I felt a slight prodding sensation. Something strange was happening in my dream. "Brandon, wake up." Poke.

"Ahh!�" I woke up to see Amy standing over me.

"Wake up Brandon! Geeze� how long does it normally take to wake you up?" Amy asked me as she kept poking me.

"I don't know� I'm usually never awake for it" I said as I tried to roll back over.

"If I have to I'll tickle you!" She said. I knew she meant it too.

"All right I'm getting up!" I said with a groan.

"Good, why don't you go ahead and take a shower real quick. Mom's making breakfast downstairs. Once you're done we'll go eat and then we'll hit the slopes!"

"What time is it?"

"7:00"

Groan� "Way too early�" I said as I got off of my rear end and took my stuff to the bathroom. I showered, but didn't wash my hair. Mom had told me that if I was in a hurry that could save me some time � I got the feeling we were in that hurry. I got out of the shower as quick as I could, and then took care of the rest of the essentials to starting a day. I did brush my hair out really quick after brushing my teeth, and then put my ski clothes back on.

I switched shirts to a Disney shirt I got when we went there this past summer. It was a yellow shirt with Mickey on it. I unfortunately only had one pair of ski pants though so I had to wear those again. I looked at myself and decided I was fairly presentable and went out to the room.

"That was quick. Did you wash your hair out?"

"I didn't think I had time to do that� So I'll wait till tomorrow I guess."

"I didn't wash mine out today either, I was kind of hoping if we get back early I could get mom to do it for me."

"Your mom washes your hair?" I asked

"Occasionally, it's such a great feeling having someone else wash your hair! Maybe I can get her to do yours too!" She said. I felt a little awkward and mumbled something.

"Do you have your necklace on?" She asked curiously.

"Yes, you?" I asked. I didn't take it off that night, and left it on in the shower on accident. Shouldn't hurt it though I figured. I currently had it tucked underneath my shirt � I was experimenting to see if you could see it if I did that. There was a bit of chain around the front inside of my collar visible. I didn't know if I could get away with wearing it to school of not. My hair actually did cover the back of the chain though�

Back to the present though, "Yep! Anyway, I'm hungry let's go eat!"

She dragged me down the stairs and we sat down at their dining table to eat. I'm really not a morning person, never have been, never will be. But I did my best to act civilized!

We drove off to the resort a short while later. Once we returned to the resort we got everything out again.

"Okay guys, we're going to let you go off again on your own today. We'd like to you to meet us at the Timberline Restaurant for lunch though."

"Okay," we both answered together. Amy then led me to a different lift than we had used the previous day.

"Hey Brandon, we should do something with your hair again today." She said. Somehow I felt there was something strange going on.

"Okay, I guess we can do the headband thing again today. Did your mom mention it last night or this morning?"

"No she didn't, but like I said she suggested it in the first place. Are you worried about the fact you forgot to take it off before we saw them?" I nodded. "It's really okay, it's not that big of a deal to wear a headband."

"I guess I'm not really worried about that, I just don't want your parents to think I'm a freak or something. You're too good of a friend for that."

"If my parents thought that, do you think my mom would have gotten this necklace set for us? My dad was in the store and I'm sure she told him what she was thinking of doing. He obviously still let it happen. So chill." She said with a smile.

"Okay, I guess I'll wear the headband again." I said smiling back at her.

"Okay, let me get it out." She started digging through her bag. "Uh-oh�"

"What?"

"I think I must have taken them out this morning for some reason� Hrmm�" She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then looked at me before digging into her bag. She said, "Turn around."

I looked skeptically at her for a second, "Trust me," she said. So I did. In a moment I felt her gathering my hair and pulling it back and forth before she said a few seconds later, "Done!"

I felt my hair, something felt odd. It was off of my neck �that hadn't been the case in a while � and my hand ran up to find, "A ponytail?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep! And actually I think you look cute with it!"

I was flabbergasted� I didn't know what to say. "Okay� If people thought I was a girl yesterday that's probably only going to be worse today� I should take this out."

I started to reach up to pull the scrunchie she had used to tie it up out. But she gave me this puppy dog look. "Come on, I'll remind you to take it out before we meet with my parents. I've wanted to do that and so much else with your hair since like a month ago. I didn't know if it was long enough though� Come on. I promise I'll never tell anyone else!" She said practically groveling.

"Alright. But please remind me to pull it out. I don't want your parents to see me like this."

"Great, let's go!" She put her skies on and we climbed up to the chairlift. I hoped that I had fought hard enough to not make her think I was going along with it too easily. On one hand I really wanted to be a girl� on the other hand it was such a scary road, and one I worried my best friend had pegged me as wanting to follow.

"So Amy, why are we getting on this chairlift today?" I asked.

"Well, we're going to meet my parents at that restaurant, and it's on the backside of the mountain. This'll get us into that area. We can make several runs down this side and then we can meet them there. Then we'll be able to ski the front side of the mountain the rest of the day. Sound good?"

"Yeah, that does sound good. So, we're getting really close to the trip to Florida, are you excited?" I asked her

"Yeah I am. Have you ever been there before?"

"No, we went to California one time, but I've never been east, let alone to Florida. You?"

"Yeah, we've been a couple times. The last time was 2 years ago. I love it there, especially Disney World! You'll have a blast there. What are you looking forward to most?"

"I don't know, actually I think the day at Kennedy Space Center and Space Camp! Have you ever seen that movie?" She shook her head, "We'll have to watch it together sometime. I mean I guess maybe it's kind of dorky but I love science and space. It would be so cool to be able to go into space someday."

"I don't think it's dorky at all. Actually that's the one place that we've never been � I've always wanted to go there though. The rest of the kids may not realize it, but I'm every bit as much of a dork as you are!" She said giggling as we reached the top on the chairlift.

We made our way to the top of the trail we were going down and started down the slope. The ponytail was a whole new experience � something I'd wanted to experience ever since I'd decided on this path � and was everything I hoped it would be. I loved how it bounced a bit every time I hit a bump.

We skied several trails to reach the bottom. When we got there I said, "That was fun! I think I like the trails back here better than ones on the front."

"I kind of do too. Tell you what, let's go back up and stop at the bathroom on our way down before we go the rest of the way back here, okay?"

"Sure, that sounds like a great plan." I really needed to go too.

We rode the lift back up to the top, this particular lift was slower and it took us almost 20 minutes to get back to the top. I suppose it's still better than having to walk up though right? We skied down the little bit before there was a building that had a café, a small store, and some restrooms. She entered the girls room while I went into the boys room. When I finished I went to wash my hands and looked at myself in the mirror.

I definitely looked like a girl, I loved the scrunchie that was in my hair. It was purple, and seemed to match everything else I was wearing. I left the bathroom and started to wonder if some guy saw me what he would think�

What would happen if he wondered why I was going into the boys restroom� Thankfully no one had been around when I went in, but that was bringing up some questions I hadn't really thought about. I had not even come close to coming out and saying my desires� but my hair and my appearance were causing most people to believe I was a girl without really doing anything else. What issues was that going to bring up?

Amy came out of the ladies restroom and we went back down the slopes via a different set of trails than last time. We reached the bottom about 40 minutes before we were supposed to meet her parents.

"Brandon, we should head back up and start skiing to the restaurant we're meeting my parents at."

"Sounds good, I'm starving!"

When we got on the ski lift I started talking to her some more. It was awfully hard to talk while we were going down the slope, so it was nice to take the break to be able to talk.

"Brandon, I was supposed to remind you to take out the scrunchie before we met up with my parents."

"Oh that's right," I said as I started to reach up to the foreign object in my hair.

"Wait," she said and I stopped reaching, "why don't you just leave it in?"

"Umm� Because boys aren't supposed to wear their hair in a ponytail held up by a purple scrunchie?"

"Who says?"

"Well� What other guy, besides me, have you ever seen with their hair in a scrunchie?" I asked. I wasn't sure where this was going � I was mildly terrified though.

"Well� None� But I don't care, and my parents won't care either." She said.

"Umm� what happens if they think I'm a girl at the restaurant?" I asked.

"Well� they may think that anyway, you could just let it slide?" She suggested.

"Why are you so insistent on me keeping my hair like this?" I asked.

The chairlift stopped in midair � something was wrong on one of the ends or something. "I guess� Look Brandon I don't think we could ever date, I'm not really interested in you, and I think you feel the same way right?" I nodded "But I think you look cuter like this. I don't know, maybe it's more fun having you as a friend if you look like that? You don't have to do it I guess, it's just something I think is cute. Plus, you like it don't you?"

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