She disengaged herself from her friends and came over to me. “Hey, Mike!”she called. “Did you go to Hollywood with your brother?”
I smiled and said, “Yeah. I was in the studio while they recorded.”
“Cool beans. Did you see any stars in Hollywood?”
How much do I tell? I guess I can be honest without being too honest. “We went to some fancy restaurants and saw a lot of stars. I even talked to Tommy Kincaid”
Kayla’s eyes went wide as she exclaimed, “Oh, get out of here! No kidding? For reals?!”
“For reals. I really did.”I said.
“He’s so awesome!”she sighed. “How is he in person?”
How do I answer that? “He’s actually a very nice guy – very down-to-earth. I also met Julia Briggs.”
Kayla frowned, “She’s a bitch. I heard she’s also a lesbian.”
Did everybody know that but me? “She’s very pretty. But she’s also pretty scary.”
Kayla continued to frown, “I don’t care about her. Tell me more about being at a recording studio. And how did you meet Tommy?”
“Well, ah… it’s about what you’d expect. We’d put on headphones and sing in separate booths, and we met Tommy at a party.”
Kayla looked at me curiously, “You said ‘we’. Did you sing too?”
Crap! I need to watch what I say. “I… uh, well I meant ‘we’ as in the band.”
Before she could ask anything else, the bell rang, warning us that we were about to be late for class. We said a brief good-bye and hurried to our classes.
* * *
At lunch, I spotted Kayla sitting at a table with her friends. She waved me over and I squeezed in between her and another girl.
“Hey, Mike! You gotta tell me more about Hollywood and especially meeting Tommy Kincaid! You met him at a party?”
“Actually, I wasn’t all that impressed with it. Lots of shallow, self-centered, fake people,” I said flatly, “and yeah, I met Tommy at his sixteenth birthday party. Lots of celebrities were there.”
Looking puzzled, Kayla asked, “So, why were you there?”
I need to be careful, I thought. I said, “The band’s agent is the same as Tommy’s agent. He thought someone from the band should hobnob there.”
Kayla raised her shoulders in a questioning gesture. “Okay... again why were you there? You’re not in the band.”
Before I could answer, a couple of the guys I normally sit with at lunch were walking by. They weren’t really friends, just some guys I knew. One of them, Pete, called out, “Shit Mike. Is that you? What’s with the hair?”
“What about it?” I asked.
“It’s bad enough you grow it so long anyway, but look at it. I thought you were a girl sitting there.”
“Very funny,” I glowered. I was always being teased about my hair length. Most of the guys at school kept their hair cropped pretty short.
“No, seriously,” said Ralph, “your hair makes you look like a girl.”
“Leave him alone,” said Kayla. “At least he has hair. Look at you guys with your shaved heads.”
Pete feigned being scared. “Ohhh... we’d better watch it!” He laughed, turned away from me and said to the others, “Let’s sit over there, at the men’s table.”
Kayla shook her head as she watched them leave, “What’s with those guys?”
She looked at me and smirked a little, “Your hair does look a little feminine, Mike. Maybe you should get it cut.”
“I’m not getting it cut now!” I protested. “Not after that. I don’t want Pete thinking he can bully me into things.”
“Maybe you should let me fix it,” Kayla suggested. “I’m good with hair.”
“Girls’ hair,” I said.
“Hair hair,” said Kayla. “If you don’t want to cut it, then I can fix it to look less feminine.”
* * *
I stood there on the sidewalk outside Kayla’s house wondering if this really was a good idea or not. I had asked Mom after dinner if I could go to Kayla’s for a while. She agreed as long as I was back home by ten. It took less than ten minutes to walk from my house to hers.
I rang the doorbell and Kayla’s dad opened the door.
“Hi. Is Kayla here?” I asked.
Her dad looked at me a moment then said, “Yeah, just a sec.” He turned back to face inside the house and shouted, “Kayla! Someone’s here to see you.” From inside, I heard Kayla’s voice, but couldn’t understand her. He then said in a lower voice, “I dunno. Some girl.”
Her dad moved back as Kayla bounced in front of the door. She looked back to her dad, and then to me and laughed. She said, “Hey! Come on in. I’ve got everything ready.”
Her dad’s comment was deeply disturbing. Maybe it was time to cut my hair off. No, that would be stupid since in just a couple of months we’ll be going on a short tour and we’ll be making a video.
After we entered Kayla’s room, she shut the door and plopped down on her bed and laughed. I looked around her room. She had posters of various celebrities plastered on her walls, Tommy Kincaid being the most prominent. Her closet door was open, revealing that it was overstuffed with clothes. And shoes... why so many pairs of shoes?
“I can’t believe your dad thought I was a girl. I don’t look anything like a girl,” I complained.
Kayla laughed, “I’m sorry Mike. But with the way you have your hair cut and styled, along with your face, you look like a girl.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“Hey, that’s what we’re going to try to fix. Besides, if Dad had thought you were a boy, I wouldn’t be able to close my door. This way, we have a little privacy.” She patted her bed spread, “Sit down. Let’s have a look at that hair of yours.”
I hesitated a second, then climbed onto the bed. I sat down facing her. She started running her hands through my hair. I didn’t mind her touch at all. Her eyes sparkled as she looked over my hair, having me face one way, then the other. She was definitely in her element playing with hair.
“You probably won’t like to hear this, but you have very pretty hair. Thicker than most boys’ and soft and silky,” she said matter-of-factly. “It almost screams for a feminine style.”
“Can you make it look less girly without cutting it, or very much?” I asked, afraid of it being altered too much for when I return to being Michelle.
“I think so. But do you mind if I play with it for a bit first? I love your hair and I’d like to try a several different looks. Just for fun.”
“Girl looks?”
“Do you mind? If it bothers you, I won’t. I just love playing with people’s hair. At slumber parties, everyone always wants me to fix their hair.”
I didn’t really want to, but the idea seemed to genuinely make her happy.
“Please, please, please?” pleaded Kayla.
I said, “Okay. Just don’t take too long. I need to be back home by ten.”
Her eyes lit up and she said, “Great!” She started digging around the pile of hair stuff lying on her bed, “Turn around.” I did so, and she started brushing my hair.
As she was tying my hair up with a scrunchie, Kayla said, “Tell me more about Tommy. You never said why you were invited to his birthday party.”
Without turning around I said, “We have the same agent.”
Kayla laughed, “There you go with ‘we’ again.”
Exasperated, I said, “Well, John is my brother and it’s his band. It’s kind of a family band.”
“I thought you said that he didn’t want you in his band.”
“He doesn’t. But he’s my brother, and Mom’s the manager and Dad’s our insurance counselor. See? It’s a family band.”
“Why do I get this feeling that you’re holding out on me?” Kayla asked.
Because I am, I thought. “What makes you say that?” I asked. “The band’s agent wanted someone to go to Tommy’s party, and the band was busy with the album. That’s
all.”
“Okayyyy. Tell me what Tommy’s like. Is he as cute in real life? Is he nice? Did you talk to him very long?”
“I spent the whole evening with him. He seems very nice and quite frankly, I really couldn’t say much about how cute he might be.”
As Kayla handed me a mirror, she said, “Take a look. What do you think?”
I took the mirror and examined myself for a few moments.
I said, “It looks great, Kayla.”
“Thanks!” She un-did my hair and started on a new arrangement. Suddenly, she said, “Please! Tell me more about Tommy! Don’t hold anything back!”
I shrugged and said, “That’s pretty much it. He’s nice, he seems smart, he’s a great dancer, he tells good jokes, he...”
Kayla interrupted saying, “He’s a good dancer? You danced with Tommy?”
Did I say that? “I... uh, well that’s what I heard some of the girls say.”
“Turn around, Mike,” Kayla said in a stern voice. “There’s something goofy here.”
I turned around and gestured with my hands as I said, “What? So I made a mistake. Oh my God! Look out; the world is going to collapse.”
Kayla folded her arms across her chest, “Cute. Now look, you’re holding out on me, and I want to know what it is. How long have we been friends?”
About half an hour too long, I’d wager. I hesitated a few moments. Should I tell her? She was my oldest friend after all. But if she blabbed, then it’d be all over for the band, for John, and John would probably kill me. But not being able to tell anyone about being in Hollywood was driving me nuts!
“Well?”
“I’m thinking,” I said to give myself more delay. Kayla started humming the theme to the game show “Jeopardy!”
Finally, I said, “If I tell you this, you have to promise not to repeat it. And I mean it. If you say anything to anyone, it’ll ruin the band and hurt everyone associated with us. Including Tommy.”
Eyes starting to sparkle, Kayla leaned closer to me and said, “Have I ever told anybody about any secrets you shared with me before? Have I? We’ve been best friends since the first grade. I promise, promise, promise not to say anything!”
I cleared my throat and said, “Okay. Yes, I’m with the band and here’s what happened...” I then gave her a quick rundown of everything, including being kissed by Tommy.
Putting her hand over her mouth, Kayla laughed, “Oh... my... God! That’s hysterical! You spent the whole time as a girl and you bitch, you got to actually kiss Tommy Kincaid!” She laughed and added, “I can’t believe I know someone whose lips actually touched Tommy’s. Unreal!”
“Knock it off!” I demanded.
“Seriously Mike. What was it like to kiss Tommy? Is it as dreamy as I imagine?”
“I’m probably not the best judge. I wanted to rinse my mouth with gasoline afterwards.”
Kayla frowned, “What a waste! It had to be you he kissed. I’d sell my own grandmother for a chance to kiss him!”
“No you wouldn’t!”
“Have you ever met my grandmother?”
A silence fell over us for a few moments. Then Kayla laughed again. “That’s still funny that you spent the whole week as a girl. I wish I could have seen that.”
“It was embarrassing. They took a ton of pictures. You’ll get to see what I looked like,” I said dryly.
“I bet you were cute,” bubbled Kayla. “You really do have the right face for it. Especially that cute little button nose.”
“Cut it out!”
“Seriously! Hey, I can teach you how to wear make-up! It’ll be fun!”
I shook my head. The last thing I wanted was to wear make-up again. Putting it on by accident this morning was bad enough. I said, “No thanks. Mom already showed me how to put on make-up.”
Kayla giggled and said, “Your mom showed you how she wears make-up. She didn’t show you how girls our age wear make-up. Please? It’ll be fun. You’ve worn make-up and even had make-overs. It’s no big deal! And I want to see what you look like!”
I didn’t want to. Dammit! I didn’t want to have to wear make-up again until I really had to. I looked at her very earnest face. I didn’t want to. I really didn’t want to.
“Oh, okay. Just don’t take too long,” I sighed.
“Great!” She jumped off her bed and practically ran to her desk and started arranging various objects. “Come sit over here in front of the mirror so you can see what I’m doing.
Picking up a flesh colored bottle, Kayla said, “Okay. Normally I moisturize first, but we’ll go ahead and start with base.” She went straight to work, applying the make-up. I sat there thinking, I know this already.
“Now we’re going to do your eyes. The eyes are everything! You don’t want to use the same eye make-up for school as you would say, on a date. We can get by with a lot more eye liner than your mom can.”
She approached my eye with the liner and I reflexively jerked my head back. “Stay still,” she scolded. “I don’t want to poke you in the eye!”
When she was done, she stepped back and looked at me in the mirror. “Wow. No wonder Tommy fell in love with you! You are gorgeous!”
“Knock it off! And Tommy’s not in love with me.”
“If I had to guess, I’d say Tommy was in love with you. And look at you. Don’t you think you’re beautiful?” Kayla started brushing my hair.
“I don’t know if I’d say ‘beautiful’, but yes, I’d love to be able to date myself.” I looked at myself in wonder. Kayla was definitely an artist. She did my make-up almost as well as those expensive salons.
She suddenly ran to her closet, did a quick search through it and pulled out a short, blue dress. “Let’s see what you look like in a dress!” When I frowned, she pleaded, “Please?”
“It probably won’t fit,” I said hopefully.
“Mike... can I call you Michelle when you’re a girl? I think we’re close to the same size.”
I could tell that playing along would be the path of least resistance. I said, “Okay, I’ll put on the stupid dress.”
“Great!” beamed Kayla. “I’ll leave the room so you can change. The bras are in the top drawer there. There’re some socks you can stuff it with too. You’ll need boobs for that dress. Oh, and here’s the shoes that go with it.” She started to leave, stopped at her dresser and opened a box on the top, “Here, try these earrings with the dress.” She practically hopped out of the room in excitement.
I held the dress for a moment and said to myself, “Dang it!” I opened the top drawer of her dresser. I was surprised to find a black lacy bra and a red one too. I fought back a fleeting attempt to imagine Kayla in one of them. I grabbed a pair of rolled up socks.
After a few minutes, I was in the blue dress and heels. It didn’t escape my notice that I didn’t feel weird or out of place wearing the dress and the one inch heels were small potatoes to the stilettos I’d worn before. I called out through the door, “Okay, I’m done.”
Kayla came in carrying a magazine, and she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me. A big goofy grin spread across her face as she exclaimed, “That’s amazing! I bet you don’t want me to say this, but you’re a girl, Mike. You’re totally a girl! I bet every guy wanted to go out with you!”
“That’s just nuts!” I said. “I don’t look anything like a girl.”
“Are you that blind?” She stood next to me as we both stood in front of the mirror. “If you saw us both on the street, could you tell that one of us wasn’t a real girl?”
I looked. I looked hard. She had me there. If I didn’t know that one of the people in the mirror was me, I’d swear I was seeing two amazingly cute girls.
I sighed, “Okay. You win. You’re right.”
Kayla smiled, “Maybe we can have a girls’ night out some time. I think that’d be fun!”
I frowned and said, “I don’t think so.”
“Sure it would!” She held up the teen magazine she was hold
ing, “I just got this today. Want to look at it with me?”
I shrugged and said, “Okay.”
She jumped on her bed and lay across it. Lying next to her, Kayla giggled as she opened the magazine. I’m not sure why she wanted me to look at the magazine with her. It didn’t seem to have more than make-up tips and pictures of male celebrities.
Before we’d gotten very far in the magazine, there was a knock on the door. Kayla casually said, “Come in!”
I whispered frantically in her ear, “Nooo!” I can’t be seen like this!
Kayla’s mother opened the door and she was holding something, “Would you girls like a snack?”
“Great, Mom. Thanks!” said Kayla.
As she set the plate of carrot sticks and granola bars on the bed, Kayla’s mom said, “I don’t think I’ve met you before, although you do look familiar.”
Before I could say anything, Kayla said, “Mom. This is Michelle. You remember my friend Mike? This is his cousin.”
Mrs. McIntire nodded and said, “Yes, I remember Mike. He’s such a sweet boy. His brother on the other hand... well, we won’t go into that. Anyway, it’s nice to meet you, Michelle.” And with that, she left, closing the door behind her.
“I thought I was a goner,” I said.
“What are you talking about?” giggled Kayla. “Mom thought you were another girl. Believe me; she would have said something if she thought something fishy was going on.”
Kayla turned a few more pages in the magazine and stopped when there appeared a several page article on Tommy Kincaid.
“Look! There’s your boyfriend!” laughed Kayla.
“Cut it out!” I cried. “He’s not my boyfriend!”
“Who is, then?”
“Nobody!”
Kayla giggled, “I’m just having fun with you!”
“I know.”
“Still, you have to admit he’s pretty awesome,” squealed Kayla, “and it’s not fair that you couldn’t care less, and you got to date him and kiss him... more than once!”
This was starting to make me rather uncomfortable. I said, “Hey, it’s getting late. I probably should be heading home. Can you help me clean up right quick?”
I'm with the Band Page 9
