Homework

Beep. Beep.

Sam woke up to the sound of their alarm clock.

Beep. Beep.

Sam groaned, "Shut up!" They banged on the top of their alarm clock multiple times, eventually hitting the off button. They yawned and climbed out of bed. Sam looked for the clothes they had laid out the night before. Their eyes scanned the room, ultimately landing on their chair. They grabbed the clothes and started to get dressed. They put on their chest binder first and continued to put the rest of the clothes on. Sam was a non-binary 14 year old. They were an average height of five foot two and had short hair, dyed blue though it was fading. When they finished getting dressed, they walked into the bathroom and washed their face, brushed their teeth, and used the toilet. Sam snatched a look in the mirror and noticed that their hair was quite messy. However, instead of using a hair brush, Sam figured running their fingers through their hair a few times would suffice instead.

Sam wandered out of their room and into the kitchen. They got a bowl from the cupboard and grabbed the cereal from the pantry. As Sam poured the milk, it slipped out of their hand and onto the floor, splattering everywhere. Sam started to clean it up, when their mom walked in. Sam's mother was a woman of 47 years old, and had a permanent look of sadness on her face. She worked two jobs to provide for her children, and always had bags under her eyes. She sighed when she saw the milk all over the kitchen.

"I'll clean in up," she said. "Go get ready for school, I don't want you to be late again. She took the dish towel from Sam and started to wipe the floor. Sam got their backpack from their room, and left for school.

"Samantha Meiser"

Mrs. Gustin's voice rang through the classroom. Sam immediately sat up. When they came out as non-binary in school, most of their teachers were very accepting. Except for Mrs. Gustin, she was an old-fashioned woman who was well into her sixties. She wore cat-eye glasses and a skirt or dress nearly everyday. She still refused to call Sam "Sam" and continued to use female pronouns when describing them.

"Here. It's Sam by the way," Sam added. They were tired of constantly correcting their teacher. They knew they would never get through to her, but they kept trying anyway. Sam had stopped raising their hand in math class after they came out.

The teacher ignored Sam and continued, "Elle Miles."

Sam made their way though the bustle of students, toward their locker. They got the correct combination on the first try, having been doing this for three years.

Sam stacked their books on the shelf in the locker, and collected their history books for their next class. They closed the locker and reset the combination. But as Sam was walking to the history class, Jesse stopped them in the middle of the hallway. He was about Sam's age and had been bullying Sam since the first day of middle school. Jesse always wore long sleeves, no matter the weather. He had unruly, short hair and towered over Sam. As he stalked over to Sam, they could see that he had a bruise on his cheek, and looked really angry about something.

"Where do you think you're going, freak?" Jesse asked menacingly. It seemed as though he was taking all of his anger from the day, and pouring it onto Sam. They tried to run, but he caught their arm. "I said, where do you think you're going, freak?" the last word came out as a hiss.

"N-nowhere," stammered Sam, they attempted to pull their arm out of Jesse's grip, but he was too strong. He slammed them against the nearby lockers and punched their arm. Sam gasped from pain and managed to slip out of his grasp and ran to history class.

Voices echoed though the cafeteria as Sam walked over to Adam and Kat, who were sitting at their usual table in the corner. Sam had forgotten their lunch at home so they had to get the school lunch instead. They joined Adam and Kat at the table and sat down. Sam wore a sour expression on their face as they started to push the food around their plate. Kat noticed Sam's behavior, and decided to try to talk to them after school.