Newly Not Cis

Confronting The Asshole

Here we go!  Just some plans going forward. Scribblehub has caught up to where this story got good. Commentaries about what I'm trying to do in any chapter will be published with the Scribblehub stuff so even if you are reading here it should hopefully still be worth checking these chapters out when I upload them to Scribble. 

I have a question at the end of this chapter. So if you have an idea let me know. 

James' attempts to start shit on Wednesday morning were quite frankly pathetic. No deadnaming, no misgendering, he just agreed with whatever bullshit Ben was spewing in her general direction. With Ben, it was always the same. He'd throw out that forty-per cent stat, call her a tranny. The only thing she really couldn't stand was being called a trap, and it seemed like he'd retired that particular insult for a bit.

After Nick came over to them, she wasn't exactly optimistic about whether Thursday morning would be any better. Still, it was hard to be intimidated by James after Monday. There was more going on behind the scenes that James wasn't telling her, or Nick. Nick seemed to think things were going back to how bad they used to be, but she wasn't convinced that was happening. There was something more; she just had to figure it out. Hopefully, homeroom would provide some answers.

"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," was all she heard Ben say. Whatever he said was probably pointless. She was waiting for James to say something. There had to be a reason he'd gone from seemingly being annoyed by Ben, to becoming his lackey.

"Yeah, when are you gonna give up on being a girl?" James agreed. Detransition bullshit; Ben was getting creative while James certainly wasn't.

Now seemed like the perfect time to do some detective work. Knowing James since they were both little came in handy for this. His impersonal attacks probably meant he was just following Ben. Before this started, his mockery had revolved around her deadname and using it to hurt her, and it did. The things he would say used to hurt; they used to make her cry because it was obvious that her childhood friend meant everything he said. Every insult was targeted not just at her transness, but at her as a whole. Now it was like he was reading off a script. It was quite sad, like part of him hated what he was saying.

"Now, come on, James, you can do better than that," she said. The first time she'd ever responded to their mockery and it was to encourage him to mock her better. There was this feeling of power that came with taking charge and trying to get more information.

"What?" He was flustered by confrontation. The old James wouldn't stand for this.

"You're gonna have to do more than that to get me to cry. That's your goal, right? Make me sad, so you can laugh at the crying tranny," she mocked.

"No, I--" he stumbled.

"Then what is your goal, James?"

"James, are you seriously taking this from him?" Ben interjected.

"Shut up, Ben. I'm not talking to you," she snapped.

James looked ready to run away. Just like she thought. He couldn't answer. The reason why he was trying this shit had to be something he couldn't say in public or a reason he didn't know. Before all this, his answer would probably be what she had said about laughing about it. Now he couldn't even speak.

"Good morning, everyone," Miss Campbell announced. The wait for her to be back usually took ages, but she seemed to be early today. Just as well too. The adrenaline that had allowed her to tell Ben to shut up was starting to wear off. She'd talk to Nick and Adam about what had happened at recess. She needed to figure out where to go with this, and for now James and Ben weren't bold enough to try anything while the teacher was around. Maybe it was best to leave him a message.