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New Meaning: Sugar and Spice

Part Two ~ Temptation

By Ariel Montine

Does Tony understand the real price of getting that new computer to run his game?

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New Meaning: Sugar and Spice

Part Two ~ Temptation

By Ariel Montine

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"To-ny! Wouldn't you like to do this for me! Please!" She had those sad puppy dog eyes that I could not refuse. I knew I would give in no matter what it was but I could withhold my acceptance till I knew what she had in mind.

 

"Do what, sis?"

 

"You just have to sell cookies. Gretchen was my selling partner but she's sick with the bug going round."

 

"I'm so sorry Gretchen is sick. So many kids are sick with that bug that not many families are untouched." I knocked on wood since so far our family were one of the few where the bug had not hit.

 

"The girls in my Girl Scout Troup are sending her a get well card. You can put a note in it too. Do you wanna?"

 

"Maybe. Where are you going to sell cookies? In front of Walmart?"

 

"No, we have a much better place to sell them and we get to go to a basketball game too."

 

"Which basketball game?"

 

"The WNBA game on Friday at Philips Arena. They said that we could send 10 kids to sell cookies at the game."

 

"The WNBA game? Jenny, is this your Girls Scout Troop selling Girl Scout cookies at the game?"

 

"Yes, this is our big fund raiser for the year. Missing even one person will mean quite a difference in our sales especially from what should be very willing customers."

 

"Why doesn't another girl from your troop take Gretchen's place?"

 

"All the rest but me and the other eight girls are sick too. We tried asking girls outside the troop but everyone who isn't sick is going to the sold out Jonas Brothers concert that Radio Disney is promoting."

 

"If I agree to go sell cookies, what's the catch?"

 

"They are only letting Girl Scouts in Uniform inside Philips Arena to sell the cookies, You'll have to be a convincing Girl Scout not only to get in but to be effective selling cookies."

 

"When you put it that way, how could I refuse?" I rolled my eyes at her so she knew I was being sarcastic.

 

"Only if getting that new laptop you have your eyes on doesn't mean anything to you, Anthony."

 

"Sis, That's a wonderful prize, but it's meaningless if you can't deliver."

 

"I can do just fine with your one year old laptop for my school work. But you need the latest laptop in order to play that brand new computer game that is all the rage with your friends. Next week is my birthday and Mom is going to buy me a brand new computer like she did for you on your birthday last year. I'll even throw in a copy of that computer game you want to play on it."

 

"Will Mom allow you to trade with me? It's still meaningless if she makes us trade back."

 

"Well then it's me that you ought to be asking about this!"

 

"Mom, will you let Jenny trade her new laptop to me in exchange for me being a Girl Scout to sell cookies?"

 

"I'll let you trade if you give your all to be the best Antonia that you can be."

 

"Mom, you know me when I do something, I'll give it my all. It's a short time for so drastic a change. What if I'm not good enough to pass as a girl?"

 

"That's why you have to start now and live as Antonia 24/7 thru the WNBA game and continuing until the sales contest is over. If you do your best and either Jenny or I decide that its not good enough then I'll do what it takes for your computer to be upgraded to play that computer game that you want to play anyway."

 

"It's a deal! Turn me into a Girl Scout!"

 

"Well let's talk about this first for a monent, girls!"

 

"Huh?"

 

"Exactly, Antonia. Being a girl starts with you accepting yourself as a girl inspite of what you happen to look like.

 

Mom motioned us over to sit in the living room. She took her customary seat in the little rocker and Jennifer sat down first naturally for a girl, smoothing her skirt under her, and sitting with her legs together and crossing them at the ankles. I didn't have a skirt, yet but I copied her smooth way of sitting down and I kept my legs together and crossed them at the ankles too.

 

"Mom, is this like method acting? I put everything in being the person I am portraying so that nothing of the old me comes out and detracts from my presentation."

 

"Exactly Antonia, it comes first from your mind and along the way you will learn how to really be comfortable and will want to do things in keeping with the person you are portraying. You did things nicely copying Jennifer's way of sitting down. You observed that the way that Tony would do it no longer fit and that's good. However to be completely natural, you'll have to be more than just a copy of other females, you will have to find something original to you which fits in with the feminine person you now are portraying. "

 

"I get that, Mom. May I copy girls till I understand how to do it, if I had grown up as Antonia?"

 

"Of course, Antonia. And there are some things that you can copy since we all do like that. Girls of a certain age tend to call their Mothers, Momma, as Jennifer does. What do you feel like you should call me, Antonia?"

 

"I should call you Momma, too and that makes it seem like I am more one of the family and one of the girls. What does it really mean to be one of the girls, Momma?"

 

"Being one of the girls means that you are part of a sisterhood, not just with your sister Jennifer, but with all women. You'll feel a little closer to those like Jennifer and I who are related to you by blood and that's normal. We girls cooperated with each other and greet each other with a smile even if we are strangers. We get a smile in return becasue we are all connected even if we haven't really met yet.

 

"Wow, Momma! That seems a whole lot better than anything that I have experienced as a boy. If I tried to greet other boys with a smile I might have been beaten up for it. Being a girl seems a whole lot better, Momma."

 

"Well there are other things to think about when you've grown up to be a woman. Since you are still a girl and your body isn't ready to start that journey toward being a woman, we won't have to worry about them yet. As a child, this is the fun part of your life, and even more so living that childhood as a girl."

 

"Momma, you told me that I am made differently down there from Jenny. That's why we don't get to take baths together like Jenny told me that her friends, the twins, Evie and Wynona, do that."

 

"We'll have to do something about that, just for the time that you are Antonia. However, at this age the rest of your body is more like Jennifer's body. And we'll have to do something about your hair."

 

"How can that be, Momma? I thought that boys were made of snails and pails and puppy dog tails?"

 

"What is meant by 'being made of' in the nursery rhyme is really what is in their minds which is played out in their actions. By making the leap to being Antonia, you give your life a new meaning. Like the girls in the rhyme, you are now made of sugar and spice and everything nice. It starts with having that kind of mindset and that flows over into your actions."

 

"So my life has a new meaning, Momma? When I decided to think as a girl then I will start acting as a girl. I guess that might start with my hair. It really is wild and unkept."

 

"Unlike Jennifer's neatly cut and kept hair, yours has been allowed to go wild and long, and you don't do anything to take care of it."

 

"Can I get my hair cut like Jennifer's, Momma? Is it okay for sisters to have hair cuts the same? Would you mind if my hair was cut like yours, Jenny?"

 

"Of course not, silly. I feel like it is sweet that my big sister wants to copy my style. You'll see that having just one element the same does not make it so that you have to copy everything. You'll have so many more options on how you look as a girl than you did as a boy. I love you, Sister!"

 

"I love you too, Sister"

 

We leaned in together and had a big soft hug. Then we gracefully untwined and were back sitting nicely side by side and a little closer together.

 

"It's okay if their mother cuts their hair and she only can do good with one style, at your ages, Antonia. If it were when you were older, you could get a haircut at my beauty salon."

 

"That sounds like fun for you Jenny? What style would you pick if you had everything at the salon to choose from?"

 

"I'm not sure, Antonia. I hope that I can find something that suits me as well as the hair cut that Momma gives me. She may only know one cut but she knows that one really wonderfully."

 

"Thank you, Sweetie. I want both of you girls to look your best."

 

"So how do I start being the best girl that I can be, Momma?"

 

"Well, I guess we had better start with a bubble bath. You can wash off all those boy smells and start smelling like a girl. This is different from your sister's bubble bath since she likes strawberries and we'll try you out at the start with cucumber melon. The shampoo and conditioner and all of the skin care products that I got for you all have that same scent so you will smell like Antonia instead of like Jennifer or me. Each girl should have her own scent and this is just the way to start you off with your very own."

 

"Thank you for going to all that trouble, for me. Cucumber Melon was the scent that I liked when you had me smelling all of those shampoo smells because you said you wanted to try something new and you wanted my opinion since Jenny was off at a sleepover at Evie and Wynona's house. Thank you for remembering, Momma."

 

"You are welcome, Sweetie. I also got you one set of girl's clothing transposing your boy's sizes. You can put on the underclothes and robe after your bath and come out to the Kitchen and I will cut your hair while it is still damp, like I do Jennifer's."

 

"So after I get my hair cut, then I get to put on the girl's clothes. That will be really nice. I have made up my mind that I am a girl, so wearing girl's clothes should be natural for me now."

 

"It will be different, for you sweetie, but different can be good. You've done so well accepting yourself as a girl in your mind. It will be interesting to see how things go when you look like a girl on the outside too. Looking like a girl and being a girl in your mind should help you learn to do things like a girl would."

 

"I can't wait to start. Will you get what I need for me, Mommy?"

 

"Sweetie, it's all laid out in my bedroom and in my bathroom. If you were not willing to help your sister, I didn't want you to know about the preparations I made. If you had said no, everything would have gone back to the store, and nothing further said about it. You'll have a nice private place to yourself, to take your bath and get dressed. I'll be near enough to answer questions or to come in to help you if you need it."

 

"Thank you, Momma. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I turn out as a girl."

 

"Off you go to my room then, Sweetie"

 

And that is how it started. They started with just turning me into a girl, The girl scout would come later on, I guessed. Momma and Jenny, had been lulled into a false sence of security, with my easy acceptance of the deal. I really wanted to help my sister, there was just not enough time to drag my feet and complain. If I did that then, I would not have time enough to give it my all. Even doing my best, there may not be time enough. I felt mischevious and guessed if I controled myself to do things willingly, it would give me a chance at some really satisfying mischief when they least expected it. I would make my mischief planning part of my training, by doing it like a girl.