Fancy Dress day - Chapter 4

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"Would you like a summary, Craig, Karen?"

"Yes, Miss," Karen said, hoping she hadn't missed too much.

"Lots of boys used to wear dresses. Wearing a dress or skirt as fancy dress doesn't mean a boy is a girl, or wants to be a girl, although there would be nothing wrong with that. You are mistaking the length and how a piece of fabric is sewn for something far more fundamental. Now, if I hear any more from you two about it, next week you will be wearing each other's uniforms for the whole week." This caused much sniggering throughout the class, although not from Craig. "And I don't think Karen's mother will be very happy about all the repairs that would require. Do I make myself clear?"

This was a question they both knew the answer to. "Yes, Miss."

"Kindly retake your seats," Ms. Waters waited a moment while the two moved off, then reopened her notebook. "Now, Judaism."

The lesson returned to boring normality. Eddie thought through what Ms. Waters had said. He wasn't sure he had it all straight, but broadly it seemed that people shouldn't be reading so much into who clothes were meant for. That and Craig and Karen had been told to shut up. He definitely approved of the second message.

Time crawled as Eddie checked the dock on the wall every few seconds. Judaism seemed very nice, but what would be even nicer was the lesson ending and the weekend starting. The lesson seemed to inflate until it took longer than the whole morning of Maths, but eventually, the bell rang and Ms Waters indicated they could put their books away.

"Eddie, a moment of your time," said the teacher as he got up to go. Eddie's heart sank. Was he never going to get out of this skirt? He walked up to her desk.

"Yes, Ms Waters?"

"You heard what I said earlier?" Eddie nodded, Ms. Waters looked him in the eyes, her gaze was much more friendly than Mrs. Thannet's. "I meant all of it, but that said if you were taking the opportunity of a fancy dress day to wear something that made you feel, more normal?"

"Urn," Eddie tried to make sure he understood what she was hinting at. "Do you mean am I wearing the skirt because I'd like to wear a skirt normally?"

"Well, more than you'd rather everyone thought you were a girl normally, and the skirt and other clothes were just a way of feeling that way"

"No!" Eddie said more sharply than he meant to. He didn't like the way this conversation was going. He sighed. "Sorry. I just mean... I forgot it was Children in Need Day today. If I was late, I was going to get detention because I'm late a lot. My friend Claire..." He explained as briefly as he could.

"Ah!" Ms Waters smiled. "Well, you've probably put up with a lot today, just to avoid a detention. No point hanging around anymore, I'm sure. But Eddie, if any of the boys try to talk about it with you and they seem... a little more interested than you'd expect. Tell them I would be a good person to talk to about it, please."

Eddie nodded. "OK, Ms Waters, I'll do that."

"Good," Ms Waters sighed. "Long week. Good. Thank you. Off you go, don't forget to do your homework."

Eddie took the stairs down two at a time. He got to the lockers, but Claire wasn't there. He pushed his PE bag back in his locker while he waited. Even if her class had been held back for being naughty, she should be here by now.

"Sorry, that took longer than I thought," said Claire from behind him. Eddie swung around to find she'd changed. No longer a pirate, Claire was now in school uniform. His school uniform. "Why does your shirt button up the wrong way?"

"What are you doing? I was going to change into that!"

Claire smiled and put her hands out, spinning in a circle. "Now we're both cross-dressing! I thought it would be a laugh. Come on, we can change at my house."

"But"

Claire started heading off down the corridor. "Come on, you've been in that all day, a bit longer won't make any difference."

Eddie was nervous walking down the road with Claire, but her being in school uniform too somehow helped. He thought about what Ms. Waters said while Claire fiddled with her phone, trying to get it straight in his head.

"Did you know pink used to be a boy's color?" "Yeah," said Claire, checking messages in various apps. "That was on QI." "Oh, maybe that's how Sally knew." "I thought you had Humanities, not art?"

Eddie shrugged. "It was a bit of a bizarre lesson. Craig was playing up and calling me Edwina again, and Ms. Waters made him and Karen stand in front of everyone and made them look stupid, and said how wearing a dress when you're a boy doesn't stop you being a boy and some stuff I can't really explain."

"That's a lot more interesting than my French lesson was."

Claire's phone buzzed while they chatted.

"Oh, uh, Mum needs me to pick up something from the shops. Oh, several somethings. Let's go that way." Claire headed left at the road junction they'd reached, rather than right. Eddie stopped and she looked back at him. "What's up?"

"I can't go to the shops like this!" Eddie indicated his clothes. "Someone might see me!"

"Who hasn't seen you? You bashed a guy with a tray in front of loads of people earlier."

"That's not the same!"

"Come on, I've got to get the stuff, there's no time to go home and change and come back. If we go now we can get back and you can change before Mum gets home."

Eddie dithered. He didn't want to go into the village in a skirt, but he really didn't want his aunt seeing him like this and finding out he'd spent the whole day at school in girl's clothes, no matter what Ms. Waters said.

"Ohh, go on then, as long as we're quick. It's alright for you, you look like a girl in trousers."

"That's because I am a girl in trousers."

"Yeah, and that's normal. It's OK for girls to wear trousers. It's not OK for a boy to wear a skirt."

Claire thought for a moment. "Eddie, have you seen yourself today?"

"Of course" Eddie stopped himself. "Urn, no. The only place with a mirror was the loo when I got changed, and I didn't have time to look."

"Well, maybe don't worry about other people at the moment. I'll show you why later."

Claire's phone buzzed again. She poked at it, looked confused for a moment, and turned the phone so Eddie couldn't see the screen.

"More shopping?"

"Uh, yeah," Claire typed, then quickly put the phone away in her pocket. "Just another thing to get."

They dosed in on the shops and Eddie's nerves got stronger. "Are you sure this is going to be OK?"

Claire slipped her arm around his shoulders and gave him a squeeze. "Sure. Don't worry about it. Let's just get the shopping and get home."

They started to pass adults and Eddie tried to watch their expressions but did not catch the eye of any of them or look like he was staring. No one said anything or seemed to be paying them any undue attention. He relaxed, just a little. Across the road were two older kids from their school, but they ignored Eddie and Claire.

"In here, I need to get milk, broccoli, and some other stuff," they entered the supermarket and Eddie picked up a basket while Claire poked at her phone to call up the message from her mother.

There were more adults in the supermarket, but again, they didn't seem to find anything odd about Eddie. He stuck close to Claire, wondering what he would do if one of the adults started making a fuss. It was one thing to wear the clothes in school during a fancy dress day, wearing them out in the street was something else entirely. Probably die of embarrassment, he decided.

It took quite a while to find what they needed as Claire had a long list of small items. They could have done it faster by splitting up, but Eddie was too nervous.

"Is that girl looking at me," he whispered urgently while Claire was trying to decide which toothpaste her mother wanted.

"What?"

"The girl down there," Eddie pointed through himself, hoping the girl didn't see him. "Every time I look around she's looking at us, I swear."

Claire looked down the aisle and tried not to smile. "Eddie, I think you need to get glasses."

Eddie frowned at her, he didn't think it was too much effort for her to look down the aisle and check, she didn't need to be rude. "I was trying not to stare!"

Claire started giggling. "It's a mirror, you daft banana!"

Looking back around, Eddie noticed the skirt on the girl was settling down, and he could feel the skirt settling around his legs at the same time. He saw a hand suddenly appear behind the girl and wave at him, turned to find Claire waving behind him. Eddie blushed.

"That explains why she's got her uniform on, and I didn't see her at school," he walked towards the mirror and suddenly recognized himself. "OK, that's just weird. Do I really look like that?"

"Well, obviously," said his friend. "I told you, you don't need to worry about someone guessing," she changed from saying "You're a boy" as an old woman turned the corner and came down the aisle towards them. "Who did that to your hair? It didn't look like that this morning."

"Sally did it after PE," Eddie looked back in the mirror. His jaw-length hair usually looked quite messy, but Sally had smoothed it out so it framed his face rather than poking out randomly. "Is it OK? It looks a bit weird."

"It suits those clothes," said Claire, eyeing the woman who was now browsing, "let's put it that way."

Eddie considered this if it made him look more like a girl, that was probably a good thing at the moment. He could mess it up later and be back to normal.

"How much more stuff have we got to get?"

While Claire poked at her phone, the elderly lady turned to them. "Excuse me, dearie, could you reach that up for me?" Eddie picked up the bottle of bleach she was pointing to on the bottom shelf. "Thank you, my back isn't what it once was."

"No problem," said Eddie with a smile.

He followed Claire up the aisle and around the corner, feeling a sense of relief. Not having to worry about anyone spotting he was really a boy was relaxing after a long day of being tense. He could handle a few random shoppers thinking he was a girl.

"Just this and two tins of soup for Dad, then I need to go down the road to the gift shop," said Claire, holding up a big bottle of milk. "I'm glad you came, this stuff is really heavy."

While they waited in the queue, Eddie tried to stand in a girlish way. He wasn't quite sure what that was, but he stood with his feet neatly together and his hands together in front of him. It was strange, all the adults around them saw two girls standing in the queue, only he and Claire knew how wrong they were. It was kind of like pulling a prank on all of them at once, not that they'd ever know they'd been had by his disguise.

The gift shop, â Angelica's' was a couple of minutes' walk from the supermarket. Weighed down with bags, Eddie wished they'd gone there first. He concentrated on walking the way Claire had told him at lunchtime, not wanting to spoil the illusion of being a girl now.

"What are we going in here for anyway?" he'd never been in the gift shop before, the window was full of little china figurines of dogs and owls, and plates with young children painted on them. A shop of nothing he ever wanted to buy.

"Uh," Claire seemed unsure for a second. "I need to get something for my grandmother. Grandma Willy, not Grandma Cushion."

"Shame, it'd be easy to buy a present for Grandma Cushion," said Eddie quietly as they entered the shop. In the corner, he could see a few cushions with dogs on and he was sure their shared grandmother would love any of them to add to her collection.

"We'll have to remember that for next year," Claire muttered.

The shop was quite small, and crammed full of nick-nacks. Carved and china cats, more dogs, horses, and otters looked up at them from the shelves that weren't full of tiny boxes, scarves, and odd-smelling, expensive soaps. Claire seemed a little nervous, glancing around the shop this way and that.

"It's alright," said Eddie, seeing her worried look. "There's bound to be something here she'd like." He reached out tentatively and squeezed her hand the way she had for him. He didn't do a lot of hand squeezing as a boy, it was more punches in the arm, but he thought it reassured her a little.

Claire prodded at her phone for a few seconds, it bleeped and she relaxed a little.

"What can I help you with today?" said a loud voice behind them, making them both jump.

They turned to find a tall, straight-backed woman with a lot of makeup on staring at them, smiling, not altogether welcomingly. Claire seemed stunned into silence, so after a few seconds, Eddie spoke.

"We're looking for a present for our, I mean her, grandmother," he said, his voice squeaking a little as the woman's gaze intensified. It was rather like being under a magnifying glass.

The woman's smile warmed a little. "Welcome to Angelica's, I am Angelica, I'm sure I'll have something your grandmother will like," she focussed on Claire. "Does your grandmother have any hobbies? Any pets?"

"Um, er, she likes, fish," said Claire lamely. "And chocolate. She really likes chocolate."

"Let's have a look at the fish first, shall we?" Angelica's eyes were bright, her wide smile a little fixed.

"Um, OK?"

Angelica lead Claire around the shop to a shelf of fishy ornaments, Eddie trawled after, keeping a little distance from the shop owner, who was giving

him bad vibes. Too much time under that intense gaze might find out his secret.

"Hey, Eddie!"

Eddie was surprised to hear Sally's voice. He turned, straight into a hug, which was over too quickly for him to start enjoying it.

"Hi Sally, what are you doing here?" Eddie glanced around but Sally didn't seem to be with anyone.

"This is my Mum's shop. I come here after school most days unless I've got someone to hang out with."

"That's your mum?" It came out more surprised sounding than Eddie had meant and he put his hand over his mouth. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"Yeah, that's my Mum," Sally glanced up the aisle to where Angelica was showing Claire some of the chocolates she stocked.

Sally seemed shorter than she had at school and Eddie realised she'd changed out of her big shoes with the blocky heels. She was wearing some normal, flat ballet-style shoes, and leggings, which she hadn't had on at school either.

"You look" he'd been about to say differently, but saw Sally's mother looking down the aisle at them, "really nice."

"Thanks," Sally spun on the spot, her long hair fanning out, her sequinned dress sparkling in the light. Eddie's heart almost melted at her prettiness. "It's from the Spice Girls. They were big when Mum was young."

"It's really" Eddie tried to think of how a girl might compliment the outfit and failed, "Cool."

"It's a bit old for her," said Angelica, coming closer.

"Aw, Mum!" Sally objected to being shown up in front of her friends.

"I think it's perfect," said Eddie, not able to help himself. He bit his lip, hoping he hadn't upset Angelica, Sally gave him a smile. "Urn, I mean, it fits perfectly."

"What are you doing here? I, I mean, who are you buying for?" Angelica gave her daughter a warmer smile as she asked the right question.

"Claire's grandma's birthday," said Eddie. "We're not sure what to get." "Oh, I could show you some things," said Sally. "If that's OK, Mum?" Angelica nodded, pleased to see her daughter taking an interest in the shop for once.

Sally led them around the shop on the pretext of showing them various figurines, boxes, and intricate carvings that hung on ropes. This was a cover for chatting about school, how Eddie was getting on, and why Claire was dressed in his uniform.

Claire eventually settled on a small, not-too-expensive box, and a bag of chocolate buttons to put in it. Sally and Eddie hovered near the counter while Angelica packed the items in tissue paper.

"Oh, did you understand what Maxw., Mr. Maxwell was talking about in Maths this morning?" said Sally, slightly louder than they had been talking.

"Uh, sure," said Eddie, wondering why the conversation had taken a sharp turn.

"Oh, could you explain it to me? I'm worried I'm not going to get my homework right as he explained it really weirdly."

Eddie thought the explanation had been pretty clear, but he wasn't going to say no to Sally, especially when she needed some help.

"Yeah, I can do that, but, I've got to get home soon," and back to Claire's first to change.

"Oh, right. Urn, Mum's a bit funny about me having people over..." Eddie knew this already, Sally had said her mother wouldn't let him come over, but also she wasn't likely to let her visit Eddie's house without her being there too.

"That's quite alright," interrupted Angelica with one of her fierce smiles. "You know I don't mind you having people over," she admonished her daughter. "They just have to be the right people. There are some boys who will never darken our door..." She closed her mouth quickly, then looked down at the wrapping, which she'd started to crumple, and smoothed it out firmly.

"Great," said Sally brightly, as her mother sorted out Claire's items. She reached forwards and gave Eddie another quick hug. "Can you come around tomorrow? Mum's said I can go to the cinema, but only if I get my homework done first."

Eddie couldn't quite focus, another hug from Sally, and now an invitation around to her house? He didn't think that would ever happen.

"Uh, sure, I'll come over in the morning."

Sally fetched her phone and passed it to him. "OK, give me your number and I'll send you our address."

Eddie typed as Sally saw them down to the door of the shop. "I haven't got my phone with me, Mum doesn't let me take it to school, but I'll see when I get home."

"OK, cool." Sally gave Claire a quick hug. "Thanks, Claire, I hope your nan likes the chocolates." She turned to Eddie, he was ready this time, and gave her a hug back. "Remember," she whispered, "Mum thinks you're a girl, so you'd better borrow something from Claire to wear when you come over." She gave him a kiss on the cheek, then turned and closed the door of the shop behind them.

"Oh, what-?" Eddie touched his cheek where Sally had kissed it, he tried to think about what she'd just said, but his brain wasn't working yet.

Claire grinned. "C'mon, lover b" She glanced around, two businessmen were about to walk past them, "Girl. Let's get home before Mum gets on the warpath."

As they walked, the surprise of Sally's kiss wore off and Eddie started to realize what he'd agreed to. Maybe he shouldn't see Sally tomorrow after all? He really wanted to, but what if Angelica realized he was a boy?

"So, what have you decided?" Claire asked after a while. "What do you mean?" "You're obviously working out if you're going to see Sally tomorrow or not," said Claire patiently. Eddie gave her a glare, Claire knew him too well. "I want to, but..." he thought some more. "Are you OK with me borrowing some clothes?"

Claire shrugged. "Sure, who am Ito stand in the way of young love."

Eddie grunted at her. He'd half hoped she'd say no so he had an easy reason for backing out of seeing Sally. But now, all he could think of was being able to see her, and with no one else around to get in the way. No Freeya, no smirking bullies. Just him and Sally, for ages.

"So, uh, I know Sally's mum already thinks I'm a girl. But," "Yeah?" "Is there anything that's going to give me away?" "I can't believe you're going to do this," said Claire. "You know how I feel about her!" "How could I not know, you're always mooning over her," Claire paused. "I'm not saying I won't help." She lapsed into thought. "OK, how you sit," she said eventually. "When we get home, I'll show you how to sit properly, you have to put your knees together, not sprawl out." "You sprawl out. You're a terrible sprawler," replied Eddie. "I'm not trying to convince my girlfriend's mum I'm a girl." "She's not my girlfriend!" "Yeah, but you'd like her to be, wouldn't you?" Eddie gave a quick nod. Claire had a point. "OK, sitting. Anything else?" "You could talk a little quieter, and not interrupt all the"

"I do not interrupt!" Claire gave him an unimpressed look. "OK," said Eddie. "Sitting. Talk quieter. Shut up more."

"And you need to move your hands more when you talk, you know, be more expressive."

Eddie frowned at her. "What on Earth are you talking about?"

"Girls move their hands more when they talk. Don't tell me you've never noticed?"

Eddie shrugged. "OK, sit better, talk quieter, don't talk as much, move my hands around if I do talk.

This is a lot."

"Well have a practice when we get home," said Claire. "You're lucky your voice hasn't broken yet, there's no way Tom could get away with this."

Eddie nodded, he'd been jealous of the boys whose voices had broken, but that was to his advantage now. "Let's hope it doesn't happen tonight," he joked, then started to worry about it.

They got to Claire's house. Eddie was relieved to see the drive was empty, so his aunt was still at work. They dumped the bags of shopping in the kitchen and Claire led Eddie through to the lounge.

"Here, sit like this," she sat down daintily on the edge of the sofa, her knees and feet together. Eddie mimicked her, tucking his skirt in as he sat down.

"Good, now let's work on your hands."

It was difficult to think of something to talk about when you had to, but Claire coaxed Eddie into talking about Maths and Sally, which did the trick. She showed him how to emphasize what he was saying by using his hands while he talked, but not to flail around too much. He was just about getting the hang of it all when they heard a car in the driveway.

"Oh, God!" Eddie leaped to his feet and ran upstairs. Claire followed at a more leisurely pace.

"I need my clothes," said Eddie as Claire got to her room. The cardigan he'd been wearing was on her bed and he was almost done unbuttoning the blouse.

"What's the magic word?" Claire said languidly, enjoying seeing her cousin panic.

Eddie frowned. "Please! Now, please!"

"OK, just a sec." Claire found some clothes to change into. "Turn around!"

Eddie turned on the spot, pulling the second sock off. After what felt like forever, Claire started passing him his clothes across. He hurriedly pulled them on, fumbling with his shirt buttons.

"There, back to normal," said Claire happily, smoothing down her hoodie.

"Yeah, that's better," agreed Eddie, finishing getting dressed. It was weird, putting socks on that were warm from someone else wearing them.

"Eddie," said Claire quietly as they headed downstairs. Eddie stopped and Claire reached down and mussed his hair up. "That's... well, it's not better, but it's more normal."

"Thanks," he whispered back, then raised his voice. "Hi, Auntie Gemma."

"Hi, Eddie, I hope you two haven't been playing games all afternoon."

"We only just got back from the shops," said Claire in an offended tone. "We got everything and a present for Grandma."

"Great, thank you," Gemma smiled, then frowned at her daughter. "That's very organised, for you. Her birthday's not until next month."

Claire's face reddened, Eddie looked at her curiously, then cornered her when he had a chance.

"I thought you said you needed to get a present!" he whispered fiercely, sure the sound of the television would mask what he was saying from his aunt, 4 Highrghiters-who was in the kitchen.

"I did, kind of," Claire squirmed under his gaze. "Look, Sally messaged me. She got my number from Freeya. She wanted to see you before you got changed. I didn't think you'd go, and I did need to get a present, just... eventually."

"You didn't think I'd go to see Sally?" Eddie was incredulous.

"I didn't think she'd be running the shop! I didn't know her mum does, I

thought we were just meeting there."

Eddie's heart jumped. "What if it had been a setup? I could have got there and found Craig and all his mates waiting for me!"

"No!" Claire faltered, that possibility hadn't occurred to her, she couldn't have been sure she'd been talking to Sally. "No, look, Freeya wasn't going to dump you in it, was she? She's Sally's best friend, and Sally seems to really like you, she was just messing with her mum."

Eddie thought back. Reverse psychology, Sally had called it at school. She'd done that in the shop, saying she wouldn't be able to have him over, to get her mum to say it was OK.

"What are you two talking about? Thick as thieves," said Gemma, carrying the new fruit through to put in the fruit bowl.

"Just school stuff," said Claire, avoiding her mum's eye.

"Oh, it was fancy dress today, wasn't it? Did you forget?" she eyed Eddie's uniform. "How did it go?"

"It was all a bit embarrassing," said Eddie truthfully. "I, uh, I don't really want to talk about it."

Gemma clucked sympathetically and left them alone. Eddie breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't want to try to lie to his aunt about the day, she was far too good at spotting when he wasn't telling the truth.

They managed to squeeze in some game time before Eddie had to go home for his own dinner. Claire gave him a hug in the hall before he left.

"Practise what I showed you," she told him quietly. "Promise."

"I promise," said Eddie, waving his arms around sarcastically. "I'll see you tomorrow."

On the way home, his mind whirled. Was he being stupid? One foot in front of the other, not to the side. His trousers felt odd after a day in the skirt. Was Sally lining him up so he'd die of embarrassment? Sit with your knees and feet together. Was tomorrow going to be the stupidest thing he'd done? Move your hands gracefully while you're making your point. Or was it going to be the best day ever?

He sighed, touched his cheek where Sally had kissed him, and remembered the hugs. Surely it was going to be OK. Hours at home with Sally, and all he had to do was borrow some of Claire's clothes and act like a girl? He thought about the kiss again, his cheek still felt warm. Sure, he could manage that. One foot in front of the other, not to the side.

The End.