Dysphoria

Chapter two: School

When I arrived at school, I got so many different looks. My annoying friend, Gabbi said that it looked great and that it went nicely with my facial structure. A kid that was in my kindergarten class, looked at me as if i'd gone man. Lincoln Bradley from Mr. Lyrez's class pointed at me and laughed. Not many kids gave me nice looks. The one's who did were the kinds of people that pretend to be nice, but when you really get to know them, they're actually total jerks and people that I was friends with in elementary school.

.....

As soon as I entered my homeroom, I felt the air drop. Everybody was staring at me. It was as if someone said "Okay, as soon as Vera come's into this room, let's all just stare at her." and everyone listened. Even Ms. Lane was staring at me. I just put my hand up and waved slightly then rushed over to my seat.

"So..." Ms. Lane began, "How was your afternoon yesterday everybody?"

"Good," was what most of the class replied with, but I just stayed silent and put my head down on my desk.

"Ahem, Vera?"

"Y-yes?" I sat up straight in my chair, "I'm sorry, were you asking me something?"

"I asked if you're alright, hon. You don't usually look this way."

"Um, yeah... I'm alright."

Ms. Lane just nodded and continued to speak to the rest of the students until finally, the bell rang.

.....

When I stepped into my biology class, the same thing happened as earlier. Everyone stared at me when I entered. Is it my hair? I took my seat in the back of the classroom, took out my biology book and waited for the class to be over. When the bell rang, I got up to leave, but something stopped me. I felt a small hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Kyle Maclendore staring at the floor. "Uh... you're Vera, right?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'm sorry- do you need me for something, do you need to borrow my note's or-"

"No, it's just... thank you, I guess," he said as if it was a question.

"For..?"

"Well, I mean your hair. Back in 7th grade everyone made fun of me for being short and having long hair, but now you're kind of the center of attention because your hair's now short."

"Are you thanking me for taking the attention away from you?"

"N-no! Not at all, what I was trying to say is that if people continue to grow their hair long or cut it short, then people might start to think it's normal for guys to have long hair and girls to have short hair, so eventually... it may become normalized. So, I'm thanking you for cutting your hair short."

"Oh- well, I mean... uh- nevermind." I smiled at him quickly and scrambled away.