Not so friendly this time

[After my go-round with wearing tights on stage, I didn't get any further opportunities at the camp.  At home, I was still facing the situation of not having any tights to wear that fit.]

My sister was still taking ballet classes, although from the chatter I heard between her and mom, she was losing interest in it.  She had also started to get careless with her belongings, like losing her ballet shoes.  A friend of hers had a spare pair that fit, so that saved the day.  But then at one point, she could not find her pink dance tights.  No, it wasn't me, honest!  Hahahaha.  Really, I'd have no interest in them, not only because of the color, but because they would barely fit (I tried them on once) and they had that back seam on the leg with extra reinforcement in the foot that looked awful to me.

My mother apparently had another pair of tights I'd long forgotten about and had missed during one of my earlier tights foraging expeditions.  They were a kind of darkish yellow tights, almost cadmium or ochre yellow color, and apparently in a rather generous size.  She gave them to my sister as a substitute for her missing ballet tights.  When I'd managed to casually observe this transaction, my attention perked up right away.  I noticed that when my sister tried them on, that they were a little long on her (she had to bunch them up above the legs).  So, once she replaced her ballet tights, these would be "free and clear."  My mother didn't wear tights anymore, just pantyhose.

The day finally came.  My sister quit ballet.  A couple of weeks later, the opportunity arose.  I was home alone and went to my sister's dresser.  Sure enough, there in the back of her tights drawer were the yellow tights.  I quickly snatched them, but before I closed the drawer, I noticed her leotard there.  I'd never tried it on before, but the thought finally came to me... about how cool it would be to wear the leotard over the yellow tights.  So I took those as well.

I was pleased to see the DANSKIN tag on the tights and knew they'd have good stretch.  Sure enough I was able to put them on and they actually fit all the way.  I then eagerly slipped on the leotard.  It was a tight fit, but the material was stretchy enough to let me get them on.  I trotted over into my parent's bedroom where they had a full length mirror, so I could check out my look.  Wow, this looked pretty wild!  And it certainly felt good.  I stood there admiring myself for a while, until...

Footsteps.  Coming up the stairs.  Oh no!  And then I heard my sister's voice calling my name.  I don't know how I missed hearing her downstairs.  She wasn't due back until later in the day.  Anyway, no time to think!  My parents have a bedroom and TV room adjoining with a bathroom in the middle.  There's a complete loop from the center hallway, so one could literally run in circles.  I couldn't tell which way my sister was heading.  I assumed she'd be going to her room, so I inched forward towards the TV room.

MISTAKE.

My sister saw something out of the corner of her eye.  She turned to look, and it was towards my way.  For a split moment, she saw me.  "Nyle! What are you--"  And in that instant, I had turned and ran as fast as I could, through my parent's bedroom and to the shared bathroom my sister and I used.  My sister was hot on my trail.  I made it into the bathroom and started closing the door, but my sister had reached the door at that point and began pushing on it to stay open.  "Nyle, are you wearing my leotard?!!"  My feet had trouble gripping the smooth floor, as they had a slick layer of nylon in between.  But thankfully I got the door closed.  My sister pounded on the door.  "Nyle, let me in!"  I couldn't think of what to say, but I had to say something.  "I was just curious and tried it on.  I'll take it off now, don't worry!"  She pounded on the door again, saying "open the door!"  I told her to wait and I'll give them back.  I quickly slipped off the leotard, then, in a tightly controlled fashion, I slowly opened the door, shoved the leotard out, and closed the door.  She picked it up and I could hear her back in her room, opening her dresser to put them back.  You can't see the hallway from there, so I opened the bathroom door and darted out back to my own room.  I didn't have a lock on it, so with lightning speed I zipped off the tights, tossed them in my closet, got my underwear and pants back on, then T-shirt.

When I emerged from my room, my sister was standing in the hallway.  I had expected she would next ask about the tights.  "What the hell were you doing wearing my leotard, Nyle?"  "Hey, I was just curious, OK?  I gave them back to you, no harm done."  "This was really weird.  And you stretched it out.  Please don't do this again!"  "Hey, I tried it on and saw what it was like.  Curiosity satisfied.  Don't worry, I won't do it again."  "OK."  "And Nina, please whatever you do, don't tell mom, OK?"  "I won't tell."  "You promise?"  "Yeah, I promise."

Disaster averted.  Apparently the yellow tights were close enough to skin tones that in all the flurry of running, my sister didn't notice.  She was far more focused on that weird sight of the leotard on me.  We never spoke of this again.  I never found out why she was so exasperated with catching me.  She was done with ballet, so what did she care about the leotard?  You'd figure she'd be more amused than anything else, a good excuse to laugh at me.  But, I guess it was this semi cross-dressing that was more of shock than a moment of comedy.  Thankfully, she put it behind us.  Maybe because it was rather disturbing?  The next day, everything was back to normal.  She didn't look at me in a funny way, nor ever poke fun like saying I wanted to be a ballerina.

Later on, at the proper time I slipped the tights back in her drawer.  About a month or so later when I was in her room and she was putting laundry away, I spied on the contents of her tights drawer, which was now really more a sock and panties drawer because she didn't wear tights any longer.  All that remained was the leotard and the pink ballet tights (she'd apparently found them at some point), with no sign of the yellow tights.  So, it was time... time to think about taking a bike ride to a dance wear store and buying some tights.