I had a totally normal happy childhood, raised by my Mum Paula after my dad had long since disappeared soon after I had been born. I had a lot of friends that stayed with me from nursery school through junior school and we all played and learned together. At that young age we all just mixed with each other, boys and girls, not knowing that there was any difference between us except that girls wore skirts and dresses and had long hair, unlike us boys. In fact two of my best friends who I spent a lot of time with were my neighbours Lynne and Marie. To within a few weeks we were almost exactly the same age and spent a lot of time together when we were very young.

We lived in a small village outside Harrogate in Yorkshire and there were no other children our age in the village, most of our nursery-school friends lived in town, so at home we usually played and did things together. A lot of the time the pastimes were gender neutral, drawing and colouring, playing on the swings, slides and roundabouts in the park, feeding the ducks and geese in the lake, playing board games, singing along to the tunes on the kids’ tv shows and things like that. Sometimes they joined me in rough and tumble games, kicking a ball around, tree climbing, skimming pebbles on the lake, mock sword fights, sometimes I would join them in playing house, dressing-up, having tea parties with their dolls and furry animal toys, helping our mums mixing the dough for cakes and scones. It never really crossed our minds that there were boys’ activities and girls’ activities, we just had fun being with each other and enjoying ourselves. As all our birthdays were within a few weeks of each other and we usually had joint birthday parties we called ourselves ‘The Triplets’, Lynne, Marie and me, Oliver or Ollie.

As we progressed to more structured lessons in junior school we found other friends in school time, Lynne and Marie grouped with other girls and I joined in with the boys’ activities, However once we left for home we were The Triplets again and enjoyed the rest of our childhood together before moving up to secondary school where there were a lot more clubs and societies that we could join.

After school one day we were all in Lynne’s bedroom singing along to the latest hit tunes playing on the radio, when she turned off the music.

“Ollie, Marie and I are thinking of joining the school junior choir, do you want to join with us? You have a good singing voice, it hasn’t broken yet, you will have a couple of years or so before it changes, until then we can harmonise quite well just like when we were just singing along with all the tunes on the radio.”

“Why not, at least we can do that together, a lot of the clubs we have joined are mainly for boys or girls, but the choir is fairly mixed, let’s do it.” I quickly replied, happy to have found something at school that we could all do as a group.

For the next few years the choir and its spin-offs became our main extra-curricular activity. As well as the more formal leading the singing at morning assembly, we enjoyed performing concerts ranging from operetta to Country and Pop, usually appearing as the choral backing in musicals put on by the drama club.

One by one, as we were in our mid-teens the voices of the other boys broke, and as they were maturing they were either no longer able to carry a tune or they moved into the senior choir as baritones or tenors. Soon I was the only boy left, my voice had changed from the pure treble to a high alto/soprano, but showed no signs of developing further. Everyone one else in our classes seemed to be having a growth spurt, the girls had got taller and more shapely, the boys bulking out and getting more muscular and stocky, I just stayed as I was, the slim weedy short guy, standing out amongst all the blossoming girls that were now my only singing partners.

Because of my size and to all intents and purposes my female-sounding voice, and the fact that I spent a lot of time with the girls in the choir, and with Lynne and Marie doing our homework together, I became the butt of a lot of jokes and name-calling. Most of the girls in my classes were ok with me, although I was occasionally jokingly asked if I wanted to borrow a uniform skirt, or a ribbon for my hair, but many of the boys saw me as too girly to be associated with and ignored me meaning that I spent even more time with the girls. The more I was shunned by the boys and spent in the company of girls, the more I seemed to adopt their mannerisms and style of talking and expressing myself and when speaking I was often mistaken for another one of the girls.

“I’ve got good news girls, er and Ollie.” our music teacher Miss Crawford gathered us together one day, “Someone from the local musical theatre group heard your last performance and would like you all to join as the chorus and dancers in their next production, ‘The Sound of Music’, are you all up for it?”

We all jumped at the opportunity and nervously turned up a few days later for an audition with the director.

“Split up into groups of three at first, sing a bit of ‘Do-re-mi’ to let me hear your range, and then do a verse individually, there are song sheets for you and a backing track to help you along.”

After a few other trios had performed it was now the turn of Lynne Marie and me. We went through the number getting more confident as it went along, the many times that we had sung together to the tunes on the radio meant that we harmonised well, our timing was almost perfect .

“You three are definitely in, you can really carry a tune and are able to put drama and emotion into your performance. However you have given me a problem young man, Oliver isn’t it? Your voice is totally unsuitable for the male chorus, but it is such a rich soprano that it would be ideal for you to join your friends in the female chorus.”

“I’m sorry, I’m confused, what does that mean?”

“To put it simply, you would act as one of the girls and join in with their singing and dancing. Of course you would have to dress and be made up just like the other girls, but to be honest, with your voice and slim build you would fit in perfectly”

The girls burst into giggles, as I blushed with embarrassment at the thought.

“No sorry, I can’t do that, I get enough teasing at school about my size and my voice, without people seeing me wearing a dress and dancing alongside the girls.”

“Come on Ollie, you sing with us all in the choir anyway and you are part of the group, don’t let a little thing like wearing a dress and makeup split you up from us, we’re The Triplets remember, we do things together.” Marie pleaded with me, rolling her puppy-dog eyes at me.

“I’ll feel stupid, nobody will believe I’m a girl and will recognise me as a boy in a dress.”

“Oh no they won’t,. As it is, without even trying, when we are all out together you are often taken for a girl and addressed as Miss, you’ve even been asked if you wanted to try on a dress I was looking at, the shop assistant said it was more your colour than mine. Your voice is almost the same as ours and when you are with us the way you talk and gesture just blends in with us “ Lynne snapped back at me.

“If I go along with you and this gets out at school my life will not be worth living, I often even get pushed out of the boys’ toilets and told to go next door to the girls’ where I belong. None of the boys will sit in class next to me, they all see me as a sissy and I always have to sit with the girls, although I am not complaining about that, most of them are ok with me and are pleasant company.”

“How about this Ollie? Come back with me to my house, I will find something for you to wear and sort you out, we’ll go to the café in the park at the other side of town where nobody knows us and see if anyone sees you as anything other than another one of us girls.” Lynne suggested

“But your mother will be at home, what if she sees me?”

“Don’t worry it will be choir practice at church and her, your mother, and the neighbours will all be there. It’ll be a laugh, don’t worry about it, pleeeeeease Ollie.”

Back at Lynne’s, I was soon stripped and standing there wearing just a pair of Lynne’s panties, and to be honest they fitted me quite snugly, as well as being small-framed I was not over-endowed in the boys’ department, and what little I had was hardly noticeable.

“Here’s one of my old training bras, it’s only padded to an A cup, it’s too small for me now that I have grown out a bit, but should be ok on your frame size.” Lynne smiled as she passed it to me. I struggled to put it on so she grabbed it pulled the straps over my shoulders and behind my back and clasped me in. “You need to be a bit bigger though. A couple of tissues will just fill you out a bit, us girls have all been there when we needed a bit of help, so don’t feel embarrassed.” she said as she added more padding and squeezed it into shape.

“It’s a warm afternoon so we’ll not bother with tights, so just hold your arms up and I’ll slip this summer dress over your head. We don’t bother with a lot of makeup, just let me do your lips and some eyeliner and we’re almost finished. Your hair is quite thick and almost collar length, but it’s not really long enough to do much with, let’s just brush it all back fix it in place with side-combs, pull down and shape a fringe, add one of my ponytail hairpieces and that is you as much of a girl as the pair of us. Have a look in the mirror and see what you think Livvy. We can’t call you Ollie looking like that, Livvy is much better.”

I did a double take when I stood in front of the mirror, waving my hands to make sure that it was really me looking back at me.”

“Are you happy with that, do you feel ready to go out?”

I was too dumbstruck to reply, so just nodded.

“Ok Livvy, slip on these shoes, let’s go girl, your world awaits you.”

Feeling totally uneasy I followed them as we made our way from the house to the bus stop.

“ Oh drat,” Lynne suddenly shrieked. “Marie and I picked up our bags, but forgot to get one for you Livvy, let’s rush back and get one, you can transfer your money, keys bits and pieces and bus pass into it.’

We were soon back and getting on the bus, flashing our passes at the driver, who never even looked closely to see the photo or name on mine .

“There you are Livvy you have talked to the driver, and walked up the crowded bus talking to us, nobody has screamed ‘is that a boy in a dress’, just relax, follow what we do and you’ll be fine.”

We had a pleasant afternoon strolling around in the park, sitting on a bench watching the birds on the lake. I soon relaxed accepting that as far as anyone else was concerned we were just three girls out for a walk in the summer evening sun, enjoying our time together.

“Right girls, I’m ready for a drink you sit in the sun outside this café and I’ll go in and get stuff, is cola and cake ok for you both?” They both looked surprised when I offered, expecting me to want to just keep out of sight as much as possible, but I needed to face up to talking to someone in public and was now feeling confident that I would just be accepted as who I appeared to be.

“You were a long time in there’re we were beginning to get worried for you, did you have problems?”

“Anything but, when I was rummaging in the bag you have given me for my money, Jayne, the young girl behind the counter, noticed that you had left some sanitary pads in there. She said she was just coming on and hadn’t brought any with her as she wasn’t due for a day or so and asked if I could give one to her. She asked me to mind the counter while she went to the loo to sort herself out, and I got involved serving a couple of customers. By the way the drinks and cake were free, she was so grateful for my help.”

“Wow, you do jump in with both feet, weren’t you embarrassed, talking about periods and pads, boys usually squirm and change the subject at any mention of them?”

“Why should I be? I’m wearing a dress, bra, panties and make up and am carrying sanitary items in my bag, how much more girly could I feel. Anyway, when I was looking in my bag, I noticed that as well as a couple of pads, you also slipped in a lipstick, mascara, an eye pencil and some tissues as well as my wallet and keys, you seem to have prepared me for anything, I wondered why you made such a fuss at the bus stop of going back to get it.”

“Livvy, you may have noticed that your dress does not have pockets, so you need a bag to keep all your bits and pieces in. Even when I am wearing trousers, nothing goes in the pockets, they are just ornamentation, you don’t want to spoil the fit by shoving things in them like boys do.The pads were left in there from last month, the rest of the stuff is just a few things I thought you might need.”

When we arrived back at Lynne’s her mother’s car was there so we couldn’t get in to get my clothes back.

“Come next door to mine, it doesn’t look like Mum is back yet, I’ll get changed and cleaned up before she arrives.”

However as we went in Mum called out, “Is that you Ollie, come in here quickly.”

I had two choices, either run upstairs leaving Lynne and Marie to keep Mum occupied until I was presentable again, or brazen it out and go in as I was. “Hurry up, you are on TV and you need to see this.” She shouted again.

I followed the girls into the room and she looked past me to see where I was.

“Hello girls, where’s Olly? Please introduce me to your friend while we are waiting for him.”

“Hello Mrs Sinclair. This is Livvy, although you would recognise her more easily if she wasn’t wearing a dress and makeup, she’s really Ollie.” Marie blurted out, too embarrassed and worried to think of a better story.

“We’ll deal with this later, the three of you are on the local news showing the auditions fo The Sound of Music and it says that you have all been selected to be cast members. That is brilliant, all the hard work you have put in for the school choir has now paid off, congratulations to you all. Sit down and I’ll wind it back to run it again.”

While our audition singing played in the background the reporter said that the director was surprised at the quality of the school choir and that several of us would be joining the cast for his show.

“Right girls, please tell me what you have done to my son and why, I know that you have all played together and been best friends for years, but I never realised that you had influenced him this much.”

“It’s not what you think Mum….” I started but she cut me off.

“Keep quiet Ollie, or should I call you Livvy for now, I want to hear it from Lynne and Marie.”

“Livvy’s right, it is not what it seems. Along with the others in the choir we were asked to audition for parts in the show, we sang together really well and the director was so impressed that he wanted all three of us in the show, but there was a problem.” Marie started before Lynne took over.

“The director thought that Ollie’s voice was wonderful, But wouldn’t fit in with the male chorus or characters, but that his rich soprano would fit right in with the female chorus and had one of the best natural voices in the whole group. He wants Ollie to perform as a female in a dress and makeup, singing and dancing with the rest of us girls.”

“Ollie thought it was a silly idea and that he would never be convincing as a girl, so to prove a point we got him to dress up and he became Livvy and have been out for the afternoon together. To be honest there was never any doubt that we were just three girls, the old ‘Triplets’ slightly modified. Livvy even went to the café counter for drinks chatting with the counter assistant and loaning her one of the sanitary pads in her bag. The girl just assumed Livvy was another girl prepared and ready for when her period arrived. With her high voice and talking to us all afternoon, her speech and mannerisms just screamed ‘girl’. If Livvy wants to, and if you will let her, she will be brilliant in the show. Who knows where it will lead, she has a wonderful voice and could go on to better things.”

“Hold on girls, you are scrambling my brain with all this talk of Livvy, her, she, and I can see how natural she looks and sounds - god you have even got me saying ‘she’ now - but I am not so sure that this is right, if his dad was still around he would be livid, and that is not a deliberate play on words of your name for her….him.”

“But Mum….”

“Be quiet Livvy…. Oliver! Girls go and see if your mothers are in and bring them around to here.”

Ten minutes later after Maggie and Becky, Lynne’s and Marie’s mothers, had settled in and been told the story of why I was dressed like a girl, Mum stood the three of us at the far end of the room.

“Right girls, and just this time I am including you in that Livvy, do your audition song for us I would like to hear how you all sound. Livvy, you take the lead of Maria, Lynne and Marie, you alternate the other voices.

Five minutes later there was a stony silence before the mothers all burst into big smiles and clapped.

“That was wonderful girls, you all have talent and beautiful voices, particularly you Livvy.” Becky was the first to respond. “ You just have to do the show !”

I know that I have heard you all in the school shows but your voices get lost amongst all the others, hearing just the three of you together was a revelation.” Maggie added.

“I couldn’t agree more but I am concerned about Ollie getting used to dressing as a girl and how it might affect him.”

“Mrs Sinclair, Ollie has played with Lynne and me as long as we can remember, we’ve enjoyed boys’ games with him and he has enjoyed girls’ games with us. It has broadened the outlook for all of us. Just because Ollie agreed to put on a dress to keep us quiet doesn’t mean that he wants to wear one all the time, it is just another one of our games together. This is a good opportunity for all of us, please don’t ruin it by not letting him play a little dress-up.” Marie quickly responded

Quickly looking over at Maggie and Becky, Mum came to a decision. “Ok let’s see how it goes, let’s go to The Grand for one of their cream teas, we are all reasonably tidily dressed, just a quick freshen up of our makeup and we’ll be all set to go.”

To be continued.