Surprise Offer 2: is a direct continuation of the story about Lily and her ‘brother’ Lance. Can she find acceptance and her place in the world as Lily instead of Lance? Emotions run high as Lily’s new best friend and ‘adoptive’ family members move things forward at lightning speed. Can she handle it all? How will a surprise just before Thanksgiving change everything? Lily and Sammie are back, ready to take on the world with pigtails and dancing, in a way only ten-year-old little girls can do.

Sunday morning, Lance, instead of Lily, walked into church. He would have loved to do church again as Lily, but he didn’t want to push it. Ms. Gilbert directed the Vanderbilt family toward the Kane family. Lauren immediately tried to reach for the young boy from her Mommie’s arms.

“Hello, Ms. Gilbert,” Lance said while accepting the 18-month-old.

Ms. Gilbert replied, with a stare, “Young sir, I told you to call me what?”

Quietly, Lance said, “Hello, Granny.” He had set the little girl on the ground because she got heavy fast. Her tiny hand clamped tightly on the preteen’s finger.

“Much better,” Granny patted him on the head. She then faced Lance’s Mom and Dad, “Your dinner plans will be the same as last week. No ifs or buts allowed.”

Lance was allowed to sit with his parents this time after he escorted Lauren to the nursery.

Lance walked into Granny’s house from her parents' car after church. The house smelled terrific again. Lauren was being bounced on her Mommie’s lap. Uncle Eric had just turned on some boring sports game. Lance wondered if he would be made to watch the stupid sports now that he was back in Lance's clothes. He sure hoped not, the pint-sized ten-year-old always hated being strongly encouraged to watch sports with the ‘guys’.

Granny addressed Lance after giving greetings to the Vanderbilt family, “Do you want to find Lily?”

“I can?” Lance excitedly asked.

Granny grinned at the little kid who suddenly had a massive smile on their face, “You gladly can stay, Lance, but I was sure you would rather not.”

Mumbling, the hidden girl responded, “I'd rather be Lily.”

“I set a dress on the bed in the room opposite the bathroom where we first met Lily,” Granny said.

You didn’t have to tell Lance … Lily twice. She was up those steps in no time at all. Going into said room, she found another unopened package of white tights. She already had two, and here was a third set of white tights. A clean pair of panties was lying there, too, but the girl had put on a clean pair this morning.

Most importantly, a brown long-sleeved dress with white sleeves was lying on the bed. After stripping off her Lance costume, she put on the dress and tights. Lily found some Minnie Mouse slippers nearby to put her feet into. She didn’t see a wig, unfortunately.

Lily came downstairs and asked for someone to do up her back. Her Mommie came over to do it. Once that was done, Aunty Hanna asked her to sit next to her. Expertly, as if she had been practicing, the girl’s hair was again put in a bob style. Two pink clips and a hairband were soon added.

Dinner this time was homemade enchiladas. Lily thought her new granny was an excellent cook. The adults, once again, discussed various things, and Lily was again the subject of multiple discussions. The small ten-year-old just stayed quiet while they discussed. She was forced to answer how she liked ballet. Her answer was that she didn’t like ballet; she loved ballet. Aunty Hanna wanted to know if she was going to see Lily on Wednesday. The girl asked if Aunty thought that Sammie would allow Lily not to show up on Wednesday. The ‘I guess not’ answer got the whole table laughing again.

When Mommie stopped laughing, she got serious and looked straight at her child, “I want to know what you want. I know Sammie can be stubborn and controlling. This question has nothing to do with her. Do you want to go to Girl Scouts on Wednesday?”

Lily looked around at all the adults, getting the impression from them all that the answer to this question meant a lot, “I’ve always wanted to go to Girl Scouts. Everyone kept insisting that I go to Boy Scouts. I’m so happy you’re finally letting me be myself sometimes. I just wish I could be Lily all the time.”

Once back on the couch, snuggling against her adoptive aunty, Lily thought this grandma and family made an excellent substitution for her out-of-state grandmas and grandpas. As far as Lily knew, neither of them had been informed of her existence.

When it was time to leave in the evening, Lily forced herself to head upstairs to become Lance again. She wanted to always be Lily at Granny’s house, so she needed to leave behind the dress.

Granny stopped the little girl, “Keep the dress on, Lily, there are more where that came from.”

Monday, as soon as Lance got home from school, he became Lily. She was getting good at putting her own wig on, but she still needed Mommie’s help putting the bobby pins in. Once the transformation was complete, she walked across the grass to her best friend's house.

On Tuesday, after changing and before getting together with Sammie, Lily sat down on her bed and looked around the room. It was slowly becoming Lily’s bedroom. The first things to go were the sports things that even Lance never cared for. Lance only had them as a way to hide Lily. Of course, Lily didn’t have a name at the time. The bedroom was currently a bit barren. The boyish stuff had mainly been ejected. The girlish stuff hadn’t shown up yet. Mommie kept telling the girl that Christmas was coming.

Lily followed Sammie down the stairs to where Aunty Hanna had the Junior Girl Scout troop meeting on Wednesday. She was always hesitant to socialize with her brother’s classmates. She was most hesitant around Amanda. That girl was outspoken. She had no problem speaking her mind, as a rule. If she found out about her brother, everyone would know about it. True, her brother has seen her refuse to tattle on someone she witnessed being naughty. Outspoken but keeps secrets to the grave. Since the two had been classmates in Kindergarten, that is the weird combination that was Amanda.

Lily looked down at her green vest and skirt. If someone had bet her three weeks ago that she would be dressed like this, she would have lost that bet. A lot had changed in three weeks.

Aunty said to the room full of chatter, “Girls, settle down. We are going to get started soon.”

All the chatter stopped, and all eyes turned toward Mrs. Kane, the troop leader.

“Today, Girls, we will start with the promise like usual. Next, we are going to investiture Lily. We will continue working on the simple meals badge by baking brownies before closing the meeting,” Aunty gave this week's agenda.

The girls began the meeting by reciting the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Lily was confused when Aunty Hanna set out 13 candles on a table. She asked Lily to stand in front of her fellow scouts before saying, “We are going to investiture Lily into Girl Scouts.” The leader then asked the new girl to recite the promise and the law by herself.

Lily was glad that Sammie warned her that she should study the promise and the law. Nervously, she recited the requested items. As each of the 13 parts of the law was cited, Aunty lit a candle.

Aunty Hanna told her, “Excellent, Lily.”

Hanna Kane pinned the Juniors and World pins to her niece. She enjoyed all of her scouts, but this one brought her a lot of joy. She had watched this one daydream almost daily for over a year while she worked. She remembers the day three weeks ago when her mother ran into the backroom and slapped Lance’s makeover request form in front of her. Mother enjoyed all of her makeover requests. That was precisely the reason Mother did them. But that was probably the first one she had seen for a while that made Mother giddy with excitement.

Continuing in her thoughts, ‘Sunday evening, when mother said the sprinklers had accidentally turned on and soaked Lance, I looked at her in disbelief at the accident part. But Mother swears it was an accident. I still don’t believe her, but I am not arguing. It got Lily out of the closet.’

Hanna told the girls, “Now let us close the investiture ceremony by singing ‘Whene’er You Make a Promise.’”

The girls sang:

Once the song was done, the leader snuffed out all of the candles.

As Mrs. Kane followed the girls upstairs to the kitchen, she thought to herself, ‘It was just a little too convenient for my Mother to have clothes exactly in Lily’s size at her house.’

When the girls started into the kitchen to make brownies, Hanna pondered, ‘Wonder how much of a disaster this kitchen is going to be when these 12 girls get done with it.’

Hanna Kane surveyed the disaster that was her formerly clean kitchen. The timer dinged, letting her know the brownies were done. Little nine-year-old Vicky offered to pull them out of the oven, but the leader quickly killed that idea. She set the four nine-by-nine pans on the counter to cool.

She said, “Girls, let us do the closing ceremony here in the Living Room. Hopefully, the brownies will be cooled enough to cut by then.”

Lily found herself sandwiched between Amanda and Sammie. When Amanda squeezed her hand, she gladly squeezed Sammie’s hand with a smile. She thought everyone in this troop had been so friendly to her. They were almost like friends. Now, Sammie, that was a best friend, but these were friends. Not acquaintances, but friends.

She accepted a plate of brownies with her quarter of a pan from her aunty. The rest of the girls dispersed to their parents' cars. Sammie and Lily hung back to talk.

Aunty said, “Oh, the toy store and hobby shop were asking about you, Lily. You hadn’t been seen for three weeks. I explained that you now get driven home from school. Although Mother and I miss our mannequins, I still get Lily time on Sunday.”

Sammie asked while someone knocked on the door, “What happens on Sundays?”

Aunty opened the door to reveal Mrs. Berger, while Lily explained, “The Vanderbilts have to eat at Granny’s house. No ifs or buts accepted.”

Mrs. Berger smiled at the two girls holding plates of brownies, “I wondered if they got lost.”

“Oh,” Sammie said to Lily before turning to her mother. “We were talking.”

After saying goodbye to Aunty, the two girls finally went out to the car. Once Heather Berger made sure the two girls had their seatbelts on, she started the ten-minute drive home.

On the way home from school on Thursday, Lance asked, "Sammie, after I find my sister, do you want to visit Gilbert’s? Aunty did say they were missing us."

"Not a bad idea," Sammie agreed.

Mrs. Berger from the front seat said, "Homework first."

The hidden girl huffed, "Fine, change, homework, and then Gilbert’s."

Lance was released to get out of the car in the driveway. He went upstairs to the bedroom and found his sister as the clothes were changed. Last to go on was her blonde wig.

After a stop in her mother's office for the wig to be pinned on, she went across the grass with her backpack.

Call it teamwork or cheating, but together, the two girls made quick work of their homework. After they put their homework away, the best friends started the two-block walk to the shops.

Lily pulled Sammie into the toy store. It had been weeks since she had been here. Expertly, she went to the pinkish aisle. Lily pointed out dolls to Sammie, saying, “Some of the toys I wasn’t allowed to have when I was younger.”

Sammie stopped in front of some overly pink doll boxes and accessories, “There are always Barbies.”

“Umm. No!” Lily exclaimed with a shudder.

Next, they walked onto the stuffed animals. Sammie didn’t miss her friend's longing look at various stuffed animals, especially the cute ones. She had noticed that the only teddy bear her best friend had was one she got just before Halloween, and the other two stuffed animals she had were cute but more for boys: a lion and a dinosaur.

They walked past the counter on the way out, and the store lady asked, “Can I help you girls find anything?”

“No, Miss Serval. Thank you anyway,” Lily said, without thought, leaving the store.

Now, Lisa Serval had never seen this little girl, who looked to be about seven, but the girl obviously knew her. Peering at the small girl and what was probably her older sister, Lisa thought the little one looked familiar, but she couldn’t figure out from where. The store owner's name tag only said Lisa, and nowhere in the store was her last name displayed. How did the little one know her last name?

The girls went next door to the hobby shop. Lily, along with Sammie, looked at the craft aisle. Really, the last one was just being a shadow. The littlest one was the leader, directing where they went. The new girl looked at various items, but with most of the money in her piggy bank spent on the deposit for her makeover, she knew the money left in there would get her almost nothing in the Hobby Shop. Just like every other time she came to this shop, as Lance or as Lily, there had to be a stop to look at the dollhouse kit. At over 100 dollars, there was no way she could afford that on her five-dollar-a-week allowance. She would need five months to even come close to having the money with her allowance. There was the 100-dollar gift card, but that was not for this store. Lily wondered if they sold dollhouse kits online. To make matters worse, that price was just for the bare bones kit, no wall covering, no furniture, and no other accessories. Just unpainted wood bits, precut and ready to assemble.

Again, Lily greeted the shop owner by name without thinking as they left the store. Leaving another person puzzled about where they had seen Lily before.

Finally, they went to Granny’s shop and were not two steps into the store before, “Why hello, Lily and Sammie,” rang out from the counter.

“Do you mind if we daydream in the girls’ aisle, Granny?” Lily asked.

Granny answered, “I do mind if you daydream, Princess.”

Author's Notes:Comments and questions are always welcomed -- Thanks Becky

This story is complete, though we’re still wrapping up the proofreading process. I plan to post a chapter every Wednesday.

Four of the six short stories featuring side characters are already finished and will be released as we reach their places in the timeline. I’m currently writing the fifth side story while continuing to proofread this one.

In addition, I have plans for a sixth side story, a final chapter for KA, and a Katie Ann Universe Christmas story. Hopefully, that last one will be ready by Christmas—though, knowing me, I might miss that deadline.

As for Surprise Offer Book 3, the research is done, but I’m planning to take at least one story break from the series before starting it.