Teddie tugged at the bottom of his nightshirt,

trying to make the hem line lower.

It seemed that grandma hadn’t made it to fit exactly right and she hadn’t sent any new pajamas for a little while.

His nightshirt had a habit of riding up to his upper thighs,

constantly threatening to suddenly show off his underwear underneath.

Of course, Tammy Lou didn’t mind such a display.

She was too young to really care about such things.

Teddie, on the other hand, was a growing man,

and he found it very embarrassing to think that his mom or little sister might catch a glimpse of his briefs.

Now, if his mom would just let him wear boxers then it wouldn’t be so bad.

Boxers were remarkably like shorts and much more functional then briefs.

At least Teddie didn’t think he would feel as self-conscious in boxers.

It just wasn’t right. He tugged again, but the hem didn’t stay any lower.

No, it wasn’t just the clothes.

It was everything about the way Tammy Lou was treated that set him off.

Everything was always about Tammy Lou. What does Tammy Lou want to do?

Teddie, play nice with Tammy Lou.

Oh, Teddie, you can do this or that with Tammy Lou, stop being such a baby.

Constantly, it was Tammy Lou, Tammy Lou, Tammy Lou! It drove him batty.

Wednesdays for example.

Teddie wanted to play baseball after school with all his friends,

but instead, he had to go to a stupid dance class with Tammy Lou.

Not that certain dance classes wouldn’t be cool.

Hip Hop Jazz classes wouldn’t be too bad.

They even had one that taught boys, and boys only, how to dance just like the popular boy bands currently topping the charts.

But this wasn’t just any old dance class.

It wasn’t anything cool like Jazz, or even tap.

It was a Ballet class.

Complete with tutus and giggling little girls.

Little girls who seemed to find it particularly funny to see Teddie in a pair of tights too.

It didn’t help any that he was the ONLY boy in the class.

Luckily, none of his friends had found out about it yet and Tammy Lou wasn’t old enough to know that she could blackmail him with it.

At least, she wasn’t old enough yet.

Teddie shivered at the thought.

The way Teddie saw it,

everything was Tammy Lou’s fault.

He was certain that his mom had really secretly wished that he had been a girl.

That was probably why she had decided to have Tammy Lou in the first place,

because she didn’t get her daughter the first time.

That was probably why she always made Teddie do stupid stuff with Tammy Lou since practically the day she was born.

It was all Tammy Lou’s fault.

Everything.

And now she was going to pay.

Her and that dumb old doll of hers.

Teddie watched as his unknowing victim put her toothbrush back into the cup holder above the sink and daintily wiped her mouth on a bath towel.

She might have her little Sally Dress-Up dolly with her now,

he thought to himself,

but she would have to let go of her sometimes.

Teddie didn’t dare actually risk a nighttime raid into Tammy Lou’s bedroom.

It wouldn’t go well if he got caught.

No, Teddie decided that it would be better to just watch and wait for the perfect opportunity to come along by itself.

At that moment,

Teddie heard his mother’s footsteps on the stairs so he quickly and quietly slipped his door shut the rest of the way and jumped into bed.

He just managed to rearrange the hem of his nightshirt back to its proper place and pull the covers up to his chin when the door to his bedroom swung open without warning.

His mom walked in as usual to say goodnight and tuck him in.

It didn’t matter how many times he told her that he was too big to be tucked in or too old for sissy bedtime kisses,

she still insisted on humiliating him every night.

And the fact that she never knocked or gave him any privacy smoothed the icing on the cake for Teddie.

It was obvious to him that his mother could never understand the needs of a young man.

And it didn’t do any good explaining it to her either.

Teddie suffered the indignity of his mother’s night time routine with only a few weak hearted

“oh, mom” ‘s,

and settled in to day dream about how he would extract revenge on Tammy Lou and her silly Sally Stupid doll.