Once upon a time, there was a girl named Lila.

Now, Lila wasn’t like the other girls. While they liked to prance around in frilly outfits, Lila preferred her play pants.

Lila liked to run around and fish and swim. The other girls were grossed out by the worms and insects Lila found so fascinating.

She liked to play dress-up and pretend. Sometimes she would pretend she was a princess or a mommy, but most often, she’d pretend she was a prince or a hero or a daddy.

Sometimes she would play dolls or house with the other girls, but most of the time, she preferred the company of the boys instead.

As Lila got older, and the other girls got into makeup and clothes and gossip, Lila found herself not wanting to have anything to do with them. She felt that they only cared about their appearance and didn’t like to talk about smart things like she did. She thought it made them silly and stupid.

Lila continued to be friends mainly with the boys, but sometimes she wished she had more female friends to talk with and share life with.

Lila made a friend named Arie. Arie liked to talk about the same things that Lila did. They would go on great quests and pretend they were men. But Arie went to a different school from Lila and Lila couldn’t spend as much time with Arie as she would have liked. It made her sad.

Lila still liked to dress like a boy. For Halloween, when the other girls preferred to be goddesses and fairies and cavewomen, Lila almost always picked a boy character to be, like a cowboy or a mad scientist or a famous composer from the 1800s.

The other girls laughed at her and called her names. They shunned Lila for wearing boy’s clothes and expressing her boy side. But she was too afraid to show her girl side. She thought if she did, she would become as silly as she thought the other girls were.

For dances, Lila found that she could dress up in big, fancy dresses and not be seen as stupid. She enjoyed this chance to express her girl side. However, she found herself wishing sometimes that she could wear a tuxedo like the other boys and come to the dance as a boy.

When Lila became an adult, she found herself wanting another girl to love. A girl who would see her as the boy she was, who would let Lila take care of her and nurture her like boys sometimes enjoy doing with girls.

Lila moved to a city where there were other girls who loved girls, as well as boys who love boys. She hoped she would meet a girl there for her to love.

Lila met all kinds of girls who loved girls there. Some of them liked makeup and dresses, but were very smart. Some of them only dressed as boys.

Being around girls who liked makeup and dresses and yet were smart helped Lila realize that just because you like makeup and dresses doesn’t mean you are stupid. So Lila decided to let herself dress like a girl when she felt like it.

However, she found that the fact that she wouldn’t dress only like a girl or only like a boy confused them and made her an outsider yet again.

But Lila felt that she shouldn’t have to choose to only dress one or the other. Some days she liked dressing girly. Some days she liked dressing like a boy. Some days she wore some girly clothes and some boy clothes.

So Lila searched in vain to find a girl to love. However, she found that all of the girls who loved girls wanted to be around other girls who loved girls. But Lila still preferred the company of boys, just like when she was little.

So Lila continued to look for a girl to love, both in her city as well as on the Internet.

One day, while on the Internet, Lila met a girl named Grace. She found out that Grace loved girls too, and that Grace also enjoyed being a boy sometimes.

Grace lived in a city very far away. However, Lila and Grace continued to talk online and on the phone. They became fast friends.

Soon, Grace and Lila fell in love with each other. Lila decided to take an airplane to go meet Grace.

When Lila arrived in Grace’s town, she had a big bunch of flowers for Grace, just like boys give to girls. Grace smiled as she received the big bundle of flowers from Lila.

Grace and Lila spent the weekend together. They talked and went to dinner and to the mall and spent time with each other. They often pretended that one or the other was a boy. Sometimes Lila played a gentleman, being very polite and courteous and chivalrous. Lila would wear a men’s hat called a fedora and would hold her arm out to escort Grace. Grace enjoyed being treated in such a special way.

Sometimes Grace played an old style of being a boy from 200 years ago named a “fop”. Fops are very fun loving and yet intellectual. They enjoyed wearing all the fancy clothes that men wore at the time. Grace would wear a tophat and a cloak and a vest and carry a walking stick. Lila thought Grace looked handsome in these clothes. Lila and Grace loved each other as both girls and boys.

Soon it was time for Lila to go home. This made both of them very sad, but Lila promised to Grace that they would see each other again. They kissed and Lila boarded the airplane to go home.

Many years have passed since that weekend that Lila and Grace met. Grace has moved to Lila’s town and they live together in an apartment. They love each other very much and still enjoy sometimes being boys and sometimes being girls.

The End.