They

Phoenix

They wake up in a field. Their surroundings are almost familiar, but not quite right. The sky is grey and overcast and it seems that it may rain soon. They stand up, and take in their surroundings. There seems to be a small town a ways away. Considering the flat empty field and the possibility of rain, they head to the town.

Nearly there, they can make out the individual buildings, which seem rather close to what they're used to. A few yards off they see a large sign next to a narrow road. They head towards it. "Welcome to Hirran", it says.

Well, at least I know what to call where I am, they think.

They walk along the road, passing a couple buildings, possibly shops. Down the road they see a couple kids. Looking closer, they're dressed pretty oddly. You can clearly see two different groups. One group has longer hair, and very brightly colored shirts. Their clothing also seems to be tighter. The other group has short hair, is wearing primarily darker colors and baggier clothing.

They keep walking closer. The longer haired ones are in a group, talking. The shorter haired ones are playing basketball. They approach the group of people talking.

"Excuse me, I got rather lost and ended up in this town. Can you tell me where I am?"

A person with blond hair turns to them, "Didn't you see the sign? Anyway, you're in Hirran. I'm Emily."

"I'm Phoenix."

"What type of a name is Phoenix? And what are you wearing?" The blond says while staring at their clothes.

"Um, I don't know. My name. And what do you mean, what am I wearing?" Pheonix says, beginning to get rather uncomfortable.

The blond glares at them, "Well, you're clearly a boy, but you have on makeup and a skirt."

"A.. boy?" Pheonix has no idea what's going on at this point.

"Yeah, a boy. How stupid are you? We're girls. You're a boy, if a rather oddly dressed one."

Pheonix stares blankly at Emily, "But what are a boy and a girl? I've never heard these words. Aren't we all just people?"

"Wow, he really doesn't get it. Where are you even from." She narrows her eyes at them.

"He? Do you mean me? I'm not a he. Whats a he?"

Emily seems pretty ticked off at this point. "Okay, it's really not that hard. I am a girl. A she. Her. You, are a boy. A he. Him." She flips her hair and turns around.

They budge into the group, "Um, in the way you're using those words, I've only been called they."

Emily turns to them, nearly snarling, "Oh. You're one of them. You'd get along great with Milo."

Her whole group laughs and Emily pushes Phoenix out of the group.

"Wait, who's Milo?"

One of the other girls turn to Phoenix, "He hangs out under the playset down the street." She points toward a street across the basketball court.

Phoenix walks that way, wondering about what Emily had been saying. None of it made sense to them. He? She? What were these words, and why did they have to be one of them?

Down the street they spot the playground. They walk over to it, and see someone on the ground with a sketch book underneath it. Phoenix walks over to them. They look up.

"Um, hi."

"Hi, are you Milo?"

They put their sketchbook down, "Yeah, why?"

"Um, hi I'm Phoenix. Some blond, um, girl down the street told me we'd get along well. I just got into this town and am very, very confused."
Milo starts to seem interested, "Emily? Yeah, it was definately Emily.... Well, Phoenix. What do you want to know?"

"Well, this may be a weird question considering how Emily reacted, but what exactly are he and she?"

Milo looks pretty surprised. "Wait... What?"

"I don't understand the concept. Where I'm from, we don't have these two separate groups."

Milo stands up. "I don't get it either man... So, you need me to explain gender?"

"Is the the boy and girl thing? Because if so, yes." Phoenix asks

"Yeah, it is. Basically you're born with either XX or XY chromosomes which basically determine your gender. XX chromosomes mean pink and dresses and long hair and dolls. XY means blue and short hair and action figures."
Phoenix is still pretty confused. "So, XX is girl, and XY is boy?"

"Yes," Milo says, "But here's where it gets messed up. In history, boys have ruled everything and girls have been forced to stay inside and do housework. Girls were practically property. Guys could be in the government, and vote, and own land. Girls meanwhile weren't allowed to own land, or vote or basically do anything until fairly recently."

Phoenix was pretty terrified. "Why is this a thing?! What makes guys think they're so much better?!"

Milo shook their head. "I really don't know man. And even now, girls still aren't paid as much as guys a lot of the time."

"My god. I don't like this system. Why is this a thing. Where I'm from, people just are. We don't have these weird classifications."

"That sounds nice," Milo says, "Because here I'm kind of an outcast. Seems like you are too, considering they sent you over to me."

"What do you mean?" Phoenix said.

"Well, I'm the same as you. I'm not really a boy or a girl. And most people aren't really okay with that. The general mindset is conform or get out."
Phoenix was shocked, "What type of a place is this?! How can people think like that?!"

Milo shrugged. "And I haven't even talked about sexuality yet."

"I don't really want to talk about this anymore. These things just don't make sense to me. How can people be so terrible?"

"I really don't know man. I really don't know...."

There was silence for a while, both thinking about the conversation. Milo realized they were both still standing. They sat down, picked up their sketchbook and motioned for Phoenix to join them.

Phoenix sat down. And finally, it started to rain.