Mikey's summer was a little disorienting. He needed to keep track of 2 different lives. Granted, there was some overlap, but some days the activities changed.
The first time this happened, it was a Tuesday when he and his mom made plans to meet Davis and Henry, and their parents, at the town pool on a Thursday. Whether or not he was Mikey or Michele, they were still his buddies. He met up with Vicky and Molly on Wednesday afternoon to give the necklace to Vicky (who went by Victor when she was a boy). Mikey took off the necklace in the woods in the park, and felt the familiar tingle, and noted his hair went to his shoulders. His t-shirt stayed the same, but fit a little differently around the abdomen. His cargo shorts got a little shorter, and the pockets much smaller. For the first time, he had a small purse. Victor and Molly walked to their bikes and went to their homes. Michele biked home too. She had dinner, had a shower (making sure to put the towel around her torso), and went to bed.
The next morning, Michele woke up and got ready for her day. She was about to get on her bike and went to the pool to meet up with the guys at 10, like they talked about, but her mom stopped her.
"Michele, today is the first day of your softball practice. I put your gear in your room while you were having breakfast. Get changed and I'll drive you over."
"But I was going to meet with Davis and Henry today at the pool."
"Their moms or dad said nothing about that to me. Off you go."
Confused, Michele went upstairs and saw her uniform. She got changed and decided that keeping a calendar would help. On the way home from practice, they stopped by the store to pick one up. Molly came over for dinner, giving Michele the necklace. Mikey put it back on, and started to write down stuff. Camping trips with the boy scouts while a boy, which would sometimes disappear or become a girl scout meeting when he was Michele. One time he took off the necklace to give to Krista in his bedroom, and they could see the writing change to a different set of activities. Kristian (Krista's male name) blinked.
"That is kind of creepy. I think we all need to start doing that. Otherwise, it will be a problem." said Kristian
"I'm surprised it took this long for it to happen," said Michele.
Another surprise for Mikey was when he would change into Michele, starting in July, he would have a bra with his clothing. As Mikey, he met with Davis and Molly at the pool. After afternoon of splashing and playing on the diving board, he went into one of the unisex changing rooms. Molly was in the one next door. He took off the necklace, and passed it under the wall in the 2 inch gap they had found under the bench. When he took it off, he looked at his clothing. A skirt, which he was used to wearing now, with a pink tank top. His underwear became white panties with blue stripes, and there was something else there. Luckily, he could just pull it on. His mom's looked more complicated. It was constricting and he didn't see why he needed the training bra. When Michele got home, she went to her room and closed the door. She took off the shirt and looked at herself in the bra. She could see the breast buds through the bra. She went to the underwear drawer and saw there were more in there. The calendar had something about bra shopping a couple days before. Michele went to find her mom. Rachel (Mikey's mom) talked about how she enjoyed the experience of watching her daughter become a woman. Michele got very little information about the actual activity. She asked to be informed a little more in advance next time. Michele realized she'd need to learn this stuff at some point, and missing the visit to the bra shop wouldn't help down the road.
There were good things about the summer too. Mikey also got a lot closer with Diane. They went on bike rides, saw the stars, went to the pool and all sorts of other stuff that summer. It didn't matter if Mikey or Michele was with Diane, they had a good time. Diane's body was also going through changes, and they bonded over that too. By the end of the summer, they were holding hands and sharing ice cream. Mikey got to have sleep overs with Henry and Davis, as well as Diane and some of the girls. By the end of the summer, Michele could only have sleep overs with girls, but Mikey could have Diane over. Rachel figured if Karyn sometimes stayed the night in the guest room, so could Diane.
Jon did get frustrated about not figuring out what was going on with the necklace. He was too proud to use the rock or steal the thing.
In what seemed like forever, and not much time at all, 5th grade started.
