Leslie Daniels didn't hate his name, but it certainly wasn't helpful at school. It's a family name, the name of his great grandfather, who he’d never met, but there were always cracks about his name from some of the crueler kids, and with Leslie’s long hair and thin body he had been mistaken for a girl a few times over his life, particularly by adults, although never on a scale of this nature. 

 

Usually, he preferred to go by Les. Not really an improvement, but it was better in his mind. Leslie always spent his summers at camp, and this year was no exception. At fifteen years old now, he was heading for his last year of summer camp, since Leslie ages out at the end of the summer. Next year he’d need to get a summer job, but at least he had one last hurrah. Leslie’s parents dropped him off bright and early at the pickup location, a local school parking lot, before they had to go to work and he dropped his bag with all the other boys' bags before he went up to one of the directors who was, naturally, directing campers to their correct bus.

 

"Name?" the director, a woman, asked as Leslie approached.

 

"Leslie Daniels," he said.

 

"Bus Two." she said, directing him to a bus. 

 

The buses were identical except for a number plastered in the side window that identified it as either Bus One or Bus Two.

 

Leslie climbed onto the bus and went straight to the back, sitting near the window. He waited for some other campers to arrive, but because he was so early, no one would be showing up for a while, so Leslie elected to take a nap, given that he was up much earlier than he’d have liked. Soon, he fell asleep, sprawled across the seat, and though he didn’t know it, would wake up to a setting that was not expecting to wake up in.

 

As he slowly became aware of the murmur of activity and the bus chugging along, Leslie groggily woke up and took stock of his surroundings, noticing that the bus didn't smell like sweat and cologne, like it usually did, it smelled more like... perfume? He brushed his hair out of his face and listened to the noises coming from around him as he stared at the ceiling. 

 

Instead of arguments about sports, dirty jokes and discussion of girls, Leslie heard pop music, chatter about clothes and boys and his eyes slowly widened as the realization of what had happened dawned on him.

 

"I'm on the wrong bus... but that lady told me to...." he thought as he sat up in his seat.

 

Leslie was ripped out of his thoughts by a light, friendly tap on the shoulder. Leslie turned to see that a girl around his age had moved from the seat across into the seat next to the one Leslie was occupying.

 

"Hi, I'm Kendra." she said, extending her hand, which sported well-manicured, polished nails, compared to Leslie’s bare, ragged and dirty nails. “What’s your name?”

 

"Leslie..." he squeaked. He had to get out of there.

 

"You must've been tired, you slept through almost the entire bus ride." Kendra said.

 

But Leslie had started to ignore her at this point, because he had to find a counselor and explain what happened. Leslie went to stand up, but as he did, the bus stopped. A quick glance out the window showed that they’d arrived at the camp, the girl’s camp.

 

"Okay girls, we're here. Welcome to camp!" a cheery woman exclaimed from the front of the bus.

 

Leslie scowled and sat back down in his seat. With everyone else disembarking the bus, it would take some time to get the counselor alone.

 

“See you later, Leslie,” Kendra smiled as she grabbed her purse off her seat and headed towards the front of the bus, grouping up with two other girls and leaving with them. Meanwhile, Leslie sat back while everyone got off the bus, waiting until he knew he’d be the last one and approached the counselor, who was checking off a list on a clipboard as each camper passed.

 

"Excuse me," he said.

 

"What is it, sweetie?" she asked.

 

"Uh, you see... this is a little awkward but... I'm at the wrong camp. I'm supposed to be at the boy's camp." Leslie said.

 

"Name?" she asked.

 

"Leslie Daniels," he replied.

 

"Nope, we have you down here on our roster." she said, checking it off.

 

"But I'm a boy." Leslie insisted.

 

"Well, you're not dressed very girly but I wouldn't go that far," the counselor remarked.

 

"No, you don't understand..." Leslie tried to explain.

 

“I’m sorry, whatever the problem is, it’ll have to wait until later,” the counselor said, and started to walk away.

 

She’d been called away to where they were unloading the bags, and went over there to supervise. 

 

“This is my chance!” Leslie thought. “If they see my bag filled with my clothes, they’ll have to believe me!”

 

Leslie excitedly waited as bags were taken from the underside compartment of the bus and claimed until eventually, there were no bags left to be claimed. Leslie sighed in defeat and sulked.

 

"Of course, the bag probably made it to the right camp," he muttered.

 

Leslie kicked dirt in frustration as he tried to figure out some other way to explain his situation, preferably not to that flighty, oblivious counselor, except from the looks of it, she seemed to be running things, making her the highest authority. Noticing Leslie off to the side, the head counselor approached him and flipped a page on her clipboard.

 

"Okay, Leslie Daniels, you're in Cabin 8 with... Kendra, Annie and Nora." the head counselor, who Leslie had heard another counselor call Carla, said, pointing towards the group of girls.

 

"Please listen to me.” Leslie begged. “I'm not a girl. I don't belong here. I'll prove it!"

 

Leslie couldn’t think of any other way to prove his gender, since all of his belongings were in his missing suitcase, except for one, getting ready to drop his pants to make his point. Carla quickly grabbed his arm.

 

"Young lady! That is not appropriate! The roster said you had behavioral problems, but I didn't expect you to be this bad." she exclaimed. "Report to your cabin!"

 

Leslie debated talking back, but decided it was smarter to give up for the moment, and just listen to what she said. He had no cell phone, the camps had a strict no-technology rule, and he knew that she wasn't going to budge, that was clear enough from her refusal to see reason, especially if Leslie deigned to cause problems. Although it made Leslie feel even worse about this predicament.

 

“Am I really that feminine looking that no one would notice I’m not a girl?” Leslie wondered.

 

Leslie resolved to see if he could use the camp’s telephone later to call his parents and explain the problem. They'd surely get him out of this crazy place once they knew.

 

For the time being, Carla led him to Cabin 8, where he walked in and was introduced to not only Kendra, from the bus, but two other girls, Annie, a short, black haired girl and Nora, a tall redhead, who was at least a head taller than him. Upon seeing him walk in, Kendra rushed over and embraced Leslie in a quick hug.

 

"Leslie! I was hoping you'd be in our cabin!" Kendra exclaimed. "Where's your bag?"

 

"It... got lost," he said.

 

“I’d better not bring them into the know about the mistake, they probably wouldn’t take too kindly to having a boy in their cabin.” Leslie thought.

 

"Oh no!" Annie shouted. “What will you wear?”

 

"That's alright, we can lend you stuff until it gets here." Kendra said. “Right girls?”

 

Annie and Nora both nodded affirmatively.

 

"Well, at least you'll have your cabin shirt." Nora said, pointing to the remaining bunk, which had a baby blue t-shirt sitting on top of it. One that he suddenly noticed the three girls were wearing as well, in contrast to his rock band t-shirt and jean shorts.

 

"Great..." he muttered.

 

"Come on, try it on!" Kendra said.

 

"Oh, you see, I don't really want to right now..." Leslie said, not wanting to take his shirt off in front of them for fear of exposing his lack of breasts.

 

"There's nothing to be ashamed of." Annie said as she surprised Leslie by grabbing his shirt from behind and pulled it up over his head.

 

“Stop that!” Leslie shouted as he tried to grab his shirt, but it was too late.

 

His bare chest was completely exposed, and although he immediately covered up his chest, he expected the girls to riot and go straight for Carla, but they just stood there quietly until Nora spoke up.

 

"That's what you were afraid of? That you're flat-chested?" Nora asked, a quizzical look in her eye.

 

"It's not a big deal, Leslie. Some people are just late bloomers, though you probably should have worn a bra." Kendra said with a slight giggle.

 

"I..." Leslie started.

 

"It's alright, you can borrow one of mine." Annie said, walking to her bed, and pulling out a pink bra that she handed to Leslie. “I’m pretty small in that department so it should fit fine.”

 

Leslie looked over the bra for a minute, a girl had just handed him her bra, but instead of the fun and sexy moment he assumed it would be, it was a mundane experience. He sheepishly tried to put it on the best he could, managing to succeed after a few moments and a little help from Annie. Then, Leslie put on the shirt, which proudly emblazoned the words "Cabin 8" across his chest.

 

“Could this day get any worse?” Leslie wondered.

 

"Campers!" came Carla's voice over the loudspeaker. "Report to the signpost for orientation!"

 

"Come on!" Kendra shouted as she grabbed Leslie's arm and dragged him out of the cabin.

 

A few minutes later, Leslie found himself sitting in a circle, surrounded by the girls of Cabin 8 and also the other cabins as Carla began to explain the rules of the camp.

 

"First and foremost, no technology. But of course you are allowed to call your parents for any reason if you need to. But you can't monopolize the phone, we only have the one." Carla started. “Try to keep your conversations short enough so everyone has a chance.”

 

Leslie sat there as she explained everything, from camp etiquette, to what time lights out was, though he was hoping that he'd be gone before he'd have to heed any of those rules.

 

"We're going to have a lot of fun this year, girls. Lots of activities, and hopefully forging lifetime friendships." Carla finished. "You can go back to your cabins now. Dinner is at 6 tonight, so make sure you don't miss it."

 

The campers began to disperse back to their cabins, but Leslie quickly ran up to Carla as she started walking away.

 

"Excuse me, I need to use the phone," he said.

 

"For what?" she asked. Clearly his earlier outburst hadn’t endeared him to Carla.

 

"To call my parents... my bag went missing." Leslie replied, hoping she'd be more inclined to let him use it out of pity.

 

"Alright. It's in the main office." Carla rolled her eyes as she pointed towards a large cabin-like building.

 

Leslie ran inside and asked the person inside to use the phone, who handed him the corded receiver. He dialed up his home number, and got an answering machine.

 

“Of course, they're still at work...” Leslie griped.

 

Then he tried their cell phones, and no one picked up. Then, not even the few neighbors that he knew phone numbers for were answering.

 

“Was there a local outage or something?”

 

Eventually, another girl walked in to use the phone in the midst of his quest. She was patient at first, but after a few minutes of crossing her arms and tapping her foot, she decided to clear her throat and tapped Leslie on the shoulder.

 

"Can I use it now?" she asked.

 

"Hold on, I'm still using it!" Leslie replied.

 

"You've been using it for a half hour, it's my turn!" she said.

 

The woman inside the main office turned from her paperwork to Leslie and the girl.

 

"Young lady, you have been monopolizing it. Let her use it." she said. "You can try again tomorrow."

 

Leslie wanted to snap back once again, but he also didn't want to get in trouble, because if what Carla said was true about the other Leslie’s behavioral issues, that would make it less likely that he'd be able to convince anyone of his identity, if they thought he was just a badly behaved girl causing trouble for trouble’s sake.

 

"...Fine." he said, handing the receiver to the girl.

 

Leslie dejectedly walked back outside. As he did, a group of girls rushed past him heading towards the mess hall and he was knocked bottom first into a dirty puddle. He stood up, and groaned, realizing that his shorts were ruined. He rushed back to Cabin 8 to try to wash them in the bathroom sink, along with his underwear, which the puddle had soaked through to. Rushing in, he brushed past the girls of Cabin 8 who soon knocked on the door.

 

"Leslie?" Leslie heard Annie’s voice through the door.

 

"I'm busy!" he shouted.

 

"We saw your shorts... Kendra has a pair you can borrow. And I have a pair of underwear if you need." Annie said.

 

Leslie realized that even if he washed them and got the mud out, he'd have to wait for his shorts to dry anyway, and he reluctantly walked to the door.

 

"I'll take both." he sighed.

 

Leslie wrapped a towel around his waist and opened the door, getting a pair of pink panties, to match the bra, and a pair of denim short shorts to replace his shorts from Annie, who passed them to him.

 

Leslie changed into them and emerged from the bathroom, his sneakers and socks being the only vestige of male clothing he had left.

 

Leslie had never been a very hairy person to begin with, so with the girl's shorts, and the natural lack of hair on his legs and face, he really did look like just another girl at the camp. He grimaced as he lay on his bunk, realizing that this was turning out to be a long day and his time at the camp currently had no end in sight.

 

About twenty minutes later, Kendra, Nora and Annie announced that they were heading to the mess hall for dinner. Leslie’s stomach rumbled and he realized that he hadn't eaten all day, except a small breakfast bar right before he got on the bus, and reluctantly joined them. They went to the mess hall, which, for a summer camp, was surprisingly nice. It was very roomy with a lot of spread out tables, and was pretty clean. Leslie got his food and followed his cabin-mates to a table populated with a few other cabins of girls and quietly started eating.

 

"What are you looking forward to the most, Kendra?" Nora asked in between bites of her food.

 

"Swimming, mostly. It's so great to just go out into the lake and swim, it's always been my favorite part of camp." Kendra replied. "What about you?"

 

"Nature hikes and bird watching." Nora smiled, staring out the window at the nearby forest. "Annie?"

 

"Ugh, I hate all this outdoorsy stuff. I'll stick to just the arts and crafts stuff. My mom always likes it when I make her picture frames anyway." Annie giggled.

 

"What about you, Leslie?" Kendra asked, and when he didn’t respond immediately. “Leslie?”

 

"Oh, uh... I don't know, a little of everything I guess." Leslie muttered as he kept eating, eager to remain outside of the conversation.

 

"You’re totally going on a hike with me." Nora said. "You'll love it. A good nature walk is good for the soul."

 

"I guess we'll see..." he weakly smiled and continued eating.

 

Carla walked in and whistled extremely loudly, which got everyone's attention.

 

"Alright, campers! The activity schedule has been posted, you'll get to see what we're doing every day for the next month, plus any extra activities like the camp musical." Carla said.

 

"Musical? Ugh." Leslie thought to himself.

 

Leslie was determined to get out of there before they even held auditions. The rest of dinner went about the same way as it had started, with idle chatter about what their plans for camp were, and the girls of Cabin 8 went back to their cabin, while Leslie approached Carla again, hoping to explain the situation better than he did earlier.

 

"Carla?" he asked.

 

"Yes, Leslie?" she replied, looking up from her clipboard.

 

"Uh, I know I said this before, but there's been some sort of mix up. I'm not a girl, I'm a boy. Have been since I was born. If you could just call the boy's camp, they're probably looking for me." he innocently smiled. "I don't want to cause trouble but, I just don't belong here."

 

"Leslie, you have to stop with this. I know you don't want to be here, but I'd say make the best of it, because you're here until camp ends." Carla said.

 

"No, you really don't get it. This is a mix-up, there must be two Leslie Daniels or something, but I'm not a girl. For all we know, she's at the boy's camp in my place!" Leslie exclaimed.

 

"Give it a rest already! I'm not going to say it again, get used to being here, and no amount of trying to convince me that you're a boy is going to work." Carla sternly said.

 

"This woman really is dense, isn't she?" Leslie thought to himself.

 

Leslie reasoned that he’d probably be better off trying to convince his cabin-mates, but he doesn't want to open that can of worms, since they might not be as forgiving as he wishes they'd be. What if they didn't take too kindly to having spent the day with a boy who didn't belong? They seemed nice, but so had a lot of the guys he’d met at the boy’s camp in previous years who’d either bullied or pranked him repeatedly.

 

Dejected, Leslie went back to Cabin 8, and found the girls gathered around on the floor talking.

 

"Hey, Leslie! Come on, join us, we're talking about our favorite bands," Annie said.

 

"Maybe later." Leslie said, climbing into his bunk.

 

"Oh, and I have a spare pair of PJ's you can borrow." Nora said. "I left it in your part of the dresser."

 

"Thanks." he sighed.

 

Leslie laid down under the covers until the other girls fell asleep. Then he quietly got out of bed and walked over to the dresser, opening it to find a pink nightgown.

 

"Ugh. Of course..." he grimaced. "This just keeps getting worse."

 

Leslie sighed and stripped down to just the panties and changed into the nightgown. He climbed back into bed and tried to fall asleep, however, Leslie just couldn't get comfortable in the nightgown, since the material was very different from what he had worn before and was rubbing strangely against his skin.

 

After getting frustrated with his inability to sleep, Leslie decided to go into the bathroom and took a look at himself in the mirror. He hated to admit it, but dressed as he was, he looked like a girl. Leslie quietly and slowly left the bathroom, and climbed back into bed, eventually falling asleep.