What I Don't Know Can't Hurt You

Chapter Four

I thought it would be hard to find Taryn in a cafeteria of around 400 people, especially given her small size, but I was wrong. Leo and I spotted her lime green hair in seconds.

When we got to her table, we saw that she wasn't alone. She was sitting with a chubby, very androgynous kid who seemed to be drawing. The other kid had shoulder-length, reddish-brown hair, and wore a black hoodie and a white beanie with red and black polka-dots.

"Hey guys!" Taryn greeted us happily. "Oh, this is my best friend Avery! We went to middle school together! Avery, this is Quinn and Leo."

"Hi," Avery said. "I'm Avery, as you know. I'm genderfluid, could you use she/her pronouns today?"

"Oh, sure!" I agreed. Leo nodded.

"Thanks!" she replied. She picked up a marker and resumed her drawing. I glanced at her sketchbook. She was starting to shade a blue rose.

"That looks really cool," I remarked.

"Oh, uh, thanks," she stuttered. "It's just a little, like, 5-minute sketch, it's not very good."

"Yes it is! It's better than what I could do in an hour!" Leo added.

Avery smiled shyly and went back to her drawing.

"So how'd it go with Mrs. Jones?" Taryn asked. Avery looked up from her drawing.

"Did she get mad at you for telling her your name too?" she asked.

"Yeah," Leo said. "I'm trans, and my birth name is on the class list, and she got super mad and then Quinn started laughing and we got kicked out of class!"

"But the principal threatened to fire her, so that's good," I continued.

"Nice," said Avery. "I had her for first period, and when I introduced myself, the first thing I said was that I'm genderfluid and she made me sit down and wouldn't let me finish."

"I hope she does get fired," Leo stated.

We were interrupted by a loud "uuuuggggghhhhhh" from Taryn. We all looked at her.

"I forgot my lunch," she explained.

"Oh, you can share mine," I offered. "Here, have half my sandwich."

"Does this have meat on it? I'm a vegetarian."

"It might," I said. I pulled it apart. "Yeah, it does. I could pick it off?"

"No, it's fine. Do you have anything else?"

"I have an apple."

"Sure!" She held out her hand and I placed the apple in it. "Thanks!"

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away," Leo pointed out.

"What if you're allergic to apples?" Avery questioned.

"Then an apple a day most definitely does not keep the doctor away," I replied. "However it will keep away your happiness and well-being." I took a bite of my sandwich.

"Right, lunch!" Leo remembered. He opened his backpack and took out a lunch bag which quite oddly, was sparkly and had Disney princesses on it. Taryn and I burst out laughing. Avery looked up from her drawing and did the same.

"Oh my god, stop laughing! I accidentally brought my sister's lunch!" Leo protested.

"Oh, sure," Avery said sarcastically.

"Hey! I'll prove it! See, this sandwich has mustard! I don't like mustard, right Quinn?" He nudged me.

"Ugh, fine. Sadly, you don't like mustard," I said hesitantly.

Leo laughed triumphantly. Avery picked up a marker and drew a blue smiley face on his nose.

"Hey!"

"Don't worry, they wash off!"

Leo got up. He walked towards the bathroom, and unfortunately, he bumped straight in to Ryan Patterson. I could just barely hear their conversation.

"Where are you going?" Ryan asked condescendingly.

"To the bathroom," Leo answered.

"Well, you're going the wrong way, the girls bathroom is that way," Ryan said, pointing.

"Thanks," Leo said, and pushed Ryan, who lost his balance and landed on a nearby friend.

"Did you just fall down because a lesbian with pink hair pushed you?" his friend asked mockingly.

I laughed, and told Taryn and Avery what happened, since Taryn couldn't hear them and Avery wasn't really paying attention.

Leo came back to the table, angry, still with a smiley face on his nose.

"It won't come off," he grumbled.

"Oh," said Avery. "I must have used a permanent marker. Sorry!"

"Well, that's great," Leo deadpanned.

"No, no, I get permanent marker on my skin all the time! It comes off if you use rubbing alcohol!"

"Oh, well then, I'll just pull my handy bottle of rubbing alcohol out of my pocket!"

"Wait!" exclaimed Taryn. "I have hand sanitizer in my backpack! That has alcohol, right?"

"Well, I'll try it," said Leo.

I handed Taryn a napkin.

"Put the hand sanitizer on this," I suggested.

The hand sanitizer worked quite well.

"Thank god," Leo said.

We all went back to our lunches. I looked up and saw Ryan being teased by his friends for falling over. I felt a little bit sorry for him, but mostly happy. He deserved it, right?