Alex felt sick as he left the dining room, feeling the unfamiliar swish of his petticoats. He went towards the sitting room – he just seemed to know that’s what it was and where it was. “Oh dear! I can see we need a lot of work”, Miss Prickett sighed as she watched him walk. He thought he was doing a perfectly sissy girly walk. “Still, we have all afternoon”, she assured him. Once, in the sitting room, she took a book and placed it on his head.
Alex had no choice but to do what he was told and he spent what seemed like hours prancing back and forth across the room with the book balanced on his head, practising gathering his petticoats when sitting and how to sit with his knees pressed together demurely. “Back straight!” his governess ordered. He raised his shoulders and tried to sit straight. She never seemed to be satisfied.
“Now, show me your curtsey”, she ordered. He looked at her blankly – my what? “Come along now.” She demonstrated the perfect curtsey. Alex had something to go on now. He wished he’d paid more attention to those period dramas on TV. He made a wobbly attempt. “No! Gather the ends of your petticoats! Oh dear, this is going to take time”, she sighed.
Alex was finally excused in the late afternoon. Miss Prickett showed him back to the drawing room. Alex desperately hoped that Alice would be there and would feel more obliged to swap back.
He could see her in the mirror. Miss Prickett watched his gait as he entered the room. “You may read a book until dinner time.” Alex had to continue mincing, consistent with the deportment she had just drilled into him. Alice saw the way his hands hovered daintily above his petticoats and giggled.
“What do you say?” Miss Prickett demanded. Alex jumped a little with fright at her stern voice. He turned to face her. “Thank you Miss Prickett”. He curtsied as best he could, acutely aware of Alice’s sniggering in the mirror. His governess considered his curtsey and seemed to deem it adequate but no more than that. She left the room.
Alex sighed heavily. He started to run towards the mirror. His petticoats fluttered and distracted him for a moment and he had to settle them. “Your deportment is coming along nicely”, Alice teased. “A few more day’s practice and you’ll have it.”
“What?! Days?! No! You have to switch back now!” Alex did his best to look assertive but that wasn’t easy in a pretty dress, pinafore and petticoats. “Not a chance”, Alice insisted. “I’m loving it here. I really like this thing called a computer for one thing!”
“No please!” He tried a more plaintive approach. “I think dinner is ready here”, she told him. “I can’t wait to see what burgers and waffles are like!” She moved back from the mirror. Alex put his palms on the mirror in an attempt to get through. “No. Don’t leave me here like this!” Alice stopped. “What’s so wrong with being a girl for a few days?” She calmly left the room.
Alex sagged. He couldn’t believe this – stuck in a dress, petticoats and stockings! An unpleasant thought occurred to him. He reached for the front of his petticoats. He raised them nervously. He saw pink garters holding his stockings up. He cringed. Revealing up further he saw his bloomers with lace-trim on the legs. He felt sick and lowered his petticoats quickly trying not to dwell on it.
He had to find some way out of this. He couldn’t spend days in dresses and frillies. Just then the door opened. A younger girl walked in. “Oh Alice! Come and see! Daddy bought me a new doll!” She ran off looking back for Alex to follow her. “Coming Edith!” he replied. She seemed satisfied. He wondered how did he instinctively know her name and that she was Alice’s younger sister – now his younger sister!
He followed her into a playroom. She brandished the new doll. He tried to look pleased for her. “Let’s have tea party! You take Betty”, Edith insisted, handing him another large doll. He looked distastefully at the doll but felt he had little choice but to take it and pretend to like it. Girls! Edith skipped off happily towards the terrace doors. Alex looked on wondering was he supposed to skip along like that. There was no way he could bring himself to do it. Then he noticed Miss Prickett had stopped by the door. So he felt he had to mince towards the door in the ladylike fashion she had tried to teach him.
He walked out to the terrace and froze momentarily seeing other members of the family sitting there. The older couple were presumably his mother and father – Alice’s mother and father! He had to remember to make the distinction. And there was an older girl. “Hello Alice!” she called. “Hello Lorina”, he responded, again surprised that it came naturally.
“We’re going to have a doll’s tea party!” Edith told them all excitedly. “Oh that’s nice”, her mother smiled at Alex. He tried to hold a smile while he walked over clutching the stupid doll. Edith arranged four small chairs around a low table for herself, Alice and the two dolls. Alex was inwardly cringing as he placed his doll in the next chair. The parents seemed pleased with the scene so he felt he had to act it out. Damn! He hadn’t arranged his petticoats properly as he sat. He had to stand and shake them out again before sitting more carefully.
“The Reverend Dodgson has kindly offered to take you rowing on the river tomorrow!” the girls were told by their mother. Edith was excited at the prospect but Alex noticed that Lorina threw her eyes up. In the meantime, he was forced to go along with Edith’s pretend tea party, trying to hold his smile as he acted out pouring tea into the cups for the dolls and Edith.
It was really strange that nobody noticed anything wrong with “Alice” except that she appeared to be having a lot of problems controlling her petticoats. As Alex sat to the dinner table, he had to rearrange his petticoats yet again. “Really Alice, I must ask Miss Prickett to do more work on your deportment – you are getting quite sloppy!”
Once dinner was over, Alex went back to the drawing room but there was no sign of Alice in the reflected room. He came to realise he was stuck there for the night. At least his nightdress wasn’t too bad – a long white broderie anglaise dress.
While he got undressed he took the opportunity to check something. He hadn’t felt anything between his legs. He pulled his bloomers down nervously to confirm that there was nothing there – well nothing except what girls have! He didn’t sleep well in the unfamiliar long nightdress, wondering how he was going to get out of this and if he was going to get his boy’s thing back!