Now we are twins

Part 2

James awoke in unfamiliar surroundings before realising that the previous day hadn't been a dream and that she was Natasha, a sweet little girl. She remembered the dream she'd had, in it there was a girl getting ready for something special, she had a long white gown on and someone was fussing over her, it had to be preparation for a wedding.

She didn't see the face but somehow she knew it was her, what was strange though was that the flowergirl was her too. She giggled.

"What's so funny" said a voice beside her.

"I dreamt I was a fairy princess getting ready for my wedding, you were my bridesmaid and I was my own flowergirl too."

"Oh, is that all." Natasha said as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

The two girls lay there for a few minutes longer then decided to get up and play until auntie Helen came in to help them get dressed.

"What are we doing today Mummy." said Natalie.

"This morning I'm going to do some baking, I haven't done any for a while, the two of you can help me if you'd like to."

"Yes please." they said together.

"Then this afternoon I'm going shopping for a little while so I've asked Mrs Johnson to make sure you don't get into any mischief. Later on you've got a ballet class Natalie. But first things first, lets get you dressed and then start in the kitchen."

They had a wonderful time baking, aunt Helen made enough cakes and pies to last until the end of James/Natasha's stay while the girls made gingerbread figures, jam tarts and sticky rice krispy bars. They had fun cleaning up too, spooning the leftover ingredients from the bowls into their mouths before washing up everything. So when it was time for lunch they hardly needed to eat.

Just before aunt Helen went shopping she suggested that they play in the garden as it was a lovely summer day. This suited Mrs Johnson who had really wanted to do some work in her garden. She set about pruning her roses while watching the children at play.

They took their dollies and their favourite stuffed animals and sat them down on the steps of the treehouse so the toys could watch the girls taking turns on the swing. After a few turns Natasha realised that James would have been on a mission to go as high and as fast as he possibly could where she was content to swing slowly and steadily letting the movement rustle her skirts.

When they had finally done enough swinging for one session they picked everbody up off the steps and took them into the treehouse. Natasha found a book, sat down and arranged the dollies and animals around her while Natalie got a broom out of the kitchen area and began to sweep.

"Aren't you going to sit down too?" asked Natasha.

"I will do, but let me make our house spick and span first." her twin replied.

Natasha started to read aloud the tale of Snow White, a little self-conciously at first but she quickly realised that noone would make fun of her and relaxed. In her imagination the dolls smiled when she mentioned Snow White, got scared whenever the wicked queen appeared, looked relieved when the woodcutter spared her life, giggled at the seven dwarves and sighed at the happy ending. Natalie also listened with interest as she finished sweeping.

It was 4pm when auntie Helen returned, she thanked Mrs Johnson and ushered the girls inside.

"Natalie, it's almost time for your ballet lesson, I think you had better get changed." she said. Natalie scuttled to the bedroom while auntie Helen turned to Natasha. "We ought to make sure that these fit you alright." she said pulling some packages out of a bag. "Tights first, then the leotard."

She helped her new niece to change from her pretty dress into the white tights and pale blue practise leotard. Natalie came skipping down the stairs as her mother tied Natasha's cardigan and flared out her gauzy dance skirt. She smiled as she handed them their ballet bags in the hallway, they stood shoulder to shoulder looking incredibly twinlike.

The two girls skipped hand in hand along the street with Natalie's mother a few paces behind.

As soon as they arrived at the class she spoke to the teacher while the girls put their ballet slippers on, then came over to them. "I've explained everything to your teacher, as it's your very first lesson she is going to be extra helpful and understanding with you."

"Ok girls, gather round now.", called the teacher.

"I'll see the two of you in a little while." Natalie's mother said. "Have fun."

The two of them kissed her on the cheek then scurried to the middle of the room to join the rest of the group.

# # # # # #

She had returned just in time to watch them finish the lesson, everything seemed fine. But when she went over to where the girls were changing back into their outside shoes she was met by a tearful Natasha.

"What's wrong honey?" she said, hugging her niece and stroking her hair.

"I tried my best <sob> but I'm just not good enough <sniff>, I'm never going to be a ballerina, I'm no good."

"Oh sweetheart, it was only your first lesson," her aunt consoled. "You've got to give it time." She had another talk with the class teacher and returned to the girls.

"Natasha darling, she says you are not that bad. She thinks that doing a bit of practise at home will make the world of difference." She looked at her daughter. "Natalie, will you help your cousin?"

"Yes mummy, I'd love to help. Soon you'll be as good as ballet as me, or maybe you'll be even better." she said to Natasha.

The girl smiled through her tearful eyes. "Can we do a bit of practising tonight?" she asked, "When we get back from the hospital?"

"Yikes, I'd forgotten we were visiting Sandi."

The three of them hurried home and grabbed a light snack before changing. Not surprisingly Natasha was very reluctant to go back to being James again, even for a short time. Auntie Helen resorted to bribery, telling him the lovely things she had for Natasha when she came back.

Sandra was glad to see her little boy again, even though the nursing staff were caring and considerate all these tests and things made her feel like some sort of show animal.

"Hiya sweetheart, come and tell mummy all about your day."

He climbed onto her bed and sat on her lap. Sandra gave him a cuddle then stroked his hair as he laid his head on her shoulder. Helen pulled a chair to the side of the bed and Natalie sat on her mummy's lap with her head resting on mummy's shoulder too.

"Did you have fun today?" she asked him.

"Yes lots, we helped auntie Helen in the kitchen this morning then in the afternoon we went out and played in the garden, did you know Natalie has a treehouse only it's not up high like a lot of treehouses there are just a few steps up to it and it's nice inside then after that we went to ballet."

She put her hand over his mouth, "Don't babble so much sweetie, it sounds like you enjoyed your day but next time don't rush."

Natalie's mouth had dropped open and Helen was dreading what her sister would say but she was so glad that her child was having fun with his cousin that she didn't think anything of his mentioning ballet.

When they returned home the two children rushed upstairs and changed back into their practise costumes, Natasha wasn't going to waste any time.

Auntie Helen had rolled up the carpet in the hall so they had the whole of the wooden floor to practise on. Natalie showed her cousin the steps that she had learned and Natasha did her best to copy. Natasha knew that

if all learning was this much fun then she couldn't wait to go to school and Natalie was enjoying herself too.

But as they say 'Time flies when you are having fun', so they made their way to bed. Tonight Natasha finally got to wear the nightie that she desired, it was white with different coloured flowers and more importantly had lots of ruffles and ribbons on it, one layer of ruffles on the yoke and the sleeves, two on the hem and little ribbon bows on the collar and sleeves. Natasha fell in love with it instantly, as she looked at herself in the mirror she thought how much better she would look in it with soft hair brushing her shoulders.

Auntie Helen shooed her into bed and went downstairs to think. Three days ago her nephew had come to stay, now he spent most of his time wearing dresses and doing things that most boys would never even dream of doing.

When she had first found him dressed she had decided that as long as he didn't object she would give him a wonderful girlish experience but things had already gone further than she had planned. She sighed and carried on watching the midweek movie.

Natalie threw back the curtains and the sunlight streamed into the room, it was going to be another lovely summer's day. The two girls skipped downstairs for breakfast giggling as they went.

"Good morning darlings."

They were wearing their light blue ballet outfits AGAIN. "I'm sorry but we won't be doing ballet this morning, it's far too nice out ther to spend the whole day indoors."

The girls sighed.

Once they had polished off their bowls of rice krispies they headed back to their bedrooms with auntie Helen following behind them. She picked out a pair of yellow gingham bloomers and a white bloused top for Natalie and also found a yellow gingham ribbon for her hair. Natasha got a bit of a shock when she was handed a pair of blue shorts and a scarlet t-shirt.

"I've put the sandpit out so that you can play with your construction toys James."

Natasha put the outfit on and wondered if she had displeased her aunt or whether this was the end of her time in girl's clothes.

Once they were in the garden Natalie started out playing with her cousin in the sand but she soon drifted off to help her mother with the plants,she had no interest in helping James as he used his digger to shovel the sand into the tipper truck and drive it to the other side.

He played happily by himself until lunchtime.

Rather than eating inside they took advantage of the wonderful weather and had a picnic lunch. Auntie Helen laid a blanket on the grass and got the children to help her bring the food out.

This lunch was a lot quieter than usual, there was no merry chatter between the two children which had become an accepted part of mealtimes, they just ate and glanced at each other. To the woman the silence was almost deafening, even her attempts to start a conversation were met with very little response. She almost breathed a sigh of relief when the children finished eating and went back to playing. James returned to the sandpit and Natalie decided to play on the swings.

Instead of more playing in the sand James sat with his legs stretched out, he pretended to watch his toes as he wriggled them but he was actually watching his cousin swinging. Eventually he went over to try and join in.

"Can I swing too?" he asked.

"Of course you can." she replied. She slowed her swinging then hopped off and scampered into the house.

He had really hoped that they could swing together but he hadn't made that clear. Maybe he had upset her too he wondered as he swung, he also knew that swinging in a skirt felt much nicer than swinging in trousers.

Natalie came back out looking as if she agreed with that thought, she had put on a short yellow skirt with flowers embroidered around the hem. She also had a pair of sunglasses with frames that looked like daisies.

He thought that she would come and play with him now and she was certainly heading his way before she got distracted and went over to a different part of the garden and rested the sunglasses on the top of her head to look at something.

"Mummy come and look at all the butterflies."

James ran over too.

The Buddleia had been in shadow before now but the sun had moved round enough for them to see all the butterflies around it.

"Look at that white one, there's a blue one, they are all so pretty. Oh is that a Red Admiral?" said Natalie.

"It's a Painted Lady and the white one is a Cabbage White." said James.

"How do you know that?" his cousin asked.

"We've got one of these in our garden too, it's a butterfly bush, and whenever the butterflies came I would watch them. Mummy has told me what most of them are called," he replied, "I love butterflies."

Natalie grinned at him and they watched the butterflies fluttering around for some time, once in a while she would ask him what one was called and he did his best to tell her.

Auntie Helen looked on, glad to see that the two children were talking again.

Meanwhile Natalie had followed a butterfly around the garden and left on his own James had sat down on the lawn with his legs to one side. He was doing something with his hands.

Natalie's butterfly had now flown out of the garden and she came back to the Buddleia. James stood up and put the Daisy chains he had made onher, one went around her neck and the ther on top of her head as a daisy crown. She thanked him and hugged him then started to make some daisy chains herself. It wasn't long before both of them were covered in the daisy jewelery that they had made for each other - necklaces, bracelets and rings. They also had daisy chains on their heads and round their ears. They collapsed in huge fits of giggles.

That night as he headed for the bedroom James wondered what he would be wearing. He had no need to worry, two nighties had been laid on the bed.

He put his nightie on and went to climb in one side of the bed.

"Hang on a minute." said Natalie, "Are you a boy or a girl because I only share my bed with other girls."

Her cousin was hurt by this remark and it showed, auntie Helen was about to say something. Natalie giggled and said "I'm only teasing a little, I know you're a girl, even today when you were dressed like a boy. When we it was you Natasha." She hugged her cousin and handed Natasha the white toy rabbit that she slept with.

Auntie Helen looked at the two of them in the bed and knew that Natalie's judgement was right. Now things were at a stage where even boys clothes couldn't hide such a girlish nature.