In My Shoes by Adrian Stephens

seventeen and you
have a ton of clothes. Different shoes, different skirts, different
bras. I have less than half of the clothes you have, and two pairs
of shoes.”
    “Like I said, simple.”
    “You get all bent out of shape because I said
guys are more practical, but you started out calling me
simple.”
    I let out a sigh. “Valid point. Shall we do
your hair?”
    “Yes, please!” he said, pointedly. “It feels
like we’ve been doing this forever. I’m feeling overloaded.”
    “I know, but once you get familiar with
everything, it will go much faster.
    “So,” I continued, “it seems as though you
did pretty well with your ponytail this morning. Now remember that
you don’t want to do ponytails too often. I usually save them for
days when I am going to be active. A ponytail is easy, fast and
takes the least amount of hardware. We usually have an activity in
P.E. about twice a week where we have to dress out. I will save the
ponytails for those days. After P.E., I will shower and fix the
ponytail.”
    We both stared at each other for a moment, as
if we both had the same thought at the same time.
    “Oh no! You’re going to have to shower in the
girls’ locker room. That’s not good.”
    “That should be…interesting,” he said,
smiling. “Don’t worry, I can handle it.”
    “Yeah, I’m not really worried about you. I’m
worried about all of the other girls, especially friends of mine,
who you are going to be taking a shower with. Wait, do you have
P.E.?”
    He smiled. It was my smile, but I didn’t
really recognize it. “Yeah, I do. This isn’t sounding so bad now,
is it?”
    “Yeah, actually it is. It just seems a
little…intrusive to be in a locker room with a bunch of naked guys
from our school. They deserve their privacy.”
    “Well, they’re not going to know as long as
you don’t act like a girl…and you need to be sure you don’t act
like a girl. I don’t need that kind of a reputation in the locker
room.”
    “Okay,” I said, mildly frantic, “I can’t
think about this now. Let’s get back to hair, and we’ll talk about
this later.”
    “Fine by me,” he said, still smiling. His
spirits seemed suddenly higher than they had been the last few
hours. I was annoyed.
    “Could you please try and look a little less
pleased?”
    He got serious. “Sorry. You know, it’s not
like I asked for this, but given the circumstances, I’m having a
hard time being disappointed.”
    “Just try not to look so happy about it,
could you?”
    “Sure,” he said with a try at sincerity.
    “So, where was I?” I said, slightly
flustered.
    “Ponytails. You fix them after P.E.”
    I took a deep breath. “Right. So, I will
touch up the ponytail after I shower. The rest of the week, I use a
few different hairstyles based on the mood I’m in.”
    “Oh,” he said, suddenly excited, “can you
show me how do that braid thing you do sometimes?”
    “The French braid?”
    “Yeah, I love it when you do that with your
hair.” He said it, and just as suddenly stopped and turned red. I’m
sure I did, too.
    I tried to spare us any further awkward
silence by continuing on. “Uh…sure. Although, it’s going to be
really hard to do that style yourself. Are you sure you want to
try?”
    “No, but let’s try anyway.”
    I grabbed a brush and sat down on the bed
behind him. Once I finished brushing his…my hair out, I explained
how to draw a line across the crown of his… ugh …my head with
a comb. I divided the hair above the line into three equal parts,
and talked him through the process as I did it.
    “Still with me?” I asked as I worked new
layers into the braid.
    “Believe it or not, I am still with you.”
    “Good. Keep working new layers in all the way
down, until there are no layers left. At this point, you will
finish off with a standard braid of the remaining lengths of the
three original groups of hair.”
    At that moment, I looked over toward the
doorway, and to my surprise, my