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James is dressed and ready to go to the party, but with all the worry surrounding his outfit, choosing Timothy a birthday present, let alone a birthday card has completely slipped his mind.
Fortunately, his mother has thought of that and has a card ready and waiting for him to sign, plus and ready wrapped birthday present.
“What is it?” James asked.
“Oh Mum he won’t want that!” he exclaims when he’s told that he’ll be giving his friend a Disney Princess colouring book.
He signs the card and seals the envelope, hoping his friend won’t be too offended with such a girlie gift and card.
James’s mother asks if he’s ready to go and with his handbag, gift and card in hand, he is.
Now he has to take the giant leap from the front door to the car, which he finds panic-inducing to say the least.
The little solace the front seat offers is just enough to calm his nerves, but when his mother tells him to sit in the back, he begins to protest.
“Petticoated boys don’t sit in the front, they sit in the back,” she tells him.
“Now do as you’re told and get in the back.” she insists.
In a clear strop, James gets out of the front passenger door and into the back of the car.
When he arrives at Timothy’s house, his doubly annoyed to discover that his mother has activated the child locks so he has to wait for her to let him out.
It’s a nervous wait after ringing the doorbell as the wind whips around his legs and up his dress.
James had half expected it to be just he and Timothy in attendance, but there’s three more petticoated boys there; one of whom he recognises from school.
Everyone compliments his dress and James tries his very best to appear grateful… he returns the compliment to Timothy who’s wearing the prissy pink dress he’d seen displayed on the mannequin in his room.
Sheepishly, James hands over the birthday card and gift and mumbles
“My Mum chose them.”
Timothy opens the card first and appears grateful, then unwraps the gift.
He thanks James and says he likes colouring books, before showing James the other gifts he’s received.
Alongside a plastic jewellery set consisting of a tiara,
clip-on earrings,
necklace and bracelet,
a new outfit for his Barbie doll,
a Hello Kitty stationery set and a Tinker Bell bedside lamp,
the princess colouring book maybe isn’t the worst gift he’s received from his guests.
Timothy’s mother gives James a fizzy drink in a pink spill proof beaker before asking where he got his ‘lovely’ dress from.
“Er… Mother took me to Brighton.” John replied, before being prompted to correct himself.
“Mummy took me to Brighton.”
“How lovely!” Timothy’s mother gushes.
“I hope your undergarments are just as pretty,” she says.
James reluctantly nods before being persuaded to lift his short dress to reveal them.
“Oh they are nice!” she states. “Timothy’s got some just like them!” she says, adding that the embroidered name is of course Timothy and not James.
Whilst the boys are under the supervision of several adults, they’re occasionally left alone where they speak more freely.
The boy who James vaguely recognises from school introduces himself before telling him not to mention anything about this to anyone at school.
“No one needs to know that we’re petticoated and if they do… it’ll only get worse,” Vincent tells him.
James promises to keep quiet and claims that he’s only wearing a dress for Timothy’s party.
“I’m not normally petticoated,” he adds.
“You might think that but…chances are you’ve only just started,” Vincent suggests.
The others tend to agree, then an adult walks in and Vincent instantly changes the conversation to
“…I really wanted to wear my yellow dress but Mummy bought me this one especially.”
He holds out the skirt of his minty green frock to reveal the cupcake pattern printed on it.
James plays along and says it’s really nice, before asking what the yellow ones like.
Vincent describes it as “…nice and short like yours, with white daisies all over it.”
“Right boys… are you all having a nice time?” one of the adults asks.
The boys all nod and say they are.
“Jolly good, who’s ready for something to eat?” she asks.
James follows suit with the other boys and feigns excitement.
They take their seats around the table and Timothy’s mother enters pushing a hostess trolley.
A pink paper plate is placed in front of each of them with a couple of sandwiches,
some potato salad,
a stuffed vol-au-vent,
a sausage roll,
some cheese & pineapple sticks and a small pile of potato crisps.
“Now eat it all up boys… then you can have some cake!”
They’re left alone once more and Nicholas states how he hates vol-au-vants, before sinking his teeth into it.
“Why are you eating it then?” James asked.
He’s advised to eat everything regardless of whether he likes it or not before being informed that any sort of disobedience is likely to result in a public outing.
“What’s that?” James ignorantly asked.
“Could be anything… a trip to the park, shopping, McDonald’s.” he’s told.
“Anywhere you’re likely to be seen by people who know you,” Nicholas adds.
With this information, James makes sure he eat everything on his plate, not that he particularly disliked any of the food in front of him.
The princess party plates are cleared, the lights dim and Timothy is presented with his birthday cake.
He blows out the candles, makes a wish and the lights are turned back on.
His cake is predictably girlie, being a pink princess castle with five turrets.
Timothy poses for several photographs with his cake.
Then, much to John’s dismay, they all pose for a group photo before the cake is cut.
They’re given a turret each of which is a pink inverted ice cream cone filled with marshmallow and jelly, then they’re each given a slice of cake. Thankfully they’re not expected to eat the whole thing!
After eating, Timothy’s mother asks if they’re ready to play some party games.
James had been dreading this potentiality and for good reason!
They play pass the parcel, an awful variation of pin the tail on the donkey called pin the ponytail on the princess, musical chairs and finally musical statues.
The games are obviously rigged as each of Timothy’s four guests win a prize;
Jame’s being a Cinderella stationery set in a pink plastic case.
Nicholas won a book full of press-out paper dolls.
Andrew won a plastic jewellery set and Vincent l won a blister pack of hair clips, hair slides and headbands.
They all pretended they liked their prizes in front of the adults, but once alone, their disdain for all things girlie became apparent.
“Mum’s gonna make me wear every one of these!”
Paul groans as he stares disdainfully at his pack of hair accessories, every item is pink, glittery and very very girlie.
In comparison, Jame’s sissy stationary set doesn’t seem so bad
After a couple of hours, Nicholas’s father came to collect him, although they didn’t leave straight away.
Nicholas stands sheepish, silent and shy as his father chats with the other grown-ups, making sure he’s behaved himself and played nicely with the other boys.
Not long afterwards Paul’s mother arrived, closely followed by James’s mother.
It was just like when he arrived with all the adults complimenting the boy’s dresses as well as Timothy’s ‘lovely’ birthday presents.
Finally, John and his mother left and she asked if he’d had a nice time.
“Well… apart from the fact it was a girl’s party, it was OK I guess,” James replied.
His mother told him that it wasn’t a girl’s party, but a petticoated boy’s party.
“Am I going to wear dresses all the time now?” he asked.
“Not all the time.” his mother replied. “But now we know how nice you look, it’d be a shame to never wear one again,” she said.
James didn’t reply. “Timothy’s birthday dress looked lovely didn’t it?”
“I guess.” he groaned.
At least his dress came more or less down to his knees, unlike James’s which is so short he worried he’d flash his knickers every time he moved.
Andrew’s dress was of a similar length to James and he often did.
When they arrived home, the very first thing James wanted to do was to get out of the dress, but his mother said he may as well keep it on until bedtime.
“Oh please Mum… I hate it!!” he whined.
“You’ve asked once and I’ve answered.
Please don’t be disobedient James.” she calmly requested.
James grumbled something negative that included the words ‘stupid’ and ‘dress’.
He mother gave him a stern look and said,
“John… I don’t want to tell you a third time.”
“OK. Sorry,” he mumbled, before being prompted to reply properly.
“Sorry Mummy,” he said.
She asked if she could have a look at the prize he’d won, that being the girlie stationery set consisting of a pen, pencil, pencil sharpener, eraser, ruler and a little set square and compass, all neatly arranged in a pink plastic case with a picture of Cinderella on the front.
His mother said it was lovely and that it’ll be ideal for doing his homework.
“I’ve already got pens and stuff.” James dryly replied.
“Yes but not nice ones like this.” his mother said, before claiming that it would be a shame not to use it.
James sat himself in the sitting room and his mother began faffing with his hair.
“What are you doing?” he whined
“I’m trying to sort your hair slides out.” his mother replied.
“There, that’s much better.” she said.
“Mum?” he asked after a few uncomfortable minutes.
She gave him a look, probably for not saying ‘mummy’.
John continued.
“Why do I have to call you Mummy all of a sudden?” he asked.
“Because ‘Mummy’ is a more appropriate term for petticoated boys,” she replied.
“So I am petticoated then?” he reluctantly asked.
“Like Timothy and Paul and Angela and Nicholas?”
His mother nodded and smiled before saying,
“I think it’s for the best.”
“But why?” he moaned.
“Because you look so sweet.” his mother grinned.
“If I’d known just how sweet I’d have started years ago,” she added as her son’s face dropped.
“Oh, there’s no need to look so glum James.
You can’t deny that you look very pretty.”
“But only girls are supposed to look pretty… not boys.” he replied before telling her that he doesn’t look ‘pretty’ but does look ‘stupid’.
His mother’s reply reminded him of Peter’s mother when he visited him for the first time.
“There’s no reason why boys can’t have nice things too.” she said.
“And you do look pretty… what’s stupid is the fact that you can’t admit it.”
James’s beginning to get the feeling that no matter what he says, his mother won’t budge on this issue.
An hour later she announced that it was bedtime.
Normally James would ask to stay up a bit longer but under the circumstances, he went straight to his room.
Mother followed and he told her that he could get undressed myself.
“I’d like to see you try.” she replied.
Although the tight straps around his chest were ever-present, he’d forgotten what their purpose was… until he tried and failed to lift the dress off that is.
“Turn around.” his mother said once he admitted defeat.
She began faffing up the back of his dress in order to release its retaining straps.
“There you are.” she said.
He pulled the dress over his head and his mother took it from him.
She grinned as she looked him up and down before telling him that she couldn’t decide if his knickers look nicest from the front or from the back.
“They look horrible from both sides.” he moaned as his mother put the dress on a hanger.
His mother showed him how the clips work and soon he was free of every item of girlie clothing he’d endured.
James’s mother bid him a goodnight before leaving him alone and taking the dress and underwear with her, thank God… he fully expected her to put it in his wardrobe.
James got into bed, then a moment later got out and checked inside his wardrobe.
He was certain there was that navy blue dress in there, but there’s no sign of it now.
After a moment of confusion, he resigned himself to the fact that either his mother has moved it, or he simply imagined it.
He slid beneath the duvet and hoped that when he woke up, this will have all been a dream… a very vivid dream.