By Wednesday his mother decided that his ringlets needed renewing. She called to his Granny, âdo you still have those heated curler pins?â An hour later Liam was sitting with his hair drenched in chemicals and rolled tightly onto curling pins that were heating up and restoring his ringlets to their former glory. He contemplated more evenings and mornings spending long periods tying up and resetting these ringlets. âWeâll find you some more suitable dresses for your ageâ, his mother tried to console him. âGreta, a few doors down, is about your age. Iâll askâ, his Granny added.
Greta tried not to laugh at his pink party dress, white tights and ringlets tied up in pink bows when they called to her. Liam was particularly mortified as it was clear she knew he was a boy. He was determined to try to keep his matching frilly panties a secret from at least one person.
Greta, on the other hand, was determined to use the opportunity to get rid of her most embarrassing dresses that she only had to wear when her mother insisted. She first presented them with a floral patterned dress with lace collar and trim but at least is was longer than Liamâs current selection of dresses.
His mother unzipped him without warning and quickly whipped his dress over his head, leaving him standing in just his frilly panties and tights. Greta couldnât help laughing now. She handed him the dress. He was grateful to be able to put it on and cover his mortifying panties. The dress came to his knees though the skirt was heavily flared with deep pleats. âGorgeousâ his mother concluded. He was relieved to be in a longer dress.
Greta produced three more pretty but mercifully knee length dresses for him. Yes, they were pastel coloured and had pretty shaping but beggars couldnât be choosers. âThank Greta for the loan of these lovely dresses dearâ, his mother instructed him. âOh you can keep themâ, a very pleased Greta told him. âAre you sure?â his mother asked her. âOh yes!â Greta confirmed. âNow dear, you are going to have quite a selection of dresses to wearâ, his mother observed. âWhat do you say?â she prompted him. âThank you for the dressesâ, he said with little conviction. âThe very pretty dresses!â his mother corrected him. He sighed. âThank you for the very pretty dressesâ, he tried to smile. Greta had no problem grinning back at him.
âOh I nearly forgotâ, she added rushing to the chest of drawers. âThese lilac tights will go perfectly with that floral dressâ. She produced a pair of lace-patterned tights that made Liam feel sick. His mother held them up to the floral dress. âYes they really bring out the lilac flowers in the dress! Thank you.â She nudged Liam. âThank you for the lilac tightsâ, he glared at Greta. She looked quite pleased with herself.
So the following Saturday Liam turned up for the photo-shoot wearing his new floral dress but mercifully not the lilac tights as the shoot called for all the models to wear the same white tights again. He had to carry his four modelling dresses on hangars but the matching frilly panties were fortunately concealed in a hold-all. His mother insisted he had to wear them again for the photo-shoot âfor the sake of decencyâ and since Karen âhad gone to so much trouble to find them for himâ.
What they wanted to do was take video to complement the photos. They were going to simulate the dresses being worn for a birthday party. So the studio was decorated with balloons and bunting and full of extra girls and boys to make up a birthday crowd.
His three accomplices saw him when he entered. âOh thatâs a pretty dress!â they teased him. âHas his hair been in ringlets since last week?â they giggled. Some of the boys heard this and realised this was a boy in a floral dress, white tights and his hair in ringlets! Kids started whispering to each other and pretty soon everyone knew that the tallest âgirlâ in the room was actually a boy.
So Liam felt extra mortification when he had to walk out in his very short red polka dot dress, cringing at the thought that it was just a matter of time before everyone knew he was also wearing matching frilly panties. He could see that his three accomplices were angling to try to confirm if he was wearing them. From the way he kept tugging his hem down nervously they were sure he must be.
Photos were relatively easy to doctor to make him fit in with the younger girls but video was a different matter. Still, the videographer was confident that, with the careful use of close-ups and acute angles he could ensure that 14-year-old Liam would not look out of place with the 10-year-old children.
He was doing quite well until the cameraman suggested he blow out candles on the birthday cake. There was laughter behind him as he leaned forward towards the cake on the table. He cringed. And now pretty much everyone knew that he had matching frilly panties for all of his short dresses. So every time he appeared in another dress he could see everyone imagining what these matching panties would look like and his dresses were so short it was inevitable that they would not have to imagine for too long.
Karen gathered the models around at the end of the shoot to thank them all. Liam was just anxious to get into his longer floral dress. Karen announced, excitedly, âSo next week we will have you back to model pageant dresses!â Liamâs jaw dropped.
But there was no way out of it. They had received no payment yet and had to comply with the contractual call-backs if it was not all to be in vain. So Liam spent another week in his dresses, caring for his sausage curls.