I should have known that I wouldn't be able to keep anything so big from Barbie. She and I had come home from Kmart on the exact same day, and had been cousins and good friends ever since. As much as I liked Ken, it would have been foolish of me to let him ever get between the bond that Barbie and I shared. But I'd never known a doll quite like him before, and every time I thought that I should try to forget him, I couldn't.

Barbie pulled me aside for another chat not long after Ken had made his startling revelation. While the other girls played around with Ken and his pull cord, Barbie and I went behind the case to talk.

"Francie, didn't I warn you about Ken?" she said, not quite scolding, but not as kindly as she usually spoke. "It's not a good idea for you to be spending so much time with him."

I lowered my gaze. "I'm sorry, Barbie, I just can't help it. Ken has become one of my very good friends, and since Allan went away, it's nice to have a friend like Ken."

"But Ken isn't just a friend to you, is he Francie?"

I knew that Barbie was smart, but I didn't expect to be confronted with the truth, just like that. If dolls were capable of shedding tears, I would have done so right then.

"Oh, please forgive me, Barbie, I didn't mean to be so shady and underhanded." I looked to her, hoping she could read the remorse in my brown painted eyes. "I didn't mean to fall in love with Ken, honest, it just happened that way. I know it's wrong of me, I know that he's your boyfriend, but I couldn't help myself. I've always wanted to know true love, and I guess I just thought that maybe—"

"Francie." Barbie's voice softened as she placed a manicured hand on my shoulder. "You're only sixteen. You're too young to know what true love is."

That news was the worst that I'd ever heard, worse than Ken confessing his affections for me. I was too young to know what true love was? If that was the case, than I was doomed, I'd never know. I was created to be sixteen, and I'd be sixteen forever. I was created to never know true love, and yet I had tried to find it in my cousin's boyfriend. How could Barbie ever forgive me?

"I'm so sorry, Barbie!" I pleaded. "I had no idea! I didn't mean to cause you any harm…"

"You're young, after all, I can't expect you to have known that." She withdrew her hand and looked me straight in the eyes. "Just stay away from Ken, and I'm sure things will be just fine."

I nodded, just because I felt like it was the thing to do. I didn't want to never spend any time with Ken—he had filled a void that Allan had left when he went away—but I didn't want to hurt Barbie further. I told myself that I would play dress-up with the girls that night, and I would no longer take walks, listen to records, or play my go-go guitar with Ken ever again.

But I didn't want to hurt him, either.

After several nights of playing dress-up and avoiding Ken, I just couldn't take it anymore. I got out Allan's go-go guitar and sat behind the doll case where I could be alone. Playing dress-up was kind of fun, but it quickly lost its appeal. All I could think about were all of the fun things that Ken and I had done together, and how much I missed dancing with him.

As I sat back there, strumming on the go-go guitar, all I could think about poor Skipper, and how lonely it must have been to be stuck at her age forever. At least at sixteen, you can think that you've found true love, but at ten, all you can do is play all day and fantasize that someday you'd grow up. It made me feel a bit better to know that I had been made into a Francie and not a Skipper, but I still felt overwhelmed with guilt and misery for even getting myself into such a mess.

Somebody came around to my side of the case, but I didn't even bother to look up from my go-go guitar. It was probably just Skipper, anyways, showing me just how grown-up she looked in Barbie's dress or Midge's shoes. As soon as they sat down beside me, I knew that it was Ken.

"Francie." He spoke my name, but I didn't respond. "Francie, what's happening?"

I felt so bad for the way that I was treating him, but I couldn't get Barbie's words out of my head. Finally, I looked to him and said, "I'm only sixteen, Ken, I'm too young for love."

He seemed confused. "Who told you that?"

I didn't want to tell him that was Barbie, so I attempted to avoid the question. "It's true, though, isn't it?"

"No." Ken looked me directly in the eyes. "Sixteen is plenty old to love somebody. Francie, you're a nice girl with a great big heart and a groovy disposition. Don't let other dolls push you around or tell you what you are and aren't capable of." He smiled at me sadly and the tapped the tip of my vinyl nose. "You never speak badly about anybody, and I'd say that proves that you're not too young for love."

Smiling slightly, I wanted to cry again, not because I was hurting people, but because Ken was so sweet and reassuring.

"Oh Ken, I'm sorry that I've been ignoring you, I just thought that I'd been neglecting Barbie and the other girls and that I should spend some time with them."

"Or maybe Barbie told you to leave me alone? Maybe Barbie told you that you were too young for love?" He smiled the slightest bit. "Don't let her bother you, Francie. What Janet makes happen is purely make-believe. Barbie is pretty, and she's a nice girl, but she doesn't have anything on you. You're boss, Francie, and I love you."

Rather uncertainly, I replied, "I love you too, Ken." As horrible as I was being, I felt rather liberated in finally speaking my feelings. Though I was being double-faced and terrible and all of that, I didn't really care. If Ken didn't think that I wasn't too young for love, than that must have meant that he liked me as I was, and that I didn't need to be older to be deserving of his affections.

Ken smiled beyond the limitations of his molded grin. "So you finally admit it, huh?"

I looked away, blushing a color that surely no Francie doll had ever worn before. Ken took my hand in his and pat it comfortingly with his other hand.

"And there's nothing wrong with it, Francie, so don't let anybody tell you otherwise."

I would like to say that everything was better from there and that was where the story ended, but that was not so. My relationship with Barbie was still strained, and I still felt guilty for loving Ken. I was just so confused; I didn't know what I was supposed to do or how I was supposed to feel. As the days and nights went by, I grew increasingly unhappy and trapped feeling. I was being pulled in two directions and knew that it was only a matter of time before something drastic happened. I was right about the something drastic, but it took a form that was completely unexpected.

One sunny day, Mr. and Mrs. Crawford took Janet and Mitzi to the park for a play day. Both girls packed up their doll cases and brought all of their Mattel dolls along. The two children set up under a tree and played a very strange game in which Ken and Barbie were singers and Mitzi's Ken was the greedy manager. Midge, Stacey, and Skipper, and Mitzi's dolls played the roles of fans, while I was cast as the manager's girlfriend. After a tiring day, the Crawfords called to the girls, telling them that it was time to pack up and go home.

"Just a minute!" Janet called back, hoping to buy more time.

"You can finish up at home. Now, come on girls!" Mrs. Crawford was always a very punctual woman.

"Coming!" The girls hurriedly began packing up their doll cases, searching the area for anything that they had missed.

"I think that's it," said Mitzi, standing.

"Me too. Let's go!"

As the girls ran off, they didn't even notice that they had left me in the grass, dressed in Hi-Teen, one of my favorite ensembles. At first I thought that they would discover their mistake and come back for me, but as the park grew vacant and the sky grew dark, I knew that I had been left there and that nobody would come rescue me.

I tried to keep my head and thought that I might walk home, but when I realized that I didn't know how to get there, an overwhelming fear and sadness fell over me. I'd never been on my own in a strange environment before, and I had never ever before been abandoned. Would they ever come back for me? Would a different child pick me up come morning and take me home? Would I ever see my friends again? As I tried to decide what to do, I wished that dolls could cry. Janet always seemed to feel better after she cried about something, and it was painful being incapable. I felt so sad and lonely, but I didn't know what to do.

Suddenly, it struck me to call out for help. Getting to my feet, I called as loud as I could, "Hello? Is anybody out there? Anybody? I'm lost, and I need help getting home!"

Suddenly, a large shadow loomed over me and something huge crushed the grass beside me. I tried to run away, but a large adult hand soon grabbed me and lifted me up. I was soon staring at the face of a strange old lady. She smiled a mouth full of gold, yellow, and blackened teeth, and said in a deep, husky voice, "What's wrong, my dear? Why are you calling for help?"

"I've been abandoned," I explained. "The little girl who owns me left me here, and I don't know how to get home."

"Hush, hush little one," she cooed, stroking my hair carefully with one finger. "If you've been abandoned, I don't think that they want you at home."

"But they must! I have friends there—two cousins, a-and Ken, and Allan's go-go guitar!"

She chuckled throatily, emitting a warm, sour wind. "And so you do, but you weren't left here by accident, no, no. You must have been left here because your little girl didn't want you anymore."

Suddenly, a strange thought entered my mind. Had little Janet Crawford found out about me and Ken, and was this her way of punishing me? It seemed so unreal and far-fetched, but there I was talking to an old lady, me, a doll. I felt so awful that before I knew it, I was spilling out my heart to the haggard old lady.

"She must have found out about me and Ken!" I explained. "I fell in love with my beautiful cousin's boyfriend, and then I didn't listen to Barbie when she told me that I was too young for love and that I should leave Ken alone! Oh, no wonder she abandoned me! I've been such a naughty doll!"

"There ,there, little one," the old woman said, lifting my chin gently with a wrinkled finger.

"No, it's true, it's true! Oh—" I turned, looking towards the grassy ground. "I wish I were a human! Then I could grow up and fall in love without having to feel guilty all of the time! I could actually be able to bend and to dance, and to cry…"

The haggard woman's eyes lit up. "What's that you say? You'd like to be a real live girl?" When I didn't respond, she continued. "I can make you into a real girl."

Shocked, I turned to her, eyes wider than they had been painted. "You can turn me into a girl?"

"If that's what you wish. Just say it again, and I can do it in a snap."

I stared at her incredulously. She could turn me, a doll, into a real live human girl? At first I thought that I must have been crazy for saying anything about being human, but then I realized how good it would be. I wouldn't be around to hurt Barbie or Ken, and I could move, cry, and grow up and find true love. It seemed almost too good to be true! Could she really do it?

"Can you really…?"

"Just say the words, my dear."

Excitedly, I parted my pink lips to speak, but she put her fingertip over my mouth to silence me. "I'll turn you into a human under one condition: you agree to be my daughter once you are human."

I nodded. "Yes, of course!" I'd never had a mother before, and it was just another thing I often dreamed of having.

She smiled nicely. "Alright then. Tell Mama dear what you want."

"I want to be a human!"

Before I knew it, she was letting go of me and I was standing on the ground, towering over her. Unsure if it was real, I looked down and saw two human feet wearing hot pink flats and two human hands, no nail polish. I twirled and jumped, and then I laughed.

"Oh… Oh Mama, this is wonderful! I don't know how to thank you."

My new mother, who was now several inches below me, smiled graciously and said, "Just be my obedient, loving daughter and that will be payment enough."

"Oh Mama, thank you! Thank you!" I danced all around, hopping and jumping, and bending my waist and knees. What a feeling to be human! What a feeling indeed!

Mama smiled up at me, her Indian corn teeth sparkling. "And what is your name, my child?"

"Francie Fairchild."

Her smile grew larger. "I like that. It's pretty." She took my new, smooth hand in her frail wrinkled one and said, "Come along, my daughter. Let's go home."

Following Mama home, I didn't bother looking back. I was a real live girl, now. I had a mother, a place to live, and someday I would grow up and find true love.