Making the Band     by : Britney

 

My name is Alan, I’m 17 and in grade 12. I, like my friend Kyle have long hair although his is blonde and mine brown. I am slightly small for my age, at least for a boy. Anyway, last year around the beginning of the school year my friends Josh, Kyle, Davis and I started a band. I was the lead singer along with Davis who also played the guitar, Kyle played the drums and Josh was our base player. Davis and I sang well together, I having not been hit by puberty yet had a soft high voice as apposed to Davis who could sing really low if he wanted. The last weeks of the summer were spent writing songs and practicing. We arranged to play in front of our school during lunch within the first week of school and sounded great. All the girls wanted us to go out with them but we just keep working on the band.

It wasn’t until early December that we got our big break. We were at Davis’ house practicing and had decided to take a break and watch some TV. We were watching a local station when a commercial came on that was advertising a ‘battle of the bands’. A scout from a record company would be there and the winners would get a record deal. We called right away and signed up our band. The contest was on the 21^st and we practiced all day, every day. On the 18th we were practicing while Davis’ sister watched. After we had finished playing our new song we asked her what she thought. "Well, you guys sound great but you guys don’t look right, Alan is like 3 inches shorter than the rest of you, but I think I can fix that." With that she grabbed my arm and dragged be out of the garage and up to her room. She had me sit at her desk and take my shoes off as she looked in her closet for something. I had just taken my socks of when she handed me a pair of leather knee-high boots with 3½ inch heals. "I can’t wear these! Their girl’s shoe’s" "yes you can and if you do you’ll be the same height as the rest of the band." "but everyone will know" "no they won’t, your jeans are baggy enough that no one will see your shoes, now put then on." I couldn’t believe that this was happening to me, but I shrugged it of and pulled the boots. Once I zipped them up they fit like a second skin. I tried to stand up but I went right back down. Emily, Davis’ sister, coached me on how to walk in the boots and soon it was as if I had been wearing heels all of my life.

Now that I had my balance back we headed back to the garage. Davis was the first to speak, "what were you guys doing, you were making a lot of noise" "I fell down a couple of times, sorry" "why did you fall down, I thought you were trying to look taller." I pulled up my pant leg exposing the boots and replied "why don’t you try walking in these without falling" there was a silence and all the guys just stared at my new footwear. The silence was finally broken by Emily’s giggling. "if he wears those boots he’ll look like he is the same height as you, Kyle is kinda small too, but he plays drums so he’s sitting down all the time. We talked for a little bit and the started to practice again.

On my way home I stopped at the mall. I was in the department store looking at jeans when a man came over and said, "can I help you with anything?" I told him what I was looking at and soon he was handing me pairs in all different styles. I went into the stall and started trying on pants. I had put on a pair and thought that they fit too tightly and when I looked in the mirror I saw that I was wearing a pair of girl’s jeans. I looked at the labels on the other pair and relised that they were all girl’s pants. When I came out of the stall the clerk asked, "do you need anything else, Miss?" I was so stunned that I simply replied "no thanks", and left the store. I was so confused, I knew I was small but why did he think I was a girl. It wasn’t until I got home and was in my room that I noticed that not only did I still have the boots on but I was wearing the flared jeans too. At least I didn’t have anything in the pockets of my old jeans, which I doubted I would ever see again.

We practiced everyday until the contest, with me wearing my boots. The night before the contest, we decided to go out to eat. We decided where we would eat and headed to the car, which was left to Davis as his parents were out of town. I was wearing the boots and was feeling really unstable as we walked down the slick driveway. After a few steps I lost my balance and fell into a snow bank at the end of the driveway. I was soaking wet and really cold. We went back in and I had a hot shower while the guys found me something to wear. I left the shower wrapped in a towel and headed for Davis’ room. No one was there so I looked in the next room, Emily’s. All the guys were in there. "Uh… Alan, we were looking at what sizes you wear and all my stuff is way bigger, so just find something in Emily’s closet and meet us down stairs", after Davis said this they all left the room leaving me to get dressed. I had nothing for underwear and was soon wearing a pair of panties. Next I found a shirt that wasn’t too tight and the looked for some pant’s. I couldn’t find anything. I went down the hall to the laundry room and opened the washer lid. Of course that’s where the pants were. I went back to her closet and desperately looked for any type of pants but in the back of my mind I knew I would end up wearing a skirt. I found a black skirt in a drawer and was about to put it on when I thought about how cold it was outside after a visit to Emily’s underwear drawer I was putting on a pair of black tights. I donned the skirt and boots and the headed down stairs. Davis brought me right back up stairs and said I should at least try and look a little more like a girl if I was going to wear a skirt. With Davis watching I brushed my hair dry and used one of the headbands that were on the vanity. I put on a little make up and we headed out the door. On our way down the driveway for the second time Davis insisted that I hold his hand so that I wouldn’t fall again. This was so humiliating.

 

 

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