== One ==

Olive was not really my cousin. But since we had been babies, she had been around. Our moms are good friends, and once a week or so, they would come over to our house, or we would go over to theirs.

When she came over to ours, our mothers would sit in the kitchen and talk for hours. Leaving Olive and me plenty of time to get into trouble. We mostly played my games when she was here. We did not really get into too much trouble. But that's what Mom called it. Getting into trouble.

My Dad, I call him Papa, was not around a lot of the time. He was a salesman for a tech company. He ended up spending lots of time overseas and on the road.

I did not have any brothers or sisters at home. I had two older sisters who were out of the house now. It was kind of like two families, I guess. Anne and Carrie were 12 and 8 years older than me. Anne had her own family now and had moved to Amsterdam. Carrie was in college, and we only saw her on some long weekends.

I was turning 14 this year, and so I would be a freshman at high school in the fall. My "cousin" Olive was the same grade as me, but she was born in February, and I was born in June. I suppose that, technically, that made her older than me. That was her favorite joke. Her favorite joke was that I was her "little cousin". That got on my nerves because I was only half an inch shorter, and she weighed only a pound more than me last time we compared on the bathroom scale.

Anyway, our moms were busy with their conversation, so Olive and I were at loose ends. She did not want to play Lego with me, and it was after labor day, so the pool was closed even though it was hot out. I was building a spaceship out of Lego. She was messing with her cellphone.

It seemed like she was getting more girly now. She usually came over in shorts and a t-shirt, but today she was wearing a yellow sundress and sandals. She also had her hair hanging loose behind a headband that matched her dress. I guess that I had started noticing things like that. She even had earrings.

I guess she noticed me staring at her ears. "What are you looking at?" She asked.

"You are wearing earrings," I said.

"Do you like my earrings?" She asked. She flipped her hair back so I could see them better.

"I don't think I've ever seen you wear earrings before," I said. "That's all."

"They're from a set I got from my grandma for my birthday," she said while digging through her backpack. "Grandma thinks I need to behave more like a lady now that I'm 14. See?"

She pulled an envelope out of her backpack, then pulled a card out of the envelope. It had about ten pairs of earrings on it.

"They are held on by magnets. See?" She said as she pulled one off and snapped it back together.

"That's pretty neat!" I said. I was always interested in things that seemed scientific, and magnets were definitely scientific. Even when they were on earrings.

Olive picked one off the card and handed it to me. She gave me the back too. I snapped them together in my hand and noticed that the two halves were pretty hard to separate. "That's pretty cool, but they're not strong enough to hold through my hand though," I said after trying to get the butterfly earring to stick through my hand.

"No. They pretty much need to be on your earlobes to stick," she said. "Here, let me show you."

She took the other one from the pair and put the two halves on my earlobe. "Hay!" That pinches," I exclaimed.

"Are you still a baby?" She asked me.

"No!" I asserted.

She took the other one from the pair out of my hand. They were chrome butterflies with some cut-out wing detail. She snapped that one on my other earlobe.

"Ouch! That pinched." I yelped.

"You are a little baby," she said. "I knew it. My little baby cousin Kit."

I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Sure, that's real mature," she jibed. Then she took her phone back out of her purse, and started checking texts from her friends or something.

I pulled one of the earrings off my ear and let it snap together. Eventually, I got tired of messing with the earrings and went back to building the Lego spaceship I was working on. Olive curled up in the easy chair on the other side of the playroom pretty much occupied herself with her phone.

A bit later, her mom yelled out, and we went back upstairs. It turned out that it was time to go. Olive packed up her things and she and Aunt Kay took off.

"Did you and Olive have fun today?" My mom asked. "I guess so," I said. "I mostly played Lego, and she played with her phone."

"It looks like you shared a little bit of time together," Mom said.

"Hum?" I mumbled.

"Those are cute butterflies you are wearing," she said. "Oh! I forgot I had them on. They're magnetic! See?" I said as I pulled one off and showed her.

"That is kind of neat. You can wear them if you want to," Mom said. "That's okay," I said. I took them off and put them in my pocket. "Help me remember to give them back to Olive next time we go over there."

"All right," Mom said.

== Two ==

It was a couple weeks later we were over at Aunt Kay's house. Again Olive and I were at loose ends. Mom and Aunt Kay were deep in conversation.

"Kit, What do you want to do?" Everyone called me Kit. It was short for "Christopher." Like Kit Carson the frontiersman

"Kit, What do you want to do?" Olive asked.

Now that Olive was fourteen her mom let her go to to the rec center on her own. Olive's dad was a dentist. Today was Saturday, so he was off golfing or something, I guess. My dad was still in Taiwan, negotiating some deal or other, but he was supposed to be home today. We were going to get him later at the airport.

As I said, Olive and I were at loose ends. That's the way my mom would say it, anyway. "You seem to be at loose ends Kit. I can find something for you to do," was usually my clue to find something, or I'd end up with a dust rag or a broom in my hands.

Olive's mom is Aunt Kay, but not really my Aunt, just like Olive was not really my cousin. Anyway, Mom and Aunt Kay had been friends forever, I guess. They grew up together and stayed in touch. They had been in each other’s weddings and stuff too.

Aunt Kay was a seamstress and did a lot of custom sewing for different people. And some theater groups too. Her sewing room was on the next to the the playroom.

"I remembered to bring back the earrings you left at my house," I said as I fished them out of my pocket.

"They're yours since you wore them. You can keep them," Olive insisted with a little disgust in her voice.

"What?" I asked.

"Have they been in your pockets this whole time?" She asked.

"Yeah. So?" I said.

"Boys!" She sighed with the same amount of exasperation as she had disgust before. "Just keep them. I wouldn't want them anymore."

"What am I going to do with them?" I asked.

"Whatever you want," she said. "They are yours now. Why don't you wear them? They're cute on you."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because they're yours, and they look cute on you," she teased.

"I don't want to be cute," I shot back.

"You are already cute, little cousin."

I stuck my tongue out at her.

"See? Mature as ever," she said.

"I'm as mature as you," I said.

"Are not!"

"Am so!"

"Are Not!"

"AM SO!"

"ARE NOT!"

"I AM JUST AS MATURE AS YOU!" I yelled.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT MEANS," Olive yelled back.

"DO TOO!" I said emphatically.

"DO NOT," Olive yelled back pointedly.

"DO TOO!" I yelled.

"KIDS! Kids! What's all the yelling?" It was my mom stepping into the playroom.

I guess we got pretty loud.

"Christopher, you go over there and sit down till you are willing to behave," My mom said.

"Olive, you don't have to encourage him. You're mature enough to keep your cool. Tell me what happened," said Aunt Kay,

Olive gave her testimony. She left out the part where she wanted me to wear the earrings.

"Chris, come on back over here. You and Olive can find something you both can do together. Since we are at Olive's house, she gets to pick what you two do. Okay?" My mom set the rules. "Go ride bikes over to the shops or something."

"Play nicely and don't fight," that was Aunt Kay's addition to the rules. "What's gotten into you two today?"

With that, they both left us again. "I'm in charge, little cousin," Olive said.

I just said "Harrumph" and sat there with my arms crossed.

"Let’s ride bikes over to the park," she said. "You can ride my new one." She added in that sing song voice some people use make things sound tempting.

"You only have girls bikes," I said.

There were two bikes in her garage. One was her "new". That one had a banana seat and a basket in the front. The other was her "old" bike. That one was a Strawberry Shortcake bike with streamers and even more girly than her new one. It was a bit dirty and worn with some of the streamers broken off and some rust

"I'm not riding your bike," I said. "It's too girly."

"Play dress up with me then," she said.

I still just sat there.

"Here put on your earrings first," she said.

"I Don't Want To!" I yelled.

"Christopher!" Mom yelled from upstairs. "I can hear you from up here. Pipe down and play Olive's game. That's a good boy." I hate when my mom uses that tone. I hate it when she calls me a "good boy" and calls me 'Christopher' in that tone.

"There you go," Olive said as she snapped the earrings onto my earlobes.

I just sat there being stubborn. The earrings pinched when she snapped them, but they did not hurt much after that. I just sat there feeling mad and sad.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Now, let me find something for you to wear." I guess that knew that Olive had lots of costumes and clothes and stuff like that. Aunt Kay had made me some of my Halloween costumes over the years. I had been prince charming once and Batman and even the Flash. Sometimes Olive talked about dressing up and stuff. But I did not listen to that stuff too well.

The other times we came to visit, she had always wanted to ride bikes or go to the rec center and swim or play on the swing set fort in the back yard. She had always been wearing shorts and a t-shirt or something before. We had played pretend knights in the castle or racing on the bikes. We had not brought my bike along this time and only had her new and old bikes. I had said I was not going to ride either of then.

Olive was usually wearing shorts and a shirt when we came over before. That was not what she was wearing today.

Today she was wearing just about the most girly outfit I had ever seen. Not like a princess gown or anything, but her outfit was pretty fancy. She had on a cream blouse with long sleeves that had lacy cuffs and collar. She was wearing a kind of jumper dress in a floral pattern with a full skirt that had a border at the knee-length hem all around. It was held full by the petticoat underneath. The jumper bib ended in the middle of her chest and had wide straps of the same fabric going over her shoulders and attaching again in the back. It was a chilly day, so she was wearing ribbed tights. Her shoes were shiny black patent leather with a strap over the instep and rounded toes.

She had on bracelets and earrings and a necklace with a watch on it. She was even wearing lace gloves. And she was wearing makeup. At least a bit of lipstick, eye shadow, and mascara. Her hair seemed extra thick too. The same as her normal color but fuller somehow with two high ponytails falling past her shoulders.

Of course, as a 14-year-old boy, I had no idea what all these things were called. I just thought she looked like one of the fancy dolls you see in the stores at Christmas time. In fact, Aunt Kay made some dolls like that and had a few on a shelf in her sewing room. I like to sneak a look at those dolls some times. They were pretty, and they changed from time to time. Olive looked just like one of those dolls.

Anyway, Olive ran around the playroom and in the sewing room, picking out things and making choices. I was starting to get an idea what she was up to when she returned to the playroom and said. "okay. Time to get you started."

"NO!" I shouted.

"Yes!" Olive responded.

"Christopher!" My mom called again from the kitchen. "You do what Olive says!"

"But mom!" I said.

"No 'Buts', mister." Mom said as she stuck her head in the playroom door. "We're the guests, and you know better than to fight. What's gotten into you today. You and Olive usually play so well together. You play nice with Olive, or we'll have to find consequence when we get home. Especially if you make us leave early!"

"But Mom!" I said.

"No 'Buts'." Mom said again, giving me the 'no more of this or else' look.

"Okay." I sad and thumped down on the playroom couch.

"That's a good boy." She said.

== Three ==

"Chris? Olive?" Mom called down the stairs. "You two have been quiet for quite a while. What are you doing?" Mothers are like that. They don't want to hear you unless you're not making enough noise. Then they want to know what you are doing.

I was a bit frightened to say anything. I thought I might actually be in trouble even.

Still, Olive piped up. "We're just playing a game," she called back.

"Okay. Well, we'll be leaving in a few minutes."

"Okay, Aunt Eve," Olive called back. My mom's name was Evalot, but everyone called her Eve.

Just then, Mom and Aunt Kay came through the playroom door. I guess that they were a bit suspicious about what we had been up to. First, there was about the 40 minutes or so of silence from us, then only hearing Olive respond rather than both of us piping up. I suppose that's enough to make any mom suspicious.

"Oh my!" were the first words out of my mom's mouth. "Christopher. You're beautiful."

"Olive! What have you done to your cousin?" asked aunt Kay.

I just kind of stood there shaking. Almost shivering. Maybe I was going to cry, or run or throw up. I could not decide which. I was wearing an outfit similar to Olive's.

I had on a pair of panties and a camisole. Then a pair of ribbed white tights. The white petticoat was tied around my waist. On top of that, I had on a light blue floral print jumper with eyelet lace trim and wide shoulder straps. This was over a cream blouse. Mine had a peter pan collar, puffed sleeves, five-button cuffs, and a bit of blue embroidery pattern at the collar and cuffs. I was wearing a pair of shiny sky blue shoes, much like Olives. They had little chunky 1-inch heels round toes and a strap over the arch. I had on the butterfly earrings, some beaded bracelets, and a necklace that was a string of butterflies and beads.

"So, is this the game you have been playing?" my mom asked. I was still shaking in my shoes on the spot. Almost shivering. My eyes beginning to well up.

"Come here, Sweetie." Mom said gently, and I moved over to her. She knelt Down and wrapped her arms around me and hugged me to her chest.

"There there now. No tears. You do look so sweet." She said. "Was this your idea?" she asked. I just shook my head.

Olive said, "I was already playing dress-up when you and Kit got here and since you said I got to pick what we did after our fight I just invited Kitty to dress up too."

"Is that what happened?" Aunt Kay asked me. I hesitated a second or two then slowly nodded my head.

"Well, you do look very pretty, Kit." Said Aunt Kay. "Here. Let's have a look at you." she pulled my hand and mom let me stand on my own, while still holding my hand. "I remember when I helped you finish that jumper, Olive. Just about a week ago."

"That's right." Said Olive. "I wanted a jumper just like this to go with the butterfly earrings."

"What do you think of this game, Chris?" Aunt Kay asked.

I looked down at my shoes. My shiny blue girl shoes. I had to press the dress out of the way and lean over a bit. I kind of swayed back and forth while I was thinking of what to say.

"Oh, he's so cute!" exclaimed Aunt Kay.

I was trying to process all that had happened in the last half hour or so. I started going through it all in my head to try and make sense of it all.

== Four ==

Here is how I remembered it.

More than a half hour ago. When Mom and Aunt Kay had left after our yelling match, Olive had decided that I had to play dress-up with her. She said she had just the outfit for me.

"Now." She said. "Get your boy clothes off. We're going to make you a pretty little doll just like me."

"What?" I asked.

"You'll see," she said. "Now get your clothes off."

"Do I have to?" I asked.

"We are playing my game today, and my game is to dress up." Olive insisted. "Now get undressed."

I stood there dumbly, trying to think of something to say. I suppose that I could bolt and run back home. But the drive over is pretty long, and I did not think that I would be able to make the whole trip on foot. If I did, then there would be 'consequences' too. I'm not even sure I knew the right way to go. Mom and Aunt Kay seemed pretty adamant about my playing Olive's game. But dress up is a girls game and I'm not a girl.

"Well, Chris? What's it going to be?" Olive asked.

I knew that mom said I should play Olive's game. If we started yelling again, I would get into more trouble. It seemed that there was no way out. So I gave in. I stripped down to my briefs with a sigh.

"Those will never do." She said, looking at my briefs. She handed me a pair of blue panties. I turned around and switched them for my briefs. They seemed to fit okay, I guess. They were much softer and smoother than my regular underwear and tighter, My little penis seemed to fit okay even if it was mashed down flat.

I was a boy, and here I was wearing only panties in front of my cousin I was just doing this because mom had made the rule. Because Mom and Aunt Kay said I had to do what Olive wanted. I guess that it is okay then for me to just go along with Olive. Besides Olive is so pretty in her dress. She looks just like a Christmas doll.

She helped me pull a camisole over my head. It was as smooth and just as soft as her panties but not as tight. The thin straps over my shoulder were edged with lace, and there was a little bow in front where it was gathered up a little. Putting it on gave me a little chill in my spine. It did feel kind of nice, I guess.

"Some girls your age don't have titties yet." Said Olive. "So you don't need a bra."

Olive seemed to notice me shiver, so she said. "Oh, we can't have you catching a chill. Here put these on. Do you know how?"

She handed me the pair of tights. I tried to pull them on like pants, but they got kinda stuck.

"Here, you're going to mess them up. Bunch them up like this and then slide them up your leg," she said while demonstrating on my left leg, pulling them as high as my knee. "You do the other one."

I'm glad she said that because I was starting to get a bit embarrassed with my cousin touching me like that. My penis tingled inside the panties too. I was able to get the other leg on by myself and get them pulled up over my hips.

At this point, Olive showed me the blouse she had chosen. She undid the top few buttons and had me pull it over my head. It had a wide collar and puffy sleeves. I tried to do the buttons, but it seemed my fingers were all going wrong.

"Girls things button on the other side," Olive said. "You'll learn soon enough." Then she helped me button up the blouse, and do up the cuffs.

I was still kind of dumbstruck and did not respond, but I was thinking that I was not planning on ever learning how to button up girls blouses.

Next, she helped me step into this petticoat thing. It was several layers of fabric. It looked like several layers of white linen cloth at different heights with lace on each hem. It puffed out a lot into a bell shape.

Olive tied the waistband to hold it up. "Turn around so I can tie up the laces here in the back." She said. "Now, let's put your dress on."

"This is not the dress?" I asked. "No, silly. That's your underwear. You don't want anyone seeing your underwear, do you?" she asked with a giggle. I had nothing to add to that.

I poked my head up through the jumper dress and settled the wide straps on my shoulders. Olive did up the buttons in the back.

"Why do girls clothes have the fastenings on the back?" I asked.

"So buttons don't spoil the smooth lines in the front," she said.

I'm not sure I understood what she meant, but I just left it at that.

"You will have to have some more jewelry to go with your butterfly earrings." She said.

I followed Olive's instructions and put a few strings of beads around my neck and a couple elastic bead bracelets on my wrists. She had just got the blue shoes buckled on my feet.

I had just had a look at myself in the mirror when mom had called down to us to tell us that we had to go.

== Five ==

"Chris? Are you listening?" Asked mom. "How did you get all dressed up this way?"

I kinda stood there in shock after mom and Aunt Kay came in. "Um. You didn't want us to fight again, and Olive wanted to play this game, and so, well, I guess I just let her tell me what to do. Don't be mad." I said.

"How could I possibly be mad at such a sweet-looking creature like you?" She said. "That's a very pretty outfit. Look how your jewelry goes with the pattern in your dress." She said.

I had not noticed that the pattern in the skirt was a blue sky with an edging of flowers and lots of butterflies flying around and the bib was just the butterflies on a blue background.

"Come, take a look in the mirror over here." Said Aunt Kay.

I stepped up to the mirror and saw a kind of funny sight. I still had a boys head on top of all this very girly outfit.

"I look kind of funny," I said. "My head does not go with my body."

"That's true," said Mom. "Do you want to fix that?"

"I'll take all this off and change so we can go," I said.

"Oh! No!" Said Olive. "I'm not done dressing you up. Please, Mom. Let me finish his outfit."

"We can stay a bit longer if you want to," said Mom to me.

"I don't know." I started.

"Please, Please, Please?" Implored Olive. "None of my other friends likes playing dress-up. Just a few more minutes and Kitty will be all done."

"Okay," said my mom. "We can stay for a few more minutes, but we'll have to go as soon as you're done."

"Yay!" Olive enthused.

"You kids!" Sighed Aunt Kay in a slightly exasperated tone.

Mom and Aunt Kay went back up to the kitchen. "Okay, Kitty," said Olive. "Are you ready to finish off your outfit? I know just what will make this perfect."

I'm not sure why I was not rebelling and throwing a tantrum at this point. But I was fascinated by what I had seen in the mirror. I kinda looked a little like one of the dolls in Aunt Kay's sewing room too. Just like Olive but different.

I guess I was not ready to stop this yet. Besides, a tantrum would lead to 'consequences.' Last time I had 'consequences,' my Lego box was locked up for a week. The time before that, it was my bike that had been locked to the fence for a whole weekend. I stood there, shaking a little. Halfway between tears and fascination.

"Okay, wait here. I'll be back in a minute." Alice was out in a flash.

"Don't run on the stairs!" I heard Aunt Kay yell.

Olive was gone a couple of minutes. I had just started to look at titles in her video collection when Olive returned.

"Kitty!" she said. "Come sit over here." ' I came over to the stool where she was pointing.

"What now?" I asked as I sat down.

"Not like that!" Olive gasped. "Stand back up before you wrinkle your dress!" Olive said.

I stood back up. "Now smooth your skirt under you before you sit. And keep your knees together."

I did as she said and tried to put my knees together. Somehow that was kinda hard to do.

"Makeup and a wig." She said.

"Oh no," I said, but I sat still and waited.

"Don't be a sourpuss," she said. "Here let me get this shadow on you."

She brushed some stuff out on my eyelids very carefully. I flinched a little but not too bad.

"Now a bit of this mascara," she said. "And some lipstick." The lipstick tasted sweet and waxy.

"Here is the wig." She said taking what looked like pink and blue and blond cat out of a box.

"You want me to wear that?" I said.

"Yes. It's perfect for your outfit." She said, placing it on my head.

I had a buzz cut, so the wig covered all my short blond hair. Olive brushed a bit here and adjusted a bit there. She pushed a light blue headband on my head. Then she handed me some gloves.

"Here, put these on," she said.

I slipped them on then she handed me a flimsy looking umbrella and put her own gloves back on.

"Open your parasol over your shoulder like this." She said demonstrating with her own.

"Now, come stand next to me in the mirror." She said.

I came next to her and looked into the mirror. There were two cute girls reflected back at me. One in a butterfly and flower pattern outfit the other in a ladybug and flower pattern outfit. One dress mostly blue and spring colors. The other mostly red and black and white. One girl had mostly brunette hair with a red highlights. The other one's hair was blond with pink and blue highlights.

It was a surprise just what a cute pair we made. We looked just like two dolls on the shelf. I was pretty excited about it all now, but also scared. Boys don't look like this, I thought. Boys don't like to look like, this I thought.

"Come on, Kitty," Olive said. "Let’s go show mom and Aunt Eve." She ran up the stairs again, and I couldn't do anything else except follow.

== Six ==

"What did I say about running on the stairs?" said Aunt Kay.

"I'm done!" Exclaimed Olive as she burst into the kitchen. "Isn't he just the cutest thing?"

"My, oh my, Christopher," Mom said. "You sure are the sweetest looking little creature. I'm not sure I've ever seen cotton candy pink and blue hair quite like that. It's beautiful isn't it? It's perfect with your outfit, though. A bit over the top for every day, but very cute."

The wig had blue highlights on one side and pink on the other. It had big pigtails and fringe in the front. Just like Olives hair.

"And you, Olive." Mom continued. "Did you make both these outfits yourself? You are stunning all by yourself. But together, the two of you are like something out of an anime."

"Kitty has been so good to play with me today. This has been so much fun." Said Olive.

"Girls turn and look over here." Said Aunt Kay.

She snapped our picture with her phone when we looked. "This is just too cute not to capture."

Aunt Kay had said, "Girls." I'm not a girl. But I had seen what I looked like. I sure looked like a girl.

"What am I going to do with you, Kit?" Said, Mom. "We're all out of time. We have to go pick up your dad at the airport now."

"Okay. I'll go get changed." I said.

"No time for that, Mister." She said. "You'll have to change when we get back home. Can Kit keep these things till we can get them back to you?" Mom asked Olive.

"I made the dress to go with Kitty's earrings." Olive said. "After I saw him with his earrings the other day I was hoping we could do this together. I just wish we had more time. I knew he would be so cute in his outfit."

"Okay, then. Let's get going." Mom said as she almost dragged me to the car. "Bye now, Kay, Olive. Kit, tell Olive how much fun you had."

I guess I had to say something. I did not want to admit that I had fun, I did not even know if I did have fun. Still Mom was starting to glare at me.

"I had fun today," I said it a bit glumly. Trying to dig a hole with the toe of my blue shoe but I glanced up at Olive with a bit of a sparkle in my eye.

"Me too," Olive said brightly. "We'll do it again next time," and Olive bent over and gave me a hug and then a kiss on my cheek. I was flushed. With that, Mom whisked me out to the car and made sure I was seat belted in. At almost fourteen, I was tall enough to sit in the front seat. Still, mom always used a seat belt on me.

"Sweep your skirt under you as you sit so you don't wrinkle it!" Mom said when I tried to plop down like I usually do in the car seat.

"You have a lot to learn about wearing pretty clothes like that." She said.

I had no plan to wear outfits like this ever again but did not say anything just then. I did do the "you must be crazy" eye roll though.

== Seven ==

We parked at the airport and found our way to the exit from the secure zone that Papa would be coming through. Mom and Papa had talked on the phone on the way in and so we would be sure to meet right there.

I had almost forgotten how I was dressed. It was not too hard to get used to most anything, I guess, but the skirt swishing around my legs and the clomp of the heels kept reminding me of my pretty outfit. Mom kept hold of my hand and did not give me much choice but to follow along in her wake.

At 14 holding hands with mom seemed wrong but dressed as I was it was comforting. The butterflies seemed to go from my dress into my stomach as we got closer to the area where passengers come out of the concourse.

While we were standing there, a woman came up to mom and said, "Oh, my. What a cute outfit! Where did you get it?"

My mom made a quick explanation, leaving out that I was a boy. They were still chatting when papa came through the door. When papa came out of the security gate, it was more than I could do but to run up to him, yelling, "Papa!" It was so good to see him.

"Who are you, little girl?" he asked. "I'm not your papa."

"Oh. Yes, you are. Mama is right over there. See?" I said.

I dragged him by his hand over to mom. He gave her a hug and a kiss and then looked back at me and again at mom. He held up his hands and gave a little shrug. "There has to be a good story behind this," he said.

"Olive and I were playing while mom and Aunt Kay talked," I said.

"Oh. Are you a girl now?" he asked.

"No, Papa, I'm not a girl. Mom and Aunt Kay said I had to play Olive's game, and Olive wanted to play dress up."

"Is that what happened?" Papa asked Mom.

"Pretty much. We ran out of time to meet you after Olive got him into all this. Still, I don't see any harm in it, so let's not make a big deal about it. Okay? At least not right here." Mom said.

"Okay. Let’s talk when we get home. I have a case coming in. Let’s go grab it and then we can be out of here."

== Eight ==

It had taken a little while waiting for papa's case to come in. While we were waiting a little girl came over to me and asked, "Are you a princess?"

"No," I said. "I'm just a regular guy."

"You're pretty." She said. "Do you want to see my doll?"

She held up a doll. It was a pretty doll with a full dress and a bonnet.

"This is my doll. I call her "Sissy" because I want a sister, just like her."

"Oh," I said.

"Can you be my sister?" she asked.

"I don't think so," I said. "I live with my family."

At about this point, the little girl's mother came over.

"Is Katy bothering you?" she asked.

"No, ma'am," I said.

"I like your outfit." Katy's mom said. My mom had noticed us and came over. "He, um she and her friend were playing dress-up today." My mom said.

"She's very pretty," Katy said. About then, dad came over.

"Well, ladies?" Papa said.

"I'm not a lady!" I said. Maybe a little too loud.

"When you look like that, I can't call you a young man, can I?" said Papa.

I had just realized what I had said. I'm pretty sure that Katy and her mom had drifted away enough by then, and did not overhear us.

"Just go with it for now. Okay, Kitty?" Mom said.

"Kitty?" Said Papa.

"Yea. That's what Olive was calling him." "Hum," he said.

"Well, ladies." Papa started again. "Where do you want to have dinner?"

"We don't have to go out. I have things at home I can make quickly," Mom interjected.

"Nonsense. It's not every day that I get to take my two favorite girls out for a night on the town."

"Out? You want to go out?" I said.

"Sure. You look beautiful dressed like that." Papa said.

"Raymond." My papa's first name is Raymond. "It's his first time. Let's not push it."

"Okay. Home it is." Papa said. "Tell me all about the last two weeks. I missed you all so much. Don't leave out a thing." He said.

Mom told the story as we drove. I was not really listening but I think she made it sound like playing dress-up was as much my idea as Olives.

We drove through fast food. I had chicken fingers and tater tots with a sweet tea. Mom made sure I used plenty of napkins but I still spilled a little on my dress.

"We'll have to clean that before we give it back to Olive," Mom said.

== Epilogue ==

Mom helped me get undressed before bed. "With all that extra stuff you are wearing, do you want some help getting ready for bed?" She asked.

"I can do it on my own, I think," I said and ran off to my room still in the wig, heels, and the rest.

A few minutes later mom came into my room.

"You can't treat those nice things so poorly." Mom said as she looked into my room.

I had started to undressed. I had succeeded at removing my jewelry, wig, and shoes and had thrown them all to the floor. I was struggling with the jumper buttons behind my back.

"Here, let me help." She picked up the wig and rolled it into a bath towel. She placed the shoes in my closet and picked up all the jewelry and put them in a Tupperware box, and put them on a shelf. She helped me get the rest off too. Showing me how to untie, unbutton, unhook and so on. Then hanging and folding and outing them in my closet. Everything else went into my laundry hamper. Then she showed me some wipes to clean my face. The first wipe came away all pink and blue and black. The second one was cleaner. After the third wipe, mom said I could take my shower.

I put on my boxers and t-shirt and was ready for bed. I looked at myself in my mirror. Gone was the cute girl from this afternoon. All traces of the makeup were gone. Back was the boy I usually saw. I think that I'm more used to looking at myself this way, but I still felt a little sad.

== License ==

This is an original work of fiction written for your entertainment. Any relation to real people or events is purely coincidental. As the author and to the extent possible, I release this work to the public domain. You have my permission to reuse, remix, or revise as you see fit.