“Drop your weapon!”

“I am here for my son!” My dad was yelling at an officer.

“I don’t care, drop your weapon, now!”

“These people have kidnapped my son and...”

“I am not going to ask you again! Drop your weapon or you will be tased and pepper sprayed!”

“Are you serious? They kidnapped my...

I could hear something fall to the ground. “What the F-aaaaaaaa!” I heard my dad screaming and then things went quiet. I can just imagine seeing his reaction. ‘He stumbled backwards with wide eyes’ or something like that. I couldn’t see anything that was going on, because we were all still locked up in the kitchen I was hungry and the food we had was going to waste.

Ashley and I were terrified and crying. Dad had broken down the door to the building and was inside looking for me. He must have checked the upstairs first, because after the crash of the door, there was a huge silence until the police showed up and we heard them in the room next to us. I’m guessing he barely made it to the cafeteria, when the police came in. They most likely were pointing guns at him.

As for David, I’m not sure what happened to him. He would have stopped him from breaking the door down. I hope dad didn’t kill him.

It was a bit quieter than before, but we could hear them again I’m guessing it was outside.

“Stop resisting!”

“Goddammit!” Wow, I never heard my dad use those words before.

“Put your hands behind your back! I told you, stop resisting!”

My dad was not giving up. If he keeps it up, He’s going to get shot. To me, I really don’t care if he does or not. He deserves it for what he had done to me.

With all the action outside, Ashley and I continued crying and Nikki tried comforting us. I’m guessing a few others were crying as well.

Things went quiet once more. All we could hear was a siren in the distance. Sounding like it was heading towards the house.

God, it felt like hours before everything was done, but eventually a police officer came in and helped us out of the kitchen (or in my way of calling it, a hideout since dad never did find us). A police officer started talking to Nikki. As we got out, I looked at where we were, before we got locked up. Our food we were eating was still on the tables, but it was cold. The delicious lentil soup was cold now, which makes me feel bad for our cook Barbara. I can tell she was a little sad, but I guess she got over it. We can always microwave it.

I looked out at the front door, where dad had broken in. There was bits of wood all over the ground. The door was shattered almost like it was glass. Dad must have been strong to break that down.

Looking out the window, I could see a police officer putting up crime scene tape around the whole area of the building. I wonder if it was the same at my house in Brookings?

News reporters were outside reporting on what happened. I just hope they are not mentioning me. I don’t want the whole world to know about me. Ashley walked over as well and looked out the window. David was standing out there talking to one of the reporters. I still wonder what happened to him through out the whole time dad was in the house. He must have been knocked out, because he was holding something up to his head.

That night the house was on lock down. No one in or out. It’s a good thing all the residents were already in the house. There was tight security all around. Mostly just the police.

I watched my dad’s White Dodge Omni get towed away. I hope that would be the last time I see that vehicle. By the looks of it, it was totaled after he ran it into David’s red Ford Ranger.

I’m guessing by now, my dad is in his jail cell or something. I have never been to jail, so I don’t know what it’s like. There was a time I almost went to Juvey. It wasn’t even my fault. Dad call the police one day saying I damaged property. I was in handcuffs and was in the back seat of the squad car, but there was no evidence of damaged property, so they let me go.

Dad was pissed off after that night. I was not allowed to eat dinner. Because of that day, he started using food against me. If he felt I was bad, I was not allowed to eat that night and was sent to bed.

Now that I am glad I am away from dad, I can have dinner all the time. That’s why I am glad I am living in a home, where meals were always made for me. Tonights meal is Shepherd's pot pie. I never had it before.

The next morning, was Sunday. Ashley was up before I was. I would have slept in, but she went up to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek and ran back to her bed. She was acting innocent like she didn’t do anything.

I giggled.

“Hello, Ashley. Anything new today.” I ask, while stretching.

“Besides the news of your dad’s arrest and the fact the police and news reporters are still outside, I guess everything is just peachy. “

“What do you want to do today?”

“Well, the house is not on lock down anymore, but we can’t really leave, without an adult with us.”

“That sucks. How come?”

“Who knows, its been like this as long as I have been living here.”

“Oh,” I sighed. “I thought it was because of my dad yesterday.”

“Ashley giggled.” I thought the same thing when I moved here.”

The breakfast bell rang, which was a good thing, since I just woke up. We both got dressed and headed down to eat.

After breakfast, we ended up watching the second Harry Potter Movie. Like we were planning on watching yesterday. I didn’t really like it, because I hate spiders. I was hiding the whole time the giant spiders were on the screen.

“So you ready for your first day of school here in Crescent City tomorrow?” Ashley asked.

“Not really?” I said nervously. “But I think I will be fine with it, since you will be in my school as well.”

“Yeah. Sixth grade is the best.”

“What?” I cried “Your in sixth grade? I’m only in fifth.” I started to pout.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were younger than me. I’m ten years old and will be eleven on July 6.”

“Wait, I am ten as well, but I will be eleven on November 29. How come you are a grade a head of me?”

“I’m not sure why. This is so weird.”

School was hard for me. Having to transfer all my records to my new school, which had my dumb birth name on them. The principal kept calling me by that name as well. The secretary was very nice and would call me by my chosen name. When I was introduced to my Homeroom teacher she was happy to meet me and didn’t care if I was different from everyone else.

“Hi Kiara, my name is Mrs. Stockhold. I will be your Homeroom and Geography teacher.”

“Hello,” I said shyly.

“Let me help you to my classroom.”

The secretary handed me a my list of classes I was taking and a map of the school and I followed Mrs. Stockhold

As we walked in to the classroom, there were kids all over the place. I followed slowly behind. I was nervous as a Chihuahua.

“Good morning class.” Mrs. Stockhold announced. This is Kiara. She is new today.” She looks over at me “Would you like to introduce yourself a little more, Kiara?”

I looked at all the kids. I was scared. I walked up to the front of the class.

“Hello. My name is Kiara … I lived in Brookings, Oregon, until my dad did something bad to me and I was taken away to this city.” I looked over at Mrs. Stockhold worried I said something I shouldn’t have. She smiled. I was nervous. “I have never had friends before and I really hope I can have some here.” I finished what I wanted to say.

Mrs. Stockhold crouched down and whispers in my ear.. “Isn’t there something else you want to tell the class?”

“Do I have to?” I started to cry with fear.

“You don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to, but its best to say it before someone finds out.”

I look over at the class. “Also… I am.. Transgender.” The last part I spoke softly.”

A few snickers came as I took my seat nervously. A boy who was sitting next to my desk, fake-coughed while gently moving his seat away as Mrs. Stockhold went to the board.

“I don't want any trouble with anyone picking on her. Let's just get back where we left off Friday. Ava, do you remember?"

"Mountains of the World." Ava answered.

"Right, great job. Now everyone knows Mount Everest..." Mrs. Stockhold turned and began writing on the board while babbling off.

A boy from behind me nudged me. "Hey, what did they do with your dick?" he asked, smirking.

"Leave me alone." I replied, frowning.

"Hey, it's a legit question, Dickless Wonder." the boy next to me asked.

"Leave the kid alone, Lucas!" Another boy came to my defense.

“Shut up Jayden!”

"...I have a name." I said softly.

"But it isn't your real name, freak." Ava said naively. This made me start to tear up. I wasn’t a freak.

A girl in front of Ava turned around. "Leave her alone." She hated seeing any one cry.

"But he's not a girl." Ava said.

"She is just as much a girl as you or I, if not vastly more so because she made a serious, risky, important decision to be who she feels. It required courage, Ava!" Zoe said angrily.

I smiled a bit that someone understood me.

Mrs. Stockhold quickly turned around and put a stop to this annoying discussion.

"Shut up, or I'll fail all of you. Leave Kiara alone and focus!" She said, slamming the chalk down. It broke in two, but no one cared.

"But how can we focus?” the boy behind me pouted “Kiara is dressed like a total slut."

“Dude, Ryan, what the hell?" a boy across the room exclaimed, genuinely surprised as to
why Ryan was looking at me.

"Ryan, stop undressing transgender girls with your eyes and Matthew, watch your language. Now where were we… oh right, Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is the highest point in..." Mrs. Stockhold turned back around, not noticing Lucas putting on a medical mask and scoot his desk a bit more, hitting a girls desk next to him. “Lucas, what are you doing?" the girl asked.

"...making it the world's tallest mountain from base to summit, beating out even Mount Ever - Lucas, what the hell are you doing now?" Mrs. Stockhold said, turning around.

"I don't wanna catch the transgender disease." Lucas said honestly.

Ava began laughing madly and I put my head down on my desk.

Mrs. Stockhold rolled her eyes with annoyance, "Lucas, it isn't contagious or a disease. You can take the mask off."

"That's what they said about H1N1 and now people are dying. I'm not going to get no vagina." Mrs. Stockhold quickly approached Lucas and ripped the mask off.

"This needs to stop. Kiara is just as much as person as you or me. You all will respect Kiara's life choices and leave her alone." Mrs. Stockhold
said.
"Thank you, Mrs. Stockhold." I smiled, almost on the verge of tears.

“Your welcome" Mrs. Stockhold turned to the board.

"Since none of you are paying attention, I guess we can just have a test on all the mountains. I myself need a break from all this." The kids groaned.

"Shut up! I don't want to hear it.

When the test was over and the bell rang, I immediately went to my locker, opening it and put a notebook inside, before a boy from another classroom approached me.

"So I heard that you have no dick, is that right?"

"Can you pleas-" before I could finish, some more boys pulled him away and began whispering something. I merely shrugged, put the rest of my things away and went walking to the cafeteria.
I got in line for my lunch, noticing Ryan and Lucas whispering things with some other boys and laughing. I started to tear up. I am getting tired of being picked on. This reminded me of my old school back in Brookings. I got my plate of food from the nice lunch lady and went
by the girls' table.

”Uh, excuse me, this is the girls' table." Ava said,

"Yeah." I replied

"So, you can't sit here." Ava said

"But-"

"My dad doesn't like me being around boys." Another girl on the table chimed in.

"Yeah, no gender queers!" said the girl that sat next to Lucas back in the classroom.

“Good one Jenny” Ava giggled.

"I'm not a boy!" I said aggressively as I walked away, hurt by the girls' non-acceptance. I sighed sadly and went over by the boys' table.

"Whoa there Dickless Wonder, once you make the change, you can never come back. The table a lifetime membership deal and once you let go of that, there's no money-back guarantee." Lucas said much to the joy of the other boys, who joined in with the laughter that erupted.

"Beat it, weirdo." Ryan said.

I sighed and left to sit at a table by myself. “Just like it was in Brookings.”