Author's Note:I'm a liar. I didn't originally plan on finishing this story. I said so in my last chapter. I got to thinking about it the other day and quite a few people asked. So I sat down and just started writing. This is ultimately what came from that. The core idea of the story is still there but I plan on changing my original idea as well. Sorry its so short but I felt this was the best place to stop it :D.

-----

6.

Charlie.

I spent the whole class thinking about him, distracting me from the lesson at hand. I couldn’t even tell you what anything was about. For so long I wondered about this moment. What I might say if we ever met again. What he might say. Would he even remember me? Would I even have the courage to talk to him? I know it was such a silly and stupid thing, but at one time, he meant everything to me. I know it was only a short period of time that the two of us were friends, but it had a lasting effect. He was the first and only person who didn’t care what I looked like and just wanted to be my friend, no strings attached. He was also the first person who made me realize it was ok to be whoever I wanted to be.

When the bell finally rang, I got up the courage to approach him.

The rest of my classmates were trying to push toward the door. Me, I was moving toward the back of the room.

My heart was pounding a mile a minute.

I walked up to his desk. He was busy putting away his things.

I took a deep breath and…

“Hey.”

It was a simple greeting, but it got across so much.

He looked up at me. At first, he stared. He stared for a long time. For what seemed like an eternity he stared. Then he smiled. A weird feeling washed over me just then. I didn’t realize it until that moment, but I missed that smile. I longed for that smile. This was the smile of my best friend in the whole world. A smile that used to greet me every morning. A smile that I dreamed about every night. Yet now there was something different about it too. It was an older smile, dare I say a more confident smile. There was something else about it too, something that I couldn’t quite place.

“Hey yourself,” he said, finishing putting his stuff away and standing up. “I’m Charlie. You’re new, right?”

I almost let out a sigh.

So he didn’t recognize me.

Well of course he didn’t, it was years ago.

“Yes and no,” I said, absently brushing a stray bit of hair behind my ear. “I used to live here before...”

“No kidding,” he said, and I found myself walking beside him.

“Yeah,” I said, nervous. “We used to be friends...”

There, I said it.

The ball was now in his court.

Would it finally click or…

“No kidding? Well shit, now I feel like an idiot that I don’t remember.”

There it was.

He didn’t remember.

Damn.

“Well that’s ok,” I said, defeated. “It was a long time ago.”

I felt like someone punched me in the gut. All this time I was wondering how he might react if we met again, and the sad truth is, he didn’t know me. I’m not going to lie, it hurt. A lot. Someone who meant so much to me and he forgot me so easily. I was now an ant walking beside an elephant. The height difference was not lost on me. Puberty had been VERY kind to him. Much like how much Luke had changed since we were kids, Charlie was a man now. He had to be close to a foot taller than me, which was scary. Walking beside him, I could actually feel the draft his body was making. I almost shivered. Instead, I hid it behind adjusting my bag straps.

“So did you know me from basketball or…?”

Basketball.

Sure, of course he played basketball.

He was tall enough.

I shook my head. “We just hung out. It was only one summer, before I moved away. We moved back. We’re living with my grandmother. It's...”

I’m rambling and he’s staring.

We fell into an awkward silence after that. I continued to walk next to him down the crowded hall. People were staring. I barely noticed. Finally we stopped at another classroom.

“This is my stop,” he said with a half smile.

I nodded. “Sure.”

“Well, it was nice not remembering you,” he said with a chuckle then walked into the room.

There it was, my great reunion with Charlie.

It was a total bust.

I felt like such a spaz.

I stood by for a long time, watching the empty doorway of his classroom. I saw him sit in the back, turn and start talking to the girl next to him. They laughed at some shared joke, and I was forgotten. Sighing, I turned and headed down the hall. I was pretty bummed. I know it was a long time ago, but I was certain he would remember me if I reminded him. It was sad to think that he made more of an impact on me than I did him. Especially because we were so close. I suppose it explained why he cut contact with me. The thought of it stung pretty hard.

I think I was still numb.

Thankfully, the bell ringing broke me from my paralysis.

Shit.

I ran through the hall, looking for my next class. Thankfully for me, it was just around the corner. When I stumbled into the room, a few minutes late, all eyes were on me. I was so embarrassed. I quickly apologized before finding the nearest seat. As soon as I sat, I noticed one girl in particular staring at me. I couldn’t help but stare a bit myself. Her hair was cut short, I think they called it a pixie cut. It was semi-long in the front, and shaved on one side. That’s not what kept me staring though. Her hair was at least three different colors: mostly blue, but she had dark purple fringe and the buzzed portion was blonde maybe.

She gave me a slight smile and a nod.

Like she recognized me.

I was really confused.

As soon as class officially started, I was too focused to stare anymore.

It wasn’t until class ended that…

“Hey,” said the girl as she stood at my desk.

I was still as confused as ever.

“Hey yourself,” I said, trying to be friendly.

“You’re Madison, right?”

I nodded, not sure how this girl knew my name.

I looked her up and down. I definitely didn’t recognize her from my early days here. Which of course wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. I didn’t really know many kids back then, besides Charlie. Even that was only for a summer. The kids at school when I was younger all but ignored me. This girl definitely didn’t look like the type I would have hung out with back then. She wore skinny jeans with distressed knees, her Converses were scuffed and dirty and there were band-aids on a couple of her fingers. The thing that distanced her from me even more was her sweatshirt. It bore the school mascot on the front of it. She was a jock. I suppose that explained the fingers.

“Luke introduced you this morning,” she said, finally helping me with my blank stare.

Wait, yeah, she was there.

She was in the back, sitting quietly with a book.

The reason I didn’t recognize her was because she was wearing the hood of her hoodie up.

Looking closer at her sweatshirt, I realized I’d actually met her way before that.

There was a tiny number 34 on her left breast side.

The kid from the rink.

He was actually a she.

“I’m Trix, by the way, well Beatrix, but that name makes me sound like I’m from the 1600s or something.”

She laughed.

I found myself walking out of the room with her.

“I guess you can call me Maddie then.”

I’m not sure why I told her that. I promised myself last night that I was going to introduce myself to new people as “Mark”.

“You were at the rink yesterday, right?”

“Guilty as charged.”

She giggled. It was weird because she didn’t look like the type to giggle. “Luke said you’re really good?”

I shrugged. “Out of practice, I’m afraid. I stopped caring about hockey a long time ago.”

“Bummer, with Luke out, we could really use someone else.”

She tried to convince me for about a minute more, but when she realized that she was failing, she switched gears to talk about the team itself. She kept the conversation going until our next class. Apparently we shared this one too. Our discussion ended as soon as the bell rang to start and picked up right after the bell rang to end. Trix liked to talk, which was fine by me because I was a quiet person.

“You have lunch next, right?”

We were standing in a part of the hallway that opened up into a foyer. I quickly pulled out my schedule and confirmed her question with a “Yep”.

She kept the conversation going the whole walk to the cafeteria and continued to keep it going while we were in the lunch line. The food looked edible, but that wasn’t saying much. I smiled and politely thanked the woman, who replied with a grunt. Hey, you can’t please everyone. Walking from the line into the main cafeteria proper, I was surprised it was so big and that there were so many kids there. My old school had lunch in shifts. According to Trix, every grade ate at the same time. What surprised me even more though was that this place had two floors.

“The popular kids sit up there,” she said, pointing to the second floor. “Us plebs are down here.”

We started meandering our way through the throngs of scattered tables and people.

I looked up toward the second floor. I quickly caught sight of my sister, no big surprise there. But I saw Luke too. Then I saw Charlie. Of course he was one of the popular ones. I stared at him for a few moments, until Trix waved a hand in front of my face.

“Earth to Maddie, you still there?”

I blinked. “Yeah sorry, I know him...”

Trix looked up and scoffed. “Charlie Carson, who doesn’t?”

The way she said his name, there was a lot of disdain.

That definitely didn’t sound like the Charlie I once knew.

“He was my friend,” I said, trying to explain.

“Well, your friend is one of the most popular guys in school. He’s a bit of a man about campus, and trust me, he doesn’t let anyone forget it.”

That definitely didn’t sound like the Charlie I knew.

I continued to stare up at Charlie for a few more seconds. He was sitting with a group of overly pretty people. There were several girls flocked around him. They were all laughing. I sighed. I guess he really was a different person?

“C’mon,” said Trix, nudging me with her shoulder. “I usually sit over here.”

She led me over to a table in one of the corners, near a large window. As I sat down, I noticed it looked out toward what I’m guessing was a soccer field. I stared out the window for about a minute before gathering my thoughts. I was curious about Charlie still. I couldn’t help myself. He’d been this enigma to me for years. I couldn’t help but always wonder why he stopped talking to me. Yet now that I was so close to him and the answers, I never felt farther away.

“Do you know Charlie well…?”

She shrugged, taking a bit of her sandwich. “As well as anyone else I suppose,” she said while she chewed. “He’s a basketball jock, I’m a hockey jock. We should run in the same circles, but it's...well...complicated.”

I was about to ask her how when we were interrupted by two trays slapping down on the table. The sound made me jump. Looking up, I noticed we were no longer alone. There was a boy and a girl our age attached to those trays. Their curly dark hair and tan complexions told me they were of Hispanic origin. The boy smiled at the sight of me, sizing me up with those green eyes of his. The girl looked shy and didn’t make eye contact with me.

“Fresh meat!” said the boy enthusiastically.

Here we go.

“Not interested, Carlos,” groaned Trix, clearly used to his antics.

“Hey, you don’t know that!” said the boy, turning his full attention to me. “I’m Carlos, and this wallflower next to me is my twin, Elena. If I’m not mistaken, you’re Madison, right?”

I ignored him completely. “Nice to meet you., I said, looking directly at his sister.

She finally looked up so our eyes met. They were green like her brother’s.

Wow, she was really cute.

Trix smirked. “See, what did I tell ya.”

If Carlos was disappointed, he didn’t show it. Instead, he pushed on without even blinking. “So, you’re new right? Where ya from? What do you think of our little dust ball of a town? You bored with it yet? You have any plans for this weekend by chance?”

Wow, he was fast and incorrigible .

I decided to answer all his questions in one go. “No, I’m not new. I’m from Phoenix but not originally, I grew up here actually. My family moved when I was eight and we just moved back.”

“Why would you ever do that?”

“My Dad died.”

“Open mouth, insert foot,” snapped Trix.

“Ouch, sorry,” said Carlos and probably meant it.

I sighed. “Thanks. It wasn’t easy, but I’m better now.”

“How does it feel to be back?” asked his sister, surprising me by how sultry her voice sounded.

“Weird. I had a friend I was hoping to reconnect with but he turned into someone I don’t recognize anymore.”

“Boy friend?”

“He’s a boy, yes, but we were too young to be anything other than friends.”

Trix laughed. “It's Charlie, Carlos.”

“Shit.”

The two girls laughed.

Carlos was visibly crushed but only for a few seconds.

“You’re not together though, you’re just friends,” he licked his lips. “So that means...”

I sighed and quickly interrupted him. “Sorry, I’m not interested in guys.”

Elena seemed surprised, Trix looked intrigued.

“Damn, why is it always the cute ones...”

I inwardly cursed.

There it was again. Looking at the three of them, it was clear they thought I was a girl too. I suspected Carlos thought it as soon as he saw me. Most guys did. I was surprised by Trix though. She made no indication she thought I was a girl. Then again, she never let on she thought I was a boy either. I didn’t want to keep up the charade though, I wanted to be honest. If that meant I was about to lose three potential friends, then so be it…

I chuckled. “I don’t like girls because I’m a lesbian, I like girls because I’m a boy.”

You could almost hear a pin drop.

All three of them stared.

Carlos looked dumbstruck. Elena blinked a few times then smiled.

Trix looked disappointed.

It took a few seconds before anyone said anything until:

“No shit.”

Trix.

I sighed. “Sorry...”

I started to get up, fighting back tears. She was fast. She stood and gently grabbed my wrists. She shook her head.

“We’re not mad, just surprised. You look so much like a girl, it's...”

I nodded. “I know. I can’t help it.”

I was tearing up, I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, hoping they didn’t notice. None of them said anything.

“So, are you trans...?” asked Elena.

The T question. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t heard that more than once too.

“Nope, just girly. Been like this forever. No idea why. We had plans to look into it and then Dad got sick. Suddenly none of us found it important.”.

We never really brought it up as a family again. I wanted answers though. I was just waiting for the right time to broach the subject with Mom again. After all, something like this wasn’t normal. There had to be some kind of answer, and I was hoping we could figure it out soon. I was getting really tired of all the confusion and anger.

“So you’re a dude?” asked Carlos slowly, finally finding his voice again.

It was clear by the look on his face he was a bit disgusted because only seconds ago, he'd been openly flirting with me.

“Yep, sorry.”

He was quiet again, squinted his eyes and blurted out: “You know you’re wearing chick jeans, right?”

Trix and Elena smacked him from both sides.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

The three of them started laughing too.

I sat back down, followed by Trix. It was the icebreaker we needed.

From there, Trix and Carlos took turns asking me questions. They were curious, and I wasn’t expecting that. Most people either thought I was lying or they wanted nothing to do with me. I’d never met anyone who actually still wanted to be my friend after the truth came out. It was a new experience for me. The whole time they asked questions, I couldn’t help but notice that Elena was quiet. Well, she’d only uttered a few words since meeting me, but she spent the whole time they talked pretending to stare at me without me noticing. Unfortunately for her, I was pretty astute when it came to people watching me. It was hard not to be. The thing is, there was no malice in her stares. It was almost as if she was trying to decide if I was telling the truth or not.

Again, she wasn’t the first person to think this.

She was the first one that didn’t ask questions about it though.

It was refreshing.

The bell finally rang, saving me from the “mini-interview”.

“So, any more questions?” I asked, finally glad to be free of it all.

I was standing up, leaving the table with my tray.

The others fell in line with me.

“Just one,” said Carlos with a nervous laugh. “You never said if you had plans this weekend or not?”

Trix and Elena smacked him again.

I laughed.

I came to this school hoping to reconnect with Charlie but never imagined making other friends in the process. It's funny how things worked out.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Anything critical you have to say, PLEASE do so in a PM. Pointing out people's flaws or mistakes in a comment is hurtful and NOT appreciated.Thanks in advance...EOF