Camp Sissy Curls (After Camp)--part19
The next school day, and those afterward, I dutifully put a Depends on under my underwear and slacks as stepmother had insisted upon. But I wasn't stupid. I didn't really need it. As soon as I'd get to school, I head for the boys lavatory and take it off, stuff it in my book bag and hide it in my locker. Then I'd put it back on at dismissal. No "crinkle" noise during the day. And no worries about changing into my phys. ed. clothes in the locker room.
And it wasn't until the end of the third week of school, Friday, that a pink envelope appeared in the vent of my locker again summoning me to earn my last video.
"Hi sweetie. Right on time as always!" Sally Jo gushed. "Ready to earn the last video?"
"Is it really the last video?" I skeptically asked.
"Yup. It really is. I promise. No more videos after this one."
I gulped. "Okay then."
"Well, c'mon." And she took my hand. "One last trip to Walgreens."
I pulled my hand from her's. "No, not again!"
She took me by the hand again and warned. "You know you don't have a choice."
She was right, of course. Unlike before, she walked along beside me holding my hand. We must have appeared like boyfriend and girlfriend. Under normal circ-umstances, I'd have been thrilled. She was really quite cute! But now, I certainly was not thrilled.
Just off school grounds, she stopped and let go of my hand. "Man, it's really hot and humid. Gotta be in the mid eighties."
She was right again. We were experiencing an Indian Summer. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand and reached into her purse and took out a small, elastic band. She gathered up her long, straight sandy hair in a bunch. She brought it up to the crown of her head and secured it there in a long, perky ponytail with the elastic band.
"Much better. " She sighed. "A lot cooler this way." And she shook her head tossling her ponytail back and forth.
Then she reached back into her purse and took out another elastic band and looked at me with a devilish grin.
My great pleading fell on deaf ears, of course. Because a minute later, the crown of my head sported a long, perky, girlish ponytail just like hers. And there was nothing I could do to hide it. It wouldn't have been so bad if she had tied it at the nape of my neck. Guys with long hair often had ponytails hanging from there. But from the top of my head! Well, that was definitely "girlie" and definitely her intent.
As we walked along, hand in hand, I got lots of weird looks and laughs from people who saw me. "Geez Crandall!" Called one kid from my social studies class. "I always thought your hair was a bit girlie but that's just downright SISSY!"
"It's hot!" I lamely called back. "I'm just trying to keep cool."
Another kid from my phys. ed. class teased. "God, Crandall. Gonna be wearing a pretty dress next?"
The teasing and laughter was awful. But it was soon to get even worse, after we entered Walgreens. We walked to the aisle of hair care products and accessories. Sally Jo searched the rack of hair accessories and took off a large, pink, clip-on hair bow and a pair of pink hair barrettes. I moaned loudly and started to tear up.
She handed them to me with a five dollar bill. "Here you go sweetie. It's my treat!"
Some treat, I thought.
Naturally, the same cashier as both times before greeted me and chuckled. "Well, you're becoming quite a regular customer here. But at least you're dry!" And she picked up the hair bow and barrettes to scan them and eyeballed my ponytail and added. "Nice touch honey!" And I heard Sally Jo giggle from behind me.
Outside Walgreens, I cried as Sally Jo fixed the large, pink hair bow to my ponytail and clipped a barrette to each side of my head. And, as I said before, the rest of the walk home was even worse. Tons of curious, odd looks from passersby. Looks of wonder really---wonder about whether I was really a boy or a girl.
But as we reached my neighborhood, the looks weren't looks of wonder. They were looks of disbelief. Disbelief at the sight of Stephen Crandall walking down the street wearing a perky ponytail and a pink hair bow and barrettes. Neighbors, kids just gawked at me and pointed and laughed. Mr. Horton, who lived across the street and was out at his mailbox, laughed and called over. "Hey Stephen! What's up? Did you lose some kind of a bet or something?"
Eureka, I thought. "Yeah! You got that right!" I chuckled. "I lost a stupid bet. Dumb me!"
"I should think so!" He called back.
At the sidewalk to my front door, Sally Jo gave me the last video. Then she straightened my hair bow and giggled. "Perfect! See you in school sweetie." She watched me until I entered the house to make sure I didn't undo any of my girlie hairdo.
I peeked inside and saw no one. But I'd gotten only two or three steps inside when Laura came bounding downstairs and into the living room for the couch and TV. "Oh my God!" She cied. "Mom, come see Stephen!"
I started to dash for upstairs just as stepmother came from the kitchen.
"Oh Stephen!!!" She gasped. " Why on earth is your hair like that???"
I stared at the floor and sniffled and mumbled. "I lost a bet."
"What???"
"I lost a STUPID bet with someone at school!" I said, almost in a shout now.
"Stupid is putting it mildly!" She yelled. "A boy in a ponytail and hairbow is stupid. But a boy who is trying to keep secret his other life as Stephie---well that's just plain, damn ridiculous! What were you thinking???"
"I don't know." I sobbed. "I didn't think I'd lose the bet."
"Yeah, well you may have lost a lot more than a bet!" She warned. "What an idiotic thing to do Stephen! Now go upstairs and diaper up and get into a dress and petties. And make it a pink dress, to match your hair bow and barrettes. You can just keep your hair like it is for tonight so your father can see it."
"Yeah, it looks cute like that!" Laura taunted.
As I diapered myself and pulled on rhumba panties and petticoats and a pink dress, I thought about what my stepmother had said. But I could get away with it, if I just stuck fast to my story about "losing a bet".
Before I headed back downstairs, I checked the video in the VCR. It was the Real McCoy. At least, I finally had them all now. Why, I don't know, but I didn't throw it away. Instead, I hid it in a box of old toys on the top shelf in my closet. Maybe I'd need it in the future as evidence if I ever wanted to bring a law-suit for child abuse against Camp Sissy Curls or my parents or somebody! I knew that wouldn't really happen, but for some reason, I felt the need to hang on to it.
When dad got home, he was just as dumbfounded as stepmother about my situation. I just cried with much embarrassment as he, pretty much, just reiterated everything stepmother had said to me. I knew it would be a challenge to explain myself in school and the neighborhood.