Three Dresses for Charlie

No Boys Allowed

Kate was more angry then traumatized about the incident, but she came by Charlotte's room after lights out to ask if she could sleep there. They grabbed some cushions off of a nearby couch and Kate slept on the floor.

The next morning, Ms. Hughes came by a little early to wake them up.

She poked her head in with a strange grin. "Hey Charlie, guess what?"

"Are the police here?"

"No just come here. You too Kate."

Charlie rubbed her eyes and stumbled out of bed. She usually thought of herself as a boy in the mornings before she got dressed, but she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and with her hair extensions and shaped finger nails, that wasn't happening. She helped Kate up, and the two followed Ms. Hughes back to her office in their pajamas.

They'd never seen Ms. Hughes use a computer before, but she had a laptop sitting on her desk and she pulled up YouTube. There was a video from a security camera showing the two muggers hassling the pageant winners, and then a girl in the blue dress hurling apple after apple into their heads. It had thirty-seven thousand views. The video was titled "How do you like them apples?"

"I'm not sure who posted it. Their name's not on the profile, but it's getting a lot of views. All the folks in town are passing it around. And here check this out..."

Ms. Hughes showed them the paper. The front page headline was "Girl loses pageant, Catches thieves." There was a half-page picture, a still from the security footage of Charlotte winding up with an apple just as another was striking the mugger.

"The light from the sunset was coming from just the right angle huh? I have a feeling this next week is going to be interesting," Ms. Hughes said with a smile.

After the girls finished with their chores, Ms. Hughes took Charlotte back to the street fair. Some of the food vendors were selling something called "Charlotte Apples." Which turned out to be caramel apples. The sign over them was freshly painted with a caricature picture of a blonde girl in a blue dress holding an apple like a baseball and winking.

"Well that's certainly interesting," Ms. Hughes remarked.

"It's Charlotte on the sign, right?" asked Charlotte.

"Certainly looks that way."

"Wow, she's really getting famous."

"Why do you keep referring to yourself in the third person?"

"I don't know." Charlotte said.

"I suppose it is overwhelming. I mean, I'd be overwhelmed. You don't feel so bad about losing the pageant now do you, Charlotte? Oh sorry, do you want to be called Charlotte?"

"It's okay."

Ms. Hughes had a curious look on her face. "Should I call you Charles?"

"No!" Charlotte whispered quite loudly and looked over both shoulders "I mean what if someone heard?"

She furrowed her brow. "Oh, I see. Well what do you call yourself? I mean in your mind?"

"I go back and forth, it's confusing."

"Do you call yourself Charlotte when you're dressed?"

"Most of the time. Not all the time. Sometimes I'll get this odd feeling. I feel like Charles even when I'm all dolled up." Her whispering was quiet now. She started leading Ms. Hughes away from the crowd. "Then I feel like a crossdresser."

Ms. Hughes whispered back. "You know I'm a little worried about what your mom is going to say about Charlotte."

Now Charlie looked worried. "Do we have to tell her?"