“Have you talked to Mike?” Aleah asked me as she passed me a roll of masking tape and a poster. I held it up, it was pretty simple; it just said ‘Aleah Simms for Student Body President’. It was her second time trying, and her last chance. She would graduate at the end of this year. Probably.

“Thought Julia was doing that?” I phrased the statement as a question. Honestly, why would I do the job the police should be doing.

“Um so…” She said, turning away from me and taping a flyer up over Brittney Price’s. Brittney was the current class president and Aleah’s nemesis for the past three years. It was kind of silly if you ask me, but hey, silly seemed to be our thing lately. “I saw him just walking across campus like nothing happened.”

“Well school just started, so campus is where he’d be I guess,” I said dismissively as I walked to the opposite wall and hung the poster. The tape made a screeching sound as I pulled it from the roll.

“He attacked Audrey,” She said pointedly, staring at me from across the hall. It was after hours; her voice echoed across the white floor tiles.

“I’m sure Julia is taking care of it,” I said, getting impatient with this line of questioning.

“Not if he’s walking around like he owns the place.”

“Okay, so to be fair,” I said, turning around and crossing my arms. “People attack other people and walk free all the time. It’s not Julia’s fault, they probably just didn’t have enough evidence. You’re too close to this thing.”

“So are you,” Aleah rolled her eyes. “You just poured chocolate syrup on her in our basement last night.”

“Ugh,” Was my only reply. We continued hanging the posters in silence until she finally spoke again.

“Do you…do you think she could join GAT?”

I narrowed my eyes and turned to her.

“Aleah,” I said calmly. “Of course she could, but she’d have to be out, and accept who she is instead of hiding away like a closeted pervert. Then she’d make the decision herself; I’m not planting the idea in her head. If you want to protect her so bad, do it yourself.”

I have to think I was right; I had a communications major to worry about. How could I possibly have time for Audrey’s personal crap? She could take care of it herself.

“Do you hear that?” She said suddenly.

“Hear what.” I demanded.

“That singing,” She said, pointing toward the auditorium down the hall.

“It’s an auditorium,” I was completely uninterested. “They sing there. That’s what it’s for.”

“Yeah but…it sounds so…amazing.”

“Didn’t know you were into that crap,” I reached for another poster. “Come on, we have to finish hanging up these posters.”

She was already walking down the hall. I cursed and followed after her, but there was no stopping her, so I shut my mouth as she pushed through the double doors and into the auditorium.

“You just left all your stuff in the hall,” I said to her, but I knew at this point she didn’t really care. She was walking like a zombie toward the stage; the drama kids were up there acting something out, probably pretending they were going to go somewhere in life. It’s always nice to pretend.

“Wow!” Aleah said, practically running toward the stage. “This is amazing, what even is it?!”

“It’s a bunch of dorks singing,” I said helpfully. Despite my lack of encouragement she continued to walk toward the stage until a short brunette wearing the nerdiest pair of glasses I’ve ever seen emerged from the second row of seats clutching a clipboard to her chest.

“Can I help you?” She asked Aleah as I stuck to the shadows behind her.

“Oh!” She said “I’m so sorry if I interrupted anything! What is this? I love this music!”

The girl smiled a bit, not too much.

“We’re doing our class presentation of Les Miserables,” She explained. “Well I mean we’re trying, we don’t have an Eponine, or enough background characters.”

I don’t know why I spoke, but I did.

“I know someone who could play a great background character,” I said. The girl looked at me startled; she’d clearly been unaware of my presence until that very moment.

“Oh my god!” She practically squealed. “You could be our Eponine!”

I stopped dead in my tracks, my jaw hung open.

“I could be…your what?”

“Yeah, Tiffany,” Aleah teased. “You could be their ipecac.”

“Eponine,” The girl corrected.

“What’s the difference,” I asked.

“One is a character, the other induces vomiting.”

“Like your play?”

The girl frowned.

“You know if you’re going to be rude then you can go be rude somewhere else,” She said. She wasn’t even angry; it was as if she was used to this kind of thing.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Aleah said, practically stepping in between us. I really want to stay here and watch, I love this music.”

“Nope,” The girl said as she pointed a thin finger toward the door. “Both of you can leave, right now.”

“She can play Epinephrine for you!” Aleah practically screamed, pointing at me.

“Excuse me?!” I demanded. “I don’t think so!”

“You owe me!” Aleah hissed. “For that one time, remember?”

Okay, maybe I did owe her for that one time.

“You’re calling in a favor…to make me sing in a play?” I almost snorted. It was laughable.

“It’s a musical,” The girl said rather flatly as she shot her hand out toward me. “My name’s Melissa.”

I took her hand.

“I’m –”

“Tiffany Grey,” She said. “I know who you are.”

“..oh…” I said.

“So you can be here, tomorrow, for practice?”

“Oh my God,” I said shaking my head. Then suddenly an idea began to formulate inside my mind. “You know what, yes, I can, and I can get you that background character you wanted.”

“Wait,” Aleah said, touching my arm. “What are you doing?”

“You know what I’m doing,” I said with a grin starting to form on the corners of my mouth.

“No way. No!” She shook her head. “You cannot make her do this, she’s not ready!”

“She looks fine,” I shrugged. “And all she has to do it stand in the background, right?”

“Do either of you want to tell me what’s going on?” Melissa demanded. “I have a ‘thing’ to get back to.”

I looked at Aleah, she glared back at me. There probably wasn’t a good way out of this.

“So um…” Aleah started to say, and then she paused.

“Oh my god,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Okay so the…person…we can get for you…they’re a girl but they…weren’t born as a girl…”

“So you’re saying this person is…transgender?” Melissa looked super confused but I guess she was really well informed.

“Yeah, that’s it,” I nodded.

“Okay, and?”

“Well I mean…” Aleah said. “It’s just that…she’s…she hasn’t really told anyone?”

Holding the clipboard under her arm, Melissa began to wave her arms in front of her face in a criss cross pattern as if she was telling us both to shut up.

“Okay, just, just hold on!” She said. “You’re telling me that you want to force a trans girl who hasn’t come out, to perform on stage? First of all, she can, yes, and she can wear anything she wants. She can dress as a guy if she’s not comfortable. But you know what? That’s…that’s not even the point, you automatically assumed she should stand up there in a dress just because she’s trans?”

“I don’t see the problem,” I said, folding my arms. “I wear dresses all the time.”

“Are you on crack?”

“I don’t really think that’s a fair question.”

Melissa huffed and walked back her seat. She came back with two manila envelopes, one said ‘Eponine’, the other said ‘Extra’.

“I assume I don’t have to explain to you which envelope is which, but if you do have questions, I don’t know…Google it? Oh, and your girl? She can wear whatever she wants. If you’re going around forcing her to be feminine then I feel really sorry for her.”

“That’s not fair!” I snapped. “I never said I was doing that!”

“There were the implications,” She said as she started to turn away. “And I know your character, so.”

“My character?” I started to move toward her.

“Let’s go,” Aleah said, taking me gently by the arm and pulling me up the stairs.

“You’re lucky my friend’s here,” I said angrily. “She’s holding me back, you see what she’s doing for you?”

“Come on, Tiffany,” Aleah said.

“You think you’re hot stuff cause you’re directing a play?” I called after her. “You’re nothing!”

Aleah finally got me to the top of the stairs and we stood outside the wood double doors.

“Find Audrey and give her that packet,” She said. “Oh, and Tiffany?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t kill the drama class.”