Standing Up to Life

by Tiffany Shar

©2008, All Rights Reserved

 

Chapter 31:

That next morning I woke up feeling really good and excited for the day. I had 3 boxes of candy to sell, and that was going to all go to my own pocket for money to spend. Through other fundraising, and the amounts my parents were willing and able to spend, I had paid off my trip. I also already had about $140 in my account for spending money. Each of the boxes had 30 pieces of candy, and at a $1 of profit/candy I would be able to have $90 more dollars if I sold them all.

Amy had told me already that any of the money she raised went to her own spending account, I think she had about $150 in her account at this point. She was hoping for a similar sales spree today. This was our last fundraiser so… yeah… if I wanted to be able to buy anything really cool I'd have to keep raising the money!

We got in the car and put my candy in the trunk. Each box had my name on it so it would be easy to keep track of whose was whose. It was a really windy day today, but it was still pretty warm. I had on shorts and a school t-shirt. When we got to Amy's house we went in for a moment and I saw that she was dressed really similarly. We left there fairly quickly, and began just walking down her street.

We walked up to the first door together and Amy took her first sale. We alternated who was the one selling every other door. After that block we had both done pretty evenly and had managed to each sale one box. We got into my mom's car and found that she and Mrs. Hancock were getting along very well – perhaps too well… We moved onto the next block and began all over again.

My hair was once again beginning to show one little thing that made it annoying… it and the wind did not get along so well. My hair kept getting blown into my eyes and face. When we finished that block Amy offered a black hair tie to me, which I went ahead and used. I was impressed, I managed to put my hair in a decent ponytail without any help.

"Cute," my mom said. "If you keep growing it out I might have to have some fun with your hair myself. It seems like everyone except me has gotten to play with it!" she joked. I knew instantly that Mrs. Hancock had told her about my pigtails on the ski trip…. I got really nervous.

Thankfully I didn't have to respond as we reached our next block and the two of us started going to doors again. It was kind of funny – I could be wrong – but I think I sold at a higher rate after my hair went into the ponytail. Amy seemed to notice too. "Brandon, you know if we put you in some of my clothes I think you could sell twice as much as you are. I think that when you put your hair in that ponytail they began thinking you were a girl." She giggled a bit and I joined in.

Within another hour we had all of our candy sold, and we each had an additional $90 to put to our accounts. "Do you two want ice cream?" Mrs. Hancock asked.

"Yes!" We replied in unison. I'd been noticing we were doing a lot of that recently, it was really cool. It kind of reminded me of some of the characters in the books I read when I was younger.

"Okay, let's go to Dairy Queen then." She said. Mom started driving down that direction while Amy and I jabbered along in the back seat. Selling the candy bars seemed to bring a new immediacy of the trip to mind.

"So tell me about Disney World," I had said to Amy.

She told me about all sorts of things there. "You'll love Epcot center, especially all of the countries that are there."

"Countries?"

"There are a bunch of countries that have 'embassies' setup at the park in an area. They have restaurants, shops, and rides that reflect themselves. You can even get a park passport and get it stamped at each of the different places."

"That sounds neat, we should do that." I said to her.

She went on about a bunch of other things that you could do as we reached Dairy Queen. We each ordered an ice cream cone and sat outside to eat them. I think everyone, including our mom's had a lot of fun today.

"Well, what are we doing now?" I asked.

"Well, if you want to go hang out with Amy and her family tonight that's fine. I'll come pick you up at 9?" She suggested.

I glanced at Amy and she nodded vigorously. "Okay," I replied.

Mom went and dropped the 3 of us off at Amy's house with a promise that she would come hang out at our house on Friday.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked Amy when we got inside.

Her mom answered before she could though, "Well, in about an hour I'm going to go bring in some Chinese food for dinner. Then I thought we could all sit down and watch a movie in our living room?"

"That works mom," Amy said.

"Until then?" I asked.

"We go up and play or something. Let's go," she said and dragged me upstairs. Her mom smiled behind us.

We went upstairs and she closed the door. "Barbies?"

"But what if your mom catches us?" I asked.

"She won't care, besides, this was another one of my harebrained schemes!" She said.

So we went ahead and began playing. We played for about 50 minutes and were putting things away when her mom peeked her head in to check on us. "Barbies?" Her mom asked.

"I decided Brandon needed to be inducted into my way of playing!" She said.

"Well, okay, as long as Brandon doesn't mind." She hedged.

"It's okay Mrs. Hancock, we've done enough things I've wanted to do – it seemed fair." I replied.

"Okay then. I'm going to go pick up the food, I'll be back in about 10 minutes." She told us and closed the door.

"Amy, I can't believe your mom didn't say anything more." I told her.

"Why would she? I play with Barbies all of the time – she had actually asked me at one time teasingly if I'd made you play with them yet!" She giggled a bit.

I was torn in my emotions on what to think of this but decided to giggle as well. "Well let's finish putting stuff up," I told her.

After we did so we washed our hands and headed downstairs just before she opened the door with food. She sat the food on a bar that was in the middle of their kitchen and we dished up the food that we wanted. It was great. I guess you've realized by now I'll eat almost any kind of food. I do draw the line with mayonnaise, sour cream, and salad though… those items make me sick!

We sat down at their dinner table and ate until we were full. "So are you guys ready to watch a movie?" Her dad asked.

"Sure, what are we going to watch daddy?" Amy asked.

"Well I just bought a new movie today it's called 'Stargate.' Several of my clients have said it's really good."

"Okay… that sounds okay then," Amy replied.

It sounded like a good science fiction film to me – and as someone that liked Star Trek and Star Wars, I didn't think you could go wrong there. "Sounds interesting," I added.

We sat down in their living room and put the movie in. Amy and I sat on one couch while her parents each sat in a chair on either side. I don't know about Amy, but I loved the movie. It was great! That may not have been the most girly movie to like… but I loved it nonetheless.

My mom rang the doorbell shortly after the movie was done and I left with her to go home. I said thank you to the Hancocks and told Amy I'd talk to her tomorrow or see her on Monday. On the way home mom said, "Why didn't you tell me that I'd missed an opportunity to see you in pigtails already?"

"I don't know… I thought maybe you would get mad?" I replied.

"Of course not, laughed a bit, but not gotten mad. Look I'm honestly not surprised to hear that happened, especially with you hanging around Amy so much."

I was in shock, I honestly thought I was going to get in trouble… Why I don't know, but I did. "Mom, while we're on the subject, could you pick up some of these pony tail holders like I've got in my hair right now?" Why not try?

"Sure sweetie, I'll pick some up at Walmart tomorrow. I probably should have gotten some for you sooner."

"Thanks!" I said.

We got home at that point and went inside. I went to my room and read a bit before going to bed. I couldn't believe how accepting everyone had been about everything today… I mean it wasn't really that many things. But you get so many things pent up in nervousness – to actually have people accept that was kind of surprising. I went to bed thinking that maybe my ultimate goal might not rub my parents the wrong way as much as I thought it would.

PART III: Filmmaking

Chapter 32:

Monday came far too quickly that weekend. Mom dropped off my candy money with Ms. Fitzgerald at the elementary school and discovered I actually had $260 extra in my account. She said that a couple corporations had given some donations that had helped. I was ecstatic when she told me that night about it. I'd never had that much money to spend before!

On Tuesday I went over to Amy's house and we played some more with her Barbies. She made a comment during that episode that if we kept playing with them she was going to have to get me my own dolls. I couldn't tell her, but I could think of few things that I wanted more. I was glad that we had become such good friends. Amy had really filled a void in my life as I really had not had any friends like her before.

Mom had commented on my necklace that Saturday night. Somehow they had never really noticed it. She had asked me if she could see it. After looking at it she had told me she couldn't believe that Mrs. Hancock had spent so much on us.

I looked at her questioningly and she told me she guessed that the set must have cost $300 from where they got it. My mouth was open for most of the rest of the evening. I had no idea.

That Wednesday we were sitting in our English class when Mr. Tamera said, "we're going to have a major assignment due the week after next. It's going to serve as a major grade for this 9-weeks, and it's also going to serve as half of your semester final grade."

He let that sink in for a moment as we all got a bit nervous. After he handed out project guideline sheets he continued. "This will be a group project. You will each be in a group of 4 people. Each group will present its' project in class in 2 weeks. You have several options here on what you can do…" He explained the options and said, "You must do it on one of the books that is listed below. The more unique and exceptional your project is the higher grade you will receive."

He talked for a few more minutes before we divided up into groups. I was so glad that Amy was in this class! She actually hadn't been at the beginning of the year but had been transferred into this class at the semester. Why? I don't know. I thought she had a better English teacher before. Within a few minutes Amy, Nikki, Ashley and I had our desks together and were brainstorming on what to do the project on.

Amy was looking at the paper and said, "We should do a video for our project!"

"That sounds like fun," I replied.

"We could be really creative and use Barbies for the characters," Nikki suggested.

"That sounds like a great idea," Ashley added.

"Umm… okay." I said. Ashley and Nikki didn't know that I played with Amy and her Barbies before… I didn't really want to give them any indications otherwise.

"My dad has a video camera that we can use for it." Amy said.

"Okay," I replied.

"Well let's start working on a script then," Amy said.

We did as she said. Amy suggested using one of Nancy Drew books as the basis for our movie. She seemed to think that would be one of the easiest books to use for what we had planned. I wasn't so sure – I had read all of them – but I went along with it. After about 10 minutes of sitting in class we went down to the library with a pass to see what we could find.

We picked out the book we were going to use and the 4 of us divided up the book to come up with a script from it. At the end of class we each agreed that we should work on this Saturday so if anything went wrong we'd still have a week to fix those problems.

When I came home that day I told my parents about the project and they seemed to think that it fit the 'unique' criteria for the project. I worked on the computer that night coming up with my part of the script for the book. I was amazed I managed to get as much done with it as I did that night. I really only had about 4 pages of my portion of the book left to do when I got done that night. I printed out what I had done and took it with me to school the next day.

We were sitting in the group talking when Ashley said, "Hey guys, I told my dad about this project and he offered to let us use the TV Station for it."

I had completely forgotten that Ashley's dad was one of the managers at the local TV Station. "We can use their cameras?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep, and he said we can use their editing equipment too. He'll help us out with everything."

"Wow, cool!" Nikki said.

"Yeah," Amy and I said at the same time.

"Then it's settled?" Ashley asked.

"Definitely," I replied to her.

We spent the remainder of the class period working out what we would need for Saturday. The girls discussed what Barbies they had, what doll houses they would need, and how they would get all of it there. I just sat there in stunned amazement, taking part where I thought I could. Before we left that day we agreed we would have our scripts completed the next day.

That night I finished my script at home and then called Amy. We talked for a short while before I reminded her she was supposed to come over to our house the next night. She said okay and went from our phone call to go get a note from her mom so she could ride my bus home.

She called me back a few minutes later and said, "Hey, my mom wants to talk to your mom."

"Okay," I replied quizzically.

My mom got on the phone and after listening for several minutes said, "That sounds like a great idea… No I don't have any problem with taking her for the night… I can drop them both off at the station Saturday then…. Sounds great!" I wondered what she was talking about.

"Okay, here's Brandon," She said as she handed the phone to me. She whispered to me, "Amy wants to tell you."

I got on the phone and asked, "Tell me what?"

"Well, mom and dad need to go see my grandparents in Las Cruces tomorrow. They were originally going to drag me along but I told them about this project and so they thought they'd see if I could stay with you guys over the weekend… Anyway I'll be coming over to your house tomorrow after school and I'll stay until Sunday afternoon. Cool huh?!?"

"Yeah!" I paused for a second and suddenly wondered something, "Umm… Amy? What are we going to do about getting your stuff over to the TV Station?"

"Ooh… that's a good question. Let me ask my mom." She came back a second later and asked, "Is your mom going to be home during the day at all?"

I went and asked and told her that she'd be home around 10 for a bit. She went and talked to her mom for another quick second and said, "Okay, my mom's going to bring over my clothes and stuff and the things we need for Saturday at 10. Just let your mom know that she's going to do that k?"

"Sure," I replied. We finished up our conversation and I let mom know of the plans.

I went to bed that night excited about the project. I thought it was going to be a blast to work with the TV Stations stuff on Saturday. It was also going to be great having Amy over to spend the weekend.

That night I went to bed with a dream that playing with Barbie dolls was a normal thing for boys to do. Everyone played with them right? At least in the dream they did. For my birthday I imagined my parents buying me a great big dollhouse and filling my room with Barbies… It was a great dream.

Chapter 33:

In class that next day we combined all of our work into one script and fixed some problems that we saw in our storyline. I think we all left looking forward to Saturday and the filming we were going to do. Ashley's dad was going to meet us at the TV station at 9am. We were planning on being there till 5pm or later working on it. The girls all made sure that they had their lists together of stuff they needed to bring.

After school Amy came over to my house and we hung out. We found 2 of her dollhouses that we were going to need the next day on the floor in the living room. We made sure that we had all of the dolls and clothes for the next day that we would need before I made her play with legos for a bit. It wasn't that I didn't want to go out and play with her Barbies, it was more that I didn't want mom to come home finding us playing with her Barbies!

Dad was out of town to a convention for the weekend, so it was just Mom, Amy, and I at home. She made dinner for us and then we sat down to watch a movie in the living room. When we were done she said, "Listen Brandon, I think it's time for my turn to play with your hair!" she said.

"Ooh yeah," Amy said. "I think it might even be getting long enough we can braid it decently now!"

My hair at this point had reached just past my shoulders. I loved it, and was genuinely happy that she was going to play with it. "Okay, I guess." I said non-committingly to her.

Before I knew it I was getting attacked with all sorts of things including getting my hair braided. After looking at me like that she said, "let's do something different." She whispered something in Amy's ear and she nodded. She made me get my hair wet real quick and began from scratch working with it. She also brought out something that I had wondered about for some time – the curling irons.

A little while later she had my hair curled under at the bottom, and I had bangs that were also curled up top. She soon snapped some more pictures (she'd been snapping some every time they set my hair with something,) and said, "That's enough for tonight."

"Umm… will this come out in the morning?" I asked.

"It should." Amy said. Mom had done her hair the exact same way and took pictures of the two of us together before we all sat back down and watched another movie. Amy took the bottom of my bunk beds and we went to bed.

Or so we wanted mom to think… We actually talked for a long time that night about all sorts of things. I don't think we actually fell asleep until 3 hours later. I think mom knew that, because she had even less pity for me about waking up the next morning than she normally did! We both got dressed and ready while mom made breakfast for us. I used a ponytail holder that mom had bought for me to put my hair up after breakfast.

We gathered everything and put it into our minivan to go down to the station. To say that Amy and I were hyper would have been the understatement of the year.

When we arrived we found Nikki and Ashley waiting for us outside. They gave us a hand taking everything into a studio her dad had set aside for us to use. The room was actually a lot larger than I ever figured we'd have available to us, and we had a sky backdrop behind it that we were able to use. There were actually several types of backdrops that were available to us that they used for commercials.

Ashley's dad gave us a tour and showed us how to use one of the cameras and setup several microphones for us to speak into. We practiced using them for a while and after about 2 hours of setup and such we were ready to begin filming. Her dad had actually worked in the film industry before moving to news broadcasting, so he helped us immensely.

He left us pretty much hands off to do our thing. Occasionally he would make a suggestion about a camera angle, or suggest that we move a light to another place or something. But, overall it was definitely left in our hands to do what we wanted to do. At one point he actually took another camera and recorded us working on the project. He thought it might be a good idea in case someone accused us of letting him do all of the work!

At 1 O'clock we took a break and ate some pizza he ordered for us.

"Mr. Sanders, thank you so much for all of this. We really appreciate your help!" I said to him.

"It's no problem Brandon! I'm really impressed with what you guys are doing. I think it's going to turn out to be a great project! Certainly a lot better with this equipment than it would have been with a normal video camera."

"Yeah, definitely. Just how good is this equipment?" I asked.

"Well, a lot of TV shows are actually shooting with cameras like these now. Plus, since we're able to do a higher quality set of mics and lighting this should look pretty professional."

"Cool, I can't wait to see our finished product!"

"Neither can I, I think it really is a cute project." He said.

After lunch we got back to work, and about 3 o'clock we were able to wrap up our filming. I looked over at the stack of 3 'Digital Betacam' tapes that were on the table. Mr. Sanders had explained that they recorded the best of the cameras that the studio had.

"Well what do we do now?" I asked.

"Now I'll show you guys how to edit your video down to just the good cuts and what you guys need."

He led us to an editing room the studio had, and began to show us how to move the parts we wanted on to one 'master' copy. I couldn't believe how much time it took just to go through this part. We all ended up calling our parents and letting them know we were going to be there for a while still.

At 6 o'clock Mr. Sanders went to get some burgers from sonic for us while we continued editing. We finally had a good rough cut done at 7:30pm. He helped us come up with some titles for the beginning and end of the film then.

"Tell you what guys, it's almost 9pm. Why don't we meet back here tomorrow at 2pm and finish up by adding some music to the project and cleaning it up?"

"Okay, that sounds good to me," Nikki said with a yawn.

"Yeah Daddy, I'm tired," Ashley said.

"Then we'll do that," he said.

We cleaned up the dolls and the doll houses and everyone took their stuff home. I had called my mom and she was waiting to help us out.

That night Amy and I were only up an hour past when we were told 'lights out.'

Sunday mom made us get out of bed at 11am and get ready to go. We arrived at the station on time with a bunch of CD's in hand. Her dad had suggested that we bring some CD's to put behind the film.

We worked tirelessly for another 3 hours on the project before declaring it done. I couldn't believe how cool the project looked. He even showed us how to include a clip that he had recorded of us working in the ending credits next to the credits! I don't know about the rest of the group, but I was pretty psyched about it.

Her dad then showed us how to transfer the master copy to VHS tapes. We made 10 copies of the tapes and put them in the nice black hard shell cases that he gave us. He also handed me the original beta master.

"Why are you giving me this?" I asked him.

"Because you basically were the director for this film. I was really impressed with what you did this weekend. In a couple years when you're a bit older I might be able to find a place for you to work down here at the station." They had put my name in the credits as the director, I liked that part!

"Really?" I asked.

"Yep, anyway I thought you should have it. Now let's get you all out of here before we're here till 9pm again!" He said laughing.

We were basically done, but Amy wanted us to add a nice cover to the front of the videotape cases. She had suggested using her dads computer at home – so we were all going to meet at her house Wednesday to work on that. She also had suggested we come up with a movie poster type thing of some sort. Ashley thought that would be a good night to try out the movie on all of our parents – with everyone planning on getting their parents to watch it at 7pm that night.

When we were done Mom picked us up and dropped Amy and her stuff off at her parents house. They gave her a hug when she got there – apparently they had just gotten back themselves, and we left her at house. I had a lot of fun that weekend, and couldn't wait to show off our project to the class in a week and a half.

By the time I got home that night I was completely exhausted. I ended up laying down on my bed at 7pm, and the next thing I knew I was being woke for school the next day.

Chapter 34:

The days between Monday and Wednesday seemed both close and yet so far away. I hung out at Amy's house both Monday and Tuesday, with her mom joking that they should make the spare bedroom my room with as much time as I spent over there. Amy seemed pretty enthralled with the idea as well, but of course I couldn't say yes to something like that! That would be cruel to my parents, who both really did love me.

On Wednesday the four of us caught a ride with Ashley's mom to Amy's house. When we asked about riding the bus together there we were told it was too many additional students – and I wasn't about to rock the boat with my mom's workplace. Once there we went to her dad's study on the first floor and began working with his computer.

To say they had an amazing setup was to understate, big time! He had the latest computer, software, scanner, and printer that you could get. Within about an hour we had created a great color cover for the outside of the VHS tapes. We also were able to design a 'movie poster' for our movie as well.

At 5:30pm her mom came in to find us wrapping things up and said, "Okay I need help setting the table please!" She was especially looking at Amy and me. I wasn't sure when I had reached the new status, but I was no longer a guest and had been accepted as a member of the family. Of course I was honored, but apparently that meant I had to help take care of guests when they came over.

"Okay," Amy and I answered at once. We left the others to finish cleaning up.

We helped her mom put several massive leafs in their formal dining room table so that we could seat 14 people for dinner. Everyone had 2 parents, plus Ashley had 2 big sisters that were coming for dinner too. Monday when we had talked to Amy's mom she had gotten this idea of having a really cool and great pre-movie dinner get together. She was a great cook – especially for events like these – so we were really looking forward to it. My mom had also gotten in the spirit and created a really great chocolate mousse cake.

Amy and I made a bit of a game of setting up the table and we were done pretty quickly. "Okay you two, go get Ashley and Nikki and get washed up for dinner."

"Yes ma'am," Amy replied. I think she'd gotten in trouble for a smart aleck comment last night – she was being pretty respectful today.

We dragged the two of them upstairs to the bathrooms and washed up before coming down just in time for all of our families to arrive. Mrs. Hancock had outdone herself on this meal. She had cooked several Prime Ribs to absolute perfection. She also served mashed potatoes, broccoli, and homemade bread. I had found out when we got there that she had taken the afternoon off from her patients so she could do this.

At the end of dinner we had dessert which was also excellent. Following dessert we all gathered around in their living room. The 4 of us ended up sitting on the floor while our parents got the sofa and some other chairs that they brought in.

"Well, thank you everyone for coming to our premiere of our movie," Amy stood up and said in front of everyone. "We hope you enjoy our short film!" Our parents were all a little obnoxious at that point and clapped.

I then started the VCR and we began watching the film. Okay, at this point I should preface this; it was a bunch of Barbies with voiceovers in different locations… That being said though, it was actually really incredibly good. The main part of the film lasted 22 minutes, and the credits went on for another 3 minutes.

Our parents of course had to tell us that it was good, but we all agreed we didn't think that they were lying… In fact they even made us show it again, so we decided we had something here. After the second showing we all helped clean up from the movie and put our project in a safe place to take to school next week. They also made us take several photographs holding our project and the posters in front of us.

We all left to go home around 8:30pm with everyone saying thank you to the Hancock's for hosting the premiere. All-in-all I think we all had a fantastic time.

Chapter 35:

The next week actually passed by rather quickly, and I was amazed at just how close we were to getting out for the summer. It was a Tuesday, and we had just 3 weeks until we were on vacation. I was sitting in my English class talking and enjoying myself with my friends when the office came over the intercom and said, "would you please send Brandon down?"

I went down to the office wondering what was going on. I had managed to avoid that part of the school for the entirety of the semester and didn't want to start dealing with more problems again. I was actually more worried about a gut feeling I had that something must be wrong.

When I got down to the office I found my Mom was standing by the reception desk. She looked like she looked really stressed. She was able to pull me into a conference room that was attached to the office and said, "Brandon, sit down."

"What's wrong mom?" I asked

"Well… your Grandfather had a heart attack a couple hours ago. They flew him to Phoenix. They think he's going to pull through, but your dad and I want to go out there with your grandmother to Phoenix to be with him."

"When do we leave?" I asked, tears coming out of my eyes.

"Well, that's what I came here to talk to you about. We want to leave at 4:30, but your dad and I think you should stay here."

"But…"

"Brandon there's nothing you'll be able to do there. We called and they said they wouldn't allow anyone under 16 into the ICU where he's being kept… Plus you have your project due tomorrow."

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do?" I asked worriedly.

"Yes, I'm sure. I called and talked to Amy's mom and she said that they would be happy to have you stay there until we get back. Would you be okay with that?"

I sat there and thought for a moment. I really wanted to be there for Grandpa, but I figured my parents had their reasons for not wanting me to come there. This way I wouldn't miss out on the project too. Plus, I could only imagine how much fun it would be to stay with Amy for a while… I immediately felt guilty about thinking of having fun when Grandpa could die from the heart attack…

"I guess. But why did they fly him to Phoenix instead of Albuquerque?"

"They were supposedly better situated to handle him. I asked the same question. So you're okay with staying with the Hancocks?" She asked.

"Yeah, but you have to call me and keep me updated about him okay?"

"Of course. Well, we need to get your stuff packed up. Amy's mom told me to go ahead and pick her up too – that way she could let you into their house."

"Okay, I can go get her really quick." I cleaned up my face, and while my mom was signing us both out, I went to get Amy.

She looked at me with a concerned look and came with me. I told her what was going on and we both grabbed our backpacks and stuff from our lockers.

When we got outside and were getting into my mom's car she gave me a hug and said, "I'm so sorry Brandon, but I'm sure everything will work out."

"Thanks Amy." I replied returning the hug.

We drove to our house and I quickly packed several days worth of clothes into a suitcase along with my toothbrush and all that jazz. Mom spent a while triple checking on things and writing out a letter so Amy's mom or dad could take me to the hospital or a doctor if they needed to. Though having Amy's mom being a doctor would probably be enough to smooth any of that over anyway.

When we thought I had everything I could need we headed over to Amy's house. Mom helped me carry everything inside and made sure I was okay.

"Now I think we have everything, but if we don't call Dad's cell phone and we'll try and figure out what to do. You have a house key with you right?"

"Yes Mom, I'll be fine, you guys just worry about Grandpa, okay?" I said.

She gave me a hug and said, "Okay."

We talked a few more minutes before she finally walked back out to the car, giving me one last hug and I love you before taking off. I honestly didn't know what to make of the last hour or so, it had all gone along so fast.

I must have had a strange look on my face because Amy came up to me and said, "Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah… I think. It's just been kind of a strange hour. One minute I'm sitting in class talking to you guys, three minutes later I learn my grandfather is in danger of dying and my parents are leaving me here while they go away…" I paused. "I think things will be alright, but I guess you just never know do you?"

She gave me a hug and we went to get a drink in the kitchen. We sat down on some barstools next to a breakfast counter they had. "I'm sure things are going to work out fine. Besides, look on the bright side!" She paused and gave me an exaggerated smile, "You get to stay with me!!!"

She hugged me again and said, "Let's go upstairs and get your mind off of this." She dragged me onto my feet, grabbed some of my stuff, and led me upstairs. She stopped by her room first and had me leave my stuff in there.

"I'm not going to be able to stay in your room am I?" As far as I knew she just had a daybed in there.

She nodded, "I have a trundle bed underneath my bed, I talked to my mom while you were saying bye to yours, and she said that's where she planned on you sleeping."

"Cool. They already say we're joined at the hip, we'll just make it more so," I said with a lopsided grin.

"Uh-huh, it'll be like a several day sleepover!" Apparently she had decided that even though I was here because of a sad thing; that we were going to be a lot of fun. "Okay, first things first – neither of us have homework so let's go play." She dragged me down the hallway to the playroom and we began playing with her Barbies.

Actually, that was kind of nice because I was able to lose myself in the activity. Both of us lost track of time and soon Amy's mom came into the room. "Hey guys." She walked over to me. "How are you holding up Brandon?"

"Pretty good I guess. I mean he's still alive, right?" I replied.

"Yes, and from what your mom told me I'm fairly certain he should be fine after some rehab. They just have to get him through tonight and things should be okay." She's a doctor, so that must count for something right?

"Thanks Mrs. Hancock. And thanks for letting me stay here while they're gone too." I told her.

"Anytime sweetheart, anytime. Do either of you have homework?" She asked.

We both shook our heads. Amy said, "We just have to take the project to school tomorrow for our presentation. I kind of feel bad for everyone else; we drew the first spot out of the hat. Our project is going to be hard to top!" I nodded with her.

"You're probably right. You guys just do whatever you want tonight, Amy I'll do your chores for tonight."

"Really?" Amy asked.

"Yes. I'm going to go work on getting dinner going, I'll let you know when it's done." She left and we continued playing with her Barbies. I was still a little nervous about what her mom thought, but at the same time she didn't seem to have any real problem with it so we kept playing. About an hour later she came upstairs and told us to clean up.

We put away her Barbies and washed our hands before going downstairs. Mrs. Hancock made spaghetti for dinner. It was really good, at least when I was paying attention. I honestly was more worried than I had realized.

I hadn't been going to my grandparents a lot this year, but I usually have spent a lot of time there in the past. From the time I was 4 I have also spent at least 2 weeks with them in the summers, and so it was pretty unnerving to me that something had happened to one of them. I managed to get through dinner without breaking down, but did excuse myself at the end to 'go to the bathroom.'

Amy found me a short while later with her bathroom door open to her room, but I was in tears. She gave me a hug and we talked for a while. I cleaned up my face and we went back downstairs to watch TV with her parents then. They seemed to want to ask about me, but decided not to.

We watched a few TV shows, not really saying a whole lot, just chilling on the couch. After a while Mrs. Hancock went upstairs for a little bit and then came back down. She talked to us about how we would get up and make the bathroom bit work. They had a 3^rd bathroom down the hall that I could use in the morning. Wakeup times were decided, and then she said, "Okay you two, it's time for bed."

Neither of us really grumbled a lot, and went upstairs. Her mom had apparently been upstairs putting blankets on the trundle bed. I hadn't really looked at her bed a whole lot earlier, but now that I had one next to it I looked a bit more. Her bedroom looked like the next step up from Barbie, though Barbie's presence was still felt. My bed was covered with a matching bedspread that was mostly pink with some bright green thrown into it.

We both got into our pajamas and climbed into our beds. Amy turned out the light before she got into her bed. It was 9 when we turned off the light, but we actually talked until at least 10. I was feeling a little better – and that meant that some excitement for tomorrow had welled up inside of me.

Actually we talked about a lot of things, including that her parents were having their swimming pool filled the next day. She said, "We'll have to go swimming!"

I sat there thinking that I didn't have my swimming suit… what was I going to do? I didn't mention it that night though, we eventually stopped talking and went to sleep.

Chapter 36:

The next day we got ready for school – it was hectic but there really wasn't anything remarkable about it. I did get a phone call from my parents telling me they made it to Phoenix all right, and that Grandpa was stable. He wasn't completely out of the woods yet, but that he should be okay. It was a quick phone call and then Amy and I grabbed all of the project stuff and headed to the bus stop. Once we got to school we went together to first hour. Some of the kids like Nikki asked why I had left suddenly yesterday and I told them.

The day went by incredibly fast – I had hardly a spare moment to devote to thinking about anything. About the only thing I did have time to think was that it was probably a really good thing that I had stayed to keep my mind busy. At lunchtime we all talked about the project.

Somehow we had actually kept what we had done a secret from everyone else. I really did feel bad about going first… Almost everyone else was going to stand in front of the class talking. There was one other group that did a video, but that group apparently just sat at a table and talked about the book like a news cast.

"Hey, why don't we suggest we go last?" Nikki suggested as we talked about it.

"Well, the rest of the kids won't think it's fair though…" I said.

"Well they'll probably want to lynch us anyway." Ashley said.

Don't get us wrong, we were all very proud of our project… we were just very aware of the fact that we overachieved big time on this project. In the end Amy said, "Look we can offer to go last, but we'll have to do it in just the right way."

"Okay, you're in charge then," Nikki said.

I thought Amy would argue for a second, but she shrugged and said, "Okay."

When we got up to English 6^th hour we went straight to talk to Mr. Tamera. Amy quickly explained that our project would be worth waiting till the end for. He looked at us and said, "I'll ask the class if they're okay with it… I don't want to just change it though."

A little while he asked the class and they all grumbled about it so we went ahead and went first… Boy were they sorry! We got up in the front of the class and said just the absolute bare minimum, including unveiling the poster we had kept covered the whole day. I was pretty impressed that we had managed to print off the entire poster onto 16 sheets, and make them look like it was one for the poster.

Then we started the film. I had seen it enough times at this point that I really didn't have any desire to watch it anymore – so instead I took in the other students faces. The guys started watching the film with sneers on their faces when they heard it was done with Barbies… that quickly turned to astonishment… and finally to genuine admiration. The girls instantly thought it was one of the cutest things in the world – and several of them whispered that to us.

The final reaction I was watching though was Mr. Tamera. He didn't hide his emotions very well, which was good in this case, because he was clearly shocked by how incredible our project was. There was definitely a look of suspicion on his face about our having done the project by ourselves until the ending credits and he saw us working and laughing on the project. Definitely needed to thank Mr. Sanders for that.

At the end of our film the students all started cheering and whooping loudly. Mr. Tamera stood up and said, "Now if that made any of you more nervous, remember they offered to go last!" I saw a lot of faces go sullen with that remark.

I wasn't expecting everyone to be able to go in that class period, but I wasn't expecting the amount of suckiness of everyone else's projects either! At the end of class after the last presentation Mr. Tamera stood up and said, "I will have your grades for your projects to you on Monday after I look at them all again. I will also submit the winning project from this class to the whole English department so we can decide a 6^th grade overall winner." The bell rang at that point and he said, "Amy, Ashley, Nikki, Brandon I need you to stay for a moment please. The rest of you have a nice day."

Uh-oh… were we going to get in trouble for something? "First of all, Brandon is everything okay?"

"Umm… Kind of, my grandfather had a heart attack yesterday. My parents drove to Phoenix where they took him for some reason. They called this morning and said he should be okay though."

"That's good, let me know if you need anything. You're not staying by yourself right now are you?" He asked.

"No, I'm staying at Amy's house until they get back."

"Okay, well anyway… I just wanted to tell you all I was completely floored by your project. For a while I was concerned that maybe Ashley's dad had done all of the work, but when you had those scenes at the end I could see that Brandon was doing a lot of the camera work. I can honestly say without hesitation that you will be moving onto the grade level contest, and you should win it."

"Thanks Mr. Tamera," Ashley said. We all chimed in with our thanks as well.

"Okay, well anyway go ahead and head to your next classes. If your teacher needs a note come back and get one okay?"

"Okay," I said and we all headed for our next class. We each had a bit of a spring in our step from there on. It was nice. That is until I got to my next class.

"Hey, look it's Brandon. He plays with Barbie dolls everyone!" one kid decided to sneer. He was from another English class, and apparently word of our project had gone around quickly.

"Hey, at least I produced a decent project. We'll get an A and probably get the prize as well! Enjoy being left behind at school in 2 weeks when we're off having fun!"

That seemed to shut the kid up. He did make some comments about me being a sissy and a girl, but I just let those roll off and most of the other kids started shunning him. Apparently while he and a few others were going to try and take advantage of making fun of me, most of the kids were in awe of what my group had accomplished. Most of the boys in that class would have given their right arms to have been able to switch places with me.

That class ended quickly thankfully and I met up with Amy to go back to her house. On the way home she said, "The pool should be filled by now!"

Crap, I had forgotten all about that. I needed to figure out a way to get to my house I guess, but that would have to wait until her mom go home.

When we got to her house we went out to the backyard where they had a pool that I'd never really looked at. I noticed they also had a jacuzzi built into the same area. It was really nice looking. Looking around a bit more I saw they also had a wide area of grass, a big wooden deck, and a tall 12 foot brick wall around the backyard.

I also became aware all of the sudden of how warm it was today. It would be really nice to go swimming, it's too bad I didn't have my swimming suit. Their pool looked pristine, and a quick dip of my hand into the pool found that the water was actually fairly warm. We went back inside and found a note on the kitchen table from Amy's mom.

'Amy, we can't use the pool until tomorrow evening when the pool company has had a chance to come double check the levels of chlorine and such. Be patient, I'll be home early tomorrow night for you guys to go swimming. Love, Mom'

Well, that let me go ahead and have a day to try and get back home to get my swimming suit. Or… maybe… Wouldn't it be great to be able to wear one of Amy's swimming suits? The problem is that it sounds like Mrs. Hancock was going to be there… I couldn't do that in front of her. I decided to think more on that later.

We went upstairs and worked on some homework we each had, and then Amy had to go to dance practice. Amy convinced me to go along and watch – I didn't really have anything to do anyway. I watched her dance class do some really incredible things for an upcoming performance. As a guy I couldn't really admit it, but I thought what they were doing was easily more difficult than any football or soccer game.

The part of me that wanted to be a girl was so jealous of Amy being able to do that kind of stuff. Her past work with dance and gymnastics had guaranteed her a spot on the cheerleading squad for next year. A lot of 7^th graders were mad because she had beaten out several of them that had thought they were shoe-ins. I was truly amazed with all that she did with that.

From there we went back home and had a late dinner. We decided to go upstairs and just hang out around the TV in her playroom. At 8:15 my mom called and I talked to her for a while.

"Hey sweetie, how are you doing?" My mom asked.

"I'm doing okay I guess. How's Grandpa?"

"Well they're going to take him out of ICU tomorrow if nothing else happens. From there hopefully they'll be able to let him out of the hospital in about a week."

"Good. I'm really glad to hear that he's okay. How's Grandma doing?"

"She's holding up pretty well. She's at the hospital right now with Dad taking shifts watching Grandpa. How did your presentation go today?"

"It went really well! I have a feeling that we're going to win at the grade level – they're supposed to tell us Monday. We tried to get moved to the end of the presentations, but the other kids didn't want to do that. It was pretty funny," I giggled a little, "afterwards Mr. Tamera looked at the class and said, 'remember they offered to go last.' We actually saw all of the presentations today, most of them weren't very good. But anyway, it went well."

"Did anyone give you a hard time about the Barbies?"

"One kid, but I told him I didn't really care since I would probably get to go do something fun next week and he wouldn't. Also the other kids were so floored with what we made that I don't think they feel comfortable giving me a hard time. There is also the fact that I got to work with the three cutest girls in the grade – I think that made a lot of them jealous."

We talked for a while longer before I told her goodnight and went back to hanging out with Amy. At 9 we were again sent to bed, but tonight neither of us really was tired and so we started talking.

After about an hour I was getting a bit drowsy, but Amy asked a question that jolted me right awake. "Brandon, do you wish you were a girl?"

Chapter 37:

I stammered a bit, "What do you mean?"

"Well… I'm not saying any of this to be mean, okay?" She said sitting up and looking at me. "But I've been wondering since the beginning of the year. I know you've told everyone that you grew your hair out to be more like a rock star, but you keep letting anyone that wants to style it like a girls. You also are the first boy I've ever met that played Barbies with me more than once. And, you make a better best friend – girl wise – than any girl I've ever known. You don't have to answer me I guess if you don't want to, but know that I'll be your friend even if that's what you want."

Silence.

Roll out the tears.

"Maybe?" I said timidly.

Another moment of silence, I think she could tell I didn't want her to say anything right then.

"I don't know. All I do know is that I have been thinking about that a lot since the beginning of the year. I'm scared that I'm a freak… and I really never intended to tell anyone any of this…" I started quietly crying some more. Amy got out of her bed and wrapped her arms around me.

"It's okay Brandon, I really mean that. I don't care if you are a boy, a boy that wants to be a girl, or you're a girl, you'll still be my best friend."

I slowed down a few minutes later, looking up at her and said, "Why? I'm a freak."

"You're anything but a freak Brandon. And, as for the 'why?' I already answered that, we're best friends. I know that you never take your necklace off, and neither do I. That should tell you something in itself."

"Thanks Amy. I just don't know what to do anymore. I think my mom might be cool with this, but I know my dad would freak out and disown me – or have me committed to a mental institution. Which maybe I should be…"

"That's absolutely not true Brandon. You may be dealing with some stuff, but you don't need to be committed. I also think you're underestimating your parents a bit."

"Maybe. Amy please don't tell your parents… I don't want them to keep me from being able to be friends with you!"

"Brandon, I'll be honest, my parents are the last ones that would have a problem with this. But I promise you I won't tell them." She held up her pinky to me. I grabbed it and she said, "I even pinky promise on it."

We heard footsteps coming towards the door. Amy quickly got back in her bed under the covers and we faked sleeping while her mom peaked her head in. She left a few moments later.

I think Amy sensed that leaving the conversation here would be a bad idea, so she asked "So Brandon, when did this all start for you? I have a pretty good idea, but I'm curious."

"Well, in all honesty I think there has always been a part of me that's wanted this – I just never recognized what it was. I also was raised in such a strict environment against this kind of idea that I didn't even have a chance to consider it. I guess it really started though when Liza – matt's ex-girlfriend – told me, 'why are you walking with your chest out like that, are you trying to be a girl?'"

"That made me start thinking of how much better life would be if I was a girl. I went from that thought to trying to figure out a way that maybe I could move towards that. A couple weeks later I pushed mom into not cutting my hair and letting it grow out some more. I think you know the rest of the story from there about the hair. Then when we were on the ski trip when everyone kept calling me a girl it reinforced all of that as a possibility. From there things just kept getting crazier and I was able to do things like play with Barbies with you."

"I honestly don't know what to do. I've decided that if I'm going to do anything about this I need to decide by the time I'm 14 at the latest – since that's like the last age that I can get stuff done to me that will make me look pretty naturally like a girl… But at the same time I don't know if I should want that… does any of this make any sense at all?"

Amy looked at me, I could see her in the dim light, "Yes, I think it does in a way. Brandon have you ever worn any girls clothing before?"

I shook my head. "My mom isn't exactly my size. And since I don't have any sisters… I did have 2 opportunities when I was kid that I kick myself for missing now." I told her about the swimsuit dream, and then told her about another one as well.

"When I was like 7, we went shopping with my mom and a friend of hers. Mom found this really cute dress, but didn't know if it would fit my cousins. Well my mom's friend suggested I could try it on for her – since we were like triplets we'd be the same size. My ego at the time couldn't take it though so I had a fit and said no. If only I had said yes! Who knows, maybe I wouldn't be in this situation now."

"Wow, you really are just realizing something now that's been there for a while aren't you?"

I nodded. "What do you think I should do?" I asked.

"I don't know… I do know I won't tell anyone, though I'm sure I'm not the only that suspects."

I panicked and whispered, "Who else knows?"

"Suspects, not knows. Nikki and Ashley definitely do I think. I'm sure there are some others as well. Most of them are willing to just take the rock band hair explanation, but a few girls do wonder. I don't think there are any guys that have given it that much thought at this point. And, well I think my parents suspect."

"Your parents?"

"Yeah. My mom's a doctor remember? While she's not a psychiatrist, she had to study a lot of that and I think she's put 2 and 2 together as well as I have. Like I said, don't worry she would be cool with it."

"I'm afraid though if they find out something and don't tell my parents that they might hate your parents then… It could get bad."

"Actually, I have a feeling that our moms probably both suspect and have talked to each other about it. Remember that day when we were fundraising?" I nodded – I was terrified. "I think I caught the end of a conversation about it as we got in the car one time."

"So you think my parents already know?"

"It's possible."

"…I don't know, I just don't know."

"Look, you missed it earlier. My mom said we're going to have to wait one more day past tomorrow for the pool so she's going to work normal hours tomorrow and come home a bit early on Friday instead. That means we'll have about an hour without her home." She paused as if debating about something. "If you want you could try on some of my clothes then. We're the same size."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Wow… I've kind of dreamed and hoped for this… but I don't know. What if your mom catches us?"

"I don't think it would be a terrible thing, but I think she would have to tell your parents."

I thought for a few moments. "I think it would be worth the risk. Are you sure you don't think I'm a freak?" I asked.

"I'm positive. I'll be honest, I've been kind of curious to see what you would look like dressed in the right clothes. You already get mistaken for a girl 4 out of 5 times, in the right clothing I don't think anyone would possibly guess that you're a guy."

"Okay, let's do it." I said with a bit more enthusiasm.

We finished our conversation to a little bit of a lighter note and finally fell asleep. I kept waking up that night though, wondering if our conversation had been a dream…

PART IV: Dreams do come true

Chapter 38:

I woke up with that question in mind. Amy quickly settled that though when she whispered into my ear, "I'm so excited for after school," to me on our way out to the bus. To say I wasn't focused during school that day would be to understate my lack of focus. I almost ended up with detention with one teacher, but thankfully he decided I should be given a break for a bad day.

Amy and I talked like normal through the day, but there was something different. I think it was just the shear fact that she now knew my deepest darkest secret. I had decided that morning that I could do one of two things; live in constant fear that she would tell someone, or I could trust her to be my friend. I had decided I would do the second, and I didn't think she would let me down.

I had several people try and give me a hard time with the Barbie bit that day, but I just brushed them off. Something about having the unconditional friendship of one of the coolest girls in school put me at ease. I also just honestly didn't care, as long as I wasn't getting beat up I was okay. The nice thing is that people still remembered the incident with Matt and Jeff, and even with them thinking I was a 'sissy,' they were too scared to mess with me. Boy if they only knew how much of a wimp I really am…

Finally the end of the day came and we got on the bus to go home. When we got home the phone was ringing. Her mom was calling to say that she was running late, and she wouldn't be home till 6 that night. That was the time when her dad normally came home too, but he was in court and wasn't expected to come home until at least then tonight.

"Okay then, shall we go upstairs?" Amy asked. She was really excited.

I was excited too, and nervous… really nervous. But I decided to throw caution to the wind and say, "Okay!" She and I raced upstairs and went into her room.

"Okay, first thing's first. We need to get you into the right type of underwear!" She went and dug through her drawer and brought 2 items. I just kind of stood there wondering if I was in a dream. "Okay, here is a pair of panties that should fit you, and one of my training bras. Go put them on in the bathroom and then put on my robe that's in there, okay?"

"Oh-oh-okay." I stammered. I did as she said and removed all of the clothes I had on before pulling the panties up my legs. Wow… They weren't like some sort of exotic type of panty, they were just cotton, but they had a different type of elastic, and just felt different. I finished putting them on quickly and fought for a few minutes to get the bra fastened. After several tries I managed to get it fastened.

My image beckoned in the mirror and I looked at myself with girls underwear on. Instantly it was like I suddenly recognized myself and how I was supposed to look. I smiled and giggled, I couldn't believe it was finally happening!

I looked for Amy's robe and found it hanging on the door. I then put it on, tying the belt in front of me. At that moment I took a deep breath, looked at myself in the mirror again, and then went out to her room. "You look great already!" She told me. "What do you want to try on first?" She asked me pointing to a bunch of clothes hanging up around the room. Clearly she had her ideas of how I should dress.

I looked around and saw a dress that I just had to see myself in. "How about that dress?" I said pointing to a dress that must have been for easter this year. It wasn't extremely frilly, most of the dresses that girls wore in our grades weren't frilly so that didn't surprise me… but it was a dress!

"Okay! I was hoping you would choose this one first." She said handing it to me. "Put this over your head like a t-shirt. If you can't get the back zipped up I'll do it for you."

"Okay!" I said very happily. I took it back in the bathroom and put it over my head as she told me. I actually tried to get it zipped a couple times before deciding I'd just let her do it.

I came out and she said, "Wow, Brandon… Actually I don't think we should call you Brandon anymore… have you picked out a different name for yourself as a girl?" She asked.

How could she know I had? She came and zipped up the back of the dress. "Actually I've had it narrowed down to 2 for a while."

"So what are they?" She asked.

I hesitated for a moment; this was like the last secret. "Brittany or Tiffany," I said.

"Hrmm… I like Tiffany better for you. You're not really like any of the Brittany's I know."

"That's kind of what I had decided. So what next?"

"Well… Why don't we do something with your hair really quick?" She suggested.

"Okay, where do you want me?"

"Just sit down in this chair," She pointed to a chair that was sitting in front of a dresser with a mirror above it. She had it sitting away from the mirror though. I started to sit down and remembered one of the things that every story I'd read on the internet talked about – you were supposed to smooth your dress beneath you. I did my best to do it, catching a smile from Amy before she began working on my hair.

"What are you doing with it?" I asked.

"I thought I would do it like mine, where it's curled at the bottom. I'd love to be able to do it in layers for you like I've seen on some stars recently, but that would involve cutting it. So, we'll just go with this." She said.

She spent about 20 minutes working on it (I glanced at the clock, it was now 4:10) and then she said, "Done! But hold on a second okay?" I nodded and she went to a jewelry box on the other side of the room. She came back with some earrings.

"Amy I don't have pierced ears." I told her.

"I know, these are clip-ons. I used to wear them until I was 9 – I was too scared to let them pierce my ears!" She said with a giggle. "I think I was rather silly looking back at it. It stung, but it didn't cause me to fall on the floor and cry like I thought it would. Anyway, here let me put these on your ears!"

She fastened the clip-on earrings to my ears and told me, "stand up and tell me what you think!"

I couldn't believe it, I honestly could have hung out with the cool crowd look wise. Maybe not the dress (definitely a pretty, but non-cool dress), but my face and everything seemed to work together with this hair style. "Wow, thank you Amy, this is like so cool." I gave her a big crushing hug.

"No problem." She gasped. I walked around for a few moments before looking at the clock and seeing it was only 4:22.

"So do I get to try on other stuff?" I asked.

"I thought you would never ask Tiffany!" She said. Hearing myself called Tiffany sent a shiver down my spine.

From there I tried on all of her skirts and other dresses first. Then she said, "Okay, most girls don't wear dresses to school anymore, let's put you into something that is more normal."

"Okay."

She dug up a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, which she insisted I call 'a blouse,' and told me to put them on. I went into the bathroom yet again and came out. "You know it would be so cool to take you to the mall like this! No one would recognize you as Brandon, and I know all of the guys would be looking at you!" Amy was beside herself with excitement.

"Okay Amy… Hold on… I'm not ready to be seen in public like this… and I don't think guys are necessarily my thing. At least not as long as I have boy parts." I replied.

"Well, at least we know that you could be a really cute girl if you wanted to be. Is there anything else you want to try on Tiff?" She asked me. I kind of liked the shortened version too.

I thought for a moment, "Could I try on one of your swimsuits?"

"Sure, here let me grab one." She went through one of her dressers and came back with a bright green swimsuit with pink neon swirls on it.

I took it into the bathroom and pulled off everything else. I pulled everything else I was wearing off and pulled the swimsuit on. I remembered reading something about tucking my parts in, and decided to try doing it. I wasn't sure I did it the way I was supposed to, but when I looked down I couldn't see my parts sticking out anywhere – so I guess it was marginally successful.

I found this was a lot harder to go out like this. It was a one-piece swimsuit, but it showed my legs all the way up. That was strange for me but I mustered up my courage and went out to her room.

She whistled at me. "You look cute like that!"

I blushed. "Are you just saying that? I'm worried that people could tell that I'm a guy like this." I said.

"I can't tell that you have anything that girl doesn't. I honestly think you could get away going to a pool party like that. Maybe we'll even have to arrange for that," she said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Umm… don't get evil on me here Amy." I said half jokingly. It was then that I looked at the clock and saw it was 5:42. "Hey, we'd better clean this up and I'd better get back into my clothes before your mom gets home."

"You're right. Go ahead and get out of the swimsuit, I'll start putting all of this up." She said and began to get to work. I went into the bathroom and took one last look at myself before slipping out of the swimsuit. I put my own clothes back on and took what clothes were in the bathroom back out to Amy. We worked together to put everything up when I felt like we were forgetting something.

"Amy, I feel like we're forgetting something." I said.

"Oh no, the earrings and hair!" She said.

I pulled the earrings off and said, "What should we do with my hair?"

"Just put it in a ponytail, no one should be able to tell we did anything with it after that." She said.

That's what we did, and I found myself massaging my earlobes to get the dents out of them. We then sat down at the table in her room and worked on homework until her mom got there – 3 minutes later! It was cutting it close.

"Hey guys, what are you up to?" She asked.

"Just working on homework," I said. She's going to know… somehow she's going to know… I kept thinking to myself.

"Well I'll let you two get back to it." She said and started to go out the door.

"Mom what are we doing for dinner?" Amy asked.

She turned back around, "we're going to go out tonight. Does Olive Garden sound good?" She asked.

"Yeah!!!" Amy said.

"Yes that does sound good." I said.

"Okay, we're going to leave in about 20 minutes. Work on your homework for a little bit longer though, it looks like you guys have a bunch of it." She said and turned around.

Amy started giggling and so did I once she was out of earshot. "That was close," she whispered to me.

"Yeah. Thanks though Amy, you let me do something I've been wanting to do for at least 8 months now."

"No problem Brandon, maybe we can figure out a way to make it happen some more." She said.

"I think that would be nice on one hand. I'm just worried about getting caught though."

"You know I don't think anyone would be able to tell that you were Brandon if you were dressed as Tiffany." She said and we got back to working on the homework. We made amazing progress in 10 minutes – almost done with it progress – when her mom came to the door.

"Okay guys get ready so we can drive into town to go eat. Your dad is just going to meet us Amy."

We got ready to leave and drove off. The two of us sat giggling in the back seat talking about nothing of important during the entire drive.

When we arrived at the restaurant and waited for a table. That took a good 30 minutes, but we all thought it would be worth it. After the wait we got called up and went to the table. The waiter came to me and asked me, "And what would you like to drink miss?"

"Umm… Iced tea please." I said.

Once he left Amy giggled a bit. "Brandon that has been happening really frequently now!" she whispered to me. "Just think…" She added. Just those two words had a new meaning to us.

"So Amy what are you going to order?" I asked.

"I don't know, you want to split something?" She asked.

"Sure." I replied.

"What sounds good to you?" She asked.

"I don't know, how about this Tour of Italy dish?"

"That sounds good, we get a little bit of everything then." She said. We chatted about the next day a bit until the waiter came back. We told him that we were going to split the dish and he said, "certainly ladies," the giggling started up again with Amy as soon as he left.

Mr. Hancock leaned over towards us and asked, "so should we correct him, or is this some sort of game you two are enjoying?" He asked with a wink.

"No we're having fun with it," Amy and I said at the same time.

"Okay, you two might be spending a little too much time together," her mom said jokingly.

Amy turned towards her dad, "So how did your case go daddy?"

"It went well, I think we should win this easily." He said.

"What was the case about?" I asked.

He told us about the details. Apparently a company in town had fired an employee for some unjust cause. The employee had come to him and they had ended up taking it all the way to court. Mr. Hancock was really surprised that they hadn't settled. Their closing arguments from both sides were definitely leaning more towards his client winning.

Our food came and conversation lulled while we ate. They had actually split the plate for us already, which was nice. The portions were still huge for our appetites and we both had enough leftovers for a decent snack the next day. We were on our way out when Amy leaned over to my ear as we walked and whispered, "Did you see that boy checking you out?"

"What?!" I whispered back.

Chapter 39:

"You heard me." Amy whispered.

"You must have been mistaken," I said back as we got inside the car.

Amy's mom got in too and said, "Are you two talking about the boy that was checking out Brandon?"

"What, you too?" I asked.

"Well he was," Amy's mom said. "As soon as you walked towards the door he couldn't take his eyes off of your face." She then giggled a bit, "Then your rear when you walked past!"

Amy was practically rolling out of her seat in the car, the only thing holding her there was her seatbelt.

I was trying to decide whether or not to laugh or cry. I guess I should have known this was going to happen if really wanted to start looking like a girl…

"Brandon, we're not trying to make fun of you," Amy said, "It's just really really funny."

I decided to laugh, I mean perhaps this was just another step to girlhood? "I guess it kind of is isn't it?"

"Yes it is. I think it might have something to do with the hair though… did you do something to his hair earlier Amy?" She inquired.

Oh crap.. she suspects? What do I say? I was kind of not panicking, but at a loss for words.

"Yeah, you got us. I talked Brandon into letting me play with his hair earlier. I just used a curling iron though, I didn't really do anything that significant to it." She said.

"It's okay, I wouldn't have noticed in all honesty if I hadn't noticed the ends of the hair out of the ponytail were curly." I wanted to look in the mirror and see what was going on there. "Also, guys don't usually do that high of a ponytail. That's certainly the highest I've seen you do it Brandon." She added.

"You're not mad are you, mom?" Amy asked.

"Absolutely not, as long as Brandon was okay with it I don't see any issue with it."

I sighed with relief. "I'm okay with it," I answered back.

"So what do you two have going on tomorrow?" Amy's mom asked.

We talked about the different things that were going on the next day. When we got home it was about 8pm and she told us to go finish our homework.

Amy and I worked as quickly as we could, since we didn't really want to waste the rest of our evening working on homework. We had been working for about 2 minutes when I decided I wanted to get the pulling sensation the ponytail was giving me out of my hair. I pulled the holder out of my hair and let it down.

Her mom came up a few minutes later from downstairs with 2 bowls of strawberry ice cream. "Here, I thought you two might enjoy some ice cream." She said.

"Brandon, I just talked to your mom, when you finish your ice cream why don't you call her back. Then when you're done talking let me know, I want to talk to her for a few minutes too."

"Okay, I'll do that as soon as I get done." I replied and she left the room. I ate my ice cream and continued to work on my homework. After about 10 minutes I finished up and headed downstairs. Amy stayed behind to keep working on her work.

I found the phone that was in the kitchen and sat down on the bar stool to talk to my parents. I dialed and mom answered, "Hey sweetie, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay, I'm kind of tired." I replied. Not lying in the least… staying up late last night talking had worn me out. "How's Grandpa doing?"

"Well he was moved to a normal room today, and they will be ready to send him home on Tuesday. Your dad and grandmother are going to stay through then, but I'm going to go ahead and come back on Sunday. I'll pick you up around 7pm when I get back."

"How are you getting home and they're staying there. Didn't you guys just take one car?" I asked

"Your dad drove out your grandparents car. And I drove ours. I'll drive ours back home."

"I guess that makes sense." I replied. We talked for another 10 minutes or so about stuff – I think she was dealing with separation problems – and I said goodnight to her, but told her, "Don't hang up though, Mrs. Hancock wants to talk to you about something."

I handed her off to Mrs. Hancock and went upstairs to work on finishing my homework. Amy had gotten far too much of a head start there so she was done 15 minutes before I was. I finished right around 9pm and was surprised that we hadn't been told to go to bed yet. Amy ran down real quick with our dishes and saw that her mom was in her office still talking to my mom.

"Brandon, I think my mom is still talking to your mom." Amy came back up and said.

"That's strange."

"Yeah, but oh well. We should probably get ready for bed now so that she doesn't give us a hard time when she comes back upstairs to check on us." Amy said.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Why don't we get ready quick though and watch TV in here until she says to go to bed?" I suggested.

"Okay, I'll go for that!" She said and we walked down the hallway. We both went in and changed real quick in the bathroom then shared the sink to brush our teeth and stuff. Amy grabbed her hairbrush and told me to do the same. We went back to the playroom and sat down on the floor.

"Okay, I've done your hair enough, it's your turn!" She told me with a wink. She moved to where her back was in front of me and handed me her hairbrush. "Can you brush my hair out?"

"Sure!" I replied. I wouldn't even be close to being even with her. I started brushing her hair out, she practically purred. I gave her a hard time about it, "Are you sure you're not a kitty?"

"No. I think all girls are actually kitties at heart!" She replied. I brushed her hair out for about 5 minutes and we switched places.

Okay, we'd done the hair thing before, but just flat out getting your hair brushed out by someone else was indeed a different experience. It felt really good.

"You said I purred, you must be a decent part kitty too!" She said.

"Well, you said the previous statement, so it must be true for me too." I said.

She stopped after a bit and we moved into bean bag chairs to keep watching TV. I thought maybe we would get a reprieve, and be able to watch TV till 10, but her mom came in at 9:30 and said, "Time for bed guys. I'll let you stay up as late as you want the next 2 nights though okay?"

"Okay mom," Amy said.

We went down to her room and got into bed. Her mom turned the lights out and closed the door. When I thought the coast was clear I said, "Amy?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"You're welcome Tiff." She said. I went to sleep that night dreaming of a day that I could have my own wardrobe like Amy's. All of my dreams that night involved me dressed the way that I felt I should be. It was a good night.

Chapter 40:

The school day flew by the next day. When we got to English Mr. Tamera gave Amy, Nikki, Ashley, and I passes to go to the office. He wouldn't say why, and we discussed it as we went downstairs and to the office.

"Obviously it's about the project," I said.

"Yeah it probably is, but what about it?" Ashley asked.

"Well maybe we're getting rewarded for a really good job?" Nikki suggested.

"Let's hope so," Amy said.

We reached the office door and walked in. The principal, Mrs. Hinther, was standing there, "How are you all doing?"

"Okay," Nikki said.

"Good. Would you four step into the conference room in here?" She asked.

We followed her in there where we saw a big screen tv was sitting recessed in the wall (I hadn't noticed it before when I'd been in there), and there were 8 other adults sitting in there. She introduced us to them, "This is Mr. Jameson, he is the superintendent for our district. Here we have Mr. Winters, he's the school board president." She continued rattling off names of a couple more school board members, a newspaper reporter, and two tv reporters. One of them was from Mr. Sanders TV station.

"Well, you're all probably wondering why we brought you in here?" She asked as she motioned for us to take a seat in 4 empty chairs.

We nodded.

"Well, let's just say Mr. Tamera showed the other English teachers your video. From there they all thought that I should see it, and I decided that these ladies and gentlemen should see your film. Could you guys give your presentation just like you did the other day?"

"Okay," I said. "But do you have all of our stuff?" I asked.

"It's all right here," She said handing me the stack of our stuff.

The four of us huddled for a second before starting our presentation again. Talk about unexpected! We managed to do at least as good of a job introducing the video as we did Wednesday, and started the video. I spent time watching the reactions of everyone on this one again.

I especially enjoyed the reporter from Mr. Sanders station. She just seemed to be enthralled by it, laughing at all of the right times. Even the Superintendent and the School board members seemed to be unable to control themselves and they all seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

When the video was over they all gave us a round of applause. There were all sorts of back patting comments and such; we got to thoroughly enjoy the attention and accolades. They ended up telling us that they wanted us to present it at the school board meeting, and maybe at a state board meeting. Wow, talk about more than we planned on.

They also asked us if we would mind talking to the 3 reporters there. We talked amongst ourselves and told them that we would talk to the newspaper reporter and the reporter from Mr. Sanders first. If the other one wanted to talk to us next week we would do so then, but the one TV station deserved first crack.

The other reporter was very gracious about it and said that seemed more than fair to her, and that she completely understood.

A phone call was made to each of our parents, in my case they called my dad on his cell phone, and we then sat down for interviews.

"So first of all what are your names?" The reporter for the TV station asked.

"I'm Amy."

"I'm Ashley,"

"I'm Nikki."

"And I'm Brandon," I finished. I saw a quick double take from both of them when they heard my name. Clearly they were expecting another girls name.

They asked several questions including, "So where did you guys get the idea for the project?"

I started, "Well they gave us the option of doing a video project, and that seemed better than talking in front of the class for a long time."

Amy then chimed in, "At that point I suggested we do it using Barbies."

"And then it just all kind of flowed together," I concluded. "Ashley talked to her dad that night and he offered to help us out with the facilities at your station."

After a few more questions she concluded the interview. The interview had lasted for the rest of the day, with the newspaper reporter having a cameraman coming down to a spot outside the school where they were able to photograph/film us in front of a school sign. The cameraman said they would splice that footage in with excerpts from the video and our personal interviews. We all knew it was going to add up to about 45 seconds of a story at most.

We were told the interview would run on TV that night on the 6 and 10 o'clock newscasts and be in the paper the next day. We had 10 minutes left in the day and Mrs. Hinther told us to go grab our stuff from our lockers and then come wait in the office till the end of the day.

At that point we came back and found Amy's mom waiting for us. She went ahead and signed us out and we rode with her home. "Congratulations you guys, this is exciting!" She exclaimed.

She decided that we would do KFC that night so that we could watch the interview and not miss it. We got back to the house and threw our stuff upstairs in Amy's room. After that we just kind of chilled. I did call my parents and tell them about the event and they seemed really excited for me. I was also able to tell that though we were taping it to be sure, Mr. Sanders had called and said that we would get an official copy from the station too. All-in-all it was pretty incredible.

Dinner was around the coffee table in the living room waiting for the interview. Mr. Hancock was home for the news and we all got really excited when the interview came on. It was cool. There's really no other way to describe the experience.

Afterwards Mrs. Hancock asked, "So do you two want to go swimming now?"

Crap. I had forgotten that we needed to go to my house to get my swimming suit. That was going to be a pain now.

"Umm… I don't actually have my swimsuit with me." I said.

"You left it at home?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, would you mind going with me to get it?" I asked.

"Well, my husband went out to change the oil in his car, and unfortunately that's blocking in my car as well. So we won't be able to go for a while. I guess why don't you two go watch something else for now… unless."

"Unless?"

"Well, Amy has a couple extra swimsuits, you could borrow one from her." Mrs. Hancock offered.

My jaw absolutely must have hit the floor.

Chapter 41:

"One of Amy's suits? Wouldn't that be strange?" I asked. I just had one on yesterday oh how I wanted to wear it again!

"We have a fence around the backyard, no one would see you. It really wouldn't be that big of a deal." She hedged.

"Well… what do you think Amy?" I asked.

"You should do it. That way we don't have to wait for my dad forever," She answered.

"Okay, I suppose that would be fine then." I replied.

"Okay then, Amy why don't you two go upstairs and get dressed. I'm going to finish cleaning up dinner."

"Okay mom," Amy said.

We got upstairs and we closed her bedroom door. "You didn't tell her anything did you?" I asked Amy.

"No, of course not."

"I believe you, I just had to ask."

"I know, it's okay. Here's your chance though, who would have thought that mom would suggest that?"

"I wouldn't have. Do you sense there's something fishy going on?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well… I don't know. I guess maybe I'm wondering if it's connected to the phone conversation she had with mom forever last night."

"I don't know. All I do know is it's time to get dressed! I haven't been able to use our pool since September!"

She picked out a swimsuit for herself and gave me the one that I had used yesterday. Once we were dressed we headed downstairs. We grabbed some swimming toys and goggles from a closet downstairs. I hadn't seen Mrs. Hancock yet, I felt very self-conscious, when I heard "You two go ahead and head outside, okay?" from her mom behind us.

I kind of jumped a bit at that point. "By the way, you look nice Brandon," her mom said with a wink.

For whatever reason out of my mouth sprouted the words, "Thanks Mrs. Hancock." Where the heck did those come from? I quickly turned back around and headed out the back door to the pool. We sat our stuff on the side of the pool and jumped in.

Amy and I just kind of dived in and out of the water for a few minutes before she said, "Brandon you really do look nice. I don't know if she was being serious or not, but you do. I think you could honestly get away with going to a public pool like this for now."

"I don't know… I'm a little bit surprised that your mom would suggest something like this." I said.

"I am too honestly." We were speaking in the middle of a shallow end area of the pool. Her mom was still inside. "But, are you enjoying it?" She asked.

"Absolutely!" I replied. I loved the way that the swimming suit felt in the water. It was more like a second skin than anything else. Much more comfortable than what I'd been forced to wear before I thought.

"Well good! Let's enjoy the pool, I haven't been able to swim in it for a while!" She said.

We swam, diving in and out of the water for a while and then grabbed some of the pool toys from the side. We had a bunch of diving toys that we played games with seeing who could get the most toys first type thing. After a while Mrs. Hancock and her husband came out and sat in the Jacuzzi. "Why don't you two join us in here?" she suggested.

I had forgotten all about what I was wearing while we had been playing, suddenly I was afraid of what Mr. Hancock would think.

"Cute," he said to me, and then asked, "So I hear you two had a big day?"

"It was great dad…" Amy proceeded to tell him everything about today with me tossing in an additional detail here and there.

"That's awesome guys. I have to confess I did hear about it first from the Superintendent."

"Really?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, after he got done with you guys he gave me a call and asked if you were my daughter. He told me that you and your friends had done an amazing job."

"Cool," Amy said.

"I have a feeling the district is going to milk your project for everything it's worth. Because of that I made a phone call earlier." He added.

"To where?" I asked.

"A guy I went to law school with has been working for the Mattel corporation for the last 10 years. I thought it might be a good idea to consult with him about the project – just in case they decided to have a problem with it for some reason."

"And?" Amy asked.

"Well, he said they shouldn't have a problem with it. But, and this is the cool part, they want to see it to see if they can use it for any sort of promotional thing. I had one of the copies sitting around at work and sent it to him through FedEx earlier. They should get it Monday."

"So do you think it's going to amount to anything?" I asked.

"Who knows, maybe some scholarships for you guys? They may just throw in some free toys or something even. We'll see. I mainly called them because sometimes companies like Mattel have a fit anytime someone uses their trademark merchandise. The good thing is that in the credits you guys credited them, so they should be cool with it. Anyway, nothing we can do until we hear from them next week."

"Thanks for doing that Dad," Amy said.

"Yeah, thanks." I said. I certainly couldn't afford to have my family sued by that company…

We sat in the jacuzzi with them for about 15 minutes and then we all went inside. Amy's mom sent us upstairs to go take showers and change into our pajamas. When I got up to her room I said, "Thanks for letting me use one of your swimsuits Amy."

"Anytime Tiff."

"Thanks. Well, I guess we should go take these showers huh?"

"Yeah, when you're done just bring my swimsuit back here so we can dry it."

"Okay." I replied and walked down the hall with clothes and such in hand. When I got to the bathroom and closed the door I looked at myself in the tall mirror that was on the door.

I was honestly looking at myself to see just how much or how little I looked like a girl. Truthfully between my hair and the clothing I didn't resemble a boy at all. I looked down to where I figured I would be betrayed and found myself pleasantly surprised. There really wasn't anything to see there. The only mound at all was between my legs and didn't look like my parts.

Unfortunately as they say, 'All good things must come to an end.' I hated that saying.

I stripped the suit off and got in the shower. I tried to make it a quick shower and was soon in my pajamas. I walked back to her room and I found Amy just opening the bathroom door. I handed my suit to her and she hung it up on the shower curtain rod.

"Are you going to blow dry your hair?" I asked her.

"No, let's just go downstairs with it wet. Bring your brush though, k?"

"Okay," I said. We both headed downstairs and sat down in the living room with our hair brushes. We sat down on the sofa in the living room. Once we had sat down I started brushing my hair, I didn't really want it to get tangled or anything. Amy started doing that as well.

Amy's parents had us pick out a movie and we just all kind of vegged on the movie until 10pm. At that point we started recording the news again and watched our interview go out on the air again. This copy was actually a little longer and both of the news anchors commented, 'impressive.'

My parents called about that time and I talked to them about what had happened today. I thought about leaving out the details about the swimsuit, but I thought I could present it as a funny story since they would probably hear about it one way or another. Mom and dad gave me a hard time about it, but the shock was not as high as I thought it would be. The both took it in stride, I decided that was a good thing. Maybe Tiffany might have a future?

My parents and I talked for a while and at the end my mom asked, "Can you hand the phone to Mrs. Hancock?"

"Sure, I love you guys, goodnight!"

"Mrs. Hancock my parents want to talk to you." I said handing her the cordless phone I'd been talking to them on.

"Okay Brandon." She said while taking the phone.

I heard her say 'hi' and saw her walk back to her office again to talk. That was kind of strange.

Amy and I kept watching movies and TV that night till we both fell asleep on the couch. At about 2:30 am Mrs. Hancock came by and prodded us up to bed. We got there and fell back to sleep very quickly.

Saturday Amy and I were allowed to sleep in till we woke up, which ended up being at 11:30. The story of our project was on the front page of the newspaper – slow day. The paper made the film sound so much cooler than I thought it was. Mrs. Hancock went ahead and bought several more papers so that we could all have copies for our 'scrapbooks.'

For the rest of the day we vegged out, playing her Playstation, playing with her Barbies, and watching tv/movies. That night we once again stayed up late, but didn't really do a whole lot. Sunday evening came and mom came to get me.

While I put my stuff in the car my mom talked to her mom for a bit. Finally pulling me away from talking with Amy (I'd given up that she was going to finish whatever they were talking about – she had told me to go away for a bit). I told them thanks again for everything and then we drove to our house.

When I entered my bedroom with my stuff that day it was a bit of a let down. I had a couple stuffed animals still, but not many. My walls were basically a blank white with a few pictures and awards here and there. The 5 days I'd spent in Amy's room I had grown accustomed to having that girl presence in the décor. Oh well, maybe eventually I could decorate my room like Amy's.

  

  

  

*********************************************
© 2008 by Tiffany Shar. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, and compilation design) may be printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without the express written consent of StorySite and the copyright holder.