Is He a Girl? (3 page)

Judy and Melanie were hanging upside down from the monkey bars.

“Hi, Marvin,” said Judy. “Do you want to come to my slumber party?”

“Okay,” said Marvin.

“Oh, goody,” said Melanie. “We can stay up late and paint each other’s toenails.”

Marvin woke up.

“No!” he said, almost shouting.

He wanted to call Judy Jasper on the telephone and tell her he didn’t want to go to her slumber party. And he didn’t want to paint his toenails!

It was just a dream, he reminded himself.

A dream?

He wasn’t supposed to go to sleep!

He jumped out of bed.

He checked himself over. He was still a boy.

He looked at his clock. 3:45. He had been asleep less than five minutes.

That wasn’t enough time to turn into a girl.

He backed away from his bed and knocked over his desk chair. As he set it back up, he found himself staring at the ugliest face in the world!

He screamed.

He quickly covered his mouth.

It was just General Jackson. Safe in the glass cage.

That shouldn’t have scared him. “I’m not afraid of a lizard,” he said.

Girls are afraid of lizards
.

He looked right into the eyes of General
Jackson. To prove he wasn’t afraid.

“You don’t scare me,” he said.

General Jackson stuck out his tongue.

“How gross!” said Marvin.

He covered his mouth again.

Girls think lizards are gross
.

“I don’t think you’re gross,” he told the General. “I don’t. I really don’t. In fact, I think you’re cute.”

He covered his mouth.

Girls think lizards are cute
.

He ran to the bathroom.

He looked at himself in the mirror.

He tried to look just at his face. Not the hair. Not the Ninja Turtle pajamas. Just his face.

It looked just the way it always did.

Except something about it was different. He rubbed his eyes. It was sort of … 
pretty
.

He studied his face. He had a girl’s nose!

As he looked at it from every angle, he became more and more sure of it.

“Oh my gosh,” he said. He bit his finger.

“Hi, Marvin,” Linzy said sleepily as she entered the bathroom.

Marvin could see her in the mirror. “Linzy, can I ask you something?” he said.

“Okay,” said Linzy. She yawned.

“Okay, look at me,” said Marvin. “This is real important.”

He knelt down and put his hand on her shoulder. One thing good about little kids—they always told the truth.

“Look at my face,” said Marvin. “Do I look like a girl?”

Linzy looked hard into his face. She touched his cheek. Then his ear. “Yes,” she said.

“What?”
exclaimed Marvin. “You’re crazy, Linzy! That’s stupid! You’re just a stupid little kid!”

A frown slowly formed on Linzy’s face.

“I’m sorry,” said Marvin. “I’m sorry, Linzy.”

But it was too late. She was crying.

“I’m sorry,” Marvin said again. He sighed. “Okay. Why do you think I look like a girl?”

“You look like a boy,” Linzy sobbed.

“Then why’d you say I looked like a girl?”

“I don’t know,” she said, still crying.

“You must have had a reason,” said Marvin. “Just tell me. I won’t get mad.”

“I have to go potty,” said Linzy.

Marvin waited while his sister used the bathroom. At least in that way, he knew he was still a boy.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he said when Linzy was through. “It’s just—” He stopped. “If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell?”

Linzy promised.

“I think I’m turning into a girl,” said Marvin.

Linzy’s mouth dropped open. “I always wanted a sister!” she exclaimed, instantly happy. “That’s what I wished for on my birthday cake. I blew out all the candles.”

Marvin laughed.

“You’ll be such a good sister, Marvin!” said Linzy. “We can play dress-up! And comb each other’s hair. And you can teach me how to put on lipstick.”

Marvin smiled at his sister. “We can have a tea party,” he said.

“Yes!” said Linzy. “And no boys allowed!”

Marvin laughed.

Linzy laughed too.

In the middle of the night, Marvin and Linzy sat on the bathroom floor giggling at each other.

“What happened to you?” Jacob asked when Marvin dragged himself downstairs in the morning.

“I didn’t sleep too good,” said Marvin.

He had stayed awake all night trying to kiss his elbow.

“More bad dreams?” asked his mother.

“I guess,” Marvin muttered. He poured himself a bowl of cereal.

“Your voice sounds funny,” said his mother. “Do you feel all right?”

“I think I’m getting a cold,” he said. He hoped that’s all it was.

Linzy smiled at him.

He stared down at his bowl of cereal. He had to hold his head up to keep from falling into it.

Ten minutes later Marvin was still staring at his bowl of soggy cereal.

“Pony or piggies?” asked his mother.

She was combing Linzy’s hair.

“Piggies,” said Linzy.

Marvin watched his mother give Linzy pigtails.

Girls are lucky
, he thought. They could wear their hair in lots of fun ways. Pigtails. Ponytails. Bangs.

He liked bangs.

No, I don’t!
he told himself.
I don’t like bangs. I don’t want bangs. I don’t want to wear my hair like a girl
. He didn’t know why he had thought such a thought.

It was just that girls had longer hair, he decided. That was a fact. So they could wear their hair in lots of different ways. That was all there was to it. It didn’t mean he wanted bangs.

Like the way girls dress. Boys just wore pants. But girls were lucky. They could wear anything! Pants or skirts or dresses. And they could wear sparkles on their clothes. Boys didn’t get to wear sparkles.

No! I don’t want to wear sparkles! I don’t want to wear a skirt or a dress! I like wearing pants
.

“Mar-vin!” called Jacob. “Stuart and Nick are here.”

“Oh my gosh,” said Marvin. He bit his finger.

He walked to school with Nick and Stuart. He tried to act normal.

Nick had a loose tooth.

“Watch this,” said Nick.

Nick opened his mouth wide. He pushed the tooth forward with his tongue, so that it almost lay down flat.

“Oh, gross!” said Marvin.

Nick and Stuart looked at him.

“I mean … cool!” said Marvin.

They got to school before class started.

“Look, there’s Patsy Gatsby,” said Nick.

Stuart laughed.

Patsy Gatsby was sitting alone playing jacks.

She was the weirdest girl in Marvin’s class. Even weirder than Casey. Sometimes all you had to do was say her name, Patsy Gatsby, and everyone would laugh.

But Casey was funny-weird, Marvin thought. Patsy Gatsby was sad-weird.

She was always so quiet. Like she was afraid of people.

She didn’t have any friends. No one ever talked to her.

Except Clarence. Clarence called her names. Worm-Face. Stupid-Head. Ugly. Double-Ugly. Stink-Girl.

Marvin watched her bounce the red ball, then pick up the little jacks.

He had never played jacks. It looked like a fun game.

“Where’s your football?” asked Stuart.

“Huh?” said Marvin.

“Duh,” said Nick.

Marvin suddenly remembered. He was supposed to bring his football.

“Now what are we going to do?” asked Stuart. “Play jacks with Patsy Gatsby?”

Nick laughed.

Marvin looked at Patsy.

Maybe she isn’t the weirdest girl in class
, he thought.
Maybe I am
.

He tried to think of another game to play. He didn’t want to let his friends down.

Then he got a great idea. He didn’t know why he had never thought of it before.

“Do you want to play hopscotch?” he asked.

Marvin sat at his desk in Mrs. North’s room.

He didn’t see what was so bad about hopscotch. He didn’t know why Nick and Stuart had laughed at him.

It takes a lot of skill to play hopscotch
, he thought.
Boys are just stupid!

No, I don’t mean that!
he quickly told himself.

But girls were smarter than boys. That was a fact. Everybody knew that.

Or did they?

He couldn’t remember if he used to think girls were smarter. Before he kissed his elbow.

He concentrated on his work.

He had been learning cursive writing.

He had the worst handwriting in the class. It was usually so bad, even he couldn’t read it.

That was because he always wrote so fast.

But now, instead of rushing, he wrote each letter slowly and carefully.

Mrs. North walked past his desk. “Very nice, Marvin,” she said.

Marvin smiled. It wasn’t so hard to write neatly, he realized. If you just took your time.

He wrote each letter just the way he had been taught.

Except he didn’t dot his
i
’s. Instead, over each letter
i
he drew a tiny heart.

He yawned.

He wished he could close his eyes for just a few seconds.

“Go to sleep, Marvin,” said a voice inside his head.

It was a girl’s voice.

“Close your eyes,” the voice said softly. “You’re halfway there.”

He rubbed his eyes.

“What’s wrong with turning into a girl?” asked the voice. “Girls are better than boys. Girls are smarter. Prettier. Braver. Girls can have ponytails. Pigtails. Bangs. Girls can wear sparkles on their clothes.”

Marvin’s eyes shut for a second, but he quickly opened them.

“Girls can do somersaults, Marvin. Your four-year-old sister can do a somersault, and you can’t.

“Girls can hang from the monkey bars upside down by their knees.”

Marvin had always wished he could do that.

“Girls can go into the girls’ bathroom,” said the voice. “Don’t you want to go into the girls’ bathroom? And hear all the secrets girls tell in there?”