Chapter 18:

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

I honestly didn't care. I was Amy's best friend; of course she was going to invite me! Besides I was a girl too... they just didn't know that yet.

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

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

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

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

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

We got there at 1:45 and I went in to find Amy working on some decorations. Mom talked with Mrs. Hancock for a minute and offered to help out with the sleepover. Mrs. Hancock told her she had everything covered, so Mom went ahead and left a few minutes later.

"Hey Brandon set your sleeping bag up in the living room, and then come help me out over here okay?" Amy said as she left.

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

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

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

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

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

"Sounds like fun." I replied.

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

"What?"

"Before tonight starts I want to promise you that no matter what goes on tonight you can trust the girls that are here." I got a little nervous, 'what did she mean by that?' I asked myself. 'On one hand I was reassured that she thought I could trust them... but why would I need to trust them?'

"Even Lindsey and Amber?" I asked as I tried to figure it out in my head.

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

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

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

"Like?" I asked while thinking to myself, 'This must have been what she was talking about?'

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

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

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

"That's fine... I'm honored..." I added the last bit while really trying not to tear up. I couldn't think of anything else I could possibly say to thank her.

"Brandon, you really are my best friend in the whole world." She said while giving me a quick hug.

"And you're definitely mine." I replied, hugging her back.

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

For the next twenty minutes we set up her new dollhouse and a couple others into a 'neighborhood.' At 3:50 her mom came upstairs to find us.

"So Brandon, how was the last day of school?" She hadn't really talked to me much as I'd come in as she'd been distracted by my mom.

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

"I agree, it's the beginning of summer, what could go wrong with that?" Amy asked.

"Well, I'm going to work on setting up the scavenger hunt, okay?"

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

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

"Okay," Amy said.

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

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

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

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

We all nodded.

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

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

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

We all nodded.

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

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

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

"Everyone ready? Then one-two-three, Go!" She said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Neither can I." I replied.

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

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

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

"Yeah," the other girls all insisted. "That would be so cool!" one of the girls said. Amy just nodded her head – I could tell she was being careful.

"Well... If I do this you can't tell anyone about this, okay?" I said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Thanks Mrs. Hancock, it's really cute!" Nikki said.

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

Everyone agreed with this plan, bringing their two Barbies up to her playroom. Ashley and Nikki both commented on how the doll houses that they received were all identical. I did notice for the first time though that they had sent some different furniture sets to Amy than I had gotten.

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

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

"So you got one too?" Nikki asked.

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

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

"Thanks" I replied.

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

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

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

"Umm... Okay... Like what?"

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

Amy said, "Ooh I like that! How about it?"

"What do you think of Tiffany?" Nikki asked.

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

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

"What now?" Amber asked Amy.

"How about Twister?" Amy suggested.

Everyone chimed in their agreement and we played twister for half an hour. Now I was actually pretty limber for a boy. I'd always been able to stretch really far, and ever since I'd realized I wanted to be a girl, I'd been trying to learn how to do the splits. I pretty much had them down. That being said, I wasn't even close to being as flexible as Amy and a couple of the other girls were, so I was usually the first one out in the four games we played. I did manage to get into third place on the last game. Her mom had been on the side taking more pictures during that game, and I wondered just how freaky I looked in some of those awkward poses!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Okay! C'mon Tiff, this is going to be fun!" Amy said.

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

It was actually really impressive.

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

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

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

"What's next?" I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Yes... I think." I replied.

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

"Maybe... sometime... Just not tonight though." I said.

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

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

"What are we watching?" I asked Amy.

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

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

"Nope," I said.

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

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

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

"Yes Tiff?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime." She replied.

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

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