Nonbinary

Chapter 1: The Begining

It was a Saturday, like no other. You may be asking, "Don't you mean 'like every other?'" No, I mean it. I just came out of the closet as nonbinary and let's just say it didn't go too well. I now have no friends, family, and no home. Let's just start at the beginning...

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"So, what were you doing with Sallie? Is she your girlfriend yet?" Maddy said with a teasing voice. "She is not my girlfriend. We're friends...with benefits." Mark replied. I sat eating my lunch, watching everything unfold. I enjoyed watching the drama between the two every lunch period. "Mark, ask her out already! You've liked her for how long now? 3 years?" Mark rubbed his temples and squeezed his eyes shut. "It's been 2 years and 210 days." I took another bite of my hot lunch as I interrupted," You seriously keep track of the days, too?" I stifled a laugh. "Shut up Charli!" Maddy and I laughed as he blushed and put his head down on the lunch table. As the bull rang violently, my friends and I walked to 5th period. They were some of the only people in the entire school who didn't bully me. They were twins and were outcasts, too. Maddy had long, dark brown hair with chocolate brown skin and blue eyes. Mark had a swooped over hairstyle with a greasy texture and a chestnut color and had green eyes instead of blue. The twins were both diagnosed with Lupus. They were bullied for it but I did my best to help them out.

As we all got to the 5th period, Mark and I joked with each other while Maddy drew. I peeked over at what she was drawing. She was drawing a very realistic drawing of a dog and what I assumed to be their owner. "Wow, you're good. Do you take advanced art?" She smiled and nodded. The teacher walked into the classroom and the room fell deathly silent. Usually, Mrs. Vailer walks in the classroom with a giant smile on her face, but today was different. All she said was that we had free time for the period while she "figures out his whole mess". I didn't pay much attention to it, but Mark and Maddy did. They came up with all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories while I ignored them.

By the end of class, they had gotten to the conclusion that Mrs. Vailer was in a mid-life crisis, there was a baby on the way, and her husband had cheated on her so she was now a soon-to-be single mother. I punched Mark in the arm as soon as the words left his mouth. "HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" he screamed. A group of kids that were passing by stopped dead in their tracks and glared at Mark. "Hey, keep walking!" Maddy told the group and they immediately shoved past us. "Sorry," Mark mumbled as Maddy rolled her eyes. We continued down the hall to the next period. Mark was deathly silent as Maddy silently stole glances of him. When we arrived in the 6th period, the class was all over the place. As usual.

I sat down and swung my backpack to hang over my chair. "Hey, Charli!" A petite girl with a wide smile came running up to me. "Hey, Alisa. What's up?" Alisa ran her fingers through my hair as she gasped. "Wow, your hair has gotten softer. And I like how you dyed it! It's like red to brown now!" I laughed as she sat down next to me. "Wanna hang out after school?" I asked. You see, Alisa had been one of my friends since grade school. She liked to act tough, but when you get to know her she's really sweet. She had a purple bob cut that always had a pink flower in it. She always wore leather jackets and black leggings with boots. A lot of people liked her. Loved her much more than a friendship bond type of thing. One of those people was Maddy. "Would you mind if I came?" Maddy asked, giving a toothy grin. "I don't mind!" Alisa exclaimed. When the bell for class rung, nothing could prepare me for what was about to happen.