?Did what?? her daughters eyes creeped open against the morning sun.?We took our medicine like big girls, let the boys get payback. I wanted to say I ...m glad you stood up with me and did it, I knew that had to be hard, since you've got to go to school with those boys??Don't remind me!! and it's not the boys I was as worried about. It was the girls, you have no idea the scorn and ridicule.??Oh I don't? Last I checked I was a teenager too, and let me tell you, it never ends. You think I dress for. ‘Hello, Simon’ she said, smiling. Her voice was warm, not at all nervous, as I might have expected.I said, ‘Happy birthday – Alice.’‘I hope it will be,’ she replied, leaning across to take my hand which she placed on her thigh. ‘Mac’s told me I have to take care of you. Whatever you say.’ Mac climbed into the driver’s seat and we set off, though not before he had adjusted the rear view mirror. I thought he had angled it for a view of anything that might transpire in the back seat.We hadn’t. I could hear the water running in the bathroom.Mandy poked her head around the door frame of the bathroom and smiled. "Just slip out of your robe and lay down on the bed. I'll be there in a second. Oh: close your eyes and don't open them until I say you can." Thje instructions were delivered in a voice that brooked no objection, so I happily complied.The covers were thrown back so I dropped my robe onto the desk chair and I climbed onto the bed. The air was a bit cool, so I pulled the sheet up. I knew I wouldn'tsee them again. Then she passed me the girly clothes one by one and Iput them on. Then she gave me two rings, a bracelet, a girl's watch anda pendant necklace. She gave me a pair of strappy sandals with a thin 2inch heel. Finally she removed a dirty blonde wig from the hold-all andput it on my head. She brushed it several times until she wassatisfied.Then she put a dab of blue eye-shadow on my eyes lids and some lipstickon my lips. I was ready. I wanted to have a mirror to see.