Secrets and School

Chapter 7

Two and a half weeks passed very quickly, Zoe and I stayed in contact and continued to get closer. The boys, Declan and Charlie, had been spilt up and put in separate form groups and hadn't really bothered us since nor had their girlfriends.

I had invited Zoe over for this evening to carry on with the computing project. I was really nervous. I would have to take my binder off whilst she was here, meaning she would probably find out about me.

It is Wednesday, therefore I have a PE lesson. I haven't done a PE lesson yet, I had freaked out both lessons so far and had stayed with Miss Smith for the hour. I was going to try again today. Fingers crossed I wouldn't have a panic attack.

Me and Zoe walked to the PE department. She went to the female changing rooms and I walked to the PE office. I knocked on the door. Mr Bruhy was sat at the desk on his laptop finding our class's register. "Hi, Jake. Here's the key for the disabled toilet. We will get you one of your own so you won't have to knock and get one every lesson. Oh and here's a keys for your locker in the corridor." He handed over a card.

"Thank you sir." I said.

"See you in the hall." He said before I closed the door. I walked to the disabled toilet and scanned the card, the device on the wall beeped and the door unlocked. I walked in the huge toilet room and put the key card in the slot attached to the wall, so the door would remain locked. If someone else scanned a card on the outside the door would not unlock. This made me feel more secure as I really didn't want anyone walking in on me.

I got changed quickly, as I knew the other boys wouldn't take long to get changed. During the weekend a harness came in the post, which Dad had ordered for me. It would keep my packer secure while I was doing PE. I tried it out at home while playing a game of basketball with Felix. It worked perfectly.

I quickly checked to make sure my harness and packer where positioned correctly and had a quick glance in the mirror. Everything seemed...normal. I collected my folded clothes and took my locker key and the toilet key. I placed my clothes, bag and toilet card in the locker with my name on before locking it. I had brought an extra binder with me, just in case I got very sweaty. I didn't particularly want a binder sticking to me with sweat on all day. I put the locker key in my pocket and entered the hall. Mr Bruhy was already there and so were a few boys. A few more came through the door, but it still wasn't everyone.

I helped set up the lesson as we were playing Rounders. I grabbed the box of heavy bats that was far too big for me to carry but I gave it a go. Someone grabbed the box from me. "Here take the stump. It will be lighter." I saw that it was Charlie who had taken the box from me.

"Thank you." I picked up the stump, which he had placed next to me. He was right, it was much lighter. He was clearly using a lot of effort to carry the box from the hall onto the field, but did not complain. We dropped the equipment off in the middle of the sports field and set up two Rounders pitches with the other boys there. We headed back inside, Mr Bruhy completed the register and told us what he expected from us that lesson. He then made us do five laps of the hall before letting us go to the pitches.

We could see the girls running on the track a couple hundred metres away from us. Zoe seemed way ahead of the others and seemed to be enjoying the lesson.

My team contained Charlie. He hadn't bothered me, in fact he had helped me and he was a pretty good player. We won all the games we played because of him. I had even got two Rounders. We packed up and got dismissed. I headed back to the locker I had been given and retrieved my things. I changed in the toilet and then returned the toilet key to Mr Bruhy. He told me to keep the locker key as that was officially my locker now.

On the way out of the office I saw Zoe. She must have seen me come out of the toilets. Great. Thoughts began running through my head as she approached me. What lie could I make up? Too late.

"Hey Jake. We can walk to English together." She pulled at my jumper as she always does when she wants me to go somewhere with her. The rest of the day flew by and no issues. Charlie had even said 'hi' to me and Zoe as we walked to our spot for lunch.

At three o'clock we met my brother and sister at the gates. Felix was talking to me as we walked home whilst Hazel was talking to Zoe. Zoe adored Hazel. Felix winked at me as me and Zoe went up to my room.

"Your sister is really sweet." Zoe said. "I wish she was my sister. We would have a great time playing games...sorry I will stop talking."

"It's fine. Everyone wants to adopt my sister." I said as I set up my laptop and Zoe pulled hers out of her bag. "So this is the question neither of us could do." I said showing her my screen. We had been doing well with the computing work however there was one question neither of us were able to create a working code for. All though we had a couple of weeks left on the work we really wanted to get this one out the way so we can concentrate on the last few questions.

We tried every code imaginable and it still wouldn't run how we wanted it to. Mum called us down for dinner. Zoe had been invited to stay. "Are your parents aware you will be here until nine o'clock?" Dad asked as we ate.

"Yes, I told them the code was really difficult so I would stay until we had figured it out or until nine, which ever came first. Mum is picking me up at nine as she didn't want me walking home in the dark."

"You are more than welcome to come over whenever you want Zoe, you seem a lovely girl." Mom said as she placed her knife and fork down.

"Thank you. I am glad I have a friend like Jake. Most people at our school are horrible. He seems like the only nice person there." Zoe said as she too finished her dinner.

My chest was becoming very sore now. It was about five thirty at the minute meaning it was another three and a half hours until Zoe left as there was no way we would figure out a working code. I wouldn't be able to last that long.

"Dad can I talk to you for a second in private?" I asked excusing myself form the table and into the living room. Dad followed behind me. "I need to take my binder off because my chest is really sore now, but Zoe doesn't know I am trans and she will find out if I take my binder off." I whispered

He thought for a few seconds before whispering, "Either you keep it on and be very sore or take it off and wear one of your brother's jumpers as they would be really baggy on you. She wouldn't see anything. Or, and this is the option you probably won't pick...just tell her."