Standing Up to Life

by Tiffany Shar

©2008, All Rights Reserved

Chapter 42:

On Monday mom made me come home instead of going to Amy's house because she figured her parents were sick of me. They must not have been too sick of me though, because Amy and her parents stopped by at 7 and rang the door bell.

"Amy!" I said excitedly. I'd been kind of down that I wasn't hanging out with her tonight.

My mom came from the kitchen, "Come on in, how are you guys?"

"We're doing well." Her dad answered.

"Good." They sat down on the couch and side lazy boy chairs, while Amy and I sat down on the floor on the other side of the coffee table.

"So what's going on?" I asked Amy.

"Actually, I don't know. This was dad's idea to come over – he refused to tell me what it's about."

At that point Mr. Hancock seemed to have cued in on our conversation. "Well, now that I have both of you in one spot I'll tell you at the same time, okay?"

"Okay?" I asked. Amy nodded. Apparently she must have been really pestering her dad to find out.

He actually started to talk to my mom first. "Did Brandon tell you that I called a friend at the legal department of Mattel?"

"No?"

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you," I told her. I'd been too busy feeling miserable about not having a girls bedroom.

"On Friday I called a friend of mine from law school that works at Mattel. The school seems to want to make this a big deal and wants to promote their work, so I wanted to make sure their company would be okay with it. After talking to him I sent him a copy of their video. That's all that Brandon and Amy know so far."

"Not for lack of trying." Amy whispered to me.

"Okay," my mom said. "So did you hear back from him already?"

"Yes, today he called back first this morning at 11. He was chuckling and told me he was genuinely impressed with their work. After talking for a few minutes, he asked some questions about whether or not they did this on their own or not, he said he was going to walk it down to one of the executives."

"Wow," I said.

"So, what happened," Amy fairly begged.

"He called back at 3 and said that there are several execs at the company that would like to meet with the 4 of you on next Wednesday night. They want to take all of you, plus the parents, to dinner."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. I don't know why, but I guess they were really impressed with the film you guys made. They also asked me for addresses for you guys, as they wanted to send something to you. I made sure that it wasn't some sort of lawsuit first and then gave them the addresses."

"What are they sending?" Amy asked.

"I have no idea. I don't think he even knew at this point. So, do you guys think you can make the Wednesday night meeting?" He asked my mom.

"We should be able to. Where are we going to meet?"

He named off a restaurant name and I was fairly shocked. "That's probably the most expensive restaurant in town…" My mom said.

"They're buying, and apparently they've eaten there before and liked it." Mr. Hancock said.

"Well if they're buying…" Mom said.

"Cool," Amy and I said together. We looked at each other and started giggling.

"So what's so funny you two?" My mom asked.

Mrs. Hancock answered, "I think it's just how frequent the two of them have been doing that. They've been finishing each others sentences and saying the same thing for the better part of 3 days now!" She laughed a bit herself.

We all talked for another 20 minutes or so and then they left to go back home for the night. I worked on some homework I'd needed to finish and got on the phone for a little bit while mom talked to dad. They were driving Grandpa home tomorrow, since they lived about 40 minutes away mom was going to go pick dad up from their house. I asked if I could go along so I could see Grandpa and they said okay.

Mom ended up calling her boss and getting the afternoon off – she was going to pick me up just before lunch from school. I tried getting out of the whole school day but she figured out that that was because I had a test first hour. Couldn't I get away with anything?

When we got done with the phone I got back to my homework and then watched some TV till I went to bed. That night I kept trying to think of what Mattel could be sending us. Would they send us toys? If so would they realize I was a boy? If not would I be able to get my very own set of Barbies? Or something? When I fell asleep that night I had tons of dreams of my room being full of Barbies and other toys.

Chapter 43:

The next day our group talked outside about what we thought might happen next Wednesday. We were all really excited, and hoped that it would be something really cool. Just before lunch I was called to the office. Mom was there to check me out. We had lunch and began heading over to my grandparents place.

They lived outside of a small town on part of my grandmothers family's old ranch. It had originally been a large property, but they had sold off bits of it until they only had 10 acres at this point. We were going to beat them to their place by about an hour we figured, but that would give us some time to make sure everything was ready for them.

Mom made me especially help out in making my grandfather's bedroom as ready as possible for him to be comfortable. In the end we ended up sitting down to watch TV just as they drove up. We went out to help them out.

"Grandpa!" I gave him a soft hug since I didn't want to hurt him.

"Brandon, it's good to see you."

I then gave Grandma a hug.

"It's good to see you sweetie," she told me as I gave her a hug.

We helped them get grandpa inside and actually got him settled into a recliner in the living room. "How are you feeling Grandpa?" I asked him.

"I've been better before." He said with a wry smile. "But, I'm still here – and I definitely feel better than I did a couple days ago."

"Good."

"And how are you doing?" Grandma asked me.

"Great, I've had several really cool things happen in the past few weeks at school." They had heard about most of this stuff, but they listened attentively anyway.

She asked my mom, "What do you think they want to meet with you all about?"

"Mr. Hancock has no idea. It could be interesting though, if nothing else it sounds like we're going to get a really good meal out of the deal."

"Yeah. I'll make sure that I'm not on call that night," My dad said.

We all talked for about 30 more minutes before we all gave grandpa hugs and headed towards the car. At the driveway I gave grandma a hug. "I like your hair," she told me.

"Thanks." I replied.

"How long are you going to grow it to?" She asked.

"Probably not a whole lot more. I like this length I think." I told her.

"Well it looks very nice. Have a safe trip home sweetie, and we'll see you again in a couple weeks, okay?" We gave each other another hug and I got in the car.

The drive home was fairly quiet since dad fell asleep from fatigue about 3 minutes into the drive. We arrived back home at about 5:30 and stopped by Burger King for a whopper for each of us.

It was another quiet evening that night, and I made arrangements to be able to go Amy's house that next day.

************************************************************************

The next week went by very quickly. I had hung out at Amy's house half of the time, and she had actually come over to our house the other days. When I was at Amy's house I had put on some of her clothes each day while we were doing our homework or playing. Each day I switched back to my clothes in plenty of time before anyone came home though.

Amy had also invited me to an 'end of the year' slumber party that she was having that next week on Friday. Besides me, Ashley, Nikki, and several other girls were also invited. I didn't know the others as well. But, they were all going on the trip with us, and I'd never had any major problems with any of them. I had no idea what to expect on Friday night, I just knew that it would probably be a really good time.

Mrs. Hancock had made sure it was okay with the girls' parents that a boy would be there – some had grumbled a little but went along with it. Amy and her mom had been shopping and preparing for the event for the better part of 6 days by the time we got to our Wednesday meeting.

Dad had actually gotten off of work early that night so that we could be sure that we met up with the executives at the proper time. Mom made me wear a button up shirt and black slacks for the meeting. Amy and the girls all came in dresses – I was really jealous that I wasn't getting to wear the same thing.

Mr. Hancock's friend – Al – was the first person that we saw. The two of them exchanged handshakes and backslaps before introducing everyone to each other. There were 4 other people from the corporation there. The first was actually the CEO… I couldn't believe that part. He asked that we call him Billy. There was also the head of their Marketing department - Dave, the head of their Barbie division - Lilly, and a lady who was Billy's 'executive assistant' – Amanda.

We sat down at the table and the waiter took our drink orders.

"Well let's get down to some business shall we?" 'Billy' said after some small talk and ordering appetizers.

"Okay," Mr. Hancock answered.

"When Al showed us the video you girls had made we were completely shocked by how good it was. We usually get about 3 dozen films a year that people send in trying to get something out of us for it. Al told us you were just wanting to make sure that we would be okay with it being shown elsewhere, but we decided that we needed to do more."

"Okay. Like what, sir?" I asked.

"Well, first of all we sent a package to each of your houses, have you gotten them yet?"

We shook our heads.

"Well it should be here tomorrow then. Amanda can you check on that tomorrow?" He asked her off to the side.

"Yes." She said simply.

"Anyway, there'll be some things for each of you arriving – but we wanted to see if perhaps we could reach a deal for the film itself."

"What kind of deal?" My dad asked.

"A deal for us to be able to use the film for a series of long commercials on one of the cable networks. We'd also like to sponsor it's entry into a couple of film festivals this year. Does that sound like something you all would be interested in?" He asked.

Mr. Sanders took this one. "If we do this what are you willing to offer?"

"First we'll give each of the kids a $2000 savings bond for college – there are 4 of you involved in this project right?" Billy asked us.

"Yes," Amy said.

"And?" Mr. Sanders asked.

"We'll give them each $20,000 in cash too."

"Whoa." Amy and I said together.

"You're planning on showing this on tv networks?" Mr. Hancock asked.

"Yes."

"And you're hoping maybe that the film will get picked up by a studio for distribution through the film festivals?" Mr. Sanders asked.

"Well, we could distribute it ourselves, but we want to see what kind of a reaction and buzz that we can generate with it first." Lilly said.

"Fair enough," Mr. Sanders said. "But that does mean we should be talking more for the film."

I was aghast… How could he push our luck with this?

"What would you consider to be a fairer offer?" Billy asked.

He and Mr. Hancock spoke to each other in low tones for a quick minute before Mr. Hancock said, "Well… We would think at least $70,000 each initially. Plus 25% of any gross of box office/VHS sales that happen."

I couldn't believe it. I trust Mr. Hancock a lot, but it seemed like he was blowing this opportunity for us.

"That's a little steep Mr. Hancock." Lilly said.

"Not really. When you consider the fact that these kids did all of the production work for you and that your only expenditure would be promotion of the film. In all honesty it's still highway robbery for you." Mr. Sanders replied.

"You make a good point, but we still can't pay that much. We will also have to deal with the rights to use the Liza Drew brand for the film. How about $50,000 each, and 20%?" Billy suggested.

Mr. Hancock and Mr. Sanders both huddled for a couple moments again before saying, "We'll go for that as long as you also throw in trips to those festivals and let the kids show it at the State school board meeting next month."

"I think that can be arranged." They shook hands and Al wrote up a contract for those terms at the table real quick. After looking it over all of our parents signed the contract as well as us. We really didn't have to sign it, especially since it didn't make a difference one way or another, but they asked us to.

We completed this all before our dinner came. Once dinner came we ate in relative quiet. Lilly seemed interested in how and why we came up with the project we did.

"Well, I thought a video was far better than having to talk for all that time in class. So we settled on the video idea pretty quickly." I said.

"Then we came up with the idea of using Barbies for the characters in the movie." Amy said.

"And then we just got really lucky that my dad works for a TV studio." Ashley added.

"And Brandon, you were okay with doing it with Barbies?" She asked me.

"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" I replied. I was wondering where she was going with this.

"It's just you're not our normal target audience for dolls, and I'm trying to figure out if there's something we can do to change that." She said.

"No, I doubt you'll change that." I told her honestly.

"Probably not," she replied. She had kind of a strange look in her eye still, but the conversations moved on. After we finished dinner we had a sort of 'ceremonial' signing of the contract over dessert.

"Well it's been great meeting you all and doing business with you." Billy said.

"Thank you so much for coming out here and taking this interest," My dad said. I think my parents were in a state of shock – I know I was. There were some final details such as sending in the Master of our film on the Beta tape I had. After that was done though we all kind of filed out and the Mattel Corporation officers left. We all kind of stood by our cars while they drove off.

"YES!!!!" I screamed and found that my voice was joined by those of the other girls. We gave each other all big hugs. Something we had done in 2 days had earned us more money than my parents had ever had at once.

Chapter 44:

My parents had finally snapped out of the shock about the time that we had our screaming session. They were absolutely ecstatic about the sale that we had made.

That night my parents and I talked about what to do with the money on our way home. We decided that for now it was going to go into an account that was going to earn interest, and we'd do something with in a month or so. I had offered to pay off the house, but they seemed to think it had other places that would be better to put it into.

We called my grandparents that night, they couldn't believe the news either. I think we would have gone out for ice cream or something that night, but given we were already full from dinner that didn't seem that appetizing of an idea. Instead we just sat around for a bit and talked before mom and dad forced me to go to bed.

The next day I went to school and things seemed normal. A silent pact had been formed between the four of us not to say anything to the other kids about our experience last night. Telling them could only mean trouble we had decided. Thus the only real news and excitement we talked about at lunch was the slumber party the next night.

"What are we going to do?" I asked Amy.

"All sorts of things! But I'm not telling you or anyone else the events until Friday night." She said mischeviously.

"Come on Amy.."

"Nope, you're just going to be surprised like everyone else!" She stuck her tongue out at me.

"Oh, I have one of those too," I stuck mine out. We both started giggling and the other girls just looked at us and shook their heads.

Ashley asked, "Are you two sure you aren't twins that were separated at birth?"

"Fairly," I answered. I had never given it much thought, but most of the time that we were out together doing stuff most people probably assumed we were sisters.

We had a fairly quick day and Amy came to my house that night. When we walked back from the bus stop I looked over and saw a large box sitting outside the door. As I got closer I saw there were actually 2 boxes there.

"Brandon this must be the stuff that Mattel sent us." Amy exclaimed.

"You're right. Help me get it inside and we'll see what it is." I said as I reached over and picked up one of the boxes. Actually I should say tried to pick up one of the boxes. It was heavier than I expected, and bulky. I decided to open the door first then pick it up again to carry it in.

I got that box inside the door and Amy brought her box inside too. "Brandon why don't we take these to your room to open?"

"Okay." I replied.

Easier said than done I thought for a second as I picked the box back up. It was large and weighed at least 50lbs I figured. It took me several minutes to get it into my room and set it on the open floor area in there. She sat hers next to the one I had while I grabbed a pair of scissors real quick to open them up. We decided to open the heavy one first, just what was inside of it?

As I got the flaps of that box open I saw another box inside that had a pink exterior. Could it be? Could I really have received a set of girls toys of my own?

Amy helped me pull the inner box out and we found a huge, really expensive, really nice doll house. "Wow Brandon, you won't have to come over to my house to play Barbies anymore."

"No I guess I won't will I?"

"What else is inside of here?" She asked as she dug through the box. We found several sets of doll furniture inside. "Wow, this is a really nice doll house set. I think it's nicer than the one I have!"

"Well actually I think you're going to find this same doll house sitting at your house." I replied. "Let's see what's in the other box." I said excitedly.

A few cuts later and I found that they had given me 18 dolls in that box, featuring most of the Barbie characters. Amy was ecstatic upon looking at all of the dolls that were in there. "Brandon, this one is going to be a huge collector's item. They are already over $70 new. And this one too! Wow…" She went on for a while.

We inventoried that box finding that there were 6 collector's dolls, and the rest were all okay to play with. Inside that box were also several fashion sets of clothes for all of them to wear. I was absolutely in heaven, but what would my parents say?

"Amy, I doubt my parents will let me keep these."

"Why?"

"Well they're probably going to say that it's rather strange for a boy to have a doll house and Barbies. Especially one my age. I mean you even get some razzing for still playing with them." I said.

"Who cares? Tell your parents it's like a trophy for a trophy case. There's really little doubt that you could argue that. I mean after all think of how much money this Barbie project earned you."

"I guess you're right."

"Besides, this is part of who you are Tiff." She said.

"Thanks Amy," I replied. "Well, why don't we wait until my mom gets home before we do anything more okay? She'd kill me if she missed out on doing something with these dolls and stuff."

Amy laughed, "Yeah, I think that you're right on that." We left all of the toys on the floor of my room, still in their boxes, and went to sit out in the living room and watch TV while we worked on our homework. My mom came home about 30 minutes later.

"Hey Amy, Brandon, how as your day?"

"It was good." I replied.

"Did the package come from those execs?" She asked.

"Umm… yeah, it did."

"Well what was it?"

"Why don't you come see for yourself?" I said as I led her down to my room.

"Oh my… Wow! This is a gorgeous doll house. I would have killed to have had one of these when I was little girl." She looked over all of the dolls and such. "So do I have to say goodbye to these or what?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well are you giving them to Amy?"

"Why would I do that when she should have an identical set sitting at her house?"

"I don't know. You hadn't gotten them out yet though."

"You mean you wouldn't mind if I hung on to them?" I asked incredulously.

"No. I think this is a great way for you to remember this experience." She said. A second later after a hesitation she added, "And, I happen to know you've been playing with her Barbies at her house. I wasn't going to go out and buy you Barbies, but seeing as how they're already here…"

I was astonished. I hugged her and said, "Thanks mom. I figured you were going to make me give them away or something."

"And deprive myself of the chance to have this doll house and these dolls being in this house?" She asked. "Well come on, let's get to putting this all together."

We started opening the packaging of the dolls (talk about a pain in the butt!), and setting up the doll house. I ended up setting the doll house up in a corner of my room on the floor. We had thought about putting it on top of a dresser that was in there but it made it way too tall to be able to do anything with, and it also blocked the window. We setup the dolls inside of the house until 5:30 when Amy's mom came to get her.

"Brandon, tomorrow when you come to the sleepover, bring two of your Barbies okay?" She asked.

"Umm... Okay. Hey give me a call later and let me know if you got the same thing or not?"

"Okay, talk to you in a bit then," Amy said as she went and got into her mom's car.

"Mom?"

"Yes sweetie?"

"Is dad going to be alright with me having that dollhouse?"

"Yes. We'd already talked about it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well when we heard they were sending you something we had a feeling it would probably be Barbies or something. I asked your dad if it was if he was okay if you kept them and he said yes."

"Really?"

"Yes sweetie. It's a great way to remember this by. Now go get washed up. I'm going to have dinner ready here in a few minutes.

"Okay mom." I said as I went to go wash my hands. What was going on? That was far easier than it ever should have been!

That night dad came home and mom showed him what they had sent. I watched his face and read something, I wasn't sure what it was, but it went away as quick as I saw it. Before he said, "Well, it definitely looks like a nice memento from this whole project."

"Speaking of which, they said the check should arrive tomorrow during the day. If it's here when you come home Brandon, please put it in the safe and lock it, okay?"

"Sure Dad. Are you sure you guys don't want me to pay off the house with it?" I asked.

"Yes Brandon, that money has other uses like paying for your college and such. Plus maybe in a few years it'll help pay for a car for you to drive." He added.

"Well okay." I said. "Do you know what we want to do with it until then?"

"Well I talked with a tax guy today and he figures that we need to go ahead and pay 20k in taxes on it to be safe. We should hopefully get 5k of that back since you're under 18. The thing that may really throw things for a loop is the 20% revenue. If that turns out anything – and Mr. Hancock and Mr. Sanders believe it will – it should add up a lot of money there."

"How much do those two think that could bring in?" I asked.

"Well they're thinking that it could end up making it onto the front of a movie at some point this year. If it does there'll be a revenue split. If, you're even talking of a box office/vhs revenue of a Million dollars, that's another 50 grand for each of you."

"Cool." I said.

We all talked for a while that night before mom told me to go ahead and work on packing my stuff for the next night. I filled an extra backpack with clothes and stuff along with two of the Barbie dolls like Amy had asked. For good measure I also put some extra outfits and accessories inside a Ziploc to take with me.

That night when I went to bed I saw something else in the doll house's presence that pleased me. It was the first girls item decorating my room!

Chapter 45:

That day all of the girls were talking about the end of the year slumber party Amy was hosting. When some of the other girls who weren't going, but thought they were in the 'in crowd' found out that I had been invited, but they had not, they were jealous. I had several girls make some nasty comments to me that morning before we were let out at noon.

I honestly didn't care.

We had yearbook signing that morning, and I was actually really impressed with the number of people who signed my yearbook. Not only that, but they were giving genuinely kind and decent comments in my yearbook. I actually had a lot of fun that last half day. Looking back at the year I couldn't believe how much things had actually improved. The beginning of the year had easily been one of the darkest times of my life, but things were beginning to look up.

When noon came and we were released everyone let out shouts of joy for our freedom. I took the bus home so I could get my stuff for tonight. Amy went to her house to get everything ready, and I told her I'd get there as soon as I could to help.

When I got home I looked through the mail and found something that could have been a check – I put it in the safe as I was asked. I sat at home for about an hour before my mom came home. "Sweetie, do you have everything for tonight?" She asked me.

"Yes mom. Now can you go ahead and take me over there?"

"I guess let's go." We got in the car to go over there.

We got there at 1:45 and I went in to find Amy working on some decorations. "Hey Brandon set your sleeping bag up in the living room, and then come help me out over here okay?" She said.

Once I had my sleeping bag out, I helped her put balloons up around the living room and do some other decorations. I was actually really amazed with how many things that they had done since I'd been over Tuesday. We worked on stuff until 3:30 when she decided that we were done. The girls were all supposed to arrive at 4-4:30.

"So what all are we doing today?" I asked.

"You think I'm going to tell you now?" She said teasingly.

"Well… I was kind of hoping…" I teased back.

"Okay, here's my plan of events. First thing when they get here we're going to do is have a scavenger hunt. Then we're going to have dinner, play with Barbies for a while, so that we can go swimming next without getting cramps, then twister, watch a movie, and all sorts of other things!"

"Sounds like fun." I replied.

"Oh it will be. Umm... Brandon?"

"What?"

"Before tonight starts I want to promise you that no matter what goes on tonight you can trust the girls that are here."

"Even Lindsey and Amber?" I asked

"Even Lindsey and Amber. I wouldn't have invited them unless I knew that I could trust having them over. I thought about just having it be the 4 of us from the film, but I decided 2 more people would make it more fun."

"That's fine, if you trust them I trust them. Just out of curiosity why are you telling me this?"

"Well… I'm also planning on us doing some other girly stuff."

"Like?"

"Well we're going to do everyone's nails, hair, and makeup for starters!" She said with a big smile on her face.

"And you're sure Lindsey and Amber won't get onto me for this? Or tell anyone from school?"

"I'm more than sure. If you don't mind I'm kind of thinking of you as one of the girls tonight." She said.

"That's fine… I'm honored." I added the last bit. I was really trying not to tear up.

"Brandon, you really are my best friend in the whole world." She said.

"And you're definitely mine." I replied.

"Okay, let's go finish setting up some stuff upstairs in my playroom!" She said.

For the next 20 minutes we setup her new dollhouse and a couple others into a 'neighborhood.' At 3:50 her mom came home. She came upstairs to find us.

"Hey Amy, Brandon, how was the last day?"

"Great, it was the last day, how else could it be?" I stated.

"I agree." Amy said.

"Well, I'm going to work on getting the scavenger hunt setup okay?"

"Sure. Do you need anything from us?" I asked her.

"Nothing except for you guys to stay in the living room to wait for the others to get here. Please don't come outside so it can be a surprise for all of you." She said mysteriously.

"Okay," Amy said.

Once she walked downstairs we started down ourselves. "So Amy, your mom planned the scavenger hunt?"

"Uh-huh. I know of a few things that we're going to have to find, but where and what exactly for certain I don't know." We talked about some other things downstairs while we waited.

The first other person to arrive was Ashley at 4:10. Then the others all trickled in until everyone was there by 4:30. We were all chatting loudly when Amy's mom came into the living room where we were.

"Okay guys, I need you to listen to a few rules alright?"

We all nodded.

"First off, everyone will be sleeping on the floor – no one on couches or beds okay?"

"Yes ma'am," a couple of the girls answered.

"Next, if you need to go home for whatever reason let me know and I'll let you use the phone. Please don't go into get food anytime you want, ask first. Lights will be out at 1am at the latest. Once lights are out please try and sleep. Let's see what else… Do not run around the swimming pool, and don't dive in the shallow end. If you sit in the jacuzzi don't sit for anymore time than 10 minutes – I don't want anyone getting dehydrated. Please be nice to each other and have fun okay?" She said.

We all nodded.

"Okay, I'm going to help you guys start one activity, then I'll be mostly out of your hair. Amy wanted to have a scavenger hunt, and to make it more fair I've set it up so she doesn't know what's where. You'll all be competing on an individual basis, the first person to find all of their items will get this teddy bear." She said holding up a large teddy bear. "All of the items you have to find will be useable tonight okay?"

"Sounds like fun Mrs. Hancock," Lindsey said.

"Okay then, here's your first clue. Don't open it until the count of 3 okay?" She said handing each of us an envelope. I had a feeling that this was going to be fun. Amy definitely would still have an advantage, but I should be a close second to her advantage with as much time as I had spent here. "All of the items are hidden outside. So don't come inside until everyone is done okay?" She led us outside and gave us each a big cloth bag to hold our stuff.

"Everyone ready? Then 1-2-3 Go!" She said.

I quickly opened up my clue. I read it for a second and then realized that it was leading me over to the wall on the side of the house. I ran over there with Amy right in front of me. Behind a bush there in a plastic Ziploc was a white pillow case and another clue.

That clue led me to a bush on the opposite side of the yard. I actually beat Amy there by about 20 seconds! At that location I found a plastic bag containing a couple colors of fabric paint. I opened that clue and stared for a couple moments. At this point the other girls were catching up, and Amy had taken off in a run in one direction. Oh duh! The trash can!

I got to the next spot about 20 seconds after Amy and found a bag with 2 colors of nail polish. I put all of the stuff inside the cloth bag and opened up this newest clue. It led to a water spicket that Amy and I were basically there at the same time to. This location gave up a couple of small bubble bottles and led to the bottom of a swing set that was on the side of her yard.

There I found 2 tubes of lip gloss and a note that led to the front of the house. At this point Amy and I had built up a decent lead, and I ran at full speed to try and beat her! At that location I found a small makeup kit that had a bunch of different things in it. Boy Amy wasn't kidding about the girls stuff today was she?

I found a towel at another spot along the front of the house before it led me back to the back. On top of the swing set I found a pair of pink pajamas in a Ziploc that had my name on it. I threw them into my bag. The clue led to the changing room they had outside the pool and I slid down the slide to make it there – it said it was the final object. Amy tripped behind me. Seeing that she was alright I opened the door and grabbed the final object – a one piece swimsuit with my name on it again.

By this point I was breathing really hard. I sat down on a lawn chair beside the pool while the rest of the group finished up. I looked at a watch I had on and was surprised to see that all of that had actually taken a while – it was already 5pm.

Chapter 46:

I was still sitting there when the last girl – Nikki – finished. I looked at the stuff that was inside my bag and remembered that there was a girls swimsuit and pair of pajamas for me in there. All of the girls gathered by the pool and we all looked at the booty. Amy's mom came out and handed me the teddy bear.

"I can't believe you beat me Brandon," Amy said with a smirk and a stuck out tongue.

"Neither can I." I replied.

I looked at the swimsuit and pajamas. They both had Ariel from The Little Mermaid on them. They all had a base of pink for the color.

"Brandon," Amy's mom said speaking to me, "I got a set of pajamas and a swimsuit for you for the scavenger hunt, but you don't have to wear them if you don't want to." She said with a smile.

"Come on Brandon, if you wear them we'll all be identically dressed!" Nikki said.

"Yeah," the other girls all insisted. Amy just nodded her head, I could tell she was being careful.

"Well… You can't tell anyone about this okay?" I said.

"Okay we all pinky promise," Ashley said. In turn I ended up getting all of their pinky's in that most sacred of vows.

"Well then," Amy said. "First things first, Mom is the pizza here?"

"Yes it is if you all want to come in to eat." She said.

When we entered I saw that she had added a huge Barbie party banner in the living room that said 'congratulations,' to the 4 of us.

"Mom, where did you get that?" Amy asked.

"I had it made a couple weeks ago when I figured out that you were going to win the class project."

"Thanks Mrs. Hancock," Nikki said.

The 6 of us all sat down at the table in the dining room to eat the pizzas that she had bought. You know, I never would have guessed that 6 girls – uh… 5 girls and a boy… could eat so many pizzas! When we were done eating Amy said, "Look, why don't we all go play Barbies for a while in my playroom upstairs until the food settles. Then we can go swimming!"

Everyone agreed with this plan and we soon got upstairs – everyone brought 2 of their own Barbies. Ashley and Nikki both commented on how their doll houses that they received were all identical. I did notice for the first time though that they had sent some different furniture sets to Amy than I had gotten.

"Brandon have you always had Barbie Dolls?" Lindsey asked.

"Umm… no… Mattel sent us each a set of them and these doll houses this week for our project."

"So you did get one too?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah… I didn't know what to do with it really, but I decided with my parents that it would be worth hanging onto as a memento of our achievement." We then filled in Lindsey and Amber into some of the details of the deal we had gotten. We didn't tell them about the exact figure.

"Wow that's really cool. I'm glad that you all got that lucky set of breaks." Amber said.

"Thanks" I replied.

We played with the Barbies upstairs for about 30 minutes and then Amy dragged us all away. She told us to go ahead and get into our swimsuits. I used 'my' bathroom upstairs to do so. I tucked in stuff again so that maybe the girls wouldn't see anything that could disturb them.

The girls only comment was one from Lindsey, "Brandon, you look really cute in that." She was being serious. We all jumped into the pool, and I pitied Amy's mom. She may have done something really cute by doing the identical clothing stuff, but I didn't know how she would ever be able to tell us apart in the pool!

We swam in the pool for 45 minutes or so and then Amy suggested that we all sit for a little bit in the Jacuzzi. Once we were sitting down in there Nikki said, "Brandon, I think we need to find another name for you for tonight…"

"Umm… Okay… Like what?"

Soon it became a big contest to pick a name for me. I kept shaking my head hoping to hold out for Tiffany. I was hoping Amy would figure out a way to put that name out when Lindsey said, "How about Tiffany?"

Amy said, "That would be good."

"What do you think of that one?" Nikki asked.

"Well, I guess that one will work. But again no one can tell anyone else alright?" I pleaded.

They all nodded. Amy's mom came up a few minutes later with the family camera and told us all to huddle together on one side of the jacuzzi. She took several pictures of us like that and told us that it had been 10 minutes.

"What now?" Amber asked Amy.

"How about twister?" Amy suggested.

Everyone chimed in their agreement and we played twister for half an hour. I wasn't even close to as flexible as Amy and the other girls were so I was usually the first one out in the 4 games we played. I did manage to get into 3^rd place on the last game. Her mom had been on the side taking more pictures during that game, and I wondered just how freaky I looked in some of those awkward poses!

Amy suggested that everyone get into the shower real quick to rinse their hair out and then switch into their pajamas. I took that bag upstairs with me – each of the girls paired up with a bathroom. Amy told me to come up to her room. Lindsey and Amber used 'my' bathroom, and Nikki and Ashley used Amy's parents bathroom.

Amy had suggested that we just get in the shower in our swimsuits and then we could stay in there at the same time. Everyone agreed to this plan including myself. Amy and I were done with washing our hair after about 10 minutes. She put a towel around my hair and I did the same with hers. I left then so she could change with us trading places a few minutes later.

Inside the pajama bag I was pleasantly surprised to find a pair of matching panties to the pajamas. I had actually thought about that just before I found them – I had left my underwear downstairs. The pajama set had a top shirt that was like an extra long t-shirt. It had that same color scheme of pink with Ariel on it.

The bottom 'pants' weren't really pants I figured. I thought they must actually be leggings? They had a strap that went underneath the bottom of my feet. There was a set of socks in there to match – I put them on underneath the strap. I wasn't honestly sure which order they were supposed to go on. Once I put the pajama set on I walked out the door find that I looked basically identical to Amy. The two of us got the other 4 into her bedroom next.

While I had been changing Amy had plugged in like 4 curling irons and several blow dryers around the room. "Okay girls, I think we all need to do each other's hair now, what do you think?"

"Sounds good!" Nikki said. "Can we all work on Tiffany's hair first?" She asked

"Yeah, then we'll all pair up to finish everyone else's hair." Lindsey suggested.

"Okay," Amy said.

With that they led me to the same spot Amy had done my hair a couple weeks ago. They all huddled for a second and then the craziness began. They must have fussed over my hair for half an hour before declaring me 'done.' They took me to the bathroom mirror with my eyes shut and said to open them.

It was actually really impressive.

They had first of all taken the majority of the back of my hair and curled it under like Amy had done before. They had then given me some bangs as well. But from there the creativity had started. I had lots of little spirals of hair here and there that were dangling from my head. They had put tons of other cool little details into it, and the whole effect was stunning. The next thing I knew Amy said, "Tiffany turn around."

The flash of a polaroid camera went off. I honestly couldn't wait to see that photo.

Chapter 47:

We all began working on someone else's hair at that point. Actually, I helped Amy with Nikki and Lindsey's hair. They in turn did Amy's hair. When we had all finished the hair I saw that it was 8pm. Amy's mom showed up about that time and took a group picture of us in Amy's playroom with the dollhouses and Barbies behind us. She also took like 4 individual pictures of us as well in different poses. I discovered that night that she was an amateur photographer – Amy said she was really good.

"What's next?" I asked.

"Well I think it's time to do makeup!" Amy said. "Lindsey, can you do everyone?"

"Umm… I guess. I'm not really that good with it." She replied.

"You're definitely the best here!" Amber said.

I was then informed by Amber that while the rest of the girls were still deemed 'too young' to wear makeup, Lindsey had been able to wear it for pageants and stuff since she was 3. She also had 3 older sisters that she did their makeup from time to time as well.

This time we started with Amy and finished up with me. She didn't make us all out to look like tramps, or little girls putting on makeup, we actually looked pretty. The 5 of us then worked on her makeup the best we could – with her fixing a few things. When all was said and done it was time for more pictures with the Polaroid and then 'mom the photographer.'

I looked at a clock and saw that it was already 8:45! How quickly this night was going! From there we went downstairs to the living room to do each other's finger and toenails in polish. Amy turned on The Little Mermaid while we were doing it. Amy's mom walked in at that point and Lindsey asked, "Mrs. Hancock, why little mermaid on the swimsuits and pajamas?"

"Well I looked at first for Barbie, because of their project, but couldn't find any sizes big enough for you, Amber, and Ashley. Amy, Nikki, and Br… I mean Tiffany are all small enough they could have fit in some of the 'little' girl sizes, but you all were too tall." She had been told that I was Tiffany for the rest of the night. I saw a look of inquiry on her face at that point, but she sent it away soon after. "Anyway I then thought since you are all going on the trip, and we're going to Disney World, that a Disney set would be appropriate."

"That's so thoughtful of you Mrs. Hancock, thank you so much!" Lindsey said.

We all chimed in our thanks and got back to finishing up the polish jobs. Actually, this had turned into a bit of a contest. I worked on Nikki's nails and then she worked on mine. The goal was to make decorations above the base coat of nail polish as pretty as you could. We all had sets of little brushes that I tried my best to do something like I saw everyone else doing for Nikki.

Actually my work wasn't terrible… but it wasn't as good as Nikki did for me. She painted alternating stars and music notes on my fingernails. Then she painted little hearts and flowers on my toenails. She also then painted the words – Barbie Girl on my big toes. After everyone's nails had dried we got Mrs. Hancock in there to judge. I thought Nikki had done an impressive job on mine – but somehow Lindsey had put everyone to shame on what she had done on Ashley's nails.

We then all had a good laughing session and got out some board games while the movie finished up. It was then about 10:15 and everyone was kind of running out of steam. Amy decided we had time for the last activity – painting pillow cases.

Each of us took our pillowcases, and combined the paint collection, and painted some sort of main design on it – including our names in big letters. I almost painted Brandon, but decided what the heck? I painted Tiffany in a scrolling flowery'ish writing that I had been practicing writing for a while.

Then we each walked around signing/writing notes to each other on each of the pillow cases. At the end we looked at our finished pillow case.

I about cried when I looked at mine. That girl named Tiffany had an awful lot of good friends! Every girl had written on it how much fun they'd had with Tiffany. Several even wrote that they hoped they could see her again soon (Lindsey, Amy, Nikki, and Amber).

I actually started crying a few moments later when Lindsey said, "Tiffany, whether you're Brandon or Tiffany we all like you a lot." She gave me a hug. "I do think you may make a better Tiffany than a Brandon though!" She smiled. "I've never really taken the time to get to know you before now – but I can definitely see why Amy has been hanging out with you so much this semester." They all gathered around me for a bit until I got control of myself.

Thankfully no one asked why I was crying. In all honesty I knew, but I didn't know myself. Did that make any sense? After all of my hopes and dreams of being a girl – tonight I actually had been one. The other thing is that now that I had been introduced as Tiffany to these 4 other girls – and they had accepted me – it made me think that maybe I could actually go to school as a girl.

There was certainly a large amount of fear involved with that thought. Would I be able to be safe going to school as Tiffany? I knew that the 5 most popular girls in the sixth grade were with me right now, but would that be enough?

I got myself together finally a few minutes later. Amy's mom came in to check on us about that time and suggested that we all go wash the makeup off our faces before we watched a movie in our sleeping bags. We all agreed and I started to walk up to Amy's bathroom where she had some makeup remover for us to use. Mrs. Hancock intercepted me though.

"Are you alright?" she asked me when the other girls were out of earshot.

"Yes… I think." I replied.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked.

"Maybe. Sometime. Just not tonight." I said.

"That's fine, but if you ever do want to talk about it feel free to come see me. You don't have to come over here just to hang out with Amy you know." She said and gave me a hug.

I ran upstairs and the girls showed me how to take the makeup off my face. Actually, it was already half off when I got up there. The mascara that Amy had put on my face had run down my face badly. Once we all had clean faces – Mrs. Hancock checked us coming down too – we got into our sleeping bags on the floor.

"What are we watching?" I asked Amy.

"The Princess Bride." Lindsey and Amber seemed very happy with this choice, the other three of us had puzzled expressions.

"You mean you've never seen this before?" Lindsey asked us.

"Nope," I said.

"Well, I can kind of understand Brandon having not seen it before… But Ashley? Nikki? Amy quick put it in – these three have to see this movie!" She ordered with a gigantic smile on her face.

The movie went on for a long time it seemed before Amy's mom came in and checked on us and turned out the lights. I then noticed that they had put a couple night lights around the room so we could see if we needed to. I think everyone except Amy and I had nodded off by the time the end of the movie came.

"Amy?" I asked seeing if she was still awake – her sleeping bag was right next to mine.

"Yes Tiff?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime." She replied.

I sat there just enjoying the memories of that afternoon for a long time before falling asleep.

Chapter 48:

The next morning I heard several of the other girls stir in the morning and start walking around. I decided that meant it was time to get up. I pulled myself out of my sleeping bag and sat up. We all gathered around the table for a breakfast that Mrs. Hancock had sat out. There were all sorts of food and things laid out on the table for us to eat, including cereal, bacon, eggs, muffins, and bagels.

"Morning Tiff." Amy said to me.

"Morning." I said.

We all ate and talked animatedly about the fact that we now had just a little under a week before we were going to Florida! "What are you looking forward to most Tiffany?" Nikki asked me.

"Kennedy Space Center. I've always loved space and stuff." I replied. "You?"

"Magic Kingdom, I can't wait to go by the castle!" She said.

Conversations went like that for a while until we all finished breakfast and changed into our regular clothes. We then helped clean up around the house so that everything was as neat as it had been when we had started.

Mrs. Hancock told my mom she could come a bit later than she had told the other girls parents – so I was the last one there. At that point Mrs. Hancock asked, "Brandon what do you want me to do with Tiffany's swimsuit and pajamas?"

I thought for a second, "Can you keep them here for when I stay over next time?" I asked.

"Sure. You don't have to wear them again though if you don't want to." She hedged.

"I know. Thanks for all of that stuff," I said.

"No problem. Hey Amy why don't you help Brandon get his nail polish off?" She told Amy.

"Come upstairs with me," Amy said. Once we were upstairs she helped me use nail polish remover first on my fingers. When we were done I almost thought about telling her to leave on the toe nails, but decided I couldn't do that and wear sandals this week. She removed the stuff on my toes and we just started sitting around chatting.

After about an hour of talking we heard footsteps coming up the stairs and my mom came in the room with Amy's mom. "Brandon are you ready to go?"

"Yes," I said and headed downstairs with her.

I saw Amy had put on some shoes to leave too. She must have seen that I was curious cause she said, "we're going to go get pictures developed."

"Brandon, if you want to come over Tuesday to work on scrapbooks with us you could." Mrs. Hancock said.

I looked at mom and she nodded, "Okay, I'll be here!" I said to her. I grabbed my sleeping bag and backpack, and then we drove home.

Dad was sitting at the kitchen table when we got home. "Hey, how was the sleepover?" He asked.

"It was great!" I proceeded to go ahead and tell them about the sleepover. I had thought at one point about leaving out some of the parts – but had since decided to just tell them everything.

"So you had fun with them then?" Dad asked. There was definitely concern in his eyes.

"Yeah, it was good. It's probably some of the most fun I've ever had." I replied.

"That's good honey, why don't you go take your stuff to your room and put your dirty clothes in the hamper."

"Okay." I replied and took my stuff to my room. The clothes went in the hamper and I went through the rest of the stuff that was in my bag. I found my two Barbie dolls and put them in the doll house. I then remembered I had forgotten the teddy bear I had won from the scavenger hunt. Oh well, I'd be able to get it on Tuesday if nothing else.

I decided to lay down and read a book on my bed for a bit. I must have fallen asleep because mom woke me up for dinner that night. After dinner was cleared away mom served up some bowls of ice cream and we started enjoying it.

"Brandon, your mom and I have something that we need to talk to you about." Dad said.

"Okay. What?"

"Well… We've been noticing something as this year has gone on." Dad petered off towards the end.

"It started with you deciding to grow your hair out." Mom said. "You told us that it was because of the rock star thing, and so we decided to just let you do as you wanted."

"Thank you for letting me do that." I said. I was getting nervous.

"But Brandon, then some other things have happened… and I don't want to say we're worried about you… but we are." My dad said.

"Worried about me how?" I asked. Oh crap… I wasn't expecting this today.

"Well… Brandon, what would I say if I said we had to cut your hair?" My mom asked.

"YOU CAN'T CUT MY HAIR!!!!" I practically screamed.

"Hold it." Mom said before I could storm to my room and hide. "I didn't say we were going to, I asked what if we said you had to cut it. But I guess that was a pretty clear idea of that. Why do you want your hair like this? I don't believe it's because of the rock star idea." Mom asked.

"Umm…" Crap, crap, crap… How do I answer this?

"Your mom and I have our own theory, and I don't want you to be afraid to tell us. I guarantee no matter what you tell us we'll still love and support you." Dad said. Mom nodded.

I sat there for a moment with a blank look on my face… "Because…" I started crying… "I want to be…" I couldn't go any farther.

"A girl?" My mom asked gently.

I nodded and the tears just flew out at this point. Both of my parents hugged me and kept saying reassuring things to me. I cried and cried for the better part of an hour before I finally calmed down.

I had heard my parents trying to get my attention somehow and I hadn't been able to focus on anything. I heard, "Tiffany." That brought my attention to my mom's face.

"Sweetie, do you think you can talk now? Or do you want to wait until tomorrow?" Dad asked.

I didn't know what to do. My parents said they still loved me, but they would never let me keep my hair now would they? What was worse is they would probably never let me go over to Amy's house again. They'd also be taking away my barbies and doll house of course… would they even keep me? Maybe I could go live with Amy's family…

"Tiffany come back to us." Dad said. He was calling me Tiffany. How did they even know about Tiffany?

I decided I had little choice but to focus on my parents. I found that I was now sitting on the floor in the living room. How had I gotten here? I saw that they had moved the coffee table out of the way.

"What?" I managed to say.

"Sweetie, it's okay. We really still do love you. Here take a drink." She said handing me a glass of water. I managed to take a sip and grimaced at the taste through all of the salt from my tears and such.

I managed to mutter, "Thanks."

"Look sweetie, why don't you just listen while I tell you what we know and how long we've known, okay?" Mom said. I nodded. "We suspected something about the hair early on, but didn't say anything. On the ski trip Mrs. Hancock noticed some things and let us know about them. She didn't know anything for certain, but she thought it was something we should know about."

"On the band trip then, when I found out that you had let the girls play with your hair, but didn't take it all out on the first chance I started looking into things a bit more. Then when Mrs. Hancock found you two playing with Barbies she also decided that their might be something more to it and let me know. She also called me when she found that you two had been playing with your hair again – and it looked like you had been wearing some of Amy's clip-on earrings." How could she possibly have known that?

"We talked on the phone that night – and after speaking to your dad – we decided to put a test out there to see if we couldn't find out for certain. That's when Mrs. Hancock suggested that you wear Amy's swimsuit. She said you didn't exactly jump to it, but you definitely were trying to look like you weren't jumping to it."

"The final two pieces for us were put in place when you didn't just give the Barbie stuff away, and went along with last nights stuff." Mom finished.

I sat there in stunned silence. Not only had they known for a long time, but they had set me up with opportunities to try being a girl. I had always assumed that dad would beat me senseless or something. He'd always talked so many times against 'queers,' and I figured I fit that description better than anyone. "So you're really not mad at me?" I asked.

"No sweetie, we're not." Dad replied.

"But… you always said…" I stammered.

"Forget what I've always said. I'm not saying I agree with this, but I do think there is more to this than you just being different." He said gently.

"Look sweetie, we both love you very much… and we can tell that there is something to this for you. We want to take you to see someone on Monday."

"A shrink?" I asked.

"Well, in a manner of speaking yes." Mom said.

"Look, before we can do anything with this, we need a professional opinion. This lady has seen a lot of cases like yours, and Mrs. Hancock holds her in really high regard. She's also really nice – we've already met with her once." Dad added.

"You already met with her?" I looked at them incredulously. "Okay, I'll see her. But, you have to promise me something." I said.

"What?" Dad asked.

"You can't break up my friendship with Amy, you can't take away the stuff in my room, and you won't make me cut my hair if I don't want to."

"We promise." Mom said quickly.

At that point I started sobbing some more and I don't really remember much more of that evening.

Chapter 49:

The next thing I honestly remember was waking up in my bed. I was really startled. Did yesterday really happen? I could feel that my face was all salty and I was still in my clothes from yesterday. What could I do now? I know my parents said it was alright… But my life seemed like it was so over. I built up the courage to go outside of my room to go to the bathroom.

I finished up in there and found mom waiting outside. "Do you want to talk?" She asked.

How could she possibly want to talk after all of that? "Not really. Can you just let me sit in my room today without you guys bothering me?" I asked.

"I don't think that's a great idea Bran… I mean Tiffany. I… What do you want us to call you?" Mom asked with a really worried expression on her face.

"Tiffany." I whispered very quietly.

"Tiffany, I don't want you to be in your room alone today. If you want I'll help you move your dollhouse into the living room so you can play in there."

"You're not just doing this so you guys can get rid of it are you?" I asked.

"No, we made you a promise. I'm just worried about you and don't want to see you alone today, okay?"

"Okay." I said. She and dad helped me out with the dollhouse and I played with my Barbies for most of the rest of the day. At seven that night mom came in and said, "Amy wants to talk to you on the phone."

I debated back and forth on what to do, but decided she was my best friend – I had to talk to her. Mom handed me the phone. "Hi," I said.

"Hi." Amy said back. "Tiff I'm so sorry about what happened… I didn't know anything about it… I'm thoroughly mad at mom right now… Please don't hate me… Please don't hate my mom either though…"

She went on for a little bit long before I said, "Amy I don't hate you and I don't hate your mother."

"Are you sure?" She asked nervously.

"Amy, without you and your mother I never would have been able to be Tiffany at all… I'm more scared than anything."

"You don't have anything to be scared about. I guarantee you I'll stick by you all the way, and so will my parents."

"I know Amy." We talked for a while longer before things became a little more relaxed and she told me about the pictures her mom had taken. Apparently they had turned out really good and she couldn't wait for us to do scrapbooks on Tuesday.

She told me her mom was starting her vacation for our trip that day and wanted to help us out. They also had everything we would need for it too, so not to worry about bringing anything more than some photos.

I told her about the appointment tomorrow at that point. "Amy what happens if she decides that I have to be a boy?"

"Look, you can be whoever you want to be. You'll be fine. If all else fails when you come over here you can wear my clothes okay?"

"Okay."

"What happens if she says that I should be Tiffany though?"

"What would be bad about that?" She asked.

"The other kids…" I started.

"I won't let the other kids mess with you, and neither will any of my friends. Tiff, that means that you have the cool kids all behind you. No one will dare do anything serious against you at that point. And, if they do we'll take care of them." She answered.

We talked for a long time that night. I was honestly surprised Mom didn't yell at me to get off of the phone, but I think she and dad had decided that would be a bad idea. I ended up hanging up 3 hours later. Feeling at least a little better.

I went to bed shortly after that to try and make Monday come sooner.

The next morning mom woke me up and told me to shower and get dressed. My parents and I drove into the city to one of the hospitals where my appointment was going to be. My dad actually drove in a separate car though – he was going to have to go to work afterwards. We sat in the waiting room for a while before someone said, 'please follow me.' The assistant asked me if I would wait inside a room off to the side while my parents talked to the doctor first. I agreed.

Inside I found they had put together a playroom for all ages. I had a pretty good idea that they were probably observing me, but didn't care. I saw they had some Barbies I didn't have and went over to play with them for a bit. After 30 minutes I heard the door open and saw a lady who must be the doctor. "Hi, I'm Doctor Reynolds. Would you come with me?"

I followed her into her office where my parents gave me a hug and then went to wait outside. "Today I just want to spend some time talking to you alright?" She asked me.

I nodded.

"Well first of all what name would you like me to call you by right now?" She asked.

"Tiffany please." I responded. There was a lot more to my voice that time than there ever had been.

I expected her to say something like, 'that's an unusual name for a boy,' but she just kept on talking to me and asking questions. Somehow in about an hours time I figured that she knew more about me than anyone else.

"Tiffany, can you wait outside for a few minutes while I talk to your parents?" She asked.

I waited in a chair right outside the door for what seemed like an eternity before she brought me back in.

"Tiffany… After talking with you and your parents, we want to offer you the chance to dress as Tiffany for a few weeks. Would you like that?" She asked.

"Yes, more than anything!" I responded. I figured that I had seen the end of my time as Tiffany on Friday night.

"We do have one condition." My mom said.

"What?" I asked

"Well we're concerned about how people on the trip might react to you showing up as Tiffany… so we want you to come dressed as Brandon for the trip."

"Do I have to?" I asked.

Dr. Reynolds spoke up, "I do think it would be a good idea Tiffany. The reactions might get really bad if you're not careful with this."

"Okay." I replied. "But otherwise I can be Tiffany?" The all nodded. "Starting today?" I asked.

"Starting today," My dad said.

I was so excited I couldn't control myself. I was hugging Mom and Dad, and Dr. Reynolds before I knew what was happening.

"Now Tiffany, I do want to discuss some things with you now that your parents are here. Have you ever heard of the term 'gender identity disorder?'"

"On the internet, it's the term for someone whose body doesn't match what they are?" I replied.

"That's basically it. I think at the moment that term is a pretty close descriptor of you."

"For the moment?"

"Well, that's the one thing at the moment – you are still only 11 – and I want to be sure this is a long term thing before we start doing anything permanent. It's still going to be another year or two before you hit puberty, so we have time for us to do this right and make sure that nothing gets done that shouldn't be."

"So that's why you said for a few weeks first?" I asked.

"Yes. If you are really supposed to be Tiffany and not Brandon we'll have a better idea if that should be the case or not starting then. Until then – with the exception of the trip – I do want you to spend every moment as a girl. That means restrooms and everything," she said.

"Okay."

Dr. Reynolds told me some other things as we sat there and talked to my parents some more before we left the hospital. I was smiling the biggest smile ever.

"So umm… can we go shopping?" I asked.

Chapter 50:

"Sure sweetie." Mom replied as we got to the car. "Joe, you said to use the mastercard?"

"Yes, we'll pay it off once her check clears. They said it should clear by tomorrow."

"Okay. We'll see you at home for dinner." Mom told him and then I got in the car with her.

"Mom, are we really going to do this?" I asked.

"Do you want to?" She asked.

"YES!"

"Well then let's go shopping for some stuff for you to wear."

We left the hospital and she drove a ways and soon pulled into a Walmart. "We're not getting all of my clothes here are we?" I asked mom. I didn't want to be the most uncool girl ever…

"No, we're just going to pick up a few things and get something for you to go shopping to the rest of the stores in, okay?"

"Okay."

We walked to the girls section of the store and we grabbed a couple packages of panties, socks, camisoles, and a couple of training bras to start with. Thankfully we knew what my size was from my borrowing of Amy's clothes. She then led me towards the shorts and picked out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear with it.

I tried on the shorts really quick in the fitting room – they fit! We made a quick stop to pick up some sandals, then we went to the checkout line and checked out. Mom pulled a pair of panties, the shirt, shorts, and sandals and sent me into the bathroom to go change into them.

I was kind of nervous at first… but everyone had been mistaking me for a girl for several months now… who would question me going into the bathroom? I got in the unfamiliar bathroom and found a stall where I could change. I must have changed clothes in a record amount of time because I think mom was very surprised to see me already. We put my boys clothes in the shopping bag and walked out to the car.

"Where to next?" I asked her.

"Well why don't we go to Penney's and see what they have?"

"Okay," I replied. I was glad that we had started out with getting me some basic clothes so that I could be a little more comfortable when we were shopping. Actually, I also was just happy to be in the clothing that felt right to me. I don't think I had smiled that much ever.

We drove through the city traffic for a while before pulling up to the mall. I was so excited to be going to the girls section instead of the boys section. As we got closer I have to be honest – I got nervous… I knew that I looked like a girl as people had been telling me that for months, but it's still a nerve racking experience your first time shopping.

We got to that section and started browsing through all of the different clothes in the section. "What do you think of this shirt?" Mom said holding up a t-shirt in front of me.

"I like it… I like this one too," I said holding up another one. We picked out 5 shirts and moved onto some jeans and more shorts. When we had like 6 pairs of each mom led me to the fitting room so I could try them on.

I put them on and modeled each of them for mom before we settled on 2 pairs of jeans and 2 pairs of shorts. "Okay Tiffany, let's go pick out a couple skirts and a dress or two now." Mom said as she led me on the hunt for some more clothes.

We ended up picking out several long skirts and several dresses that I then tried on. After talking back and forth (she liked one that I didn't like and vice versa) we took 2 of each of those as well. Mom and I decided that we had picked over the clothes there and checked out.

We were walking by the shoes on our way out to run this set of clothes to the car when I saw a pair of tennis shoes that I loved. While I was trying on two pairs of those shoes mom brought back several other pairs of shoes. When we left I had another pair of sandals, a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of flat dress shoes.

"What now mommy?" I asked as we put the clothes in the trunk.

"Why don't we just go wander the mall and see what else there is?" Mom asked.

"Okay!" I said and we walked back into Penney's so we could go into the main mall. The next 3 hours were some of the most memorable hours of my life. We went into store after store after store. I picked out a couple more swimsuits, some more pajamas, and a bit of everything else over that time period. Mom showed considerable restraint in not buying everything in the mall for me. At the same time I was sure we had easily spent a $1,000 by the end of the time in the mall.

When we walked by 'Claire's' on our way back to Penneys and I made mom go in. I picked out a ton of hair accessories, bought a fannie pack, and tried to convince her of something else.

"Mom can't I please get my ears pierced?" I asked in a low tone so no one else would hear me. "They even say they'll even do it for free!" I begged.

"Sweetie, I want to wait until we get back from this trip, alright?" She told me.

"But why?"

"It'll be kind of hard for you to keep care of them while we're on this trip… plus I kind of would like to see you wait until we've gone through another meeting with Dr. Reynolds."

I looked really downtrodden and pouted.

"Look, if everything goes towards that after the next meeting I'll take you directly to a place to get it done, alright?" She temporized.

"Alright, but you promise right?" I asked.

"Yes, I promise." She replied.

We moved on with some more stuff in hand from Claire's arriving at the car at 4:30pm. Mom said, "look we have one more stop I want to make." I looked downtrodden – I was really enjoying the shopping. "I think my daughter needs some stuffed animals and other things for her room."

I perked up again and said, "Okay." We drove down the street to a Toys'r'us and went to the girls toy section. Most of the stuff was too young for me, but we picked up several stuffed teddy bears, kittens, and a baby doll. I also got some more Barbie stuff, some craft type stuff, and a camera that I was going to take on the trip.

We got out of there with a bill that was a little scary, and crammed everything into our now full mini-van.

"Tiffany, why don't we go home and you can change into one of these other outfits and we'll meet dad at Applebees at 6?"

"Okay!" I said with excitement as we drove towards home. I didn't have much time to change – which was most unfortunate because I was trying to make up my mind of what to wear. Do I wear a skirt? Wear shorts and a t-shirt? Wear a dress?

I think mom realized that I was going to be very slow in making this decision so she did what any intelligent mom does… She picked for me saying we didn't have much time… I ended up just wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Mom did help me put my hair into pigtails though – so at least it was a little more girly. (Really the shorts and such were very girly… I just wasn't content with it.)

We hopped in the car and left for the restaurant. Dad had gotten there already and had a table that we sat down at. "Tiffany, you look nice." He told me.

"Thanks daddy." I replied.

"So how was your shopping trip?"

I giggled… "Well, I made mom leave some of the clothes in the mall for other people…"

"Hey! You were the one that wanted to buy everything…" Mom said. We bantered back and forth for a while before we all broke up into laughter.

The waiter came and took our order and we began talking some more. "Are you sure I can't go like this on the trip?" I asked them.

"Look sweetheart it was Dr. Reynolds suggestion that we pace this slowly through the trip. We don't want everyone to get into an uproar on the trip." Mom replied.

"But mom, I slept over with 5 of the girls on Friday, and they were all okay with me like this!"

"There are 2 other girls, 5 boys, and more difficult – their parents." Dad said gently.

"Maybe one day? Not the whole trip, but maybe one day?" I asked.

"Look sweetie I think it's a good idea that we do as she suggested." Mom said.

"Will you at least think about it?" I asked.

"Tell you what, I will talk to Ms. Fitzgerald and call Dr. Reynolds tomorrow okay?" Mom said. "But I still don't think it's a good idea."

"Aren't they going to have to get used to it soon anyway? I'll be going back to school in August, that's only 3 months away!"

I think I saw my parents shudder there. "Look sweetie we'll talk about it… Take that for what you can okay?" Dad said, effectively ending the matter.

I said, "okay," and we moved on. At the end of dinner I told my parents, "thank you."

"For what?" dad asked.

"Well let's see, first of all for not freaking out and beating me to death, not disowning me, not locking me up in a psychiatric ward… etc. And secondly for letting me do all of this!" I said pointing to my clothes.

"Sweetie we could never do those things to you." Dad said.

"I guess I know that now… but I didn't until today. So thank you again." I did my best not to tear up and realized I needed to go to the restroom. "Umm… I need to go to the restroom," I said.

My mom said, "I'll come with you."

"I guess I'll take care of the check," My dad said as we headed to the restroom.

As I approached the doors I reminded myself which bathroom to go into. I took a deep breath just before I went in – this was only the 3^rd time today that I had gone into this sanctuary. I went in and out without any real fanfare, but it really was still a big thing for me.

I waited for mom before coming out and we went back to our table. Dad had paid the bill so we piled back into our cars and headed home. Once home dad helped us finish unloading the car and I modeled several outfits for them before letting mom start to wash everything except the clothes I had worn to dinner. The phone rang about that time.

"Tiffany it's for you!" Mom said.

"Okay." I said.

"Hello?"

"Tiffany?"

"Amy?"

"How did it go?!?" Amy asked.

"Well… I'm Tiffany!" I exclaimed. I think that statement said it all.

"The doctor decided you really are?" She asked.

"She said she thinks so, at least 'at this moment.' We talked for a while about how she doesn't want to consider doing anything 'permanent' until after I dress properly for 3 weeks. They still won't do anything drastic at that point, but we'll start talking about the long term road then."

"That's great Tiffany! So this means you get to be Tiffany on the trip right?"

"Well… I want to be… but my parents and Dr. Reynolds were kind of against that. They say they're worried about how the other kids'll react to me." I said forlornly. "But I did talk with my parents at dinner tonight, they said they'll talk with Ms. Fitzgerald and Dr. Reynolds tomorrow to see if they can't work something out… I really hope they can."

"So after your appointment what did you do?" She asked.

"Shopping!!!! Lot's of it!" I exclaimed. I proceeded to tell her about how much fun I'd had shopping and about much of the stuff we had gotten.

"Wow, I wish I could have been there!" She said afterwards. Her mom apparently began pestering her on her side and she said, "Tiffany I have to go, you're still coming over to scrapbook tomorrow right?"

"Yes, what time?" I hear her talk to her mom for a few moments on the other side before she said, "Noon? And mom'll make mac and cheese for lunch?"

"Okay, I'll see you then Amy."

"Congratulations Tiff, goodnight!" She told me and I hung up my phone. The rest of the evening I helped mom move most of Brandon's clothes out of my closet, unboxed all of my toys (which mom told me were for decoration if nothing else), and I helped her finish washing everything.

That night I didn't need to be told to go to bed… I just put on a pair of my new pajamas and laid down in my bed – sleeping as I hadn't in a very long time.

  

  

  

*********************************************
© 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.