I guess I’m not alone in wondering if being petticoated would have an effect on ones gender, and I speculated on many occasions if my Vincent would turn out to be gay or something. That idea was put to bed when it was revealed that Vincent had a girlfriend. I was a little jealous that my little brother had found a girlfriend before I had, and when he started going to her house to study after school, I felt a bit lonely too. I was chuffed for him… don’t get me wrong… it just felt weird being petticoated when he wasn’t being petticoated with me.
His girlfriend is quite pretty and nice enough. She also attended Malham Hall so was used to seeing him wearing both boys and girl’s clothes, but according to my brother, she doesn’t encourage him to wear girl’s clothes outside of school. Vincent’s girlfriend did call round unannounced one day when we both wore our Sunday dresses, which was pretty embarrassing… but she wasn’t phased at all. Looking back it was kind of funny with me and Vincent wearing prissy frocks whilst the only girl wore a pair of jeans and a jumper.
As things currently stand, Vincent is in his first year of sixth form studying his A-levels and has a steady girlfriend. I’m in my second year of college and have the hots for Bekah (although what she thinks of me after this confession I currently don’t know), and our big brother Gregory is off having a fruitful career in the travel, tourism & hospitality industry, seemingly happily avoiding the ‘house of freaks’.
I wonder if Gregory even knows or cares that things are back to normal now. I’ve only been petticoated once since leaving school and as far as I know, Mother hasn’t petticoated Vincent since he graduated either (his sixth form attire doesn’t count). I suppose Gregory might know all this anyway as Mother often writes to him and I know that he writes to Mother every month without fail, enclosing a big fat chunk of his pay cheque with every letter. I suppose it’s good of him to continually chip in to the family purse, and I know Mother appreciates the money. But I also think it’s guilty money he offers in exchange for avoiding us for all these years. Like I said to Bekah, it’d be nice to see him again but I’m not holding my breath. We’ve all moved on reasonably well without him.
As his final high school year cam to an end, Vincent was naturally very excited about graduating from Malham Hall High School, and I was excited for him. No longer would he have to wear the summer & winter uniforms he’d grown so accustomed to over the last five years, and for the graduation ceremony he’s going to be wearing ‘grown-up’ clothes for once. I was a bit bemused at how much he enthused over the new clothes Mother had bought him; a pair of black court shoes, a smart straight skirt, thin ‘grown-up’ tights and a plain white blouse. It was a very conservative outfit and compared to his old prissy dresses, could be considered boring or even daggy. But seeing how happy it made him was something of a revelation. He may be dressed as a girl but at least he’s dressed as a normal girl, or more accurately, a young woman. He was happy and I was happy for him, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d have been happier if he could wear male attire instead.
I mentioned this to Mother and she suggested that it would be nice if I showed my support by wearing something similar to his graduation ceremony. Of course I tried to talk my way out of it but Mother managed to talk me into it. She assured me that there’d be plenty of other petticoated boys and young men in attendance and like Vincent, I could wear something ‘grown-up’ rather than the girlie frocks I used to wear. I agreed on the proviso that I’d go as Vincent’s big sister ‘Andrea’ and not his brother who just happens to be dressed as a woman. Initially, the idea of passing myself off as a female seemed better than attending as a seventeen year old petticoated male, but I began to have second thoughts when Mother said I’d have to wear a ‘proper’ bra.