I was disappointed when Denise didn’t turn up for her costume fitting this afternoon and then failed even to let us know why she wasn’t coming. Sue and Jenny think that she’s just a spoiled rich kid, but she’s always been alright with me and has never let me down like this before. Sue and Jenny can get a little cliquey together at times and the presence of Denise is normally a useful counterbalance because she tends to see my point of view. Everyone assumes that just because Sue and I are twins we must always think alike and agree with one another, but we’re not genetic twins, don’t look alike and have quite different personalities. We just happened to have shared the same womb together.

Although Denise didn’t turn up, I’ve been making good progress with the light blue dress that she’s going to wear on Friday night. It is a ‘baby-doll’ style and I just needed to make sure that the length was right for her and then finish off the hem. In the absence of Denise I might have used the tailor’s dummy in mum’s room, but this was being used by the others. That’s when I had the idea of asking Jenny’s younger brother to help. He’s about the same height as my friend and although not exactly the same shape, there was nothing that a little bit of padding couldn’t rectify. I therefore dragged him away from some mindless television programme downstairs and explained what I required.

‘Joe, would you mind putting on this dress for me just for a few minutes whilst I check the hemline as Denise hasn’t turned up?’

He looked surprised by the suggestion.

‘Couldn’t one of the others do it for you?’ he asked.

‘No, they’re both taller than you and Denise are, and in any event they’re busy next door. You would be just about right if we provide you with a pair of boobs to make it fit properly. Please do this for me, it will only take a few minutes and I promise not to tell anyone.’

‘I don’t know Karen,’ he said looking distinctly embarrassed.

Jenny sometimes complains about her brother, but I’ve always found him to be alright, just a little bit shy. If you smile and speak nicely to him, pat him on the head and offer him a sugar lump he’s not immune from a little feminine persuasion.

‘Please Joe, it’ll be a great help to me,’ I said in my best entreating voice. ‘I want to get this finished tonight.’

He sighed.

‘Go on then.’

‘Good!’ I said, giving him a chaste kiss on the cheek, which made him turn the colour of a beetroot.

‘If you strip down to your underpants, and pop this on for a few minutes’ I said handing him one of my bras, you can fill the cups with your socks. By the way, what shoe size are you?’

‘Five, but why do you need to know that?’

‘Just right, you can put on a pair of my pop-socks and Denise’s high-heeled shoes, that way your height will be exactly right.’

Joe didn’t look at all bad wearing Denise’s dress and shoes, and he was also quite co-operative in either standing still or turning round when I needed him to do so. In fact we chatted together quite happily as I finished off the hemline, and I was just beginning to revise my opinion of him, when the other two suddenly appeared from the next room.

‘My goodness Joe, you look brilliant in that dress, that colour really suits you,’ gasped Jenny, clearly surprised by the sight of her brother.

He went bright red for a second time, and I began to feel a little sorry for him.

‘I have an idea, just wait there for a minute, everybody,’ said Sue, and disappeared downstairs.

There was no stopping my sister and Jenny once she’d returned bringing Mum’s long wig with her. Within minutes they’d substituted the pop socks for a pair of tights and had him sit down at the dressing table to make up his face and put on the wig. Any protests from Joe were brushed to one side, but I did at least manage to secure from them both the solemn assurance that this evening’s events would go no further — I could just imagine what his life would be like if it became common knowledge at our school.

‘Nobody at school will get to know, remember we’re not due to go back for six weeks,’ said Sue.

By the time our mothers came upstairs to join us, the dress was finished, and Jenny and Sue had made a pretty good job of making up his face and had brushed and styled the wig. They’d even given him some of Sue’s jewellery to wear. The overall effect was quite stunning, and entirely convincing. He looked just like a girl; and quite a decent looking one at that.

‘What do you think Mum?’ asked Sue triumphantly as they entered the room.

‘Er … I think he looks lovely,’ answered Mum, nervously looking towards Aunt Carol to see how she was going to react to seeing her son dressed as an attractive young lady.

‘I hope the girls haven’t been bullying you into dressing like this?’ asked Carol, looking severely at her daughter, in particular.

Joe could have used this opportunity to drop us all in it, if he chose to do so, but he didn’t. In spite of what Jenny says about him, he seems to be a good sport.

‘No, not really, I agreed to model the dress for Karen as Denise hasn’t turned up. I wasn’t exactly expecting the wig and makeup as well, but I don’t mind as long as they all promise not to tell anyone,’ he answered.

‘We’ve all sworn to keep it a secret,’ I added, by way of confirmation.

‘In that case, I must say that you do look most attractive dressed as a young lady,’ said Aunt Carol smiling.

‘In fact, you look so good in that costume that if Denise doesn’t arrive soon, you would be able to take her place in the competition next weekend,’ joked Sue. ‘I’m sure that nobody would notice the difference.’

That was a bitchy thing to say about my friend, but she did have a point. Joe didn’t respond and appeared to be a little bit embarrassed by the suggestion, and no-one else took it seriously; after all we were relying on Denise’s mother to drive us there. I looked across at Joe and had a sneaking suspicion that he might even be enjoying the attention being shown to him for once. It was at that point that the telephone downstairs rang and mum left to answer it and Aunt Carol followed her soon afterwards.

Before we returned Joe to the state in which we’d found him, the others wanted to take his photograph, but I wouldn’t let them do it without his prior agreement, which was not forthcoming. We did, however, indulge in a little more gentle teasing. Of course he protested that we’d tricked him and forced him to wear the dress against his will, but I still had the impression that he didn’t really mind that much. In fact we hadn’t even begun to turn him back into a boy when Mum called us all to go downstairs.