Chapter 21:

THE NEXT DAY I woke up because I heard Dad getting ready for work. I tried to go back to sleep but no matter what I tried I was still awake. At 8:30, after thirty minutes of trying I finally got out of bed and went to the kitchen for something to eat. As I walked into the kitchen, I heard Mom 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 Ten... 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 girl friends 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 Tiffany at ten o'clock to discuss what's going on."

"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 eight. 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 kindergarten...

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 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 have to leave?"

"We've got about twenty 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." I realized that I had been staring for an awfully long time at that point! 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 compromises 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 Mrs. 'Fitz' two years ago, but had 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 people outside of my parents and Amy's family to know 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. You look very lovely." 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 five of the girls will be fine with me – we had a sleepover last Friday... So at the very least I'd have five people that I could hang out with."

"That may be true, but I'm even 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 his or her 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 her 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. Please 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 because your secret got out."

"I'm not upset," I replied. 'I had no idea she'd thought I was a girl that long 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 just in case..."

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 around 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." I added the last part as a polite afterthought.

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 put two 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 twenty minutes on how rooms were going to be affected and who was rooming with whom.

We 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.

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

Please press the Like Button Above! Comments are also appreciated!