A short while later, Mum entered and said “Good morning girls… I hope you have a nice sleep!” in an altogether too chirpy tone as she opened the curtains and flooded the room with light.
She made us wear our nighties whilst we ate breakfast, then announced it was time to get ready for school. Peter asked if we had to dress as girls.
“Well, since you’ve both been good girls… so far,” she said, looking at each of us sternly. “I’ll let you go to school as boys today.” she replied, emphasising ‘today’.
This was a great relief for my brother. I however knew she wouldn’t really make us go to school dressed as girls. As we’d done at bedtime, we removed our nappies and dumped them in the bucket. Then mum told us to put our ‘knickers’ on, before coming to her room. “They’re in your top drawer,” she said.
Of course, we protested, but the threat of going to school in gingham dresses swiftly assured our compliance. Between our beds was a chest of drawers, and on opening the top drawer we found a host of frilly knickers. To add insult to injury, those on my side of the drawer had my name embroidered on them, and Peter’s all had ‘Peter’ embroidered on the front. There’s no question about who they belong to, I thought as I picked up the top pair. “Are they all pink?” I said.
“Looks like it.” Peter replied. “Better than a dress though,” he said as he stepped into a pair.
Wearing only our knickers, we went to my mother’s bedroom where she gave us our normal school pants and sweatshirts. “Now you’re not to get dirty boys…” she said. “…otherwise you’ll have to wear your other uniforms tomorrow.”
“OK.” we moaned in unison.
“Oh and before you go downstairs…” mum said as we shuffled out of her room, “…can you both put a clean nappy and a pair of rubbers under your pillows ready for tonight?”