Jimmy’s world is changing fast now that Bree sees her child as Juliette. The day after the big reveal is a wild ride for Julie, and she is not in control. Unsure about where things are going, she is overwhelmed and worried. Mom trying to make up for lost time and Rachel trying to be a good best friend are a force Julie can't slow down. The day's adventures bring her clothes shopping, two photo shoots, and to a Girl Scout meeting. Is it too much for Julie to handle, or meeting her every dream? Could it be both? New questions, nervous moments, and a few truths that can’t stay hidden forever all happen in one day. A day that Juliette will never forget.

Rachel rang the doorbell after getting out of her mother’s car at the Kanes’ house.

Eric Kane opened the door, “Hello, Rachel and…”

“This is Juliette, Mr. Kane.”

“Nice to meet you, Juliette. Well, you know the way to the basement, Sweetie.”

As the two girls removed their coats and put them on the couch, Julie noticed a toddler playing with some toys. She smiled and waved at the girl.

"That's Lauren," Rachel said. "She's Mrs. Kane's. Come on, the meeting's downstairs."

Julie nervously followed her best friend.

"It's Rachel!” Amanda greeted before exclaiming, “And Juliette!”

Tina, Jenn, and Anna immediately turned toward the stairs.

Four girls ran over and hugged Julie.

“How did you sneak away from your parents to pull this off?” Anna asked.

“What do you mean? My Mommie knows exactly where I am right now.”

Jenn blinked. “What lie did you tell? Is this Rachel’s uniform?”

“I didn’t lie. This is my own uniform. My Mommie bought it for me today.”

“Your Mommie knows!?!?” Tina asked.

“Yes. I did a ballet …”

“Juliette!”

Julie meekly waved toward Samantha on the stairs. Lily was peeking around behind Sammie.

“What a surprise, my friend,” Lily said happily.

“It was Rachel's idea. Not that I was against the idea.”

“Girls! We are going to get started. Rachel has brought a friend, her name's Julie.” After a brief pause, Hanna Kane continued. “We will start like normal with the promise, then we will have our Christmas party, next we are going to do a guess-the-scent game, and finally we will do the closure.”

Marilyn Vickers went straight to her bedroom when she got home. Grabbing the class photos, she dropped them on Rachel's bed before heading to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

“We’ve come to the present part of the Christmas Party. Did everyone bring a gift?” Hanna asked. “Put your presents in a pile, girls.”

When the girls had done that, Hanna held out a bowl, “There are 13 numbers in here. Everyone, grab a number.”

Once the numbers had been picked, Hanna explained, “In order of your numbers, grab a present. Don't unwrap it until everyone has a gift.”

When it was her turn, Julie picked up a DVD-sized present. After the last girl had grabbed their gift, Juliette unwrapped hers and found the movie ‘Ice Princess.’

When the game finally came around, Hanna led the 13 girls to a table covered by a blanket. “We will start with Lily first because she's closest to me.”

The scout leader reached under the blanket and grabbed something.

Julie watched as Lily was blindfolded and had red winter mittens slipped onto her hands. The shortest ten-year-old was then guided over to Samantha.

“Samantha, you are in charge of Lily.” … “Amanda, you are our next guesser to get ready, and Tina, she is yours to take care of.”

Amanda received the same treatment as Lily, except with pink mittens.

“Julie and Rachel, you are a pair.”

Even after watching two girls get blindfolded, Julie still jumped slightly when darkness suddenly covered her eyes. Like the others, her hands were stuffed into mittens.

A few pairs later, Hanna announced, “Girls, we now have seven teams of two. One of them is blind without a sense of touch. I am going to give the other team member a box of items, and I want the blind one to guess what it is only by smell. Make sure you write the item number down on your sheet. They are not the same.”

“What's this smell, Sis?” Rachel whispered.

“Pine cone?”

“This smell?”

“Mint.”

Slowly but surely, Rachel brought smells in front of Julie’s nose. Then nothing happened. Just darkness.

“You okay, bestie?” Rachel asked as she noticed her best friend's shoulders droop.

“I am not sure. It's a bit dark.”

“I am right here.” Rachel hugged Julie, who immediately began to relax. “We are just waiting for the other teams to finish.”

Eventually, the scout leader, Hanna Kane, announced, “Everyone appears to be done. You can remove the blindfold from your team member.”

Julie blinked as the room suddenly became bright again. She looked down at the purple mittens she was wearing and nearly stumbled over a box of stockings that was sitting beside her.

Rachel handed their paper to Anna and accepted one from Tina.

Hanna told the girls, “You should see a bunch of five- to six-digit numbers on the sheets in front of you. Ignore all numbers except the digit in the hundreds place.”

“Mrs. Kane, can we remove the mittens?” Jill asked.

“Oh! Sorry, yes, you seven can remove your mittens.”

Julie removed the mittens and placed them in the box.

“Zero in the hundreds place is vanilla.” … “One in the hundreds place is spruce.”

“Is Christmas tree okay?” Rachel asked.

“Yes, that is fine.”

Eight smells later, Anna returned the paper, which had a large six written across the top.

“Smellers, raise your hand if you matched more than five smells.”

Julie raised her hand and saw three other hands were up, including Lily’s.

“Six smells?”

Julie kept her hand in the air. She noticed nobody else had lowered theirs.

“Seven smells?”

Julie reluctantly dropped her hand. The other three stayed up.

“Okay, we have our top three groups.”

When eight smells were called, only Mrs. Kane’s partner and Lily still had their hands raised. The girl Julie didn’t recognize dropped hers when nine smells were called.

“We have our top nose, Lily Vanderbilt. Will that hand stay up for ten smells?”

Lily shook her head and dropped her hand.

Julie watched as the top three groups were handed stockings as prizes for the game.

“Girls, it's time for the closure.”

Julie followed the scouts and stood between Rachel and Lily. Watching Rachel carefully, she took Rachel’s right hand and Lily’s left.

Rachel squeezed her hand and whispered, “Squeeze Lily’s hand, Bestie.”

“Thank you, girls. I'll see you next year in two weeks. Hopefully we will be investituring Julie then if she returns.”

Juliette followed the girls upstairs, stopping at the couch to grab her borrowed pastel coat,

“So, did you enjoy that, Julie?” Mrs. Kane asked.

“I did, Mrs. Kane.”

“Will I see you in two weeks?”

“Y-You will have me b-back?”

“Julie Bowen, you are always welcome.”

Outside, Julie watched Lily climb into her dad’s SUV. Turning, she spotted Rachel waiting beside her mother’s car.

As she started toward it, Samantha stepped into her path. “Juliette L… Elizabeth Bowen!”

“S-Samantha Allison B-Berger!”

“You didn’t tell me you were coming today.”

“I-I haven’t seen you s-since this was d-decided this morning.”

“I’ll give you a pass. However, I want my Julie hug.”

The two girls, who shared a mutual crush, hugged each other. Samantha whispered, “I love this smile on your face.”

In the back of Mrs. Vickers' car, Rachel sang softly, “Juliette and Samantha sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“Rachel Joy Vickers!” Juliette protested, lightly smacking her friend’s arm.

“Juliette Bowen!” Came from the front seat.

“Her middle name's Elizabeth, Mommie.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Vickers. Rachel was teasing me.”

“I was just telling her the truth, Mommie.”

Julie responded with nothing but a bright red face.

“Well, Julie, I am going to drop you off at your house.”

“Because of our play fight?”

“Absolutely not. This was already planned before the play fight.”

“Oh?”

“For two reasons. The major one is Rachel, and I need to have a private talk.”

“We do, Mommie?”

“The other reason is that your Mother would like to have some mother-daughter time.”

“You are always welcome at our house, Juliette,” Marilyn told the girl as she stopped in front of the yellow house on Maple Street. “Let me have your sash so I can sew your patches on, Sweetheart. And here are your clothes.”

Juliette removed the sash before putting her borrowed coat back on. She then accepted the bag of clothes.

“Thank you. What about my coat?”

“You can keep that coat. Rachel doesn’t wear it anymore.”

“Yes, Mrs. Vickers.”

Julie walked into the house and hung up her ‘new’ coat.

“Julie, go to your room and change out of your uniform to keep it nice.”

“Yes, Mommie.”

Five minutes later, when she walked back into the room, “Princess, can you set the table?”

“Mrs.… Vickers didn’t give me back my coat.”

“What did you wear home?”

“Rachel’s… old tie-dyed pastel coat.”

“So you gained a better coat?”

“W-what's Jimmy going to wear?”

“Are you planning on seeing Jimmy?”

“Umm?”

Mommie Bree stated, “I am not expecting to see Jimmy again until school restarts on the fourth.”

“Oh,” Julie wasn’t sure if she should be very excited or upset. She didn’t really want to be Jimmy, but on the other hand, this sounds like she was being forced to be Juliette.

“I'll talk to Rachel’s mother when I see her on Saturday.”

“Rachel Joy Vickers, we are going to discuss the item on your bed when we get home.”

Alarmed by the sudden change in tone after Julie was no longer in the car, Rachel asked, “What item on my bed? There wasn’t anything there when I changed into my Girl Scout uniform.”

“That's because I hid it when you brought Julie home with you.”

Rachel blinked in confusion.

“Julie would have gotten the wrong idea if she saw it.”

After parking in the garage, Marilyn looked at her daughter, “Straight to your bedroom, and I'll join you in a few minutes.”

After removing her shoes and hanging up her coat, Rachel headed upstairs. Looking around the room, she saw nothing obvious. Then she noticed the class pictures resting on her pillow. Sitting down and holding it, she looked at it, confused.

Looking at her classmates, she saw Samantha Berger’s picture right next to Jimmy Bowen’s picture.

‘Jimmy Bowen! Juliette Bowen! Mommie obviously knows that Julie's Jimmy.’ That realization only confused Rachel more. Her mother had invited Julie back. ‘Mommie’s definitely upset at me… but why?’

“Knock knock.”

“Come in, Mommie.”

“I see you found what I put on your bed.”

“Yes, but what exactly about it made you upset? The fact that Julie goes by Jimmy at school?”

“Yes… and no.”

Rachel looked even more confused.

“I spent a lot of time with Julie during the recital. That was no boy that I took to the recital.”

Rachel frowned. “Am I not allowed to be friends with Julie anymore?”

“Did you listen to anything I just said?”

“What about Julie are you upset about, Mommie?”

“It’s not Julie I’m upset about.”

“You aren’t?”

“It’s you I’m upset at.”

“Me? Then why these photos?”

“Did you tell any white lies in the last week? Did you have any boys in your room?”

Rachel thought for a moment. “But you allowed me to take Julie to my room today.”

“I didn’t ask anything about taking a girl to your bedroom.”

Rachel just stared at her mother.

“But Julie is Jimmy.”

With a wink, Marilyn asked, “Does your twin sister know you are calling her a boy?”

“I am so confused.”

“Both incidents I am upset about happened on Friday after school.”

“Friday?”

“You were not honest about who you brought home. And you had a boy in your room.”

“It was just Julie, Amanda, and Tina in my room that Friday.”

“So Julie went to school on Friday?”

“Of course not.”

“So Jimmy came over, and Julie left your room?”

“Yes, Julie got dressed in my clothes in my bedroom.”

“There you go, you figured out why I'm upset.”

“So Julie's not allowed in my bedroom?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Jimmy's not allowed in my bedroom?”

“Does Jimmy actually exist?”

“Mommie, you‘re so confusing.”

“What I’m upset about is the fact that you went behind my back and weren’t honest with me.”

“So you want me to be honest with you?”

“Yes.”

“My best friend, Julie, is a transgender girl. I gave her items from my wardrobe so she would have her own girls' clothes. I also took blackmail pictures of her earlier this month when Amanda, Tina, Anna, Jenn, and I forcibly dressed her in Amanda’s flower girl outfit after she said something mean to Lily.”

“Now that wasn’t so hard … Wait! Blackmail pictures?”

“I deleted them Sunday! And that's why I had to go see Juliette today. Mrs. Bowen wanted to yell at me for them.”

“What did you blackmail her for?”

“She had to apologize to Lily for being mean to her. That’s all, Mommie, honest. Once she did that, I deleted the pictures.”

The two talked for a while about the pictures and everything surrounding them.

Marylin just looked at her daughter for a long, silent minute, “I am disappointed in you, but that doesn’t increase your punishment.”

“Which is?”

“Rachel, I want to be clear. You are not being punished for being friends with Julie. You are being punished for not being honest, taking compromising photos of your best friend, and giving your clothes away without permission.”

“Yes, Mommie. What and for how long?”

“You are grounded…”

Pouting, Rachel immediately assumed she won’t see her best friend for a while, “Yes, Mommie.”

“Until bedtime.”

“Wait?!?! That's it?”

“Do you want more?”

“No! No! No!”

Marilyn kissed Rachel on the forehead. “I know why you did it. I am disappointed in you, not angry at you.” … “Well, except for the blackmail pictures. I am a bit angry at you for that. I’ll call Mrs. Bowen and then Daddie and I will talk to see if further punishment is needed for the blackmail pictures. For now, the punishment is just the grounding. Thank you for being honest with me.”

“Yes, Mommie.”

“Stay in your room, I'll call you down when it's dinner time.”

Cuddling on the couch watching television, Bree told her daughter, “Are you excited for Denise to properly meet her cousin tomorrow?”

“M-maybe,” Julie kept staring at the TV without really paying attention to it. “W-what about G-Grandma and G-Grandpa? A-Aunty and Uncle?”

“Grandma Bowen is looking forward to spoiling her new granddaughter. Grandpa knows you are coming, too. Aunty Harriet told me it was about time I acknowledged my daughter when I told her. Uncle William, being himself, just grunted.”

“W-wait, everyone knows I am c-coming?”

“Nope, it's up to you to tell Denise.”

“S-so tomorrow I’m s-supposed to s-surprise D-Denise by showing up in a d-dress?”

“Is that the only reason you are showing up in a dress?”

Julie turned toward her mother and thought quietly for several seconds. “N-no. Since I am a girl, G-Grandma expects me to wear at least a sk-skirt to family events.”

“You figured it out, Princess,” Mommie kissed her daughter on the forehead.