Chapter 10:

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

We were all dressed identically, both the guys and girls, when we got on the bus. Everyone had on black slacks, white button up shirt, black bow tie, and a dark blue vest. A couple students had complained about the uniform, but everyone was wearing it since Mrs. Remar wouldn't let you go if you didn't. And, when someone made the mistake of saying they didn't care, everyone learned that if you didn't go you had to do a huge research paper to make up the grade. There weren't any complaints after that!

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

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we're getting close to the school where we're going to perform. There are a few things that we need to take care of before we get there though. When we get off of the bus everyone must have their shirt tucked in and their bow ties on. No one will get off the bus until I tell you to do so though." She said sternly.

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

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

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

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

"Umm... I guess if I have to?"

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

"Okay Mrs. Remar," Nikki said.

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

"Yes," I replied.

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

"Here," Jessica said as she handed me a mirror. I looked at myself and couldn't tell the difference between me and the girls on the bus. The best thing was that it wasn't even my own idea! They had even tied it up really high in a girl's style. Could life get any better?

"You look cute." Nikki said.

"Umm... Thanks." I replied.

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

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

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

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

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

I didn't really have much time to ponder any of that when we got there. She let us have a quick three minute trip to the bathroom. I made sure that I was in and out before any of the boys from other schools even had a chance to think about a girl going in the boy's room. Then we had to get our instruments out. Once we had our instruments out of the cases we all lined up to go inside the warm-up room.

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

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

I can't say that it was a performance to mark the calendars with, but we managed to stay together to the end, and for the most part there was a melody... From there we went to another area where we took a group picture and were given the option to purchase the photograph. My Mom, who had driven the other bus that had the top group of the middle school band in it, appeared at that point. She looked around for a second before she saw where I was standing within the group of girls I was talking to.

"Brandon do you want a picture?"

"Yes, if we can." I replied. I suddenly remembered my hair, which would be in the picture!

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

"Nice job sweetie, you guys played really well!" She gave me a sideways hug at that point. Then she looked around to make sure no one else was around, "I like your hair this way, it's cute!" She gave me a wink and batted the back of my hair like a cat would a toy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I noticed she still had hers in though, "Yours is still in. Do you think I should?"

"Well, I'm afraid Mrs. Remar might get mad if I take it out now since she didn't say we could." She said.

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

We talked about different things for a while. When we finished eating I noticed that we still had thirty minutes left. "What do you guys want to do now?" I asked.

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

"The toy store?" I asked.

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

"Sure," Nikki said.

"Why not?" I replied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Coming right up Miss." I almost rolled my eyes. But, I really couldn't blame her since I was with two girls with identical hair and clothes basically... "Here you go," she said over the giggles behind me.

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

"Back there?" I suggested.

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

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

"Umm... yeah..."

"Well, we're on the way back now!"

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

"There, all done," Ashley said.

"How cute," Nikki said.

"Time to take some pictures," Jessica said.

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

"We should all put our hair up like that and take some more pictures!" Ashley exclaimed.

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

Ten minutes later and the three of them had their hair the same way. There were actually three other girls that did it too after seeing them having so much fun with me. One of the sponsors used Jessica's camera and took pictures of the seven of us like that. Mrs. Remar came back and got into the picture for a couple of them too. During the last photo we held up the two plaques that we had earned that day.

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

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

Before I had too much time to worry about it we arrived back at the school. School was over when we returned, but instead of getting a ride directly home like every other kid I was going to have to ride my Mom's bus back to the bus yard. Once everything was unloaded the two of us left.

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

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

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

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

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

I wasn't so sure, and for the remainder of the drive to the bus yard and to home I was completely nervous. What would he say? I would be so much better off taking them out. We got home and I walked through the door. My dad saw me, saying "Well that's different. I guess the girls had some fun with you today?"

"Something like that."

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

I laughed politely, and as soon as I finished telling him about my day excused myself to go take a shower. I decided just to change into my pajamas since they were more comfortable than anything else. I was pretty sure that we weren't going anywhere else that day anyway. After all of that I decided to call Amy and tell her about my day – I was really excited that we had received the ratings we had.

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

Dad picked up some fast food for us to eat for dinner that night. The rest of the night I just found myself just vegging out. I went to bed with a little more comfort in my desire to be a girl. After all, my parents hadn't completely freaked out when their son came home looking like a daughter!

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