The thing is I was a horrible brother. I would hide my sister�s toys. Once I even shaved her Barbie�s hair. I would always call her names and tease her because she had so many teddy bears and dolls. She loved to draw and hold tea parties. That was also teased. It wasn�t my fault that I had a 9-year-old sister. It was my duty as an older brother to tease her. I thought I was a normal boy. I liked playing football (or as the Americans call it- soccer). I liked jeans and t-shirts and boxer underwear. As I said I was a normal boy.

This story starts one day when I going to football practice. I know that many think that football is boring. They think there are not enough goals, and the ball just goes back and forth, back and forth. I think it�s the greatest game on earth. I go to practice every week and played football with my friends at home. You need skill to get the ball from another player. Then you need skill to keep the ball. Then you need skill to shoot the ball. All in all, you need skill in many things as well as concentration and the wish to win. We play it in the football field outside the gym. The girls were inside the gym doing gymnastics. It looked so funny. They would do funny jumps and stand on hands and things like that. I used to glance at them on my way out to football. I was lucky. I was playing a game that I liked.

My friend Alex and I came to the changing rooms early. We decided to play a trick on the girls. The question was what? What would really be funny? We could see that they started their gymnastics, so we decided to sneak in their changing room. Then I got an idea. We could hide their clothes. We put the clothes in a big bag and dragged the now heavy bag to the janitor�s room. This was so funny. When the girls were finished with their gymnastics they couldn�t find their clothes, so they would be going home in their leotards.

After football, we came in the gym and went towards our changing room. The girls were in a panic. Alex and I watched, as girls were looking everywhere. Some girls were screaming and other girls were mad. Some were crying and others just sat and hoped that their missing clothes will jump out of the floor.

I could see some parents and my mum talking with the coach. It�s as if they guessed that it was Alex and I that hid the clothes. Besides the fact that we were guilty, it was a bit bad that we always got the blame. I suppose that�s because we actually played quite a few tricks on the girls. I could see our coach as he tried to calm them down. He was pointing his finger and my face was getting red. Mum had her head lowered. I knew what this meant. It meant I would get it when I came home. 

 �Zack, why do you always have to get in trouble?�

�What do you mean?�

�No matter where I take you, you are annoying someone or playing a trick on someone. Like did you really have to hide the girl�s clothes today?�

�We were just bored and waiting for football. They found their clothes, didn�t they?�

�That makes no difference. They found their clothes after a lot of frustration and tears.�

�It was a bit funny, you must admit that?�

�I will not admit that. I am tired of hearing what your latest teasing and trick is. The coach said he will deal with you next week, and I have given him permission to do what is necessary�

That week went very slow. Mum was mad at me. Dad didn�t say anything as usual. He just went to work. I never saw Mum so mad. When I tried to use my charm on her, she just said that the coach would take care of everything. She must have said this about a thousand times. It was obvious that she has given up and it was now up to the coach to sort me out. What could he do? He would just get mad and forget it after a while. Girls are funny when they get teased and I was not finished teasing them in my life yet.

The week did go by, and it was time for football again. Mum smiled as she drove me to practice. She was still going on about the coach will sort me out, and she was ready for anything. I just smiled. I could handle the coach. It was simply a case of putting my puppy smile on and saying I�m sorry.

Alex was waiting at the door. We walked into the gym together. We could hear the voices of girls that were getting changed for their gymnastics. Some were coming out to warm up. Surprisingly, they all smiled at us. This was a bit strange. They should have been mad at us. The coach stopped us in our tracks. He said because of last week, we would get our own changing room. He led us down a long hall and unlocked the door to a small room. He pointed in, and said that we should go in and start getting changed. He smiled and said that we were so far away from the action, that we would behave, as �little boys� should.

We went in the little room. Some girls forgot their leotards. Alex started feeling them. He was surprised at how soft they were. I told him that he was now being weird as he was feeling girl�s clothes. The little room was strange, As soon as I entered the room, my eyelids felt heavy. After a few minutes, it was as if I didn�t sleep for a year. I asked Alex if he was the same. He said he was so tired. Then I had an idea. There was still a half an hour to football started; we could just sleep for a bit. After a few minutes we were asleep,

(Time goes by)

When we awoke, we were in shock. I had a pink leotard on me. It really clung to the skin. I looked at Alex and laughed, because he had a white and pink leotard on. He was feeling his knees. He told me that it was about time that I woke up. I was a bit madder than he was. I asked who changed our clothes. Why did we have girl clothes on? Alex really didn�t care. He thought the clothes were pretty and nice to have on. Then he informed me that my hair has grown. It was in a ponytail. I looked at him and he was the same. In fact he looked like a girl. How long were we asleep for? I looked around for the football clothes, but I couldn�t find them anywhere. The girls have played the same trick as us. Is this what the coach had planned? We had several problems.

We were sitting and wearing Leotards?

We could not find our football clothes?

We had girl�s hair!

And the worse is that Alex thought everything was so pretty. He didn�t care.

I said that it was time to find our football clothes. So we sneaked out of the changing room to find them. We checked in all the places that we would have hidden clothes, but could not find anything. Along the way, we met Jenny.

�Hi Girls, are you new here. You should come, because gymnastics is started.�

�Girls? I am a �. Never mind. We are going to play football�

�Football is for boys�

�Yea� Alex added, �We should do gymnastics�

�No, we will play football� How dare she call us girls. I could show her a place between my legs that proved that I was still a boy.

Then we met the coach. He told us to rush out to the field and get warmed up for football practice. He also admitted that he liked our new clothes and said that it is the first time he seen leotards used in football.

�Come on girls, it�s time for practice�

Why was everyone calling us girls? Even when we went out to the field, everyone laughed so much that they were falling around.

Football practice went bad. It was like I couldn�t play football. I no longer cared that I was wearing, but I always wanted to be good at football. Alex was just prancing and jumping around the field, as if he was in some gymnastics exhibition. When I kicked the ball, it either was long off course or too short. My playing overwhelmed Alex. He said that I run with such grace and I was just lovely too look at. I just looked at him as if he became insane. I didn�t care what I looked like. I wanted to kick the ball right.

At last the coach stopped the practice. He called everyone together and pointed at Alex and me;

�I don�t mind girls playing football. But I do not want two girls prancing around the field as if it�s some ballet. Go in and play gymnastics�

�We are not girls,� I said. Everyone laughed at this. I suppose I would have laughed if I was them.

�Come on Zack, Let�s go in. Gymnastics is so fun�

Alex was weird after he had slept in the changing room.

We were kicked out of Football and had to start in gymnastics. The trainer told us to try to stand on our hands and hold our feet out. I lowered myself to the mattress and balanced myself on my hands. Then I spread my legs. The trainer was surprised. She even went as far as to say that I could be a natural talent at gymnastics, I smiled and the rest of gymnastics went well. I was surprised at how fun it was. You really had a challenge in how to control your body. I looked at how girls did gymnastics before, but I always thought it was easy. Now I knew that it too concentration and strength to do the exercises. I think I would enjoy gymnastics.

At the end of the class, we went into our small changing room. We couldn�t find our clothes. We found a t-shirt and some jeans with flowers on them. There were tights as well. Alex of course started putting the tights on. I reminded him that they were girl tights. He just said that they were pretty and they felt so nice on him. As there were no socks, I put the tights on. It was as if a fresh breeze hit my legs. They did feel nice, and the clothes were pretty. The flowers on the jeans were very pretty; I know I shouldn�t have thought that. But I had very strange thoughts while I was in the changing room.

Mum saw me when I came out and smiled. She was probably smiling at my clothes or smiling that I didn�t get into any trouble. My sis started laughing and called me a sissy. I smiled back and thought she was right, I did look like a sissy.

That week, I played a lot with my sister. We played with her teddy bears. We played house and we played with her dolls. I liked combing her dolls hair and trying to put different clothes on. It is not just playing when you dress a doll. It is also learning about style and which clothes suit each other. I must admit that it was also fun. I spent hours playing with dolls.

The telephone rang. It was Alex.

�Hi Zack, what are you doing?� I wasn�t going to tell him that I was playing with dolls.

�I�m just chilling. What are you doing?�

�I�m drawing pictures of rainbows and flowers and ladybugs�

�Is that fun?�

�Yes and the pictures are so pretty. I am hanging them up in my room.�

�Wouldn�t it be more fun teasing your little brother?�

�No that would be so boring and teasing and playing tricks on others are only for bad boys. I�m not a bad boy�

�Well, I�ll see you tomorrow. I�m in the middle of something.�

�You know, I can�t wait until gymnastics tomorrow and being with the other girls�

�Aren�t we going to play Football?�

�No. I am going to gymnastics.�

�Oh�

The next day, we came early to gymnastics. Mum said that the coach said to come early, because we had something to do. Alex came just before I came. I was shocked, because he had leggings on. You know the tight trousers that girls wear. I suppose I didn�t look better. It just hit me that I was wearing jeans with flowers on the pocket.

The coach told us to go in the same little changing room. He said we don�t cause trouble when we are in the little changing room. Once again we were in the small room. We saw that there were leotards hanging up. But that didn�t bother us.  We quickly put on our leotard and sat on the bench. Suddenly we became so tired that we fell asleep in each other�s arms on the bench.

When we woke up, we looked at each other and laughed. Our leotards were too large for us, and hanging down on us. We also noticed that our hair was longer. The most surprising thing was that we were not as tall as we were before.

�What age are you?� I asked Alex

�I am 7. You know that I am�

I was confused. I thought I was 12 for a second. But Alex was right; I was only a 7-year-old girl. 

We looked at the leotards that were hanging up. We rushed to put them on. Now we were ready for gymnastics

Alex and I were quite good at gymnastics. We won a few competitions. We of course had to change the team we were in, as we were too young to practice in the team with older girls. Football was suddenly boring. Our parents bought us lots of pretty clothes. I know they looked like girls clothes. But I didn�t care. I played like a girl, I thought like a girl. I was a girl in my heart.

The best was that mum and Dad were proud of me. They were proud that I was so good at gymnastics, and they were proud that I was a well-behaved girl.