Chapter 6:

WHEN I CAME out of shock I ran through a checklist in my brain about how my body felt. It really didn't feel like anything was seriously injured, but I didn't get up right away because it just seemed like too much work at that moment...

"Miss, are you okay?" I turned my head to see a ski patrolman standing next to me.

"Umm..." miss? Well, I didn't want to seem like a freak so I decided not to correct him. "Yeah, I just decided it was more comfortable on the ground." I said with a slight chuckle that sounded a lot more like a giggle. I got up from the ground and walked a few steps. "Yep, nothings broken except my pride."

I looked down the hill and saw Amy walking up the slope to me. She was almost up to where I was. In the meantime the patrolman was nice enough to recover my skis for me. "Are you alright?" Amy asked me.

"Yeah, like I told him, nothing's hurt other than maybe a little pride. But at least it was a pretty spectacular dive!" I said with a wry smile.

The patrolman said, "It was a pretty good one. I was worried that you were actually hurt from that one. Well, since you're not, I'll leave you two ladies to continue. Have a good day."

Amy stood with a bemused expression on her face. "You know Brandon we could have some fun with this..."

"Umm... let's just worry about me not killing myself the rest of the day!" I said laughing.

"Oh alright, you're no fun!" She replied. "But we need to fix your hair real quick, your headband is really crooked now!" She did that and we started down the slope again.

Fortunately for me there weren't any other mogul sections on that trail and we had a pretty uneventful trip back down the slope. As I skied down the slope I was deep in thought about the day so far. On one hand part of me was screaming, 'YES! YES! YES!' I mean, I wanted to be a girl, I should be happy that I'd been referred as such two times that day right?

On the other side I had a healthy dose of fear. What would Amy say if she knew I wanted to be a girl? What would her parents say? What would my parents say? And obviously what would the kids at school say?

We got down to the bottom and Amy looked at me curiously. "Brandon, don't worry about them calling you a girl, it's not a bad thing. I personally don't care what they call you; you'll be my best friend no matter what. Plus, no one from school would care if they saw you here today. And, my parents both really like you and they don't care what you look like either."

"Best friend? Really?" I asked. I heard all of what she said, but my brain got suddenly stuck on that part.

"Yes, you really are my best friend Brandon. I know I haven't ever come out and said it to you, but I've said it to my mom plenty of times." We put our skis in a ski rack and walked into the lodge at the base of the mountain. She found a couple chairs by the fireplace that we could sit in for a few minutes while we kept talking. The rest of the room was pretty vacant.

"Brandon, I talk to you over the phone more than anyone else. I tell you more than I tell anyone else, you really are my best friend, and I'm not just saying that." She told me.

I knew without a doubt that she meant it and that I could trust her probably more than any other person on the planet. "Thanks Amy, you are definitely my best friend too. I just never realized that you felt that way about me as well. It's kind of strange though isn't it, a guy and a girl being best friends, but not having any interest in dating each other?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is that I really don't care one way or another as long as you don't." She said.

"I certainly don't, I couldn't think of a better person to have as a best friend myself." I said.

"Well, now that we have that settled are you a little more okay about the comments?"

"I guess. I just hope that no one from school sees me wearing a headband. I'd hate to have to endure one more thing at school." I said.

"You'll be fine Brandon, you've been doing so much better at dealing with them that I don't honestly think it would be worth their time. Besides, I'd help you out if something were to happen, okay?"

"Okay." I sat there for a brief moment before asking, "Do you know where the bathroom is? I really need to go."

"Yeah, I'll show you. I really need to go too!"

We walked down a hallway and found a set of restrooms. I half hesitated when I went into the men's room... I hoped no one freaked out and thought I was a girl going in the boy's room... Thankfully the restroom was empty when I went into it, and I came out without anyone seeing me. I waited for Amy outside of the restroom and she emerged shortly.

"Ready to go back up?" She asked.

"Yeah. Do we have time for another run?" I asked looking at my watch. It read 3:30.

"We should if we hurry and take one of the easier green trails that we can go faster on." I nodded and we hurried off to grab our skis and go on up the chair lift.

There was a different guy at the bottom of the lift and he said, "Have a good run, ladies."

I couldn't believe it... Maybe my plan could actually work. Amy was pretty accepting of me at this moment. I was beginning to think that she would be if I ever told her the truth too. I just didn't know if I could do that yet... I decided it didn't matter right now. The important thing was to have fun with my new best friend – or at least my newly announced best friend.

We got to the top and Amy said, "Let's try not to kill you again okay? I want to go shopping once we're done with this run!"

I said, "I'd certainly like to stay in one piece too, so I'll go for that plan." With that we began down the slope. Thankfully this time we didn't have any more acrobatics from me, and we made it down to the spot we were supposed to meet her parents at 4:20. We thought we might beat them, but they were already sitting there drinking coffee.

"How did your day go guys?" Mrs. Hancock asked.

Amy answered first, "Well other than Brandon trying to kill himself on some moguls not much!" She said with a wink.

"You had a decent spill huh?" Mr. Hancock asked.

"I think it looked pretty impressive. I wasn't hurt, but I definitely tumbled head over heels a couple times. I had fun though!" I said grinning.

I could tell that they decided it must not have been a big deal by the way their faces relaxed a bit.

"Well what do you want to do now?" Amy asked her parents.

"Why don't we go down into town and go shopping on Main Street. Then we've got reservations at a restaurant for 6:30pm. Does that sound alright?" her mom asked.

We both nodded. "Okay then, let's put the skis up on the rack and get going!" her dad said.

We got everything loaded up and sat down in her parent's car. As we were leaving I reached up to scratch my head and felt the headband still in my hair... Oh no!

I had intended to take that out before her parents saw me with it... I decided to do damage control and just go ahead and take it off. Amy saw what I was doing and grabbed it as I passed it to her. She then discreetly put it back in her bag. Her parents didn't say anything about it, so I decided they must not have noticed.

We talked non-stop with each other on the way down to town. It was a kind of long drive, about thirty minutes, but it was pretty with all of the snow on the trees and an occasional frozen pond here and there. My favorite thing though was when you would see a waterfall off to the side, because they were frozen! When we got to town we found a parking space and started walking around the various tourist shops that were on the street. I just kind of followed Amy around blindly. I wasn't really looking at anything for myself since I didn't really have any money to buy anything.

We went from one store to the next, with no one really finding anything to buy. After a bit we came to an Indian craft store. I wasn't really into the whole Indian thing, neither were they, but even if you're not into their dolls and such you have to admit the craftsmanship is top notch, especially their silversmithing. Amy's mom was taking a really close look at some of the necklaces.

Amy and I were kind of bored with that store and she suggested, "Hey, why don't we wait outside for her?"

I shrugged and said, "Okay."

So we waited outside on a bench by the store. Her parents came out about five minutes later and her mom said, "Okay, let's go ahead and head to the restaurant."

Both of us nodded vigorously since we were starving. We walked down about a block to the restaurant and saw instantly that it had been a good idea to have reservations. There was a line of people inside and outside the restaurant. If we hadn't had the reservations we would have had an hour-and-a-half wait, that's what I heard a hostess telling some people behind us at least.

We were seated fairly quickly and I discovered we were in the nicest restaurant I had ever been in. Every table had a cloth table cloth, cloth napkins, crystal glasses, and the inside was very nicely decorated. I wondered if I would even be able to afford an appetizer inside this place. After we were seated and the menus were given to us her dad said to me, "Brandon order whatever you want, it's our treat, and don't worry about the prices."

The waiter came by and asked, "What can I get you to drink?"

"Iced tea?" I replied. 'Do places like this have iced tea?' I asked myself.

"Great," he replied. He then took the rest of the table's drink orders as well. Amy also ordered an iced tea, and her parents ordered water and wine to go with their meal.

I briefly wondered if they had a kids menu (not that my appetite was that small,) but quickly decided if Amy wasn't asking that then there must not have been. The menu featured 'fine Italian' cuisine, and I quickly discovered I couldn't pronounce – let alone understand – what half the dishes were.

"Amy, what are you getting?" I asked. She was more used to this and would probably be able to help me I figured.

"Probably the scaloppini di pollo." She said.

I scanned down to that part of the menu and decided that sounded good. "That sounds good."

A few minutes later the waiter came back with our drinks and took our orders. Her dad started off saying that we wanted an order of calamari to begin with. Then her parents ordered before the waiter took Amy's and my orders. I decided to go with the Scaloppini (whatever that really was) as well since it seemed like a safe bet. It also appeared to be one of the cheapest dishes at only twenty-seven dollars.

Our dinner came with a small salad that I found myself enjoying. The 'Calamari' came out then as well. I had no idea what it was, so I had no preconceptions. I found that I was enjoying it thoroughly.

Amy looked amused about something, "Brandon, so you're enjoying the squid?"

"The what?" I asked.

"The squid, that's what calamari is." She said giggling.

I couldn't decide whether or not to be horrified, not believe her, or just say yes. In a split second I said the polite answer, "Yes, actually it's pretty good." I ate some more then to decide whether or not I actually liked it or not, now that I knew what it was. I decided I did like it.

From there our meal came out. I was glad to see it wasn't some exotic, inedible thing. I cut up a piece of the meat and discovered it tasted really good. That night during dinner I didn't talk a whole lot. I was fairly tired and out of my element so I sat quietly enjoying my meal.

I became full very quickly – I figure I'd eaten a third of the dish and found myself wondering how her family felt about leaving food on the plate. Thankfully Amy's mom answered that question almost on cue again, "Brandon, don't worry if you can't eat it all, we'll take the rest back for tomorrow." I was relieved at that, especially when Amy's dad spoke to the waiter and ordered two desserts for the table.

When the dessert arrived we each took a small piece of it. The first dessert he ordered was something called tiramisu. I decided I had never tasted anything that good before. It had such a wonderful creamy flavor with the bits of cakelike stuff inside. He also ordered a slice of chocolate mousse cake, something I liked, but not as well as the tiramisu.

"So Brandon, did you enjoy your meal?" Mr. Hancock asked me.

"Yes, it was wonderful Mr. Hancock! Thank you again so much for bringing me this weekend. I don't think I've ever had this much fun." I replied with what I perceived as a giant smile on my face.

"Well we'll have to have you join us again next fall when we come back up here. The slopes close next weekend so it'll have to wait till then." He told me.

"I look forward to it!" I said just as happy.

With that Amy and I chatted about a whole lot of stuff for a few minutes while he paid the check. As a group we walked back down the street to the car and headed back up to the condo. I must have really been exhausted because the next thing I remember was us pulling into the driveway.

I noticed Amy also looked like she was waking up. "Well did you two enjoy your nap?" Mrs. Hancock asked us.

Amy grunted, "Uh-huh."

I replied saying "I guess. I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep."

We woke up enough to walk into the condo and sit down on the couch in front of their fireplace. I had been kind of tired before the nap, but now I was feeling awake again. I had a feeling that Amy and I would soon be hyper and bouncing off the walls again – something I'm sure her parents 'couldn't wait for.'

WE BOTH PLOPPED down on the couches and began talking to each other. As we sat there we both commented on how chilly it was inside the room. Amy said, "I bet my parents forgot to turn the heater up before we left."

"Brrr..." I said.

We quickly became distracted talking about other things though. A short while later her mom interrupted, "Before either of you get too comfortable, why don't you go change into your pajamas while we get a fire started?"

"Though not at the same time in the same room please." Her dad joked. I could tell he was actually joking this time though – something had changed in his attitude toward us.

"But Dad!" Amy joked back. We went upstairs and took turns in her bathroom changing into our pajamas. I had a set of blue flannel pajama bottoms and an old soccer shirt for a top. She, big surprise, came out wearing a set of satin Barbie pajamas. I was instantly very jealous of her – I wanted a pair of Barbie pajamas!

We both talked and joked around as we bounded back downstairs to the couch. Her dad had built a blazing fire in the fireplace that felt really good on our cold bodies. We bundled up in some blankets there and kept jabbering on. This time, we were talking about movies that were coming out that we hoped to see.

"I want to see the Sandra Bullock movie that's coming out in April. It sounds really cute." Amy said.

"I'd like to go see Apollo 13 when it comes out. I think it's going to be a really cool movie too."

We went on and on about that type of stuff. Her mom brought us mugs of hot chocolate at that point, and asked if we wanted to play a board game. I looked at Amy and she shrugged and said, "sure."

"Amy why don't you go pick something out real quick with Brandon?" Her mom suggested.

"Okay Mom, do you care what we play?" She asked.

"Just not Candyland please," her mom said teasingly, but it made me wonder – did she still like to play Candyland?

I followed Amy to a cabinet underneath the staircase where there were a lot of board games stashed. "Well what do you want to play," Amy asked me. I saw tons of games in the cabinet including some I had never heard of. A few of them were; Candyland (it looked well used), Monopoly, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, My Little Pony, something called Mall Madness, Trouble, Connect 4, and others. I had no idea what was good. It's kind of hard to play board games when you're an only child. I wasn't completely sure how Amy's family made it work. Maybe they just had friends over more often.

"I don't honestly know, except when I'm at my cousin's house I never really get to play board games. So I really don't know what's good, you pick something." I told her.

I thought she would argue with me on it, but a glint in her eye told me that she had something in mind already. She pulled out the game she had been wanting to play I guess, called 'Mall Madness.' "I love this game," she said.

I thought it looked totally like a girl's game – not that that bothered me, but I hoped they wouldn't say anything. We brought it back to the coffee table by the fireplace. Her mom looked at her and said, "I thought I told you both to pick out a game?"

"Mrs. Hancock I didn't know what was good so I told her just to pick something." I replied hoping to keep her from getting in trouble.

"Besides Mom, I didn't pick Candyland!" She said in an exasperated drama queen voice while rolling her eyes. I giggled a bit about this.

"Alright I guess, as long as Brandon doesn't mind. Let's get it set up since it does take a while." Her mom said.

She wasn't kidding. It probably took fifteen to twenty minutes for us to get the board and stuff set up. Soon after that though, the four of us were all having a great time. If you've never played this game I highly suggest that you do!

I was not surprised that Amy won the first game – she was like a card shark with her skills at the game. But, surprising to all of us, I won the second game! After the second game her mom seemed to notice that it was getting late and that we should be going to bed.

Mr. Hancock had already left the room to go upstairs when she said. "Well, you two need to get to bed so we can hit the slopes again tomorrow before they get crowded. Before you do that though, I bought something for the two of you that I thought you might enjoy since you've become such close friends this year." She handed us each a small box that had was tied shut by a ribbon with a bow on top.

We both opened our boxes at the same time and discovered a little jewelry box inside. When we opened them up we each found half a heart on a silver necklace chain. I noticed that the necklace was marked as being made of sterling silver as we both pulled ours out of the box to look at them.

"Brandon, if you consider it too girly I won't be hurt if you don't wear it. But I got a long enough chain no one should be able to see it under your shirt if you don't want them to see it. I thought it could be at least a symbol of your friendship and a souvenir from this trip."

I sat stunned, this seemed like a wonderful gift, but did this mean she knew I wanted to be a girl? Perhaps, perhaps not. I was always taught not to look a gift horse in the mouth, and said, "It's a great gift, thank you Mrs. Hancock." I stood up and gave her a hug to emphasize my appreciation.

"Well then, if you're both in agreement then you need to make a pinky promise to each other of some sort and then put them on each other. Since I'm not part of this promise I'll disappear for a couple moments... But you need to go to bed in two minutes, so keep it quick." She said smiling while she left the room.

"Wow, your parents are really nice Amy. Do they usually do this kind of stuff for your friends?"

"No. I think they like you more than any other friend I've ever had. Well, like she said we have a promise to make!" She smiled and held out her right pinky.

I put out my right pinky and asked, "So what are we promising?"

"How about that no matter what happens to either of us, no matter who else we meet, or how we change, that we'll never break each other's trust or secrets?" She suggested.

"That sounds good, I promise never to break your trust or tell any of your secrets." I repeated back to her. We moved our pinkies up and down and then separated. I took the necklace in my hand and put it around her neck, and she did the same to me.

She gave me a hug. "See now we are really officially best friends!" This was the first time we had ever hugged, something I had wondered what it would be like. It really was a memorable moment, but it was just two best friends giving each other a hug. For better or worse there was no boy/girl chemistry thing going as far as I could tell.

"Well, let's go up to bed before your Mom starts herding us there," I whispered to her.

She giggled a bit and nodded. We went upstairs and both of us went into the bathroom to brush our teeth. I discovered how nice it was to have two sinks in one bathroom. We finished up and headed towards the beds. She seemed to be back into a giddy mode from having won the calling contest earlier. Amy was definitely pleased with herself about that victory.

Before she started climbing into bed though, she grabbed a stuffed teddy bear and a stuffed lion from the one side of her room with the toys. By the time she returned I had crawled into my bed – kind of excited to be sleeping with Barbie bedding – while she was doing whatever she was up to. She walked over to the beds and said, "Here. I don't think you brought a stuffed animal with you. And I don't let my friends sleep over without one!" She said with a big smile.

Part of me wanted to tell her I hadn't slept with a teddy bear since I was five... but girls sleep with stuffed animal's right? Wasn't she proof of that? "Umm... Thanks. I think."

"You're welcome." She replied and then climbed into her bed. Her mom came upstairs and turned the light off saying, "goodnight guys." Normally when you sleep over somewhere you stay up all night talking... tonight wasn't one of those nights though. I think we were both asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

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