It's Just A Skirt

by Matthew Potter

  I was just George.

  And now I needed to be something else.

  I started with the underwear. It was a plain pair of white panties. Nothing too impressive with them. They went on easily enough, especially because my manhood was a little on the small size. The only thing that worried me was how well they actually fit and the effect afterward. The front of them looked nearly flat in the mirror. I couldn’t help but frown at that a bit. A boy wasn’t supposed to look like that in a pair of girl’s underwear.

  I picked up the bra next.

  It said B cup on the tag, I couldn’t help but laugh at that. Leave it to a guy like Frank to want me to have something on top. I tossed it aside, going to my drawer instead. Before school started, my aunt Rachel took Kelly and I school shopping. She was Mom’s younger sister, born several years after Mom. She was only a few years older than Charlie actually. Well, twenty seven, so cool and hip enough to feel like a big sister as well. After Mom’s death, Rachel tried her best to fill the void. She took it upon herself to help in any way she could.

  Her biggest contribution was shopping.

  She had insisted on helping me in particular.

  I pulled out one of my several new camisoles.

  As soon as the itching started, the camisoles were a God sent. I pulled one over my head quickly, sighing as the itching soothed. I had cream and it helped but the camisoles were much better. I tried not to wear them on a regular basis out of fear. A guy in a girl’s anything was like chum in the water here. So I only ever wore them at night.

  I put on the blouse next.

  It was the standard white, just like my school shirt. Unlike the boy’s shirt, though, the material was softer and it fit differently of course. The sleeves were a bit shorter because it was the summer version. I had a bit of a problem with the buttons. Who in their right mind put the buttons on the wrong side? As soon as it was on, I couldn’t help but frown in the mirror again. There was a girl staring back at me and I didn’t even have to try. Of course, she was still pretty tomboyish but a girl nonetheless. Kelly had wanted me to let my hair grow. My brothers insisted I try to be a man. I found a compromise. It was short but rather long in the front, sorta skater boy I guess.

  Kelly spent some time trying to show me what I could do with it.

  She insisted I have options.

  She showed me how to give myself bangs, for instance, making my rather masculine cut look very tomboyish as well.

  Pixie cut cute she called it.

  Apparently, it was pretty popular with a lot of girls my age. Many of the young female actors in Hollywood were pulling it off pretty well too.

  I ignored my hair for a moment.

  I went for the skirt next.

  I took a deep breath.

  It's just a skirt.

  Blue checked plaid, seen on every girl around campus. Thankfully not Britney Spears short. Knowing Frank, I half expected to look like one of those male ideal Catholic girl fantasies. When I pulled the skirt on, though, I was glad to see it was well within school norms. Like every skirt, it was an inch above the knee. So maybe he wasn’t lying when he said this uniform belonged to his younger sister. I was a little happier after the skirt was on too.

  I pulled on the blue knee high socks next, followed by the vest.

  The St. Andrews patch emblazoned on my left breast.

  It was on the right side for boys.

  Last was the shoes.

  Black and leather, the same style every girl wore. There was nothing too special about them actually. In fact, they didn’t look all that different from the ones the guys wore. The heel was a little bigger, wider maybe. I don’t really know all that much about these things. I did know that they fit too well.

  I knew my feet were small but that kind of scared me.

  I tackled my hair quickly.

  Using a brush, I moved my bangs into a more feminine style just like Kelly had shown me more than once. I couldn’t help but wonder what she might think if she saw me now. Not that she was pushing me toward this or anything but both she and Rachel thought it might be worth a try. Like some of my therapists, they said I needed to explore options. It was one of the things talked about from time to time. I knew why I was asked to go to those support groups as well. Being as young as I was, it was still an option. I never really thought about it, either way, to be honest. Like I said before, girls and boys weren’t all that different to me.

  I was what I was.

  I took a step back from the mirror.

  Wow.

  Standing in the mirror before me---looking all the bit awkward---was, for the most part, a teenage girl.

  I was surprised at how easy it happened.

  I’d been watching it happen over the last few months but here it was.

  George the girl.

  I couldn’t help but smirk a bit.

  “Dude,” said a voice from behind me.

  I turned around to find Frank in the doorway. I must have forgotten to lock the door because he clearly opened it. I think he was about to shout at me when of course he saw it. I put my hand on my hip, trying my best to mimic a sexy pose.

  “Quite the looker huh,” I said, feeling a confidence I’d never really felt before.

  I didn’t feel any different of course.

  I guess it was all a matter of perspective. I knew what kind of boy I was. I kind of hid from the world. Even my uniform was a size bigger. I took advantage of wearing a sweater too. It was optional but I always took the option. My body made me a bit self-conscience. I was afraid of what might happen if one of the other guys saw what I really looked like. Now, though---in this outfit---I didn’t have to hide anything. I kind of liked that. No, I’m not saying I enjoyed dressing this way. They were just clothes after all. Clothes changed nothing. I think it was just the idea of it all. No more baggy anything, a uniform that fit a little better.

  Boy.

  Girl.

  Me.

  “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all,” said Frank, giving me a quick look over.

  I shrugged. “Hey, it’s your plan. You want your necklace back right?”

  He nodded dumbly. “Yeah but…”

  “No buts,” I said, pushing past him out the door.

  In the hall, other boys were starting to blunder about. Most of them half awake due to the early hour. A few gave me looks but most simply ignored me. I kind of half ignored them too. Frank followed me down the hall, trying to keep up but staying a few steps behind too. Halfway to the common room, I noticed I was walking differently. It took me another second to realize it was more feminine than usual. As soon as I made the realization, I stopped.

  It kind of floored me a bit.

  In the common room, Frank’s friends were waiting still.

  Henry did a double take.

  Bill dropped the bottle of water he was holding.

  Mark’s jaw actually dropped.

  I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

  I went over to the chair where I’d left my stuff. Thankfully my shoulder bag was pretty gender neutral. As soon as I picked it up, though, Henry was there waiting. He took it from me without even asking. I’m not sure how I was supposed to react to that, to be honest.

  “You look…ummm….” He fumbled.

  “Its just a skirt,” I said, annoyed.

  “Yeah sure”

  Frank and the other two came over. It took them a few moments to stop staring. Then Frank finally regained his composure.

  “Ok, so you know the plan?” I nodded, he held up a campus map. “The girl’s dorm is here. It should have the same layout as ours. From what I remember Cherry saying, she’s on the second floor, the third room on the left.”

  I nodded. We’d been through all this before.

  He held up a picture. “This is the necklace”

  It was a picture of him and Cherry, clearly taken at the beach because she was wearing a bikini. I could see the necklace as clear as day. It was a diamond penda
nt on a gold chain, both of which were probably one hundred percent real. Now I knew why he was so insistent about getting it back. I cursed myself too.

  I definitely should have asked for way more money.

  2.

  St. Andrews was one of the larger boarding schools in the North East. Founded well over two centuries ago, it first started as a small catholic monastery. During the 1900s, it was converted into an all boy’s school. It went co-ed in the 1960s, along with a massive renovation. The original monastery buildings and church still remained and over the years other buildings were built around them. There was now a total of thirty buildings altogether, including the five dormitories, two gymnasiums, four libraries and an assortment of other buildings both small and large. The main focus of the campus was the large quad, centered around a bronze statue of St. Andrew, with every path in the place leading to and from it.

  The dormitories were centered around it as well.

  Three on each side of the quad built from red stone brick and each three stories high.

  Curtis Hall was the most recent. Built in 1981, it was also the largest of the four upperclassmen dorms. The largest dorm of course was Marcus, the housing for the young kids because they didn’t differentiate between gender there. I never had to endure it but Kelly did. She never seemed to be too happy about her stories of the place.

  I thankfully managed to get out of Curtis without drawing any attention.

  I didn’t want to explain to any passing teacher why a girl was slipping out the boy’s dorm so early in the morning. I was also thankful that Henry decided to follow me most of the way. He stayed a few steps behind until we got outside where we proceeded over to a stone bench to talk through the plan in more detail I guess.

  He was the only one who followed me.

  “Ok,” he said, pulling out a campus map. “Cherry lives in Margaret Hall, right here”

  He pointed to the building on the map.

  I nodded. “I pass by there on the way to English”

  My English classroom was in Carter, right next door to the girls dorms so I knew the way.

  He nodded and continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Frank and I will be waiting for you here,” he said, pointing to Bishop, the science building. “When you get the prize, bring it to us and your part in the plan is over”

  “My part?” I asked, wondering if that meant there was more.

  He looked like a deer caught in headlights for a moment

  “I mean,” he said, clearly realizing he might have said too much. “the mission will be a success.”

  He smiled, hoping he had me fooled.

  He didn’t.

  Frankly, I didn’t really care what else they were up too. Sure if something went wrong, I might be pinned into the whole thing too but I’d deal with that when it came. I wasn’t really afraid of the ramifications. The school punishment system was built around Offenses. The First Offense was detention. The Second two detentions, the Third was three weeks of detention and calling of the parents. The Fourth was suspension and the Fifth was expulsion. I’d never heard of anyone ever getting expelled, though.

  I knew what I was about to do was pretty serious but I also knew it wasn’t my doing.

  I wasn’t exactly an idiot.

  My father was a lawyer so I knew how to cover my tracks.

  Two years ago, there was an incident with some bullies. Because I was so small they thought they could push me around and get away with it. They terrorized me for weeks. Finally, I called my Dad. I thought I could handle it but I was just getting too scared. My brothers, of course, wanted to hunt each of the bastards down but Dad had a better plan. He told me the next time any of them approached me that he wanted me to secretly record everything on my cell phone. He even bought me a new one with a state of the art recording app and everything. So sure enough, my bullies did return. This time, though I caught them. The lot of them got suspended for a week.

  St. Andrews had a zero tolerance policy when it came to bullies.

  So, of course, I used my father’s method again when I first saw Frank approaching.

  I had the first conversation and every other one with him since all recorded on my phone. The last one was of particular interest to me though because it was the most damning. If need be I could even remove my bit about the money, making it look like it was him forcing me to do so. I don’t think Dad would have been too happy about that bit but sometimes you had to break some rules. Besides my extortion made me seem as guilty as them.

  Henry suddenly rubbed the back of his head.

  “Look…ah…you gonna be ok and stuff?”

  Like I said he was a pretty decent guy.

  Henry Clarke. Seventeen years old, six foot two and the nicest guy in Frank’s little bunch. He was also pretty easy on the eyes or so I’ve heard. Because of my accident, I would never really know what sexual attraction was. At least not in the normal sense. Right now I was pretty much a eunuch. Hell, I’ve never even had an erection before. I knew that it was still possible. I’d talked with my doctors about hormone replacement therapy. It was something we were considering but they wanted to make sure it was what I really wanted. Not that I was on the fence about it but there was a time limit. At my last appointment, they told me I had some decisions I needed to make.

  I was in an in-between state right now.

  Not fully boy.

  Not really girl either.

  So in other words, I could look at someone like Henry and feel nothing.

  Though he was looking at me for some reason.

  It took me a moment to realize he asked me a question.

  “What was that?”

  He asked me if I was going to be ok again.

  I nodded. “I’m good. With luck, I’ll be able to get in there without drawing too much attention and be out in a flash”

  He patted my shoulder. “Good luck kid”

  He stuck his hands into his pockets and wandered off after that, seemingly heading toward the main hall for breakfast.

  My stomach grumbled as I watched him go.

  Damn, I really wish I asked for more money.

  **************

  Ok, no turning back now.

  I was standing in front of Margaret hall, holding my breath. My hand was hovering near the handle of the door, trembling a bit. As soon as I opened this door, there was no turning back. As they say in movies, I was committed to the task from this point forward. I turned my head, looking over my shoulder at the quad and Curtis in the distance. I still had time to turn back. It would mean losing a good deal of money but at least I’d avoid potential punishment. Sure there was no guarantee I was going to get caught but I there was no guarantee I wasn’t either. No matter what I did honestly, I was in a no win situation.

  If I turned back, I lost.

  Going forward I might lose too.

  The better of the two choices though was definitely ahead.

  The only thing I had to fear going forward was getting caught. I was only half confident that I wouldn’t. The best thing I had going for me was my size. I hoped I was short enough that if I did run into someone, they would think I was younger and lost. They’d either ignore me completely or stop and try to help me. I was hoping for the former. That way I could slip on by and continue my “mission”. If the latter happened, I was screwed. I knew from my sister that most of the dorm girls knew everyone else. If I didn’t belong there, then they’d know it. I could still use the whole lost bit but I’d rather avoid lying if I could. I hated lying to people, partially because I was no good at it but mainly because it caused too many problems. A good lie was really hard to pull off. Sure any idiot could tell a lie but a good liar really needed to know how to do it properly.

  Any good liar knew that in order to tell a convincing lie there were some pretty big things that he or she needed.

  The first was a reason when there’s something to gain. I guess that’s the necklace and my money. Then there was a good groundwork, I su
ppose I could pull that one off too if needed. I could also mislead if I needed too. I could probably keep my facts straight too. Where I was going to have a problem was knowing my target and staying focused. I didn’t really know girls all that well honestly. Sure I knew my sister but she was easy. I grew up with her so I knew her likes and dislikes. It was other girls I had problems with. Before Mom died, I was still the quiet kid that no one seemed to notice. Always short and shy, I never really had any friends, boys or girls. So not only were other kids pretty foreign to me, girls were like Antarctica. If I didn’t know someone, it was hard for me to stay on track with them.

  How do I know so much about this stuff?

  When your Dad is a lawyer and he deals with liars on a daily basis, you learn to lie the proper way very fast.

  I’d been honing my skill with him for years.

  That was small game, though.

  This was the Big Leagues.

  Batter up.

  I took a deep breath and pulled open the door, stepping inside fast before I changed my mind. Truthfully, I’m not sure what I was expecting. I knew of course what our dorm looked like so I thought maybe it would be different in here. It was actually pretty much the same. I saw the same dull gray-blue walls, the same highly polished hardwood flooring. There was a decent size foyer with a medium size desk. Above and behind it was a picture of the buildings namesake---Margaret Wilson. The girls dorms were named after first names, not last. They were also all named after women too. Margaret Wilson I think was a nun.

  In our dorm, there was usually an older man sitting at the desk.

  I was happy to see that whoever sat at this particular one was currently absent.

  I didn’t take the time to linger as I made a mad dash for the stairs.

  I didn’t stop moving until I got to the second floor.

  At the top of the stairs, I was able to finally catch my breath.

  The halls were apparently the same too.

  I took a moment to get my bearings. What did Frank say again?

  Oh yeah third room on the left.

  I started walking fast but realized it looked a little out of place. Not that there was anyone around to see. The hall was completely deserted, thank God. I found the room easily enough. Not only was it the third door on the left but there was a sign announcing it was her’s. Well her and her roommate’s actually. A crude cutout of a pair of cherries, believe it or not. Written on it with magic marker were the names, Cheryl and Diana. Clearly one of them thought they were being cute. I knew both of them---by reputation---it was definitely Diana.