42--SCHOOLING IN SKIRTS

normal any more in the first place? We walked in silence for what seemed an eternity, until finally I sat down on a bench. Chris sat next to me, a worried look on her face. Yet neither of us spoke for another couple of minutes. Finally, I broke the quiet atmosphere around us. "Chris ... remember a couple of days ago when you thought I was bi?"

"Yes... why? Are you still mad at me about that? I'm really sorry if I upset you. I didn't mean to ... I mean, I know you're not like that.'

"No, I'm not mad. It's just that you came really close to a secret I've been keeping ever since I transferred to Kennedy." She looked puzzled, so I kept going before I lost my nerve. "You see, I AM attracted to you ... only as a boy."

She started shaking her head. "What? Wait a minute. You've lost me. I don't understand what you mean. Are you a lesbian, or what?"

"No, Chris." I put my hand on hers; she started to pull away, but I put my other hand on top to keep it where it was. "I'm really a boy."

She gave me a blank stare. "This is a gag, right? Well, it's NOT funny." She yanked her hand away from me and stood up. "Do you really expect me to believe what you're telling me? Come ON, Danni ... YOU? A boy?"

I opened my purse and rummaged around inside, until I found what I was looking for. It was the one thing Kathy had missed when she cleared my room of all traces of my male existence that October evening. I handed it to her. "Here. Look at this."

She took the small paper rectangle and looked at it then at me, then back at the photograph. "My god... it looks sort of like you ... but this is a picture of ... you're...

"A boy," I finished for her. "Daniel Nichols." Chris sat back down next to me. "You really ARE a boy dressed as a girl?" I nodded. "But why?”

"It's kind of a complicated story," I told her. "My sister dressed me up in her clothes for the Halloween dance at MacArthur, then she got rid of all my regular clothes while

CONTEMPORARY TV FICTION 43

I was at the dance. Her psychologist says she thinks I'm my dead twin sister ... and told me to keep dressing this way until Kathy can be convinced that I haven't just been a tomboy the past few years."

She looked at me. "Wow. Your sister did a great job of turning you into a girl, Danni. But don't you feel a little weird going around in miniskirts and makeup all the time?”

"I did at first," I admitted. "But it's been almost two months now, and I guess I've kind of gotten used to looking like this. And, strangely enough, I get along better with everyone now that I'm female.'

"So what's the big deal? Everybody knows you as Danielle. I won't tell anyone, if that's what's worrying you.' "I know you wouldn't tell. But my real problem is that, well, I think I love you, Chris, and looking like a girl makes it real hard for me to try to be your boyfriend."

"Oh, wow," she said, smiling. "And to think I was starting to wonder about myself because I was feeling the same way toward you!" She put her hand on my nyloncovered knee. I put my hand on hers, thinking how strange it looked for both hands to have polished nails. "Danni, I like you this way. I don't want you to give up being a girl." She stood up, took my hand, and led me outside, to a shadowed area in a group of trees at the far end of the parking lot. Then she kissed me.

The flavor of her lipstick mixed with my own was an interesting taste in my mouth. Plus it felt odd to be kissing a girl while I was dressed as one. I looked at her dress and the way its skirt fit tightly around her shaven nyloned legs; just like my skirt fit around my legs. We both wore panties, bras and make-up, only I was a boy. My lips searched for hers, our twin prominences pressed together. When we finally separated, I told her, "I've never done that with ANYONE before."

"I'm glad I was your first. And I do love you, Danni. You're amazing, I can't see any 'boy' in you yet I'm attracted to you. I hope I like you as much when I see you as a boy."