the visit to the ‘shrink’ tomorrow was going to be like. I went to bed shortly after I hung up with Amy so that I could try and make Monday come sooner.

The next morning Mom woke me up and told me to shower and get dressed. My parents and I drove into the city to one of the hospitals where my appointment was going to be. My dad actually drove in a separate car though — he was going to have to go to work afterwards. We sat in the waiting room for a long while before someone said, ‘please follow me.’ The assistant asked me if I would wait inside a room off to the side while my parents talked to the doctor first. I agreed.

Inside I found they had put together a playroom for all ages. I had a pretty good idea that they were probably observing me, but didn’t care. I saw they had some Barbies I didn’t have and went over to play with them while they talked. After thirty minutes I heard the door open and saw a lady who must be the doctor. "Hi, I’m Doctor Reynolds. Would you come into my office please?"

I followed her into her office where my parents gave me a hug and then went to wait outside. "Today I just want to spend some time talking to you alright?" She asked me.

I nodded.

"Well first of all, what name would you like me to call you by?" She asked.

"Tiffany please." I responded. There was a lot more strength to my voice that time than there ever had been.

I expected her to say something like, ‘that’s an unusual name for a boy,’ but she just kept on talking to me and asking questions. Somehow in about an hour’s time I figured that she knew more about me than anyone else.

"Tiffany, can you wait outside for a few minutes while I talk to your parents?" She asked.

I waited in a chair right outside the door for what seemed like an eternity before she brought me back in.

"Tiffany… After talking with you and your parents, we want to offer you the chance to dress as Tiffany for a few weeks. Would you like that?" She asked.

"Yes, more than anything!" I responded. I figured that I had seen the end of my time as Tiffany on Saturday.

"We do have one condition." My mom said.

"What?" I asked

"Well we’re concerned about how people on the trip might react to you showing up as Tiffany… so we want you to come dressed as Brandon for the trip."

"Do I have to?" I asked.

Dr. Reynolds spoke up, "I do think it would be a good idea Tiffany. The reactions might get really bad if you’re not careful with this."

"Okay." I replied. "But otherwise I can be Tiffany?" They all nodded. "Starting today?" I asked.

"Starting today," My dad said.

I was so excited I couldn’t control myself. I was hugging Mom and Dad, and Dr. Reynolds before I knew what I was doing.

"Now Tiffany, I do want to discuss some things with you now that your parents are here. Have you ever heard of the term ‘gender identity disorder’?"

"On the internet, it’s the term for someone whose body doesn’t match what they are?" I replied.

"That’s basically it. I think at the moment that term is a pretty close descriptor of you."

"For the moment?"

"Well, in a word, yes. You are still only eleven years old — and I want to be sure this is a long term thing before we start doing anything permanent. It’s still going to be another year or two before you hit puberty, so we have time for us to do this right and make sure that nothing gets done that shouldn’t be."

"So that’s why you said for a few weeks first?" I asked.

"Yes. If you are really supposed to be Tiffany and not Brandon we’ll have a better idea if that should be the case or not starting then. Until then — with the exception of the trip — I do want you to spend every moment as a girl. That means restrooms and everything," she said.

"Okay."

Dr. Reynolds told me some other things as we sat there and talked to my parents some more before we left the hospital. I was smiling the biggest smile ever. As we walked out to our cars I held my parent’s hands, both of them squeezed them as we walked out the door. There was something in that little statement that was stronger than anything they could have ever said.

"So umm… can we go shopping?" I asked.

"Sure sweetie." Mom replied as we got to the car. "Joe, you said to use the MasterCard?"

"Yes, we’ll pay it off once her check clears. They said it should clear by tomorrow." He paused before adding, "Try not to buy out the stores, okay?"

"Okay. We’ll see you at home for dinner." Mom told him and then I got into the car with her.

"Mom, are we really going to do this?" I asked.

"Do you want to?" She asked.

"YES!"

"Well then let’s go shopping for some stuff for you to wear."

We left the hospital and she soon pulled into a Wal-Mart. "We’re not getting all of my clothes here are we?" I asked Mom. I didn’t want to be the most uncool girl ever…

"No Tiffany, just relax. We’re just going to pick up a few things and get something for you to wear to the rest of the stores, okay?"

"Oh, okay."

We walked to the girls section of the store and we grabbed a couple packages of panties, socks, camisoles, and a couple of training bras to start with. Thankfully we knew what my size was from my borrowing of Amy’s clothes. She then led me towards the shorts and picked out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear with it.

I tried on the shorts really quick in the fitting room — they fit! We made a quick detour to the shoe aisle to pick up some sandals, then we went to the checkout line and checked out. Mom pulled a pair of panties, the shirt, shorts, and sandals and sent me into the bathroom to go change into them.

I was kind of nervous at first… but everyone had been mistaking me for a girl for several months now… who would question me going into the bathroom? I got in the unfamiliar bathroom and found a stall where I could change. I must have changed clothes in a record amount of time because I think Mom was very surprised to see me already. We put my boys’ clothes in the shopping bag and walked out to the car.

"Where to next?" I asked her.

"Well why don’t we go to Penney’s and see what they have?"

"Okay," I replied. I was glad that we had started out with getting me some basic clothes so that I could be a little more comfortable when we were shopping. Actually, I also was just happy to be in the clothing that felt right to me. I don’t think I had smiled that much ever.

We drove through the city traffic for a while before pulling up to the mall. I was so excited to be going to the girls section instead of the boys section. As we got closer I have to be honest though — I got really nervous… I knew that I looked like a girl as people had been telling me that for months, but it’s still a nerve-wracking experience your first time shopping.

We got to that section and started browsing through all of the different clothes there. "What do you think of this shirt?" Mom said holding up a t-shirt in front of me.

"I like it… I like this one too," I said holding up another one. We picked out five shirts and moved onto some jeans and more shorts. When we had like six pairs of each, Mom led me to the fitting room so I could try them on.

I put them on and modeled each of them for Mom before we settled on two pairs of jeans and two pairs of shorts. "Okay Tiffany, let’s go pick out a couple skirts and a dress or two now." Mom said as she led me on the hunt for some more clothes.

We picked out several long skirts and dresses before heading to the dressing rooms were I tried everything on and modeled them for Mom. After talking back and forth (she liked one that I didn’t like and vice versa) we took two of each of those as well. Mom and I decided that we had picked over the clothes there and checked out.

We were walking by the shoes on our way out to run this set of clothes to the car when I saw a pair of tennis shoes that I loved. After we dropped those clothes off we came back in and I began trying on the shoes I had seen. I had just found a pair that fit when Mom brought back several other pairs of shoes. When we left the shoe department I had another pair of sandals, a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of flat dress shoes.

"What now Mommy?" I asked as we put the shoes in the trunk of the car.

"Why don’t we just go wander the mall and see what else there is?" Mom asked.

"Okay!" I said and we walked back into Penney’s so we could go into the main mall. The next three hours were some of the most memorable hours of my life. We went into store after store after store. I picked out a couple more swimsuits, some more pajamas, and a bit of everything else over that time period. Mom showed considerable restraint in not buying everything in the mall for me. At the same time I was sure we had easily spent a thousand-dollars by the end of our shopping spree in the mall.

We walked by ‘Claire’s’ on our way back to Penneys and I made Mom go in. I picked out a ton of hair accessories, bought a fannie pack, and tried to convince her of something else.

"Mom can’t I please get my ears pierced?" I asked in a low tone so no one else would hear me. "They even say they’ll even do it for free!" I begged.

"Sweetie, I want to wait until we get back from this trip, alright?" She told me.

"But why?"

"It’ll be kind of hard for you to keep care of them while we’re on this trip… plus I kind of would like to see you wait until we’ve gone through another meeting with Dr. Reynolds."

I looked really downtrodden and pouted.

"Look, if everything goes towards that after the next meeting I’ll take you directly to a place to get it done, alright?" She temporized.

"Alright, but you promise right?" I asked.

"Yes, I promise." She replied.

We moved on with some more stuff in hand from Claire’s arriving at the car at 4:30. Mom said, "look we have one more stop I want to make." I looked downtrodden — I was really enjoying the shopping. "I think my daughter needs some stuffed animals and other things for her room."

I perked up again and said, "Okay." We drove down the street to a Toys’R’Us and went to the girls toy section. Most of the stuff was too young for me, but we picked up several stuffed teddy bears, kittens, and a baby doll. I also got some more Barbie stuff and some craft type stuff.

We got out of there with a bill that was a little scary, and crammed everything into our now full mini-van.

"Tiffany, why don’t we go home and you can change into one of these other outfits and we’ll meet Dad at Applebees at six?"

"Okay!" I said with excitement as we drove towards home. I didn’t have much time to change — which was most unfortunate because I was trying to make up my mind of what to wear. Do I wear a skirt? Wear shorts and a t-shirt? Wear a dress?

I think Mom realized that I was going to be very slow in making this decision so she did what any intelligent mom does… She picked for me saying, "we didn’t have much time" I ended up just wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Mom did help me put my hair into pigtails though — so at least it was a little more girly. Really the shorts and such were very girly… I just wasn’t content with it.

We hopped in the car and left for the restaurant. Dad had gotten there already and had a table. "Tiffany, you look nice." He told me.

"Thanks Daddy." I replied.

"So how was your shopping trip?"

I giggled… "Well, I made Mom leave some of the clothes in the mall for other people…"

"Hey! You were the one that wanted to buy everything…" Mom said. We bantered back and forth for a while before we all broke up into laughter.

The waiter came and took our order and we began talking some more. "Are you sure I can’t go like this on the trip?" I asked them.

"Look sweetheart it was Dr. Reynolds suggestion that we pace this slowly. We don’t want everyone to get into an uproar on the trip." Mom replied.

"But Mom, I slept over with five of the girls on Friday, and they were all okay with me like this!"

"There are two other girls, five boys, and more difficult — their parents." Dad said gently. "Remember what Dr. Reynolds was saying about other people dealing with this… We don’t want to spring this on everyone before they’re ready," he paused, "or before you’re ready for it either."

"Maybe one day? Not the whole trip, but maybe one day I could be Tiffany?" I asked.

"Look sweetie I think it’s a good idea that we do as she suggested." Mom said.

"Will you at least think about it?" I asked.

"Tell you what, I will talk to Ms. Fitzgerald and call Dr. Reynolds tomorrow okay?" Mom said. "But I still don’t think it’s a good idea."

"Aren’t they going to have to get used to it soon anyway? I’ll be going back to school in August, that’s only three months away!"

I think I saw my parents shudder there. "Look sweetie we’ll talk about it… Take that for what you can okay?" Dad said, effectively ending the matter.

I said, "Okay," and we moved on. At the end of dinner I told my parents, "Thank You."

"For what?" Dad asked.

"Well let’s see, first of all for not freaking out and beating me to death, not disowning me, not locking me up in a psychiatric ward… And secondly for letting me do all of this!" I said pointing to my clothes.

"Sweetie we could never do any of those things to you." Dad said.

"I guess I know that now… but I didn’t until today. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you guys before… I was just too scared of what you would do... So thank you again." I did my best not to tear up and realized I needed to go to the restroom. "Umm… I need to go to the restroom," I said.

My mom said, "I’ll come with you."

"I guess I’ll take care of the check," My dad said as we headed to the restroom.

As I approached the doors I reminded myself which bathroom to go into. I took a deep breath just before I went in — this was only the third time today that I had gone into this sanctuary. I went in and out without any real fanfare, but it really was still a big thing for me.

I waited for Mom before coming out and we went back to our table. Dad had already paid the bill so we piled back into our cars and headed home. Once home Dad helped us finish unloading the car and I modeled several outfits for them. The phone rang about that time.

"Tiffany it’s for you!" Mom said.

"Okay." I said.

"Hello?"

"Tiffany?"

"Amy?"

"How did it go?!?" Amy asked.

"Well… I’m Tiffany!" I exclaimed. I think that statement said it all.

"The doctor decided you really are?" She asked.

"She said she thinks so, at least ‘at this moment.’ We talked for a while about how she doesn’t want to consider doing anything ‘permanent’ until after I dress properly for three weeks. They still won’t do anything drastic at that point, but we’ll start talking about what will happen next."

"That’s great Tiffany! So this means you get to be Tiffany on the trip right?"

"Well… I want to be… but my parents and Dr. Reynolds were kind of against that. They say they’re worried about how the other kids will react to me." I said forlornly. "But I did talk with my parents at dinner tonight, they said they’ll talk with Ms. Fitzgerald and Dr. Reynolds tomorrow to see if they can’t work something out… I really hope they can."

"So after your appointment what did you do?" She asked.

"Shopping!!!! Lot’s of it!" I exclaimed. I proceeded to tell her about how much fun I’d had shopping with Mom and about pretty much every single outfit that we had bought for me. "I have never had so much fun hanging out with Mom before!" I paused for a second before adding, "Actually I think she had a lot of fun too."

"Wow, I wish I could have been there!" She said afterwards. Her mom apparently began pestering her on her side and she said, "Tiffany I have to go. You’re still coming over to scrapbook tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, what time?" I heard her talk to her mom for a few moments on the other side before she said, "Noon? And Mom’ll make mac and cheese for lunch?"

"Okay, I’ll see you then Amy."

"Congratulations Tiff, goodnight!" She told me and I hung up my phone. The rest of the evening I helped Mom move most of Brandon’s clothes out of my closet, unboxed all of my toys (which Mom told me were for decoration if nothing else), and I helped her finish removing tags and washing everything.

That night I didn’t need to be told to go to bed… I just put on a pair of my new pajamas and lay down in my bed — sleeping as I hadn’t in a very long time.
 
 
Chapter 21
 
 

THE NEXT DAY I woke up because I heard Dad getting ready for work. I tried to go back to sleep but no matter what I tried I was still awake. At 8:30, after thirty minutes of trying I finally got out of bed and went to the kitchen for something to eat. As I walked into the kitchen I heard Mom talking on the phone to someone.

"Are you sure you think that is an okay idea?" I heard her ask someone. "No. I think this is probably more than just a phase…" She must be talking about me. "Okay, that sounds fine. We’ll meet you there at Ten… See you in a bit."

"Who was that Mommy?" She smiled at me. "You haven’t called me Mommy since you were little. Why the change?"

I shrugged, "Amy still calls her Mommy that — in fact I think most of my girl friends do."

"I could get used to this." She said still smiling. "That was Ms. Fitzgerald. I called to talk to her about you. She and Mrs. Manning want to meet with Tiffany at ten o’clock to discuss what’s going on."

"Really!?"

"Now, I don’t think that we’re going to have you go as Tiffany full time necessarily Tiff. But, they do want to see you and talk about it."

"How long do I have to get ready?" I asked.

"About an hour or so. Why don’t we go pick something out for you to wear then take a shower and I’ll do your hair?"

"Okay!" I said. I skipped to my room — Mom just walked (slow poke!). I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to wear today. I had a pink jumper/white t-shirt set that we had bought yesterday that I loved. It might have been a little on the juvenile side… but Amy had one almost identical to it that she had worn to school at least two times in the past couple months.

The one thing that I had noticed that I had to be careful about more than anything else, when we were shopping, was that I was still only a size eight. Most of the time anything available in larger sizes was also available in my size. But, a lot of the other stuff that was available in my size made me look like I was in kindergarten…

Anyway… I liked this outfit and couldn’t wait to put it back on. I showed Mom what I wanted to wear and she nodded. I took my shower — being sure that I really got my hair nice and clean — and then put on the outfit. As soon as I had it on I had to twirl around like I had yesterday. It didn’t poof out much, but it still flared out a little. I stopped when I became slightly dizzy. I quickly brushed my teeth and sat in a chair in the kitchen.

Mom came up behind me and used a curling iron to curl the bottom of my hair and my bangs. She worked on my hair for a while before I was able to get up and see. I immediately ran to the bathroom to look at myself — I squealed! I was happy. Mom had used some clippy things that we had gotten from Claire’s in a couple spots on each side. I really liked it.

"Thank you Mommy." I told Mom when I saw her behind me.

"My pleasure sweetheart. We’ll have to work on teaching you how to do this yourself this summer."

"Okay." I replied.

"We also need to go get some curling irons of your own too. We’ll look at that when we get back from the trip though, okay?"

I nodded, "Okay. How long do we have before we have to leave?"

"We’ve got about twenty minutes, do you want something for breakfast?"

"Scrambled eggs?" I kind of batted my eyes at her.

"Stop batting your eyes at me young lady…" She said laughing. "Alright."

She walked away to go make me some eggs and I stared at myself in the mirror. Apparently I must have been staring for a while, because Mom hollered, "They’re ready." I realized that I had been staring for an awfully long time at that point! I walked to the kitchen and enjoyed my eggs.

"Sweetie, I have all of the pictures that I thought you might want to scrapbook with in this box," she said pointing to a note card box. "I put in the ones from soccer, Christmas, from the band trip," she continued naming off some events.

"Thanks." I replied to her. We put that on the TV so that we would be able to come by and grab it really quick when we were done with the meeting. "Did you talk to Dr. Reynolds?"

"I spoke with her for a little bit. She still doesn’t think it would be a good idea for you to go as Tiffany on this trip."

"Why?" I said with a frown.

"She’s concerned that if we don’t go along with this for school next year you will have a stigma attached to you."

"But I’m sure this isn’t just a phase!" I exclaimed.

"I know sweetie, she did however suggest a couple of compromises that we’re going to talk to your teachers about."

"What are they?" I asked.

"I want to wait until we are at the meeting, okay sweetie?"

"No… but I guess…" I replied. I was definitely sure I was going to not be allowed to be Tiffany at all now.

We left for Ms. Fitzgerald’s house — Mrs. Manning was going to meet us there too. Mom found it without a problem and we went up to the door. Ms. Fitzgerald greeted us before we had a chance to ring the doorbell. "How are you guys doing?" She asked.

"Fine, how are you?" I responded.

"I’m doing well. Tiffany… right?" She asked.

"Yes ma’am."

"Well come on in, Mrs. Manning is already sitting down in the dining room." She led us to her dining room where Mrs. Manning was sitting. I hadn’t really known her a lot until this year. I’d had Mrs. ‘Fitz’ two years ago, but had only had occasional contact with Mrs. Manning.

"How are you guys?" Mrs. Manning asked as we walked up.

"Good" Mom answered.

"Okay," I answered. I was being truthful… I was getting really nervous now. These were the first two people outside of my parents and Amy’s family to know about what I wanted to do.

"Have a seat," Ms. Fitz said.

I pulled a chair out and sat down — being mindful of smoothing my dress out behind me. "Tiffany, you look very nice," Mrs. Manning said.

"Thanks!" I said perking up a bit. What girl doesn’t like being told she looks nice?

"Well, I think she answered one of our questions for us." Mrs. Manning said to Ms. Fitz.

"Yes, I do believe she did." She responded.

"What question?" I asked.

"Well, when your mom first called I said that you would probably be able to pass as a girl very easily… but Mrs. Manning wasn’t so sure." Ms. Fitz said.

"I am now though. You look very lovely." Mrs. Manning assured me.

"The biggest problem as we see it is the other kids reactions. You’ve dealt with a lot of problems with kids over the years. I’m a little afraid of what they’ll do on this trip…" Ms. Fitz said.

"They’re going to have to find out one way or another at some point," I told her. "Besides, I know that five of the girls will be fine with me — we had a sleepover last Friday… So at the very least I’d have five people that I could hang out with."

"That may be true, but I’m even more worried about the parents." Mrs. Manning said.

Right about that time the doorbell rang. We paused for a moment while Ms. Fitz went to go get the door. She surprised me by bringing in Amy’s parents, and Ashley’s dad with her. We exchanged greetings with them. Amy’s mom actually came over and gave me a big hug. "You look nice sweetie," she told me.

"What are you all doing here?" I asked.

"Ms. Fitzgerald called us this morning to ask us what we thought about Tiffany going on the trip instead of Brandon." Amy’s dad said.

"Have a seat," Ms. Fitz told everyone.

"So what are your thoughts?" Mrs. Manning asked them.

Ashley’s dad answered first. "I have to be honest, it kind of left my mouth agape for a moment… but once I thought about it for a second it didn’t really surprise me. Ashley told me about the events at the slumber party on Saturday — and honestly I don’t really have a problem with it. Ashley will be his or her friend regardless."

"Thanks," I told him.

"What do you guys think?" Ms. Fitz asked Amy’s parents.

"In all honesty I think the only difference you’re going to see on the trip between Brandon going, or Tiffany going, is the clothing. Everywhere we’ve gone together Tiffany has been getting called a girl — even without the right clothing. I know for a fact that Amy has thought of her as a girl for at least three months now." Mrs. Hancock said.

That was news to me. "What?" I asked.

"When she got done talking with you the other night I made her come clean on how you two had been dressing you up — and that came out. Please don’t get upset that she didn’t tell you Tiff, she wouldn’t have told me that if she hadn’t been absolutely scared that you hated her because your secret got out."

"I’m not upset," I replied. ‘I had no idea she’d thought I was a girl that long though,’ I thought to myself.

"Good, I thought you would be more reasonable than she thought you would be," she said with a smile.

Mr. Hancock began to speak at this point, "The only concern I have for you Tiffany is if for some reason it’s decided you shouldn’t go to school next year as Tiffany… It might be wise for you to go ahead and be a ‘boy’ on this trip just in case…"

I couldn’t believe he was siding with that!

Mom spoke up then, "Unfortunately that’s pretty much what Tiffany’s psychiatrist thinks. She did offer a couple suggestions for a compromise though."

"And?" I asked.

"Well she suggested that you room with someone like Amy, who knows about you, and that while you’re in your room you may be Tiffany."

"Is that all?" I asked pleadingly… I was sure tears were going to start pouring from my eyes.

"Well, she did suggest that maybe you could wear a pair of girls shorts one day. She also suggested a couple of your less girly t-shirts that could be worn each day. I think you have enough to make it through the trip like that." Mom smiled a bit trying to cue me into that.

"I guess… what about underwear? No one has to see that…" I suggested.

"She said that would be fine if you’re careful. You’ll need to use the stalls though so no one can see them."

"I would have done that anyway, I’m a girl." I said stubbornly.

"Well I think that’s a good compromise Tiffany," Mrs. Hancock said.

"I think that’s definitely a safer way to go," Mr. Hancock added. "Are the rest of you okay with that?" He asked the rest of the adults. They all seemed to think it was the best anyone could do. "How about you Tiffany?"

I paused for a second, but decided to leave while I was ahead. "I guess… Although I wish I could go as Tiffany… Can my friends still call me Tiffany? When we aren’t around everyone else?"

Ms. Fitz said, "As long as you’re sure there’s no one else around Tiffany — that seems fine. We’re not doing this to be mean to you, it’s more so that we can keep you safe and make sure that you don’t go through anything you don’t have to." She said calmly and reassuringly.

"I guess I know that. Thanks." I added the last part as a polite afterthought.

Mrs. Manning said, "This also means we’re going to have to reshuffle some room assignments."

She looked at my Mom, "Do you mind if Tiffany rooms with the Hancocks? I’d like to put two boys in your room so we have your husband with them."

My mom hesitated for a second but said, "That should be fine."

"Will that work for you guys?" She asked the Hancocks.

"Of course." Amy’s dad said.

"Do you think some of the kids will question that?" Ms. Fitz asked.

Amy’s mom took that one. "I doubt anyone would think that’s strange — the two of them were constantly together at school all year. This spring they’ve been completely joined at the hip."

"Okay then, let’s see what other bugs we need to work out here," Mrs. Manning said.

We talked for a good twenty minutes on how rooms were going to be affected and who was rooming with whom.

We all started leaving soon after that and I said thank you to both of the teachers, Mr. Sanders, and the Hancocks. Mrs. Hancock offered to just take me at that point, but Mom told her we needed to run by the house first. When we got home Mom and I walked inside our house. As soon as the door was closed I gave her a big bear hug and said "Thank you." I knew that she had done as much as she could for me, and I appreciated it.
 
 
Chapter 22
 
 

WE ARRIVED AT the Hancocks house at 11:50 or so. I had no sooner walked up to their door before it was flung open and I was pounced on by Amy. "You look so pretty Tiffany!"

"Thanks," I choked out, somehow managing to not drop my box of photos.

She released me and we walked into her house. "Mom told me you looked pretty today, but she wasn’t kidding!"

"Thanks."

"Hold on a sec, I’ll be back down in a couple minutes!" She said running upstairs for something.

"Tiffany, are you happy with what we worked out?" I heard Mrs. Hancock’s voice behind me.

I turned around and faced her. "It was better than I hoped for… I wish I could really be Tiffany on the trip, but I’ll definitely settle for what I got." I replied to her.

"I know you’re not going to be as obviously Tiffany on this trip, but I want you to be really careful on this trip — don’t leave one of our sides. Your parents, us, Amy, and the other girls should be able to keep you safe… But I could see something going wrong if the boys discovered that you were wearing panties for instance." She said looking somewhat grim.

"I know… but this is me, they’re going to have to come to terms with it sooner or later." I said, a little teary eyed.

She came over to me and gave me a hug. "Yes they are. And, no matter what they say or do please know that we’ll always be here for you okay?"

"Thank you Mrs. Hancock."

"You’re very welcome Tiffany." She hesitated for a second then said, "Tiffany why don’t you call me Melanie instead of Mrs. Hancock?"

I felt very awkward right then… "Why?"

"Well… I can’t ask you to call me Mom, although I think of you as my second daughter — that would be wrong. But, I think Melanie would be okay." She told me.

"Um… okay Melanie, thanks." I replied. I sat there and talked to her for a few more minutes before I heard feet pounding down the stairs. I turned around and saw Amy in her jumper that was like mine.

"So what do you think?" She said as she came up to me.

"Well, I don’t think we’ll be confused as twins… but you never know!" I told her giggling.

"Well let’s get to scrapbooking!" She said and led me to their formal dining room. In there I saw tons of scissors, paper, pens, and other stuff. For a while she spent some time showing me what all they had — and how to use it.

From there she handed me several stacks of pictures that she said were mine. The stack of photos was mainly from the ski trip and the slumber party. There must have been six dozen pictures though from those two things, and that didn’t even include some other miscellaneous photos of the two of us that I didn’t even know Mrs… I mean Melanie had taken of me. Pictures like one from the first time I went swimming in Amy’s swimsuit. When had she taken it? There were also several clippings from the newspaper about our project.

The two of us had been working hard on scrapbook page after scrapbook page for the better part of an hour when her mom came in and asked if we were hungry. I had completely forgotten about lunch — I’d been too busy with everything else.

We sat down at their breakfast counter to eat the macaroni and cheese her mom had made for us.

"So Mom said that they decided you have to go on the trip as Brandon?"

"Yeah… unfortunately." She looked as downtrodden as I did. "But they said I could be Tiffany with my friends! And they said I can wear girls’ clothes when I’m in the room, and I can wear panties underneath my clothes… They also told me I could wear a girl’s pair of shorts one day, and tops that are girls as long as they’re not too girly…"

"Well that’s better than nothing I guess." She said.

"If the other kids found out how do you think they would react?" I asked her.

"I think it would vary… I think you would have seventy, maybe eighty percent behind you. I’m sure there would be at least one kid that would be a jerk about it just because they could. But, you have Ashley, Nikki, Lindsey, Amber, and me that would be behind you a-hundred-and-fifty-percent. I’ll make sure that we all stay together in our group during the trip."

"Thanks Amy." I replied to her with a smile.

We moved onto another bit of conversation. As we were getting up from lunch she said, "Tiffany, I have really really really great idea!" She exclaimed.

"What?"

"Well, I’m supposed to get my hair done tomorrow morning… We should get yours done too and get the same style!" She was clearly excited about this.

"Well… What are you going to get done?" I asked her. I actually really liked what she was going to do. If the two of us had the same haircut that would be one more way of making it look like we were sisters to anyone who didn’t know us. I decided that would be kind of handy on the trip. The only unfortunate thing was I didn’t know if it would be too girly to be allowed under the ‘Brandon is attending the trip’ guidelines.

"I like the idea, but I’d have to ask my mom first to see if I can do it…"

"Do what?" Amy’s mom asked.

Amy filled her in and she said, "I think that would probably be an acceptable idea. Tiffany I’ll set it up if you want. It’ll be my treat for the trip."

"Really?"

"Yes, but we do need to call your Mom. Tell you what, why don’t you two go keep working on your scrapbooks and I’ll call your Mom, Tiffany?" She suggested.

"Okay," I said. We left to go back to the table to work on our scrapbooks. I was amazed at how slow I had been going at first compared to now with the pages. My first page had taken me a good fifty minutes, now I was doing one every seven to ten minutes depending on what I was doing. I had gotten through all of the pictures I had brought, the ski trip, and two of the slumber party when Melanie came in.

"Hey Tiff, your mom said okay to getting your hair done. So I called the salon up to see if they could work you both in tomorrow. They said they were fully booked tomorrow though."

I was disappointed, but not everything can go my way right? "Thanks anyway for trying," I told her.

"Now hold up just a second, I said they couldn’t work you both in tomorrow. They do, however, have three openings in half an hour if you two want to get ready to go and leave right now."

"Cool!" I said. I hadn’t even said that one word, when Amy ran upstairs and back down with her shoes.

We all jumped into her car and drove into town. Between traffic and the distance we just barely made it there before our appointment.

When we pulled up I was instantly glad that Melanie had said she was going to pay… I had in my mind some run of the mill hair stylist salon, this was anything but that. The building was designed in a really pretty adobe style. It featured the typical posts coming out of the roof, but definitely somehow took on a new level of sophistication. All of the cars in the parking lot were worth at least fifty-thousand dollars.

The name of the place itself was in Spanish, and I guessed the meaning to be something about Life’s Dreams… I don’t speak Spanish so don’t put that down as a for sure translation, that’s just a guess.

Amy’s mom led the way inside the salon and we were immediately met by a lady dressed very stylishly.

"Ah… Mrs. Hancock, I’m so glad that you were able to come today." She said. She turned to Amy, "Amy it’s very nice to see you again as well. And I take it this is Tiffany?" She asked.

"Yes, ma’am." I replied to her.

"I’m Elizabeth." She said giving me a feminine hand shake that I returned. "Well ladies, let’s go ahead and take you on into the salon." She began leading us down a hallway. We followed her to a large open room that had skylights letting in large amounts of natural sunlight.

Off to the side of that room were several doors — she led us to a room and we were given pink robes to change into. Amy’s mom whispered to me, "We’ll turn around here and change. You just change the other direction okay?"

I stripped out of my jumper and quickly donned the robe. I told them, "I’m done." They then let me know when they were finished (Amy’s mom took the longest). We left the room and met Elizabeth right there and she showed us each to our station in the large room.

I say ‘station’ because there really is no comparison to any ‘normal’ hair salon I had seen before. I was seated in a very nicely upholstered leather chair. The leather was that really soft leather. The chair was actually more comfortable than any chair in my parents’ living room. We each had an attractive lady come to attend to us at that point.

Mine introduced herself as Lynette. "How are you doing miss?" She asked me.

"I’m doing well, and yourself?" I asked back.

"I’m doing great!" She said enthusiastically. I guessed she was probably about twenty-five or so, so she was fairly young. "I was filled in a bit on what we’re doing here for you, but I was told you weren’t?" She asked.

"Umm… I thought I was just coming in for a hair cut?" I said in a tentative manner. "Are we doing more than that?"

"Absolutely! You’re in one of the finest salons in the country — and the Hancock’s are our favorite clients — I’m not just saying that. So, here’s the deal. We’re going to start off with washing your hair out, then I’m going to work on it for a bit, then we’ll let it sit for a while. While your hair is setting we’ll go ahead and do a facial on you as well as a manicure and a pedicure."

"Wow…" I gasped.

"Sound good?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, I would like you to make a couple decisions though about your nails. I notice that they’re pretty long already, would you like me to add to that?" She asked.

I didn’t even hesitate on that one. "No thanks, not with us going on this trip."

"Okay, fair enough. Mrs. Hancock said that we had to go with a clear nail polish color for this trip, but if she brings you back sometime we can do something prettier."

"Cool." I replied… I might come back sometime? Not on my money…

"Well let’s start with your hair!"

She leaned me back into a sink and began washing my hair and in the process massaged my scalp. It was like the ski trip session, but even better! After what felt like an eternity of pleasure, yanking on my hair, scissors snipping, and rollers going in the bottom of my hair, she then began the rest of the process.

The whole experience was so extraordinarily wonderful that I can’t put much of it into words. The facial, the manicure and pedicure, and the finishing of my hair seemed to fly by. After a bit she led me back to the room where I had changed earlier and told me to go ahead and put my dress back on. My hair was still covered, so it took some doing to get it over my head without messing it up.

Once I was done I found her waiting for me again leading me back to the same spot. She worked with my hair for about ten more minutes and then moved back to my face.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Putting makeup on you." She said. "Mrs. Hancock wanted me to evaluate you and get you a set of makeup that would work well for you."

"Oh. Thank you." I said.

"You must be like a daughter to Mrs. Hancock for her to bring you here," she told me.

"If I didn’t have parents that loved me so much, and wouldn’t give me up, I’m sure they would adopt me in a heartbeat," I replied to her softly.

She turned my chair to face the mirror. She spent about fifteen minutes trying different looks on me before explaining how to do the one we decided on. She put together a bag of makeup for me and led me to another room where Amy and her mom were sitting at a table drinking bottles of water. They handed me one as I walked in.

As soon as I saw Melanie, I rushed up to her and hugged her tightly. "Thank you so much for all of this!" I told her.

"It’s my pleasure Tiffany." She gestured towards the makeup bag when I released her, "I see they took care of getting you your makeup?" I nodded. "Good, then we’re ready to go."

Amy stood up at that point and I looked at her. She looked really pretty — something that I commented on. She told me at that point, "Tiffany, you look basically the same as I do. I fear we might have to watch out for each other on this trip! Boys will be leaping from burning buildings just to try and impress us." She giggled.

"Umm… I don’t know if I want that or not…" I replied… "I’m supposed to be Brandon on this trip… and Tiffany isn’t interested in dating yet!" I replied to her.

She giggled a bit and her mom led us outside to the car. It was already 4:30pm at that point, I couldn’t figure out where we were going as we drove away.

WE WERE GOING the opposite direction from home, and she seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.

"Where are we going Mommy?" Amy asked. Apparently she was in the dark as much as I was.

"It’s a surprise for both of you okay? We’ll be there in two more minutes." She said.

We both took that as a sign that we weren’t going to get anything else out of her and started focusing back on our new looks. Both of us were ecstatic with our new hairstyle and everything else.

"By the way Tiffany, I think you’ve got to do your makeup that way at school next year everyday!"

"Is it really that good?"

"Tiffany, when school starts and people hear about you they’re going to expect you to look like a boy in a dress. When you were wearing boys clothing, more than once I heard people say to each other that you looked like a ‘tomboy’ in boys clothing - now that you’re in girls clothing I don’t think anyone would even guess that you were ever a boy. With that makeup on I guarantee every boy that you pass will be staring at your pretty face."

I blushed. "You’re exaggerating," I told her.

Amy’s mom piped in, "no, she’s not exaggerating. Though I have to say I think Amy is in the same boat!" A moment later she pulled into the lot of a building that said ‘Rogers Portrait Studio.’

"We’re getting our pictures taken?" Amy asked.

"Yes, and I’ve got some surprises waiting for you inside Ladies. But we only have till six to get this done before we have to meet Tiffany’s parents at Chili’s for dinner. So hustle up!" She ordered.

When we got inside the photographer was ready for us. The first thing we did was take several dozen shots by ourselves and together in about ten different scenes he had setup around a massive warehouse type room. Then he asked, "Do you two have your next change of clothes?"

Amy’s mom walked up then and said, "Yes they do, they’re in the changing rooms." She said. She led us to two changing rooms that were both unisex.

"Both of you change into the green dress that’s in there. Don’t worry about tying the bow girls; I can do it better and faster out here okay? Don’t forget to put on the white tights that are there!" She said pushing us inside the room.

When I saw the dress that she was referring to I just about froze up completely. It was absolutely gorgeous! I was sure I had never seen a dress that pretty in all of my life. It was a dark green taffeta skirt and puffy short sleeves. The bodice was also in dark green, but it was embellished with embroidery crisscrossing back and forth making diamond patterns. At alternating points across the tips of the diamonds were little pink flowers and pearl looking beads.

I pulled my jumper off carefully to avoid ruining my makeup. Then I saw the tights and pulled them on first. I know a lot of people say this is such a tricky thing, but to me it was honestly just like pulling up soccer socks. I still enjoyed it very much though. The dress had a built in petticoat so I was able to just slip it on. Of course by just slip it on that was the process of getting into it.

The feelings that went through me on the nature of this were unreal. I did as Amy’s mom asked and didn’t bother zipping up. I went outside and found Amy’s mom putting a pair of Mary Jane style shoes on Amy’s feet. She zipped me up, tied my bow, and then did the same for me with the shoes. We both looked adorable!

I had seen some dresses like this on a website from an Italian dress maker before — they weren’t cheap, but I had dreamt about them since I had first seen them. Amy and I talked briefly while her mom touched up our makeup, but we didn’t have much time to talk because we got right back to the picture taking. Again several dozen were taken at each scene, plus a couple others, before we were led back to the changing room.

We went through several other sets of clothes. Jeans and T-shirt, Shorts and T-shirts, skirts, a prom-dress style dress, a sundress, a swimsuit (that one was scary with the possibility of someone figuring out stuff…), and even pajamas followed before we were done. In most of the cases we wore the same thing — though sometimes in different colors. Oftentimes we put on jewelry, tiaras, or other accessories to add more appeal.

When we were done with the last outfit Amy asked, "Mommy can we wear the green dresses to dinner? Please?" She begged.

"Yes, please?" I asked as well.

"You two will be a little overdressed for Chili’s." She said.

"That’s okay, we’ll be pretty!" Amy told her.

"Alright, but you only have four minutes to change and help me get all of this stuff packed up!"

"Alright! Thank you!" I told her, and we both rushed to quickly put the dresses back on. We were both out in two minutes for her to help us again, before helping her move everything to her car on the way out.

"So when will we get to see these pictures?" I asked her as we drove away.

"Well he said he would have proofs of everything tonight, and would bring them to us at our house to pick out the packages if we wanted. I told him to drop by at eight and your parents could help us pick them out Tiff."

"Cool," I said.

I was excited. No, really I was beyond excited! Amy and I were both bouncing off the walls of the car on that ride to Chili’s. We walked into the restaurant and found my parents and Mr. Hancock sitting at a table. When they saw us their jaws all collectively dropped.

My mom was the first to speak, "Where did you find these Melanie?" She said as she came over and started examining my dress.

"A friend of mine owns a dress shop — she told me about them a while back but I thought they would be perfect for our trip to photographer. I hadn’t planned on us going today, but thankfully she already had them and dropped them off at the studio yesterday."

"They’re absolutely gorgeous." My mom reiterated. "You two are a bit overdressed for here though," she chuckled.

"We don’t care. We’re pretty Mommy!" I responded.

"Actually I don’t think pretty does you both justice," my dad proclaimed.

"I love the new hair," my mom said as I sat between her and Dad. Amy was sitting across from me, Melanie across from Mom, and Amy’s dad across from my dad.

The waitress came by and fussed over us quite a bit. "Where ever did you find those dresses?" she asked the moms. "You two look like princesses," she told us. It made me smile from ear to ear, and blush in the same moment.

The conversations all continued about Amy and I being gorgeous princesses well through dinner before switching to plans about the trip. They all discussed about meeting together to walk in so that we would be a cohesive group meeting everyone else. I think they were hoping that it would help with any potential, ‘problems’ we could run into. We all knew that those unspoken ‘potential problems’ that might arise all involved me. Oh well.

Following dinner we split a few desserts around the table with my parents picking up the check. Mom and Dad both agreed to come over to Amy’s house to look at the proofs after we finished. The six of us drove to their house and Amy and I got busy frantically cleaning up our mess on the dining room table. We put all of our pages into boxes — we were going to finish up after we got our pictures back from the trip. The photographer arrived minutes later with a mountain of proofs in hand.

I never was able to get a full count — people kept moving pictures too much — but I think we must have had a good eight-hundred pictures we had to look through to choose just a few. There were so many comments of, "How cute!" that kept flying by, that Amy and I were in a perpetual state of blushing. We ended up placing a couple separate orders for each family, with us taking about thirty pictures each to get made into various shots. We also jointly bought the proofs, which the photographer would drop off at our houses tomorrow.

"How are you doing this so fast?" I asked the photographer.

"Well I’m in kind of a lull for the year right now. Plus I have several printers and staff to help out with this stuff. This was also a fun shoot though, so I’m probably putting a little more into it than normal."

"Well thank you for doing so." I said to him.

He left with the orders in hand and Amy and I helped sort out which clothes were going to which house that night. Mom had tried to pay Mrs. Hancock back for some of the dresses and such but of course they wouldn’t have any of that. My parents and I all profusely thanked her. I gave her and Mr. Hancock big hugs before we headed home for the night.

After a good thirty minutes of rearranging my closet to fit everything I finally was talked into taking off my dress and putting on a pair of the pajamas that we had used in the shoot earlier. The pajamas really weren’t anything that special, but they were in a cute pink color and were really comfy. That night when my head hit the pillow I was out like a light bulb.
 
 
Chapter 23
 
 

I DRAGGED MYSELF out of bed at 9am the next morning. I got in the shower and Mom helped me do my hair when I got out, since I wasn’t quite sure how to take care of this new style. I then helped Mom pack for all of us. I was so excited about leaving tomorrow — it was going to be my first time ever on a plane! Mom helped guide me to keep from packing too much stuff for the trip — I really wanted to take plenty of options, but she limited me to just taking two extra shirts, shorts, and one pair of extra jeans.

I also spent some of the morning packing my backpack — it was going with me on the plane — with different things. I had my Game Boy, several games, a couple books, a Barbie (I told them no one else would see it!), a coloring book Mom had bought me along with some crayons. She had bought two of the coloring books — one for me and one for Amy.

Dad had taken the day off so that he could help out with stuff and found plenty of things to do until lunch. We finished packing about 12:30 and sat down together to eat some cheese crisps (melted cheese on a tortilla in a skillet with butter ‘crisping’ the bottom,) when the door bell rang. I was the first to get up and walk to the door and found the photographer standing there.

"Who is it Tiff?" My mom called.

"It’s the photographer," I replied.

She came out and took care of paying for the prints that we had ordered (they had managed to get the Hancocks to let them do that.) We then looked through the stack and Mom said, "Joe, we should take some of these with us today for your parents."

What? I thought to myself… Take them with us… when were they going to tell me we were going over to their house?

"We’re going over to Grandma and Grandpa’s?" I asked.

"We have to drop the dog off sweetie."

"But do they know…" I stammered.

"Yes they do, and while your Grandfather is going to take a little while to bring around…" she said clearly hesitating before continuing, "your Grandmother is anxious to see you." She finished. I was a little concerned with the way she put that — it did not inspire confidence.

"Umm… So… You’re sure?" I asked

"Sweetie, you’ll be fine. Your grandparents will love you no matter who you are." My dad said soothingly. I think they were both rightfully reading that I was on the brink of a freak out here.

"Okay then… When are we leaving?" I asked.

"Thirty minutes?" She looked at my dad.

"How about sooner?" He asked back.

I decided to put my foot down at that point. "I’ve been packing all morning, there is absolutely no way I can look good in less than thirty!" I told him.

"Look good? You look great now." Dad told me.

"Just look at me! My hair is a mess! And I’m not going to let Grandma and Grandpa meet Tiffany in shorts and a t-shirt!" I went on for a few minutes before I saw Mom raise an eyebrow at me. "Sorry… I’m just a bit nervous." I told him.

"It’s okay. Go ahead and get ready and we’ll leave then, okay?" He answered soothingly. Boy things had changed the past few weeks… Before last Saturday I probably would have had my rear-end blistered for that outburst…

"Thank you Daddy," I said and hugged him before running to my room. I decided to wear a sundress we had bought Monday that I hadn’t worn yet. Once I had that on I put on a pair of sandals and went into the bathroom. That morning had caused my hair to have a mind of it’s own in certain spots. I worked on fixing all of those spots to make things perfect.

I debated about putting makeup on… but decided I would go without this time. There were enough pictures with me and makeup to show them. Besides, Mom didn’t seem so thrilled with her eleven year old daughter wearing makeup for some reason… I quickly double checked everything and went out to the living room. My parents were both waiting for me, with my dad looking at his watch. "See you even still have a minute left!" He said with a smile.

We walked out the door with the dog jumping in the car ahead of me into the back seat. I sat down and smoothed out my dress before putting my seatbelt on. Shali wanted to sit on my lap while we were driving, but I didn’t want her messing up my dress. I figured she could deal with sitting on the seat — of course then she begged to sit on my dad’s lap up front! The forty minute drive seemed to pass far too quickly. I was so scared as to what they were going to say… I was more scared of them than I was the kids on the trip and at school. ‘I guess their opinion matters more,’ I thought to myself as I stared out the window at the passing scenery.

We pulled up the long driveway to their house, and drove up underneath a tree next to their house. Both of them were sitting on a porch swing on their patio. ‘Well here goes nothing,’ I thought to myself. I climbed out of the car — letting Shali race ahead of me first — and walked up to them.

Grandma came down from the porch first and hugged me before holding my shoulders at arms length. She spun me around so she could see my dress and then embraced me again. "Well you certainly make a beautiful young lady Tiffany." She told me. At least Grandma was behind me!

I walked over to Grandpa and gave him a hug. He didn’t really say much except, "I love you darling." It was definitely a much colder reception. It was obvious that he did not approve of this, but he said he still loved me — at least I wasn’t being disowned.

"Thanks Grandpa, I love you too." I replied.

Grandma took back control of me now, looking at my hair. "Sweetie your hair is absolutely adorable!"

"I went with my best friend Amy and her mom to a salon yesterday to get my hair done."

"You look very nice like this sweetie," She told me as she embraced me again.

We all walked into the house and sat down at the dining room table to talk for a bit. Mom then pulled out a folder of pictures that we brought with us and started passing them around. Meanwhile Grandma offered coffee and iced tea to everyone.

"My heavens, what a beautiful girl you make Tiffany!" Grandma gasped. She hadn’t even made it to my favorite picture of the one dress yet!

When we did get to the one picture set Grandpa finally complimented me, "Tiffany you really are a very beautiful young lady."

"Thank you Grandpa." I replied to him.

"You’re welcome, sweetheart," he told me as he put his arm around me and gave me a hug. I could smell his cologne and feel the whiskers from his face scratch me a bit when he did this. Grandpa sat back down at his chair at the head of the kitchen table, and I reflected on how he definitely had a change in the way he acted towards me from that moment on.

They chose several pictures for themselves and we all talked about nothing and everything at the same time. We didn’t stay long though as we had to get back home to finish up with some things. Before I left Grandma pulled me off to the side.

"Tiffany, I wanted to make sure that I told you again how beautiful you are. When your parents first told us what they thought was going on last week we were flabbergasted. I think your grandfather and I honestly expected you to look like a boy wearing a dress… but truthfully I think you make a better looking girl than a boy. No matter what happens we’ll stand behind you and love you sweetie." She told me with a hug.

"Even Grandpa?" I whispered.

"Even he feels that way. You know he used to wear some of my clothes from time to time when he sold cars." She said with a wink.

"What?"

"It was a gimmick he and his boss did. So don’t be afraid to be who you are okay?"

I gave her an even bigger hug and said "Thank you Grandma." As we left Grandpa and Grandma both got hugs again before we got in the car.

"What now?" I asked Mom.

"Home. I want us all to be in bed by eight since we leave so early tomorrow." I looked at the car clock and saw that it was already five o’clock. "We can grab a pizza on our way home to eat okay?"

So after all was said and done the day finished flying by. Mom had to make a last minute trip to Wal-Mart that night to pick up some luggage tags. We also put some curly ribbon on all of our bags too. Before bed that night Mom had me come to the living room. There I saw two wrapped presents on the table. As I got closer, I saw that they were both wrapped in, ‘it’s a girl!’ wrapping paper.

I looked at Mom and Dad and they said, "go ahead and open them!" I opened the smaller one first and found a cute pink watch — I realized with that I hadn’t had any girls watches. We had all been told to wear watches on this trip so we could keep track of where we were supposed to be. It wasn’t obviously a girl’s watch though — so I would be able to wear it on the trip still. "Thank you!" I said to them before moving onto the next one.

I opened up the box and found a camera of my very own. It looked to be nicer than my parents’ old camera (they had bought a new one for this trip last week,) and Mom and Dad had put ten rolls of film in the box along with a small bag for it. This warranted an immediate hug to my parents.

"Make sure you’re careful with it sweetheart," Dad said.

"I will be. Say do you think this’ll fit into my fanny pack?" I asked Mom.

"It might. Why don’t you check?" She suggested. So I did so. It fit, though it was a tight squeeze with my little wallet and hair ties. I had just enough room inside of there to put one extra roll of film.

"It fits, it’s tight, but it fits." I told them.

"Good honey. Now why don’t you go ahead and get to bed so that you’re rested tomorrow.

"Okay Mommy, thanks!" I gave them both another hug and then went to bed. That night I dreamt of all sorts of adventures we were sure to have in Florida.

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To Be Continued...