Katie and I walked into the lecture hall and sat at the two desks that were assigned to us. I watched as Miko came in and sat down next to Katie. Miko was wearing an ankle length red skirt and a black long sleeved shirt. She looked at Katie and I and smiled. The tardy bell rang and Mrs. Jackson did a quick look around the room, doing attendance. She made a few notes and sat down. Miko looked at Katie and I.

“So, what happened?” She asked.

“James Petry tried to keep me out of the school. I won without even trying.” I said.

“How?” She asked, her brown eyes wide. I could see that she had added some eye liner to her eyelids.

“Because she’s protected by the Johnson ruling.” Miko blinked. That was when I remembered that Miko had arrived in the district after the Johnson case had been decided.

“The Johnson ruling?” She questioned. Katie looked at me. I knew more of the details than she did…

“Alex Johnson was a senior who’s sister ‘dared’ him to wear a skirt, blouse and a pair of her boots to school one day in February. Well needless to say, Alex got sent home for ‘causing a disturbance…’” I paused and took a breath. “Long story short, Alex’s parents took her to see a psychologist who later diagnosed her with Gender Identity Disorder. She won the right, by way of the lawsuit, to attend school as the feminine version of herself. The fallout of that lawsuit was that the school district could not suspend, or expel a student based solely on their clothing choices. Any student in the school can wear what ever they want and there is nothing that the school can do about it. There was actually little that they could do before, but they never anticipated a boy wearing a skirt. This is not my first time running around the school in skirts, just my first time with as much support as I have now.” I squeezed Katie’s hand and Miko smiled.

“You’ve run around the school in a skirt before?” Miko asked, her eyes wide in surprise.

“Yes, two years ago, we did a production of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ After much debate on the part of Mrs. Childress, She chose me to take the lead role in the play as Dorothy. She upset a few people with her decision, and was quick to point out that in the days of Shakespeare, males were routinely drafted to play roles of females in productions. I got so deep in my character that a month before we had our first performance in front of the student body. I was Dorothy with no breaks for that month. I spent every day in a skirt or dress, my mom, sister and Katie helping me prefect my outward perception of being a girl to the point where they questioned wether or not I was a girl. Long story short, it helped me discover my true self.” I said, glancing at the clock on the wall. Third, fourth, fifth and sixth periods were actually two half periods as they coincided with lunches. The reason that Katie and I had a study hall third period was because we had lunch fourth period and then Algebra for the fifth/sixth period class. At least that’s the way it was this semester… I knew Miko went on to PhysEd after study hall and then on to lunch and we would see her again in our typing class. When I had started in the school two years ago as a Freshman, typing was not a required class, and someone in the district had decided that it needed to be a mandatory class so that we ‘were going out into the world with skills that we could use.’ This was not how I felt about algebra, and I was still trying to figure out where I would use the skills I was learning in algebra. I had never, other than in homework, had to solve an equation for the value of X…

“You got to be Dorothy?” Miko asked. I smiled.

“Yes she did,” Katie said. “And she did a fine job if I do say so my self.” I felt my cheeks getting warm, and knew that I was blushing. Just that second as if to try and save me from embarrassment, the bell rang. We all stood and Katie and I walked out with Miko, our skirts swishing around our legs as we made our way to the staircase to go down stairs. Katie and I had long since given up on the meals provided by the school district and started packing our lunches. We walked with Miko down to the commons area and parted with her as she continued on to the gym. Katie and I found our usual table and sat down, Digging our lunches out of our bags. I pulled out the notebook that I kept notes in English class in and sat it on the table. Katie watched this with a confused look on her face. I very rarely worked when I ate and that was usually if I was trying to catch up on something in algebra.

“What are you working on?” Katie asked in between bites of her sandwich.

“My proposal for Mrs. Snyder’s class. I am going to do my paper on the laws that affect the transgendered and how they can be modified to help and or further protect the individuals that are already protected by these laws.” Katie had stopped chewing and just sat staring at me.

“Wow.” Was the only word that escaped her mouth… I glanced up at a clock and quickly ate my lunch, not having planned to work through my lunch hour.