Standing Up to Life

by Tiffany Shar

©2008, All Rights Reserved

Chapter 17:

When I came out of shock I ran through my brain about how my body felt. It really didn't feel like anything was seriously injured, but I didn't get up right away because it just seemed like too much work at that moment…

"Miss, are you okay?" I turned my head to see a ski patrolman standing next to me.

"Umm…" miss? Well, I don't want to seem like a freak, so I decided not to correct him. "Yeah, I just decided it was more comfortable on the ground." I said with a slight chuckle that sound more like a giggle. I got up from the ground and walked a few steps. "Yep, nothings broken except my pride."

I looked down the hill and saw Amy walking up the slope to me. She was almost up to where I was. In the meantime the patrolman was nice enough to recover my skis for me. "Are you alright?" Amy asked me.

"Yeah, like I told him, nothings hurt other than maybe a little pride. But at least it was a pretty spectacular dive!"

The patrolman said, "it was a pretty good one, I was worried that you were actually hurt from that one. Well, since you're not I'll leave you two ladies to continue. Have a good day."

Amy stood with a bemused expression on her face. "You know Brandon we could have some fun with this…"

"Umm… let's just worry about me not killing myself the rest of the day!" I said laughing.

"Oh alright, you're no fun!" She replied. "But we need to fix your hair real quick, your headband is really crooked now!" She did that and we started down the slope again.

Fortunately for me there weren't any other mogul sections on that trail and we had a pretty uneventful trip back down the slope. As I skied down the slope I was deep in thought about the day so far. On one hand part of me was going, 'YES! YES! YES!' I mean, I wanted to be a girl, I should be happy that I'd been referred as such 2x that day right?

On the other side I had healthy dose of fear. What would Amy say if she knew I wanted to be a girl? What would her parents say? What would my parents say? And obviously, what would the kids at school say?

We got down to the bottom and Amy looked at me curiously. "Brandon, don't worry about them calling you a girl, it's not a bad thing. I personally don't care what they call you; you'll be my best friend no matter what at this point. Plus, no one from school would care if they saw you here today. And, my parents both like you enough they don't care what you look like either."

"Best friend? Really?" I asked.

"Yes, you really are my best friend Brandon. I guess I haven't ever come out and said it to you, but I've said it to my mom plenty of times." We put our skis in a ski rack and walked into the lodge at the base of the mountain. She found a couple chairs by the fireplace that we could sit in for a few minutes while we kept talking. The rest of the room was pretty vacant.

"Brandon, I talk to you over the phone more than anyone else. I tell you more than I tell anyone else, you really are my best friend, and I'm not just saying that." She told me.

I knew without a doubt that she meant it and that I could trust her probably more than any other person on the planet. "Thanks Amy, you are definitely my best friend too. I just never realized that you felt that way about me as well. It's kind of strange though isn't it, a guy and a girl being best friends, but not having any interest in dating each other?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is I really don't care one way or another as long as you don't." She said.

"I certainly don't, I couldn't think of a better person to have as a best friend myself." I said.

"Well, now that we have that settled are you a little more okay about the comments?"

"I guess. I just hope that no one from school sees me this weekend. I'd hate to have to endure one more thing at school." I said.

"You'll be fine Brandon, you've been doing so much better at dealing with them that I don't honestly think it would be worth their time. Besides, I'd help you out if something were to happen, okay?"

"Okay, anyway do you know where the bathroom is? I really need to go."

"Yeah, I'll show you. I really need to go too!"

We walked down a hallway and found a set of restrooms. I half hesitated when I went into the mens room… I hoped no one freaked out and thought I was a girl going in the guys room… Thankfully the restroom was empty when I went into it, and I came out without anyone seeing me. I waited for Amy outside of the restroom and she emerged shortly.

"Ready to go back up?" She asked.

"Yeah. Do we have time for another run?" I asked looking at my watch. It read 3:30 at that moment.

"We should if we hurry and take one of the easier green trails we can go faster on." I nodded and we hurried off to grab our skis and go on up the chair lift.

There was a different guy at the bottom of the lift and he said, "Have a good run ladies."

I couldn't believe it… Maybe my plan could actually work. Amy was pretty accepting of me at this moment – and I thought she would be if I ever told her the truth too. I just didn't know if I could do that yet… I decided it didn't matter right now. The important thing was to have fun with my new best friend – or at least my newly announced best friend.

We got to the top and Amy said, "Let's try not to kill you again okay? I want to go shopping once we're done with this run!"

I said, "I'd certainly like to stay in one piece too, so I'll go for that plan." With that we began down the slope. Thankfully this time we didn't have anymore acrobatics from me, and we made it down to the spot we were supposed to meet her parents at 4:20. We thought we might beat them, but they were already sitting there drinking coffee.

"How was your day guys?" Mrs. Hancock asked.

Amy answered first, "Well other than Brandon trying to kill himself on some moguls not much!" She said with a wink.

"You had a decent spill huh?" Mr. Hancock asked.

"It looked pretty impressive at least. I wasn't hurt, but I definitely tumbled a bit. I had fun though!" I said grinning.

I could tell that they decided it must not have been a big deal by the way their faces relaxed a bit.

"Well what do you want to do now?" Amy asked her parents.

"Why don't we go down into town and go shopping on Main Street. Then we've got reservations at a restaurant for 6:30pm. Does that sound alright?" Her mom asked.

We both nodded. "Okay then, let's put the skis up on the rack and then get going!" Her dad said.

We got everything loaded up and sat back down in her parents car. As we were leaving my hand moved up to my hair to scratch my head and I noticed the head band was still there… Oh no!

Chapter 18:

I had meant to take that out before her parents saw me with it… I decided to do damage control and just go ahead and take it off. Amy saw what I was doing and I passed it to her to put back in her bag. Her parents didn't say anything about it, so I decided they must not have noticed.

We talked non-stop with each other on the way down to town – it was about a 30 minute drive. When we got there we found a parking space and started walking around the various tourist shops that were on the street. I just kind of followed Amy around, not really looking at anything for myself – I didn't have much money to buy anything.

We went from one store to the other, with no one really finding anything to buy. Then we came to an Indian Craft Store. I wasn't really into the whole Indian thing, neither were they, but even if you're not into their dolls and such you have to admit the craftsmanship is top notch, especially their silversmithing. Amy's mom was taking a really close look at some of the necklaces for some reason.

Amy and I were kind of bored of that store and she said, "Hey, why don't we wait outside for her?"

I shrugged and said, "Okay."

So we waited outside on a bench by the store. Her parents came out about 5 minutes later and her mom said, "Okay, let's go ahead and head to the restaurant."

We all nodded vigorously as we were all starving. We walked down about a block to the restaurant and were glad we had reservations. If we hadn't it would have been an hour and a half wait at this particular restaurant.

We were seated fairly quickly and I discovered we were in the nicest restaurant I had ever been in. Every table had a cloth table cloth, cloth napkins, crystal glasses, and the inside was very nicely decorated. I wondered if I would even be able to afford an appetizer inside this place. After we were seated and the menus were given to us her dad said to me, "Brandon order whatever you want, it's our treat, and don't worry about the prices."

The waiter came by and asked, "what can I get you to drink?"

"Iced Tea?" I replied. Do places like this have iced tea?

"Alright," he replied. He took the rest of the tables drink orders as well. Amy also ordered an iced tea, and her parents ordered water and wine to go with their meal.

I briefly wondered if they had a kids menu (not that my appetite was that small,) but quickly decided if Amy wasn't asking that then there must not have been. The menu featured 'fine Italian' cuisine, and I quickly discovered I couldn't pronounce – let alone understand – what half the dishes were.

"Amy, what are you getting?" I asked. She was more used to this and would probably be able to help me I figured.

"Probably the scaloppini di pollo." She said.

I scanned down to that part of the menu and decided that sounded good. "That sounds good."

A few minutes later the waiter came back with our drinks and took our orders. Her dad started off saying that we wanted an order of calamari to begin with. Her parents ordered and then took Amy and my orders. I decided to go with the Scaloppini (whatever that really was) as well since it seemed a safe bet. It also appeared to be one of the cheapest dishes at only $27.

Our dinner came with a small salad that I found myself enjoying. The 'Calamari' came out then as well. I had no idea what it was, so I had no preconceptions. I found that I was enjoying it thoroughly.

Amy looked amused about something, "Brandon, so you're enjoying the squid?"

"The what?" I asked.

"The squid, that's what calamari is." She said giggling.

I couldn't decide whether or not to be horrified, not believe her, or just say yes. In a split second I said the polite answer, "Yes, actually it's pretty good." I ate some more at that point to decide whether or not I actually liked it or not, now that I knew what it was. I decided I did like it.

From there our meal came out. I was glad to see it wasn't some exotic, inedible thing. I cut up a piece of the meat and discovered it tasted really good. I didn't talk a whole lot that night during dinner, but rather sat quietly.

I became full very quickly – I figure I'd eaten a 1/3^rd of the dish and was wondering how her family felt about leaving food on the plate. Thankfully Amy's mom answered that question almost on cue again, "Brandon, don't worry if you can't eat it all, we'll take the rest back for tomorrow." I was relieved at that, especially when Amy's dad spoke the waiter and ordered two desserts for the table.

The dessert arrived, and we each took a small piece of it. He ordered 2 desserts for the table. The first one was called tiramisu. I decided I had never tasted anything as good as it. It had such a wonderful creamy flavor with the bits of cake inside. He also ordered a slice of chocolate mousse cake, something I liked, but not as well as the tiramisu.

"So Brandon, did you enjoy your meal?" Mr. Hancock asked me.

"Yes, it was wonderful Mr. Hancock. Thank you again so much for bringing me along today. I don't think I've ever had this much fun." I replied with what I perceived as a giant smile on my face.

"Well we'll have to have you join us again next fall when we come back up here. The slopes close next weekend so it'll have to wait till then." He told me.

"I look forward to it!" I said just as happy.

With that Amy and I chatted about a whole lot of stuff for a few minutes while he paid the check. We then walked back down the street to the car and headed back up to the cabin. I must have been exhausted because the next thing I remember was us pulling into the driveway of their condo.

I noticed Amy was also looking like she was waking up. "Well did you two enjoy your nap?" Mrs. Hancock asked us.

Amy grunted, uh-huh.

I replied saying "I guess. I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep."

We woke up enough to walk into the condo and sit down on the couch in front of their fireplace. I had been kind of tired, but I was now finding that I was waking up again. I had a feeling that Amy and I would soon be hyper and bouncing off the walls again – something I sure her parents 'couldn't wait for.'

Chapter 19:

We both kind of plopped down on the couches and began talking. As we sat there we both commented on how chilly it was in there. Amy said, "I bet my parents forgot to turn the heater up before we left."

"Brrr…" I said.

We quickly became distracted talking about other things though. A short while later her mom interrupted, "Before either of you get too comfortable why don't you go change into your pajamas while we get a fire started?"

"Though not at the same time in the same room though please." Her dad joked. I could tell he was actually joking this time though – something had changed in his worry about us.

"But dad!" Amy joked back. We went upstairs and we took turns in her bathroom changing into pajamas. I had a set of blue flannel pajama bottoms and an old soccer shirt for a top. She, big surprise, came out wearing a set of satin Barbie pajamas. I was instantly very jealous of her – I want a pair of Barbie pajamas!

We both talked and joked around as we bounded back downstairs to the couch. Her dad had built a blazing fire in the fireplace that felt really good on our cold bodies. We bundled up in some blankets that were there and kept jabbering on. This time, we were talking about movies that were coming out that we hoped to see.

"I want to see the Sandra Bullock movie that's coming out in April. It sounds really cute." Amy said.

"I'd like to go see Apollo 13 when it comes out, I think it's going to be a really cool movie too."

We went on and on about that type of stuff. Her mom brought us mugs of hot chocolate at that point, and asked if we wanted to play a board game. I looked at Amy and she shrugged and said, "sure."

"Amy why don't you go pick something out real quick with Brandon?" Her mom asked.

"Okay mom, do you care what we play?" She asked.

"Just not Candyland please," her mom said teasingly, it made me wonder – did she still like to play Candyland?

I followed Amy to a cabinet underneath the staircase where there were a lot of board games stashed. "Well what do you want to play," Amy asked me. I saw tons of games in the cabinet including some I had never heard of. A few of them were; Candyland (it looked well used), Monopoly, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, My Little Pony, something called Mall Madness, Trouble, Connect 4, and others. I was clueless on what was good. It's kind of hard to play board games when you're an only child. I wasn't completely sure how Amy's family made it work. Maybe they just had friends over more often.

"I don't honestly know, except when I'm at my cousins house I never really get to play board games. So I really don't know what's good, you pick something." I told her.

I thought she would argue with me on it, but a glint in her eye told me that she had something in mind already. She pulled out the game she had been wanting to play I guess, called 'Mall Madness.' "I love this game," she said.

I thought it looked totally like a girls game – not that that bothered me, but I hoped they wouldn't say anything. We brought it back to the coffee table by the fireplace. Her mom looked at her and said, "I thought I told you both to pick out a game?"

"Mrs. Hancock I didn't know what was good so I told her just to pick something." I replied hoping to keep her from getting in trouble.

"Besides mom, I didn't pick candyland!" She said in an exasperated drama queen voice.

"Alright, as long as Brandon doesn't mind. Let's get it setup since it does take a while." Her mom said.

She wasn't kidding. It probably took 15-20 minutes for us to get the board and stuff setup. Soon after that though the four of us were all having a great time. If you've never played this game I highly suggest that you do!

I was not surprised that Amy won the first game – she was like a card shark with her skills on this game. But, surprising to all of us, I won the second game! After the second game her mom seemed to notice that it was getting late and that we should be going to bed.

Mr. Hancock had already left the room to go upstairs when she said. "Well, you two need to get to bed so we can hit the slopes again tomorrow before they get crowded. Before you do that though, I bought something for the two of you that I thought you might enjoy since you've become such close friends over this year." She handed us each a small box that had was closed by ribbon and a bow on top.

We both opened our boxes at the same time and discovered a little jewelry box inside. When we opened them up we each found half a heart on a silver necklace chain. The half of the heart was made of sterling silver I noticed as we both pulled them out of the box to look at them.

"Brandon, if you consider it too girly I won't be hurt if you don't wear it. But I got a long enough chain no one should be able to see it under your shirt if you don't want them to see it. I thought it could be at least a symbol of your friendship and a souvenir from this trip."

I sat stunned, this seemed like a wonderful gift, but did this mean she knew I wanted to be a girl? Perhaps, perhaps not. I was always taught not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and said, "It's a great gift, thank you Mrs. Hancock." I stood up and gave her a hug to emphasize my appreciation.

"Well then, if you're both in agreement then you need to make a pinky promise to each other of some sort and then put them on each other. Since I'm not part of this promise I'll disappear for a couple moments… But you need to go to bed in 2 minutes, so keep it quick." She said smiling while she left the room.

"Wow, you're parents are really nice Amy. Do they usually do this kind of stuff for your friends?"

"No. I think they like you more than any other friend I've had. Well, like she said we have a promise to make!" She smiled and held out her right pinky.

I put out my right pinky and asked, "So what are we promising?"

"How about that no matter what happens to either of us, no matter who else we meet, or how we change, that we'll never break the each other's trust or secrets?" She suggested.

"That sounds good, I promise never to break your trust or tell any of your secrets." I repeated back to her. We moved our pinkies up and down and then separated. I took the necklace in my hand and put it around her neck, and she did the same to me.

She gave me a hug. "See now we are really officially best friends!" This was the first time we had ever hugged, something I had wondered what it would be like. It really didn't seem like a big deal to me, it was just two best friends giving each other a hug – there was no boy/girl chemistry thing going as far as I could tell.

"Well, let's go up to bed before your mom starts herding us there," I whispered to her.

She giggled a bit and nodded. We went upstairs and both of us got in the bathroom to brush our teeth really quick. It was definitely a nice feature to have 2 sinks in the one bathroom. We finished up and headed towards the beds. She seemed to be back into a giddy mode from having won the calling contest earlier. Amy was definitely pleased with herself.

Before she started climbing though, she went and grabbed a stuffed teddy bear and a stuffed lion from the one side of her room with the toys. In the meantime I had crawled into the bed – kind of excited to be sleeping with Barbie bedding – while she was doing whatever she was up to. She walked over to the beds and said, "Here. I don't think you brought a stuffed animal with you, and I don't let my friends sleep over without one!" She said with a big smile.

Part of me wanted to tell her I hadn't slept with a teddy bear since I was 5… but girls sleep with stuffed animal's right? Wasn't she proof of that? "Umm... Thanks. I think."

"Your welcome." She replied and then climbed into her bed. Her mom came upstairs and turned the light off saying, "goodnight guys." Normally when you sleep over somewhere you stay up all night talking… tonight wasn't one of those nights though. I think we were both asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

Chapter 20:

I felt a slight prodding sensation. Something strange was happening in my dream. "Brandon, wake up." Poke.

"Ahh!!…" I woke up to see Amy standing over me.

"Wake up Brandon! Geeze… how long does it normally take to wake you up?" Amy asked me as she kept poking me.

"I don't know… I'm usually never awake for it" I said as I tried to roll back over.

"If I have to I'll tickle you!" She said. I knew she meant it too.

"All right I'm getting up!" I said with a groan.

"Good, why don't you go ahead and take a shower real quick. Mom's making breakfast downstairs. Once you're done we'll go eat and then we'll hit the slopes!"

"What time is it?"

"7:00"

Groan… "Way too early…" I said as I got off of my rear end and took my stuff to the bathroom. I showered, but didn't wash my hair. Mom had told me that if I was in a hurry that could save me some time – I got the feeling we were in that hurry. I got out of the shower as quick as I could, and then took care of the rest of the essentials to starting a day. I did brush my hair out really quick after brushing my teeth, and then put my ski clothes back on.

I switched shirts to a Disney shirt I got when we went there this past summer. It was a yellow shirt with Mickey on it. I unfortunately only had one pair of ski pants though so I had to wear those again. I looked at myself and decided I was fairly presentable and went out to the room.

"That was quick. Did you wash your hair out?"

"I didn't think I had time to do that… So I'll wait till tomorrow I guess."

"I didn't wash mine out today either, I was kind of hoping if we get back early I could get mom to do it for me."

"Your mom washes your hair?" I asked

"Occasionally, it's such a great feeling having someone else wash your hair! Maybe I can get her to do yours too!" She said. I felt a little awkward and mumbled something.

"Do you have your necklace on?" She asked curiously.

"Yes, you?" I asked. I didn't take it off that night, and left it on in the shower on accident. Shouldn't hurt it though I figured. I currently had it tucked underneath my shirt – I was experimenting to see if you could see it if I did that. There was a bit of chain around the front inside of my collar visible. I didn't know if I could get away with wearing it to school of not. My hair actually did cover the back of the chain though…

Back to the present though, "Yep! Anyway, I'm hungry let's go eat!"

She dragged me down the stairs and we sat down at their dining table to eat. I'm really not a morning person, never have been, never will be. But I did my best to act civilized!

We drove off to the resort a short while later. Once we returned to the resort we got everything out again.

"Okay guys, we're going to let you go off again on your own today. We'd like to you to meet us at the Timberline Restaurant for lunch though."

"Okay," we both answered together. Amy then led me to a different lift than we had used the previous day.

"Hey Brandon, we should do something with your hair again today." She said. Somehow I felt there was something strange going on.

"Okay, I guess we can do the headband thing again today. Did your mom mention it last night or this morning?"

"No she didn't, but like I said she suggested it in the first place. Are you worried about the fact you forgot to take it off before we saw them?" I nodded. "It's really okay, it's not that big of a deal to wear a headband."

"I guess I'm not really worried about that, I just don't want your parents to think I'm a freak or something. You're too good of a friend for that."

"If my parents thought that, do you think my mom would have gotten this necklace set for us? My dad was in the store and I'm sure she told him what she was thinking of doing. He obviously still let it happen. So chill." She said with a smile.

"Okay, I guess I'll wear the headband again." I said smiling back at her.

"Okay, let me get it out." She started digging through her bag. "Uh-oh…"

"What?"

"I think I must have taken them out this morning for some reason… Hrmm…" She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then looked at me before digging into her bag. She said, "Turn around."

I looked skeptically at her for a second, "Trust me," she said. So I did. In a moment I felt her gathering my hair and pulling it back and forth before she said a few seconds later, "Done!"

I felt my hair, something felt odd. It was off of my neck –that hadn't been the case in a while – and my hand ran up to find, "A ponytail?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep! And actually I think you look cute with it!"

I was flabbergasted… I didn't know what to say. "Okay… If people thought I was a girl yesterday that's probably only going to be worse today… I should take this out."

I started to reach up to pull the scrunchie she had used to tie it up out. But she gave me this puppy dog look. "Come on, I'll remind you to take it out before we meet with my parents. I've wanted to do that and so much else with your hair since like a month ago. I didn't know if it was long enough though… Come on. I promise I'll never tell anyone else!" She said practically groveling.

"Alright. But please remind me to pull it out. I don't want your parents to see me like this."

"Great, let's go!" She put her skies on and we climbed up to the chairlift. I hoped that I had fought hard enough to not make her think I was going along with it too easily. On one hand I really wanted to be a girl… on the other hand it was such a scary road, and one I worried my best friend had pegged me as wanting to follow.

"So Amy, why are we getting on this chairlift today?" I asked.

"Well, we're going to meet my parents at that restaurant, and it's on the backside of the mountain. This'll get us into that area. We can make several runs down this side and then we can meet them there. Then we'll be able to ski the front side of the mountain the rest of the day. Sound good?"

"Yeah, that does sound good. So, we're getting really close to the trip to Florida, are you excited?" I asked her

"Yeah I am. Have you ever been there before?"

"No, we went to California one time, but I've never been east, let alone to Florida. You?"

"Yeah, we've been a couple times. The last time was 2 years ago. I love it there, especially Disney World! You'll have a blast there. What are you looking forward to most?"

"I don't know, actually I think the day at Kennedy Space Center and Space Camp! Have you ever seen that movie?" She shook her head, "We'll have to watch it together sometime. I mean I guess maybe it's kind of dorky but I love science and space. It would be so cool to be able to go into space someday."

"I don't think it's dorky at all. Actually that's the one place that we've never been – I've always wanted to go there though. The rest of the kids may not realize it, but I'm every bit as much of a dork as you are!" She said giggling as we reached the top on the chairlift.

We made our way to the top of the trail we were going down and started down the slope. The ponytail was a whole new experience – something I'd wanted to experience ever since I'd decided on this path – and was everything I hoped it would be. I loved how it bounced a bit every time I hit a bump.

We skied several trails to reach the bottom. When we got there I said, "That was fun! I think I like the trails back here better than ones on the front."

"I kind of do too. Tell you what, let's go back up and stop at the bathroom on our way down before we go the rest of the way back here, okay?"

"Sure, that sounds like a great plan." I really needed to go too.

We rode the lift back up to the top, this particular lift was slower and it took us almost 20 minutes to get back to the top. I suppose it's still better than having to walk up though right? We skied down the little bit before there was a building that had a café, a small store, and some restrooms. She entered the girls room while I went into the boys room. When I finished I went to wash my hands and looked at myself in the mirror.

I definitely looked like a girl, I loved the scrunchie that was in my hair. It was purple, and seemed to match everything else I was wearing. I left the bathroom and started to wonder if some guy saw me what he would think…

What would happen if he wondered why I was going into the boys restroom… Thankfully no one had been around when I went in, but that was bringing up some questions I hadn't really thought about. I had not even come close to coming out and saying my desires… but my hair and my appearance were causing most people to believe I was a girl without really doing anything else. What issues was that going to bring up?

Amy came out of the ladies restroom and we went back down the slopes via a different set of trails than last time. We reached the bottom about 40 minutes before we were supposed to meet her parents.

"Brandon, we should head back up and start skiing to the restaurant we're meeting my parents at."

"Sounds good, I'm starving!"

When we got on the ski lift I started talking to her some more. It was awfully hard to talk while we were going down the slope, so it was nice to take the break to be able to talk.

"Brandon, I was supposed to remind you to take out the scrunchie before we met up with my parents."

"Oh that's right," I said as I started to reach up to the foreign object in my hair.

"Wait," she said and I stopped reaching, "why don't you just leave it in?"

"Umm… Because boys aren't supposed to wear their hair in a ponytail held up by a purple scrunchie?"

"Who says?"

"Well… What other guy, besides me, have you ever seen with their hair in a scrunchie?" I asked. I wasn't sure where this was going – I was mildly terrified though.

"Well… None… But I don't care, and my parents won't care either." She said.

"Umm… what happens if they think I'm a girl at the restaurant?" I asked.

"Well… they may think that anyway, you could just let it slide?" She suggested.

"Why are you so insistent on me keeping my hair like this?" I asked.

The chairlift stopped in midair – something was wrong on one of the ends or something. "I guess… Look Brandon I don't think we could ever date, I'm not really interested in you, and I think you feel the same way right?" I nodded "But I think you look cuter like this. I don't know, maybe it's more fun having you as a friend if you look like that? You don't have to do it I guess, it's just something I think is cute. Plus, you like it don't you?"

Chapter 21:

I stuttered for a moment, thinking about denying it... "How do you know that I like it?" I asked.

"You smiled when you realized what it was at first. I also saw you smiling when you felt it bouncing, and you frowned when you thought you needed to take it out."

"I didn't do that did I?" She nodded. "I guess I do kind of like it a bit... You won't tell anyone will you?"

"Of course not!" She said.

"What about your parents, will they tell my parents about my hair?" I asked nervously. The chairlift started moving again.

"We'll lie about it, we'll say that I won a bet against you and this was what I won. Fair enough?" She asked.

"Yeah, I suppose that does work. Though I hate to ask you to lie to your parents."

"Ah... This is something minor, and mom wouldn't mind one way or another. So, are you going to leave it in?"

"Sure. You are right, I do enjoy it. You promise your parents aren't going to care?"

"Promise."

We reached the top and started down the hill towards the restaurant. We'd been skiing intermediate level trails all morning, so it didn't seem too bad getting down to this restaurant from the top. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare and sat down on a bench outside to wait for her parents.

I sat there wondering for a few minutes if I should take out the scrunchie still, but I was committed shortly later when her parents skied up. Her mom came up to us and looked at me, "Cute. Amy, why is Brandon's hair up in one of your scrunchies?"

"He and I had a little bet that I won."

"You're okay with this Brandon?," her dad asked. Not really concerned but checking anyway.

"Well I was okay enough to bet about it, so yeah." I replied.

We then walked into the restaurant to get lunch. We sat down and had a casual lunch of hamburgers and fries. At the counter I was not surprised when the worker said, "and what would you like miss?" I was really ecstatic about it in so many ways, but I was still so nervous about what was going to come from this. We talked about the day of skiing so far, and when we were going to meet down at the base.

"Amy, Brandon, why don't you go ahead and meet us back down at the base in 2 hours?" Her dad asked at the end of lunch. That would put it at 3pm.

Amy asked, "What are we going to do when we get done?"

"Well I figured we'd shop a little at the resort and then go to the condo and hang out there for a bit. I figure we can take it from there. Does that sound like a plan?"

Amy and I nodded and took off for the slopes. We took a chairlift up from where we were to the very top of the hill. Then we followed a series of trails to get back to the front side.

"I'm worn out," I said to Amy when we got to the bottom.

"Me too." I looked at my watch, it was only 2:10. "I'll go if you want to, but right now I'd kind of just like to find some hot chocolate and sit down somewhere."

"No, the hot chocolate sounds really really good." She said. We put our skis over on a rack and then walked into the lodge. It was certainly not a cheap thing to buy there – especially since I insisted on getting both of ours, but her parents had done so much for me to let her pay for that.

The counter guy said, "hear you go miss, enjoy."

"Thanks." I took the drinks over to where Amy was sitting next to a warm fire.

"Here Amy," I said as I handed it to her.

"Thanks!" We sat there quietly enjoying the drinks for a while without either speaking. Both of us relaxing and deep in thought.

Chapter 22:

"Brandon, what do you want to do when we get back to the condo?" Amy asked.

"I don't know, what is there to do?" I asked

"Well, we could play another board game – though that's a long time for games, we could go swimming in the pool that's there. Hrmm… We could play with my toys, or we could just sit there and look bored?"

Part of me wished so much to play with her toys (Barbie's!), but my better judgment said there would be other opportunities for that if I went over to her house more. We had actually talked about me starting to come after school to hang out after school, this week. So… out of the other options I decided on swimming. I loved swimming.

"How about swimming?" I suggested.

"That sounds good, did you bring your swimming suit?"

Man how I wanted to say no to see what would happen… would it be like my dream at my aunt's house? But the scared and intimidated me said the real answer, "Yeah, I did."

"Okay then, let's go swimming when we get done with shopping!" She was fairly excited, I was glad to see that. I fed off of her excitement and we both talked rapidly for the next 20 minutes or so when we realized that we needed to go meet her parents.

We grabbed our skis and walked down to the parking lot. Amy thought about putting our skis on the rack but we couldn't reach that high. Her parents showed up a few minutes later though and her mom went into the car for a camera.

"I want to get a picture of everyone together before we put the stuff up for the season." She had Mr. Hancock prop the skis up in the snow behind the car (there was a pile where the plows had pushed it up), and had us stand in front of them. As she was getting ready to take the picture she saw a resort worker and asked him to take the picture.

I had a feeling it would end up looking more like a family picture than a friend with a friends family. I stood in front of Mr. Hancock, Amy in front of Mrs. Hancock. We took like 10 pictures like that with their nice camera, and then Mrs. Hancock got several with just Amy and I.

After we got done taking them I suddenly remembered I still hadn't taken the scrunchie out… Oh well. I didn't think you could probably see the scrunchie, you'd just see the hair pulled back. I decided not to worry about it. From there we got everything loaded back up.

Mrs. Hancock then said, "Okay, let's go look at the shops!"

We followed her lead to the various stores and looked around. She stopped in at one store that offered merchandise with the resorts name on it. "Amy, you need a new t-shirt right?"

"Umm… Yeah, the other one is fading really bad." She replied.

"Pick out a new one then," she said pointing at the t-shirts. She looked around and picked out a black shirt that had the resort logo in a bright blue. She then looked at me and asked, "which one do you want Brandon?"

I was flabbergasted, after all they had done for me they were going to buy me a shirt too? I must have looked more questioning that though as Amy said, "Brandon get the same one as me, it's unisex, and it would be fine for a boy to wear it too!"

I didn't know what Amy had in mind but I went along with it. I also discovered, much to my surprise, that Amy and I were the same size. That was strange, I actually thought I would be a little bigger than her. Anyway, so we got the shirts and finished up the shopping. From there we headed back to their condo.

"What do you two want to do when we get there?" Her mom asked.

"Brandon and I were talking about going swimming. Is that okay with you guys?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. You guys can go swim for an hour or so, and then I'll have dinner ready for you."

"What are we having Mom?" Amy asked.

"Well I'll heat up the leftovers from yesterday, and then I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. Does that work?"

I of course nodded because I wasn't about to complain while in someone else's house, and Amy seemed to go along with it too.

When we pulled up to the condo we helped them stash all of the ski stuff back in the closet, I left the purple boots on the floor there, and walked with Amy upstairs to her bedroom.

Chapter 23:

"Why don't you get into the bathroom first?" Amy suggested. "Make sure you put some pants on top of your swimming suit since we have to walk outside a little bit before we get to the pool. It will be cold… especially when we come back!"

"Okay, that's a good idea." I replied and took my bag into the bathroom. I put my swimming suit on and put on a pair of nylon wind pants over them. I left the bathroom a few minutes later and she went in and out. While she was in the bathroom I pulled the scrunchie from my hair.

I liked the way a pony tail had felt, though my hair was just barely long enough to hold it in. I looked around in my bag for my brush and started brushing my hair out. I was just about done when Amy came out of the bathroom. "Why are you bothering when we're just going to get it wet anyway?" She asked.

"I dunno… just seemed like the thing to do right now. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's grab a couple towels and let mom know we're walking over there."

"Okay," We grabbed 2 towels and then bounded down the stairs.

"Mom, we're going to the pool now." Amy told her mom.

"Okay, did you remember towels?" We nodded. "Then have fun. I'll send your dad after you guys when it's time for you to come back for dinner."

"Thanks Mom," Amy said.

We walked around the building's backside to a building and into a building that housed the condo community's indoor pool and jacuzzi. Amy and I walked to the door and used a key she had to get in.

"So what do you think?" she said as she opened the door and I really got a chance to look inside the building. The pool was large, and looked like it went outside as well as inside. On one side of the pool sat a water slide that was about 20 feet tall. There was also a glass wall that allowed you to view a fitness center from the pool area. On that same wall I saw signs for girl/guy restrooms.

"I think it's really nice. I'll come up with you guys any time you want!" I said with a wink.

"Well, I think you can plan on being able to come with us anytime you want. Enough talking, let's go swimming!"

We both stripped down to our swimming suits. I immediately headed for the water slide using it to kick off my time swimming.

"Hey, that was my idea," Amy said as I climbed up the slide. I stuck my tongue out at her and continued to the top. As soon as I reached the top I sat down and went down the slide. I had far too much fun with that for my age!

Amy was right behind me, and we then had a splashing contest in the pool before going back up the slide. She beat me up to the slide this time, and it gave me time to admire her swimming suit. It was a pink one-piece swimsuit with some thick, angular, blue lines across it. How I wish I would have been able to wear something like that on this trip!

We swam and played in the pool for what seemed like 15 minutes before her dad came and said, "Amy, Brandon, it's time for dinner."

Amy gave me a final splash and we swam to the side where we had left our clothes and our towels. We both dried out bodies and tried to dry our hair a bit before putting out clothes back on.

We then started back to their condo – it had gotten cold quick tonight, and by the time I got back there I thought my hair must be frozen! It hadn't quite done that yet, but it certainly felt stiff. We sat down at the dinner table and had the leftovers and the grilled cheese/soup.

I had learned earlier from Amy that it was a tradition for them to eat that the last night before going home. Apparently she used to beg for it when she was really little, and that was their compromise for her.

I was fairly tired so I didn't talk a whole lot during dinner – though noone seemed to be much better off. I was full about the time that Amy's mom asked her, "Do you want to take a quick shower and then I'll wash your hair?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Amy said, fairly excited. "You should do Brandon's too!" Amy suggested excitedly.

"Brandon if you want I'd be willing." Her mom said to me.

"What exactly do you do?" I asked. Trying to remember back to what Amy told me.

"I just wash her hair with shampoo and condition it over at the sink. I usually massage her scalp a little too. It's not really anything that out of the ordinary, it just feels nice to have done for you. So… yes… no…?"

"Sure, it's something to do if nothing else." I replied.

"Okay then, Amy why don't you go shower first and then Brandon can get in there. Okay?"

"Okay Mom, I'll be back soon." She said to her mom.

I stayed down and helped her mom with the dishes. She came down about 10 minutes later and I went up and showered my body real quick before putting on my pajamas (I noticed that's what Amy did), and coming back downstairs myself.

When I came down I saw Amy's mom wrapping her hair up in a towel. "Brandon, go ahead and come sit down here. I saw she had setup a taller chair in front of the kitchen sink that Amy stood up from. She was smiling – I think that may have been her favorite part of the trip so far.

I sat down in the chair. "Brandon, why don't you take the necklace off while I do this? I'll put it here on the counter." I took it off and handed it to her.

"Okay, now lean back and relax." Her mom told me. I did, I sat back and relaxed as she first wet my hair down some more, and then began applying shampoo to my hair. As she was doing this she made sure she rubbed the shampoo into every hair and part of my scalp there was. It must have been some of Amy's shampoo, because it smelled like berries.

I then felt her rinse it out with the sink sprayer. I thought maybe she would be done then but as soon as I heard her put the sprayer back down I felt her rub something else into my hair – it must be conditioner I thought. The whole experience was more wonderful than anything else I could remember.

A few minutes later she rinsed the conditioner out of my hair and wrapped my hair in a towel like she had done Amy's. I sat up, kind of feeling a head rush, and then stood up. "Thank you Mrs. Hancock, that felt really good!" I said.

Amy was sitting on the couch with her hair still wrapped up, "See, I told you so."

"I never doubted you. So what's next?" I asked.

"Well, now mom'll blow dry my hair and put it into some random style she'll decide on… and then we get to team up and do the same to you!" She said smiling.

"That's only if you want to though Brandon," Mrs. Hancock said as she walked over to the couch we were both sitting on. She pulled a kitchen chair up next to an outlet on the wall and directed Amy to sit down in it.

"Come on Brandon, you have to!" Amy said.

"Okay, just because you want me to." I said.

I watched her mom take the blow dryer and several combs/brushes and work with her hair for a while until it was dry. I then watched her take and separate the back of her hair in half, and then she produced some pink hair bands which she tied each side into. She whispered something in Amy's ear, and then she stood up.

"Okay Brandon! Your turn!" Amy squealed. She was clearly more excited about this than I was able to let on myself. The truth of the matter is that I couldn't have been more excited. Maybe I would get pigtails too! Was my hair long enough for pigtails? I had wondered that recently.

I sat down in the chair and felt Amy and her mom work together on my hair for what seemed like forever. I swore I must be in a dream… They ran the blow dyer through my hair while combing and brushing it out. After a while they turned the blow dryer off and I felt her separate my hair, they were actually going to do it – I was going to have pigtails like a real girl!!!

I couldn't wait to see myself in the mirror. Her mom seemed to have to try a couple times to get the bunch of hair on my right just right, then she moved on the my left. A minute later she said, "Done."

Amy giggled a little bit, grabbed my hand, and said, "Let's go look!" She led me bounding up the stairs to the bathroom.

Chapter 24:

When we got up to the bathroom I couldn't believe it. If I thought I had looked like a girl with the ponytail it was nothing compared to the 2 pigtails hanging off either side of my head. "Whoa." I said.

"You know Brandon, you would make a prettier girl than most of the girls in our grade." Amy commented.

I couldn't disagree with her on that… I had always dreamed it might be such, but here it was and she was right. If only I had girls clothes on there would be no doubt. "Yeah, but that could result in me getting beat up more…" I answered honestly.

"Actually, I think that people are going to start leaving you alone more and more. If you came dressed up in girls clothes to school that would be a problem, but I don't think you're going to get anything from your hair. Besides…" She giggled, "I know of at least 3 girls that now have a crush on you because of your hair. They think you look like a rock star." She giggled some more. "So what do you think?"

"It's different… it's kind of amusing…" I trailed off.

"Okay, let's go downstairs and play a game now!" She grabbed my hand and we walked back downstairs. She went to the closet and came back with Monopoly. I think I saw her mom groan a bit, but we ended up setting it up and playing.

You know Monopoly is just one of those games that seems to always go the same way with people everywhere. Well, we had a lot of fun, and I do have to admit I kicked some serious butt! I setup a great racket of hotels on expensive and inexpensive sites and Amy and her parents kept landing on them.

At about 10pm I took Mr. Hancock's last set of cash and properties… It was a good day!

"Okay, you guys need to get going to bed so we can get out of here in the morning." Her mom said to us.

I yawned and nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I'm pretty tired anyway. Thanks again for everything you guys have done for me this weekend, it's been a lot of fun."

"You're very welcome Brandon, again, anytime you want to come along with us, or even just come over to our house feel free!"

"Thanks." I grabbed my necklace off the kitchen counter – I almost forgot it! – and grabbed Amy to go upstairs. I think it was the first time I ever dragged her somewhere – she was mostly asleep at this point.

When we got upstairs we both brushed our teeth and just went to bed after that, we were both pretty tired. I think we tried to stay up and talk, but we were both asleep by the time her mom came to say goodnight.

Mrs. Hancock shook me awake in the morning, "Brandon, it's time to get up and get ready."

I grunted and sat up. She reached up and woke Amy up next. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and slowly got out of bed. Ugh… I hate mornings… My hair felt kind of funny I thought for a second before realizing I forgot to take my pigtails out… I pulled the hair ties out of each side and grabbed my hair brush to brush it out. I looked up and saw Amy doing the same thing.

We ate a breakfast of cereal, they cleaned out some stuff, and we got on the road to go back home. Amy and I talked on the way home, but it was a little more subdued. Tomorrow we had to go back to school, something that neither of us were really looking forward to.

They pulled up to my house a couple hours later.

"Thank you so much for inviting me along," I said to them all, but particularly her parents.

"No problem Brandon, we really enjoyed having you. Anytime you want to come over feel free to." Mrs. Hancock said.

I spoke with Amy really quick outside of the car through her window, "So Brandon you're going to come to my house after school tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, it sounds like fun. Hopefully they won't load us down with homework." I replied.

My parents came out of the house and gave me a hug and said thanks to her parents. My dad grabbed my bag from me and we went inside. Of course once inside they started 'interrogating me' as I like to put it.

"How was your weekend?" My mom asked.

"It was great, the Hancocks were really nice to me!" I began telling them about their condo, the skiing, and most everything else. I did leave out the hair stuff, I didn't think they would completely freak out, but I didn't want to take a chance. I then told her that Amy had invited me to come work on homework after school tomorrow.

I talked for quite a while before they let me go to my room. I played with some legos for a while before deciding to read a book. When I looked for a book to read I decided to read an old Liza Drew book that I had. I became immersed in the book, and other than taking a break to practice, the rest of the day passed quickly.

Chapter 25:

The next day school went decently, except for one thing… Homework! Amy and I had first period together, and Mr. Krantz decided that this was the week to do two things. One, we had a paper due Friday based off a lab we did that day dissecting a frog. The second was a major test on Friday that was supposed to be a 'practice final exam.' We still had 2 months till the end of the year, why were we taking a 'practice final?'

Amy and I had complained about both of those things to each other over lunch. Nikki came and sat down at our table and said, "Hey you guys have the same shirt on!" I blushed a bit.

"I'm honestly surprised no one said anything before now." Amy commented. "Brandon went with my family up to go skiing this weekend."

"It was a lot of fun," I added.

"That's cool. We got back from Denver last night…" She continued on, and it was clear that it wasn't a big deal to her that we were wearing the same shirt. I was somewhat relieved, it was a unisex shirt, but still… Anyway I got through the rest of the day without being picked on at all. I was a little surprised by that, and the lack of stuff made me nervous. However, as they say, 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth.'

After school I met up with Amy and rode her bus to her house. I showed a note to the driver when I got on and she let me on without a problem. I sat next to Amy and we chatted all the way to her house. "So you guys have your band competition soon?" She asked me.

"Yeah, in about 3 weeks. Mrs. Remar is completely going psycho about it. Just today a kid didn't know his part so she told him to put up his stuff. I mean, it was just one note… I just hope I don't screw up in front of her this next few weeks. I don't want to lose my first chair."

"Are you doing soccer this season?" She asked me.

"No, my good coach is leaving and the new guy is the old assistant. In a word he's a jerk. I went to two practices before deciding it wasn't worth it. How about you? Are you doing anything this year?" We pulled up to her bus stop and started walking towards her house.

"I'm thinking about trying out for the cheerleading squad this month. I've always wanted to be a cheerleader, I just hope I'm good enough to make it." She said.

"I'm sure you'll make it Amy, out of any of the girls you're the most likely to make it I think. You've done so many things like gymnastics and dance I can't see you not making it." Amy had done both of those activities since she was 2. Her gymnastics coach had been trying to get her to go to some of the Olympic trials, but she said 'no' to that. She liked doing it, but didn't want to compete at that level – she just wanted to have fun doing it.

"I hope you're right Brandon, it would be so much fun I think." We reached her house and went inside.

"Well, shall we start on this stupid assignment that Mr. Krantz gave us?" She asked.

"Yeah… I guess. I can't believe he wants us to do all of this the week after spring break, why couldn't he have given us at least a day without homework?!"

"I agree, but I don't think we could get anywhere else arguing with him. Here, let's go work in my playroom, I have a table in there we can work around." She said as we topped her stairs and went into a room I hadn't seen before.

"Okay." I replied as we entered into one of the most girly rooms I had ever entered into. The room was painted in pink and purple, and I guessed must have been her nursery when she was a baby? There were Barbie dolls, baby dolls, stuffed animals, and basically every toy that a girl her age could have wanted from age 5-12. "You weren't kidding when you said you had a lot of toys." I said to her.

"Nope, I'm definitely a spoiled brat," she replied with a giggle. "Here, help me get this table out," she pointed to a fold up card table against the wall. We got it setup and grabbed a couple chairs from against the wall.

"Okay, he wants us to write a narrative about the dissection first." She said and we began working on it. We set about working on the project and actually within about 2 hours we had most of it done.

Her parents had come home by that point and invited me to dinner, but I had to turn them down tonight. "We're having dinner with some family friends tonight. I'd love to take you guys up on your offer another time though." I said as I gathered up my stuff.

"Brandon, why don't you come over tomorrow and we'll finish up this project and work on studying for the test?" Amy asked.

"Okay, that sounds good." I said as I went out the door to where my mom was parked on the road. She waved at Amy and her parents and we went off to dinner with our friends. It was a fun time at dinner that night and we had a great meal.

That night I made sure that I practiced so I could avoid the wrath of Mrs. Remar. By the time I went to bed I was definitely ready. That night all I could seem to think about though when I tried to go to sleep was that wonderful room that Amy had, and how great it would be to be able to play with her and her toys.

Chapter 26:

The rest of that week I was over at Amy's house a couple of times, and we both made it through Mr. Krantz's test and assignment with better than a 100%. He kind of gave us both a funny look when he handed them back the following week. "Amy, Brandon, can you two stay for a moment please." He said as everyone filed out of the room.

"Sure," Amy and I said.

When everyone had left the room he asked, "Did you two copy the assignment from each other?"

"No, we worked at the same time at my house, but we didn't copy or anything if that's what you're suggesting." Amy asserted. I wasn't so sure it was a good idea to be that in his face though.

"That's fine, I don't mind that you two worked together on it at all. If anything I was going to say you two should do that kind of thing more often. I think it helped out on your tests as well. You were the only 2 that got A's on both the assignment and the test. Anyway let me write a pass out for each of you so you're not late to your next class."

He wrote it out and we both looked at each other trying to figure out what that was about. As we left I said, "I thought he was going to accuse us of cheating or something."

"I did too, but my parents would have been all over him in a heartbeat. That's why I said something to him first, I figured he must know my parents wouldn't put up with that crap. I don't think either of us will have any problems from him though. I think he genuinely likes both of us more than any of the other students." She giggled for a second.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about how people give us a hard time about being 'teachers pets' sometimes. The truth of the matter is that it helps us more than they get any other help. I don't know, it's kind of funny." She laughed some more as we split up and went to our separate classes.

That day we had a playing test in band to see if we would be allowed to go on the trip that was coming up. If anyone scored less than an 80% they wouldn't be allowed to go. I was really nervous about it, but when I asked her my grade afterwards she told me I had received a perfect score. That was reassuring.

In choir we just goofed around that day since Mrs. Schultz was gone. Amy and I talked pretty much non-stop during that class period since we didn't really want to watch the movie that was put on. The sub looked at us like she was annoyed, but held back from saying something for one reason or another.

Towards the end of class Amy asked, "Hey Brandon, do you want to go see a movie this weekend?"

"What movie?"

"Nikki and I were thinking 'A Goofy Movie.' It's probably going to be terrible, but it seems like something worth seeing. If nothing else it's something to do."

"Who else is going to go?"

"Maybe Lacey, other than that I don't think anyone else. So what do you think?"

I thought for a second, "It sounds like fun, let me double check with my parents and I'll call you later?" I wasn't going over to her house today because she had gymnastics practice.

"Okay, I'll be home around 7, call me then."

"Okay." We all talked for the class and lunch. By the time I got through the end of the day I was glad to be going home. When I got there I looked on the internet for stuff and just kind of chilled for the rest of the night.

I did ask my parents for permission to go see the movie this weekend and they agreed. I called Amy and let her know that I could go. She told me it looked like it was going to just be Nikki, her, and I since Lacey couldn't go. I said that was fine, and we made plans on Friday during school on when we were meeting at the movie theater.

Saturday at 11:00am Mom dropped me off at the movie theater where Amy and Nikki were already waiting.

"Hey," I said as I walked up the them. They both said 'hi' back and we walked to the ticket line.

"What movie, Miss?" The guy asked me. I just shrugged it off with a smile (it did make me happy,) and said 1 for a Goofy Movie.

Amy and Nikki bought their tickets behind me and came up to me giggling a minute later. "Brandon, I can't believe how often that's been happening to you recently!" Amy said.

"Often?" Nikki asked.

"When we were skiing a couple weeks ago everyone seemed to say that," I told her. I was blushing pretty heavily.

"Don't worry about it Brandon," Amy said.

"And definitely don't cut your hair," Nikki said.

"I agree," Amy said.

"Umm.. thanks." I replied as we got into the snackbar line.

"So Brandon, how much money do you have left?" Amy asked.

"Umm.. 4 dollars. It looks like just enough to get a coke, but not much else."

"Not necessarily, Nikki how much do you have?" Amy asked.

"I've got $5, you?"

"I've got $6.50 left. If we pitch in the extra beyond the 3 dollars for a drink we'd have just enough to get a large bag of popcorn and a nachos that we could split. Wanna do that?" She asked.

"Sure," I said, Nikki nodded too.

We got up to the counter and the guy asked, "What can I get for you ladies?"

I caught a smirk on Nikkis face and wanted to strangle her, but just answered, "3 cokes, a Large Popcorn, and a thing of Nachos please." I wondered if he would figure out I was a boy at this point.

"Sure thing Miss." He replied and began getting our order together.

As we stood there I heard a voice that I had thankfully not heard for a long while at this point. It was Matt. I quickly looked around and saw that he was in line, 2 lines over. I had heard his parents had sent him out of town to go live at a relatives house in Arizona, what was he doing back? If he saw me what would he do? I looked again and didn't recognize any of the other guys with him, but they were definitely thugs like him.

I whispered to Amy, "Amy… Matt's back there, what should I do? I can't imagine he would be too happy to see me."

"Relax, he's bringing our popcorn back right now and we'll go in the movie theater. I'm sure he's not going to see the same movie as us. He'll probably go see 'Bad Boys,' he's 'too cool' to go see a kids movie."

Our stuff came over and we booked it to the theater and took our seats. Nikki looked over at me and said, "Brandon, you look like you've seen a ghost!"

"I kind of have," I replied and explained about Matt.

"Don't worry about him, he wouldn't dare do anything in a public place like this. The cops would be called and he'll go to prison for certain this time." Nikki said.

I hoped they were right. I honestly had a sinking suspicion that I was not going to get as lucky as Amy and Nikki thought. Thankfully the movie previews started a short while later and I began to enjoy myself as we munched on the nachos and popcorn. About half-way through the movie I really started to need to go to the bathroom. I was kind of scared to go out there by myself though.

What if Matt was in the bathroom too? I decided I couldn't wait till the end of the movie though and got up to go. Amy whispered to me, "Wait a second, I'll come with you."

I felt a little bit better instantly and we went over to the restrooms. I went in really quick, went, and got back out. Amy got out a second later and we headed back to the theater. I thought good, we're home free!

"Hey Amy, where's your little sissy friend Brandon?" I knew in a second it was Matts voice again, and cursed my decision to think the positive thoughts I had just been thinking. I totally had doomed myself!

Chapter 27:

Amy motioned to me to keep walking, something we tried to do before I saw a hand reach out for Amy's shoulder. I tried to warn her but she apparently didn't need it. The next thing I knew was that she had ducked under the grasp and we were still somehow walking forward.

"Amy I just want to talk to you and your friend here." Matt said as he ran ahead of us suddenly. "Maybe if you won't go out with me she will." I just about dropped dead at that moment. Matt thought I was a girl and didn't recognize me?

We both turned back around and started heading for the main area. "Matt we don't want to talk to you." Amy said fairly angrily. We had reached the area where a ticket taker was taking tickets from several people when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Why don't we let her tell me that?" He said rudely.

I was spun around and said, "Get lost already."

"No, not until you both learn your places, which is to go out with me."

"Look, it's not going to happen." Amy said. "If you don't stop bothering us we're going to go call the cops."

"You think the cops scare me Amy? I'm going to get you one way or another, if I have to I'll wait for you after the movie when you go outside." Matt sneared.

"Matt you're a real dumb-ass you know it?" I said, surprising myself – my language hadn't been reaching that 'extreme' recently. "Leave us alone." I said and we started to head off again toward the main lobby where we thought we'd have a better chance of being safe.

"Wait a second, Brandon?!?!" Matt bellowed. "Come here, so I can teach you the lesson you deserve for getting me kicked out of school!"

Amy and I tried to move faster but I felt the hand shove me on my back too soon. I managed to roll when I fell and got back on my feet a second later. I looked up just in time to see Matt sending a fist my way, tried to duck while I flinched, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't in pain. I looked up to see a guy gripping his hand in his palm.

"Sir, you need to calm down. I'm a police officer and you need to leave this establishment right now."

"You're going to stand up for those two?" Matt said incredulously and began struggling to get loose from his grip. I suddenly thought my earlier sworn comment couldn't have been any truer. Sure enough in about the blink of an eye he was on the ground with the officer holding him down.

"Ladies, I'm terribly sorry this gentleman lacks any real manners. He'll get a chance to learn some here in a bit though I think. Go ahead and go see the rest of your movie. I shouldn't need a statement from either of you since I witnessed his attempted assault." He said.

"Umm... officer thanks, we appreciate it." Amy replied. And we began heading back to the theater. The movie was most of the way over now, but that was okay Amy and I agreed later, it wasn't that good of a movie.

We left after the film and headed out to the parking lot to wait for our parents. My mom was waiting outside and came over to talk to us. "So how was it?"

I debated about not telling her about the incident but decided that I was better off telling her. I relayed all that had happened and she decided to call the police department and let them know that there had been a restraining order in place. They had been just getting ready to release him at that point but decided to hold him.

After determining that was a violation of his probation they ended up sentencing him back to 6 months in the state's juvenile facility. Of course I didn't know all of this till the hearing in May, but I'm happy to say this was to be the last incident with Matt I would ever deal with.

I did spend a decent amount of time thinking though that night about he hadn't recognized me immediately. Who would have thought I could come that close to fooling someone who had known who I was by looks that well? I kept wondering if it was possible for me to really be a girl. I mean I knew that I didn't have the right parts, but it was possible to get them to be like the right parts right? I didn't sleep for a long time that night…

Chapter 28:

The next week and a half passed by quickly, and the next thing I knew we were showing up at the school at 7am to travel to a school in Albuquerque for our band competition. We were supposed to warm-up at 8:45, so we were leaving early enough to get there. Mrs. Remar said it would take about 45 minutes to get there. I got on the bus and sat down next to Nikki.

We were all dressed identically, both the guys and girls, when we got on the bus. Everyone had on a set of black slacks, white button up shirt, black bowtie, and a royal blue vest. A couple students had complained about the uniform, but everyone was wearing it since she wouldn't let you go if you didn't.

We were all fairly excited when we got on the bus, but within about 20 minutes the bus had quieted down a lot. Nikki and I kind of dozed off only to be woken up by Mrs. Remar standing up at the front of the bus.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we're getting close to the school where we're going to perform. There are a few things that we need to take care of before we get there though. When we get off of the bus everyone's shirt will be tucked in, and their bow tie's on. Though you will not get off the bus until I tell you to do so."

"Anyone that has long hair will need to put their hair up into a ponytail with some of this ribbon," she was holding up a roll of thick royal blue ribbon, "before we get there. I know that some of you ladies have already done your hair into other styles, but I want everyone to have their hair the same for longer hair. Any questions?"

She seemed to be looking at me as if I was going to put up a fight about my hair. I looked back respectfully and she said, "then I will come down the bus with the ribbon, please help each other get your hair the way it should be. Thanks."

Did this apply to me I wondered. Nikki answered that for me, "Brandon can I do your hair?"

I was kind of flabbergasted. I was going to get to have my hair the same way as the girls and not get in trouble for it – and it wasn't my idea too! I couldn't believe this was happening again to me.

"Umm… I guess if I have to?"

I put on kind of an annoyed face though as Mrs. Remar handed me a piece of ribbon. She handed one to Nikki too. "This needs to be tied into a bow around your ponytail. Nikki, if you can do Brandon's hair, and maybe Jessica can do yours."

"Okay Mrs. Remar," Nikki said.

When she had walked back a few seats Nikki giggled a bit. "I've wanted to see you with your hair in a ponytail for a while now! This'll be fun. Do you have a hair brush?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Then get it out and turn around." She ordered. I grabbed it from my backpack and turned around so she could do my hair. Several of the girls that were nearby all started to help Nikki fuss with my hair. Before I knew it I could feel that sensation of my hair being held up in the air by something.

"Here," Jessica said as she handed me a mirror. I looked at myself and couldn't tell the difference between me and the girls on the bus. Could life get any better?

"You look cute." Nikki said.

"Umm… Thanks." I replied.

The girls did Nikki's hair, and then they started pressuring me a bit. "Brandon, you have to let us play with your hair on the way back home!" Jessica said.

Nikki said, "Yes… Please!" She said with that puppy dog expression that the little bit of guy left in me couldn't resist.

"Alright… I guess… But you can't let anyone give me a hard time about this, alright?"

They all nodded and agreed that they would make anyone who picked on me for their fun pay dearly. As I sat there quietly for the last few minutes before we arrived I was thinking about what to do about the bathroom situation. I looked more like a girl than a boy right now. Going into the boys bathroom could be rather dangerous.

I decided I didn't really have a choice though, and decided that if I went in with some friends I might be okay. When I looked around the bus I did realize that there was one other boy with long hair (longer than mine) that also had his hair tied up now. Maybe I could be okay?

I didn't really have much time to ponder any of that when we got there. She let us have a 3 minute trip to the bathroom really quick (I was in and out before any of the other boys around even had a chance to think about a girl going in the boys room), and then we had to get our instruments out. Once we had our instruments out of the cases we lined up to go inside the warm-up room.

Mrs. Remar smiled at me when she saw me, she whispered in my ear, "Brandon you look cute." And gave me a wink. That kind of surprised me – was she really human? I'd always assumed she was some sort of alien cyborg!

We walked to the warm-up room together, and after playing for what seemed like 10 seconds we were walked over to the stage. I think we all were pretty nervous, but we played really well! The performance ended and we walked over to another room that was setup for us to 'sight-read.' For this part of the contest we had to play a piece that we had never seen before – ever!

I can't say that it was a performance to mark the calendars with, but we managed to stay together to the end, and for the most part there was a melody… We then went to another area where we took a group picture and were given the option to purchase the photograph. My mom had driven the second bus that had the top group of the middle school and she appeared at that point.

"Brandon do you want a picture?"

"Yes, if we can." I replied. Suddenly aware of my hair.

"That should be fine," she filled out the paperwork and walked with me back to the bus.

"Nice job sweetie, you guys played really well!" She gave me a sideways hug at that point. Then she looked around to make sure noone else was around, "I like your hair this way, it's cute!" She gave me a wink and batted the back of my hair like a cat would a toy.

"Well don't mess it up!" I said in a playful whining voice. We both laughed a little and then I separated from her to go meet up with Nikki. Once we put our stuff up we were called into a circle by Mrs. Remar.

"First of all I want to tell you all how proud I am of the way you played – you did a great job! I just got the scores back from the judges and we received Superior Ratings from every judge in our performance, and the judge in sight-reading!"

We all cheered and Nikki and I gave each other a hug. "We can't leave until I get done with the Advanced Band in about another 2 hours. Once we get done with them we'll go to a mall for a bit so you can get something to eat and shop a little. Until then, you are to find a seat in the auditorium and stay there. You will be a polite audience…" Lots and lots of rules… "Once the advanced band performs there will be on more band for you to listen to. When that band finishes come back out here to the bus, okay?"

We all nodded. "Okay, go have a seat. Stop by the bathroom if you need to on your way in. Remember, stay in pairs!"

We walked into the auditorium via a bathroom and watched the rest of the performances until it was time to leave. The Advanced Band had been good, but I didn't know if they would get a superior too or not. I figured they were being judged a lot harder than we were.

After the last group we were supposed to listen to we stood up and went out to the busses to go to the mall. I was kind of looking forward to hanging out with Nikki and the others at the mall – 'who knows what the girls might drag me into!' I thought.

Chapter 29:

When we arrived at the mall Mrs. Remar stood up to speak to us again, "If you want to you may take your vests and bow ties off. But, your shirts must stay tucked in, and you must remain in these concert clothes. Right now my watch says it's 12:15. You may eat, shop, or both as long as you are back here by 1:15pm. The bus will pull out then, do not be late! Also stay in groups of at least 2 or more at all times. If I come by and find you alone you will be staying with me the rest of the trip. Again Congratulations! You are the first ever 6^th Grade Band from our junior high to receive Superior ratings at this contest!"

We all kind of gave a holler and began getting off the bus. Nikki, Jessica, and I decided to go get something to eat first. I looked around the food court and chose to eat at a pizza place called Sbarro. I'd had their stuffed pizza before and always enjoyed it. After I got my pizza I met up with Nikki and Jessica at a table to eat our food.

"So Brandon, are you going to take out the ribbon?" She asked.

I noticed she still had hers in though, "yours is still in?"

"Well, I'm afraid Mrs. Remar might get mad if I take it out now since she told us to stay in our uniforms." She said.

"Well then I guess I'll keep mine in then too…" I said.

We talked about a lot of things for a while and when we got done eating I noticed that we still had 20 minutes left. "What do you guys want to do now?" I asked.

"Well first the bathroom, then why don't we go to the toy store?" Jessica suggested.

"The toy store?" I asked

"Yeah, I want to buy some cards or something to do while we go home. Does that work for you guys?"

"Sure," Nikki said.

"Why not?" I replied.

We went over to the restrooms and I ran in and out quickly again before meeting them outside the bathroom a few minutes later. We walked down to the toy store and browsed inside. There were several games for my game boy that I looked at, as well as some new lego kits they had on sale. I walked with them through the store though, so of course we ended up walking through the Barbie section.

Nikki and Jessica talked about having this one or that one, and how cute this one was, etc. Jessica ended up buying the deck of cards she wanted and we started walking back down towards the busses. Across from the toy store though we noticed a photo booth and decided to go get our pictures taken.

We did the usually photo booth thing and each took a couple of the photographs. We then tried to start moving back to the busses.

On the way back though I saw something that hadn't been there the last time I was through this mall. It was called 'Dippin Dots,' and claimed to be the ice cream of the future. I was immediately curious and went over to the place.

I looked at it and asked, "What is this?"

The lady behind the counter said, "It's ice cream that's flash frozen in liquid nitrogen. It's really good, if you haven't tried it before you should."

Nikki said, "I tried this last time I was here, I love it. We should all get some!"

"Okay, it sounds interesting. I'd like a medium strawberry please." I said.

"Coming right up Miss." I almost rolled my eyes. But, I really couldn't blame her since I was with 2 girls with identical hair and clothes basically… "Here you go."

Nikki and Jessica both got their ice cream too and we continued back to the bus. The first bite I took of the ice cream I was hooked! It was great, what a neat idea for ice cream! I was still eating it when we got back to the bus and Mrs. Remar looked at me and asked, "Where's mine?"

"Back there?" I suggested.

"Next time you have to get some for me too." She said. I couldn't tell if she was serious or not. But then a second later she cracked a smile and I could tell that she was only half serious. "Go ahead and get on the bus." She said to me.

I got on the bus and found my seat. When everyone was on we left to go back to our hometown with a set of superior ratings! I was sitting quietly when Jessica said, "Brandon, you know how you said you'd let us play with your hair on the way back?"

"Umm… yeah…"

"Well, it's time for us to call in that payment!"

Before I knew it they had me in the aisle seat and 3 girls, Jessica, Nikki, and Ashley were all playing with my hair. They tried braiding it first, but it wasn't long enough to do any really long braids so they took it out. After about 15 hairstyles and stuff being put in and out of my hair I ended up in pigtails again. They used the ribbon from my hair and one from Nikki's hair to tie each side up.

"There all done," Ashley said.

"How cute," Nikki said.

"Time to take some pictures," Jessica said.

"What… no pictures," I tried to say but they took like 6 before I could even begin to resist.

"We should all put our hair up like that and take a few more pictures!" Ashley stated.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, Jessica go steal a few more ribbons, we'll need 4 more to do it." Nikki said.

20 minutes later and the 3 of them had their hair the same way. There were actually 3 other girls that did it too after seeing them having the fun with me. One of the sponsors used Jessica's camera and took pictures of the 7 of us like that. Mrs. Remar came back and got into the picture for a couple of them too. The last of which we held the 2 plaques that we had earned that day.

"Jessica, you need to get me copies of those so I can put them in the band scrapbook," Mrs. Remar said.

"Okay, I'll try and get my mom to get them developed this weekend and bring them Monday!" Jessica said with far too much enthusiasm for me at that moment. That would mean other kids at school would see me like this. I didn't care as much with the band kids, but how would the other kids react?

Before I had too much time to worry about it we arrived back at the school. Instead of getting a ride directly home like every other kid I was going to be riding my mom's bus back to the bus yard. Once everything was unloaded I went and joined her on her bus.

"Wow, your hair is certainly cute right now sweetheart." Mom said.

Crap… I forgot to take it out! "Umm.. thanks. The girls got bored and started to mess around with it. I'll take them out now," I said as I started to reach up for them.

She stopped my hand though and said, "No, leave them in for now. I think your dad would be amused by them."

"Are you sure he won't pop a gasket?" I asked.

"Yes I'm sure, he'll be fine with it." She said.

I wasn't so sure, and for the remainder of the drive to the bus yard and to home I was completely nervous. What would he say? I would be so much better off taking them out. We got home and I walked through the door. My dad saw me and said, "Well that's different. I guess the girls are really liking this new hairstyle?"

"Something like that."

"Well, in all honesty if I didn't know you were my son I'd think your mom had brought back a daughter in your place. I've honestly wondered if she'd ever do that since she wanted to have a girl so much." He joked.

I laughed politely and excused myself to my room to change into my pajamas. I then decided to call Amy and tell her about today – I was really excited that we had received the ratings we had.

We talked on the phone for about 15 minutes before her mom started yelling at her to get off the phone, so we made plans for me to go over to her house tomorrow after school. I told my parents about it and they said okay.

Dad went and got some fast food for dinner that we ate, and after just vegging all night I went to bed with a little more comfort in my desire to be a girl. After all, my parents hadn't completely freaked out when their son came home looking like a daughter!

Chapter 30:

The next day we all were kind of tired but still excited that we had done so well at contest. In the morning announcements the principal congratulated us on our fine performance at the contest. For the most part the day absolutely flew by, and before I knew it I was riding the bus home with Amy. When we got to her stop she told me, "First person to the door chooses what we do!" and she took off.

To my credit I made it only a half second after her, but I still lost – even if it wasn't fair! (grumble) We got inside and I asked, "So what are we doing today?"

"Come upstairs with me." She led me upstairs to her playroom. When we got up there she started getting a whole bunch of Barbies out and putting them in the center of the room. She also pushed a gigantic doll house to the center of the room too.

"We're going to play Barbie's today, I haven't been able to play with them much in the past couple months, and so that's what we're doing. Unless you've got a really big problem with it?"

"Umm… I guess not, but I don't exactly know what you're supposed to do with them." I replied timidly.

"That's okay, I'll teach you!" She said. "First things first, names…" She proceeded to tell me the names of several dozen dolls before saying. "Okay, now why don't we play with these ones today… and we need to change their clothes so help me out here…"

She continued to explain the intricacies of how to play with them for a while, and by the end of about 2 hours I'd had a blast. It was everything I had hoped it would be. I had a ton of fun that day, at the end Amy said, "You know Brandon you're more fun to play with than most of my friends."

"Thanks Amy, I had a lot of fun too." We were cleaning up her Barbies and putting them back in their places. She had promised me we would go ahead and keep this from her parents for now. We had put a movie in the TV that I discovered she had in that room while we were playing.

"So do you want to do it again sometime?" Amy asked me.

"Sure, why not?" I replied with a smile. When we were done putting everything up we setup some bean bag chairs and continued watching the movie we'd put in. A few minutes later we heard her mom coming upstairs.

"Hey Amy, Brandon, how did your day go?"

"Good Mrs. Hancock," I replied.

"It was good Mom," Amy said.

"Amy said that congratulations are in order for yesterday?" Mrs. Hancock inquired.

"Yeah, it went really well. We got the highest rating you could get – I guess we're the first 6^th grade band at our school to ever do that!"

"Well congratulations. Listen, Brandon, I talked to your parents they're going to meet us for dinner, so both of you put your shoes on and wash up so we can go."

"Cool," Amy said.

"Okay, that sounds like fun." I replied. We both put our shoes on and got ready. A few minutes later we piled into their SUV.

"Where's Dad?" Amy asked.

"He had to work a little late so he's just going to meet us there."

"Okay." Amy answered.

We drove to the better of the 2 local Mexican restaurants and met my parents at the door. A few minutes later Mr. Hancock joined us too.

"Brandon how was your day?" My mom asked.

"It was alright, I'm tired from yesterday though." I said.

"It was a long day…" She continued talking and asking me stuff but my ears were more on what my dad was saying to Mr. Hancock.

"I wanted to thank you again for taking Brandon with you on that trip. That was really nice of you guys to take him."

"No problem, it was our pleasure. The two of them seem to be joined at the hip anymore, and that's fine with us…"

"Hey Brandon, you want to hang out tomorrow?"

"Umm… Mom can I?" I asked.

"Yes, but don't forget you need to be selling candy bars for the trip too this weekend." Mom said.

"Why don't they do both?" Mrs. Hancock suggested. "They can walk around the neighborhoods between our house and yours going door to door. I'll follow in the car to keep an eye on them. You'd be welcome to come too if you want."

"That sounds like a great idea! Does that work for you two?" Mom asked Amy and I.

"Sure Mom," I said nodding. Amy also nodded her approval.

Our food arrived at that time and we all became more focused on food for a bit. I deeply enjoyed my Chile Releno plate. There's nothing like green chile! For those of you not from the promised land of New Mexico, a chile releno here is a roasted New Mexican Green Chile Pepper stuffed with a white cheese, breaded and deep fried, then covered with more cheese (usually cheddar or Colby-jack) and plenty of green chili sauce! It really is some of the best food in the world…

After we finished our meal dad picked up the check. "Here let us get that," Mr. Hancock said.

"No, you guys took Brandon on that ski trip, we'll get this."

"Well thank you," Mr. Hancock said.

I always hated moments like that, they're always so awkward! In the mean time my mom was talking to Amy's mom. "So we'll come by at 1?" She suggested.

"Sure, that sounds good."

We all stood up and headed for the door. "Well thank you for dinner," Mr. Hancock said at the door, "we'll have to do this again more often."

"Well we'll all be together on the trip next month so we should get some opportunities then." My mom said.

"Yes, I think it's going to be a great trip for all of the kids." Mrs. Hancock said.

"We're certainly excited," Amy chimed in for us.

"Well, let's get going, good night guys!" Mr. Hancock said.

"Goodnight," I said to them and we all got in our separate cars and drove home.

On our way home we stopped and rented some videos. We all just kind of vegged in front of the TV that night before going to bed. All-in-all I thought it had been a great day. How many times do you get to play with Barbies for the first time?

  

  

  

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