14IV FICTION CLASSICS #O

these things. The pink box contained panty hose and nylons in all colors. There were several garter belts at the bottom. "You'll love the open feeling of garter belts. Not many girls wear them anymore, but they're for when you want to be sexy." We reddened at her suggestion that we might want to be sexy as girls.

The last box contained jewelry, a girls watch, a dainty necklace, and earrings. We put on our new jewelry and realized the earrings were for pierced ears.

"I thought I told that salesgirl clip-ons. They were real expensive; we'll take them back."

Lee's mother came to town almost every weekend for several months. It made us happy to have her in town and get out of the fraternity. On the weekends that followed, Lee and I developed our feminine personalities with Mrs. Roberts help. She gently feminized us, suggesting how girls always do this or that. Such things as touching-up our lips or pointing out a nail polish chip.

One weekend, we took back the earrings and the clerk said, "These are too expensive for clips-ons, your girls might lose them. Why don't we pierce their ears. All the girls have pierced ears now."

Mrs. Roberts thought piercing was a good idea; Lee agreed. The saleslady used a piercing machine and before we knew it, Lee had permanently pierced ears. A shudder swept through me as thin, feminine gold earrings dangled from Lee's ears. The clerk told him how to keep them clean and warned not to remove them for two weeks. I wouldn't do it; so she exchanged my earrings for a pair of cheaper clip-ons.

Later, Lee was embarrassed. During the next week, he removed his earrings several times: One of his ears became slightly infected, so his mother took him to a doctor. The ear cleared up quickly, but every night he'd go into his purse and take out a cardboard container of pills and swallowed one. He said they were a special vitamin to make his hair grow.

Our hair did grow, and we had bi-weekly appointments at the beauty parlor to have it done. It was getting so long that it now hung around my shoulders. Lee's seemed even longer. I asked Nancy at the parlor to cut it shorter.

She said, "Sorry Chris, orders from Ralph. We're not to cut any more than needed. You're not afraid of the guy's calling you a sissy, after you've been dressing as a girl every weekend for months now?"

I nodded.

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"What we can do is give you a permanent, which will make it look shorter but you can blow dry it straight when you want to look feminine.'

She took a strand of my hair and wrapped it around a big pink curler. She quickly added more until my head was completely covered. Then a smelly lotion and 30 minutes under the dryer. As she removed the curlers, it fell in attractive curls flipped up at the ends. Over the last couple of months I became more comfortable in the beauty salon. I don't think I realized that with each visit, I lost a little masculine identity. A curl here, an eyebrow there, the manicures.

When I looked in the mirror, I almost fainted. My hair looked shorter, but large curls bounced with every turn of my head. Nancy said, "It will be a bit fluffy for a couple of days." From that day, my hair never did look very manly. But the fraternity wanted it long. I couldn't wait until summer so I could cut it.

The next Friday, Lee's mother flew us to New York City for the weekend. It was Lee's birthday. We always took great care to look feminine during visits with her. She never teased us and always treated us like girls. She seemed to love buying us feminine clothes and we had fun shopping and going out to dinner.

Mrs. Roberts said she had a surprise for us. "Saturday morning I made an appointment with a foundation garment maker. A doctor friend, recommended we have some special garments made by this expert designer. They're special garments for boys in your position. You boys are going to love what she can do for you."

Mrs. Sargent's shop made special garments for special problems. The shops glass display cases were full of dainty lingerie, corsets, girdles and long line brassieres.

Boys," Mrs. Sargent said sternly, "Go remove all your clothes and I'll be in to measure you. Everything must fit exactly." I immediately disliked her cold manner.

We undressed and were both embarrassed as we stood looking like girls from the neck up but boys from the neck down. Mrs. Sargent entered our cubicle carrying several garments. She measured and prodded our waists and said to Mrs. Roberts, "Their quite pliable to the constriction at their age. You'll love the effect these garments will have on them. Most boys become exceedingly modest, demure and ladylike, in just a couple weeks."

Mrs. Roberts asked, "Will they be that way permanently?"