"Oh please! Oh please! Oh please!" Caroline begged.
"No!" I said. "Why can't one of your friends do it?"
"Because they are all going to the dance already!" Caroline explained.
"Well then ask one of the twins to go!"
"I already told you. The twins are upperclassmen and they aren't allowed at the Freshman/Sophomore Spring Dance," Caroline responded.
"This is crazy!" I insisted. "I am not going to a prom!"
"But it's NOT a prom!" Caroline insisted. "It's just a school dance. Robert's cousin, Mark, is visiting from Arizona next weekend. Robert's parents say that Robert can't go to the dance unless Mark can go too. Please, Tiffany! If you don't go as Mark's date, then Robert can't go with me. PLEASE!" She looked like she was about to cry.
I hated seeing Caroline so upset. I knew that going to the dance with Robert was important to her. "Oh, alright. I'll go. But only as a favor to you."
"You're the best, Tiffany! Thank you!" Caroline gave me a big hug and then ran off to call Robert and let him know that she had found a date for his cousin.
The week went by quickly and the Friday of the dance arrived. Mother took me out of school early so that I would have plenty of time to get ready for the dance. When we arrived at the house, Aunt Jenny had already laid out five or six of her nicest dresses for me to choose from. Mother suggested that I wear the tailored, sleeveless, pink dress with a blue floral pattern. I slipped it on and it fit perfectly. At 5:00, a lady arrived at the house to do hair and make-up for Caroline and me. We were finally ready at 7:00 when our dates, Robert and his cousin Mark, arrived. I was surprised to see that Mark was driving Robert's family's car but then remembered that Mark was a couple of years older than us and had a drivers license.
It turns out that Mark was very tall and and handsome. And he seemed to like how I looked too. When we were introduced, he came right up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before! I was really embarrassed because everyone was watching when he did that. But it also felt sort of nice.
Mother insisted on taking pictures of Caroline and me with our dates and then we headed off for the dance.
On Saturday afternoons, after the twins are done with their sports, we often go shopping. Sometimes we take taxis to the glitzy stores downtown. Other times we all pile into Aunt Jenny's big SUV and drive to the malls just outside of town.
The girls and my aunts just love shopping! They can try on shoes and dresses for hours. I guess I don't mind going along with them too much. When we go to the fancy stores, they always insist that I try on lots and lots of dresses. Sometimes it seems like they think I am some kind of living Barbie doll to play dress-up with.
Someone will always find some pretty dresses in my size. Then two or three of my cousins will pile into the fitting room with me while I strip down to my bra and panties. Then the girls will help zip me into the dresses. There is a ton of giggling and they love to take photos of me as I model the outfits they found for me.
This weekend we went to the Galleria Mall where there are several big department stores. Here's a photo of me wearing a fancy designer dress that I tried on at Nordstrom's that I could never afford.
Here's another dress that the girls insisted that I try on. I struggled to squeeze into this tight, clingy red and orange mini-dress.
They all said that this dress made me look "so hot!" and that "guys wouldn't be able to resist me wearing this dress." I don't mind dressing up like a girl, but I don't like it when the girls start talking about how "sexy" I am or how I must "really turn men on" and things like that. That kind of talk always makes me very uncomfortable. But even when I tell them to stop teasing me that way, they often keep doing it anyway.
Then Aunt Jenny found this sweater and skirt set and suggested I try it on. Everyone said I looked cute in it and I thought it looked nice on me. Aunt Jenny said it was on sale and she insisted on buying it for me.
Our next stop was Neiman Marcus. All of us tried on the summer dresses that were on clearance. Here's me in a pretty striped dress that everyone thought looked cute on me. Mother said it was a very good deal so she bought it for me.
Our last stop was Saks. Everybody tried on a bunch of outfits there. Aunt Jenny tried on a pretty blue dress but didn't like how it looked on her. She said that it would probably look better on me. So she dragged me into a fitting room and stripped off the dress. Wearing just her bra and panties, she helped me put on the dress she had just been wearing. When I came out of the fitting room, Mother and all of the girls gushed over how pretty I looked. Aunt Jenny insisted on buying it for me. As the sales lady was wrapping it up, Aunt Jenny said, "It's the perfect dinner date dress, don't you think?" All the girls giggled when she said that and I turned bright red.
I don't wear fancy dresses all the time when I visit Aunt Jenny and my cousins. The twins are really good athletes so we spend a lot of time, especially on Saturday mornings, watching their soccer or field hockey games.
When we go to watch their games, I dress very casually, like a girl my age would. If the weather is warm, I might wear shorts and maybe a little jacket or sweater. Caroline and I stand on the sidelines, with my mother and my aunt, cheering my twin cousins on.
And while we stand there on the field, we will often run into Caroline's friends from school. Since I visit every weekend, some of Carolne's friends have gotten to recognize me as Caroline's out-of-town cousin. Mostly it's Caroline's girl friends that we chat with on the sidelines. All of Caroline's girl friends are nice and I don't mind talking to them. And of course, no one suspects that I am not a girl.
But sometimes there are boys from Caroline's school that hang out on the sidelines with us too, including Caroline's boyfriend, Robert. He's OK, I guess, but mostly I'm just jealous of him.
There are other boys that talk to us too and some of these seem to take a lot of interest in me. Sometimes they try to flirt with me and it seems like they are always looking at my legs. That makes me really uncomfortable. I don't like it when men or boys look at me in that sort of hungry way. And it seems to be happening more and more. But I work really hard at staying calm. I fight the fear and disgust that builds up in me when boys try to hit on me. I use all of my strength to stay in character as Tiffany so no one will know my secret.
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Today, we watched the twins play in a State semi-final championship game. It was very exciting and the twins' team won. There were a lot of fans at the game, including a couple of boys who wouldn't stop trying to flirt with me. After the game was over, the twins headed off to the locker room. Mother, Aunt Jenny, Caroline and I then went to get mani-pedis. On the drive to the nail salon, Aunt Jenny said, "Well, it seems like the boys in this town really seem to like Tiffany a lot!"
I thought I was going to die when she said that.
"I know!" Caroline agreed. "Did you see how Tommy Murphy was practically drooling all over her?"
"Stop it!" I shouted.
"I'm sorry, dear," Aunt Jenny said. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. But you are very pretty and that's what happens to pretty girls like you."
