A neighbor asked Caitlyn, “What were you for Halloween?”
“A princess. Fairy Princess!”
“How nice,” the neighbor replied.
“Yeah, she was really scary,” added Caitlyn’s uncle, which inspired chuckles from the rest of us.
Caitlyn was offended. “I was not!”
“You were!” he insisted. “Some people are afraid of clowns, I’m afraid of princesses.”
Caitlyn hasn’t quite figured out how to tell when people are teasing her, and she doesn’t know the cultural reference to coulrophobia. Someone else admitting a fear is apparently grounds for asserting superiority:
“I’m not afraid of anything!” she declared.
Everyone else thought this was hysterical, especially her parents. Caitlyn started to laugh a little, because everyone else was, but then moved to reinforce her claim, with only a slight huff in her voice:
“I’m only scared of scary things.”
Which apparently includes closets but not princesses.