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“My point is, it takes a special person to cry over a book. It shows compassion as well as imagination.”
George thought for a moment about kissing a boy, and the idea made her tingle.
still don’t see what the big deal is,” Kelly said. “So you want to play a girl onstage. It’s not like you want to be a girl.”
“Don’t be. My dad says that men performing in nontraditional gender roles is good for feminism. He says it’s important, as an artist, to be in touch with his feminine side.”
She had genuinely started to believe that if people could see her onstage as Charlotte, maybe they would see that she was a girl offstage too.
“I’ll bet he read the stupid spider’s part by mistake!” Jeff smirked. “He’s such a freaking girl anyway.”
Mom disappeared to her bedroom with the denim bag in her hand. George remained by the front door, her mouth slightly open. She couldn’t believe her friends were gone.
George selected Toad. She liked the happy sounds the little mushroom made.
“Girl problems?” Scott asked, his eyes focused on the television screen as the cloud creature announced the start of the next course. “No,” George said. She knew that wasn’t true. Being a secret girl was a giant problem.
She would be Charlotte’s Charlotte, deeply hidden in the shadows.
Nothing—certainly not a buffet dinner—could help the fact that Mom didn’t see her.
Scott snuck glances her way too, but where Mom’s eyes were filled with concern and confusion, Scott looked at George as if his sibling made sense to him for the first time. George had never been gladder to have an older brother.
Charlotte was dead, but George was alive in a way she had never imagined.
She had never heard her girl name out loud before, and now Kelly had made it into a song.
And that night, when George went to her bedroom, she found her denim bag on her bed, with all of her magazines still inside.
He might even leave her at the zoo. Still, there was no way she was going to pass up this chance to be a girl with Kelly.
She looked in the mirror and gasped. Melissa gasped back at her. For a long time, she stood there, just blinking. George smiled, and Melissa smiled too.
