Secrets and School

Chapter 5

I was still confused about the phone number comment as we walked to English together. We sat, you guessed it, at the back of the room again. I see Declan sat across the room from us. Great. He had large amounts of paper in his open bag on the floor. Slowly, he pulled a couple of pieces out and scrunched them up into a ball, which he promptly threw in our direction. Narrowly missing us. I sighed for probably the millionth time as the bell rang, starting the class.

The teacher, Mrs Honey, was nice but wasn't really able to control the class. She would set a task and would end up getting distracted by the students. Sometimes it would be a full class debate, sometimes it would be a small group having a conversation with her and the rest of the class talking in small groups. Basically, hardly anyone did any work. Zoe and I did complete our work and then had a full on conversation. Oh, whilst having paper thrown at us, luckily almost every ball missed.

"So what made you move to this dump?" Zoe asked, as she glued loose pieces of work into her book.

"I was getting badly bullied at my other school for... reasons, and because of that reason my brother and sister were bullied too. We were all happy to move and have a fresh start."

"What was the reason for you being bullied then?" Zoe asked casually as she stuck the last piece of paper in.

"I would rather not tell you." I say as I look down at my closed book.

"I understand, but if you do eventually want to tell me then I promise to keep it a secret and not judge you for it." She said as she closed her book. "Can I make some guesses?"

"Go for it." She wouldn't guess I am transgender, right?

"You murdered someone and their brother bullied you for revenge?" She said, clearly joking. I shook my head. "You are gay?" I shook my head again. "Good, that means I still have a chance at dating you." She laughed. "You wet yourself?" I shook my head again. "Well I am out of ideas." She huffed.

Zoe turned to put her book away in the box. A ball of paper came flying and hit her directly in the face. I stood up, seeing red. I stormed over to Declan. "What's your fucking problem? You got Daddy issues, small dick, what? What is it? Fucking answer me." I shoved him off his chair. The room had gone dead silent now, everyone looking in my direction and for once I didn't care. "I see you like balls Declan. Do you fuck other guys behind your girlfriend's back? Have you told her that you are gay yet?" Some students started giggling at Declan, it felt good having people on my side for once.

"Declan likes dick. Declan likes dick." The class started chanting, clearly pleased the tables had turned. Declan remained on the floor. I went back to my space grabbed my bag and Zoe's bag.

"I am not gay." Declan said as he got up. The class ignored him and continued to chant away. The teacher was trying to quieten the class down but she too was ignored. I clung on to Zoe's hand and pulled her out of the classroom door.

"Where are we going?" She asked with a smile on her face, clearly happy about the previous event.

"Luckily for me due to my 'reason' I am allowed to go to Miss Smith's office whenever I want, and I am sure she won't mind you being there." I explained, still skipping over the transgender thing. I knocked on the office door. Miss Smith opened it.

"Jake? Is everything alright? Come in." I walked in with Zoe.

"This is Zoe, is it alright if she stays?" I asked as we sat down and Miss Smith closed the door.

"Of course that's fine. Why are you here?" She asked sitting at her desk.

"Zoe is getting bullied and I am slightly as well but Zoe is getting it far worse than me."

"Who is bullying you, Zoe?" She asked, deeply concerned.

"Charlie White and Declan Crow. Mostly Declan, Charlie just normally goes along with it." Zoe said, as she looked down at her lap. Miss Smith was typing away on her computer, probably looking up the boys' profiles.

"Okay, I will sent out an email to their form tutor. I might be we end up splitting up the two and putting them in separate forms, because at the minute they are in the same form. But I don't know if that will help matters or make them worse." Miss Smith said, conflicted. "I will have to think this one through, I will have made a choice by the end of the week and something will be done. Jake have you had any issues with your 'situation'?" She asked glancing at Zoe, not sure if she knew what my 'situation' was.

"No issues with that so far." I pointed at Zoe discreetly and shook my head, indicating that she doesn't know the whole 'trans thing'. Miss Smith nodded, understanding what I was saying.

"I will let you two go to lunch early. There is only ten minutes of lesson left so there isn't any point going back, especially if Declan is there. Let me write you both a note so you don't get told off for having lunch earlier." She scribbled down two notes and handed one each to us. "You both are welcome back anytime if you need me for any reason." She dismissed us from her office and we made our way out.

"I need to pee, so I am going to go to the toilet and then I will meet you in the hall if you want." I said as we walked down the hallway, stopping at the toilets.

"I want to take you somewhere, so I will wait out here for you." Zoe said as she leaned against the wall next to the boys' toilets.

"Okay be back in a second." I walked into the toilets. Empty, thank goodness. I walked over to a urinal and emptied my bladder. I had finally got a 'stand to pee' device that could also be used as a packer. When I first got it, it took for ever for me to actually stand up. Sitting down to pee your whole life and then suddenly standing to pee, your body kind of panics thinking that you are going to wet yourself.

I washed my hands and dried them on my trousers before walking out. Zoe was exactly where I had left her. "Let's go." She said, grabbing the front of my jumper, pulling me along.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To a small part of the school where no one goes, I always eat lunch there by myself. Come on." She said giggling, pulled at my jumper harder.