A new and important person entered Jennifer’s life soon after that trip to the beach and it wasn’t her sibling, rather that final lathering of sunscreen had shifted more than her interests, it had decided to give her a best friend as well.
Kim was a six year old girl through and through. Boys were gross, she wanted to be a princess when she grew up, and she was six in mind as well as body.
“Let’s play house!” Kim would shout one moment before changing her mind halfway through the game and yelling, “Let’s play dolls!”
Kim did not help Jennifer establish masculinity in her otherwise feminine life. If anything Kim convinced Tristan and Tucker that Jennifer was even more girly seeing as she threw a temper tantrum whenever she didn’t get her way. Jennifer didn’t even have control over asking Kim over, her now homebound mother calledKim’s mother and invited the girl over practically every day that summer. Otherwise Jennifer was going to Kim’s place which was filled with older sisters who would braid her hair, apply makeup, and dress her up like those were all games instead of daily hygienics.
“You’d look nice in that,” Tristin would comment whenever she took Jennifer to the mall, pink shirts, dresses, and skirts began to fill her wardrobe and no matter how much she complained about the skirts her mother would proclaim she needed to learn how to wear them like it was a literal skill required for everyday life. So regardless of how she felt about them Skirts soon became part of her wardrobe and were worn so much that she had to stop complaining at some point.
Summer as a British citizen was different, it rained a lot and rain was no longer an excuse to stay indoors, instead a nice day could be accompanied by a light drizzle and rubber boots were set up near the door like they were every day shoes. In addition her parents now watched different programming on television. Her dad kept watching the stock market but instead of being hosted by a middle aged man trying way to hard to be hip and with it it was now hosted by the oldest and driest British Man ever heard. He talked in monotone and his voice made Jennifer sleepy. Her mother had likewise ditched the talk shows and now watched shows about the daily lives of the royal family with the same vigour, nothing ever happened and why her mom found this fascinating was beyond her.
That cartoon channel with the adult shows late at night and early in the morning was gone and instead a new channel with shows made in England took its place. The channel aired some foreign shows but this mostly consisted of Kim’s favourite American show, Sparkle the Unicorn. Other girly shows dominated the network and Jennifer was now supposedly a fan of a superhero show with extended transformation scenes and a shallow main character who got into trouble because of her overzealous love for fashion, fitness, and girly things like jewelry. It sucked and Jennifer wanted nothing more than to return to watching boys toy centric shows.
Tristin got more and more pregnant as Summer passes and Jennifer knew the baby was due any day when they entered August. The twins swelled to a massive size in Tristan’s womb and she became sleepy and barely mobile. Up until her water broke during dinner one night. It was honestly a lot grosser than Jennifer imagined, usually it was a detail glosses over or downright skipped but it resembled peeing and due to two babies there was twice as much as there should have been. Tucker got on the phone instantly and within minutes she was dropped off at Kim’s house without so much as a goodbye as her parents went into full on panic mode. She stayed up playing dolls and dressup until her father came to get her a full two days later. Her exhausted mother introduced her to her new baby sisters, Lisa and Gardina. Jennifer couldn’t help but feel dissapointment at the fact that they were both girls but they were also cute and really small so she cradled them in her arms while the past few months of random toys got a clear reason. Big dolls so she could practice holding a younger sibling, she’d caught on but that didn’t change the soothing feeling she got when around her sisters.
That was until they were brought home. Hours upon hours of crying and crying, and more crying filled Jennifer’s life as August wound down. She barely slept, she couldn’t find a nice room to relax in, and her only escape was visiting Kim which came with its own set of problems, doing her hair, playing with makeup, and wearing different clothes had become such a common thing in Jennifer’s life that she was actually starting to enjoy them.
However the babies didn’t stop and Jennifer couldn’t help but wish for a brother, so at least the baby toys would be masculine and she could show interest in something like football or baseball when she got a bit older but no just girls, just girly things. It was all so tiring and sickening, and Jennifer frowned a lot until she got a bright idea one day when the babies were down for a nap and her parents were in the other room enjoying some peace and quiet. Jennifer dug into the closet and in the back was a beach bag with a half read book, some toys, an extra bathing suit, and a nearly empty bottle of sunscreen. So little in fact that Jennifer had to turn it upside down and wait half an hour for the liquid to sink towards the cap. She knew she only had enough for one target, one change but she had to go through with it, something had to change before she gave into this girliness and lost more of her vague older self.