6-SANDY THOMAS ADVERTISING

that he would track down this cute new girl in school. Surely he would have seen her before. Imagine how Jeff felt when she walked into the lab, sat down beside him and said "Hi Jeff."

Shock and confusion were overpowering his thoughts. Jeff now realized that his quiet behavior must have seemed odd to his old friend. What really confused poor Jeff was that he still thought that Tani was the girl of his dreams! How could that be?! Everything about Tani looked different to him. He couldn't convince his brain to accept that this was not a real girl. What would he do?

Tani returned. Jeff looked at his friend and felt a twinge of disappointment that Tani had tied back that lovely hair. Without thinking of what he was saying Jeff said quietly, "Gee, why did you tie your back. It looked real pretty...uh, I mean.. .uh, neat the way you had it before." He couldn't believe he had just said, "pretty."

Tani stared at Jeff in shock. .he said his hair was "pretty", and Jeff was blushing...oh my god, what's going

on.

Tani had misinterpreted Jeff quietness. In a way, Tani felt a great sense of relief, but on the other hand he didn't know how to react. Everybody was always telling "TANA' how attractive 'she' was. Well, now "Tana' had "attracted" someone alright. Someone who knew Tani the boy, yet was treating him like a girl.

"Did you really like it?" Tani asked quietly so that others couldn't hear. "I thought maybe our 'fashion experimentation' bothered you?" "Heck no. .I'm trendy. It looked really nice," a still flustered sounding Jeff replied. With a furtive glance around Tani reached behind his head and pulled the elastic free. With a quick shake of his head, the beautiful page boy hairdo was back. Both boys smiled. Jeff's heart was still pounding, as was Tani's. Both were unused to such a situation. But slowly they started relaxing and resuming there old personas.

Jeff asked Tani about the big fight and Tani replied very modestly claiming a basic knowledge of martial arts. An idea struck Jeff and he once again was saying something that seemed to come out of his mouth before his brain had reviewed

it!

MY SON, THE BRIDE -7

"Uh...I was going to see that new Van Damme movie this Saturday night. . .I thought. . .well if you're not doing anything-maybe you'd like to come along?"

Tani and Jeff had really only been friends around school. Since Tani spent a lot of his time outside school as "Tana' he pretty much had limited himself to the friendships of Chris and the other club members. But he found himself saying, "Sure, that would be great.'

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"Gee. . .ok, how about I pick you up around 6:00. We can get a pizza or something after the movie," Jeff said as he felt a familiar emotion. It was familiar alright...just how he felt when a beautiful girl accepted his invitation for a first date!!

What was he doing? He rationalized that he was being silly...this was going to a movie with his buddy-right? What scared him was that he felt like a 'girl' had accepted his invitation for a date-not a boy!

Tani was doing a similar rationalization. Tani felt odd the way Jeff was acting. He couldn't convince himself that Jeff wasn't showing all the signs of a man courting a female-all this made Tani respond girlishly even though this wasn't the place to be a girl. He had accepted, was being picked up, being fed and agreeing completely to doing what Jeff had planned.

He wanted to asked what he should wear but didn't. Both boys had blushing cheeks throughout the class as they wrestled with their complicated thoughts.

Tani wasn't able to concentrate on his studies for the rest of the week. His mind was on Saturday night. What should he do? Should Tani the boy, ponytail and all, make the appearance? He sensed that Jeff wouldn't like that entirely, based on his reaction on Wednesday.

Then what? Should Tana be ready at 6:00 with her hair up, high heels, and that cute suede miniskirted dress?! After much thought and at least 50 iterations of clothing try ons, Tani was ready when the door bell rang promptly at 6:00 on Saturday.

Tani opened the door. Jeff stood there smiling. He was dressed in very nice cotton slacks with a v-neck, knit pullover sweater. Tani noticed that he must of had his hair styled professionally that day because it looked very sharp. Jeff was really a very handsome young man.