"It went great!" Tammy practically shouted. "Of course, when I first arrived, I got a lot of stares walking down the hall to homeroom. But mostly I think people were staring because they didn't know who I was -- or why someone was wearing such a fancy nightgown to PJ Day!"
Tammy continued. "When I first got to homeroom, people were shocked. I mean speechless. I thought it was hysterical! But after just a few minutes, a bunch of the girls -- the cool girls, the ones that never talk to me -- came over and started fussing all over me. They were saying how pretty I was, how jealous they were, and so on. It was totally fun!"
"It was sort of funny," Tammy continued, "That I was the one wearing the prettiest nightgown! Most of the other girls were wearing pajamas or flannel nightgowns -- like the ones we wear together in the winter. Nobody was wearing a fancy, pretty nightgown like me." I was relieved to hear this as I thought Tammy's selection of nightgown wasn't exactly appropriate and I thought it might cause a problem -- but apparently not.
Tammy continued, talking a mile a minute. "But of course, the boys noticed me too. A bunch of them just couldn't stop staring at me while I was chatting with the cool girls. And then a couple of brave ones came up to me. At first I was worried that they were going to give me a hard time or start calling me names. But that didn't happen. Instead Jimmy Michaels came up to me a said 'Wow, you really look amazing. I barely recognized you.'"
I was shocked to hear this because I was aware that Jimmy Michaels (who was captain of the football team, by the way) had never been nice to Tommy over the years, calling him names like "sissy" and "faggot" just because he didn't like to play sports and because he mostly kept to himself.
"Well, after homeroom, we all went to the auditorium for the end of year presentation. The girls from my homeroom asked me to sit with them, and we were joined by the cool girls from the other homerooms. And everybody was super nice to me and made a big deal about how pretty I looked." Tammy was practically breathless from talking so fast.
"Then after the presentations, we all went to the gym where they handed out yearbooks. And they had pizza and soda and everybody spent the rest of the day signing each others' yearbooks and chatting and eating. This time Jimmy Michaels came up and talked to me, even offering to get me some pizza and soda. He told me that he would working all summer at his uncle's car shop on North Street and he said that he hoped that we would get to hang out together over the summer...""The whole day went by in a flash. Before I knew it, it was time to go home."
"Well, young lady, you certainly had an exciting day!" I said. "You must be exhausted."
"Oh, I guess. But I'm supposed to meet some of the other girls at the mall at 3:00. Can you drive me? And tonight, Jimmy invited me to go with him to end of year bonfire down by the lake -- can I go to that too?"
"Well, I don't see why not. If it's what you want to do," I said.
Tammy's life experienced a big change as a result of his wearing a pretty nightgown to PJ Day. That whole summer was a whirlwind of parties and days at the lake and afternoons at the mall and nights at the movies. Needless to say, I had to spend quite a bit of money on getting Tammy all the clothes that he needed now -- casual outfits and jeans and tank tops; swimsuits and cover-ups; party dresses; the works!