I found it terribly difficult to carry all those shopping bags into the house, not only because they were heavy but also because of the delicate fake nails that I now had to cope with. I was afraid of breaking them whenever I clenched my fist around one of the bag handles, but at the same time I feared for the bags safety because these nails were quite sharp. 

I didn’t spare much time to examine my new nails, as I hated every moment I spent looking at them. They had this strange effect of making my fingers look longer and thinner, more feminine than they had been before. 

Stephanie had offered me a brief ray of hope when she said I could stop using them if I wanted, but when she continued my heart sank again. 

“But only when your real nails grow back to a proper length, and then we can all go down to the nail salon, won’t that be fun?” Stephanie was speaking to the fridge as she packed various products onto the shelves. 

“Yes, Mom.” Kaitlyn and I said together as we put the last of the shopping onto the table. It seemed that my new sister was looking forward to that as much as I was.

Luckily I wasn’t the one who had to carry the most bags, and the job of looking after my nails without dropping the shopping was done long before I thought it would be. Kaitlyn informed me that her mother usually wasn’t that generous and often made her carry in all the shopping, whilst she herself did the job of putting everything into its correct place in the kitchen.

Kaitlyn quietly thanked me afterwards for making her job slightly easier. 

When we finished, the three of us split off to do what we wanted to. That normally happened in my house after we’d finished helping with the shopping. I would go up to my room and watch TV whilst Mom and Dad went about their own business, but now I was in a different house and with a different family. Stephanie had answered the phone and went off into the lounge, whilst Kaitlyn had gone back upstairs and into her room, leaving me in the kitchen. 

When I realised that this wasn’t my family and I had nothing to do by myself, I ran straight for the stairs. Stephanie was gossiping over the phone with someone who I could only assume was another woman, since they were quite loudly discussing the latest fashions and one prominent topic was what they were going to wear to some office party. 

I truly had no idea what girls talked about when there weren’t any boys around, since I never talked to any of the girls at school and the cul-de-sac girls rarely had their own private conversations. Even if they did, they would never reveal their secrets to the boys. 

But now that I was stuck pretending to be a girl, listening to Stephanie talking about all these girly topics made me realise that I might be stuck talking about the same things for the rest of my life. Surely girls talk about some sports, or the army, perhaps even space travel?

If I was going to talk about clothes, makeup, shoes, boys and the latest pop idol for the rest of my life, I might just pretend to be a mute. I would still have to listen to girls blabber on, but at least the words wouldn’t come from my mouth.

I darted up the stairs and into Kaitlyn’s room, where she was sitting at her vanity table playing with her silly makeup. On the table I could see the tube of sparkly purple lip-gloss that had gotten me into this mess in the first place, it was sitting comfortably on a pile of makeup products that Kaitlyn was using. 

“What are you doing? I thought we were going to finally escape?” It was a stupid question to ask, where would I go when I did escape?

“Where would you go if you escaped?” Kaitlyn said coolly whilst staring at me in the large mirror on the vanity table. 

I had no answer for her so I just shrugged. 

“Exactly.” Kaitlyn fluffed at her face with one of those huge makeup brushes, the end of which was covered in some light pink powder. 

She put the brush down for a moment and looked over her shoulder, looking right into my eyes. “I’m sorry to say this but your home is here now, as Courtney.” 

Kaitlyn turned back to her table and continued doing her makeup, something I hoped I would not be doing myself in the future. 

“My parents can’t just leave me.” I said petulantly. 

“No they can’t, it would be illegal or something, and so they will eventually come looking. Until that time, why don’t you enjoy being my sister for once, it can’t be so bad.” 

“It’s not being your sister that’s bad, it’s being a girl.” I muttered as I went and sat on Kaitlyn’s bed and turned on the TV. Beside me were two outfits neatly laid out side by side, both were fairly pink dresses. The first dress, closer to Kaitlyn rather than me, was a silky light pink material covered in a white floral pattern. The bottom of the dress seemed to flare out quite a bit, and the edge was lined with some sort of thin white lacy material. The second dress, the one closer to me, was actually black underneath but decorated with a pink squares all over. I didn’t know how else to describe it so I checked the label to actually find out what it was called. It would have been awkward if Jan asked what I was wearing and I struggled to explain what she thought were ‘my’ clothes. 

It was a ‘1960s Style Check Dress by Yumi’ apparently. 

I couldn’t help but think Kaitlyn had misunderstood Mum when she said, “Wear something nice.” 

I thought she just meant get changed and wear something different, since the clothes I had on seemed pretty nice to me. Then again I’m not exactly a fashion expert. 

“Isn’t this a bit much?” I said. If Kaitlyn was going to make me wear something like this when I didn’t have to, I had to stop her. 

“When Mom says someone’s coming over for tea, it really means we’re having a little garden party. You’ll learn that eventually.” She grinned at the mirror and started brushing her hair idly. 

“A garden party with just us and Jan?” I thought garden parties had more people than that. 

“Trust me sis, Mom will invite more of her friends, who do you think she’s talking to on the phone?” Kaitlyn said, as if reading lines from a script. This sort of garden party thing must happen quite often.

I stood up from the bed and walked to the window, standing beside Kirsty at her girly table filled with girly goods. I was hoping a quick look outside would show me some dark rain clouds coming in, or snow piled high in the garden, anything to stop a garden party from happening. But the sky was clear, the sun was shining and the grass in the garden was a vibrant green. Elegant white benches were waiting on the patio for a dozen ladies to come and sit on them. 

“How many people will come?” I asked. I figured 20 or so people couldn’t all speak to Stephanie at once, so the spares would have to talk to Kirsty and me. I didn’t want that. 

“Four or five of Mom’s co-workers.” Kaitlyn replied, she knew exactly what to expect. 

“They’ll all have tea in the garden together, we don’t have to join them. But we’re expected to say hello at some point.” 

“What if we don’t?” I asked.

“Then you can expect to be grounded by Mom.” 

“She’s not my Mom.” 

“Yes she is, at least for a couple more days. Now will you please get dressed?” Kaitlyn had briefly stopped doing her makeup and turned around in her chair to face me, so clearly saying that was quite important.

“Can’t I just wear this?” I motioned towards the black dress that I had been wearing most of the day. I had actually grown to like that outfit.

Kaitlyn firmly stated “No.” without really explaining why and then handed me the 1960s style dress, the one with a much more vibrant pink. 
I nodded meekly and slowly walked out of Kaitlyn’s room and into ‘my’ room, partly hoping that Kaitlyn would catch up to me and give me something less pink to wear. I slowly closed the door to my room, giving my sister some more time to come, but she didn’t. 

I moved a chair in front of the door once again and wedged it beneath the door handle, something I imagined I would be doing a lot more unless I wanted Stephanie to see my obviously male groin. 

The black dress looked easy enough to just pull off, but things were made much harder when I heard a loud knocking sound, like wood hitting wood, and was suddenly knocked over by a hard object. I collapsed onto the ground with the black dress pulled over my head and a wooden chair on top of me. It quickly dawned on me that the door had been opened and my attempt at locking it had failed miserably, much like all of my recent attempts to escape the house. 

I struggled to pull myself from under the chair, and when I eventually got to my feet I pulled the dress back down again so that it covered my crotch. When I looked up I was expecting to see Suzanne standing there in complete silence, with her face turning a deep dark red and steam shooting out from her ears. I had made that assumption based on the fact that whoever was standing there was completely silent, it could only of been a psychopathic Stephanie.

Once I successfully brought myself back to reality and actually looked up at the intruder, I found it was just Kaitlyn standing there. Her hand was covering her mouth as she struggled to hold in a quiet giggle, while her other hand was holding a flimsy black material that stretched down to the floor. 

“I thought you were Stephanie.” I said, exasperated.

“Mom is still downstairs silly. Nice panties by the way.” Kaitlyn let loose a little snicker. 

I nervously tugged my dress down a bit further, but it wasn’t needed. The white cotton panties underneath had stayed in place, and successfully flattened any bulges. If it was Stephanie that had barged in she wouldn’t have seen anything out of the ordinary, but it was still quite embarrassing. 
“You haven’t even started to get dressed! Is it such a hard thing to do?” 

Kaitlyn began berating me for being so slow to do what she claimed were ‘the simple things’ such as getting dressed and doing my hair and what not. I had to remind her that I wasn’t actually a girl and that all of this was incredibly hard to get used to, which she eventually agreed with. She decided it would be best if she did all the work and helped me get ready for our little garden party. 

“But what about you?” I asked, worried that I would be stopping her from getting herself ready.

“I’m finished already sis, little events like these don’t require that much work. When its time for the school prom however, you’ll be spending hours getting ready.” 
I examined Kaitlyn closely and she did indeed look quite ready, if not more than ready. She looked stunning in that light pink dress with the white flowers, with her hair tied back in a ponytail that draped itself over her shoulder. She only used a little makeup, but it still made her face glow like an angel. 

I used to have a crush on Kaitlyn when her family first moved into the cul-de-sac, it was the ‘pretty girl next door’ kind of thing for a couple of weeks before we started to get to know each other. Eventually my crush subsided and we became best friends, but seeing her dressed up like this brought that innocent attraction right back within minutes.

When I realised that I was still pretending to be her sister, I put those feelings away. I couldn’t just tell her how I felt, not in this situation at least. 

Kaitlyn rushed from my room to hers gathering a selection of shoes, clothes, accessories and lastly a see through bag filled to the brim with cosmetics. It was soon quite obvious that Kaitlyn was going to contradict herself and spend quite a while getting me ready for this ‘small’ event. I could only assume that she just wanted to spend more time treating me like her doll.
Each delivery she brought from her room made me feel that little bit more sick in the stomach, as I not-so-patiently waited for Kaitlyn to turn her makeup brushes on me.

My room was quickly changed from a little girl’s paradise to a teenage girl’s lair, with ‘facilities’ all around dedicated to making that teenage girl look pretty. I was instructed by Kaitlyn to pull off my dress and stand on top of a small pile of books in the center of the room, which brought me up to Kaitlyn’s eye level.

She took several moments to examine me on my pedestal like an artist looking at a blank canvas, while I could only wait anxiously for what she was going to do. To my left were several more dresses hanging on the edge of the wardrobe, each one more pink or yellow than the last. To my right were about 20 different pairs of girls shoes all lined up beside the bed, some with raised heels which looked quite terrifying, whilst some were flat but had bows, ribbons or flowers attached to make them equally as painful to wear. 

Another revelation was that Kaitlyn had rushed me for no reason, as it became obvious that the party was not for a couple of hours at least. I realised this when we had spend about an hour or two deciding which one of the dresses I was going to wear. Kaitlyn didn’t need to tell me that they were all either Harpher’s dresses, or Kaitlyn’s old ones. Each dress was for a girl of Harpher’s age and they were designed to make the wearer look like a princess, with the puffy and lacy skirts, thin waists and quite strange looking puffy shoulders. Some had ribbons that had to be tied in a bow at the back, while others came with long velvet gloves that almost covered the whole arm. 

I was forced into deciding to wear the original dress that Kaitlyn had picked out for me, the pink check dress that was now lying on Harpher’s bed. Kaitlyn gave me a relieved smile when I finally decided what to wear.

“Good, I was going to make you wear that anyway but now you’ve decided for yourself.” Kaitlyn gave me an evil smirk.

“Is there nothing else I can wear?” I asked, rather desperately. I still hoped I could wear the black dress with the flowers but Kaitlyn insisted on something different.

“Nothing else for this party, nothing that would fit you. You could wear my flower girl dress I wore for Mom’s wedding?” Kaitlyn asked, quite sincerely.

I shook my head, knowing that a flower girl’s dress would probably be girlier than any of the ones hanging to my left. 

When the decision was finally made to wear the pink check dress, I had moved to put it on myself, but Kaitlyn had held me in place on top of the pile of books and insisted that she follow through on her earlier decision to dress me herself. A condition of this was that I was not allowed to complain while she worked, and could only talk if it was important. 

I stood there obediently on the makeshift pedestal and raised my arms up when Kirsty commanded me to. She slowly lowered a soft velvety material over my head and let it drop over my body. It wasn’t the dress like I was expecting, but some sort of long vest which fell down to my to my mid-thigh, just about covering my groin. I decided not to ask what it was, in case I incited the wrath of Kaitlyn. 

I didn’t give the velvety vest much thought, because Kaitlyn was soon lowering the rougher material of the check dress over my head. It felt like some sort of wool or fur or something I couldn’t describe, but whatever material it was it was better than the multitude of princess dresses waiting nearby. 

The dress fit me quite well, and was surprisingly comfortable, combined with the warm leggings and the velvety vest I was already wearing. Kaitlyn adjusted some of the fastenings to make the dress fit even better, constantly tugging on the bottom of the dress until she was satisfied.

“Comfortable?” She asked.

“I guess so, yeah.” I replied. The honest truth, I had never felt more comfortable in girls clothing during my short time as a girl. Apart from the colour, it was far better than the black dress.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to stand in one place for very long. Kaitlyn spent a couple of minutes fidgeting with the dress, flicking my hair this way and that before she finally told me to sit down on the edge of the bed. 

After standing for so long, it was such a relief to be sitting on something comfortable whilst Kaitlyn did all the work. She sat down on the floor in front of me, with the huge selection shoes either side of her, and politely asked me to raise my feet. I did so expecting to feel some girlish shoe slipped onto my feet, but that was the complete opposite of what I felt.

It was instead a tugging feeling, the feeling of leggings slowly being put on me. 

I couldn’t hold my tongue, so I blurted out to Kaitlyn, “What are you doing? I don't have hair on my legs remember!” 

Kaitlyn gave me a thoughtful look and then a slow nod.

“Yes, I know, I’m just putting these cute tights on you. Don’t worry.” She continued.

“What if Stephanie comes in?” I continued, but Kaitlyn pressed her manicured forefinger against my lips to silence me like a child. Without replying she gave my leggings one last tug and pulled them off, tossed them aside and walked to the chest of drawers near the door. 

Still without uttering a word, she pushed the chest of drawers in front of the door, effectively blocking it. It was much better than my stupid chair beneath the door handle plan, this was certain to stop anyone from coming in. Kaitlyn then sat down and grabbed the long, flimsy black item that she had come in with. 

“Better?” she asked.
She pressed her finger to my lips just as I was about to reply, then said, “Nuhuhuh, remember our rule.” 

I gave her an annoyed grunt and crossed my arms, whilst she raised my feet again and started to pull the black flimsy object up my feet and up to my ankles.

So that’s what they were, tights. I watched curiously as the smooth nylon material stretched up my legs. It was much thinner than the leggings I was previously wearing, but no matter how much it stretched it still remained black and opaque. I couldn’t see any of my skin through the material, it was pretty cool. 
“Tonight, we’ll do it tonight.” Kaitlyn said.

“Do what?” I asked. I wondered if she meant escape, but that plan was still on hold until we found my parents.

“Look, its summertime Courtney, My mom will get suspicious if you refuse to show your legs. Besides, if she did see your peach fuzz legs I don’t think she’d realise what you really are. She would just end up shaving your legs herself.” Kaitlyn said.

“Your legs were going to be shaved either way, so would you rather we did it or My mom did?” 

“What do you mean ‘we’?” I asked suspiciously.

“You think I’d trust you with a razor? You haven’t even started shaving.” Kaitlyn had the right of it. 

I nodded meekly at her and listened as she came up with a plan whilst simultaneously pulling the tights up my thighs before they finally reached my waist. 

“We’ll stay up late tonight, just until My mom goes to bed. I’ll knock on your door and then get the shaving things. When you hear me knock, sneak into my room and wait for me. Don’t make any loud noises.” Kaitlyn said as she pulled me up from the bed and made me hold up the hem of my dress, whilst she adjusted the tights around my waist.

“Why do we have to do it in your room and not the bathroom?” I asked, thinking that most people shave in bathrooms.
“Its to risky.” She said. “My mom will eventually hear us in the bathroom. I just have to quickly sneak in and get the stuff, then sneak out.” 

“But why your room?” I asked.

“Look, last night did you hear anything through the wall, in my room?” she asked. I wasn’t sure how it was relevant but I shook my head. “No, why?” I asked.

“Exactly.” Kaitlyn grinned.

She pushed my hands aside, so that the dress fell back down.

“You couldn’t hear anything because the walls in my room are really thick. I was watching TV for hours and neither you nor my mom could hear it. So my mom isn’t going to hear us tonight unless we start shouting. Now, no more questions, just remember the plan.” 

Once again we had conceived a plan, and when all other plans before had failed, I wasn’t so sure this one was going to do much better. It seemed much less risky than our escape plans, the consequences of being caught were nowhere near as bad. The thought of having my legs shaved by Stephanie was enough encouragement to agree with this latest plot.

I was instructed to sit back down on the bed and await Kaitlyn as she selected my shoes, and I sat down without complaint. I couldn’t stop thinking about my leg hair, a strange thing to be obsessing over. As soon as we had come up with a plan to get rid of it, I couldn’t help but notice the feeling of the nylon tights rubbing against my semi-hairy legs. I had rarely been aware of the hair on my legs before but now I was more aware of it than ever, it was like every single hair was shouting at me, “Don’t let me go!” 

Kaitlyn made me try on several shoes before she was happy. Every pair was Harpher’s and they all fit me perfectly, which was satisfaction enough for me but not Kaitlyn. She kept on blabbering about the style of the shoe, and how it fit with the outfit. Several times after trying on a pair of shoes, she would say, “This doesn’t fit” as if it was some sort of puzzle piece.

Honestly, a simple pair of sneakers is good enough for me. Girls make things too complicated.

We, or rather she, narrowed the selection down to three. They were all the sort of shoes that the girls wore to school. Glossy black leather, t-bars, bars and buckles, flowers and bows, that sort of thing. I didn’t care which one I had to wear as long as it was comfortable, but Kaitlyn allowed me the final decision to pick which one I wanted.

I would of just randomly pointed my finger at a pair, but I decided to pick the pair of flat black shoes with a bow over the toes. Kaitlyn described it as a ballerina shoe and that it was a good pick, but I just picked it because it was somehow the least girly looking of the three.

The last step, or the last ‘station’ as I had come to think of it after being shepherded through clothes and shoes, was the vanity table. After seeing Kaitlyn sit at her vanity table for ages, and after watching my mother at her own vanity table back home, I had come to think of it as a place that only girls were allowed to sit. 

As Kaitlyn ushered me towards the small pink cushioned chair, it became an incredibly daunting object, as if sitting on that chair in front of that table filled with hairbrushes and a vast supply of Kaitlyn’s makeup would be the point of no return.

My paranoid mind had decided for me that if I sat at the table, I would be a girl, end of story.

It was much comfier than I expected, the cushion was quite soft and well…cushiony, since Harpher had been away at camp and hadn’t sat on it in a while. Looking at the mirror though, it would of looked like Harpher was back and sitting down exactly where I was sitting. We had striking resemblance, Harpher and me, almost to the point where she was considered the female version of me, and I was the male version of her. The similarity was slightly more obvious now when my hair was long, silky and smooth.

There were still enough differences to make it clear to me that I was –not- Harpher, for example my blue eyes to her brown ones, her slightly larger nose, my brunette hair to her blonde locks.

My penis to her… you know.

A part of me wondered if Stephanie was keeping me under her thumb because it was like having Harpher back. She had referred to me as either Kaitlyn or Harpher quite a few times during my stay, but I thought it was just accidental. I began to fear that she was somehow trying to turn me into Harpher, soon she would dye my hair blonde, replace my nose and eyes, and remove my penis…

“Kaitlyn!” I blurted out. I could see her in the mirror, standing behind me with a hairbrush in her hand.

She jumped at the sudden sound of my voice. “What?” she asked, whilst holding a hand to her chest to recover from the scare.

“Do you think your Mom is trying to turn me into Harpher?” I asked as I turned my head around to her.

“Don’t be silly Courtney.” Kaitlyn said with a grin on her face. She placed her hands either side of my head and forcefully turned me to look at the mirror. Once she had me in place, she began brushing through my hair thoroughly.

“I mean it, don’t I look like Harpher now more than ever?” I said.

“I guess so, but what has my mom done? So far it’s only been me that’s changed you.” Kaitlyn said.

It was true, Stephanie hadn’t done anything yet except make me stay in her house and wear fake nails, plus the Minnie Mouse pyjamas and the forced hair wash. Kaitlyn was the one who forced me into being a girl, she was the one who was deciding what I wore and what we did.

“Are you trying to turn me into Harpher?” I looked up at Kaitlyn in the mirror as she busied herself with my hair.

“Trust me, Courtney, the longer Harpher is away at camp, the better. You have no idea how annoying she can be at home.” Kaitlyn said.

“You don’t want her back?” I asked.

“Well of course I want her back, silly, she is still my sister. But she’ll only be back at the end of the holidays, when school starts. During school time I won’t have to see her that much, so that’s good.” 

I nodded slowly. Talk of things happening at the end of the summer was starting to freak me out, what if I was still stuck here when summer ended?

“Kaitlyn, what will happen if I’m stuck here when you go back to school?” I asked.

“Depends on your parents and the police really, I’m sure they’ll pick you up soon.” Kaitlyn said as she knelt down to the wall and turned on one of the plug sockets, then stood back up and placed the hairbrush back on the vanity table. I followed the wire leading from the plug socket and it came to some strange looking tongs sitting in front of me.

“Are you sure you want them to come back?” she asked.

“I… think so.” I said. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted my parents back, but I knew that I’d be a boy again if they did come back.

“You always complain about how they treat you.” Kaitlyn said as she then picked up the strange looking tongs and fiddled with some of the buttons on it. 

“When they come back, I can be a boy again. I don’t care how they treat me.” I said stubbornly.

“Just think about it Courtney, you’ve had more fun in this home than you’ve ever had at your old home.” Kaitlyn pushed the strange tongs closed around a couple of locks of my hair, giving my ears a quiet sizzling sound to listen to. I felt a faint sense of heat at the top of my head, which disappeared as Kaitlyn pulled the tongs away. 

She continued using the tongs, ‘straighteners’ as Kaitlyn later described them, on every lock of hair that I had. If my hair wasn’t already straight, it was now. The effect of the heat seemed to make my hair appear completely straight, smooth and shiny from root to tip. Kirsty ran her fingers through my hair over and over, pushing locks over that shoulder, that ear, tying them up, pinning them this way and that, before she went back to square one and let my hair hang loose. 

She grabbed a black hair band from her box of accessories and placed it on my head. Kaitlyn pushed most of the hair on my left behind my ear, whilst the hair on my right was allowed to flow down my shoulder, all kept in place by the pink hair band that came with a large pink bow attached to make me look like I was somehow gift wrapped.

“Now to put your face on.” Kaitlyn said as she switched off the hair straighteners and turned my chair slightly, so that she could stand in front of me and do my makeup.

“Do I have to wear that stuff?” I whined at her.

“You’ve let me dress you from head to toe and style your hair, why stop me now?” she asked.

“I just don’t like all that stuff.” As my words came out I started to sound more and more like a baby.

“Stop being a baby, I’m only going to use a little bit. It’s not like I’m going to make you look like Kim Kardashian or Snooki.” Kaitlyn had that smirk on her face that meant I couldn’t really trust her on that.

“Just close your eyes and I’ll tell you when you’re ready.” Kaitlyn said as she sat down on the edge of the vanity table, with a pile of cosmetics at her side. I gave her a suspicious look but it didn’t phase her one bit, she simply smiled and pulled my eyelids closed with her middle finger and index finger.

“Will it hurt?” I asked nervously.

“Did it hurt when I put that lip-gloss on you?” she replied with another question.

“No, but…” I wanted to say that it did kind of hurt because she was on top of me at the time, but Kaitlyn placed her finger on my lips to shut me up.

“Shush.” She said. “Now let me work.” 

Kaitlyn didn’t go back on her word at all, she only spent about ten minutes painting my face. It wasn’t the hour of feeling slimy stuff smeared on my lips, or brushes prodding on my eyelids, or struggling not to giggle when a particularly ticklish brush was used under my chin. Kaitlyn spent about five minutes applying some sort of powder all over my face using a large brush. She repeatedly used the words ‘foundation’ and ‘powder’ because, as she had said, eventually I would be doing this myself.

Next I felt the familiar feeling of something being dragged across my lips, it wasn’t the lip-gloss from before but something more solid. Kaitlyn called it lip balm, and that it somehow made my lips look healthier and smoother without using lip-gloss. Kaitlyn claimed it was an essential item for any girl as they moved into their teens, so she forced me to carry the small blue tube of lip balm wherever I went in the future, including the small garden party that we were going to have.

The hardest part of my little makeover was when Kaitlyn did my eyes. She had casually picked up a black tube, unscrewed the top and raised the brush slowly to my eye. I instinctively dodged her by jolting my head to the side, and from that point on it was a struggle for both of us. Kaitlyn had done this herself so many times, but now that someone was being so uncooperative with her, she couldn’t stop herself from showing her anger.

“Stay still!” she shouted. It wasn’t like a raging lunatic shout, just an angry or irritated raised voice shout. Even so, it still made Stephanie come rushing up the stairs to knock on the door.

“Girls? Girls? Is everything alright in there?” Stephanie asked anxiously.

“Yes!” Kirsty and I shouted back. We hoped our combined voices would be powerful enough to reassure Stephanie.

“What was that shouting about?” Stephanie asked. She spoke slowly and carefully, as if she was buying time until the police arrived to ram the door down.

“We were playing Tag…” I said in nervous voice, thinking that the words “Stay still” would often be said when playing Tag.

“With mascara…” Kaitlyn added. It was a few moments before Stephanie replied.

“Playing Tag in such a small room… Girls, what’s going on in there?” Stephanie began to turn the door handle, “I’m coming in.” 

“NO!” Kaitlyn shouted whilst I nervously backed away into the corner.

The shouting and rejection only seemed to encourage Stephanie more, she turned the door handle and pushed the door into the back of the chest of drawers that we had used to block anyone from trying to get in, or out.

“Why is this door blocked? Girls! Open this door!” She shouted.

Stephanie continued to struggle with the door, Kaitlyn stood her ground whilst I knelt down behind the vanity table chair, fearing a beating of some kind.

“Is there a boy in there? Are you hiding a boy in there?” Stephanie was getting angrier with every push she gave the door. Eventually she had pushed the blockage far enough to open the door slightly, but she could only see Kaitlyn from the angle.

“KAITLYN JUNE ALLISON! OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!” Stephanie screamed at her daughter.

Kaitlyn knew there would be hell to pay if she didn’t open the door now, her mother had just used her full name when she rarely did. She took several quick and small steps towards the door and pushed the chest of drawers aside. Kaitlyn had an ashamed look on her face, and she kept looking down at her feet to avoid eye contact with her mother.

Stephanie burst into the room as soon as she could, without uttering a word but her face growing redder by the second. She began to search the room for this intruder, checking beneath the bed, under the sheets, in the cupboard, behind the door, but she found nothing. When she turned to me, I feared the worst. Stephanie walked up to me, but her expression quickly calmed from psychopath back to caring mother.

“Courtney, darling. Do you mind?” Stephanie looked past me and at the vanity table, but I still had no idea what she meant. Kaitlyn stepped to my side, grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of her mother’s way.

Stephanie bent over and leaned on the small chair that I had been hiding behind, she checked the small space beneath the table and again found nothing. She turned back to Kaitlyn and I and waited for an explanation, but all we could do was smile shyly at her.

It was then that I realised that we actually didn’t have anything to hide from her. I mean, before she would of seen my hairy legs but not now, not when they were encased in silky nylon tights. I guess we just got scared, when Stephanie started shouting we must of assumed she knew something was happening, so we tried our best to stop her from getting in.

“You girls are just too adorable. I know you’re up to something, I don’t know what it is but I’ll soon find out.” Stephanie bent down and gave both of us kisses on the forehead, before she rested her head between Kaitlyn and I and gave us one big hug. Her raging bull moment was over now and she was back to being the lovely and caring Stephanie.

“The ladies will be over in about half an hour, and it looks like there will be two well dressed girls here to greet them.” Stephanie nodded to herself and gave us a proud smile.

“I’ve invited Emily’s mother to come Kaitlyn, so you might want to say hello to her ahead of your sleepover.” Stephanie stepped into the doorway and gave us one last smile before she headed downstairs. “I will Mom.” Kaitlyn said in a nervous voice, she was still recovering from being shouted out. 

Stephanie was always a very caring and loving lady, but now I knew that I should never push her buttons like that ever again.

“Who’s Emily?” I asked her.

“My best friend, from school. My mom knows her mom from work.” Kaitlyn nodded slowly.

“And you’re having a sleepover?”

“Oh don’t worry about that, you’ll be long gone and living as a boy by the time that sleepover comes about.” Kaitlyn said.

Kaitlyn closed the door to the room and left it unblocked after I explained that we had nothing to hide. We both took a while to calm down after that, before I was once again seated at the vanity table and Kaitlyn was holding the mascara. She was much more patient this time as we continued to struggle with my nervous dodges and blinking. 

Kaitlyn eventually had to hold my head in place with one soft hand whilst the other hand was stuck to the other side of my face, holding the mascara in front of my eye. She instructed me to blink, so that my eyelashes would brush the mascara instead of the other way round. Kaitlyn decided it was the only way that she could put mascara on me, at least until my eyes got used to seeing something coming so close to blinding them.

The thought of my eyes getting used to mascara added another load of fear to my ever-growing supply. The feeling of that extra weight on my lashes was annoying at first, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, and how different it was to everything else. All the other makeup was hardly noticeable to me, but the mascara was always so obvious.

Following a fresh dose of coconut perfume, I was ready. Kaitlyn led me back into her room and stood me in front of one of her full-length mirrors. I stared at myself for a while, examining every inch of myself until I was satisfied, but I couldn’t get comfortable whatever I tried.

Yes, the clothes were incredibly comfortable, but every time I looked at myself it was like my identity was just disappearing. It was like I was really Courtney and the imaginary person was Kaleb, to boy who used to live next door.

I gave my reflection a shrug and pouted, something I had started to develop after acting like a girl for this long. Whenever I was sad about something I couldn’t help but pout.

I stuffed my hands in my pockets, only to find that I could only fit my fingers into the pockets. I fidgeted with my appearance a couple of times, standing this way and that, putting my hands by my sides, in my pockets, behind my back, but nothing seemed to look right. Eventually I just stuffed my fingers into my pockets, let my arms go limp and gave the mirror a displeased huff.

Kaitlyn stepped closed and wrapped her arms around my chest, her head resting on my shoulder. She smiled at my reflection, an obvious ploy to get me to smile back but I could only manage to give her a tiny smirk.

“What will make my little sister happy?” she asked.

“My old life back.” I said, sounding on the verge of tears.

“If you have fun tonight, will you promise to stop being so sad and start enjoying being Courtney?” Kaitlyn asked. She withdrew her hands from around me and picked up something gold and shiny from her desk.

“I guess I can try.” I said, whilst watching Kaitlyn suspiciously in the mirror.

“Good.” Kaitlyn said as she appeared behind me again. She lowered a thin golden necklace over my head, her manicured nails tickled the back of my neck as she clipped the two ends of the necklace together. Hanging from the necklace was a small, delicate golden heart, which Kaitlyn adjusted to sit perfectly at the bottom of my neck.

Kaitlyn checked me over one more time, moving my hair back and forth before she finished and placed her hands on my shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze.

“I guess we’re ready” she said. Kaitlyn took hold of my hand and pulled me out of her room.

As soon as we got downstairs Stephanie had pushed us into service, there was definitely no chance of just coming down to say hello. Kaitlyn and I had to carry out trays of biscuits to the garden, until the round table on the patio was filled with little treats, cups and saucers and pots of milk.

Stephanie had placed five matching chairs around the table, so the benches were left scattered around different ends of the garden. I felt a little bit better when I realised that five chairs would not be enough for Stephanie’s friends, Kaitlyn, and myself, so I knew we wouldn’t have to sit with a bunch of ladies drinking tea. 

Only when I got a brief break from carrying trays, I was able to catch Stephanie rearranging the chairs in the lounge. She had brought in some extra chairs so that the whole TV was surrounded, it was definitely enough to seat everybody including the two daughters.

We still had a couple of minutes before any guests were due to arrive, so Stephanie allowed us to sit down and watch TV in the lounge until the first guest appeared. She also forbid us from going back upstairs, preventing us from running off should Stephanie want us to sit down with her. Kaitlyn explained that because of my presence, Stephanie had decided that she was going to ‘show off’ her daughters.

“Because of me?” I asked.

“Well not because of you personally, but because you being here means Mum has two daughters to show.” Kaitlyn said.

“My mom had a small gathering a couple of weeks ago, just after Harpher had gone to camp. I was the only daughter that was still at home and all I had to do was say hello and wave, before I could go back upstairs and watch TV until it was over.”

“I still don’t get it, why do I change anything?” I asked her.

“Its some sort of rivalry she has with her friends, a girly thing. Like, all of her co-workers have at least one kid, so showing off one kid isn’t, you know, cool.” She said.

“But showing off two kids, even three when Harpher gets back, that is definitely cool. Cool among her friends, at least. It’s the same sort of thing with girls at school, with shoes or purses, bags or dresses. You’ll soon find out that girls can be like that.” Kaitlyn finished just as the doorbell rang.

We both rushed to our feet and looked out through the large window in the lounge, to see that there was only one new car parked outside. Kaitlyn turned me to face her and then went through some basic things such as what to say and what to do. I was to place my hands on my lap when I was sitting down. If drinking something I would only take small sips. If forced into a conversation I would speak gently, giggle when appropriate and always remember my manners. 

“If you start to struggle, just look around the room at what everyone else is doing and try to copy them. The ladies will find you to be quite cute if they think you’re trying to take after them. If you cant do that, just sit quietly, say little so they’ll just think you’re young and shy, and let my mom put her arm around your shoulders and boast about how adorable you are.” Kaitlyn gave me a big hug as if to fill me with confidence.

“What about you?” I asked.

“Were you listening to me? I know all of this stuff already sis. I’ll be fine. All of my mom’s co-workers know me, apart from Jan who you met today. You wont have to worry about me at all, alright?” Kaitlyn was quick to comfort me. “I’ll be right next to you if you need help.” 

After the pep talk, Stephanie instructed us to wait in the doorway whilst she opened the door. My ears became filled with ecstatic hellos, kisses on the cheeks and the jingling of jewellery when the two co-workers hugged. 

“I was so glad to be invited over Steph, thank you. So why weren’t you at work today, huh?” said a jolly voice from the doorway. She was yet to step inside the house so I still couldn’t see who it was, I knew at least that it didn’t sound like Jan.

“Come in, come in.” Stephanie said cheerily. “I’ve been looking after my daughter for the day. I did phone in you know.” 

A rather chubby woman, about the same height as Stephanie stepped through the door. She was dressed in a smart blue business suit, and I could hear the sound of her fashionable black heels clicking on the floor. It was a familiar look that my Mom had always worn to work. This woman must of come straight from her office in town.

“You must remember my darling Kaitlyn?” Stephanie directed Kaitlyn to step forward.

The chubby businesswoman stepped forward and gently took Kaitlyn’s hand in her own. She didn’t shake it, but she simply held it gently whilst she smiled at Kaitlyn with her overly painted red lips.

“So good to see you again Kaitlyn, how have you been since we last met?” She asked politely.

“Very good thank you Mrs. Johnson, how are you?” Kaitlyn gave the woman a giddy girlish smile.

“After seeing you, better than ever.” Mrs. Johnson laughed. Kaitlyn gave me a nudge in the arm and we both forced a giggle, Kaitlyn’s giggle was louder than mine.

Mrs Johnson turned to me and stepped closer.

“This is my second eldest, Courtney. Courtney this is Mrs. Johnson, one of my friends from work.” Stephanie informed me. She seemed slightly uncomfortable having Mrs. Johnson so close to her daughters, her look then made me uncomfortable.

Mrs. Johnson began to raise her hand to mine, I smiled shyly and held the woman’s hand just as Kaitlyn had done. Her hand felt oddly slimy, so that explained why I could see Kaitlyn rubbing her hand against the wall in the corner of my eye.

“Very nice to meet you Mrs. Johnson.” I forced myself to give her a more confident, shining smile. Kaitlyn had told me to make a good first impression with the ladies.

“What a delight it is to finally meet you, little one. Why has your mother kept such a beauty from our eyes?” Mrs. Johnson grinned down me. The overwhelming smell of her perfume filled my nose, and it was such a disgusting smell that it almost made me throw up.

I gave the woman an uncomfortable shrug and was about to mumble out some sort of answer, but Stephanie interjected.

“Courtney likes to spend a lot of time with her friends from school, don’t you dear?” she said.

I nodded slowly to confirm the story.
“Ah, another little miss popular just like her big sister. I should have known.” Mrs. Johnson snickered.

I realised that Stephanie had probably used the same excuse to explain why her friends rarely got to see Kaitlyn and Harpher alone.

“I look forward to hearing a little more from you later, Courtney.” Mrs. Johnson finally let go of my hand and was led away by Stephanie. The two ladies got into a conversation of their own and there was no sign from Stephanie to follow, so Kaitlyn and I were able to sit back down. I too found myself rubbing my hand on the wall to get rid of the weird slimy stuff. Kaitlyn gave me a wicked smirk.

“It’s just hand cream. She has really rough hands, but she doesn’t know how to take care of it.” Kaitlyn snickered as she thought about it.

“Mom looked really uncomfortable when she got close to me…” I said.

“Oh yeah, I noticed. Mrs Johnson isn’t really one of my mom’s friends, she’s really her boss. One of her bosses.” Kaitlyn said.

“So she’s playing nice?” I asked. My dad had brought his boss home for some dinner a couple of times, to help him get a promotion that he never ended up getting.

“I guess she is, yeah.” Kaitlyn crossed her arms and pondered what her mother was doing with Mrs Johnson.

Stephanie came in to say that Mrs. Johnson and herself would be having tea in the garden, and instructed us to greet the next arrivals and lead them through to the garden to join the other ladies. We were able to watch about five minutes of The Simpsons before the next guest arrived. 

She was a tall and slender woman with golden blonde hair who looked to be in her mid twenties at least. She was wearing a large pair of sunglasses, which she raised up and wedged on top of her head when we opened the door. Kaitlyn knew her has Catherine since they had met before and had actually gone shopping together with Stephanie. Catherine was one of the newer employees at the newspaper and worked at the fashion desk, close to where Stephanie worked. Kaitlyn introduced me just like Stephanie had done before, and I said hello shyly just as I did with Mrs Johnson. Catherine was a much more comfortable person to be around with, and eventually I found myself having quite a fun conversation with her about some of the office politics that were going on.

Apparently the women that Stephanie had invited were all trying to impress Mrs Johnson enough to select their stories instead of the stories of a rival group of women on the other side of the office. With this little garden party, Stephanie’s group was sure to gain Mrs Johnson’s favour, Catherine said. When the conversation died down, Catherine arranged to take all three of us shopping, with Suzanne’s permission. Catherine liked to boast that working at the fashion desk allowed her a large sum of money to spend on buying clothes. Kaitlyn was definitely the more excited of the two of us. 

We led Catherine through to the garden and immediately sat back down to watch the Simpsons, but the doorbell rang once again just as our bums hit the couch. The next lady to arrive was Mrs Woods, Emily’s mother. She was essentially a black haired version of Stephanie. Tall, smooth skinned, curvy, in her mid to late thirties and jet black hair that was gathered behind her head and pinned loosely in place by a hair clip that looked not so different from a torture device. 

Mrs Woods was much less gossipy that Catherine, but she still talked calmly and greeted the both of us. She acted just like Stephanie did when she was around children, calling them dear or darling and making all of their movements and words seem incredibly gentle. After a brief conversation about the sleepover planned in a couple of weeks, Mrs Woods decided to invite me along, saying it would be unfair for Kaitlyn to go and for me not to. I retained the hope that I would be a boy again by then, but still accepted the invitation. Kaitlyn had made it clear to always be polite and say what the ladies wanted you to say, so I figured Mrs Woods wanted me to say yes.

Kaitlyn explained that Mrs Woods and Stephanie were quite close friends, and had met each other at a parents evening in the school. At the time Kaitlyn and Emily were already good friends, but when their mothers started to see more of each other after Mrs Woods moved to the same newspaper as Stephanie, they had all become best friends.

Last to arrive was Jan, whose face immediately lit up at the sight of Kaitlyn and me standing in front of her. Kaitlyn had told me that Jan had never been to one of Stephanie’s garden parties before, so that was enough to explain her ecstatic mood that just seemed to ‘turn on’ once we opened the door. 

Jan asked Kaitlyn and I to stand beside each other, arms around one another, so that she could see us ‘just as she imagined it in her head.’

“Your mother has told us all so much about you, but she never said how cute you looked together.” Jan grinned. 

Probably because we’ve never been together until now, I thought.

For once it was Kaitlyn that had to introduce herself to a stranger instead of me, and I found quite a lot of enjoyment in watching her make uncomfortable small talk with Jan just like I had to at the supermarket. Eventually Jan knew us both equally enough to finish off the conversation, so we led her through to the garden and gave ourselves a well-earned break. 

The episode of the Simpsons that we had been watching had finished just as we greeted Mrs Woods, so Kaitlyn forced me to watch a rerun of Kim Possible on the Disney channel. I used to enjoy the show quite a lot when it was originally airing, so I guess it wasn’t so bad. 

Funny enough it was the episode where Kim and Ron switch bodies. Ron was enjoying his time as a girl much more than I was.

“You did well sis.” Kaitlyn playfully nudged my shoulder.

“Thanks.” I said, not taking my eyes off the TV.

“I think we made some of them jealous.” Kaitlyn said.

“How?” I asked. 

“By being Mommy’s two darling daughters.” Kaitlyn giggled.

“I guess it was kind of fun.” I couldn’t help but smile. It felt oddly satisfying to make someone jealous like that.

The Disney channel was showing reruns of Kim Possible for the next few hours, so we found ourselves watching it over and over. About two hours or so after we had led Jan into the garden to join the others, the conversation that the ladies were having began to get louder. Stephanie led them in through the conservatory and into the kitchen where they all got another cup of tea. We knew it was only a matter of time before they all came in and sat around the TV in the arranged chairs, but they weren’t going to be watching the TV unless they enjoyed the cartoons. 

I thought Catherine might enjoy Kim Possible, but maybe not the other much older ladies.

“I’ve got an idea, take off your shoes, and then put your legs up on the couch.” Kaitlyn said when all the ladies were out of view, chatting in the kitchen as Stephanie made them more tea.

I followed her instructions and kicked off my shoes, then lifted my legs up so that my knees pointed to the roof.

“Not like that!” Kaitlyn whispered. “Sit so they cant see up your dress!”

I nodded quickly and readjusted my legs so that my knees bent and pointed towards the TV, with my feet touching the back of the couch. It was a position where I couldn’t help but lean towards Kaitlyn, but apparently that was what she planned. She copied my positioning exactly and pretty soon we were leaning against each other, clutching two soft pink cushions to our chests.

Kaitlyn changed the channel from Disney to Animal Planet, and we found ourselves watching a pack of lions play with their cubs and fight one another. Kaitlyn and I never took our eyes off the TV, but I caught a few smiles directed at us as the ladies began to move into the lounge and sit down.

I swear I heard someone whisper, “Steph has such adorable daughters, do you think she’ll notice if I take one of them?” and it sounded like Catherine.

Catherine was certainly eager to sit as close to us as possible, as she rushed to sit down on the chair closest to the couch. Stephanie sat beside me on the couch, sitting just like Kaitlyn and myself with her arm stretched out on top of the couch behind her two daughters. Mrs Woods sat on the chair closest to the couch on Stephanie’s side, whilst Mrs Johnson sat next to Mrs Woods, closer to the TV. Jan sat opposite Mrs Johnson, but her chair had been moved closer to Catherine’s and the couch.

It all made it look like Mrs Johnson was the farthest away, which I think we were all thankful for. The obnoxious smell of her perfume had now found its way into everyone’s nose and it seemed everyone was trying to avoid her, but without her noticing.

Even though we had all gathered around the TV, I noticed that everyone’s chairs had been turned slightly in the direction of Kaitlyn and myself. It felt like being in the spotlight, with everyone watching, and it was incredibly uncomfortable.

“You two get along much better than my two sons at home.” Mrs Johnson said.

Over the course of a few minutes, I had slid slightly down the couch and my head was resting on Kaitlyn’s shoulder. Kaitlyn was resting her head against mine, whereas before we had just been sitting side by side with our shoulders resting against each other. 

I guess the new position really emphasised the ‘big sister little sister’ thing we had going.

Kaitlyn and I grinned at Mrs Johnson as Stephanie spoke.

“They’ve always been very close.” Stephanie said to Mrs Johnson with a proud smile, before turning back to the TV.

The ladies took turns in talking to us. Catherine started a conversation with Kaitlyn about the outfit she was wearing, wondering how she had pieced it together. She was especially happy with the way Kaitlyn had arranged her hair, claiming that it was “exactly like I had mine a couple of days ago.” 

When Catherine turned on me and began asking about my outfit, Kaitlyn put her arm around my shoulders and held me protectively. 

“Courtney really enjoys watching the lions.” She said. Catherine nodded slowly and continued talking to Kaitlyn instead, who began to explain how she came up with my outfit. Occasionally Kaitlyn would point at my hair or my shoes, the hair band or the necklace she made me wear. Kaitlyn claimed that the necklace I was wearing was a present that she bought me for my 10th birthday, causing Catherine to go “Awww” and place her hand on her heart.

I couldn’t help but grin at how manipulative Kaitlyn was being.

Jan began a general conversation with all of the women about the conditions in the office, and soon they were all expressing their opinions to Mrs Johnson. A simple “I’ll look into it” from Mrs Johnson was enough, at least after saying it a couple of times, to get all the ladies to calm down.

Mrs Woods turned her head towards us and gently spoke, her eyes occasionally turning between the TV and myself.

“So Courtney… How is school going?” Mrs Woods asked.

I wanted to pretend that I hadn’t heard her, but I had already looked at her and smiled. How was I going to answer that question? Kaitlyn and I hadn’t even thought about school, and why would we? I was going to be back to my old self again when my parents were legally obliged to come find me, the thought of Courtney going to school had never crossed my mind.

Well maybe it did, once or twice.

When I realised that neither Kaitlyn nor Stephanie were saying anything to help me out, I had to improvise my own answer.

Things would be so much easier if I really was Courtney, I thought.

“It’s okay… the work is quite hard.” I said. Kaitlyn then whispered in my ear “Good answer sis” and nobody seemed to notice her.

“Yes, my Emily will agree with you there.” Mrs Woods said.

“Courtney starts Year 8 in September, don’t you dear?” Stephanie asked as she stroked the back of my head.

“September.” I repeated, without realising that I was digging my hole even deeper. 

Mrs Woods smiled and nodded, then turned her attention to Stephanie.

“You know Steph, I’ve been thinking about becoming a teacher myself some day.” Mrs Woods said.

“What? And leave the newspaper?” Stephanie asked, sounding quite surprised.“Well, I’ve been thinking about working closer to home, without having to commute all the way to Orlando.” Mrs Woods said.

Stephanie took her by the arm and made her come into the kitchen, quickly saying, “If you’ll excuse us a moment.” The other ladies didn’t seem to be listening, and were all engrossed in their own conversation about one of the new employees, so Stephanie and Mrs Woods were able to sneak out.

Kaitlyn and I continued to watch the Animal Planet whilst the three remaining women bickered between themselves about John, the new office intern. Eventually Mrs Johnson looked at her watch and tiredly said, “Well I better go, Steph I’m leaving!” She shouted into the kitchen. 

Stephanie came back into the lounge. “Leaving so soon?” she asked.

“Yes well I have to get back home and start dinner for the boys.” Mrs Johnson said.

Catherine and Jan were already getting their coats and bags.

“Those boys of yours will never learn to cook for themselves, will they?” Stephanie grinned.

“Well, I still have hope for them yet. Thank you for the tea and the chance to see your lovely girls.” Mrs Johnson said as she and Stephanie kissed each other’s cheeks. 

Mrs Johnson did the same with Mrs Woods, kissing each other’s cheeks. It wasn’t until she did the same for Jan and Catherine that I realised it was the female way of saying goodbye, or something. The chubby woman rounded on Kaitlyn and myself, and I was the first to be subjected to it. 

Kai had no time to give me any advice, because Mrs Johnson was soon bending towards me, her red lips puckered up. I stood on the spot, terrified as she landed a long wet kiss on my cheek which seemed to last forever before I saw her giant face move past me and kiss my other cheek. It felt like it lasted forever, as if it was in slow motion as this monster sucked on my cheeks. I thought I was going to throw up in her face when her lips touched me, and her perfume filled my nose, but fortunately I didn’t.
After she finally stepped away after what felt like an age, I smiled politely at her. Mrs Johnson smiled back as if nothing was terribly wrong and turned her torture on to Kaitlyn. 

It was almost as bad when I watched her do the same to Kaitlyn, who was clenching her fists behind her back when Mrs Johnson landed two giant kisses on her cheeks.

For once I felt like Kaitlyn was enduring more embarrassment than I was.

Mrs Johnson said her goodbyes and was the first to leave. Both Jan and Catherine kissed our cheeks too, but they were much more pleasant. Both women were wearing nice perfumes, and it didn’t feel like they took a piece of my face with them when we kissed goodbye. They were both very delicate about it, in contrast to Mrs Johnson.

“It was really good meeting you two, I hope to see you both again soon.” Jan said as she left and we waved her off.

Catherine bent down and hugged Kaitlyn and myself together before she left, and kissed our cheeks once again as if she hadn’t already done enough. “Kaitlyn has my number, get back to me about that shopping trip wont you?” Catherine asked. We both nodded and smiled at her as she left.

The funny thing was that I wasn’t forcing any smiles, all the kissing and hugging we were doing made me generally happy. Apart from with Mrs Johnson, that was a forced smile since I didn’t want to upset Stephanie’s boss.

Mrs Woods had stayed behind for a few more minutes to talk with Stephanie, but soon she was walking down the hallway towards the door with Stephanie following behind her.

“Emily is always saying how little she thinks of some of the teachers at school, perhaps I might be the one teacher she actually likes.” Mrs Woods said over her shoulder to Stephanie. “To think I might be teaching Kirsty and Lauren as well, isn’t it exciting?” she continued.
“Just think about it a bit more Abby.” Stephanie said.

“I will Steph, don’t worry. I wont be leaving you in a hurry.” Mrs Woods, or Abby, grinned back at Stephanie.

Abby bent down and kissed our cheeks once again.

“Great to meet you Courtney, I look forward to seeing you both at our house for that sleepover, if not sooner!” Abby said as she adjusted the strap of her bag over her shoulder.

Stephanie and Abby hugged and kissed each other’s cheeks once again, then agreed to call each other later on about ‘that thing they were talking about’. There was no point in them hiding it, Mrs Woods clearly wanted to become a teacher and to work at her daughter’s school. She must of thought Stephanie would like the idea because she might also be teaching Kaitlyn, and apparently Lauren too.

When all the ladies had left, the evening seemed to pass by quite quickly. We all had dinner together about an hour later, and Stephanie couldn’t stop repeating how happy she was with how well behaved her two daughters had been. Stephanie added that throughout the time they spent sitting around the TV, she had struggled to contain her pride when she saw her friend’s faces looking jealously at her daughters. 

Apparently Mrs Johnson had seriously suggested swapping her two sons with Stephanie’s two daughters for a few days. Thankfully my new mother had respectfully declined, saying, “I’m not as good with boys as I am with girls.” I found that quite ironic, since I was technically a boy that she was doing her best to keep to herself.

We didn’t talk about much else at dinner, so we all had huge grins on our faces throughout. When I eventually remembered what Stephanie had said about me going to school in September, I had to say something. 

“Mom?” I said.

“Yes dear?” Stephanie said as she slowly quietened down after a long period of giggling.

“Am I really going to school in September?” I asked. I felt like the party pooper when I asked a serious question like that and caused Stephanie’s smile to quickly vanish.

“Well, by law you have to go to school Courtney.” She said. “If you’re twelve like you say you are, you would be starting Year 8 when school begins, right?”

“I guess so, but wont it be hard to get in?” I asked. 

I was thinking that Courtney not being a real person was going to be a big obstacle in the way of getting her into a school, but Stephanie didn’t know that. Stephanie would be worrying about how she could get the school to register an orphan girl that she had only recently met.

“Nonsense, we’ll work something out I’m sure. There’s plenty of time for me to get you registered to go to school with Kaitlyn. I’m sure you’ll be wearing the same school uniform as Kaitlyn come September.” Stephanie said cheerily as we all finished up our dinner.

It was pretty hard trying to think of what Stephanie was going to do. By my thinking all this was temporary, but she was thinking the complete opposite. For all I knew, she could already be planning what I was going to wear to Prom.

I told Kaitlyn about how much planning ahead her mother had done, then joked that she might of already bought my wedding dress. But when Kaitlyn said “I wouldn’t put it past her” that really put the fear of god into me.

Kaitlyn and I spent the rest of our evening sitting together and watching TV in her room, during which time Kaitlyn reminded me of our late night plan. Suzanne eventually came in and said “Time for bed girls, come on Courtney.” 

Stephanie announcing it was time for bed was the cue for the nighttime routine to begin in the Allison household. 

Just like the night before I was ushered into Harpher’s room and left alone, with the same Minnie Mouse pyjamas piled neatly on top of my bed. I was able to undress myself without needing any help, although removing the hair band turned out to be slightly harder when a few strands of hair got stuck beneath the bow.

I was dressed in my pyjamas and lying under the covers when Stephanie peeked her head in to say good night. She kissed me on the forehead once again, and I decided it wasn’t so bad now after I had experienced the feeling of Mrs Johnson sucking on my cheeks earlier.

The lights inside and outside the room were turned off, but it was nearly an hour I had to wait before I heard the quiet knocking on the door. I had forced myself to read one Hayley’s short story books, one all about Beauty and the Beast, but the wording was specifically for little children and reading it actually made me feel silly.
At least the pictures looked interesting.

When Kaitlyn knocked, I swung my legs out of bed and snuck out the door as quietly as possible. Kaitlyn had left the door to her room wide open, so I tip toed through the doorway and sat down on her bed. My new sister took about ten minutes to come back with all of the supplies that she claimed we would need. She brought in several mugs filled with water, a small plastic basin, several thick towels and a white squeezy bottle. I struggled to make out what it was because Kaitlyn had only left a small lamp turned on.

“Where’s the razor?” I asked.

“I saw this and thought it would be better for now.” Kaitlyn said as she put one of the towels at the bottom of the door and plugged up the small gap between door and floor.

I gave her a confused look after she stood back up and turned the room light on.

She looked at me and then down at the towel at the bottom of the door. “It’s so my mom wont see light in my room if she walks past.” 

I nodded slowly. “So what is that stuff?” I asked, pointing at the white squeezy bottle.

“Hair Removal Cream.” Kaitlyn said. “Now off with those bottoms.” 

I pouted at her and pulled down the loose fitting pink pyjama bottoms.

“My hair will grow back though right?” I asked her as I tossed the bottoms behind me and onto the bed.

Kirsty snickered at me and nodded. She was soon squirting the white cream into her hand and spreading it all over my legs whilst I sat on the edge of her bed helplessly.

“Okay now imagine my mom doing this instead of me.” Kaitlyn smirked.

The thought made my skin crawl.

“I guess this is… a bit better than that.” I said with an uncomfortable smile as my legs began to feel tingly.

We waited a couple of minutes before Kaitlyn began to pour the mugs of water over my legs, washing off all of the cream and hundreds of loose leg hairs with it. She tried her best to distract me from the discomforting sight of seeing my hair piling up in that plastic basin.

“Now sis, tell me… did you have fun today?” she asked.

I looked up at her face briefly and thought about it. I guess it was kind of fun making those women jealous, pretending to be two adorable sisters. Kaitlyn and I were quite a good team.

“I guess I did have a bit of fun, yeah.” I told her.

“Good, I knew you would.” 

“Maybe being a girl isn’t so bad after all.” I said.

Kaitlyn washed the remainder of the hair removal cream and leg hair into the basin, and then helped me dry of my legs with the spare towels that she provided. It was a completely different feeling when I pulled my pyjama bottoms back on, with no little hairs catching on the material. Somehow the loss of all my leg hair made me feel slightly more vulnerable, more delicate. 

The sheen on my legs that I saw whenever I looked at them now made me instantly think ‘girl’ instead, when so many times before I had thought ‘boy’ and not noticed it.

I offered to help Kaitlyn clean up but she had sent me straight to bed, saying, “My mom will notice if you’ve been staying up late, she already knows that I like to stay up late.” I nodded in agreement, since it was now about 11pm and I had never stayed up past 11:30pm.

I snuck back out of Kaitlyn’s room and into Harpher’s room, then shut the door as silently as possible whilst Kaitlyn was tiptoeing down the stairs with the empty mugs.

As I lay there under the girlish pink Disney Princess bed sheets with the faint sounds of Kirsty sneaking around still in my ears, I fell asleep once again. But this time I fell asleep feeling genuinely happy, because I had actually had fun…even as a girl.