Happily Ever After

My entry for the June 2013 Haven Monthly Caption Contest. 

Transcript: Senior ball—most high school seniors had been looking forward to this special night ever since they were freshmen. All across town, the girls would be giggling as they slipped into their finest dresses and checked the mirror for the millionth time, giddy with excitement. Likewise, their dates would also be nervously getting ready for the evening, fixing their tuxedos and bantering around as they placed bets on which of them would get lucky tonight. 

As for me, I was doing neither. Had I been given the choice, I would’ve very much like to have joined the girls in their gossip and beauty rituals, but I was a guy and I wasn’t going to ball. A part of me wished that I was, but the other part knew that there would be nothing for me to enjoy anyways. I didn’t have a date, the few friends that I had weren’t going, and watching everyone else would only serve as a reminder of what I didn’t have. So instead, I had resigned myself to an evening of Panda Express and endless reruns of Charmed. 

That was until a little old lady showed up at my door. Introducing herself as my fairy godmother, she announced that she had come to help me get ready for the ball. Well if that didn’t beat all. It was useless trying to talk to her. She wouldn’t listen. Instead, she just put one hand on my head and the other over my chest and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she gave me a slightly quizzical look, but then shrugged and said, “Well, if that’s what you want.”

Thinking I had finally gotten through to her and she was finally going to leave I said yes. That was when the magic began to happen, literally. With a wave of her wand, I suddenly found myself inhabiting the body of a gorgeous young girl. Several more wand waves later, my hair looked like a professional had spent hours on it, my makeup was immaculate, and I found myself wearing the most beautiful blue dress I had ever seen. I was still in a state of shock when my fairy godmother sent me off in a luxury limousine that I could only assume she had conjured up as well. 

When I arrived at the dance, everything was just getting into full swing. Looking around, the only other person I could see sitting by themselves was Henry Blake, which surprised me since he was the star quarterback. Feeling a bit bold and momentarily forgetting that I was now a girl, I approached him. He seemed surprised at first, but welcomed my company. I quickly learned that it was because his girlfriend had just dumped him for some other guy on team. It would've been pretty awkward for him to stay with his friends. I lent Henry a sympathetic ear and we talked for awhile before he abruptly changed the subject and asked me to dance. I accepted.

We danced into the wee hours of the night and when the last song finally ended, Henry drove me home. As we stood on my front porch pondering how to say goodbye, he kissed me. Not on the forehead or the cheek, but on the lips. Then with an embarrassed farewell, Henry got back into his car and drove off, leaving me with a shy smile on my face. When I could no longer see his taillights, I turned around to go back inside only to see my fairy godmother standing in the front door. 

“Looks like you had a good time tonight,” my fairy godmother commented as I walked in, "he seems nice, pretty cute too.”

I was still too dreamy to be flustered over the fact that she had been spying, “Yes I did. I had a wonderful time.”

“Good, I’ll be upstairs, unpacking my bags if you need me then.”

“Unpacking your bags, you mean you’re staying?” I asked in surprise.

“Of course! Becoming a girl is not a one night job! Someone’s got to teach you hair, makeup, etiquette, and everything else you’ll need to know about being a girl. I won’t always be around to wave my wand to do it for you!” my fairy godmother exclaimed as she wobbled up the stairs.

I was speechless. Did she mean that…but that meant that…every cell in my body wanted to burst with joy as I came to realized what she meant. She would be helping me become a girl forever. This was not the end, but the beginning of my very own happily ever after.