Misgendered

Chapter 2

He knocked out my earbuds and I looked up at him from the ground. I studied him, he was well kept evident by his hair and clothes and was not too poor either. Books had fallen all around me although he didn't seem like the nerd type. We had both paused for a few moments seemingly with the same idea, to study one another. He gave me his hand and I took it. Brushing off my shorts and hands I said to him,

"Sorry that i didn't see you. Lost in my own world, ya know?" He shook his head,

"No, the fault is all mine. I wasn't watching where I was going and I took a sharp turn without knowing the layout of the school very well." I eagerly listened to every word he said soaking them in, his voice was so mesmerizing I couldn't say a word.

"Your acc-" I started,

"Do you like it? I've never been very different but here my accent sets me apart from everyone else. It's almost kind of cool!" he interrupted. I nodded. He obviously liked to talk as much as I did, which was nice.

"It was nice meeting you, even if I did end up on the ground." I giggled.

"It was. Oh, I never caught your name?" He said. "You can call me Kai." I started promptly before running back onto the track. I was suddenly in a warm embrace. So comforting, the hugger kept up with my running. They took one earbud out of my ear and put it in theirs running beside me. It was Zane. Of course it was Zane, he always knew when to show up and put his comfy arms around me. I stopped and sat on a bench on the far side of the track, he followed me. I looked at him and all that ran through my head was kiss him kiss him. I shook my head. I was knocked out of this dream when a paper ball hit my head. I grabbed it off the ground and unfolded it.

"Ohhhh look at you, the gender bender sitting with the hottest guy in school." I suddenly couldn't breath and I ran to Bailey. I know she wrote that. I finally slapped her.

"You can't hit a girl!", "He hit a girl," they said.

I felt trapped, either way I was trash to them, boy or girl.

'What is wrong with me, why can't I just be normal?!' I thought.

I waited until the teacher came and me and Bailey were escorted to the office. I waited for 10 minutes when Bailey was bright into the office, probably spilling lies about me. I looked across the room to see what looked like a girl walking into the room. She had short dyed red hair and dark green eyes and she sat down across from me.

And she started talking, "You're Kai right? The trans kid?"

"Yeah something like that, why?""Oh dont worry im not here to get o to you i'm actually non-binary, my names Honest, I go by They/Them."

"Nice to meet you Honest, i'm Ka- Well you already know my name so-"

"No, No, No, Do your introduction!""Well if you insist," I said, "My name is Kai, how are you?"

"I'm good, How about you?" they responded.

I was about to answer when the office attendant shouted at us to stop talking. It didnt take much longer for me to get pulled into the Vice Principal's office.

"So I want to get your side of the story, what made you hit Ms. Darin," she said.

"Bailey was- well has been bullying me and I guess today it just got to be too much, I understand if you want to suspend or expel me." I said.

"Well i admire your confession, but," there it was the contrary to my suffering, "If there was a problem with bullying you should have said something sooner, and not let it get to this point. In reaction to this conflict your Science hour will change and her P.E. hour will change and you will be suspended for three days."

"I'll go collect my stuff." was all I said before leaving.

The walk down the hallway was quiet and as miserable as ever just without people laughing and making fun of me, no i was just alone. I went into the gym and packed up my things and waved a quick goodbye to Zane before walking back to the office to wait for my dad.

"Alright, your dad's here Ms. Lee" said the office attendant.

I picked up my things and headed to the doors, I didn't even acknowledge my dad as I walked to the car.

"Now wait up there young lady." he shouted at me.

"Yes, dad?" I turned to him.

"You slapped a girl. Why?"

"She was being really transphobic and honestly just horrible, okay?" I said getting in the car not wanting to talk about it.

See my dad had always accepted me but never supported me or helped me. He just said "ok" and that was it. So it was no surprise that he too didn't want to jump to return the subject either.