My Name is Andrew Lee Cooper.

Chapter Two

My alarm blares in my ear and I can feel Claire stir next to me. I feel around for my phone, and once I find it I shut off the alarm. I get out of bed and turn around, tucking the covers back around her. School, for her, doesn't start until next week, so Mother will drop her at daycare later while she's at work.

I hop in the shower, letting the water wash my face and rinse my skin. I scrub hard on my skin, desperately wishing I could scrub and scrub until I just disappear. But that's unlikely. I wash my hair, rinse it, and turn the water off. I grab a towel and dry myself off, drying my hair as well. Going to my room, I walk to my nightstand. Opening the drawer, I dig out a long, ace bandage. I unroll it, and place it flat against my chest. Keeping it smooth, I wrap it around my chest. I wrap it and wrap it until I run out of bandages and my chest appears flat. I've heard that using bandages is harmful, but I'm desperate and don't care. I can't put on a bra and still call myself a man. I don't know, it's just hard to explain. I can't live with people misgendering me on a daily just because they can see my chest. I can't. There's no way in hell that my mother would ever get me a binder to flatten my chest, and my father died about a year ago to brain cancer, so I can't go live with him. My brother moved out when he was around twenty or twenty one (which was three years ago), and I rarely see him. Sometimes we text, but that's not very common. My mother and him had a fight and never got along, so she basically cut him out of her life. She gets mad at me when I contact him so I usually try not to. I do miss him and I often wonder what he's doing. I miss my dad all the time as well. He was really tall, around six-foot-four, and muscular. He was a teddy bear, though. He had a long beard that he grew that my little sister liked to braid. My sister is around six now, and lives with me. I feel bad that she has to deal with our mother at that age. Luckily, Mother treats me worse and isn't as mean to her. That gives me hope, if anything. My brother's name is Patrick. He has curly black hair and green eyes and freckles. Claire has long, light brown hair just like mine and hazel eyes, also just like me. We look a lot alike, but if I started presenting as a boy and get my haircut like I wish I could, I'd like to think I would look a lot more like Patrick. I'd like to think if I grew a beard I'd look like him, too. My brother has a short, curly beard while, as I stated, my dad's was long and braidable.

Digging through my drawer, I grab a maroon t-shirt and tan skinny jeans. In the closet, I grab a leather jacket and shrug it on. I quickly brush my teeth and retreat back into my room. I check my phone, and it reads six-thirty five. I still have twenty minutes until I have to leave. Unplugging my phone and shoving it into my pocket, I go to the kitchen and sit at the kitchen table, chugging a sports drink I grabbed from the fridge. I don't want to go to high school. Just the other day, it felt like my last day of middle school and my first taste of summer. But, at least if I go to school I can get out of this hellhole. Believe me, I'm over sitting here every day.

My phone chimes and I click it on to see who it is. It's Amber again, saying she's worried about the first day. I respond with a "me, too" and check the time. Six-fifty three. Pretty much time to go. I go back to my room, grab my bag, and slip on a pair of black converse. I grab my keys and I leave out the back door. My house is only a block from the school, so Mother told me to walk instead of waking her up. As I get outside, I plug earbuds into my phone and playing some classic rock. As the music starts, I breathe in the crisp morning air and begin to walk. I go through the neighborhood, passing house after house. The grass has fresh dew on it and the leaves on the trees are rustling in the wind. I can hear my footsteps on the concrete echo through the neighborhood and I can hear my fast heartbeat loud in my ears. I can hear birds sing overhead and dogs barking in the distance. Once in awhile a car passes and I can hear the engine hum and exhaust escape from the back of it. I turn the corner and the school comes into view. I feel sick, but I keep walking. I walk faster and I check my watch; seven o'clock. The school draws closer and closer and I'm almost upon it. Dawson High. I always imagined being in high school, but time flew by and here I am. It's kind of surreal. Three more years after this and I'm off to college. Three more years isn't that long.

I shake my head and escape from my thoughts, and I'm arriving at the school. Car after car is parked in the lot, and car after car is letting off kid after kid in the drop off loop. I pass them, and I can see the front doors. There are kids waiting out front in a line, three standing a foot apart on the right, and the same on the left. As people walk up to the doors, the kids offer them things. I'm too far away to see what it is. Shit. My heart beats faster and faster. This is what I was worried about. Interacting with people. Not one of my strong suits. I continue walking, and I get right behind a girl in front of me. While all six of the kids are distracted, I slip inside the main doors without having to talk to anyone. I sigh, feeling momentarily relieved. But once I get a few steps in, I instantly am bombarded. People, sights, sounds all flooding at me and into my brain. There are many people catching up and gossiping and laughing and yelling and running. I see a table of familiar people, friends of friends, and I make my way there.

"Dyke!" Someone coughs in my ear and I feel sick. I turn to face them, and there are a group of boys snickering and pointing at me. I roll my eyes and walk back to the familiar faces.

The table is covered in balls of yarn.

"Hey, Lily!" A girl, Molly Stratos, hugs me. Just grin and bare it. What's so bad about your birth name, anyway? You'll live. Ignore it. It's nothing to get upset about. It's your name.

"Hey, Molly." I look over her shoulder. "Hey Kelsey, Robin, Haley." All three girls wave at me with small smiles. Kelsey walks over to me holding a loop of red yarn with a ball of red yarn attached to it around my neck; like a necklace. I look at her oddly.

"Compliments." She says to me, gesturing around us. Most of the kids inside have on a yarn necklace as well. So do all the girls here at the table. "Here, see," she pulls a small strand of yarn from the ball hanging around her neck. "I love your hair." As she says this, she ties the small strand on a part of my necklace chain. "Get it?" I nod and pluck a strand from my yarn ball.

"I like your glasses." I say, trying to think of something fast. I just want to get out of here and find Zoey, one of my best friends. I tie the strand around her chain and smile. "I like this idea. I gotta go, though, but I'll see you later!" I quickly walk off as they say their goodbyes. I make my way through the crowd of people, looking for a familiar face. I finally see Zoey, and she looks frantic. She's no good in crowds either. I call her name and she looks eyes with me. She instantly relaxes and walks over to me. I want to hug her, I haven't seen her in months, but it feels awkward.

"Hey." I say. She smiles at me.

"Hey, how've you been?"

"Good. You?"

"Good."

"You want to take a look around? Make sure we know where our classes are?" She nods and I pull out my phone. Scrolling through my gallery, I find the screenshot of my schedule and we go around the school to all of our classes. We say hello to people we know as we pass by, and we continue walking.

"Hey, look." Zoey stops walking and looks at the floor. Little strands of red yard litter the floor. I look down the hall behind us and there's a trail of them following us. And then I realise.

"Are those from me?" I whisper. She's laughing at me, and soon I'm laughing too. I rip the yarn necklace off and shove it in my bag. I roll my eyes with a smile and we head back to the commons where we entered just a while ago.

A/N: I made the first couple of chapters kind of short just to get them out there and to get the book started, so I'll make sure to make the other ones longer. Thanks for reading, guys <3