I ride my bike to school
the next day
in an attempt to bypass
as many of the stares
as I can,
while I can,
without too much fuss.
My mother was late to work
again
and apologized on her way out
again
and almost crashed into a parked car
again.
I wonder if
this will become
a sort of routine for us
this school year.
For her sake,
I hope not.
The wind feels nice on my neck
and on my face
so I pull my bike
from the heap of stuff
inside our garage
and jump onto it.
I've always liked biking,
maybe more than I love
science and math.
I have a mountain bike
that my mother gave to me
as a birthday present
when we lived in Montana.
It's a very nice one
(and my mother
is proud to say
that she found it for cheap
at a garage sale),
but it's pretty useless
now
that we've moved to Ohio.
There are no mountains
in Ohio
like there were
in Montana -
except for the ones created
by the prejudices
and bigotry
of my fellow students
at school.
Those will take more than
a mountain bike
to climb, though.
Today is much the same
as yesterday was.
The whispers follow me
through the halls,
but I try my best
to ignore them.
The words my mother spoke
last night
as she rubbed my back
in slow circles
come back to me.
"If you listen to them,
you let them succeed.
Ignore them,
and you will be
stronger
for it.
You just have to
keep fighting."
That's easier
said than done -
but I'll try
for her sake.
I'll try
in order to
preserve my sanity.
I'll try
to make at least
one friend
here at this school,
even if it kills me.
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Misalignment | ✔
Teen Fiction"There are a million shades of grey between their black and their white - but no one ever cares to see them." In a world with a limited view of gender, Cam Shills struggles to come to terms with their identity as neither male nor female, a shade of...
