“Hey Crystal have you seen my pink socks?” Mika asked as they were getting ready for school.

Crystal giggled, “Yeah, try my sock drawer silly.”

Mika giggled, “Oh yeah, I forgot.” she walked over to the sock drawer and finished getting ready, “We got cheer after school right?”

“Nope, thats tomorrow, are you sure you're ok to go back today?” Crystal asked.

“Oh, that’s right. Today is that GLBTSA thing,” Mika sighed. “God I’m nervous, but kinda excited.”

“Maybe you should talk to Mom, and ask her if you can stay home one more day.” Crystal walked over to Mika and kissed her softly.

Mika shook her head. “No, I need to do this.”

“Did you know you're in a skirt, not your boys clothes?” Crystal also mentioned.

“I know,” Mika answered with a half-smile. “Like I said, I need to do this. I think on some level, even though Dad left us a long time ago, I’ve been afraid to take this last step because of him.” She paused, kissing Crystal back. “Besides, the Principal said I can start as Mika whenever I’m ready, as long as I don’t switch back and forth constantly, so... I’m ready to do this.”
“Well if you're sure you're ready for this.” Crystal smiled. “Just remember though, this also means no more boys’ cheer tracksuit thingie. You have to flash your panties like the rest of us!” she added teasingly, causing Mika to laugh out loud.

“A small price to pay,” she shot back playfully.

“Glad you're finally ready to be yourself, even at school.”.

Mika picked up her new purple and neon green backpack, looking back at Crystal. “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom,” she replied.

“Anias Nin,” Crystal giggled. “You do remember!”

Mika laughed as they walked out the bedroom door. “I’ve read her journals at least a hundred times. I know she wasn’t talking specifically about girls and women like me, but it still strikes close to home. Morning Mom,” she said, poking her head around the kitchen door.

Mary nearly dropped her frying pan full of scrambled eggs. “Mika!” she said excitedly. “You’re wearing a skirt!”

“Yeah,” Mika giggled. “It’s time I stopped hiding.”

“Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live,” Mary replied, causing both girls to giggle.

“Exactly. I was just telling Crystal how Nin’s journals struck a chord with me for the longest time. I’m tired of not living.”

Mary picked up her phone from the counter, snapping a picture of Mika and Crystal together which she texted to Angela with one hand, while serving up the girls’ breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese, bacon bits, and hash browns all in one big pile.

“Yay! Hobo hash!” Crystal bubbled as they sat down to eat.

“Hey look Mike’s dressed like a whore.” One of the guys stated from down the hallway.

Mika sighed. She knew school security would handle it like they always did, but before she could say anything, the football team’s star quarterback grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck and spun him around. “What did you say?” he said, sneering in the boy’s face.

“Um nothing at all.” The boy stammered out, “I was just saying how cute Mika looked?”

“Really? Because it sounded to me like you just called my friend a whore. Isn’t that what you guys heard?” he asked looking at the others.

The boy shook his head, “Oh no no, I really said she looks cute in that outfit.”

A moment later, a pair of security guards approached them. “That’s enough,” one of them said. “You,” the other said, pointing at the boy. “Come with us.”

“But I didn’t do anything!” he squealed. The security guard stopped, pointing at the camera directly overhead.

“The security camera’s audio feed says otherwise.”

As the boy was led away, the quarterback approached Mika. “Hey, you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, Im fine thanks Trevor.” Mika smiled, “Thanks for that.” for some reason Mika felt that Trevor used to be one of those other boys, that used to tease her. But that feeling went away just as fast as it came.

Trevor laughed a little. “Hey, no problem. He’s not a bad guy really. He’s just an idiot who thinks he’s God’s gift to comedy.”

“I’ve ran into a couple of those today.” Mika sighed, “But they usually end up changing their mind about me.” she smiled.

“I wish more schools were like this one honestly. The whole counseling for bullies thing really helped me out when I was younger. I guess I’ll see you two at the meeting this afternoon,” he added with a wink as he walked away.

“Man, I love private school,” Crystal giggled out. “Well, this one anyway. No stupid dress code, tight security, great classes-”

“And a nice athletic department,” Lindsey said as she came up behind them. “What’d I miss? The security guards were escorting somebody away. Dude was in tears and everything.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Mika answered before Crystal could. “Just growing pains. That’s the third loser to give me crap about coming to school as a girl, but I don’t even care. Even if we didn’t have awesome security staff-” she cut herself off, seeing one of the school’s counseling staff, Miss Talbot approach. She was a young woman, only in her mid-20s.

“Hi Mika,” she said cheerfully. “Have a minute?”
“Sure Miss Talbot.” Mika smiled, “I was just on my way to the nurse’s office to take my medication.”

“I just wanted to check in with you and see how you’re adjusting. I noticed two reports of incidents so far, and even though they were handled, I still wanted to see how you’re doing.”

Mika smiled and nodded, “I’m great. I seem to have a lot of friends Miss Talbot.”

“That’s good to hear. You’re only the fifth transgendered student to openly transition while attending since we stepped up our anti-bullying policies, so if there’s anything that you can think of that you feel should be done differently please don’t hesitate to say so.”

Mika shook her head as they walked to the nurse’s office together. “No, actually I really like the current system. The whole ‘punishment with counseling’ thing, you know, getting to the root of why they’re acting like that, especially since I know a lot of parents would agree with their kids when it comes to people like me,” she sighed. “So it’s better for the school too.”

Miss Talbot chuckled. “It’s noble of you to say, but we have more than enough backers that support our acceptance of LGBT students that we can afford to lose troublemakers - both students and parents - if it came to that. So far though, it hasn’t,” she added with a wink.

“You know we’re getting a reputation as The Rainbow School,” Mika laughed. “But it’s not really a bad thing. I’ve talked to girls at cheer camp and at competitions who think it’s pretty cool. I wish I could’ve transitioned quietly, but that would’ve required going to another school, and that just isn’t happening. I love it here too much.”

“Well we’ll continue to do what we can sweetie,” Miss Talbot said warmly, and then turned to return to the counseling department.

Meygan stood up in front of the gathered students with Crystal and Mika beside her. “Everyone, you all know Mika and Crystal,” she began. “Mika’s just started living full-time like me, only of course, she transitioned at school.”

“I heard about what happened,” an older boy with neatly trimmed hair answered. “I wanted to punch that ass who called you that.”

Mika giggled a little. “I thought Trev was going to!”

Trevor laughed out loud at that. “Nah. I wouldn’t have hit him. I sure thought about it though.”

“You hit someone?” a blonde haired boy giggled softly.

“Only on the gridiron,” Trevor winked. “It was great though. I put my hand on his shoulder and asked him what he said, and he almost wet his pants then and there. He won’t be messing with Mika again anytime soon just from that.”

“I almost feel bad,” Mika sighed. “I mean, almost. If what he said wasn’t so insensitive. But Linds said she saw him in tears so I guess what goes around comes around. Anyway, I just want to forget about it.”

You know i'm really inspired by Meygan and Mika, I'm going to come out at school too.” the blonde haired boy smiled at Trevor. Everyone cheered, including Mika as she took a seat.

“That’s great! I was just bragging to Miss Talbot earlier how other schools at cheer competitions jokingly call us The Rainbow Academy - in a good way. Plus it’d be harder to laugh at two of us,” she added with a wink.

Trevor laughed, “Fiona looks cute in skirts, and I think if anyone said anything to her about it, I’d have to get a little physical.” He winked at Fiona at that.

“My therapist says I’m ready,” he said with a lilted giggle. “I’ve just been waiting because I was afraid of exactly what Mika went through today... But if she can do it, so can I. There’s like, what, 1800 students at our school, and she only got crap from three? That’s great odds.”

“That’s the spirit!” Crystal and Mika said in unison and then giggled.

Maven a red haired girl smiled, “I just hooked up with this girl from Alberton high school, finally.”

“Oh!” Meygan said, “The cute blonde with the French accent? Congrats girl!”

“That’s the one, I hear that Lins has a girlfriend too.” Maven added..

LIndsey blushed, but slowly nodded. “Kind of... We met not this last summer, but the summer before, at Mika’s aunt’s. We finally kissed for the first time this last summer, and I swear the 4th of July fireworks were nothing to what I was feeling. It wasn’t sparks - it was dynamite,” she giggled.

Jane, the club president stood up smiling, “We have a club activity this next week, the rainbow will be in town, and we were going to make jam and sell it with them.

“You don’t have to show up, but remember, every jar we make and sell helps us fund this program. I know the school helps us as well, but the outside things we do like our trip to disney world, that’s funded by these events.”

“Disney World?” Mika and Crystal asked in unison. Jane laughed out loud.

“Well at least we know Mey-Mey didn’t lure you two in with promises of goodies,” she teased. “Yeah, we’re trying for Spring Break.”

“Sounds cool,” Mika said. “We’ll do what we can, but we don’t know anything about making jam.”

“Well you can learn from the best.” Trevor flexed his muscles jokingly and then laughed, adding, “My mom taught me how to make jam when I was little.” He was just goofing around not really trying to impress anyone.

“Yeah,” Fiona chimed in, “She has this huge jam-making setup in her kitchen. If you can make it I really recommend coming.”

“Plus you’ll get to see the real Fiona,” Trevor joked, causing Fiona to blush as she nodded her agreement.

“Granted you might see that as soon as tomorrow. I’m going to call my therapist right after the meeting to talk to her about it.”

“Well, that’s everything official,” Jane said with a broad grin. “Unless anyone has anything else they want to talk about?”

Crystal grinned, “Next meeting Mika will be bringing some of her from scratch cookies.”

“With rainbow sprinkles,” Mika giggled out, causing everyone to laugh.

As Crystal, Mika, and Lindsey were leaving, Fiona ran up to them. “Hey, can I ask you guys a really, really big favor?”

“Sure, what’s up?” Mika asked. Fiona blushed a little.

“Um, would it be okay if I hung out with you guys tomorrow between classes? Trev can only walk me to my classes just so much. Some of them are on opposite ends of the school, and I’m really nervous, but this is something I’ve wanted to do for so long, and seeing how happy you looked today,” she babbled.

“Of course,” Crystal answered, hugging Fiona. “I know I have at least two classes with you.”

“And I have AP English with you,” Lindsey chimed in. “If you’ve got any classes with other cheerleaders, they’ll help out too.”

“And the football team,” Trevor laughed as he came up behind Fiona and put a hand on her shoulder. She smiled, snuggling into him.

“Thanks everyone. I’m not outgoing like you Mika, but like I said, I just can’t hide anymore.”

Mika blushed, “I wasn’t always outgoing, ask Crystal.”

Crystal nodded and giggled. “But I do understand where you’re coming from. It was Mika’s courage to transition that gave me the courage to be openly gay, even if I did come out at school before she did,” she teased.

Mika giggled, “See I wasn’t always outgoing, they had to drag me into being a cheerleader.”

“Oh God that reminds me, Mika,” Lindsey bubbled, “I bumped into Coach before the meeting. She wants to see you in her office to confirm your measurements. She said you could do it at practice tomorrow, but to be aware of it.”

“Maybe I should join the spirit squad,” Fiona laughed. “Meygan’s been bugging me about it... Plus I am kind of dating the QB,” she added, blushing.

“I heard that!” Meygan giggled as she and Jane approached. “I at least expect to see you at Lindsay's next sleepover!”

“What about my first one?” Mika giggled, “Normally they are Crystal’s, but I want to do one some time.”

“Yup,” Crystal chimed in. “I’m totally staying out of the planning. She won’t tell me anything.”

“Because I want it to be a surprise,” Mika giggled. “But don’t expect anything as epic as Lin’s. I’m not that creative.”

“Well um,” Fiona blushed, “I’ve never been to any, so I’m sure I’d have fun either way.”

“I’ve never hosted one, so we are even.” Mika teased, waving as the girls and Trevor parted ways.