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.

For the rest of the week, Lance either became Lily at her own house or in ‘her bedroom’ at the Berger house. When she did it at the Berger house, she went without her wig and allowed Mrs. Berger to style it in a bob.

Thursday evening, the two friends, like normal, did their homework right after school at Sammie’s house.

“Lily, do you want to play dress-up?”

“Dress-up?”

“Yes, do you trust me?”

“Of course.”

Sammie tossed her friend a Sofia the First coloring book and crayons, “Here, keep yourself occupied. I will be back.”

Shrugging, Lily sat down on the floor, putting the book and crayons together before lying down on her stomach and opening the coloring book. She kicked her feet back and forth as she colored lightly with a purple crayon.

Lily jumped when her best friend spoke again, “Ok, Princess, Mommie is back.”

‘Mommie? Apparently, we are playing house.’ Shrugging, Lily paused coloring long enough to look at her friend, who was holding a cute pink dress with a sheer overskirt and lots of lace on the sleeves and the edge of the skirt.

“Sit on the bed, baby girl.”

Still not knowing where her best friend was going with this, Lily sat on the bed silently without question.

Sammie removed Lily’s sweatshirt and shirt before helping the ‘baby’ into the little girl’s party dress. Getting on the bed behind her best friend, she did some of the buttons, “I am going to need you to stand up, Lily.”

Again, silently without complaint, Lily stood up. She felt the dress getting tight in places.

Looking at a small gap in the middle of her bestie’s back, “You don’t exactly fit a size five dress, Lily.”

Sammie reached under the skirt and undid the ‘baby’s’ jeans. She helped Lily step out of the jeans, “Sit on the bed again, baby girl.”

After the younger girl sat carefully on the bed, she was helped into one of Sammie’s tights.

“Continue your coloring, Princess. Mommie will be back.”

Lily laid down very carefully on her stomach to continue her coloring of Sofia. Again, she happily bent her knees and kicked her feet in their white tights back and forth above her body. For the second time, she jumped when Samantha spoke again.

“I couldn’t find a bottle, so this sippy cup will have to do. Lay down on the bed, babygirl.”

“Yes, Mommie,” Lily laid down carefully on the bed.

Sammie sat so her ‘baby girl’s’ head was lying on her lap. She stuck the princess sippy cup in her best friend’s mouth.

Lily was surprised to find the sippy cup actually contained warm milk.

“Girls, it is dinner …” Heather froze as she took in the scene in front of her. Her daughter’s best friend was on her stomach in the middle of the room coloring, in a dress that was several sizes too small, with a sippy cup sitting next to her. “Why is Lily wearing your old party dress, Samantha Allison?”

“We were playing house, Mommie,” Sammie innocently stated with the biggest smile on her face.

As the two friends walked downstairs, Mrs. Berger looked surprised that the neighbor girl seemed completely comfortable in a dress that was way too short and couldn’t even button up correctly in the back. With her carrying the sippy cup, the little girl image was even more striking. The only thing missing to complete the picture was a diaper sticking out from under the dress. Silly girls playing house. Heather did think that it was probably a good thing there were no diapers in the house for the girls to play with. Her stubborn, controlling daughter probably would talk Lily into wearing them.

At the table, Mr. Berger’s eyebrows went up at the appearance of Lily.

“Since you obviously put your best friend in that dress, Samantha, you figure out how to protect it while she is eating dinner,” Mrs. Berger stated as they all sat down at the table.

“Yes, Mommie,” Sammie grinned evilly as she went to the kitchen cupboard and returned quickly. She promptly tied a bib around the preteen’s neck.

Lily just shrugged when she looked down and saw it was a pink Disney Princess bib.

The girls were playing on the floor with Sammie’s old My Little Pony dolls and various other toys from her youth when they heard Mrs. Berger call from downstairs, “Girls, it is time for Lily to get dressed again in her own clothes to head back home.”

Lily started to put away the toys when Sammie stopped her, “You were playing being my baby, so I’ll put the toys away. Did you have fun coloring and playing with the little girl toys?”

“Rarely had the chance to do it when I was that age, so yeah, that was fun. Thanks, Bestie.”

Sammie was helping remove the too-small dress Lily was still wearing, “I had fun too. Holly and I only stopped playing house together last year. It was fun doing it with you. ”

Friday evening, the two best friends walked up to Lily’s Mommie.

“Mommie, can we use your online account to search for new bedding for my bedroom? My gift card should pay for that, right?”

“Your card is $100, right?”

Lily acknowledged that before handing the card over.

“You should have plenty left over, Princess.”

The two girls sat down at the computer, and Lily typed, ‘Ballet Sheets.’

Scrolling through the results, Sammie pointed to one result.

“Those are the sheets that Granny has on my bed at her house. … This other one, however, is cute.”

Lily clicked on the item and turned to Mommie, who was still hovering behind them, “Can I get this?”

Mommie looked at the sheet set, “Do you want the comforter too? It costs $45 with the comforter, but only $20 for just the sheets.”

“Yes, Mommie.”

On the checkout page, Mommie pointed out that they still had just over $50 to spend. “I suggest going back and searching for ballet bedroom decor.”

“How about that lamp, Lily?”

“It is cute,” Lily added the ballet shoe-shaped lamp to the cart.

Mommie made a noise behind them.

The two girls looked at Mrs. Vanderbilt.

“Ignore me, it is your money. You have just over ten dollars to spend on something. May I suggest one of these wall hangings?”

“How about this set of Disney Princesses in tutus?” Lily asked her Mom.

Seeing a nod behind her, Lily clicked add to cart. Heading to checkout, Lily frowned because the total was one hundred and a cent. “A cent too much.”

“It is actually more than that because of sales tax. But, aren't you lucky that we have free shipping? I will pay the rest. Now go play, and I will do the actual purchasing.”

As soon as the girls were out of the room, Susan searched for frames and hooks to hang the eight pictures of Disney Princesses as ballerinas. Then she looked for some additional girl sheets for a ten-year-old girl’s bed. She had to admit, Lily was sleeping in that bed every night, not Lance.

Saturday morning found Lily dressed in her ballet leotard underneath her pink sweatsuit, walking to her second home with her fake bun in her hand. Her ballet shoes and water bottle were in her new ballet bag, which Mommie had recently purchased for her. Before leaving the house, she had made her impression of a bob with her hair. Granny or Mrs. Berger could have done it better, but the new girl was just learning. She let herself into the Berger house like she had been told to do so many times in the past.

As she was walking into the family room, Lily happened to look at the fridge in the kitchen. There were two very familiar colored Sofia the First pages posted on it. While her attention was distracted, her second mom greeted her before attacking the young girl’s hair.

The hairstylist said, “It is growing out. I know it seems like it is growing so slowly, but before you know it, you're not going to need the wig.”

After Lily’s fake bun was attached and wrapped with the ever-present pink ribbon, Heather Berger turned to her actual daughter and put her hair in a bun. Both girls were patted on the back and told to get in the car. Lily went to the side that usually had ‘her’ booster on the seat.

At Anastasia’s Dance Academy, Sammie started chatting with her ballet friends. At the same time, Lily just ignored them and went straight to the studio where she got the private lessons. She put on her ballet shoes, tightening the ribbons as much as she could after removing her sweatsuit.

She quietly went to the barre and started to practice the stuff from last week. She had just done a grand plié, a move that Sammie, not Rebecca, had taught her when …

“First position. Second position. First position. Fifth position. First position. Demi plié. First position,” rang out quickly in the studio. Then, slowly, her instructor said, “Grand plié, hold in the down position.”

Lily hadn’t expected the class to start yet. Regardless, she had done the moves quickly but correctly as they were called out. On the last position, she had to hold on to the barre tightly to steady herself in the down position.

Rebecca came up to her student and corrected her posture, “I am assuming Sammie taught you this?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Lily responded.

Smiling, Rebecca looked at her fast learning pupil, “I will tell her she is allowed to try to teach moves as long as she informs me later. Ok, down on the floor, and we will do our warm-up stretches. The Christmas recital is on December 19th. Today, I am going to teach you the last two steps that you need for the piece I selected for you.”

Lily looked at her instructor in shock, “Already? I only started ballet. There is no way I could stay up with the others.”

“All students are required to dance at the recital. It will be a solo because you have no classmates,” the instructor told her as they stretched together. “Besides, I am excited to have my first student in her first recital.”

“Ok, Miss Rebecca,” Lily said. Though she didn’t feel okay, she was already getting stage fright, and it was still four weeks until the recital.

Once the stretching was finished, Rebecca demonstrated the new move, “Enough chit-chat. This move is called Passé. En face front. First Position. Passé. … First Position. Second Position.”

Lily was under no illusion; the lesson was now in full swing, and Rebecca was going to make sure she knew these moves. Lily repeated the passé move in each of the remaining positions, and then Rebecca called en face left and did it all over again. En face right was quickly done just the same, before the ballerina was told to relax and get herself a drink of water.

Taskmaster Rebecca immediately continued after the drink of water, “Ok, centre practice time for passé. First position. Passé. Second position. A little wobble there. Let us try that again. First position. Passé. Second position. Third position. Fourth position. Passé. Fifth position. Passé. First position.”

Rebecca said while telling Lily to get a drink before rushing her back to the barre, “You are an excellent student. You show great promise. Yes, there are some rough edges, but all new students have that.”

Once Lily was back at the barre, she continued, “This is tendu à la seconde, which is just like tendu devant except your foot goes to the side instead of the front.” She had demonstrated the move before rapidly calling that move in all the ballet positions. Once again, she did Tendu à la seconde in all three en faces before doing it in centre practice.

The instructor then continued with, “First position. Fifth position. Fourth position. Second position. First position. Demi plié. First position. Grand plié. … Easy there. Stand back up and get into the first position again. Passé. Second position. First position. Tendu à la seconde. First position. … Révérence.”

Once again, the end of class snuck up on the new ballerina. She was glad that her Mommie had packed a sweat towel in her bag. She blotted the sweat off her forehead, “Thank you, Miss Rebecca. I am really enjoying these classes.”

“I am enjoying teaching you, too. I was initially nervous since you are my first student, but as I said, you are an excellent learner.” Rebecca took a drink of water before continuing. “You might be my student, but really, Mistress is calling the shots.”

Lily looked quizzically at her instructor as she got dressed in her sweatsuit and tennis shoes.

Rebecca explained, “Mistress wants to make sure all students at Anastasia’s Dance Academy get the best possible instruction. You may be my student, but I'm hers. She is teaching me to be a ballerina and a ballet instructor. The original plan was to give me pointers once a month after watching the recordings of one of our lessons. After seeing the end of our lesson last week, she was impressed and concerned. You were more advanced than she would have expected after just two lessons. She'll now be watching each of our sessions for a while to give me pointers on what to teach next.”

Lily wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or not. She had to please not only her instructor but also the academy’s Mistress. Then there was her best friend to please and her worst critic: herself. She gave her instructor a sweaty hug before walking over to her best friend. As the two of them headed to their ride, Lily asked, “Do you know about the Christmas Recital?”

“Of course. We have been running through our choreography for the last two weeks. Why?” Sammie asked as they got in the minivan.

Lily sighed, “Miss Rebecca says we will start to learn my dance next week.”

Sammie looked at her best friend in shock and exclaimed, “You are going to do a solo with only three weeks of experience?!?”

“How did you know it is going to be a solo? You are not wrong, just curious,” Lily wondered.

“You have no classmates,” Sammie pointed out. “Therefore, it can only be a solo.”

Lily told her best friend as they pulled out of the parking lot, “Miss Rebecca says all students must dance at the recital.”

When they reached home, Sammie needed to wake Lily up, for she had fallen asleep halfway home.

After the motorized minivan door was opened, Lily yawned, “I need a shower. I might be over afterward if I don’t fall back to sleep. Ballet class always wears me out.”

The best friends hugged before splitting and going to their own separate houses.

Sunday morning, Lily woke up in a grouchy mood. Slamming her bedroom door on the way to the bathroom, she stormed past Mommie, who was walking down the hall, missing the shocked look on the adult’s face. Lily returned to her bedroom and decided she, not her brother, was going to church today. Grabbing her brown dress with white sleeves from the closet, Lily flung them on her bed before picking a nude pair of tights and her black mary janes with a slight heel. After getting dressed, she set her wig loosely on her head with a black hair band. Then she pounded her way downstairs for breakfast.

Mommie asked, “Lily, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I am going to church today, Mommie,” Lily snapped, but did manage to stop herself from stomping her feet.

“Lose the attitude, young lady,” Mommie said while bobby pinning the wig.

After breakfast, the family headed to Daddie's red SUV. Lily took her brother’s backpack with her because he had a test in icky math tomorrow and needed to study. When they arrived at the church, the three walked in together, but Lily was directed to join her Aunty. Shrugging, she just walked up to Aunty Hanna and picked up Lauren, who had arms outstretched and was saying, “Uppy.”

Five minutes later, Granny joined them, “Nice for you to join us, Lily.”

After Lauren was dropped off in the nursery, the Gilbert extended family of four went to the sanctuary. After church, Lily was made to stay with the Kane family. They were her ride to Granny’s house, just like the last time she was Lily at church.

Lily did fingertip service for the toddler as they walked into the house. Daddie had already turned on a boring sports game. Lily made a big deal of rolling her eyes at that. She grabbed her brother’s math textbook and plopped herself very unladylike with a big sigh on the couch. She hadn’t been studying for long when she started tearing up and roaring, “I will never get this.” She then proceeded to throw the textbook on the couch roughly. It bounced off and fell on the floor. She remained in tears throughout the whole thing. She didn’t know why she couldn’t stop crying.

“LILY ANN VANDERBILT! What has gotten into you?” Grandma Gilbert exclaimed as she came over and set a chair in the corner. “You will sit in this chair for that little temper tantrum.”

With sniffles, Lily plopped herself down in the chair in a very unladylike way while crossing her arms.

Granny said, “If I didn’t know any better, I would say you are PMSing.”

Lily was released to go directly to the table to eat. She ignored the others as she ate the meatloaf that Granny had cooked today. They couldn’t get her to say more than a few words.

After dinner, Uncle Eric helped Lily understand the concepts of the math chapter her brother was being taught in school. Lily only teared up once during the explanation.

Granny mumbled under her breath, “More moody than Hanna was during her first few periods. It's impossible for that to be your problem, so what is wrong with you, Lily?”

Lily got a stern talking to in the SUV on the way home about her attitude today. She wasn’t sure why she was grouchy, but she couldn’t shake it.

Sammie asked Lance Monday after school, “When we get to Oak Acres, do you want to practice ballet after doing homework? It might help cheer you up. You’ve been really moody today.”

Lance wasn’t in the mood for doing anything, but Lily would be doing ballet, not Lance, so, “Sure.”

The best friend gleefully exclaimed, “Great, wear a leotard when you find your sister. Just wear your regular wig. You only need the bun for the actual ballet class.”

When the car came to a stop in the Berger's driveway, Lance walked to his house to do what was requested. He had to stop in the bathroom on the way to his room. Unfortunately, he still felt constipated and continued to have some sharp pains just below his waist, even after going. To make matters worse, his headache was worse than usual. It had been a miserable day for Lance, and this was just another thing adding to his day. He hoped some Lily time and dancing with Sammie would cheer him up. Lance went upstairs, and after stripping, he put his … her pink leotard on over her white tights.

Lily rubbed her chest around her nipples. Rubbing her chest and then scratching her eczema rash on her elbows and knees, Lily couldn’t figure out which was more annoying today. Was Mommie using a different laundry detergent? Is that why spots all over her skin were bugging her? The moody little girl pulled out a yellow sweatsuit she had gotten in the original clothes drop from Mrs. Berger. After putting that one on, she set the blonde wig on her head and tried to bobby pin it herself for once. Grabbing her pink ballet slippers, she went downstairs to Mommie’s office.

“What is the occasion, my yellow canary?”

“Mommie, I am not a bird,” Lily protested. “I am going next door to practice ballet after homework. Can you check my bobby pinning?”

“Does the hair stay on?”

“Yes?”

“Then the bobby pinning is good,” Mommie told the girl.

Lily walked with her brother’s school backpack next door and let herself into the house. Going into the living room, she found Sammie had already set up the portable barre. The two girls were doing their homework when the taller one asked, “What is wrong, Lily?”

“What do you mean, ‘what is wrong?’” Lily asked.

Sammie glared at Lily, “Your face is all scrunched up, and you look in pain? What are you hiding?”

“I feel constipated, and going to the bathroom before coming here didn’t help. The pains I was feeling down there have just started to develop into some terrible cramps.”

Sammie thought this was odd, but continued with the plan. She started to practice ballet with her best friend as soon as they finished their homework. Samantha had the new student practice her pliés, tendus, and passé in various positions.

Sammie was adjusting Lily’s arms into proper locations for the fourth position when her hand brushed across the new student’s chest.

“Ouch!” Lily exclaimed.

“I barely touched you,” Sammie protested, looking at her friend.

“My nipples are extremely sensitive today, and the area around them itches worse than my eczema.”

Sammie quizzically looked at her bestie, “Wait, you have sensitive and itchy nipples, cramps, and constipation?”

“Yes?”

Sammie asked, “Would you describe the cramps and constipation in the front or back of the body?”

Lily explained where the pains were on her body. She also described how it felt to her best friend.

Sammie thought for a minute before her eyes went wide, “Wait, you also had cramps during Halloween, right? Which was almost a month ago.”

Lily nodded at her friend.

Sammie didn’t like this one bit, “MOMMIE! MOMMIE!”

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 am also currently writing a Katie Ann Universe Christmas Story. Though the closer we come to Christmas, the more likely it will not be done by Christmas. I might prove me wrong, and get it done by Christmas. Plans are also in for a sixth side story and a final chapter for KA.

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.