Standing Up to Life

by Tiffany Shar

©2008, All Rights Reserved

 

Chapter 51:

The next day I was woken up by my parents getting ready for work. I tried to go back to sleep but no matter what I tried I was still awake. At 9:30, after 30 minutes of trying I went ahead and woke up – going to the kitchen for something to eat. As I walked in the kitchen I heard mom was talking on the phone to someone.

"Are you sure you think that is an okay idea?" I heard her ask someone. "No. I think this is probably more than just a phase…" She must be talking about me. "Okay, that sounds fine. We'll meet you there at 10… See you in a bit."

"Who was that mommy?" She smiled at me. "You haven't called me mommy since you were little. Why the change?"

I shrugged, "Amy still calls her mommy that – in fact I think most of my friends that are girls do."

"I could get used to this." She said still smiling. "That was Ms. Fitzgerald. I called to talk to her about you. She and Mrs. Manning want to meet with you at 10 to talk about you."

"Really!?"

"Now, I don't think that we're going to have you go as Tiffany full time necessarily Tiff. But, they do want to see you and talk about it."

"How long do I have to get ready?" I asked.

"About an hour or so. Why don't we go pick something out for you to wear then take a shower and I'll do your hair?"

"Okay!" I said. I skipped to my room – mom just walked (slow poke!). I already had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to wear today. I had a pink jumper/white t-shirt set that we had bought yesterday that I loved. It might have been a little on the juvenile side… but Amy had one almost identical to it that she had worn to school at least two times in the past couple months.

The one thing that I had noticed that I had to be careful about more than anything else when we were shopping was that I was still only a size 8. Most of the time anything available in larger sizes was also available in my size. But, a lot of the other stuff that was available in my size made me look like I was in 2^nd grade…

Anyway… I liked this outfit and couldn't wait to put it back on. I showed mom what I wanted to wear and she nodded. I took my shower – being sure that I really got my hair nice and clean – and then put on the outfit. As soon as I had it on I had to twirl around like I had yesterday. It didn't poof out much, but it still flared out a little. I stopped when I became slightly dizzy. I quickly brushed my teeth and sat in a chair in the kitchen.

Mom came up behind me and used a curling iron to curl the bottom of my hair and my bangs. She worked on my hair for a while before I was able to get up and see. I immediately ran to the bathroom to look at myself – I squealed! I was happy. Mom had used some clippy things that we had gotten from Claire's in a couple spots on each side. I really liked it.

"Thank you mommy." I told mom when I saw her behind me.

"My pleasure sweetheart. We'll have to work on teaching you how to do this yourself this summer."

"Okay." I replied.

"We also need to go get some curling irons of your own and stuff probably too. We'll look at that when we get back from the trip though, okay?"

I nodded, "Okay. How long do we have before we're meeting with Ms. Fitzgerald and Mrs. Manning?"

"We've got about 45 minutes, do you want something for breakfast?"

"Scrambled eggs?" I kind of batted my eyes at her.

"Stop batting your eyes at me young lady…" She said laughing. "Alright."

She walked away to go make me some eggs and I stared at myself in the mirror. Apparently I must have been staring for a while, because mom hollered, "They're ready," and that was what made me realize I had been staring for a while. I walked to the kitchen and enjoyed my eggs.

"Sweetie, I have all of the pictures that I thought you might want to scrapbook with in this box," she said pointing to a note card box. "I put in the ones from soccer, Christmas, from the band trip," she continued naming off some events.

"Thanks." I replied to her. We put that on the TV so that we would be able to come by and grab it really quick when we were done with the meeting. "Did you talk to Dr. Reynolds?"

"I spoke with her for a little bit. She still doesn't think it would be a good idea for you to go as Tiffany on this trip."

"Why?" I said with a frown.

"She's concerned that if we don't go along with this for school next year you will have a stigma attached to you."

"But I'm sure this isn't just a phase!" I exclaimed.

"I know sweetie, she did however suggest a couple of compromising ideas that we're going to talk to your teachers about."

"What are they?" I asked.

"I want to wait until we are at the meeting okay sweetie?"

"No… but I guess…" I replied. I was definitely sure I was going to not be allowed to be Tiffany at all now.

We left for Ms. Fitzgerald's house – Mrs. Manning was going to meet us there too. Mom found it without a problem and we went up to the door. Ms. Fitzgerald greeted us before we had a chance to ring the doorbell. "How are you guys doing?" She asked.

"Fine, how are you?" I responded.

"I'm doing well… Tiffany right?" She asked.

"Yes ma'am."

"Well come on in, Mrs. Manning is already sitting down in the dining room." She led us to her dining room where Mrs. Manning was sitting. I hadn't really known her a lot until this year. I'd had Ms. 'Fitz' as we called her, and only had occasional contact with Mrs. Manning.

"How are you guys?" Mrs. Manning asked as we walked up.

"Good" mom answered.

"Okay," I answered. I was being truthful… I was getting really nervous now. These were the first two outside of my parents and Amy's family to hear about what I wanted to do.

"Have a seat," Ms. Fitz said.

I pulled a chair out and sat down – being mindful of smoothing my dress out behind me. "Tiffany, you look very nice," Mrs. Manning said.

"Thanks!" I said perking up a bit. What girl doesn't like being told she looks nice?

"Well, I think she answered one of our questions for us." Mrs. Manning said to Ms. Fitz.

"Yes, I do believe she did." She responded.

"What question?" I asked.

"Well, when your mom first called I said that you would probably be able to pass as a girl very easily… but Mrs. Manning wasn't so sure." Ms. Fitz said.

"I am now though," Mrs. Manning assured me.

"The biggest problem as we see it is the other kids reactions. You've dealt with a lot of problems with kids over the years, I'm a little afraid of what they'll do on this trip…" Ms. Fitz said.

"They're going to have to find out one way or another at some point," I told her. "Besides, I know that 5 of the girls will be fine with me – we had a sleepover last Friday… So at the very least I'd have 5 people that I could hang out with."

"That may be true, but I'm more worried about the parents." Mrs. Manning said.

Right about that time the doorbell rang. We paused for a moment while Ms. Fitz went to go get the door. She surprised me by bringing in Amy's parents, and Ashley's dad with her. We exchanged greetings with them. Amy's mom actually came over and gave me a big hug. "You look nice sweetie," she told me.

"What are you all doing here?" I asked.

"Ms. Fitzgerald called us this morning to ask us what we thought about Tiffany going on the trip instead of Brandon." Amy's dad said.

"Have a seat," Ms. Fitz told everyone.

"So what are your thoughts?" Mrs. Manning asked them.

Ashley's dad answered first. "I have to be honest, it kind of left my mouth agape for a moment… but once I thought about it for a second it didn't really surprise me. Ashley told me about the events at the slumber party on Saturday – and honestly I don't really have a problem with it. Ashley will be willing to be her/his friend regardless."

"Thanks," I told him.

"What do you guys think?" Ms. Fitz asked Amy's parents.

"In all honesty I think the only difference you're going to see on the trip between Brandon going, or Tiffany going, is the clothing. Everywhere we've gone together Tiffany has been getting called a girl – even without the right clothing. I know for a fact that Amy has thought of 'Brandon' as a girl for at least three months now." Mrs. Hancock said.

That was news to me. "What?" I asked.

"When she got done talking with you the other night I made her come clean on how you two had been dressing you up – and that came out. Don't get upset that she didn't tell you Tiff, she wouldn't have told me that if she hadn't been absolutely scared that you hated her."

"I'm not upset," I replied. 'A little puzzled though,' I thought to myself.

"Good, I thought you would be more reasonable than she thought you would be," she said with a smile.

Mr. Hancock began to speak at this point, "The only concern I have for you Tiffany is if for some reason it's decided you shouldn't go to school next year as Tiffany… It might be wise for you to go ahead and be a 'boy' on this trip…"

I couldn't believe he was siding with that!

Mom spoke up then, "Unfortunately that's pretty much what Tiffany's psychiatrist thinks. She did offer a couple suggestions for a compromise though."

"And?" I asked.

"Well she suggested that you room with someone like Amy, who knows about you, and that while you're in your room you may be Tiffany."

"Is that all?" I asked pleadingly… I was sure tears were going to start pouring from my eyes.

"Well, she did suggest that maybe you could wear a pair of girls shorts one day. She also suggested a couple of your less girly t-shirts that could be worn each day. I think you have enough to make it through the trip like that." Mom smiled a bit trying to cue me into that.

"I guess… what about underwear? No one has to see that…" I suggested.

"She said that would be fine if you're careful. You'll need to use the stalls though so no one can see them."

"I would have done that anyway, I'm a girl." I said stubbornly.

"Well I think that's a good compromise Tiffany," Mrs. Hancock said.

"I think that's definitely a safer way to go," Mr. Hancock added. "Are the rest of you okay with that?" He asked the rest of the adults. They all seemed to think it was the best anyone could do. "How about you Tiffany?"

I paused for a second, but decided to leave while I was ahead. "I guess… Although I wish I could go as Tiffany… Can my friends still call me Tiffany? When we aren't near everyone else?"

Ms. Fitz said, "As long as you're sure there's no one else around Tiffany, that seems fine. We're not doing this to be mean to you, it's more so that we can keep you safe and make sure that you don't go through anything you don't have to." She said calmly and reassuringly.

"I guess I know that, thanks."

Mrs. Manning said, "This also means we're going to have to reshuffle some room assignments."

She looked at my mom, "Do you mind if Tiffany rooms with the Hancocks? I'd like to keep 2 boys in your room so we have your husband with them."

My mom hesitated for a second but said, "That should be fine."

"Will that work for you guys?" She asked the Hancocks.

"Of course." Amy's dad said.

"Do you think some of the kids will question that?" Ms. Fitz asked.

Amy's mom took that one. "I doubt anyone would think that's strange – the two of them were constantly together at school all year. This spring they've been completely joined at the hip."

"Okay then, let's see what other bugs we need to work out here," Mrs. Manning said.

We talked for a good 20 minutes on how rooms were going to be affected and who was rooming with who.

We finally all started leaving soon after that and I said thank you to both of the teachers, Mr. Sanders, and the Hancocks. Mrs. Hancock offered to just take me at that point, but mom told her we needed to run by the house first. When we got home mom and I walked inside our house. As soon as the door was closed I gave her a big bear hug and said "Thank you." I knew that she had done as much as she could for me, and I appreciated it.

Chapter 52:

We arrived at the Hancocks house at 11:50 or so. I had no sooner walked up to their door before it was flung open and I was pounced on by Amy. "You look so pretty Tiff!"

"Thanks," I choked out, somehow managing to not drop my box of photos.

She released me and we walked into her house. "Mom told me you looked pretty today, but she wasn't kidding!"

"Thanks."

"Hold on a sec, I'll be back down in a couple minutes!" She said running upstairs for something.

"Tiffany, are you happy with what we worked out?" I heard Mrs. Hancock's voice behind me.

I turned around and faced her. "It was better than I hoped for… I wish I could really be Tiffany on the trip, but I'll definitely settle for what I got." I replied to her.

"I know you're not going to be as obviously Tiffany on this trip, but I want you to be really careful on this trip – don't leave one of our sides. Your parents, us, Amy, and the other girls should be able to keep you safe… But I could see something going wrong if the boys discovered that you were wearing panties for instance." She said looking somewhat grim.

"I know… but this is me, they're going to have to come to terms with it sooner or later." I said, a little teary eyed.

She came and gave me a hug. "Yes they are. And, no matter what they say or do please know that we'll always be here for you okay?"

"Thank you Mrs. Hancock."

"You're very welcome Tiffany." She hesitated for a second then said, "Tiffany why don't you call me Melanie instead of Mrs. Hancock?"

I felt very awkward right then… "Why?"

"Well… I can't ask you to call me mom – that would be wrong. But, I think Melanie would be okay." She told me.

"Um… okay Melanie, thanks." I replied. I sat there and talked to her for a few more minutes before I heard feet pounding down the stairs. I turned around and saw Amy in her dress that was like mine.

"So what do you think?" She said as she came up to me.

"Well, I don't think we'll be confused as twins… but you never know!" I told her giggling.

"Well let's get to scrapbooking!" She said and led me to their formal dining room. In there I saw tons of scissors, paper, pens, and other stuff. For a while she spent some time showing me what all they had – and how to use it.

From there she handed me several stacks of pictures that she said were mine. There were photos from the ski trip and the slumber party mainly in it. There must have been 6 dozen pictures though from those two things, and that didn't even include some other misc photos of the two of us that I didn't even know Mrs… I mean Melanie had taken of me. There was also several clippings from the newspaper about our project.

The two of us had been working pretty hard on scrapbook page after scrapbook page for the better part of an hour when her mom came in and asked if we were hungry. I had completely forgot about lunch – I'd been too busy with everything else.

We went and sat down at their breakfast counter to eat some macaroni and cheese her mom had made for us.

"So mom said you have to go as Brandon?"

"Yeah… unfortunately." She looked as downtrodden as I did. "But they said I could be Tiffany with my friends! And they said I can wear girls clothes when I'm in the room, and I can wear underwear underneath my clothes… They also told me I could wear a girls pair of shorts one day, and tops that are girls as long as they're not too girly…"

"Well that's better than nothing I guess." She said.

"If the other kids found out how do you think they would react?" I asked her.

"I think it would vary… I think you would have 70-80% behind you. I'm sure there would be at least one kid that would be a jerk about it just because they could. But, you have Ashley, Nikki, Lindsey, Amber, and Myself that would be behind you 150%. I'll make sure that we all stay in our group together during the trip."

"Thanks Amy." I replied to her with a smile.

We moved onto another bit of conversation for a bit. As we were getting up from lunch she said, "Tiffany, I have really really really good idea!" She exclaimed.

"What?"

"Well, I'm supposed to get my hair done tomorrow morning… We should get yours done too and get the same style!" She was clearly excited about this.

"Well… What are you going to get done?" I asked her. I actually really liked what she was going to do. If the two of us had the same haircut that would be one more way of making it look like we were sisters to anyone who didn't know us. I decided that would be kind of handy on the trip. The only unfortunate thing was I didn't know if it would be too girly to be allowed under the 'Brandon is attending the trip' guidelines.

"I like the idea, but I'd have to ask my mom first to see if I can do it…"

"Do what?" Amy's mom asked.

Amy filled her in and she said, "I think that would probably be an acceptable idea. Tiffany I'll set it up if you want, my treat for the trip."

"Really?"

"Yes, but we do need to call your mom. Tell you what, why don't you two go keep working on your scrapbooks and I'll call your mom Tiffany?" She suggested.

"Okay," I said. We left to go back to the table to work on our scrapbooks. I was amazed at how slow I had been going at first compared to now with the pages. My first page had taken me a good 50 minutes, now I was doing one every 7-10 depending on what I was doing. I had gotten through all of the pictures I had brought, the ski trip, and 2 of the slumber party when her mom came in.

"Hey Tiff, your mom said okay to getting your hair done. So I called the salon up to see if they could work you both in tomorrow. They said they were fully booked tomorrow though."

I was disappointed, but not everything can go my way right? "Thanks anyway for trying," I told her.

"Now hold up just a second, I said they couldn't work you both in tomorrow. They do, however, have 2 openings in half an hour if you two want to get ready to go and leave right now."

"Cool!" I said. I hadn't even said that when Amy ran upstairs and back down with her shoes.

We all jumped into her car and drove into town. Between traffic and the distance we just barely made it there before our appointment.

When we pulled up I was instantly glad that Melanie had said she was going to pay… I had in my mind some run of the mill hair stylist salon, this was anything but that. The building was designed in a really pretty adobe style. It featured the typical posts coming out of the roof, but definitely somehow took on a new level of sophistication. All of the cars in the parking lot were at least $50k and up.

The name of the place itself was in Spanish, and I guessed the meaning to be something about Life's Dreams… I don't speak Spanish so don't put that down as a for sure translation, that's just a guess.

Amy's mom led the way inside the salon and we were immediately met by a lady dressed very stylishly.

"Ah… Mrs. Hancock, I'm so glad that you were able to come today." She said. She turned to Amy, "Amy it's very nice to see you again as well. And I take it this is Tiffany?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am." I replied to her.

"I'm Elizabeth." She said giving me a feminine hand shake that I returned. "Well ladies, let's go ahead and take you on into the salon." She said leading us down a hallway. She led us to a large open room that had skylights letting in large amounts of natural sunlight.

Off to the side of that room were several doors – she led us to a room and given pink robes to change into. Amy's mom whispered to me, "We'll turn around here and change, you just change the other direction okay?"

I stripped out of my jumper and quickly donned the robe. I told them, "I'm done." They then let me know when they were finished (Amy's mom took the longest). We left the room and met Elizabeth right there and she showed us each to our station in the large room.

I say 'station' because there really is no comparison to any 'normal' hair salon I had seen before. I was sat down in a chair that was very nicely upholstered in soft leather. The chair was actually more comfortable than any chair in my parents' living room. We each had an attractive lady come to attend to us at that point.

Mine introduced herself as Lynette. "How are you doing miss?" She asked me.

"I'm doing well, and yourself?" I asked back.

"I'm doing great!" She said enthusiastically. I guessed she was probably about 25 or so, so she was fairly young. "I was filled in a bit on what we're doing here for you, but I was told you weren't?" She asked.

"Umm… I thought I was just coming in for a hair cut?" I said in a tentative manner. "Are we doing more than that?"

"Absolutely! You're in one of the finest salons in the country – and the Hancock's are our favorite clients – I'm not just saying that. So, here's the deal. We're going to start off with washing your hair out, then I'm going to work on it for a bit, then we'll let it sit for a while. While your hair is setting we'll go ahead and do a facial on you as well as a manicure and a pedicure."

"Wow…" I gasped.

"Sound good?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, I would like you to make a couple decisions though about your nails. I notice that they're pretty long already, would you like me to add to that?" She asked.

I didn't even hesitate on that one. "No thanks, not with us going on this trip."

"Okay, fair enough. Mrs. Hancock said that we had to go with a clear nail polish color for this trip, but if she brings you back sometime we can go ahead and do something prettier."

"Cool." I replied… I might come back sometime? Not on my money…

"Well let's start with your hair!"

She washed it in a sink that she leaned me back into first. From there she began working with my hair, and in the process massaged my scalp. It was like the ski trip session, but even better! After what felt like an eternity of pleasure, yanking on my hair, scissors snipping, and rollers going in the bottom of my hair, she then began the rest of the process.

The whole moment was so extraordinarily wonderful that I can't put much of it into words. The facial, the manicure and pedicure, and the finishing of my hair seemed to fly by. After a bit she led me back to the room where I had changed earlier and told me to go ahead and put my dress back on. My hair was still covered, so it took some doing to get it over my head without messing it up.

Once I was done I found her waiting for me again leading me back to the same spot. She worked with my hair for about 10 more minutes and then moved back to my face.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Putting makeup on you." She said. "Mrs. Hancock wanted me to evaluate you and get you a set of makeup that would work well for you."

"Oh. Thank you." I said.

"You must be like a daughter to Mrs. Hancock for her to bring you here," she told me.

"If I didn't have parents that loved me so much, and wouldn't give me up, I'm sure they would adopt me in a heartbeat," I replied to her softly.

She turned my chair to face the mirror. She spent about 15 minutes trying different looks on me before explaining how to do the one we decided on. She put together a bag of makeup for me and led me to another room where Amy and her mom were sitting at a table drinking bottles of water. They handed me one as I walked in.

As soon as I saw Amy's mom I rushed up to her and hugged her tightly. "Thank you so much for all of this!" I told her.

"It's my pleasure Tiffany." She gestured towards the makeup bag when I released her, "I see they took care of getting you your makeup?" I nodded. "Good, then we're ready to go."

Amy stood up at that point and I looked at her. She looked really pretty – something that I commented on. She told me at that point, "Tiffany, you look basically the same as I do. I fear we might have to watch out for each other on this trip! Boys might be just leaping from burning buildings just to try and impress us." She giggled.

"Umm… I don't know if I want that or not…" I replied… "I'm supposed to be Brandon on this trip… and Tiffany isn't interested in dating yet!" I replied to her.

She giggled a bit and her mom led us outside to the car. It was already 4:30pm at that point, I couldn't figure out where we were going as we drove away.

Chapter 53:

We were going the opposite way of home, and she seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.

"Where are we going mommy?" Amy asked. Apparently she was in the dark as much as I was.

"It's a surprise for both of you okay? We'll be there in 2 more minutes." She said.

We both took that as a sign that we weren't going to get anything else out of her and started focusing back on our selves. Both of us were ecstatic with our new hairstyle and everything else.

"By the way Tiffany, I think you've got to do your makeup that way at school next year everyday!"

"Is it really that good?"

"Tiffany, with everything that's been going on most people would expect you to look like a boy in a dress. Truthfully when you were wearing boys clothing you looked like a girl in boys clothing – now that you're in girls clothing I don't think anyone would even guess that you were a boy. With that makeup on I guarantee every boy that you pass will be staring at your pretty face."

I blushed. "You're exaggerating," I told her.

Amy's mom piped in, "no, she's not exaggerating. Though I have to say I think Amy is in the same boat!" A moment later she pulled into the lot of a building that said 'Rogers Portrait Studio.'

"We're getting our pictures taken?" Amy asked.

"Yes, and I've got some surprises waiting for you inside Ladies. But we only have till 6 to get this done before we have to meet Tiffany's parents at Chili's for dinner. So hustle up!" She ordered.

When we got inside the photographer was ready for us. The first thing we did was take several dozen shots by ourselves and together in about 10 different scenes he had setup around a massive warehouse type room. Then he asked, "Do you two have your next change of clothes?"

Amy's mom walked up then and said, "Yes they do, they're in the changing rooms." She said. She led us to two changing rooms that were both unisex.

"Both of you change into the green dress that's in there. Don't worry about tying the bow guys, I can do it better and faster out here okay? Don't forget to put on the white tights that are there!" She said pushing us inside the room.

When I saw the dress that she was referring to I just about froze up completely. It was absolutely gorgeous! I was sure I had never seen a dress that pretty in all of my life. It was a dark green taffeta skirt and puffy short sleeves. The bodice was also in dark green, but it was embellished with embroidery crisscrossing back and forth making diamond patterns. At alternating points across the tips of the diamonds were little pink flowers and pearl looking beads.

I pulled my jumper off carefully to avoid ruining my makeup. Then I saw the tights and pulled them on first. I know a lot of people say this is such a tricky thing, but to me it was honestly just like pulling up soccer socks. I still enjoyed it very much though. The dress had a built in petticoat so I was able to just slip it on. Of course by just slip it on that was the process of getting into it.

The feelings that went through me on the nature of this were unreal. I did as Amy's mom asked and didn't bother zipping up. I went outside and found Amy's mom putting a pair of Mary Jane style shoes on her feet. She zipped me up, tied my bow, and then did the same for me with the shoes. We both looked adorable!

I had seen some dresses like this on a website from an Italian dress maker before – they weren't cheap, but I had dreamt about them since I had first seen them. Amy and I talked briefly while her mom touched up our makeup, but we didn't have much time to talk because we got right back to the picture taking. Again several dozen were taken at each scene, plus a couple others, before we were led back to the changing room.

We went through several other sets of clothes. Jeans and T-shirt, Shorts and T-shirts, skirts, a prom-dress style dress, a sundress, a swimsuit (that one was scary with the possibility of someone figuring out stuff…), and even pajamas followed before we were done. In most of the cases we wore the same thing – though sometimes in different colors. Often times we put on jewelry, tiaras, or other accessories to add more appeal.

When we were done with the last outfit Amy asked, "Mommy can we wear the green dresses to dinner? Please?" She begged.

"Yes, please?" I asked as well.

"You two will be a little overdressed for Chili's." She said.

"That's okay, we'll be pretty!" Amy told her.

"Alright, but you only have 4 minutes to change and help me get all of this stuff packed up!"

"Alright! Thank you!" I told her and we both rushed to quickly put the dress back on. We were both out in 2 minutes for her to help us again, before helping her move everything to her car on the way out.

"So when will we get to see these pictures?" I asked her as we drove away.

"Well he said he would have proofs of everything tonight, and would bring them to us at our house to pick out the packages if we wanted. I told him to drop by at 8 and your parents could help us pick them out Tiff."

"Cool," I said.

I was excited. I was beyond excited. Amy and I were both bouncing off the walls of the car on that ride to Chili's. We walked into the restaurant and found my parents and Mr. Hancock sitting at a table. When they saw us their jaws all collectively dropped.

My mom was the first to speak, "Where did you find these Melanie?" She said as she came over and started examining my dress.

"A friend of mine owns a dress shop – she told me about them a while back but I thought they would be perfect for our trip to photographer. I hadn't planned on us going today, but thankfully she already had them and dropped them off at the studio yesterday."

"They're absolutely gorgeous." My mom reiterated. "You two are a bit overdressed for here though," she chuckled.

"We don't care. We're pretty mommy!" I responded.

"Actually I don't think pretty does you both justice," my dad proclaimed.

"I love the new hair," my mom said as I sat between her and dad. Amy was sitting across from me, Melanie across from mom, and Amy's dad across from my dad.

The conversations all continued about Amy and I being gorgeous princesses well through dinner before switching to plans about the trip. They all discussed about meeting together to walk in so that we would be a cohesive group meeting everyone else. I think they were hoping that it would help with any potential, 'problems' we could run into. We all know that those problems that were all possible involved me. Oh well.

Following dinner we split a few desserts around the table with my parents picking up the check. Mom and dad both agreed to come over to Amy's house to look at the proofs after we finished. The 6 of us drove to their house and Amy and I got busy frantically cleaning up our mess on the dining room table. We put all of our pages into a couple boxes – we were going to finish up after we got our pictures back from the trip. The photographer arrived minutes later with a mountain of proofs in hand.

I never was able to get a full count – people kept moving pictures too much – but I think we must have had a good 800 pictures we had to look through to choose just a few. There were so many comments of, "How cute!" that kept flying buy Amy and I were in a perpetual state of blushing. We ended up placing a couple separate orders for each family, with us taking about 30 pictures each to get made into various shots. We also bought the proofs which Mrs. Hancock would be able to pick-up with the photos tomorrow.

"How are you doing this so fast?" I asked the photographer.

"Well I'm in kind of a lull for the year right now. Plus I have several printers and staff to help out with this stuff. This was also a fun shoot though, so I'm probably putting a little more into it than normal."

"Well thank you for doing so." I said to him.

He left with the orders in hand and Amy and I helped sort out which clothes were going to which house that night. Mom had tried to pay Mrs. Hancock back for some of the dresses and such but of course they wouldn't have any of that. My parents and I all profusely thanked her and then went home for the night.

After a good 30 minutes of rearranging my closet to fit everything I finally was talked into taking off my dress and putting on a pair of the pajamas that we had used in the shoot earlier. The pajamas really weren't anything that special, but they were in a cute pink color and were really comfy. That night when my head hit the pillow I was out like a light bulb.

Chapter 54:

I dragged myself out of bed at 9am the next morning. I got in the shower and mom helped me do my hair. I then helped mom pack for all of us. I was excited about leaving tomorrow – it was going to be my first time ever on a plane! Mom helped guide me to keep from packing too much stuff for the trip – I really wanted to take plenty of options, but she limited me to just taking 2 extra shirts, shorts, and 1 pair of extra jeans.

Also I worked on packing my backpack – it was going with me on the plane – with different things. I had my gameboy, several games, a couple books, a Barbie (I told them no one would else would see it!), a coloring book mom had bought me along with some crayons. She had bought 2 of the coloring books – one for me and one for Amy.

Dad had taken the day off so that he could help out with stuff and found plenty of things to do until lunch. We had all finished packing about 12:30 and had sat down to each some cheese crisps (melted cheese on a tortilla in a skillet with butter 'crisping' the bottom,) when the door bell rang. I was the first to get up and walk to the door and found the photographer standing there.

"Who is it Tiff?" My mom called.

"It's the photographer," I replied.

She came out and took care of paying for the prints that we had ordered (they had managed to get the Hancocks to let them do that.) We then looked through the stack and mom said, "Greg, we should take some of these with us today for you parents."

What? I thought to myself… Take them with us… when were they going to tell me we were going over to their house?

"We're going over to Grandma and Grandpa's?" I asked.

"We have to drop the dog off sweetie."

"But do they know…" I stammered.

"Yes they do, and while your Grandfather is going to take a little while to bring around… still your Grandmother is just anxious to see you." She told me. I was a little concerned with the way she put that – it did not inspire confidence.

"Umm… So… You're sure?" I asked

"Sweetie, you'll be fine. Your grandparents will love you no matter who you are." My dad said soothingly. I think they were both rightfully reading that I was on the brink of a freak out here.

"Okay then… When are we leaving?" I asked.

"30 minutes?" She looked at my dad.

"How about sooner?" He asked back.

I decided to put my foot down at that point. "I've been packing all morning, there is absolutely no way I can look good in less that 30!" I told him.

"Look good? You look great now." Dad told me.

"My hair is a mess! And I'm not going to let Grandma and Grandpa meet Tiffany in shorts and a t-shirt!" I went on for a few minutes before I saw mom raise an eyebrow at me. "Sorry… I'm just a bit nervous." I told him.

"It's okay. Go ahead and get ready and we'll leave when you are okay?" He answered soothingly. Boy things had changed the past few weeks… Before last Saturday I probably would have had my rear end blistered for that one…

"Thank you daddy," I said and hugged him before running to my room. I decided to wear a sundress that we had bought Monday that I hadn't worn yet. Once I had that on I put on a pair of sandals that I had and went into the bathroom. That morning had caused my hair to go off on it's own in certain places so I fixed all of those.

I debated about putting makeup on… but decided I would go without this time. There were enough pictures with me and makeup to show them. Plus mom didn't seem so thrilled with her 11 year old daughter wearing makeup for some reason… I quickly double checked everything and went out to the living room. My parents were both waiting for me, with my dad looking at his watch. "See you even still have a minute left!" He said with a smile.

We walked out the door with the dog jumping in the car ahead of me into the back seat. I sat down and smoothed out my dress before putting my seatbelt on. The 40 minutes it took for us to get to their house seemed to go by far too quickly. I was so scared as to what they were going to say… I was more scared of them than I was the kids on the trip and at school.

We pulled up their long driveway to their house and drove up underneath a tree they had there. I saw that both of them were sitting on swing that was under their patio. Well here goes nothing, I thought to myself. I climbed out of the car – letting the dog race ahead of me first – and walked up to them.

Grandma came down from the porch first and hugged me before pushing me to arms length. She spun me around so she could see my dress and then embraced me again. "Well you certainly make a beautiful young lady Tiffany." She told me. At least grandma was behind me!

I walked over to grandpa and gave him a hug. He didn't really say much except, "I love you darling." It was definitely a much colder reception. He definitely did not approve of this, but as he said he did still love me. At least I wasn't being disowned.

"Thanks Grandpa, I love you too." I replied.

Grandma took back over me and looked at my hair. "Sweetie your hair is absolutely adorable!"

"I went with my best friend and her mom to a salon yesterday to get my hair done."

"You look very nice like this sweetie," She told me as she embraced me again.

We all walked into the house and sat down at the dining room table to talk for a bit. Mom then pulled out a folder of pictures that we brought with us and started passing them around.

"My heavens, what a beautiful girl you make Tiffany!" Grandma gasped. She hadn't even made it to my favorite picture of the one dress yet!

When we did get to the one picture set Grandpa finally complimented me, "Tiffany you really are a very beautiful young lady."

"Thank you Grandpa." I replied to him.

They chose several pictures for themselves and we all talked about nothing and everything at the same time. We didn't stay long though as we had to get back home to finish up with some things. Before I left Grandma pulled me off to the side.

"Tiffany, I wanted to make sure that I told you again how beautiful you are. When your parents first told us what they thought was going on last week we were flabbergasted. I think your grandfather and I honestly expected you to look like a boy wearing a dress… but truthfully I think you make a better looking girl than a boy. No matter what happens we'll stand behind you and love you sweetie." She told me with a hug.

"Even grandpa?" I whispered.

"Even he feels that way. You know he used to wear some of my clothes from time to time when he sold cars." She said with a wink.

"What?"

"It was a gimmick he and his boss did. So don't be afraid to be who you are okay?"

I gave her an even bigger hug and said "Thank you grandma." As we left grandpa and grandma both got hugs again before we got in the car.

"What now?" I asked mom.

"Home. I want us all to be in bed by 8 since we leave so early tomorrow." I looked at the car clock and saw that it was 5:00pm. "We can grab a pizza on our way home to eat okay?"

So after all was said and done the day finished flying by. Mom had to make a last minute trip to Wal-Mart that night to pickup some luggage tags. We also put some curly ribbon on all of our bags too. Before bed that night mom had me come to the living room. There I saw 2 wrapped presents on the table. As I got closer I saw that they were both wrapped in, 'it's a girl!' wrapping paper.

I looked at mom and dad and they said, "go ahead and open them!" I opened the smaller one first and found a cute pink watch – I realized with that I hadn't had any girls watches. We had all been told to wear watches on this trip so we could keep track of where we were supposed to be. It wasn't obviously a girls watch though – so I would be able to wear it on the trip still. "Thank you!" I said to them before moving onto the next one.

I opened up the box and found a camera of my very own. It looked to be nicer than my parents old camera (they had bought a new one for this trip last week,) and mom and dad had put 10 rolls of film in the box along with a small bag for it. This warranted an immediate hug to my parents.

"Make sure you're careful with it sweetheart," Dad said.

"I will be. Say do you think this'll fit into my Fannie pack?" I asked mom.

"It might. Why don't you check?" She suggested. So I did so. It fit, though it was a tight squeeze with my little wallet and hair ties. I had just enough room inside of there to put one extra roll of film.

"It fits, it's tight, but it fits." I told them.

"Good honey. Now why don't you go ahead and get to bed so that you're rested tomorrow.

"Okay mommy, thanks!" I gave them both another hug and then went to bed. That night I dreamt of all sorts of adventures we were sure to have in Florida.

Chapter 55:

I woke up the next morning to the sounds of mom getting ready. Though I tried to go back to sleep for a few minutes I soon got up and started doing what I could to get ready myself. 2 hours later it was 4:30am and we were pulling up to the airport. Amy's parents and Ashley's dad and Ashley all arrived right behind us. We all took our bags to the airline counter and checked in.

Everyone had been given their tickets last week so that we could all check in when we got there. Our teachers were right behind us and we started forming up as a group. That day I had dressed in a pair of boys shorts and a girls top that was in a light blue – but could have been a boys shirt. I had done my hair today, but mom wouldn't let me do my makeup. She said she'd let me once I got back from the trip. When Ashley was finally able to come over she said. "Tiffany I love your hair!"

"Thanks Ashley. But I'm going as Brandon on the trip, so you can call me Tiffany, but keep it to only when the 6 of us from slumber party are around okay?"

"Sure… I wish you could be Tiffany the whole time, but at least that's something." She told me.

My family, the Hancocks, Ashley and her dad, and our two teachers walked up to a restaurant to get something for breakfast. I ate just a standard fare of scrambled eggs and bacon. We then started to head through the security checkpoint, and once we were through there headed towards our gate.

It was then that I started feeling it. I rushed for the bathroom and made it to a toilet just in time to throw up… When I got back outside mom asked me quietly, "Tiffany are you okay?"

"I think so" I said groaning a bit, "I just needed to throw up all of the sudden."

She handed me a pill from her purse, "Here," she said handing me a small pill, "take this."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Dramamine. It's probably just your nerves that made you sick."

I did as I was directed and then went out to the waiting area by the gate. As time went on everyone in our group arrived in the waiting area.. The entire group from the sleepover gathered quickly into a spot in a corner. We were all talking in lower tones so no one else could hear what we were talking about. I had decided to fill them in quietly – if they wanted to rat me out they wouldn't need any more info to do it with anyway.

After we got to the part about the hair salon Lindsey said, "Speaking of that Tiffany, I love your hair!" Lindsey said. "Yours too Amy." She added.

"Thanks, please remember I'm supposed to be Brandon on this trip… unfortunately…" I said quietly.

"But you're going to be Tiffany after that right?" Amber asked.

"I hope so Amber." I replied.

"Well, I can kind of understand them making you hold off for now on it… But I think we can all agree that we will think of you as Tiffany on this trip," Nikki said.

"Thanks, I appreciate that." I told them.

"Hey why don't we just call you T when everyone else is within range. We won't tell any of the others what T stands for if they ask, but that way you can at least be called by your name." Amy suggested.

"It's better than nothing I guess," I replied.

Lindsey made a small motion to be quiet about stuff a second later as Jennifer and Brittany both walked up. "Can we join the rest of you girls?" She asked.

"Sure," Amy said. I took note of the fact she hadn't figured out that I was in the group at that point – or something like that.

We expanded the circle a bit and I noticed Brittany and Jennifer both were kind of staring at me for a second. "Brandon?" Jennifer asked.

"Yes?" I replied.

"It just took me a moment to recognize you. I really like your hair." She told me.

"Thanks." I replied.

"Is there some reason you got it cut like that?" She asked.

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding… Warning… "We…"

Amy thankfully interrupted, "We had a bet and he lost so he had to get his hair done in the same style as me for the trip."

"That's big of you to follow through with that bet Brandon," She responded. I don't know if she bought it or not – I didn't think she did. "It really is a cute hairstyle for you." She replied seriously. I decided she knew something somehow.

Thankfully the conversation moved away from that – I didn't want to get into that conversation with those 2 yet. It's not that I really had much more time to get to know the other girls, it's more that I hadn't had any with them. I would not be surprised though if by the end of the trip these two found out.

Their conversation eventually ended up on a topic that affected almost all of them, cheerleading. The only 2 that weren't on the cheer squad next year were Nikki and I. Maybe next year I could try out? Ashley actually suggested that at one point, and I said maybe I would. I think I could do it – I'd actually helped Amy practice a bit before the tryouts this year.

The next thing I knew they were boarding elderly and children. We were considered in the children category so we were able to go ahead and get on the plane. The walk down the ramp to the plane was really cool to me, and once we got on the plane things just were so… new and cool. I got to my seat, which was on the aisle side of 3 seats, and dad my backpack in the overhead bin.

Mom was on the window side so she could see, and that left Dad in the middle. Across the aisle in those 3 were was Amy on the aisle, her mom, and then her dad. In front of me Ashley, her father, and Nikki sat. And in the seats cattycorner to mine sat Lindsey, Amber, and Jennifer. Brittany, Ms. Fitzgerald, and Mrs. Manning we in the seats back and to the right of me, and the boys took up a few rows behind us.

We were all pretty chatty and the flight stewardesses introduced themselves to us really quick. As everyone else piled on the plane I definitely felt my nerves coming back… What if something went wrong? I knew statistically that was a rare… but still your first time… The sensation of the plane being pulled backwards was interesting, and when we finally were on the runway getting to leave I looked over my parents laps to the window as best I could.

Amy and I had been talking non-stop up until this point – a feat I considered impressive given how nervous my stomach still felt. We stopped for a few moments while the plane sped up down the runway and leaped into the air. It was definitely a fun experience I decided, if not a little unnerving.

Once we reached altitude Amy and I got our gameboys out and started playing various games. We also chatted a good amount across the aisle way for a bit before she fell asleep. At that point I needed to go to the bathroom so I headed back to the lavatory in the back. Mom had given me a motherly instruction to be careful and I took a new adventure to go to the bathroom at 33,000 feet.

It was actually kind of disconcerting in there, but I put the seat down and pulled down my shorts and the panties I was wearing underneath. Sitting down I took care of things, wiped, and then put everything back on again.

Even though I was supposed to be Brandon on this trip – I was determined that I was going to do everything as Tiffany. I might be going in the men's restrooms but I was still going to be a girl. Maybe in a couple years I'd be able to get my parts readjusted to the proper plumbing…

I walked out of the bathroom and back down the aisle to get back to my seat. Amy was still asleep when I got back so I was debating about going to sleep myself. I didn't even realize that the debate had been lost until Amy poked me. "Wake up sleepyhead." She taunted me. I was just awake enough to stick my tongue out at her.

I suddenly realized that we must be getting close to landing because it felt like we were dropping out of the air gradually. I watched out the window and watched the clouds slip by as we slipped through the ceiling. We neared the runway in Houston, and once we landed I loved the rapid deceleration that we had! That was a great feeling.

When we landed we were very quickly ushered through the concourses to another gate on the other side of the airport. We got there with about 30 minutes to spare, we were all encouraged to go use the restroom at that point, so I went again. When I came out I had several men stare at me as if 'why are you in the mens restroom girl?' I didn't have a good answer for them. I was glad dad was right behind me for safety – I think he also noticed the looks.

He went over and spoke with mom while I rejoined the girls for waiting to leave Houston. We were all kind of drowsy but decided to go to a couple stores that were right there. We browsed through – all trying not to spend the money that was in our pockets – and I got away with just buying a pretzel at a counter next to the shop.

In no time we were boarding that plane and the whole experience repeated itself to go up in the air. On this leg of the race Kyle asked one of the stewardesses if he could get a set of 'wings.' She brought a set to him, and gave all of us a set while she was at it. I thought it was kind of childish and embarrassing on one hand… but it was kind of cute too! I put it in my fanny pack to save it for my scrapbook of this when we got home.

That actually reminded me that I wanted some pictures of us in the airplane – and I began snapping some pictures of everyone sitting there. This was a longer leg and they actually 'fed' us with some sandwiches. They weren't great, but it was better than just having had the pretzel for lunch.

As the flight drew on we all got excited that we were getting close to Orlando. The excitement turned to nervousness as we hit one of the craziest thunderstorms to fly through trying to land in Orlando. We all watched as lightning stuck incredibly close to the wings while we were all moving up and down, and side to side, from the turbulence. I located the barf bag in front of me just in case I needed it, and silently read the card for the emergency procedures that would never do us any good.

To this day I have to say that was the worst storm I've ever flown in. Ever.

Chapter 56:

Eventually we landed and started through the terminal in Orlando. After following corridors for a while we got on a train to go to the car rental part of the airport. As students we all just kind of sat around bored for a few minutes while the adults setup the rental vans that we were using today.

Our first destination for today was to go to the Everglades on an air boat ride. I didn't really know what to expect from this, but I did hope we'd get to see some alligators or something. I did really hope that I wouldn't become a meal for one though! We were going to the hotel for a little bit to check in first though.

Ms. Fitz came up to us a few minutes later and said, "Okay, let's go!" We were led out to some large passenger vans to put our stuff in and sit down. I sat down in the second seat of a van that my mom was driving. Amy and Nikki sat next to me, with Amy's parents sitting in the seat behind us. Amber, Jennifer, and Kyle were also in our van.

As we drove down the streets and freeway to get to our hotel I was in complete astonishment by how green it was. I'd seen the mountains fairly green before, but nothing like this! Everywhere I looked was in a shade of green. The day was overcast unfortunately, but it was nice and warm as we pulled up to the hotel.

By hotel… I mean resort of course! I couldn't believe how nice the place was! It wasn't in Disney – something we all kind of were disappointed by, but it was a 4 star establishment that had a really cool set of swimming pools and jacuzzis. Mrs. Manning pointed us towards our rooms, and before we knew it we were heading right back out again. As I walked out of my room with the Hancocks Kyle asked me, "Didn't they do rooms by boy/girls?"

Uh… What to say? "Amy and I requested to room together. We're best friends and have done so on many occasions." I half told the truth.

"Wow dude, that's lucky. I wish I could share a room with Amy!" He said.

"Her parents are in there anyway Kyle," I replied… trying not to let my disgust show through so much. Amy and I were definitely not having problems with that one.

"Well, I was just curious." He said. Amy joined us in the hallway at that moment and gave me a funny look. Apparently my face must have given away some of my annoyance. As quickly as we arrived we were led right back out to the vans again.

We drove for a long while and I watched the scenery go by. By scenery the main thing was pine trees. Who would've thought that Florida had Pine trees? I certainly wouldn't have.

We pulled up to the place about 40 minutes later. The guys spent some time explaining what we were going to see, and handed out life jackets. When he did that he explained what we were to do if we fell in somehow… I just hoped I wouldn't become food by the time someone pulled me out in that case!

I think we were all kind of in a daze from the trip, but were still very excited to go on this ride. They also handed out some ear protectors for the noise and then we were off. We rode through the swamps and saw a few things here and there, but nothing really cool for about a half hour.

At that point I felt a drop of water. Then another. In a matter of seconds we were in a huge downpour and our guide drove as fast as he could to get us back to their shop. In the meantime we were going so fast that every drop of water pounded into our faces – it hurt. After what seemed like forever we pulled up to the shop and all of us ran inside.

"Ow!!" I said to Amy standing next to me.

"I agree, and I'm cold now." Amy replied.

"Yeah." Ashley agreed with us. I checked my camera to make sure it had stayed dry enough in my fannie pack – thankfully it had. I pulled it out an had mom take a picture of all of the girls and myself – our hair was an absolute wreck! I told them all I wanted to have something to put in the scrapbook about this.

We all shivered and looked through their store for souvenirs. It poured for another 15 minutes or so while we were in the store before stopping. I did look at the alligator heads as something to take back… but since I hadn't seen any what was the point?

"Is everyone ready to go to dinner?" Ms. Fitz asked us.

"Yeah," all of the guys said. The rest of us just nodded.

I was personally happy to walk outside at that point as it was warmer than inside the store. We were all still soaked though as we sat down in the vans.

For dinner that night we went to a pizza place where there was a buffet. We ate quietly for the most part at first, but everyone started winding up quickly after that. Laughter filled the restaurant and everyone began to discuss going swimming at the hotel when we got back. I was among the really excited kids about that, it had looked like a really neat system of pools.

Soon after dinner we headed back for the hotel. When we got there we all split off into our rooms. I looked very forlornly at my swimming trunks – I wasn't allowed to wear a girls swimsuit. Amy came out of the bathroom in one of her swimming suits and I went in and changed myself. We all walked down to the pool together and started swimming.

After about 10 minutes Amy pulled me away and said, "Come with me." She led me up to the top of a path that was attached to the pool and was the source for a waterfall that fell to a series of jacuzzis that cascaded down to the main pool. We sat down in the warm water and just talked for about nothing for a few minutes before Nikki, Ashley, and Jennifer joined us.

I wasn't real happy when Jennifer joined us – she wasn't part of my inner circle of friends. I was feeling pretty torn about the swimsuit thing right now. I knew I didn't have anything that I needed to hide on my chest (yet!), but it still seemed weird. There was a lot of tension within me about this one, but I didn't want to talk about it with Jennifer there now.

"Brandon?" Jennifer was talking to me.

"Yes?"

"Umm… I noticed something earlier… and wondered if I could ask you a question, a kind of personal question…"

I had a bad feeling that this was leading towards the obvious question… But they were going to find out sometime or another. "Umm… I'll answer it, but if it's what I'm thinking of I'd prefer you keep my answer a secret."

"I promise. I was just wondering why you had on a girls shirt today?"

"What do you mean?"

"I have that exact same shirt – I almost wore it today but decided to save it for another day. And then there's your haircut, I would love to have it myself – but it's definitely not a boys style…"

Yep, she had something figured out. "You're sure you can keep a secret?" I asked.

"Yes you'd better keep this secret," Amy and Nikki both stated looking like a pack of hyenas.

"I promise, but what's going on?" She was smart but hadn't figure it all out.

"Well Jennifer, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a boy." I told her.

"That's ridiculous, you have boy parts right?" She asked. I loved the juvenile way she asked that question.

"For now, though I hope to deal with those in time. Look, I have what they now call gender-identity disorder. My body doesn't match up with what I feel I should be…" I replied.

She interrupted, "So… that's weird… but that's okay. You all already knew?" She asked Nikki, Amy, and Ashley.

They all nodded, with Amy saying, "I'd suspected for a long time. Brandon has been over at my house for most of the year. I've probably known longer than he has."

"You don't go by Brandon when you're a girl do you?" She asked.

"No. My name is Tiffany when I'm a girl. So… what are you going to do?" I asked nervously.

"What do you mean?"

"Well you know my secret now, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to keep your secret. It's weird, but I'd still like to be your friend if you'd let me." Jennifer said sincerely.

"Thanks Jennifer."

"So does that mean I can call you Tiffany now?"

"Sure, just make sure no one except…" I listed all of the names off, "are around."

"That many people know?" She asked, surprised.

"Well most of the girls found out when we had Amy's slumber party." I replied.

"Actually I think Nikki and Ashley had figured out before hand during the Barbie project too." Amy added.

"So Tiffany, why did you come on this trip as Brandon?"

"The adults all decided it would cause too many problems." I replied.

"But they're letting you wear some girls clothing?" She asked.

I explained the guidelines that they had decided for me. We then chatted about a good many other things before I heard someone coming up the trail to where we were.

"There you all are!" Ms. Fitz said. "We wondered where you all had gotten off to. It's time to go ahead and head inside alright? We need to get an early start tomorrow morning!" She ushered us back down the trail and up to our rooms to go to bed.

As we split off Jennifer said, "Good night Tiffany."

I looked back at her and said, "Goodnight, and thanks!" I said with a smile.

See I could have come dressed as Tiffany! I knew that while that meant I had almost all of the girls on my side, I couldn't necessarily say that the boys reaction would have been okay though. Once Amy and I were back in the room we were ushered into the shower one at a time so that we could skip that step in the morning. I went first since I really wanted to get into my pajamas – because of course they were thankfully girl pajamas.

10 minutes later I was brushing my hair out while Amy was in the bathroom when I heard a knock at the door. Amy's parents were out somewhere so I decided to go ahead and answer the door. When I looked through the peephole I saw it was my mom.

"How are you holding up sweetie?" She asked me.

"Well I wish I could be me on this trip…" I told her.

"I know sweetie, know that it won't be too long until you're able to be yourself." She told me soothingly. She grabbed my hairbrush out of my hand and began brushing it out for me. I was pretty much purring when Amy came out and sat down on the other side of the bed. Her parents came in a second later and she held her own hairbrush out to her mom.

A while later as my mom had declared herself tired of brushing my hair we heard another knock at the door. It was Ms. Fitz this time. "You both look cute," she told us as she came in. She explained a few things with our destinations the next day, and then we were both told it was time for bed.

This was a new first in the level of trust… we were both allowed to go ahead and share the other bed in the room. Not that anything was going to happen, but it really did help reassert the fact that they believed that I was indeed a girl. Before going to bed we both got a stuffed animal out of our bags for sleeping with.

The last thing I remember for that day was Melanie saying, "Good night girls."

Chapter 57:

The next morning we were prodded out of bed and pushed to an area where they had a continental breakfast for us. We each had a bag with us this morning that had our swimsuits in them since we were going to go to the beach when we got done with going to Space Camp and Kennedy Space Center.

That day I had dressed in a pair of girls shorts and a guys shirt that could have been a girls. It was actually the ski resort shirt that Amy's parents had bought me on that trip. Essentially there really was no way that someone could tell I was a boy today. Amy and I had both used a black ponytail holder to put our hair up that morning – we were both far too tired to do more.

We all gathered together in the lobby when we were done eating to board the bus that would be taking us everywhere now. It was awesome getting on this bus – it had TV's, comfortable seats that leaned back, and even had a bathroom! The bus driver was also really cool and we all settled in for the drive pretty quickly.

I'll be honest, this was the part of the trip that I had been looking forward to the most. I had wanted to go to space camp for several summers since I had learned about it. My parents could never possibly afford to send me though. This would be my chance to see everything they had there.

The first part of our tour allowed several of us to try some equipment that let us experience how inertia could send us out of control very easily. It was actually a lot of fun. Amy and Kyle both tried out another simulator that let you feel what a flat spin would be like. I had no desire to go on that one and get sick!

We were shown a bunch of different science experiments and given a short tour of a shuttle mockup that the space camp attendees were able to run shuttle missions through. I was really disappointed that none of us were able to give that one a try.

After a long tour that I found to be a blast we were shown to another shuttle simulator that gave us a tour of an idea of a passenger version of the space shuttle. It was a neat experience that concluded our tour. When we went into the store I looked around for some stuff to take home as souvenirs.

I ended up picking up a girls t-shirt and a couple postcards to take home. I also couldn't resist the freeze dried ice cream. Amy and Nikki both followed my lead on those items before we all went to find a bathroom. Once again I felt some strange looks on my back as I went into the boys' bathroom. I really wished I could just use the girls!

We left from there a little while later and drove over to Kennedy Space Center. At Kennedy we were given a science demonstration with things like the shuttle's tiles and a blow torch among other things. From there we got to go on a tour of their museum – seeing some really cool things like the command modules and space suits.

At that point we were led to the outdoor area where the rocket garden was located. That was honestly really cool and we all just kind of wondered around aimlessly for a bit. Our last structured stop at Kennedy before lunch was to the memorial for fallen astronauts. Even at such a young age I think we were all affected by the gravity of the memorial. I definitely felt like those astronauts deserved to have their names memorialized for their efforts to bring us to space.

By that point all of our stomachs were seriously growling by the time we were taken to a café to eat a lunch of burgers or hot dogs. Amy and I ate quickly so we could grab a cup of "space dots" for dessert before going to see an Imax film on a shuttle launch. Let me tell you, the Imax film was probably one of the cooler moments of the visit – even though I wasn't expecting it to be as cool as it was. The huge screen combined with the huge sound was a great way to experience a shuttle launch!

We had about 30 minutes inside the gift shop there where we all bought a couple things. I purchased a couple patches, some pencils and pens, and a few more postcards. I had my eyes on one of the space pens that you could write with upside down, but my parents talked me out of that purchase. We ended up leaving Kennedy at about 2:30 for Cocoa Beach.

It felt like a long drive, though it really wasn't more than about 40 minutes. In the meantime I gabbed with Amy and Jennifer. As the day had gone on I wondered why I had never gotten to know Jennifer. She really was a lot of fun. When we pulled up to the beach our teachers led us to a set of bathrooms we could change into our swimsuits real quick. Actually it was pretty much only the boys that needed to change as most of the girls had worn their suits underneath their clothes.

I actually kind of cheated – I changed in the bathroom on the bus real quick when we got on. Personally I hated all of the stares I kept getting whenever I went to the bathroom. I was probably honestly drawing more attention to myself by going in the boys room than going in the girls restroom. That meant I was able to go straight down to the beach with Amy and the girls.

All of us were commanded to put sunscreen on, and told we would need to get out of the water in an hour and a half. That would then give us a little bit of time to go through Ron Jon's. It was about 3:15 or so at the point we entered the water – and the beach wasn't busy at all.

As I got in the water I found it truly amazing! The water was so warm, salty, and made me float more than I had in swimming pools. I enjoyed swimming in the water and went a little farther out after a bit. Someone had brought a beach ball that we started tossing back and forth at one point.

After a while we all kind of got tired and just floated around and talked.

"So Amy what are you doing the rest of the summer?" Ashley asked.

"Well I'm going to go to a cheerleading camp in California in a couple weeks. I'm hoping to get some experience before we start the school camp a few weeks later." She told her.

"I wish I could go with you," Lindsey said. The other girls that were around all agreed too.

"How about you Nikki?" Lindsey asked.

"Well there's a music camp that my parents want to send me to in like three weeks. I've heard it is fun. We'll see though."

Nikki looked around for a second and then asked, "Tiffany what are you doing after this?"

"I haven't really made it that far. I'm just looking forward to being myself when we get back I guess. Really I've been planning for this trip so long I haven't made it much past it…. I do know I'm going to have a lot of doctor's appointments when we get back."

We moved on to each person, and soon after we were finished were told to go ahead and start heading towards the shore to go shopping at Ron Jon's.

We were first led to some outdoor showers, and then I put on a shirt over my chest so that I didn't look quite so out of place. I actually also quickly changed back into my normal shorts in the bathroom. Once I was dressed I went quickly to meet back up with everyone going into Ron Jon's.

It was an incredibly cool store. I really can't do it justice in words. They had so many cool things all over the place in the store. In particular I saw a couple of swimsuits that I desperately wanted. I whispered them to my mom – but I didn't think she would do anything about it in all honesty. I did buy a key chain and a few post cards there. One of the guys bought a waveboard thing – how he was going to get it back home I wasn't sure.

I had already spent more in those few things than I could have imagined spending on a regular basis. I guess I was kind of holding out for the Disney parks at this point. Amy and I walked through the aisles pointing to this or that before we were all ushered out to the bus. It was 6pm by the time we pulled away from the beach and headed for dinner.

We pulled up to a 50's style restaurant about 10 minutes later. I sat down at a table with Amy, our parents, Nikki, and the 2 teachers.

We had been sitting for a couple moments when the waiter came by and asked the adults, "Does she need a booster seat?" indicating Nikki.

Amy and I couldn't help it – we giggled.

Nikki replied, "sure." I was a little shocked.

"Why did you say yes?" Amy asked.

"I get one at a lot of restaurants. I mean look. I have to put my arms at my shoulder level to eat at this point. I don't have a problem with it." She amazingly didn't look embarrassed.

"Neither do we," I replied. "I'm sorry if I laughed though… it was kind of funny…" I said sullenly.

"Yes it was." Nikki replied. "We should have asked for one for you though too Tiff." She said giggling just before the waiter came back with it. I stuck my tongue out at her. Truthfully she did look a lot more comfortable sitting that way – it was just kind of strange.

"So are you girls having fun?" Ms. Fitz asked us.

"Yes," the three of us answered in unison.

"What was your favorite part today?" She asked us.

Amy answered first, "The Beach. I love the water."

Nikki said, "Ron Jon's was great."

"I think it was Space Camp, I've wanted to go there for a while now," I replied to her.

"I'm glad to hear you guys all had something you liked today."

We moved on conversation wise to what we were going to eat. The waiter soon came around and asked me, "and you young lady?"

"A strawberry shake first – and a bacon cheeseburger with fries please." I replied. I was pleased that he had called me a lady - even though I definitely ordered a non-lady like meal. As he took Amy's order next to me I noticed that Kyle – sitting at a table across from us – seemed to stare at me for a moment. I wondered if he had heard the waiter refer to me as a lady? Nothing wrong with that I figured.

I whispered to Amy, "I think Kyle heard me being called a lady. He just looked at me kind of strange."

"What's he going to say? It's not like you introduced yourself as Tiffany to him. He just assumed that you were a girl – Kyle shouldn't be a problem Tiff," she whispered back to me.

"I hope not," I replied to her. Our shakes came shortly after that and my mind went solely to eating that. Every once in a while I swore I saw Kyle staring at me, but I decided I must have just been going nuts. Food came and went from there, and before I knew it we were heading back onto the bus to go to the hotel.

The bus driver put on a movie while we were going back – that was incredibly cool! – and I actually must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing I knew Amy was poking me and telling me to wake up.

"Why'd you go to sleep?" Amy asked me.

"I went to sleep?" I inquired sleepily.

"Duh! Come on, we're supposed to go to our rooms and get ready for bed. They said that we can stay up a bit later, but they want us in the rooms." She prodded me to grab my stuff and we went to the room. As soon as I got in there I woke up and started getting hyper. I could actually change back into my girls pajamas!

I had been asleep up until the door was open – it was amazing because immediately after that I grabbed my pajamas and ran into the bathroom to change. I came out smiling with a huge grin and hopped onto the bed nearly knocking Amy, who was sitting on the edge, off.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry… just a little excited." I replied sheepishly.

"What's gotten into you?" Amy's mom asked.

"I hate having to be Brandon… I feel so scared every time that I go into a bathroom that someone's going to ask why that 'girl' is going into the boys bathroom? I get stared at every time. If it wasn't for the fact that I've been going in with my dad I think some people would have commented… or worse…" I told her. A lot of my fears were being stated for the first time tonight.

She came over and hugged me. "Look Tiffany, let me go get your parents and let's talk about this okay?" She said. She looked at me as if she was concerned I was going to cry, but something was keeping me from doing that. I'm still not sure what.

I just kind of sat looking off into space for a moment when I heard the door open and close again with my parents, Amy's Mom, and Ms. Fitz into the room.

Mom came over to me and gave me a hug, dad did the same. "What's going on?" Mom asked.

"Well, Tiffany was just talking to me about a concern that she's had – and I'm frankly kind of worried about." Amy's mom started off.

"Actually when she vocalized it a little bit ago I realized I had been kind of concerned about this today too." Her dad added.

My parents looked really worried, and Ms. Fitz didn't look like she was looking forward to this next part either. "Tiffany, why don't you tell them what you told us?" Amy's mom asked sweetly.

"I'm worried… Every time I go to the bathroom I'm afraid that someone is going to comment, or jump me asking why this girl is in the boys room. Even dressed as a boy everyone is assuming I'm a girl. If it wasn't for the fact that people could tell that I entered with you, daddy, I'm sure there were some boys earlier today that were going to make fun of me…"

My dad responded first, "Actually, kind of like Greg, I'd been noticing this too. I've been trying to keep an eye on you Tiff, but I think this is something we need to address."

"How?" I asked. I was staying calm… I was amazed by that.

"Well why don't we go one day at a time with that?" My mom suggested.

"…Okay… What do we do tomorrow then?" I asked.

"Well tomorrow morning is Discovery Island, it shouldn't be a big deal since we'll be in a group by ourselves," Ms. Fitz answered. "So there shouldn't be any of those issues that we're worried about. We can just keep it as status quo there."

"And the afternoon?" I asked. It was at this point I noticed mom had a shopping bag with her.

"Well how about wearing this?" She asked showing me one of the swimsuits I had pointed out earlier.

"Really?" I asked. "… but what about everyone else?"

Ms. Fitz answered first, "Why don't you wear it underneath your clothes tomorrow. It may be kind of difficult to deal with in the bathroom in the morning, but that way you can just pull your shorts and t-shirt off when a few of the girls that know about you, and you go off somewhere and enjoy yourselves."

"If for whatever reason you run into a person of our group who doesn't know you can probably hide behind the other girls. It could get dicey, but if you're going to come to school next year as Tiffany anyway there's not a whole lot to lose at this point. I think some of the kids that don't know are already starting to pick up some stuff anyway." She finished.

"It's up to you though Tiffany. What do you want to do?" Mom asked me.

Was that a simple yet completely scary question or what?

I looked at Amy, "do you think we can pull it off?"

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if someone sees us… but if we're careful we can probably make it work." She replied.

"Okay then, I guess Tiffany will be going to Typhoon Lagoon tomorrow." I replied.

  

  

  

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