“Janet! Janet! Wake up!” I kick my mattress with the back of my feet to get the attention of my sister down below. My twin groaned. “What time is it?”

I go down the ladder of our bunkbed as she says this, then sit on the edge of her mattress. “It’s 5 AM.”

My sister throws her pillow at me. “C’mon, Jasmine. It’s too early. Let me sleep.”

I am so excited that I speak almost faster than my brain can keep up. “It’s our first day at summer camp! We have to be on the bus by nine, so we only have four hours. It will take us almost that long to take a bath and do our hair. I know Daddy said that we’d save time if we took a shower last night. But, you know as much as I do how baths make us feel better." I held my nose jokingly. "And, smell nicer too."

Janet throws another pillow at me. I see it coming and try to duck, but just end up getting a face full of the cotton pillowcase. It doesn't phase me, though. "Plus, we’re thirteen now. Mom said we can use a little makeup. We also have to pick out our outfits so we can do our nails to match. I’ll do yours and you can do mine. I put the nail bottles in my underwear drawer so we’ll be able to get our nails done with enough time to do our toenails too.

Oh, I know! We were both excited to get those matching skirts and blouses last week. Let’s wear those today! It will be so cute. I’ll wear the pink and you can wear the lavender. I’m going to wear those pink ruffle panties and my pink training bra that matches them. I know you say they are too childish, but I love them. Besides, I like how they make me feel.”

Janet props herself up against the headboard and smiles at me. “I can’t believe you’ve only been a girl for less than a month. You’re already way more girlie than me. Heck, no girl in our school is girlier than you are.”

I smile at her. “You are the original girly girl. I’m just making up for lost time.” Janet came in for a huge hug. “I’m glad that you can finally be who you are.”

I squeezed her into an even tighter embrace. “Yeah, me too. I love being able to be me. And, I’m super excited to finally be able to be a girl among other girls my own age. Besides you, of course. And for three months too!” That got me all excited all over again. “I’m going to take a bath in our tub. I’ll try to be quick and then you can take yours. I’ll put my underwear on and wait for you. Then we can put our outfits on together. You should put on matching panties and a matching bra too. I know nobody will see them, but it will be so cute for us to match completely. We’re going to knock their socks off at camp. Nothing beats cute twin girls!”

She swatted my behind as I walked towards the bathroom, causing me to squeal and run.

“Quit that, goofball. You’re going to wake up Mom and Daddy.” I replied in an exaggerated whisper. “Sorry. We don’t want that.” I then giggled and went into our shared bathroom.

I drew a bath and put in my favorite lavender bath bomb. I then sat down on the toilet, did my business, wiped, then washed my hands thoroughly in the sink. I didn’t dry my hands though. I’m going to get them wet anyway when I jump into the bath.

Janet came into the bathroom to do her morning business just as I started taking off my clothes. “I still can’t get over how close we are. It’s awesome that we can just come in and out of the bathroom like that.”

Janet smiles at me. “It’s a girl thing, sis. You know, I can’t get over how excited you get over simple stuff that I take for granted.”

I give her a nod and reflect on that for a moment. “I never really thought about it being a girl thing. But, yeah, I mean Nathan and I never did that.” I let out an awkward laugh. “We always kept the door shut. The most I’d ever heard from him while I was doing my morning routine was a shout outside the door to hurry up, and a crass joke like ‘it doesn’t take that long to get rid of morning wood.’ Boys are so gross."

Janet gives me a sad smile. “I’m so sorry you had to deal with that for thirteen years. It must have been so awful for you pretending to be a boy when you belonged in girl world with me.”

I return her sad smile. “Yeah it was really hard. Especially when I’d cry and Dad would tell me that I ‘had to be strong for my sister and mother’ or I would do something that came naturally to me and I’d hear ‘that’s a girl thing’”. For the first time since my magic forced me to come out to my family as a girl on our birthday, my smile turns into a frown. “And, then there’s the names I’d be called.” I literally shudder just thinking about it. My smile comes back quickly, however, as I think about how far I’d come from that sad little girl that was forced to act like a boy to super happy girly girl in such a short time.

I take the rest of my clothes off, and get into the warm, inviting bubble bath. Now, I am ready to go back to bubbly little sister. Yeah, I’m the younger twin, by just twelve minutes. I smile at Janet, and let her know that it doesn’t matter now. "Now is the time for girly bubble baths, and girly manicures, and girly pedicures. Life can’t get much better."

My sister had already finished toilet duty by then and was just finishing washing her hands. She uses a wash towel to dry her hands and then strips down to her underwear. I can't help but look at her in awe. “You are so beautiful. I wish I was even half as pretty as you.”

My sister smiles at me. “You already are.” I splash water at her. “I didn’t mean it like that. You are very beautiful. We’re twins, remember? As for the other stuff,” she gracefully uses her hand to gesture down her body, “your time is coming soon. Once your estrogen really kicks in, you’ll be just as curvy as me and mom. Heck, even Grandma Sally is curvy. All of the women, on both sides of our family, are really curvy. You have good genes.”

I stop brushing my hair and splash her again. “Okay, Sydney Sweeney.” My sister gives me a mischievous grin, gets onto her knees next to the tub and uses her whole arm to send a tsunami of water and soap towards me. I involuntarily let out a squeal again. I then speak in a mock whisper. “Whoops, I mean squee.” Janet giggles and then walks out of the bathroom. “Hurry it up in there. You are right. We don’t have much time to get ready. It’s a quarter to six already.”

That shocks me. I had no idea time had already gone by so fast. I reluctantly let the stopper out of the tub, finish scrubbing the areas that need attention, and step out of the tub onto our fuzzy bathmat. It is purple with pink swirls, which very nicely works for both my sister and me. When the tub finishes draining, I put the stopper back in and draw a bath for my sister. I know her well, and expect she will put in her usual rose bombs, but I don’t put them in because bath bombing is personal for us girls.

I am just finishing putting on my head towel when my sister puts down her phone and walks into our bathroom. I walk into our bedroom and head towards my dresser.

As I'm doing this, my sister is putting in rose bath bombs, just as I thought. She then turns towards me. “Thanks for finishing up quickly, sis. I know you love baths, and I understand. I love them too, and today is our last time to take one for a while since the camp only has showers.” She pauses as she steps into the tub. “But, as you said before, we don’t have a lot of time to get ready.”

I nod. Then I become embarrassed and could feel my cheeks warm up, and I’m sure they turn red at the same time. 'She can’t hear me, dummy', I internally curse before deciding to stop talking to myself and speak to my sister instead. “Yeah, and I can't wait to do your nails!”

Janet giggles. “You do my nails every day.” I return her giggle as I regain my excitement. “Yeah, but I have to make sure that the nail polish perfectly matches your outfit. We have to make a good first impression on the other girls. Besides, I like doing your nails every day. It never gets old.”

My sister was surprisingly stepping out of the tub already. “Don’t jinx yourself, sis, I’m sure you’ll be tired of doing them by this time next year.” Now that she is within my line of sight, I smile at her. “Never!” My sister shakes her head as she raises her towel to join me in the girly fashion of the head towel. Hers is lavender, of course. That brings a thought into my head. “How did you take a shower so fast?”

My sister gives me a look of surprise. “It’s already been an hour since you got out.” I audibly gasp. My sister giggles at me and makes a quip. “Don’t tell me my little sister can’t tell time?”

I giggle back. “I’m just so excited. You know time flies when you’re having fun.” This causes her to giggle harder. “Okay, boomer.”

As if being summoned, my mother walks in. My sister makes her best mischievous grin as she says, “speak of the devil”.

Mom makes a theatrical huff. “I heard that, young lady. I’m nowhere near a boomer.”

My sister’s face grows red when she realizes that Mom knew what we were talking about. Janet shouldn’t be surprised. Mom must have some kind of magic that lets her hear through walls since we can’t get anything past her.

My sister walks out into the bedroom in her towel outfit. Mom looks over at us both. “Girls, it’s already seven o’clock. We need to leave at 8:30. Get dressed and meet me downstairs. I’ll make you some breakfast.”

Mom leaves the room as I sigh. “Darn. I should have woken us up at 4:00. Being girly sure takes time.”

Janet smiles at me. “Sometimes I forget how new you are to all of this. You are so girly yet you are so much in need of someone teaching you the girly arts.”

I giggle. “Teach me then, oh professor princess.”

“I’ll be happy to do that, my young pupil. First thing first, though. We need to put on our outfits to make sure our nails match.”

I smile and head over to our shared closet. I pull out the pink skirt, which has a hem that comes down just short of my knees. I then grab the matching pink blouse. It has delicate lace around the neckline and matching lace at the cuffs.

Janet picks up the lavender version of my outfit and grins at me. We quickly put them on and then smile as we realize our polish color is perfect.

Janet then picks up the pink, sparkly polish. I sit down at our vanity as Janet sits down next to me. We both hold out one of our hands toward the other. I open the purple sparkle polish and start painting Janet’s pinkie nail.

My sister is still grinning at me, although her smile seems bigger than before. “You’re getting so good at this, but you still need a little bit more practice.” She asks me to give her my other hand, while I’m just finishing her middle finger. I stare at her, incredulously, causing her to blush. “I could have worded that better. I just meant you’re still a little bit slow.” She sees my face turn into a slight frown. “Don’t worry. You’ll get there in time. Mom let me practice with a preteen makeup and nail polish kit when I turned eleven. I have two years over you, but I’m sure you’ll match my speed way faster than that. Heck, you are such a girl. Look how far you’ve come in just a month. I’m sure you’ll pass me in a few months.”

I smiled hugely at the compliment. “And, that’s with having to wear boys' clothes and suffer without anything girly for half of the day while I was at school. Well, I did until it finally let out last week.”

I am finishing up polishing Janet’s right thumb while she works on my right middle finger. She then gives me her left hand, making things less awkward because we don't have to cross our arms anymore. She looks at me with surprised eyes. “Oh, wow. I forgot about that. You’ve only been able to be yourself full-time for a week. Holy cow, it’s only been a week! You are so girly, at this point, that I can’t believe you haven’t been a girl forever.” She gives me a knowing glance. “Well, I guess you have, huh?”

I smile, this time without any sadness over my time as a fake boy. “Yeah, always. I’ve secretly practiced being a girl in my room since forever. I even ordered a few girly outfits online. It was really hard to sneak my packages into my room without being noticed by you or our parents.”

Janet has a look on her face I can’t quite place. Sadness? Guilt? She doesn’t have to feel either of those things toward me.

“I noticed your packages, b... but I didn’t say anything. B.. boys are secretive of their stuff, so I didn’t want to p… pry.” She started tearing up.

I went in for a hug, with no worries about mussing up my nails. “Don’t ever feel guilty about that. No one besides me knew I was a girl at the time, least of all you. I wanted to have a sisterly relationship, and now we have that.” I smiled at her and put her fingers in mine, as has been our tradition since she found out I was a girl. “It’s more than that.”

She smiled at me. “Twin sisters forever.” I smile back at her and give her hands a squeeze. “Twin sisters forever.”

We finish our fingernails and then quickly do our toes. I don't know why, but toenails are way easier for me to put polish on than fingernails.

Knowing we don't have much time, we use our hairdryers to dry our polish before we turn them toward our hair. It seems like a stereotype, but brushing your hair for one hundred strokes each night really does help keep it healthy. We are able to brush our hair easily, whereas without brushing our hair would be full of snarls. I know that from experience when I tried to have long hair when I was pretending to be a boy, before my dad forced me to go to the barber.

I smiled as I realized I could do whatever I wanted with my hair now. Janet sees my smile in the mirror and asks me why I'm smiling. I look at her, smile harder, then respond. "I'm just happy I can do all sorts of girly things with my hair now." I brush my hair into my favorite style with heavy black bangs that compliment my light skin tone. My sister brushes hers into an understated, but pretty, side-parted style. I then look over at my twin again. "We can't do it now, but one day while we have time at camp, can you braid my hair like you did yours on your birthday. I smiled when I remembered her pretty braided twintails. She looked so cute, and since we are twins, I would too.

My sister grinned at me. "You bet I will, Jasmine. With how girly you are, you are going to love all the hairstyles you can do. I'll teach you curls, braids, twintails, ponytails, all sorts of things. You'll love it and I'll love teaching you!"

Now that we are dressed and prettied-up, we head out of our bedroom to meet our family in the kitchen.

Daddy is just about to shout up the staircase as we come down precisely at 8 AM. He looks up at us as we descend. “Good morning. Nice to see you girls. You sure do know how to cut things close.”

Mom walks in and supports our side. Yeah! Girl solidarity! “Come on, James. Cut them a break. They just want to make a good impression at camp. It takes girls longer to get ready then boys.”

At that, Nathan starts coming down the stairs in his ratty pajamas with his usual bird nest hair. My mom scrunches up her nose. “Nathan! You’re eighteen! You can at least do your laundry, or even better, buy something new.”

Daddy watches my brother as he comes down the stairs. ‘Oh no’, I thought. Now it’s time for boy solidarity. “I’ve been telling him that for months. Get your butt upstairs, son.” I think to myself that there’s no boy solidarity this time, as my daddy continues. “Drag down your laundry basket, assuming you’ve actually used it. if not then fill it, and bring it down here. I taught you better than that. C’mon, the washing machine isn’t hard to use. I use it, your mom uses it, the twins use it, he…” Mom gives Daddy a stern look. “Heck, even I use it. It’s not hard.”

Mom takes that moment to give us a stern look. “And, girls, just because I didn’t mind you coming down late, it doesn’t mean you can just stand there. Your eggs and toast are on the table. Grab something to drink from the fridge, sit down and eat, then put your plates and glasses in the dishwasher. Get a move on. It’s already been five minutes since you came down, and we need to leave in twenty-five minutes.”

My sister quickly answers, “yes, mom”. I give my mom a resigned look before I respond. “Yes, mommy.” My sister gives me a wide eyed look. Oh crap, it just came out. I didn’t mean it. Now Mom’s going to think I'm mocking her.

Instead she gives me a hug. “Oh, honey, you’re becoming more and more of a girl every day. I love it. I love you.” She lets go and then grabs my shoulders as she bends her head down a bit to look me straight in the eyes. “I’m so proud of you, Jasmine”. It still makes me so happy when someone uses my real name.

Daddy coughs. “Me too, honey. But your mother is right, you girls need to get a move on”. This time we both say “yes, Daddy” at the same time and giggle as we do.

As we are heading toward the cupboard, Nathan comes down the stairs lugging his laundry basket, now wearing a clean white T-shirt and jeans. Come on you two, come here and and give me a hug before you have to go. I won't see you all summer. Now that he's wearing something clean, we head over and give him a hug sandwich from both sides. He bends down and kisses me on the top of my head. "I'm so proud of you." He then does the same to my twin. "You too, Janet. I'll miss you both so much."

Aw, he got me near to tears, but I'm not going to ruin my mascara. Yeah, I know. It's probably too old for us. But it looks really good and it's really light. We both fan our faces girlishly, which makes us giggle again. We look at each other, then at him, and say at the same time "we'll miss you too, Nathan".

My mom is beaming at us, and takes a picture of us before we noticed what she was doing. Janet speaks up first. "You could have let us know first." My mom laughs. "Grandma always says, candid pictures make the best pictures. Now get going you too. You've really got to get a move on now.

We both quickly walk toward the cupboard to get a glass. We then take the orange juice out of the refrigerator and take turns pouring it. We take our glasses to the kitchen table and start eating our breakfast. I dig in on my firm fried egg as I look over at my sister, who prefers sunny-side up. “Yuck. I can’t believe you like your egg just flowing out goop from its center.

My sister simply shrugs before answering me. “It’s not any more of a goop than yours. Plus, it makes a great dunkin’ egg.” She then dunks her toast into it, and I try not to gag.

“Hey, whatever you like, sis. But, I’ll stick to food that doesn’t drain.”

Daddy laughs at our conversation. “Look at that, Megan. Finally something to prove that our girls aren’t clones.”

We giggle at the same time, just causing us to giggle more. My sister recovers first. “Oh, Daddy. There’s lots of things we don’t agree on.”

I then blurt out, “yeah, like which boys are cuter”. I immediately regret it when I see Daddy give a flash of discomfort. He notices my mood change and quickly recovers. “Oh, sweetheart. I didn’t mean it. You are my beautiful princess. You are the most feminine girl I’ve ever seen. I just… look, it hasn’t been that long and I… I guess my subconscious still has some hurdles to get over that I didn’t even realize were there.”

He grabs my hands and folds his huge fingers over my little ones. My hand looks so small in his hand and I smile when I realize mine will never grow to be as big as his.

Daddy smiles back. “There’s that smile I love so much.” He kisses me on the forehead, which goes a long way to comfort me. That kiss would not have been given to me just a few months ago, and that fact goes a long way to let me know that he really does see me as his daughter.

I envelop him in a hug. “Don’t worry, Daddy. It’s alright. I understand, and I know that you really see me as your little girl now. I love you so much.”

My sister timidly looks at us. “I am so happy that you have the relationship you always wanted with Daddy, but,” she looks at the clock which shows it’s 8:25 already.”

I immediately go back to the table and finish my last piece of toast. I don’t wolf it down, that wouldn’t be ladylike. That’s not to say girls can’t do that, as I’ve seen many who do. I’m just way too girly for that. I eat quickly, but neatly, and join my sister at the dishwasher. As I place my dishes in the dishwasher, mommy speaks up.

“It’s time to go girls, you don’t want to miss your bus to magic camp.”

Janet grins. "Okay mommy, we're coming." Our mother chuckles. "Mommy, huh?" Janet's grin turns into a true smile. "Yeah, I figure if mommy is good for Jasmine then it is good enough for me too."

Mommy beams at us. "It seems your sister is a good influence on you." She inspects my cute twintails. "And, vice versa."

Janet and I smile at each other as we enter the minivan. We hold each other's hands as we watch Daddy getting into the passenger's seat.

Mom looks back at us and smiles as she sees our entwined hands. "Okay, let's get the show on the road."

"Yay!" Janet and I giggle as we realize we reacted the same way.

We then turn on our phones and play the songs on our playlists. I snuggle into my sister as I listen to the soothing sounds of BTS. To my surprise, I soon become sleepy. I guess the excitement of this morning has gotten to me. I try to fight the urge to sleep, but as it usually does, sleep won.

I'm soon surprised when Janet pokes my shoulder. Hey, wake up sleepyhead, we're there."

Oh wow. The excitement comes back heavier than ever. I can't wait until we meet the other girls at camp.

Janet and I exited the van quickly, while Mommy and Daddy took their time. We impatiently waited for them and were relieved when they finally got out.

We held hands again as Mommy and Daddy took us to the registration building. I got excited when I saw a whole bunch of girls waiting in line. My excitement soon drains out of me when I see Megan, Mei, and Makena. The most popular girls in our school.

They look back at us, and I quickly look away. That was the wrong thing to do, since it drew their focus on me.

"Who is that girl?", Mei asked. Makena's face soured when she realized who I was. "That's Janet next to her, so that's got to be her twin." Mei looked at me in confusion. "Janet's twin is a boy." Makena looked at her, surprised that she didn't put two and two together. "Exactly. That's Jake." Mei's eyes got huge as she contemplated the new information. "No way! That girl is so girly. Look at her cute clothes and her pretty hair. Heck, look at the way she's standing. She looks like even more of a girly girl than Janet, and Janet is one of the most girly girls at school." Makena has to agree, but her expression doesn't change. "I admit she looks like a girl. But she looks just like Janet, so she, I mean he, has to be Jake."

To my surprise, Megan actually stood up for me. "You know she's a Hathorne, right?" Makena didn't realize the significance. "Yeah, so?" Surprisingly, this time Mei made the connection before Megan replied. "Only Hathorne girls have magic." Megan nodded. "Exactly, so she, no matter who she used to pretend to be, is a girl." Makena looked at her friend, surprised. "Pretended? Come on, Jake's always been a boy." Mei shook her head at this. "Not really. Think about it. Jake always got teased for being girly. Even the gym coaches got in on it."

Daddy turned beet red at that, and I became scared about what he was going to do. I put my hand on his arm and gently squeezed. At this feminine gesture, he melted and smiled down at me. "Don't worry, princess. I'm not going to do anything here. I would never mess up such an important moment for my girls. Besides, it would be pointless here. It's the coaches at your school that are going to have to deal with me."

I got concerned, not because I was worried about what the coaches would do because I'm so obviously a girl now, but because I was afraid that Daddy was going to go too far. "Don't hurt them Daddy. I don't want you to get in trouble." Daddy smiled at me. "Don't worry honey. I don't intend to get physical, but they are definitely going to get an earful." I calmed down because, yeah, they do need to hear reason. I'm a girl, so calling me girly is a compliment. But constant bullying like that would really mess a boy up.

I turned back toward the girls, and it seems Makena is still having a hard time understanding. "Okay, sure, Jake acted really girly for a boy. But the last part of that last statement is what is the most important. Boy." Mei sighs. "Jake acted really girly even compared to some girls at our school." Megan giggles. "She's right. And think about how weird that seemed. But, now think of Jake as a girl and everything makes sense." Makena's resistance seemed to crack. "Okay, yeah, you're right everything does make sense if Jake was a girl. But," Megan didn't let her finish her sentence. "There's no buts, Kena. She's a Hathorne. She's a girl. End of story. Give her a chance." Makena sighed, "Okay. I will."

I let out a sigh of relief and then start to get out of line. Janet grabs my arm. "What are you doing?" I sigh again. "I'm going over to talk to them." My twin looks at me in alarm. "Jaz, do you really think that's a good idea?" I look at her reassuringly as I make my reply. "I do. Don't worry, Janet, I'll be OK. I know I can win them over by the end of summer." Janet lets go of my arm and smiles. "OK, girlie girl, go on and shine."

I debate about making an exaggerated model’s walk, but quickly decide against it. I’m not campy, and that would defeat the purpose. No more faking. I will only be able to prove to them who I actually am if I’m completely true to myself.

I hold my head high and walk toward the trio. As I get closer, they look surprised. I know they never expected me to come up to them. They might think I’m going to yell at them, but that’s not how I am. ”Hi girls! My real name is Jasmine. I’m really excited to be here. I hope we can all be friends.”

They looked suspicious, and I started to wonder if I made a mistake. However, that doubt quickly went away when it was Makena, of all people, that took me up on that. “I’d like that. My friends convinced me that no matter who you were, you’re really a girl. Now that I’m seeing you up close and talking to you, I can’t picture you as anything but. It will be nice to get to meet the real you.”

Her friends are even more of a surprise, though, as they excitedly start gushing about my outfit and my hair. I call my sister over, and they gush even harder. Mei looks at Janet. “Oh my gosh, Janet, you’ve always been pretty. But, you and your twin sister, you are so cute together. And I can’t get over how girly you are, Jasmine."

Janet laughs. “You haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until you spend some time with her. She's girlier than any other girl in school.” I giggle. "I don't know about that. But, I'll admit I am really girly." Mei giggles back. "Oh, I believe you Janet. Girly works for you, Jasmine."

At that, Mei's dad calls for her. "Say goodbye to your friends, Mei. You'll be able to see them all summer, but we've got to get to registration now. We're up next."

I pull out my magenta pen and notepad from my purse. I didn't mention my purse before, but it's so cute. It has lace around the front pocket, and yes, it's pink. Makena is drawn to it. "Oh, that's adorable. Where did you get it?" I am telling her that I found it at the new local fashion shop at the mall, when Mei's mom told us to hurry up. So, the purse talk will have to wait. I write my cell number on the pad and look over at my sister. She nods, and I put her number down too.

I look at the girls, who I hope will be my friends this summer. "Text us when we all get settled in. I don't know if we'll all be in the same cabin, but we want to keep in touch." The girls promised they would, and we all walked toward the reception cabin. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see what cabin we get, and who our roomies will be.

We’re soon called up to the registration desk. Mommy tells them our names, and they check us in. We’re soon told we are in cabin three. The receptionist speaks to us directly. “OK, Janet, Jasmine, you girls go over to Maureen.” She pointed to a red-headed girl. “She’ll take you to your cabin.”

Daddy turns toward us before we leave. “I am so proud of how you handled what could have been a bad situation, Jasmine. You’ve really come into your own these past few weeks.” I give him a giant hug and then turn to Mommy and do the same. She smiles and returns my hug. “Me too, sweety.” She then turns toward Janet and envelops her in a hug. “I’m proud of how you’ve been helping your sister, Janet. I am so proud of both of you girls.” Daddy gives sis a huge hug when she’s done. “That goes double for me. We have the best girls in the world.

We start to tear up and my mom puts a stop to that. “Now don’t start crying girls, you’ll ruin your mascara.” We both look at her surprised. “Oh, you thought you pulled a fast one on me, did you? It’s okay for today. I know you two want to make a great first impression. Besides, you two kept it understated, it looks great on you. Just don’t make a habit out of it, okay?”

We say in unison “we won’t”, then giggle as we realize we were in-sync again. Mommy and Daddy smile and shake their heads. Daddy then speaks up. “Now get going you two, your new friends are waiting for you.”

We smile and say “bye, love you!” We then excitedly walked over to Maureen, holding hands and giggling as we talked about boys. Hey, we’re thirteen year old girls. That’s what we do. Maureen smiled at us as we walked up to her. “You must be Janet and Jasmine. You two are so adorable. So, who is who?” Janet spoke up first. “I’m Janet and this is my sister Jasmine.”

Maureen smiled. “I’m Maureen. I’m your cabin leader. I’ll take you to our cabin. One girl is already there, but we have two more coming. I’ll come meet you all properly once everyone is settled in.”

We walked down the cobblestone path towards our home for the next few months, and Maureen asked us questions to get to know us better. “So, where are you girls from?” I smiled at that, I can’t help it, it is still so nice to be included as one of the girls. Janet answered for us as I was grinning like an idiot. “Rhode Island”. Maureen perked up. “Ah, not too far from me then. I’m from Massachusetts. You know, there’s quite a few magic users in your state and at least a dozen come either to this camp or the boy’s camp across the pond.” My ears perked up. “Boys?” Maureen giggled at my outburst. “Easy, girl. We don’t see the boys until the dance at the end of summer.” Janet was the one who perked up at that. “A dance… with boys. Really?”

Maureen giggled again. “Yeah, the end-of-season boy/girl dance. Didn’t you get the clothing requirements that said that all girls had to bring a ballgown?” I got a dreamy look in my eyes as I responded. “Yeah. And, our gowns are so beautiful. But I thought we’d just use them for learning to dance. You know, with other girls.”

Maureen giggled again. I think I’m going to like her a lot. I hope I click with my other cabin mates just as well. She looks at me and shakes her head. “Nope. Well, yeah you’ll be wearing your dance leotards and skirts to learn to dance with the other girls here. But the gowns, those are just for dancing with boys.”

My sister and I grabbed each other’s hands, and let out an excited squeal. Maureen smiles at us. "Looks like we’ve got another couple of girly girls. You know, our other cabin mate, Makena, is a girly girl too. I hope the other two girls are also. It would be awesome to have a full girlie cabin this year."