In the next week, Jessica happily worked around the house, wearing her mom's oldest clothes which fit her small frame perfectly. Her height and messy hair were the only indication she had ever been anything but a pretty woman.
"Jessie! We need new clothes for you." Her mom beamed at her, clearly having something in mind. "Let's go to the mall and pick you up everything you need, okay?" She stared at her mom, unable to believe what she'd just heard. Going out...?
"What about my hair, and makeup, and..." She was interrupted by mom's laughing. "Listen to you, already sounding like a girl. Well, let's go! Time's a-wasting. Put some of my shoes on and meet me in the car, okay?"
Jessica did so, terrified, shaking with an irrational fear that she'd be recognized and laughed at, called a freak. She tried not to think as they pulled into the mall parking lot, and stepped out, walking in, almost pulled in by mom. There were so many people, and the walk seemed like forever to get to the first shop.
She simply stared at the rows upon rows of clothes she wouldn't have even looked at before. The days of her boy clothes seemed like years ago, years and years, and Jessica found herself very happy not to be a boy anymore, and more importantly, not to be little anymore. No one would believe her if she told them she was ten, or anything less than twenty.
"Come on, sis." Mom said loudly, winking at her. Jessica grinned back, barely keeping her composure and resisting the urge to hug her mom. She just stood there grinning as her mom told a sales girl all about how her sister had been robbed and needed all new clothes. An hour later, her mom's arms were full of shopping bags and she was in a newly purchased top and skirt. She was barely beginning to show, bulging out her shirt a little bit, and she patted her stomach proudly.
Among the many faces in the crowd in the mall was one in particular, staring at her. The face of her best friend from when she was a ten-year-old boy, John. Did he recognize her? Did she want him to? He'd been friendly to her until the moment she decided not to go to school anymore. How would he react to his best friend turning from a boy to a pregnant woman?
