10 -THE FRILL OF IT ALL!

to make my voice sound as girlish as possible. Thank goodness my voice hadn't changed too much yet. "I've never visited Margaret before.

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It took Susan fifteen minutes more, but finally her face abruptly lit up in triumph as she leaned over to whisper in Margaret's ear.

"Am I right?" I heard her ask. When Margaret nodded she leaned over and whispered to Betty whose eyes opened wide as saucers and who started at me in astonishment. Then, all three girls started whispering until I was beet red and felt tears of humiliation welling in my eyes. I felt so stupid. Every-time one of them giggled I thought that I would die. How could I have let Margaret talk me into this?

Susan reached out and put her hand on mine and whispered, "Jack. We aren't laughing at you, we are laughing with you. You make an absolute doll. Margaret explained the situation to us. We're all going to come and see you in the Follies! If you can come this close to fooling us----I bet half the people in the audience will think you're a real girl." As she was speaking, her eyes suddenly went past me to the door. "Oh no. Look. There's Joe Bradley coming this way. Hi, Joe," she greeted.

Looking up at a guy I knew at school was too much. This whole thing was getting out of hand, but there was nothing I could do about it but sit and keep my knees together.

"Hi, girls," Joe said as he strolled over to our table and checked me out. "Wow. Who's the new girl in the pack?"

They all giggled but Margaret introduced me as her cousin from out of town. To my dismay, Joe directed most of his conversation towards me----ultimately to the point of asking me out for a date. I thought the girls were going to give me away. They were acting so brainlessly and giggling every time Joe said something to me. I guess they were acting like GIRLS! I pompously turned Joe down.

That's when Margaret kicked my shin under the table and I went on in a somewhat sweeter fashion to explain that I couldn't accept because I would be

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returning home tomorrow.

After he left, they all went nuts. "If he only knew what he asked out!" Susan roared. "I guess 'chasing ANYTHING in a skirt' is an understatement when it comes to Joe's dating preferences!"

At last, Margaret said it was time to go and we went back to our apartment. Once inside, she announced, "Well, you made quite a hit tonight."

"I almost died. I was mortified. If I'd been caught.

"Why? Betty and Susan adore you dressed like this and Joe Bradley was almost drooling. Do you realize how believable of a young lady you make?"

"I guess not," I replied, "but maybe too believable for my liking. I'll be awfully glad when those darned Follies are over. Remind me to never be a freshman again."

SHOWTIME...

Finally, the night of the Freshman Follies came and went. If I do say so myself, I really stole the show. It was all for charity and everyone took what was suppose to be a roast of the Freshmen class in a jovial atmosphere. An article about the play in the next issue of our college newspaper reads in part as follows: "... But if there were a prize for the best performance it would unquestionably go to Jack Foster who play the role of Showgirl and Ballerina. He looked just as pert and pretty in his dresses as any girl in the audience and his impersonation was so letter perfect that most of us completely forgot we were watching a boy. Congratulations, Jack. You're a good sport to have put so much effort into making the event a success."

Needless to say that Betty, Susan, and Margaret were ecstatic about it all. Margaret let it be known to anyone who would listen that she had been my coach and I was wearing her clothes.

After the people who had come backstage to offer their congratulations to the cast had left, I started to go to the dressing room to change. Margaret stopped