Starting College my way. A story of fiction by Symphony Simms.

Starting College my way. Chapter 13.

This one's for the girl. Friday afternoon September 13th

I phoned my Mom to tell her I was leaving the apartment and that I would be home at about 7pm.

“How are you?” she asked gently.

“I’m fine Mom. I am just the same as when I left on Sunday.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “If you don’t feel like driving and I am sure your Father could come and pick you up. I am sure this week has been a big strain on you.”

“No Mom I am just fine,” I said. “I am still the same person I was last week. I just wore different clothes for a few days.”

“So what are you going to look like when you come home?”

“Just the same Mom honestly. I got my ears pierced and my hair done differently but I am just the same. Today I am wearing the same clothes as when I left if that’s what you mean.”

“Please drive safely Leslie. We love you very much you know.”

“I know Mom and I love you too. I will be there at about 7pm depending on the rush hour traffic on the highway.”

“You could go the south route to the new 76. They say it’s safer Leslie.”

“I will be OK with my usual route Mom it’s OK. Everything is OK. I will see you at about 7pm.”

I made sure she was OK then hung up. I know her worrying is only a sign that she loves me but it can be a little much at times.

So, wearing cargo pocket shorts, two tee shirts and crocks, I packed my clothes, both types plus my laundry and my guitar into the car and headed home.

I still didn’t know what I was going to say when I got there. My plan was to tell the story of how I used to enjoy being dressed up in girls clothes by my sisters when I was a boy and how I have enjoyed dressing in my sisters clothes for years without anyone knowing about it. I am going to explain that I have kept my own collection of girl’s clothes and how when everyone was away from home I would get dressed and enjoyed being a girl for a short while.

I am then going to explain how I arrived at the apartment and the girls thought I was a girl so they accepted me, then the dean’s office called while I was not there and the girls in the apartment confirmed I was a girl because of my collection of girls clothes, and the fact that I looked like a girl.

Then I expected questions. The type and scope of questions could be endless but I knew there were some questions that I needed answers for before they asked me.

Did I want to become a girl full time for ever? How was I going to answer that I didn’t know. Being a girl full time involves hormones, surgery, counseling and many other things I am sure I don’t know about yet. That sounded scary.

Did I want to be a wife with a husband and give up all boy things? Definitely not right now! I have loved being with MJ and Rebecca over the last couple of days. How could I give that up?

Did I want to have sex with men? That was a difficult one. Could it be better than sex with a girl? I don’t know. I haven’t actually had full penetrating sex with a girl yet and I haven’t had any type of sex with a boy, unless you call kissing a boy sex. I know when I kissed Eden, MJ thought we were almost having sex. I find the thought of sex with a boy exciting, but was I just being curious? I don’t know.

Was I going to carry on college dressed as a girl? I think that has to be a big yes. I have found the last week wearing girl’s clothes and ‘being’ a girl to be so much more fun than I could possibly have than being a boy. I didn’t want to stop and how could I just change part way through.

Traffic was busy but still moved at a reasonable pace and I got home at about 7pm. When I drove through the gates and up the driveway the house seemed quieter than usual. There were no cars out front so my sisters were not home but I knew both Mom and Dad always parked in the garage. I picked up my stuff and went to the front door where I rang the bell before I opened the door and walked in.

Mom came over to me as soon as I dropped my stuff on the floor and hugged me tight. She started crying almost instantly. I hugged her back and gave her a minute to adjust and ease up her crying. Her arms were around my shoulders and my arms were around her waist. She is still a beautiful woman and I always enjoy her hugs. It’s just a little sad that she is crying.

She stepped back and held my face in her hands for a moment before she started grooming my hair.

“This must be a girl’s hairstyle,” she said. “It makes you look pretty. The diamond earrings look good on you too. Can we sit down and talk or do you want something to eat?”

“Right now I would like a drink and a beer would go down really good. It was not a difficult drive but it was long enough to make me a little weary. Where’s Dad?” I asked.

“He is sitting out back having a glass of wine by the pool.” Mom said as she went to the fridge to get me a beer. “We are trying to act normal and not make a fuss. Over the next couple of days we have a lot of talking to do but we have decided not to bombard you with questions as soon as you come home.”

She came to me with a beer in a glass. “Go say hello!” she said.

This was a very civilized way of dealing with things. I was ready for a barrage when I walked in the door. I reached for her hand and smiled at her, then I walked down the hall to the back of the house and out onto the pool deck.

Dad got up out of his chair as came to him. He hugged me tight for a lot longer than he usually does then pulled back and held my by the shoulders and looked me over.

“How are you?” he said. “You look healthy and happy and I hope you don’t mind me saying but you look more like Fiona than I remember.”

“That’s OK Dad,” I said. “Looking like Fiona I take as a complement. My sister has always been very pretty.”

I sat next to him and he started asking me about college and lecturers and the buildings and meeting new friends but he didn’t say anything about being a girl. After a few minutes I decided to ask him why.

“Dad, how come you haven’t asked about me going to college as a girl?”

“Because the first thing we want to do is show you that we love you Leslie.” He said. “We want to know how you are, how you enjoy school, how you like your roommates and everything else about you. Yes we want to know about the other thing, but first of all we love you and we want you to remain Leslie, our beautiful child.”

“I know you love me Dad. You keep on proving it. I thought me coming home like this would put you under a strain.”

“Yes there is some strain Leslie but provided you know that we love you now just as much as we always have, then we hope to take some of the strain away. We don’t want to push you into telling us before you are ready and we certainly don’t want to push you away.”

“Do you want me to talk about it now” I asked.

“I know we will be talking about it soon enough but it is not something I am looking forward to. It's like having a sore tooth pulled out. After it is gone I am sure everything will feel a lot better but I am not looking forward to the actual pulling.”

“Dad!” I said a little apprehensively. “I think it would be good for us all if I go upstairs and put on a dress and some make-up. Is that OK with you?”

He rolled his eyes and looked away and put his hand to his mouth like he wanted to bite his own finger. He took a few seconds to answer.

“Of course, please,” he said. “I would like to meet my new daughter.”

I am not totally sure that he was looking forward to it but the pulling teeth reference made sense. I got up and grabbed his shoulder for reassurance then I walked back into the house looking for Mom. She was in the kitchen.

“Look Mom,” I said walking into the Kitchen. “I honestly feel a bit silly walking around in baggy shorts like this after wearing girl’s clothes all week. I am going to go upstairs and put a dress on. Is that OK with you?”

She didn’t answer for a couple of seconds. “Can I come with you?” she asked.

I thought this was a strange request. “Why Mom?”

“Moms always like to help their daughters dressing no matter how old they are Leslie.”

“I am going to get a shower first Mom then you can come up OK?”

“Sure Leslie.” Now she smiled for the first time since I came in.

I headed up the stairs with my red suitcase with my clean clothes and a bag of dirty clothes over my shoulder. Once in my bedroom I looked through the clothes I could wear and I selected a black woven business dress to wear that Fiona selected for me. It was sleeveless and had a high neckline and the hem was just above the knee, but with the fitted shape of this dress and my corset I knew I would look very feminine but conservative.

I took my clothes into the bathroom and showered, covering my hair because I needed help with my hair if I washed it. I dried myself and put on panties, bra with breast forms and corset. Then I set about adding make-up. I had foundation on and had started doing my eyes in the bathroom mirror before Mom came knocking at the door. I let her in.

She looked me up and down as she came in. “You are definitely not the boy I remember!” she said obviously surprised at my new shape.

“There is a little cheating going on Mom, but underneath it’s still me.”

You know it didn’t feel one bit creepy or strange to have my Mom walk in while I was wearing a corset and bra. I wanted her to see how good I looked in them. I would probably be more embarrassed if she came in while I was wearing boy boxers.

“I was hoping to see you without a bra actually. Fiona said you have breasts.”

I took my Bra and breast forms off and placed them on the chair next to me. Mom looked at my breasts then she asked me to hold my arms extended in front of me and press my palms together. As I did this my Mom felt the breast tissue obviously trying to assess how much or what it was.

“You have breast tissue Leslie. I suspect it is gynecomastia but you will need to see a doctor about it.”

“What is gynecomastia Mom?”

“It is a condition where a boy or man grows breast tissue. There can be a few different reasons like a hormone imbalance or a reaction to some medication you once took. It could be other things but you do need to see a doctor to find out exactly what has caused it.”

“Do you think there might be something wrong Mom?”

“Honestly Leslie there must be something not quite right for you to get it, but it is a well know and well described condition. It may not require treatment, but it might. First you must see a doctor, but don’t worry about it now. I am pretty sure it won’t be urgent.”

“Should I make an appointment to see Doctor Polinski,” I asked.

“I think you should see a specialist so you can talk about your other condition at the same time.”

“What other condition Mom?” I asked.

“You gender condition Leslie,” she said.

“I don’t have a gender condition Mom, I am just enjoying being a girl,” I said.

Mom withdrew into herself for a moment like she was trying to phrase her reply.

“Leslie, I do not know why you have suddenly begun to dress as a woman. This need to dress as a woman I believe is a condition that should be discussed with a gender specialist who at the same time could discuss your breast condition.”

“Do you think there is something wrong with me Mom?”

“Leslie please don’t try to push me into saying something I don’t want to say. I will not use the words wrong and normal to discuss this. I will talk about your condition as is refers to you and your wellbeing.”

“So now you think I am not normal?”

“Don’t try to push me into using words that don’t apply Leslie.” Now she turned. It sounded like I was now in for one of Mom’s lectures.

“Let’s look at the word normal Leslie and how it would apply to our family.”

“Your dad has more hair that Robin Williams. It grows its way out of every piece of clothing we try to put on him. I could take him to get waxed all over but it would be growing back before I got him home. Is that normal?”

“What about me. I am tall and skinny and have no tits whatsoever. I doesn’t matter what I eat I can never put on any weight. I am pushing 50 and from the neck down I look like a child. Is that normal?”

“Look at your sister Dawn. She is the perfect normal shape for a woman except she has these massive breasts that make every man in every room she goes into turn around and stare. Is that normal? If it were normal they wouldn’t stare.”

“Normal is a word we use to describe the range of difference from the average, and you know that we are not all average but that does not mean that we are not normal. You are a mathematician Leslie so you understand standard deviation so are you under the bell curve or outside it. As far as I am concerned you are well under the bell curve and within the norms for what we expect a human being to be. You are not average Leslie but you are just another wonderful variation that proves how beautiful humans can be.”

She needed a hug after that so I gave her one. She cried in my arms a little. I wiped a tear from her eye with my thumb and I kissed her on the cheek. She kissed me on the lips. A beautiful mother’s kiss that I don’t remember getting for a while.

“Sounds like you have been saving that up for a while?” I said. “Thanks Mom. I knew you would always accept me but it feels rewarding to be spoken of in that way.”

“You are my precious child,” she said recovering her composure. “You are exactly what I expected and exactly what I wanted. You are Leslie Haigt. Now finish your make-up so we can see this beautiful woman you have been hiding from us for so long.”

I always knew that my parents loved me, but it was sure good to get that feeling reinforced every once in a while. Mom left me getting dressed so I completed my make-up and put special effort in trying to look perfect for them.

I tried to look as good as Fiona or Barbara because were my role models for elegance as I grew up. Dawn too but she did go through a little trashy period. I was trying to ensure that there wasn’t a single component of my make-up that you could point to for being out of place or noticeable. I wanted my make-up to complement what I had rather than creating something that I wasn’t. It looked pretty good to me but I wasn’t the judge.

I spent a little extra time tightening my corset and adjusting my boobs so I could look as absolutely feminine as possible for them. I put on a full length slip then stepped into the dress.

On a hanger this dress didn’t look like much, but when I put it on it fit my shape exactly. It was a tiny bit tight under my boobs and I could feel the form fitting way it followed my shape down to my waist. OK so I understand that it would not fit me unless I wore the corset but it was still me under there and it felt wonderfully feminine.

I didn’t wear tights but I put my heeled gladiator sandals on then I went back to my room to get some jewelry. I could see Mom sitting in her bedroom looking down the hall obviously waiting to catch a glimpse.

“Leslie,” she called. I went into her room to see her.

“Can I offer you some jewelry?” she asked.

“What do you mean Mom, offer?”

“I have lots of jewelry that I don’t wear and I know it can be expensive for a young person. You can have some of mine to borrow or to have, whatever makes you feel comfortable. I have a beautiful single string of pearls and matching earrings that you can wear with that black dress.”

She showed me. They were beautiful. I put them on.

“I also have a couple of spare watches that you can have,” and she handed me a beautiful gold Seiko watch.

I felt like the prodigal child returning to be offered the gifts that the other children did not get.

“Are you sure Mom? Won’t this upset the others?”

“We have been giving our daughters beautiful jewelry for years Leslie. You are the one that missed out. Just borrow them for now and we can discuss it another time.”

She also gave me a bracelet for my other wrist. I hugged her and thanked her. I felt like a million dollars. Then I started crying. This was a little overwhelming. I expected to me poked, prodded and questioned and all I get is flattery, support and gifts.

“Just take your time and make yourself comfortable them come and join us downstairs. We are going to have dinner now. Barbara and Dawn with Mark are here.”

I felt a slight flutter in my stomach. Well if I wasn’t nervous before then I should be now. My Dad, Barbara and Mark had not seen me as a girl before. But this was not my first big reveal. I would say I was slightly apprehensive rather than nervous.

OK so this was it. Final preparations included pit stop in the bathroom then fix my make-up and a final look in the mirror to verify that I looked perfect.

You know even though I do say it myself I looked pretty damn hot. I reminded myself of Martina McBride in an old photo I used to like. OK so I may not be as pretty as Martina McBride but I still looked good. With my confidence boosted I walked from my room, down the hallway and started to descend the stairs.

Our stairs are made from oak with no carpet, so as there was no music playing anyone downstairs could hear as I started to walk down the stairs. They call came from the kitchen and dining room to see me.

Dad came first from the kitchen followed by Mom. Dad came right to the foot of the stairs. Dawn came next holding Mark’s hand followed by Barbara who came over and held Mom’s arm. As I got to the bottom of the stairs Dad reached up for my hand.

“The moment we have been waiting for, may I present my beautiful youngest daughter Leslie!”

With that I stepped off the stairs and stood in front of everyone. I turned to Dad first and wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. Mom came over to me then and gave me a quick hug then Barbara came over and rather meekly held out her hands to me. I think she was on the verge of crying but she held it back. I gave her a long hug.

“It’s not going to be easy you know,” said Barbara. “Fiona is not here so I am going to get you mixed up with her.”

“That’s OK Barbara,” I said. “If you mistake me for Fiona I will take it as a complement.”

“You are just as pretty as any of us you know Leslie,” she said. “Every moment you stand there you confirm what we used to say when you were little; that you were Fiona’s identical twin just delayed a year.”

“I know. Back at college a lot of people have remarked on it already. They have been asking how to tell us apart.”

“So how do we tell?”

“Come on Barbara. You must be able to tell us apart.”

“I hope I can, but right now I look at you and I see Fiona with short hair. That is what Dawn said when she met you on the street. Fiona with short hair.” Dawn, Mark and Mom and Dad were surrounding me now.

“So give your prettiest sister a hug now Leslie!” said Dawn and I did. It was a little difficult to get close to her now because now we both had tits, but somehow we managed. Dawns tits were big but they were squishy. “Mark wants a hug too Leslie.”

I looked at him but I wasn’t sure he wanted a hug from me.

“Hug the both of you,” she commanded. “My sister and my husband are going to be friends, just as Mark is with my other sisters.”

Mark gave me a hug but he didn’t kiss me on the cheek like the others did. “Nice to meet you again Leslie,” he said while he smiled at me and looked me over.

“While you are there Mark give Barbara a hug too.” So he did.

“After dinner we are going out the four of us Leslie,” said Dawn. “We are going down to the Fox Hollow for a drink or two. Mark is DD.

“But I can’t drink so I could drive,” I said.

“But Fiona can drink and she has been a regular there during the summer. Just remember your name is Fiona and we don’t have a problem,” said Dawn, ever the schemer.

“Let’s go have dinner everyone,” said Dad, so we all moved into the dining room. Mom had made lots of different salads and ingredients spread around the table and we were instructed to dig in. I went straight for the spinach and added peppers, olives, onions and a whole host of other stuff.

Dad made sure we all had a glass of wine and Mom came around with some hot salmon and chicken to top the salads with and we all had a good feast. Afterwards there were chocolate goodies which is always my favorite part. There were other sweet things there too but I never look at them if I see my favorite chocolate.

When the feeding frenzy had died down, the conversation died down a little and Mom turned to me. “We didn’t ask you or prepare you for this but we thought this might be a good time to tell us what happened Leslie. Do you feel comfortable talking about this to us all?”

“It’s OK Mom, I can handle it. I kind of prepared myself for something like this on the way up.”

I poured myself a little more wine, cleared my throat which seemed to get everyone’s attention, and then I started my story.

“This story starts when I was very small. I do not know how old I was but one of the earliest memories of being happy involves me wearing a dress and playing with my sisters. I don’t remember putting the dress on or asking to be in a dress, but I was in a dress. I remember it because my sisters were all wearing dresses and it made me happy to be like my sisters.”

“I didn’t ever care what I was doing, provided it was with my sisters. I felt safe and loved and happy when I could be with my sisters. This was especially true of Fiona. I grew up so close to Fiona that we used to have to move each other out of the way to do the simplest things. It seems at time that I grew up touching Fiona.”

“Even now when I go to sleep at night, I sleep best when I imagine Fiona next to me. Have you ever noticed that when we are in the same room, especially when we sit on a sofa, that Fiona sits so close to me that I have no place to put my arm. That’s what safe and happy feels like to me. Someday I hope to feel that way about someone else, and that will be the person I will want to spend the rest of my life with.”

“I also remember photographs of when we used to play girls games together. In the photo’s there were sometimes two Fiona’s and no Leslie. Honest it was like that sometimes. I was the other Fiona, the one with the short hair.”

“So you get the picture. I really enjoyed wearing dresses and playing with my sisters, but somewhere along the way I had to go to school and I was told that I had to wear boy’s clothes and play with boy’s toys because I was a boy. This was not a terrible painful thing to do. Somewhere inside me there is a boy too and some boys stuff I found really fun, it’s just that I couldn’t do those things when I was with my sisters because they wanted to do girl’s things.”

“There was a period when I could do both. I used to go to school and do boys things with my buddies and have fun. I would also come home and play with by boys stuff and once in a while one of the girls or my Mom and Dad would come and play with me which was great.”

“But then there were other times when the girls used to dress me in their clothes and play girl’s things with me which was also great. But then something happened. My Mom and Dad started telling me that I was too big to be wearing girl’s clothes and I should be playing with my boy buddies more often, so the dressing in girl’s clothes happened less and less often till eventually it just stopped.”

“I don’t remember when it stopped, but I do remember missing it. I would make myself available and hang out where the girls were but they just never asked me. I remember asking if we could dress up a couple of times but whoever it was said we can’t do that anymore and that was that, but I never stopped thinking about it.”

“I still had a close relationship with Fiona at this time. There were things we did together especially playing board games with the rest of the family. Sometimes we could get all six of us around a Monopoly game and the best part about playing Monopoly was sitting next to Fiona. I always had my best games when I sat next to Fiona and I was always just as happy that Fiona won if I couldn’t because I always thought we were a team together.”

“After the dressing up stopped I never forgot it. It just rested in the back of my mind waiting to get out. It took a few years before it go out again.”

“Leslie!” my Dad interrupted me. “Are you saying that there was a girl inside you, all this time?”

“Yes I am. I didn’t always recognize it as a girl inside me trying to get out. I thought of it as a dark secret that no one wanted to know about. I had been told that it was wrong and I shouldn’t do it and I did what I was told, but now I think of it as a girl hidden inside me.”

“But I was living in a house with 4 women. There were women’s clothes everywhere, so I started to wear women’s clothes when nobody was looking, and as I got older and more responsible I got left on my own in the house more often. I used to find girls clothes in the house to wear.”

“Fortunately there was always the closet in the spare room where my sisters used to keep their old dresses and stuff. There were occasions when I raided my sister bedrooms but it was no often and when I started working part time jobs, I often had money to but my own things.”

“Every couple of months for the last few years I would make a shopping trip into Philly or King of Prussia or somewhere similar. I would go to buy girls clothes have lunch and go home. Sometimes I would buy myself something, then go to a movie, but I before I went into the movie I would go to the bathroom and put whatever I had bought on under my regular clothes, then watch the movie. No one ever noticed and it made me feel more like a girl.”

“I do believe my sisters noticed that I was using their clothes, but you all decided not to confront me,” I said directing my comment towards Mom and Dad.

“That’s true,” said Dad. “I went to see a Gender Identity Specialist in Philly one time. I told him what we knew about your dressing. He told me not to turn it into a problem. There are many different variations on the need to cross dress he said. He could not know which one it was. If it is simply sexual gratification and it is not hurting anyone then why not leave it alone.”

“If it is a more serious case of gender identity disorder then we would see some signs. He said that depression is the most serious side effect of a gender identity disorder and that if I was happy and well-adjusted then I probably wasn’t in need of intervention. He persuaded me Leslie that if you had a problem and especially if you were depressed then maybe some sort of intervention could be discussed.”

My Dad continued. “He also told me that if we love you unconditionally and showed that to you often, that you would come to us with your problems and concerns. He said there would be signs and that you would find a way to tell us, but we never saw any signs, so we didn’t do anything.”

“I do feel the unconditional love,” I said, “but I also remember that it was wrong to wear women’s clothing so I thought the right thing to do was to hide it. I just got into a pattern and it carried on till recently.”

“Listening to your story Leslie made me realize that there was one thing I did wrong that I wish I could do over,” said my Dad. “Listening to you now I never knew about just how much time you spend in girl’s clothes when you were younger.”

“When I spoke to the Gender Identity Specialist I dismissed that part as unimportant. I don’t even know if I mentioned it. Therefore there was a big piece missing from his puzzle and therefore he gave us a path forward without knowing the entire story. This may be why you were so good a hiding it from us because the ‘wrong’ of it had been emphasized more than I realized.”

“Water under the bridge Dad,” I said. “So that brings you up to the moment when I went to find myself an apartment in Mount Laurel.”

“The University sent me a newspaper with all of the advertised rooms in Mount Laurel and the surrounding areas. I selected some nice sounding apartments and made some appointments over the phone. I didn’t realize that the adds were in two sections. I was reading from the girl’s section. A fact that was pointed out to me after I moved into the apartment.”

“Listen before I go too far with this,” I interrupted myself. “let’s get some things straight. I know I sound like a girl sometimes and even more often I get mistaken for a girl because I look like one. This used to upset me because everyone said I was a boy and I shouldn’t look and sound or look like a girl, but it’s OK now. I take it as a complement now. That is all part of the story because sometimes, before last week, I thought I was just being a normal boy.”

“Leslie, that way you talk now it sounds like you are saying that you were a boy last week but now you are a girl. Do you actually believe that?” asked my Dad.

“I must admit that this is still new to me Dad, but yes. I feel like I am a girl now, and I don’t want to pretend to be a boy any more.”

“But what about your boy friends from high school? What are you going to tell them? Have you spoken to any of them since?” asked my Mom.

“No I haven’t. I didn’t really have a best friend apart from Fiona. They were all just guys who already had best friends that I hung around with. I will have to speak to them some time, but I haven’t considered that yet.”

“So I showed up at the first apartment. The girl’s in it were really nice. So there is my first mistake. I didn’t know that the apartments were divided up into girls and boys. The girls in the apartment seemed to like me and they said I would be welcome to stay with them. They thought I was a girl. They were assuming that I just dressed badly and one of them thought I might be a lesbian trying to look like a boy.”

“I was going to stop you there,” said Barbara, “because you said girl’s apartment, but then I thought were else would you be living when you look like you do?”

“Exactly,” I said. “I couldn’t believe my luck. I just thought that they were nice girls accepting of a smart, well presented young boy who needed a place to stay. I must admit that I decided not to tell you guys about it because I didn’t know if you would like me staying in an apartment with 3 girls.”

“The following day I went back to the apartment with some things, which included a red suitcase of my own girl’s clothes that I wanted to move without you guys knowing anything about it. Even while I was there one of my roommates, MJ, stands for Mary Jane, asked me if I mind being called a pretty boy. My sisters and other people had used that expression about me many times so I thought nothing of it at the time, but I have since found out that when one lesbian woman says that to another, it is making a pass. She thought I was a girl trying to look like a boy.”

“So the day after that I stayed home, but at the apartment the dean of admissions office had called the girls in the apartment and asked to confirm if the Leslie Haigt that the girls had registered as being a roommate, was actually a girl because their records showed me as a boy, so they looked in my suitcase and found girls clothes.”

“Why didn’t they just call your old school?” said my Dad.

“Because it was Saturday,” I continued. “The admissions office said they would correct the records, but if there was a problem then my roommates should call back. The admissions office also said that there was not a single room available for a boy for ten miles in any direction. That would play a roll later.”

“After we were all here on Saturday, I left here Sunday just a 19 year old boy heading to university for the first time. When I got into the apartment and started settling in, the girls started asking some strange questions to find out if I was a boy or a girl without asking me directly. It was kind of odd but eventually I got the picture. So I told them I was a boy, then I had a decision to make.”

“These are the facts. Let’s see what solutions you could all come up with.”

“I was in a girl’s only apartment. All of the boy’s apartments were full for miles around. The admissions office had been told I was a girl and had changed my records. I had a suitcase full of my girls’ clothes in my bedroom and I love wearing girl’s clothes and I could easily look like a girl. The girls in the apartment refused to allow a boy to stay in their apartment, but if I admitted to them that I wanted to be a girl and dressed the whole time as a girl, then I could stay with them.”

“So what did you do?” said Barbara.

I lifted my hands above the table, flipped open my palms and looked at her.

“You told them that you wanted to live full time as a girl.”

“Sure did!”

“So why didn’t they call the dean’s office and have you thrown out?”

“I guess they like me!”

“And you have been going to school every day dressed as a girl?”

“You bet. It’s marvelous.”

“Doesn’t anyone at the school say anything?”

“Like what. The dean’s office think that someone checked M instead of F and they corrected it. Everyone thinks I am a girl.”

“So what happens if someone finds out?”

“Find out what. I am a college student. There is nothing in the admissions information telling me how to dress. My student card doesn’t even have gender on it. What rules am I breaking?”

“So what happens when someone kisses you?” said Barbara.

“I like being kissed. What’s the problem?”

“Now you are being flippant Leslie,” my dad said. “The silly girl side of you is coming out now. What happens when a boy wants to kiss you and you want to kiss him?”

“I have made up my mind that I will never kiss anyone who does not know my condition.”

“What condition?” said Dawn.

“The fact that I am a boy underneath.” I said. “If I kiss a boy and he thinks that I am a girl then I could get in serious trouble, up to and including a good beating.”

“So what about that boy you kissed on Monday night? said Dawn.”

“OK so I made one mistake, but I apologized and told him I can’t see him again.”

“So what did he say when you told him you were a boy?”

“I didn’t tell him I was a boy Dawn, I said I was sorry but I can’t see him anymore.”

“Honestly Leslie this sounds dangerous,” said my Mom. “You have already kissed one boy and you have only been there 5 days. You will have to promise to stay away from boys and concentrate on your school work.”

I am definitely not going to mention the other people I have kissed. “I am going to concentrate on my school work, playing guitar with Fiona and my dramatic society gig.”

“OK that’s another wrinkle,” said Dawn. “What is the dramatic society gig?”

“The dramatic society is doing a play and they want me to play a part.”

“What part,” asked Dawn.

I was not going to tell her. That would open up another can of worms. “Don’t know yet. I will find out next week.”

“So I think we have questioned Leslie enough for now,” said Dawn. “Can we take her out to the Fox Hollow for a drink?”

Dad and Mom looked at each other before they said anything. “You 3 will have to take care of her. She has never been there before and she is still a little under age.”

“We will Mom,” said Dawn and Barbara together.

Dawn dragged Barbara into I into the powder room while Mark went for the car. Dawn and I started to touch up our make-up in the mirror while Barbara stood behind us.

“This is insane,” said Barbara behind us. “This feels exactly like me, Dawn and Fiona going out together like we did a couple of weeks ago, except that Fiona is now Leslie. I know it’s you Leslie, but I can’t stop seeing Fiona.”

“You can call me Fiona if you want Barbara if it makes you feel any better,” I said.

“We will both be calling you Fiona because Leslie is not old enough to drink and Fiona is well known there and they know she just turned 21. You will have to remember Leslie that if anyone says to you ‘Hi Fiona how have you been?’ you must answer like you know who they are and you are glad to see them.”

“This is going to be crazy. I have to pretend to be Fiona all night?”

“You certainly do Leslie, and from what you said earlier you will love it.”

I knew she was right. We went outside and got into Mark’s car and headed down the road to the Fox Hollow Pub and Eatery.

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This story has absolutely nothing to do with Martina McBride, apart from the fact that the author has had a tiny crush on her for the last 20 years, and maybe Leslie has a very minor resemblance to Martina.

Martina McBride - This One's For The Girls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTowId2CWHA