Chapter 8:

"BRANDON, WHAT DO you want to do when we get back to the condo?" Amy asked.

"I don't know, what is there to do?" I asked

"Well, we could play another board game – though that's a long time for games. We could go swimming in the pool there... We could play with my toys... Or we could just sit there and look bored?"

Part of me wished so much to play with her toys (Barbie's!), but my better judgment said there would be other opportunities for that if I went over to her house more. We had actually talked about me starting to come after school to hang out after school, this week. So... out of the other options I decided on swimming. I loved swimming.

"How about swimming?" I suggested.

"That sounds good, did you bring your swimming suit?"

Man how I wanted to say no to see what would happen... would it be like my dream at my aunt's house? But the scared and intimidated me said the real answer, "Yeah, I did."

"Okay then, let's go swimming when we get done with shopping!" She was fairly excited, I was glad to see that. I fed off of her excitement and we both talked rapidly for the next twenty minutes or so when we realized that we needed to go meet her parents.

We grabbed our skis and walked down to the parking lot. Amy thought about putting our skis on the rack but we couldn't reach that high. Her parents showed up a few minutes later though and her mom reached into the car for a camera.

"I want to get a picture of everyone together before we put the stuff up for the season." She had Mr. Hancock prop the skis up in the snow behind the car (there was a pile where the plows had pushed it up), and had us stand in front of them. As she was getting ready to take the picture she saw a resort worker and asked him to take the picture.

I had a feeling it would end up looking more like a family picture than a friend with a friend's family. I stood in front of Mr. Hancock, Amy in front of Mrs. Hancock. We took like ten or fifteen pictures like that with their nice camera, and then Mrs. Hancock got several with just Amy and me.

After we got done taking them I suddenly remembered I still hadn't taken the scrunchie out... Oh well. I didn't think you could probably see the scrunchie, you'd just see the hair pulled back. I decided not to worry about it. From there we got everything loaded back up.

Mrs. Hancock then said, "Okay, let's go look at the shops!"

We followed her lead to the various stores and looked around. She stopped in at one store that offered merchandise with the resorts name on it. "Amy, you need a new t-shirt right?"

"Umm... Yeah, the other one is fading really bad." She replied.

"Pick out a new one then," she said pointing at the t-shirts. Amy looked around and picked out a black shirt that had the resort logo in bright blue.

She then looked at me and asked, "which one do you want Brandon?" I was flabbergasted, after all they had done for me they were going to buy me a shirt too?

I must have looked confused though because Amy said, "Brandon, get the same one as me, it's unisex, and it would be fine for a boy to wear it too!"

I didn't know what Amy had in mind but I went along with it. I also discovered, much to my surprise, that Amy and I were the same size. That was strange, everyone at school except Nikki was taller than me but I actually thought I would be a little bigger than her. We got the shirts and finished up the shopping. From there we headed back to their condo.

"What do you two want to do when we get there?" Her mom asked.

"Brandon and I were talking about going swimming. Is that okay with you guys?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. You guys can go swim for an hour or so, and then I'll have dinner ready for you."

"What are we having Mom?" Amy asked.

"Well I'll heat up the leftovers from yesterday, and then I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. Does that work?"

I of course nodded because I wasn't about to complain while in someone else's house, and Amy seemed to go along with it too.

When we pulled up to the condo we helped them stash all of the ski stuff back in the closet, I left the purple boots on the floor there, and walked with Amy upstairs to her bedroom.

"Why don't you get into the bathroom first?" Amy suggested. "Make sure you put some pants on top of your swimming suit since we have to walk outside a little bit before we get to the pool. It will be cold... especially when we come back!"

"Okay, that's a good idea." I replied and took my bag into the bathroom. I put my swimming suit on and put on a pair of nylon wind pants over them. I left the bathroom a few minutes later and she went in and out. While she was in the bathroom I pulled the scrunchie from my hair.

I liked the way a pony tail had felt, though my hair was just barely long enough to hold it in. I looked around in my bag for my brush and started brushing my hair out. I was just about done when Amy came out of the bathroom. "Why are you bothering when we're just going to get it wet anyway?" She asked.

"I dunno... just seemed like the thing to do right now. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's grab a couple towels and let Mom know we're walking over there."

"Okay," We grabbed two towels and then bounded down the stairs.

"Mom, we're going to the pool now." Amy told her Mom.

"Okay, did you remember towels?" We nodded. "Then have fun. I'll send your dad after you guys when it's time for you to come back for dinner."

"Thanks Mom," Amy said.

We walked around the building's backside to a building that housed the condo community's indoor pool and jacuzzi. Amy and I walked to the door and used her house key to get in.

"So what do you think?" she said as she opened the door and I really got a chance to look inside the building. The pool was large, and looked like it went outside as well as inside. On one side of the pool sat a water slide that was about twenty feet tall. There was also a glass wall that allowed you to view a fitness center from the pool area. On that same wall I saw signs for girl and guy restrooms.

"I think it's really nice. I'll come up with you guys any time you want!" I said with a wink.

"Well, I think you can plan on being able to come with us anytime you want. Enough talking! Let's go swimming!"

We both stripped down to our swimming suits. I immediately headed for the water slide using it to kick off my time swimming.

"Hey, that was my idea," Amy said as I climbed up the slide. I stuck my tongue out at her and continued to the top. As soon as I reached the top I sat down and went down the slide. I had far too much fun with that for my age!

Amy was right behind me, and we then had a splashing contest in the pool before going back up the slide. She beat me up to the slide this time and it gave me time to admire her swimming suit. It was a pink one-piece swimsuit with some thick, angular, blue lines across it. How I wish I would have been able to wear something like that!

We swam and played in the pool for what only seemed like fifteen minutes before her dad came and said, "Amy, Brandon, it's time for dinner."

Amy gave me a final splash and we swam to the side where we had left our clothes and our towels. We both dried off our bodies and tried to dry our hair a bit before putting our clothes back on.

We then started back to their condo – it had gotten cold quick that night, and by the time I got back there I thought my hair must be frozen! It hadn't quite done that yet, but it certainly felt stiff. We sat down at the dinner table and had the leftovers with the grilled cheese and soup.

I had learned earlier from Amy that it was a tradition for them to eat this meal the night before they went home. Apparently she used to beg for it when she was really little, and that was their compromise for her.

I was fairly tired so I didn't talk a whole lot during dinner – though no one seemed to be much better off. I was full about the time that Amy's mom asked her, "Do you want to take a quick shower and then I'll wash your hair?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Amy said, fairly excited. "You should do Brandon's too!" Amy suggested excitedly.

"Brandon if you'd like that I'd be willing." Her mom said to me.

"What exactly do you do?" I asked. Trying to remember back to what Amy told me.

"I just wash her hair with shampoo and condition it over at the sink. I usually massage her scalp a little too. It's not really anything that out of the ordinary, it just feels nice to have done for you. So... yes... no...?"

"Sure, it's something to do if nothing else." I replied.

"Okay then, Amy why don't you go shower first and then Brandon can get in there. Okay?"

"Okay Mom, I'll be back soon." She said to her Mom.

I stayed down and helped her mom with the dishes. She smiled as I helped her work on them. It just seemed like something I should offer to do though. Amy came down about ten minutes later and I went up and showered real quick before putting on my pajamas (I noticed that's what Amy did), and coming back downstairs myself.

When I came down I saw Amy's mom wrapping her hair up in a towel. "Brandon, go ahead and come sit down here. I saw she had set up a taller chair in front of the kitchen sink where Amy had been sitting. Amy was smiling – I think that may have been her favorite part of the trip so far.

I sat down in the chair. "Brandon, why don't you take your necklace off while I do this? I'll put it here on the counter." I took it off and handed it to her.

"Okay, now lean back and relax." Her mom told me. I did, I sat back and relaxed as she first wet my hair down some more, and then began applying shampoo to my hair. As she was doing this she made sure she rubbed the shampoo into every hair and part of my scalp there was. It must have been some of Amy's shampoo, because it smelled like berries.

I then felt her rinse it out with the sink sprayer. I thought maybe she would be done then but as soon as I heard her put the sprayer back down I felt her rub something else into my hair – it must be conditioner I thought. The whole experience was more wonderful than anything else I could remember.

A few minutes later she rinsed the conditioner out of my hair and wrapped my hair in a towel like she had done Amy's. I sat up, kind of feeling a head rush, and then stood up. "Thank you Mrs. Hancock. That felt really good!" I said.

Amy was sitting on the couch with her hair still wrapped up, "See, I told you so."

"I never doubted you. So what's next?" I asked.

"Well, now Mom will blow dry my hair and put it into some random style she'll decide on... and then we get to team up and do the same to you!" She said smiling.

"That's only if you want to though Brandon," Mrs. Hancock said as she walked over to the couch where we were sitting. She pulled a kitchen chair up next to an outlet on the wall and directed Amy to sit down in it.

"Come on Brandon, you have to!" Amy said.

"Okay, just because you want me to." I said.

I watched her mom take the blow dryer and several combs/brushes and work with her hair for a while until it was dry. Finally I watched as she separated the back of her hair in half and tied each side into cute pigtails with some pink ribbon. She whispered something into Amy's ear. After she had heard whatever her mom had said she smiled really big and jumped out of the chair.

"Okay Brandon! Your turn!" Amy squealed. She was clearly more excited about this than I was able to let on myself. The truth of the matter is that I couldn't have been more excited. Maybe I would get pigtails too! Was my hair long enough for pigtails? I had wondered that recently.

I sat down in the chair and felt Amy and her mom work together on my hair for what seemed like forever. I swore I must be in a dream... They ran the blow dyer through my hair while combing and brushing it out. After a while they turned the blow dryer off and I felt her separate my hair, they were actually going to do it – I was going to have pigtails like a real girl!!!

I couldn't wait to see myself in the mirror. Her mom had to try a couple times to get the bunch of hair on my right just right, then she moved on to my left. A minute later she said, "Done."

Amy giggled a little bit, grabbed my hand, and said, "Let's go look!" She led me bounding up the stairs to the bathroom.

When we got up to the bathroom I couldn't believe it. If I thought I had looked like a girl with the ponytail it was nothing compared to the two pigtails hanging off either side of my head. "Whoa." I said. I looked so cute! I looked just like a little girl – maybe a little too little... I couldn't stop smiling about it! And, I couldn't keep the giggle in my throat from coming out.

"You know Brandon, you would make a prettier girl than most of the girls in our grade." Amy commented.

I couldn't disagree with her on that... I had always dreamed it might be such, but here it was and she was right. If only I had girls clothes on there would be no doubt. That brought me back to reality though, and I became morose as I said, "Yeah, but that could result in me getting beat up more..." I answered honestly.

"Actually, I think that people are going to start leaving you alone more and more. If you came dressed up in girls clothes to school there might be problems, but I don't think you're going to get anything from your hair. Besides..." She giggled, "I know of at least three girls that have a crush on you because of your hair. They think you look like a rock star." She giggled some more. "So what do you think?"

"It's different... it's kind of amusing..." I trailed off.

"Okay, let's go downstairs and play a game now!" She grabbed my hand and we walked back downstairs. She went to the closet and came back with Monopoly. I think I saw her mom groan a bit, but we ended up setting it up and playing.

You know Monopoly is just one of those games that seem to always go the same way with people everywhere. Well, we had a lot of fun, and I do have to admit I kicked some serious butt! I set up a great racket of hotels on expensive and inexpensive sites and Amy and her parents kept landing on them.

At about 10pm I took Mr. Hancock's last set of cash and properties... It was a good day!

"Okay, you guys need to get going to bed so we can get out of here in the morning." Her mom said to us.

I yawned and nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I'm pretty tired anyway. Thanks again for everything you guys have done for me this weekend, it's been a lot of fun."

"You're very welcome Brandon, again, anytime you want to come along with us, or even just come over to our house feel free!"

"Thanks." I grabbed my necklace off the kitchen counter – I almost forgot it! – and grabbed Amy to go upstairs. I think it was the first time I ever dragged her somewhere – she was mostly asleep at this point.

When we got upstairs we both brushed our teeth and just went to bed after that, we were both pretty tired. I think we tried to stay up and talk, but we were both asleep by the time her mom came to say goodnight.

Mrs. Hancock shook me awake in the morning, "Brandon, it's time to get up and get ready."

I grunted and sat up. She reached up and woke Amy next. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and slowly got out of bed. Ugh... I hate mornings... My hair felt kind of funny I thought for a second before realizing I forgot to take my pigtails out... I pulled the hair ties out of each side and grabbed my hair brush to brush it out. I looked up and saw Amy doing the same thing.

We ate a breakfast of cereal, they cleaned out some stuff, and we got on the road to go back home. Amy and I talked on the way home, but it was a little more subdued. Tomorrow we had to go back to school, something that neither of us were really looking forward to.

They pulled up to my house a couple hours later.

"Thank you so much for inviting me along," I said to them all, but particularly her parents.

"No problem Brandon, we really enjoyed having you. Anytime you want to come over feel free to." Mrs. Hancock said.

I spoke with Amy really quick outside of the car through her window, "So Brandon you're going to come to my house after school tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, it sounds like fun. Hopefully they won't load us down with homework." I replied.

My parents came out of the house and gave me a hug and said thanks to her parents. My dad grabbed my bag from me and we went inside. Of course once inside they started 'interrogating me' as I like to put it.

"How was your weekend?" My mom asked.

"It was great! The Hancock's were really nice to me!" I began telling them about their condo, the skiing, and most everything else. I did leave out the hair stuff, I didn't think they would completely freak out, but I didn't want to take a chance. I then told her that Amy had invited me to work on homework after school tomorrow at her house.

I talked for quite awhile before they let me go to my room. I played with some Legos for a while before deciding to read abook. When I looked for a book to read, Idecided on an old Nancy Drew book that I had. I quickly became immersed in the book, andother than taking a break to practice, the rest of the day passed quickly.

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