Leah had promised to keep a secret that I liked wearing girl clothes and makeup when I was with her, we were hiding it from her mom so that she wouldn’t make any weird ideas in her head or tell my parents, which was the thing that worried me the most. I was already 3 months in my online classes and I was killing it, I could arrange my study schedules and just take the exams, which I was managing to do just fine.

I loved having Leah as friend now more than ever, even though we were seeing less because of her work, it was becoming more demanding, which according to her was a sign that she was being taken more serious and that she probably would land a permanent job in the magazine. In the few occasions she had free time we would see each other, it wasn’t always dress up time, but from time to time she would practice makeup looks on me, and I enjoyed every bit of it, still I liked to pretend it was all something I liked doing mostly as a silly playful thing, trying to hide the fact that I was somehow discovering a side of me I hadn’t had the chance to be before.

“You’re an addict” Leah said.

I was reaching for the lip balm she kept on her glovebox as soon as I got in the car. I laughed.

“I’m not, my lips are chapped!” I said.

“Yeah right”.

I applied it watching my reflection on the visor mirror, it always gave me a rush to apply makeup, it made me smile.

“That one is very colorful, Dani, people are going to notice” Leah said.

She policed my makeup use, trying to help me hide my likeness for wearing it from her mother and people we frequented.

“Do you think so?” I said, still looking at my reflection, then turning to see her

She turned back to look at me

“Well maybe it doesn’t show that much” She said as she looked at me “Anyways it is up to you, I don’t mind”

She used that kind of phrases to make me notice she could actually be right and it would be up to me if I wanted people to notice it. She was driving me to a french class I was going to take, her mother pushed me to do something were I would meet people my age, so after a bit of convincing from Carla and Leah, I decided for a french class, at the embassy, Carla knew people there so it wouldn’t cost anything.

“Isn’t this too snobbish?” I said as Leah drove “To be the kind of person that learns french”.

“Well haven’t you met mother?” Leah replied laughing, “She’s the definition of a snob, and by adherence we, her little pets are pushed to become like her”.

We laughed, I really loved to have been accepted into their lives as one of them, I still spoke from time to time with my parents, but Carla and Leah were rapidly becoming a second family, and it seemed the feeling was both ways.

“Ok, Dani, here we are” Leah said as she pulled over

“Ugh!” I said as I reached to the backseat for my things.

Leah had lended me a little backpack to put my notebook and pencil case.

“Isn’t the backpack too girly?” I said.

“I would be more worried about your tinted lips and pretty eyelashes” She said with a smirk as she payed attention to my face.

“Oh shut up!” I said as I jumped off the car. “Does it really show much?”

“Not that much, but if anyone pays attention they could probably tell” Leah said

I frowned and wiped my lips with a tissue as I stood with the door open looking at her,she then reached for the lip balm, and handed it to me

“Here, take it, so you can re apply it if you want” Leah said smiling at me.

“Aw thanks sis” I said.

I was beginning to call her sis more often.

“Love you, sis” Leah replied

My heart melted and my face blushed, which made her giggle.

“Love you too I said as I closed the door”.

So I went inside and looked for the classroom, I still had around 10 minutes until the class started, when I found the room there were only 2 girls inside, they turned to look at me.

“Is this the A1 Level?” I asked them as I stood at the door.

“Yes, you’re in the right place” One of them replied.

“Thanks”.

They both were seated in next to the wall in the middle of the classroom, one behind the other. As I usually do, I went directly to the back of the room and sat in the corner bench.

I still had the lip balm on my hand, and was about to put it inside the backpack.

“I have the same one! Don’t you love that Benefit line?” One of the girls said.

They both were looking at me, I froze a second, as if by not moving they would forget I was there.

“Uhm I” I said trying to find what to say. “I wouldn’t know, it’s my sister’s”

I thought I was safe, it seemed as a reasonable answer to make it clear I wasn’t a boy who knew about make up, which being honest was true, I hadn’t even paid attention to the brand or knew there was a line of those lip balms.

“You should keep it, it’s a great one” She said jokingly. “I’m Jenn”.

“Hi Jenn and uhm hi” I said while looking at the other girl.

“I’m Anna, hi Daniel!” Anna said, “Is your name Daniel like french Danielle?”

“Uhm, I don’t know, it’s more like Spanish pronounced Daniel, but I guess it sounds the same”

“Oh cool” Jenn said “You speak Spanish?”

“A little yes, but I never use it” I said

“That’s nice, I never learned a thing in Spanish class” Jenn said

“Yes, that’s cool that you already speak two languages and now you’re learning a third” Anna said.

I laughed.

“I guess it is, though most people would probably say I’m actually a nerd for it” I said.

“I’m a nerd too, don’t worry” Anna said.
“I’m not” Jenn said “I’m only doing this to please my father, but I guess it is kinda cool”

By the time the class was about to begin, around 12 more girls were in the classroom, I actually didn’t noticed it was all girl but me until later.

“Bonjour!” said the teacher as she came to the classroom.

Everyone was silent, she smiled and went to the desk at the front.

“Je m’appelle Clarie et e vais être ton professeur”.

Dead silence from everyone in the classroom. Claire laughed.

“My name is Claire, and I’m going to be your teacher” she said.

She began with teaching us to introduce ourselves -Je m’appelle to My name is- and then to introduce one another -Elle est blah - She is-.

“Elle est Danielle” Laura, another classmate said pointing at me

Me without noticing that in what she had just said, it was implied I was a girl, continued with the introductions

“Elle est Laura” I said.

The 2 hour long class had a little break, where some of the girls chatted, this is when I finally came to notice that I was the only boy in the class, something that, in a way, was going to be addressed later in class. By the time the class ended I was more confused with french than at the beginning but I was glad I took it because I was enjoying it, and Jenn and Anne were cool so in the end Carla was right in saying that meeting new people my age would be good for me.

“Alright, I’m just going to make sure everyone on the list is here, and the class is over” Claire said.

She took a look at the list with all the student names.

“Well yes, it seems you girls are the whole class” Claire said “Commonly we have a boy or two, and they always drop out, so since it is only girls this time I hope to see you all finish the full course”.

Oh I thought, she didn’t even notice I was a guy, even without makeup, it had happened before, I guess I do have a few feminine features and probably the long hair isn’t any help, but in the end people always figured I was a boy. I was surprised that no one else seemed to notice I was there, but then Anna turned to look at me and made a puzzled face.

Everyone was leaving and so did I, still confused as to why no one noticed I was a guy, I stood outside the building looking for the bus route on my phone.

“Hey!”

Anna was walking towards me waving her hands.

“Oh, Hi Anna” I said

“Hi! Hey I wanted to ask you uhm” she began

“Well I guess the right way to do it is” she made another pause

“What pronouns do you prefer?” Anna finally asked

I was now even more confused, back in town no one would ever ask a question like that.

“Uhm I… I’m a guy?” I said awkwardly.

“Are you asking me? I thought I was asking you” Anna said laughing.

“I’m a guy, uhm.. He… male pronouns” I continued with my awkwardness.

“Oh, I was right” She said blushing.

“I’m glad” I said.

“Everyone thinks you’re trans, uhm like a trans woman, oh but...” she said “are you a trans guy?, I’m sorry if i’m intruding much, it’s something I tend to do, you don’t have to answer”.

What? - I thought - Is this girl crazy.

“I’m not trans, I’m just a guy” I said now blushing.

“Oh, it’s just that your hair and you do have feminine features, and your backpack and the lipstick” Anna said.

“That’s why the teacher said it was just girls?” I said.

“I guess” Anna said “But the girls were talking about it inside”.

As she said this we saw some of the girls from the class come out.

“I need to cut my hair” I said thinking out loud.

“You don’t it looks pretty if you ask me” Anna said

Anna and I walked to the bus together, her house was close to mine so were going to take the same route. We passed in front of a fashion boutique with mannequins on the window, one of the dresses caught my eye.

“That red dress is pretty” I said.

“It is” Anna said “But you know that saying that doesn’t help your case, right?”.

“What? Can’t a guy just say that a dress looks pretty?”.

“I think you can, but it’s not that common, at least not in the guys who I know” Anna said.

We were standing outside the boutique, looking at the window.

“It really is pretty” Anna said while staring at it.

“You want to go in?” I said.

“Do you?” Anna asked puzzled.

“I don’t mind”.

We went in. Anna asked one of the girls at the store to see that dress, she gave it to us, and as we were watching it, she looked at me and how I was looking at the dress.

“You want to try it huh?” She said.

I blushed and looked at her, I did want too, how did she figured me out so fast?.

I nodded.

She handed me the dress and then said.

“So, you say you’re not trans?”

Author's note: I hope there wasn't much confusion with the name pronunciation, in the end the thing is that we hadn't adressed this before, but Daniel comes from a latin background, and his name is spanish Daniel which sounds different from english Daniel and sounds more like Danielle, which in spanish would be Daniela.