50-SCHOOLING IN SKIRTS

Since it was impossible to explain to J.J. why I never accepted his offers to go out, I eventually exhausted my stock of reasonable excuses. So (with Chris' blessing, surprisingly) I found myself on another date with him. It could have been worse... at least J.J. was the only guy who was interested in me who didn't already have a girlfriend, so I only had him to worry about instead of half the male population of Kennedy's senior class.

But J.J. was enough of a problem. His confidence was so boosted by the fact that he'd finally wore me down and gotten a second date with me that he was determined to "get somewhere" with me this time, probably to make up for his shyness on our last date.

To make matters worse, I'd agreed to dinner before the movie this time, which meant I had to be a little more presentable than I would have if we were going straight to the theater. Chris seemed to delight in the situation this time around ... saying that it would help cover our relationship if I casually dated boys now and then. She even lent me her blue ruffled minidress to wear, which, when coupled with a black belt and three-inch black patent pumps, made my legs look even more shapely than ever. I could feel J.J. looking at them as he held the car door open and I sat down inside, which made me blush as I realized he was being turned on by my hairless, nylon-covered, yet MALE legs! He, on the other hand, thought my blushing was cute ... both at that moment and at the restaurant when I had to remove his hand from my knee under the table.

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Later at the theater, I had to shrug off J.J.'s attempts to put his arm around my shoulders no less than a half-dozen times but what really upset me about my date with J.J. was the fact that he managed to kiss me goodnight on the cheek when I wasn't expecting it. I was SURE that he would have kissed me on the lips if he'd gotten the opportunity, and that made me even more paranoid about going out with him again. Unfortunately, he was already hinting about the senior prom!

Although I had to admit that while his attempts to romance me were both annoying and upsetting, it was also

CONTEMPORARY TV FICTION 51

a compliment as to how well I passed as a girl now. I guess that wasn't too surprising, since I had been living in the female role around the clock for almost five months by then. Of course, that brought on the realization that it had been so long since I'd been a boy, I'd probably have new problems trying to adjust back when this was all over. I refrained from mentioning this to either Kathy, Robin, or Chris ... since the latter two would only seize the opportunity to continue selling me on keeping my female identity, and my sister would have simply ignored the statement or accused me of still being too "tomboyish".

Chris in the meantime encouraged my dating and in fact love to set me up with dates. That is we doubled. She loved doubling with me. We would spend hours rolling and curling our hair, making-up, and picking out just the right dress to turn on our dates. Chris love to see me feminized and in the arms of some young man. She said, "I love knowing that my boyfriend is feminine enough to turn on the young studs at school, yet is all mine.'

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I was all her's too. After our dates, we were both highly passionate and breathless in our desire for each other. But Chris and I were running out of places to hide while we carried on our relationship. But as Easter vacation week approached, she hit me with an idea out of the blue one afternoon: "My parents are going out of town for the week, and I thought you might stay over a night or two." She winked at me. "Especially since your eighteenth birthday is coming up Monday."

"I love the idea," I replied, "but do you think Kathy will give her O.K.?" "Why not? She still believes you're a girl why wouldn't she let you spend a couple of nights at a girlfriend's house?"

She was right, of course. My sister thought the whole proposal was perfectly natural, and said I could spend the entire week at Chris' if I wanted to. So it was that I anticipated being alone with the love of my life for a few days, free of the worry that we would be discovered.