Chapter 23:

I DRAGGED MYSELF out of bed at 9am the next morning. I got in the shower and Mom helped me do my hair when I got out, since I wasn't quite sure how to take care of this new style. I then helped Mom pack for all of us. I was so 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 two extra shirts, shorts, and one pair of extra jeans.

I also spent some of the morning packing my backpack – it was going with me on the plane – with different things. I had my Game Boy, several games, a couple books, a Barbie (I told them no one else would see it!), a coloring book Mom had bought me along with some crayons. She had bought two 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 finished packing about 12:30 and sat down together to eat 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, "Joe, we should take some of these with us today for your 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..." she said clearly hesitating before continuing, "your Grandmother is anxious to see you." She finished. 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.

"Thirty 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 than thirty!" I told him.

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

"Just look at 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 then, 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 outburst...

"Thank you Daddy," I said and hugged him before running to my room. I decided to wear a sundress we had bought Monday that I hadn't worn yet. Once I had that on I put on a pair of sandals and went into the bathroom. That morning had caused my hair to have a mind of it's own in certain spots. I worked on fixing all of those spots to make things perfect.

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. Besides, Mom didn't seem so thrilled with her eleven 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. Shali wanted to sit on my lap while we were driving, but I didn't want her messing up my dress. I figured she could deal with sitting on the seat – of course then she begged to sit on my dad's lap up front! The forty minute drive seemed to pass 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. 'I guess their opinion matters more,' I thought to myself as I stared out the window at the passing scenery.

We pulled up the long driveway to their house, and drove up underneath a tree next to their house. Both of them were sitting on a porch swing on their patio. 'Well here goes nothing,' I thought to myself. I climbed out of the car – letting Shali race ahead of me first – and walked up to them.

Grandma came down from the porch first and hugged me before holding my shoulders at 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. It was obvious that he did not approve of this, but he said he still loved me – at least I wasn't being disowned.

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

Grandma took back control of me now, looking at my hair. "Sweetie your hair is absolutely adorable!"

"I went with my best friend Amy 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. Meanwhile Grandma offered coffee and iced tea to everyone.

"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.

"You're welcome, sweetheart," he told me as he put his arm around me and gave me a hug. I could smell his cologne and feel the whiskers from his face scratch me a bit when he did this. Grandpa sat back down at his chair at the head of the kitchen table, and I reflected on how he definitely had a change in the way he acted towards me from that moment on.

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 eight since we leave so early tomorrow." I looked at the car clock and saw that it was already five o'clock. "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 pick up 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 two 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 girl's 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 ten 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 fanny 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 ofadventures we were sure to have in Florida.

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